Pluggin' away

Well, I plugged the pre-drilled holes that were done by LMI. Somewhere down the line the measurements for aligning the neck with the soundboard (top) came to mis-alignment (is that a word?).

anywho...you can see where I plugged the holes. I made some small dowel plugs from leftover mahogany that I had from the back braces and glued them in. I then measured (three times!) and drilled two new holes for the neck to be bolted down. When fitted, it came out perfectly. Now all I have to do is continue on... Seems as though I will have to shave a bit off the wings of the heel to get the angle just right for the height of the finger board. I may need some help on that one.

Went and visited Collings guitars yesterday...unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, not sure they would have liked that anyway... but what a great shop - yeah, the guitars are OK...unbelievable guitars!!

more later,

JB 

The finest hair...

Ok, not quite a hair, but more like a 'scose' off. The neck is set back from the top by the thickness of the binding (.07"). Not sure what to do next.? any help out there?

I need to get this set before I start routing/applying the maple binding. I just met a friend who works at Collings...maybe he can help...I hope!

JB 

Fretboard binding

Curly maple fretboard binding. Looks good so far, just waiting to get the body bound in maple as well. Actually ordering the bearings and bit for the router to do the binding.

I wanted to do it by hand, but I'm very antsy and not sure I really have the patience to do it that carefully. That being said I probably should try it. So many times I've heard "power tools are really good at screwing things up very quickly". I'm sure that's true, but I've been very careful so far.

Binding took about 2 hrs. 2/3'rds of which was spent prepping the fretboard. Pleased with it though.

Hope to be finishing (leaning towards french polish or hand shellac) during October and playing this thing sometime before Halloween!!

more later,
JB 

Gig time

Jennie's Dad came to town and we got out there and played our butts' off!! It was a blast, a small place, but hey - we filled it up!! good food and tunes and a bunch of friends. Hell, Seth even got up and played the irish blues!!

 

A real guitar -

It's starting to look that way anyhow...finally some progress made.

We're out of town visiting my folks in PA. First a stop in Pittsburgh to see how bad the steelers are this year.

More later,

JB

 

Mind Clutter

New pics -

No new pics. I would post some, but my wife took the camera on her trip to visit her best friend and their new baby!

Either way the box is together and out of the mold, however I had a nightmare last night that the top lifted off and broke and I had to start all over. I think I'll take it slow for the next couple of steps and make sure I'm measuring and doing all the small steps properly before making any moves. Any mistakes from here on out will be costly ($$).

Good day,
JB

Carvin' it up -

Well, I'm just servin' up fresh curls of spruce over here. Seems like you just keep goin on with all the take back, next time I won't leave so much room for errors, but I guess for now more is better.




I'm about done carving the braces; just the x-brace to install now. Then a final sanding of the braces and I'm about ready to launch this sucker on to the top of the sides!

It's pretty slow going, but I am enjoying just about every part of this. The patience is key ..."some days you can run around all day; and never get anywhere" - me.

Please give a salute to Unca' Tim's pup - Tiki. Tiki passed on this past week after a long hearty life of nearly 20 years. Goodnight All.

Faceplate and 'funny' bending

Here:

Faceplate glued and rough shaped. Trying to get a nice 'Santa Cruz' Style shape on the headstock. Got a really nice piece of Ebony on there, underlayed with a thin Maple veneer; should look nice with the Curly maple binding as well -







A funny bend by the folks at LMI - the curvature is correct, but the wood looks marred here. Probably too much heat in one spot. ?? I didn't have any issues with this spot; however I think one of the other folks on KGB had a similar issue with their Mahogany and broke when installing in the mold. Just goes to reinforce the fact that you really have to inspect all the wood and supplies that you get; no matter where it comes from!!

More guitar pics

Here is a picture of my 'cleats' that I made when I fixed the crack in the side.
Not too bad, a little rough around the edges; literally, I forgot to guard against filing down against the side, but no one will hopefully see up there anytime soon, except me.








This picture shows the layout from the Tailblock. All looks pretty straight from here. The only thing off in this picture is that my ends near the tailblock did not line up just right. After doing more reading I've seen the proper way to cut the sides to length [by installing 1 side at a time in the mold with clamps. Then make your cut to center] I did it the uneducated way, I measured, marked, measured again, pulled from the mold and cut. It is tough to make a square cut on a rounded material; I know that now.

I also know there is more than one way to skin a cat - and many cats on the KGB site are doing it just their way(s) as well; glad we've all got a great source of info there too!!

The kerfing has been installed on the bottom (which will actually be the top of the guitar). Just waiting to sand with my sanding board and get the top braced and we'll have 1/2 the box enclosed.

This is tarting to come along nicely. I am really enjoying this work as well. It's really a reward to see where things are going and see that i'm creating a nice piece of art here.

Ready to sand profile for top

Here is a 'funny' looking bend that was made by the LMI folks, probably not enough heat and too soon of a bend made here. Not sure, nothing is broken, so I am not complaining. 

Bernie Boom-Boom

boom-boom Geoffrion - the legend. 

The man...

Tony Rice - this was in Florida at the Suwannee SpringFest. Note the hat; it was freezing cold in Florida! 

Mind Clutter

Welcome KitGuitar Forum Fans:

Glad to see you've been visiting my 'building site' I hope to have more pics of the project up soon.

The side crack is behind me and we're getting ready to do bracing, waiting to get some time to do it all in one fowl-swoop!

Also working on putting the faceplate 0n the headstock for now, just keeping busy!...

a small snag in the building process...a crack in the side. Not to worry, fixed it with CA glue (crazy glue) and some cleats. I'll show those later. But it has begun - the guitar is well underway! 

Spring-Fest Revival

Just returned from freezing Florida. Yep, that's freezing FLA not sunny FLA. Jennie and I spent four days/nights in FLorida at the Suwannee Spring-Festival in Live Oak, FL. It's north-central florida, beautiful and fun, but cold this year.

Beats last year though, they had flood waters that cancelled some of the shows. Anyway, wanted to get back to posting pics here, the myspace thing is a bust, not all it's cracked up to be; or simply it's too cracked up. Too many commercials and all that BS.

Lots of good news...more to come later...

JB

Come on over to my SPACE

Well, I did it. I have moved over to my-space dot com. Why? Well at the urging of some people here in Austin I guess that's why.

It's an interesting place, a place where i've actually met up with a few friends from college, so I think that works out for the best.

check it out at HERE lots of folks on here, and lots of music too.

Vince Young is going pro and all of Austin is Sad, literally, these people need something better to talk about. I think he is a good player and all, but damn, isn't there something else to talk about yet?? I'd rather hear about Martha Stewarts' trial or the result of Lindsay Lohann's latest asthma attack...since when is all this shit considered "Breaking News"?? and how!

Gotta go...it's play time for Merlin!

Off to a good start

Well, I hope everyone had a good end of 2005. It will be your only chance to end that year. Each year, you only get one chance at it!

The same goes for the beginning of the new year too. Unfortunately I threw out my back, like an ol man.

But I did finish my project finally, and I'll post a few pictures here to show. Also, we finally got a digital camera and I'll be able to post more pics more often.

The new job is good too, by the way. I haven't had to do too much yet, but I'm sure I'll be posting on here about the same, more from home though, not at the office. That might be frowned upon...

Also, here is finally a picture of the fiddle that was given to Jennie by my Grandfather in California. It was built between 1890-1900 in Germany.

More later,

JB