Wednesday 16th July '08

the week begins with yet more fret-work.. nearly there though..

each fretboard is planed and contoured

the slots handcut..

and the position markers are drilled.. (non-standard positions to match Nevio's acoustic..)

the abalone dots are glued in and Fred's inlay mocked up..

more oiling.. there's nothing worse than a dry fingerboard..

the Ibanez replacement neck headstock is marked out.,. paying careful attntion to the string alignment..

the shape is bandsawed

and then fine shaped on the bobbin-sander

the tuner holes are drilled .. from both sides of the headstock to make sure there's no tear-out..

and then the truss rod cover is cut out of the Maccassar Ebony veneer.

and everything is glued..

this design is an interesting one.. the upper horn will make contact with the neck.. should be fun..

excess timber is removed from each neck..

making the pile of scrap much bigger.. (it will either end up as tool handles or heat our house in the winter..)

wings are glued on the sides of each neck in matching timbers..

the ebony veneer is cut don and rasped to fit..

and then the neck is checked against the body..

while all of this dries..

back to Fred's neck.. the binding channel is routed.. (at this point I'm still in love with this beautiful little router..)

Fred (a graphics genius!!  ..literally!) redesigned the knot section..

and the aluminium inlays are cut out.. at least a begining is made..

...

now.. rant time!!!.. I've had this router from new.. for a few months.. and something in the middle of this thing decided to shatter.. it took two hours to fix.. and in the end the bit of steel that broke was so shitty that I could break it with two fingers!!! GGGRRRRR!! .. people just don't make things the way they should.. crass commercialism just pisses me off..(hence making top of the range one off guitars..)

anyway, the end result is the inlay working out quite nicely..

once it has all dried the excess aluminium is filed off.. sanded clean..

and the fret slots re-cut.. it's amazing where glue gets..

next up is the binding.. isn't this collection just so pretty..

the binding is glued in..

once the glue has dried the excess binding is planed and scraped flush with the fingerboard..

the fret slots are cleaned again with this supreme example of the art of tool modification... sic..

the fretboard is cleaned up and sanded through the grits

and then the frets are glued in

oiled and buffed..

and there she is.. and end to the working day..

'til Friday.. have fun..

Ben

Crimson Bespoke Guitars UK