Wednesday 26th September '07

The day begins bright and cold.. the weather has shifted and it's time for the heaters to be switched on!  Inlay is the first order of the day.. thi thin sliver of abalone is glued to a maple veneer to give it depth and make it easier to cut to shape

some of the curves are cut with a sharp knife and then a channel is recessed with a very small purfling cutter

the abalone is cut into short lengths with the correct curves

and then is glued in place

by this point several hours have passed and my bck and fingers are too sore to continue.. it' still too cold and uncomfortable to do this sort of fine work.. the heaters will have that sorted by tomorrow!  the protruding abalone is filed flat

and we have an idea of what these Baritones will look like..

On to this RF slim model, the frets are marked with a green highlighter

and a fret file is run over it until all the green is gone and I know the frets are perfectly flat!

I polish the frets, after profiling, through to 2000 grit wet and dry paper which gives an amazing playing surface and apply lemon oil to the fingerboard.. this is added to over fifeen or so minutes untuil the fingerboard is well and truly saturated

it is then polished with the bufing wheel on a grinder.. angain this gives a great playing surface..

the bridge and three pickups are added, though they are not screwed in place until the strings are on and I have double checked the alignment..

a piece of high quality bone is selected for the nut and the chrome and black mixed locking Sperzel tuners are installed.. I really love mixing various hardware colours, with some guitars it works very well

and is profiled and the first string slots are cut.. I will leave it at this stage until I have a feel for the action etc whereupon I will finish the scalloping and polish it up.

once the strings are on the pickups are aligned and screwed in place

I will leave her here til tomorrow, I will be recessing the Kaher 2200 bridge a little as I think it needs a larger break angle over the rollers, this gives a bit more tension and improves the tone. 

All my best,

Ben