Tuesday 29th April '08

This '86 Warwick was stripped for refinish last week.. many coats of finish have been applied since..

and after buffing here she is.. ready for her dress..

and a hair do... the frets and fretboard are cleaned with lighter fluid and re-oiled..

and then this little toy is used to take an outline of the beastie.. the point of the pencil exits the block at the lower corner.. exactly at the 90 degree angle which follows the curved and contoured edges of the guitar..

This massive preamp is removed from an early American Ovation.. it's not very good, but the main reason for replacing it is the unnecessary weight it adds to the instrument.. which then adversly affects the tone..

the extra soundholes are routed to size and shape..and the pre-amp hole is slightly enlarged..

the original nut has a compensated section glued in place and the whole beast is carved and profiled

and here she is..

in order to get the jack socket through to the back of the guitar (where my fat hands can't reach) I thread a length of solder through the socket and lightly knot it.. once it is pulled through the softness of the solder means that a sharp tug will conpress the knot and everything is in place!!

once the preamp is in place and the soundholes polished

she is ready for a new set of strings and a full setup..

the English Walnut back of this bespoke left-handed guitar can do with a matching control cavity cover

that, and the maple ones for Tim's Robert Fripp Slimline, are cut to size

the day turns nasty, but the horses in back of the shop seem happy..

the back plates are filed and sanded to size

and then carved to match the comfort carves of the guitars

on to this other left handed guitar.. the control layout is marked out

and a couple of new templates are cut..

and the control cavity is pre-drilled...

and routed..

here I set the drill-bit so that it sops a few mm before the noggin.. holding the guitar between the drill and the noggin means that I can set the thickness of the top at a specific point..

like here.. it is tidied up with gouges etc and is then ready for finishing..

the 3mm maple cap is cut to size

and glued..

another inlay for Jonathan's guitar.. 7 pointed stars are a bugger to draw.. but worth it.. the inlay is cut out of ablam (a laminate made up of many glued sections of abalone)

the boys come in wet and needing the warmth of the workshop.. I really need to get a new bed for them, the last one in the workshop died a death  when they were both slightly chewier puppies!!

the inlay is glued in place and sanded to a fine finish..

the light faded pretty fast as the April shower turned into a torrential downpour and without good natural light it is very difficult to sand to a good finish.. however it is possible to sand through to 180 .. when the sun comes out she will be fine sanded and ready for staining!

the front carving is fine-tuned with violin-making planes.. and then also sanded to 180 grit with the random orbital

the cap on the Helmet is ready and the 10mm holes are drilled and the truss rod access cavity shaped

and its on to the carving.. building an ergonomic guitar is really really fun!!!

and here she is..

and after rough-sanding.. very comfortable..

and these three guitars (when the sun appears again) will undergo final sanding and be born!!

All my best, Ben...

Crimson Ergonomic Guitars UK