Friday 26th January 2007
20.43
Well, finally the long-awaited replacement pad for my random-orbital-sander arrived, meaning I can finish up some guitars.. today Tony's LP type was fine sanded and had her first coat of oil.. the best bit is seeing the timber come to life under the finish.. I love it! I had to take time out after lunch for an opticians apointment but he wouldn't let me take a photo of my face with the crazy glasses on.. still, I now need specs.. pics to follow when I pick them up next week.. should be worth a chuckle or two..
the neck here is being prepared for the PAF DC model, here I'm trueing up the sides of the headstock with a sanding machine..very dusty, and rosewood dust is slightly toxic!
Complete.. the front will be recieving a flamed cap at some point over the next few days..
This is a the body of the ash Descendant I'm building for the London Guitar Show, I've just drawn round her on the cap which is a lovely bit of burl timber..
After cuting the cap to rough shape on the bandsaw she's glued and clamped onto the body-blank. The bubbly plastic evens out the clamping pressure and basically adds a bit of interest to the proceedure.. why can't anything in life be straight-forward (ask your wife and she'll say everything is!! No questions!)
the new pad about-to-be replacing a knackered one.. it's amazing how scuppered I am without this tool!
I spent several hours this afternoon processing down raw mahogany planks and glued up several body blanks after this planeing process. Also processed down was a load of mahogany for the useage in RF hollow model guitars
the cap on the descendant has now been glued on and is ready for some profiling and sanding..
And here is the finished result.. a bloody lovely looking guitar.. much more interesting than standard flame maple..no?
This is Tony's LP type with through body stringing and a deep-set-neck-tenon (too many hyphens!!) I've just used the revitalised Random Orbital Sander to go through four grits of paper.. it took nearly three hours and I'm still picking dust out of my teeth! (it's off to the Dentist next!! Oh no!!)
Here's the back, a slightly rounded and less extreme 'belly-carve'
here she is while the first coat of oil is still dripping..
you can see the shaped piece of maple as a cavity cover.. much nicer than a flat piece of black plastic any day!
And the front, showing off the ebony fretboard and lovely maple cap..
After ten or so coats of oil she'll be ready for vibrating and then off home to a grateful customer..and a slightly annoyed customer's wife if I read the situation at all accurately!
It's off to the design table now to draw up some concepts for Blaze Bailey's new band.. the brief is .. lazers, l.e.d's, fire, smoke... oh and skulls.... we'll see what we can do!
Very Best,
Ben
crimson guitars - redefining custom
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