Wednesday

16 Jan 2008

Wednesday 16th January '08

the day begins dull and raining (not real soak-you-in-a-second rain, just English run fast and it'll miss you but nevertheless all pervasive rain) ... I sit inside and scrape the rough bits from the inside of the cavities on Steves red perspex signature guitar..

in the end they will all look this clean..

it becomes boring rather too quickly so I move on to this Warwick-esque 4-stringer .. another coat of wax is applied and polished..

the tuning holes are then reamed for her first ever hardware..

Micky mouse anyone?

the string angle and length are carefully worked out and the individual bridge pieces put in place

and a long thin bit is used to drill out the hole for the earthing wire..

the bone nut is carefully cut, scalloped (as is my wont) and polished..

and the rain stops for a while and I see a lovely rainbow out the window.. time to kick a ball for thedogs for a bit.. (they end up very muddy and I get it in the neck later as they've left about an inch of it all over the sofa!! Doh!

back to work and it on wth the final polishing stages of Charlies bass.. it comes out looking like a curvy chunk of glass!

and I'm rather pleased with myself..

I must say at this juncture that a couple of friends listened in on a lecture by another maker who does a few perspex guitars.. they say that it is absolutely impossible to polish (and leave theirs rough).. which is just their way of saying to the punters 'I'm lazy, bugger orf' .. they also say that since perspex/acrylic is a sonically dead material (more bollocks!) it has to have a wooden neck... Charlies bass has three times the warmth and sustain as the timber prototype I built!! What can I say??