Friday 11th July '08

... more lacquer is applied to these four very-soon-to-be guitars..

and then it is back to the dusty workshop.. this week has been all about necks... and it's not quite over yet..  each fingerboard radius is planed to the specifications of the customer..

and, of course, there are the inlays.. our squiggle logo is cut out a piece of abalone..

the outline is etched into this English Walnut fingerboard

and then this beautiful little mini-router is used to recess the cavity..

and then she is glued in..

and fretted...

the sun shone for a while (we're having some very schizophrenic weather this week..) and Jasper just loved it.. being a black dog it doesn't make sense but he just loves sitting in the sun and soking it up!! .. lucky for some!

the final finish of the fretboards is sande through the grits with the random orbital sanders and then by hand..

...Giles... he looks like a surfer dog.. just needs some dreads or something..

each fret slot has the edges taken off with this small triangular file..

this 4mm rod of aluminium is cut into small inlays.. and installed in this ebony 'board

and then, half way through, the side dots are installed on these beasties..

and then the next five necks are up.. the excess fingerboard material is bandsawed away..

and my plane needs a good sharpening ... one of the most important things I learnt while building violins was how to get a razor sharp edge on my tools!!

the fret slots are marked out after contouring the fingerboard

and then it's on to the fine inlay work.. more abalone is cut to size using the jewelers saw and a very fine blade

and then the Roman numeral inlays are glued in

..Bud gets bored...

and here she is.. and by this point I an really looking forward to a weekend of grubbing in the dirt with my very neglected veg..

but this week I've managed to get 7 out of ten necks ready for carving.. almost back at full strength...  Have a great weekend..

Ben

Crimson Custom Guitars UK