Monday 22 January 2007
20.31
A day of many small jobs, some of which are documented below.. we start off with two concept 'Star Wars' guitars nearing completion and there is some work on my very small les paul sized acoustic and various repair/setup jobs.. a good way to start the week I feel, lot's of little things make up a full day that felt relatively relaxed on the whole.
This inlay is the symbol denoting the 'alliance' forces in the star wars movies, it was created using aluminium and make-up powder mixed with glue, I like the effect generated using the later..
Here is the guitar as she started the day, metal plates in place and needing the guts of a guitar to turn it into something useful.
The guts arrive, a pickup by Bareknuckle with a tune-o-matic and through-body stringing. These guitars are both very light but will have a massive sound due to the very loud pickups, a through neck construction will help as well.
Here is the 'Rebel' guitar.. the brief was to make her look damaged and worn... much fun was had in the spray booth! Despite the difference in shape the two guitars will feel similar to play and have the same construction.
The logo of the rebels.. also in aluminium... one of my favourite inlay materials it seems...
Bud.... very very sleepy pup just after a walk...
Here is my little side project, I'm hoping she'll be ready for the guitar show at the end of April in London.. she should be a great sounding very loud guitar.. although I think I might just be trying too many new things in one shot... only time will tell.. I'm just shaping some of the braces..
I think that it's such a shame all this isn't on view.. the prettiest bit of the guitar in my view
except for this soundhole... obviously lots of cleaning up to do still.
this Fender Custom Shop P-bass belongs to Charlie Jones who we're developing a bass for at the moment.. she was in for template-making and a minor set-up.. just cleaned the frets and lemon-oiled the 'board
tuning... I'm not really a fan of the 'distressed' look, but this one looks pretty damn nice!
Cutting down the Honduras-Rosewood binding on the X-symbol being built for our most avid customer.. Graham has three on order and has had at least ten guitars so far!
With binding you need to nip off the tangs of the frets with a fret-tang-nipper... I've been waiting to say that all day!
I glue all my frets in as well as using pressure, it's the safest and most stable way.. the glue is cleaned off with a wet rag immediately
the ends are still proud, and bloody sharp too! they'll be snipped off and then filed at a 45 degree angle to the 'board
then my little file is used to profile the edges so your hands aren't ripped to shreds
nice and pretty.. though not quite there yet.. Once the neck is shaped and on the guitar the rest of the fret-work is completed
backwards headstock with the straight string-pull marked on to find the proper placement of the tuners.. pretty flame too
prior to rough-carving.. see the shavings on the floor! Messy job this!
carved and ready for fine sanding.. I tend to try and take timber away from the headstock to aid the guitars overall balance... it's the little things!
the body with all the contours drawn on...
and rough shaped and sanded.. a bit of profiling i the front as well as the decorative carving.. you'll have to wait for tomorrow for the pikup, bridge and neck routing, by this time I'd swallowed as much dust as I want to in one day.. even the best masks let some through, and mahogany doesn't taste very nice at all!
As you can see I like experimenting, if anyone out there has any interesting ideas why not give us a call.. I'm always looking for new angles to try...
All my best,
Ben
crimson guitars - redefining custom | 
