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

Breath of LIFE

WELL WELL folks it's time! yes the holidays are here and good news arrives with it!!
i got a new job!! yepper, finally, JMB is headed in the right direction (i think) so far so good.

I'll have more for ya' later, mean time, Jennie and i are still searching for a new computer for the house, thus, limited posts as of late. So keep up with us in the new year, look for more then. Until then, happy holidays and take care,

The Management

Get a leg up!

Speaking of legs, what are your plans this Thanksgiving?? Are you going to eat a turkey leg and pass out on the couch watching football? It's tradition right? WRONG - break the tradition this year and go camping!! Camping you say? - it's 50 degrees out. Well, when it's been over 100 degrees F this year more than you care to say, I'll take camping at fifty all day long!!

We are spending our wondrous holiday at Lake Travis - Grelle Park (near a prime-time Texas BBQ spot in case we run into problems with raccoons or other vermin) right around the corner from ol' Uncle Willie (Nelson, that is) .

All of you readers are cordially invited to attend. We'll have nice campfire, tunes, wheel-chair olympics, 'smores, football/frisbee toss. No slouch-ass falling asleep on the couch here; especially because we won't have a couch.

almost forgot = The most important part: The Turkey Dinner.

Dinner will be provided courtesy the folks at the Hills' Cafe check out what we get for 55$ !!
Not bad for a camping trip eh?

Let me know if I'm forgetting anything here people, remember it's still me we're talking about. Although, they say the goalie is the guy who remembers to bring the TP on the camping trip.
Hope you all have a good one, whether you fall asleep on the couch drooling on yourself or if you plan on drinking the holiday away. I suppose it's possible to do both. Just don't drink & drive.

Halloween Haiku

Trick or treat smell my
feet in your pillowcases
and wrappers of gold


- On the previous post, my wife didn't think I talked about how much fun I had on my birthday, so here i am saying how much fun i had.
Thanks to Tim for the book, C & E also for the book, and the tasty beer! (beer always qualifies as a great gift) Seth - thank you for the video, it's great. Mom, thanks for the yummy cake, and the golf $$. I didn't know that was the same cake that my Dad loved to eat. Jennie, thank you for all the wonderful things you do. It was a great birthday. A 29 I'll never forget.

Happy Haloween all.

outcomes

Well the 29th birthday came, and went, without anyone getting hurt; or drunk for that matter. I can remember a day when birthdays meant getting shit-faced and trying to remember what you did the night of...or trying to forget sometimes as well...ahhh. good times. But I don't miss them.

This time around though - Us old folks hung out at the house, had dinner with my Mom, and that was about it!! So exciting I know.

I did make a nice purchase over the weekend though, I now own a portable router and router table. I used it a little bit and coated the entire garage with sawdust. Probably should get a shop-vac hooked up to that thing, or use it outside. Anyway, should come in hand for making some nice picture frames and my current work: luggage stand. Yep, still workin' on it.

Working on getting pics of Jennie's new fiddle posted too, maybe sometime this year.

Went golfing yesterday, man am I horrible. Not even going to mention the scorecard, my score barely fit on there.

HOCKEY: News
- Meadville Bulldog Hockey (Pennsylvania) has kicked off their season and are so far, unbeaten. This is where I played H.S. hockey. They are top-notch, check them out if you live in the Mid-Atlantic (PA,NY, OH area) and enjoy highschool sports.

- Austin Ice Bats (CHL) are beginning their season this weekend here in Austin. I sat on the bench for them for a few games in the past, would have been nice to play. A word from some insiders say the team doesn't stand to win many games unless they beat the shit out of most of the other teams' players. Folks around here should love it then...I've gotta' get pics of the mullets once can find in the stands around here; they're better than the players' hair-don'ts (as opposed to "hair-do's").

- Private Lessons - I still haven't found out what is up with the operations folks that run the rink here in town, they told me it was going to be $150/hr for ice time. I must have walked right past those money trees in my yard, either that or missed the harvest season. Not gonna' happen. So those goalies will have to wait for something else to come along. I will try to get to their practices to help them, but there is only so much you can do in 5 minute sections. But it's better than nothing. Goalies; will always be 3rd class citizens.

Mond-ane

It's another monday here, rain and cool weather invades the former central Texas hot-house. It was a gorgeous weekend however. We enjoyed some great food and music in downtown Austin. We took my Mom to the Famous Blues joint - Antone's - ; to see Seth Walker and his band perform. They were awesome, opening up for the heralded Fabulous Thunderbirds. Those guys have been around for a long time! But the T-birds could have been a no-show for all I care. Seth and his fella's should have played the rest of the time. CD's and merch available at his site.

I can't believe we trapsed my Mom all over some night life in Austin - it was hilarious and totally unexptected behavior for her!! We also took her to our old hang out at Mother Egan's Irish Pub. We watched a hockey game and had dinner there, nothing like some pub-grub to start off a healthy weekend!

Hockey is back in action and the game has changed quite a bit. Some things are good, some are bad, but all in all, it seems more exciting to watch. But the number of penalties per game right now is so annoying. Every point is a powerplay point. I don't agree with these rule changes.

We don't have this problem in men's league!! Check out our stats HERE !! We are walking away already, and we've only played three games. I think some trades are in order to keep the league (4 teams, a league?) more competitive.

No word yet as to whether I'll be leading some kids around the ice in the goalie dance or not. If you are not familiar with this work-out; let me know i'll send you a copy. It's not quite world famous.

Tuesday is my B-day; I'll be another year closer to 30. ouch. Still not sure about the 30 thing, it seems like today's 30 is yesterdays twenties. Hopefully so.

First look - Again?

Wednesday will mark the first day of NHL games in over a year. Good luck to the NHL teams as they vie for the Stanley Cup once again...thank god. I missed seeing those greedy bastards play all last season, I had to get by on men's league and coaching little tikes all year.
Hopefully my buddy Chase and I will be hanging in the pub watching the Bo-Sox let it loose' on the stinky-sox and then the hockey begins!!

Anyway...I'm back at coaching little tikes again, and doing the mens' league thing, which is always fun; always most of the time.

Lots of items in the mix now-a-days...seems just last week, I was complaining of nothing to do....hmmm. Interesting how that works.
- Momm's is on her way out here this week, should be interesting. 1 week.
- Still trying to get Hockey lessons off the ice so to speak, not sure of ice-time.
- Still trying to make more connections in the world of instrument making (luthiery)...we'll see how that goes.

My next project - you know when you go to a hotel and they have those luggage stands that you can set your stuff on? Well, i'm making one of those, hopefully i'll be done so that when Mom gets here she can use it.

fun, fun, I know.

Watch-0ut

I am now taking friendly-fire, I think I need to change.

here's an interesting quote I overheard today "...life sucks because you suck. Stop whining about it and change something!" - Larry Winget, speaker.
(www.larrywinget.com) turn down your speakers if you access this site, cause he's got a terrible greeting of "who let the dogs out" {he's the pitbull of public speakers, so he says}

which actually is really good for a lot of people, including myself. I whine (as I like to call it bitching) alot. So what are some things that I could change...hmmm. Don't think there's enough room on this page or time to address it now.

New Look

How do you like the new look? I was getting tired of the dark background. Need something brighter - anywho - more things to come, soon.

- Pics of Jennie's new (old) fiddle and our trip to Cali

- More stories of some sort, who knows

- A new job? we'll see.

Hot Daze

Well it's about a hunded freakin' degrees here today, and i'm nowhere near any kind of cool refreshing water. What's the problem with this picture? I need to remedy that situation.

I have been thinking lately about friends and family. I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with folks. So if you are one of those few who read this and you are one of my friends, which typically will go hand in hand because I don't really tell too many folks about this, then you need to respond and send me an email. Or, better yet, leave a comment here and let me know something, anything. But I will be calling you soon, cause I don't want to be one of those folks who gets married and falls of the face of the planet. It just isn't going to happen.

Can you tell i'm bored? Reaching for anything to jump out at me so I can write about it. I have not been a model employee lately. Yesterday, for example, I worked a total of about 30 minutes; yes that's for the whole day. I hope no one that I work with or for reads this. Maybe I had better at least take my picture off of the blog anyway.

Some of that time though, was devoted totally to work, and the problems/issues I have with it. Being in the corporate jungle is not the most inspiring or satisfying job. At least not for me. Here's an idea, someone come up with some good ideas of jobs for me, and leave them posted here and i'll check them out!! How about that? This is a great networking asset!!

I did apply for a new job yesterday, it's still in the corporate world, but it's a bit different than what i've been doing, so hopefully that will at least result in an interview or two. Who knows, I could be inspecting pipelines across the US before you know it! Also, I just interviewed for a job in the bio-tech/pharm. industry. Not my ideal candidate for a job, but, the pay is good and the people seemed nice. What more can you ask for to start with?

And if anyone knows of a quality instrument maker in the Austin or even central Texas area, please let me know. That is really what I am pinin' (no pun) to do.