Friday 21st January '08

The day begins with some perspex work.. the truss rod access hole is drilled

and the resin filler to cover the rod is mixed with some stain.. crimson stain to be exact!! 

 pretty good match, now this baby has to be left for three or four days to cure properly.

 on to this Ovation.. she's had a set up for the NST tuning system but the battery access is archaic to say the least!

 you have to fiddle around inside the cavity after loosening this screw.. not quick change at all!

a new cavity is routed into the side wall.. surprisingly thick..?! You would have thought that with composite materials developed by an aeronautical engineer (Charles Kaman) you could get the thickness/weight down?

anyway, the new battery compartment is wired in to the guitar electrickery

and then she is ready to play.. after some of the dust is cleaned off of course!

on to some seting up of the Warwick ish bass..

and then the truss rod cover is fashioned out of a chunk of ebony..

you can just about see the engraving .. Crimson Guitars and a serial number.. on the plate

the back plate will be a multi-laminate section, these three bits of veneer are glued together with the grain going at 90 degrees to the preceeding piece, once it is dry it will be very strong..

it is clamped between two chunks of MDF and some foam packing which helps smooth out any bubbles under the veneer

the, very high, nut is cut down to improve the action 

and then each saddle adjusted too, this bridge was not originaly part of the spec and is a bit higher than I would like.. after the bottom of each saddle is filed a bit it works out perfectly..

and looks a damn sight better than a standard bridge!

after the back plate is cut out and filed to shape the champher is put on the edges to give the multi-ply look..

while we are waiting for the finish to dry I have a cup of tea and the pups sleep it off... (it's still raining!!)

and here she is, there's still some settling in to be done for this baby.. the tension of bass strings is pretty phenominal!

But we are getting there with these two!

Mondays diary will not be happening, unfortunately (for me) I'm having to take a long weekend off to finish this years tax return!!  I still haven't managed to find an appropriate accountant.. they all charge way too much!!

all my best till Tuesday then!

Ben

Crimson Guitars