Tuesday

31 Jul 2007

Tuesday 31st July '07

Well, as you know I tend to update this worthy tome first thing in the morning.. well, this morning the computer was on for no more than 5 minutes when the electricity board cut off my entire street for 'neccessary repairs'.. thus I had no power for a full working day, no computer, no phones and a frantic search for something to do that doesn't require power.. this was fine until the battery ran out on my drill.. followed shortly after by the camera... still, here is two days worth of stuff.. and a whole bunch of photo's just come in from our fantastic sprayer..

yesterday began with removing the binding off the acoustic.. the top has been glued in place.. and the struts look great through the side sound-hole

a sharp knife is used to cut the lines of the sun motif

after sanding..

the edges of the top are sanded flush with the ribs

I then test the router on a surplus body

and go stright to a really nerve wracking job, using a high speed router on something as delicate as this is always scary

the top section is glued one half at a time

followed by the outer segments of binding.. it goes ebony/maple/ebony/maple/walnut/maple/walnut.... I think..

the timbers for the neck are prepared.. Bubinga in the center and Goncalo Alves on each outer edge

the G A is split down the center

and the bubinga is cut at an angle.. why have a straight bit of wood when you can have one that follows the lines of the neck..

the last few sections of binding are glued in place and left for another hour or so to dry..

each piece of neck is run through the planer and then planed by hand to give a perfect joint..

everything ready including the flamed maple veneers

and it's glued..

the bindings are all planed and chiseled flush with the top

leaving all the dirty glue marks etc..

which are then sanded off to leave a lovely looking guitar

... and then the next day arrives.. and so does a rather obvious lack of electricity!!

first things first I tidy up my reference section and binding..

then my workbench..

this is only three days of dust.. unbelievable!

I then start puting hardware on this RF Hollow.. until the battery on my drill runs out and I run out of things I can do..

this is a s***tish thing I built a while back, it needs stripping prior to refinishing..

lovely sounding custom set of pickups from Wizard..

On to this lovely old Tokai.. needs a set up but I've been told to expect some surprises..

the fingerboard is marked off and marker used on each fret to show where metal has been removed.

Surprise!!! Someone has filled the truss rod cavity with epoxy cement.. no way in hell to get that out!

I check the other end of the neck just in case they put it in from this end..

a few of the screws weren't biting so I fill the holes with a toothpick and some glue..

the fingerboard is very straight anyway so I continue with the stoning process

each fret is filed to the correct profile

then sanded through the grits and polished with a chrome polish..

the puppies look cute.. and dusty... and then the rechargeable batteries in the camera die... the tokai was put back together and should play beautifully...