    
 
29th August '07
Just recovered from the Cumbria Guitar show!
When I agreed to do do the Cumbria Guitar Show it was one of my usual 'yeah, no problem' moments, I then decided that I would take Tania and the dogs with us and that we would drive down the night before.. after decideing this I realised that is was about a 300 mile drive and it was too late to book a hotel.. oh well.. the 300 miles turned into 360 and I resolved to buy a Sat Nav as soon as the first guitar was sold.. the return journey took 4 1/2 hours instead of the 6 hours wasted the first time around. Anyway, lack of sleep notwithstanding, we had a phenominal show sold some guitars, took some orders and met some fans.. you diary voyeurs can be a strange lot.. the idea that someone put to me was that Crimson Guitars should hand out skull caps and a fake beard to everyone so they could look like yours truly.. that would well and truly wierd me out! But could be fun.. here's a few pics..
The massively amazing Ox amp being put through her paces.. we had this 400 watt point to point handwired beast on the lowest possible volume before she cut out and still rattle the change in my pocket when we engaged the bass boost.. in fact the the entire 300/400 people in the room turned around to see what was happening!
side view..
the Mode I had a very good reaction..
the scallop being put to good use by a young rocker.. we had an audience around the stand pretty much the whole time.. here you see the back of our Ox.. the LED readout show the bias of the valves and the pots are there so that you can re-bias it yourself! No more £60 fees to your repair guy every few months! .. also bass boost, harmonic switch, triod/pentode, definition and reverb! The most versatile amp I've ever heard!
a couple of diary voyeurs who came to worship the 'strawberry'.. at this point they are chanting 'bow to the strawberry!..'.. I love musicians!!
and she loves the guitar!! Well done Jim!
the strawberry should have been hung from this roof really.. Paul was the resident demo guitarist and general most helpful person on the planet for the duration.. he's an absolute genius salesman, guitarist and studio owner.. cheers mate!
by the end of the first day I'm flagging a bit... I'd been awake for nearly 30 hours.. idiot!
this guy blew us away.. and fell in love with the 609mm scale length of the strawberry..,
Mark from Ox showing his stuff
and a view of part of thestand in a quite period when I remembered I had to take a few pics!
after getting back at two in the morning and putting my back out gain unloading the car (the one thig I don't miss about gigging!... apart from the beer bottles being thrown at me that is!) I rested for a day, this means I sorted through the 7500 spam emails recieved once I'd fixed the problem with the emails, and talking on the phone for the rest of the day wondering if what I was saying was what I was thinking I was saying...? Anyway,this pallet arrived.. and I got excited!
two large chunks of custom cast ruby red perspex with a couple of truss rods cast in the middle.. this will be fun! .. the clouding in the middle is just some sticky tape of some sort.. the whole thing will be clear!
this is a sample of acrylic with cling wrap cast in the middle.. cool effect!
On to some real work.. the plans for the 2 8-string baritones are perused
prior to marking out the exact neck dimensions
the surfaces are planed flat..
at this point I realise that I am out of template material and have to go to the not so local timber guy..
two 8x4 sheets are riped into more manageable sections
the edges of the necks are trimmed to size
an put over the planer to get the correct finish
the truss rod hole is drilled
ebony 'board planed flat
glue prepared after installing the truss rod and covering it with masking tape
the fingerboard is then glued on... rewind and repeat for the other one..
here is an old guitar I built a few years ago.. the flames are carved into the top and then purfling inlaid around them.. it ended up looking pretty impressive!
All my best,
Ben
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