Ov Guitars - Diary of a Luthier

(Another) New Workshop....2nd in 6 months guddammit!!

2011-07-27T18:55:00.001+01:00


Great light in here, its North facing so no direct sunlight, ideal :)

Unbelievably Ive had to move my workshoip again, thats twice in 6 months. The property owner sold the last place so it was time to move again. The new place is great though, its bigger and cheaper and in a busy yet mellow spot. Im also going to have a great view of the Rholben when the leaves fall....

So I'm now at:

Ov Guitars

8A The Chocolate Factory

Union Road West

Abergavenny

NP7 7RJ

contact details are the same.

Please visit, i brought the kettle over....

Electronics corner, happy in its new home.

Local jazz maverick Jason Ball came round to get some care and attention inflicted upon his Tele. All fixed and hes a happy Flame Haired Jazz CannonBall :)

...a few photos of some recent activity.....

2011-06-06T18:46:00.001+01:00

John Dixons Gibson 347 P-49 pick up replacement project.

keeping the bits in order....

Using dental floss to keep trackof the components during the tricky job of dragging the gubbins out and in.

all of the components dragged out of the pick up cavity.

using a ply template to wire up the new pots and capacitors.

abracadabra...its all back in...this was a troublesome project, I struggled with grounding and phase issues.

SHane dropped his Gibson Les Paul and cracked the neck through the headstock area, a common break. The headstock clung to life purely by the thickness of the headstock veneer. Shane stills cries himself to sleep at night :)

injecting glue into the crack, thank you Boots the chemist needle exchange.

Just experimenting inlaying a Madagascan ammonite into a block of mahogany for a possible future headstock inlay.

ok for a first attempt, all the stumbling blocks and tricky issues have been uncovered, anyone volunteering their headstock??

Oregon Myrtle, avoiding tear out

2011-02-08T07:54:00.000Z

I'm making a steel string acoustic at the moment, I'm using Oregan Myrtle for the back and sides, theres a lot of figure in the tonewood. The two sides have been joined and its time to thickness and surface the board. The grain in the two pieces rises and dives up and down the length and width so is very hard to thickness and surface to a high finish. Tear out is a constant threat. Tear out is a result of the plane not cutting the wood fibre where its supposed too and the fibre breaking, leaving deep pits in your marvelous tonewood.

The way to get round this is a good reading of the grain in the timber and having a fine setting of the plane. Above, you can see my toothed blades in my no5 and Block planes, these are a big help in figured tonewoods, nice and sharp for a good clean cut and no breaking of fibres. As I get to know the piece I approach the planing from various angles, going slowly at a shallow cut depth to coax out a clean, perfect surface.

In the top left of the photo you can see my scraper, this brings out a fine shaving at a high angle for a great surfacing job.

Some Links

2011-01-26T09:15:00.001Z

http://www.ov-guitars.co.uk/
.....goes to my main website

Facebook page Ov Guitars
....Faceache

http://www.myspace.com/ovguitars
.....still there!

http://www.studiosaxophones.co.uk/
....Ov Guitars and Studio Saxaphones share the same building, Pete Scaddan offers tuition, repairs and is the main stockist for P Mauriat, Bauhaus-Walstein, System 54 and Yanagisawa Saxophones, Hiscox Cases and the amazing Theo Wanne saxophone mouthpieces.

New year, New Workshop

2011-01-08T18:43:00.000Z

Heres some photos of my new workshop, ive spent the first week of the year building it. I'm now on Abergavenny high street, sharing a property with Pete Scadden, saxaphone dealer.

Ive got loads of great projects this year, starting with a Myrtle and Sitka steel string acoustic in the coming week....

Its a great workspace, a lot of natural light with stable temperature and humidity levels. In the last photo you can see Matt Vaughan with his Myrtle back and sides set, ill be starting work on his guitar next week.

Drop me email, give me a bell if you fancy a visit. The button on the kettle is of course set to 11 :)

A Few Repairs......Part 1

2010-11-15T20:25:00.002Z

Here are a few of the repairs that I've had over the past few months, just to show the variety of some of the interesting projects that pass through the workshop.

A couple of photos of Dan Hasssells kill switch install. The signal is grounded, and therefore silenced, by the momentary switch to create a staccato effect that's been popularised by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.

The initial hole into the control cavity in the top photo emerges into the circular recess Ive created for the switch in the top left of the second photo.

The finished switch is below:

Next is Edwyns bargain buy Washburn, he bought it for £20 at a house clearance and brought it round for me to replace the plastic nut and saddle with new bone versions which I will make from scratch.

The new nut is beginning to take shape, just finished roughing it in here before I restring and cut the slots.

Matching the camber of the fingerboard on the saddle for an even playing feel across the guitar.

Here you can see Ive pencilled in the string thickness compensation to get the intonation just right.

Ill add some others later this week because at the moment BLOGGER IS ABSOLUTELY DOING MY NUT IN!!

might be time to move to Wordpress!

Telecaster project......

2010-09-21T20:17:00.000+01:00

Quite a busy schedule up to Xmas at the moment and Ive started this Telecaster project today. In this photo I'm preparing the birds eye maple neck timber. Ive surfaced and made flat the gluing side and here I'm thicknessing.

I'm routing the truss rod channel, leaving access at the headstock as there's nothing more annoying than trying to set up a strat or tele type guitar with the truss rod access buried in the body cavity! I'm using a 10mm router bit and have lined up the cut against a straight edge clamped to the work bench.

Ive thicknessed the headstock area ready for inlay and tuner drilling. Ive also left plenty of waste here at the nut area to make a smooth curving transition from fingerboard to headstock.

Pic below I'm surfacing and thicknessing a piece of walnut for the fingerboard. Lately I've been enjoying adding pieces with detail or figure to my fingerboards. This guitar will have a lighter band running along the bass strings of the fingerboard. In the right photo I'm shooting a straight edge on the blank in preparation for laying out the shape and dimensions of the fingerboard.

Sawing the fret slots in this photo.

The walnut birds-eye maple combination is going to work really well with the lighter band that runs through the fingerboard.

Little Helper

2010-09-07T18:17:00.002+01:00

Super skilled niece, Martha 'The Dufus' Goode :)

Summer shenanigans pt1

2010-08-04T14:56:00.002+01:00

Ive closed the workshop up for the summer as Ive been spending the past few months working at various music festivals and shows, although I have been able to get some repairs and set ups done in between events. Ill post a few pics here just for general interest....then come September Ive got an interesting acoustic project and two Telecasters to build by Xmas, woo-hoo!

Here you can see myself and the Milky Bar Kid at the Rock City Crew HQ in Plymouth doing our telescopic forklift training ready for the festival season.

First festival of the year was at the Isle of Wight and here's my view during tea break, enjoying the sound of Doves on a sunny afternoon :)

Tools of the job, Venus and the moon from my bunk and a round of teas for the boys. Good times!

Next up was Paul McCartney gig at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, I worked with the site co ordinator Carl Martin, did the production in and show day change overs. A great image that is stuck in my mind while sat back stage is of Paul and his entourage making their way to the stage, with guitar and wine bottles, singin "Hey Hey we're the Monkees!" very amusing. Very friendly and chatted with a lot of the crew.

Here's the stage build in progress:

Off to Abersoch, North Wales next for Wakestock Festival, heres a few backstage pics. Feeder in action, a view of the backstage chaos and a sunset view from the main stage loading bay:

Next up is Field Day and Bestival but until then Ive managed to get some repairs in and a couple of effects pedal projects. Ill post some pics of the pedal build this week and also of a killswitch install thats quite interesting......meanwhile Ill leave you with a beautiful image of a highly professional stage crew member named the Milky Bar Kid doing what he does best ;)

Side bending.....

2010-04-12T19:06:00.013+01:00

Everything I need to bend the sides. In the vice, my wood bender, you can see the temperature control on the front. Water, my template to judge the bend against and the previously prepared Indian Rosewood sides.

I heat up the metal column of the bender, apply water to the area I'm bending and gently tease the side into shape around the column. The heat and water from the bender soften the fibres of the timber, making it pliable and possible to bend. With a timber like rosewood, I don't actually need to use any water as its natural waxyness and resin allow me to carry out the same process. When bending i can often see the resin bubbling out of the grain as the heat is applied.

I start the first bend at the waist of the guitar, this is the tightest curve on this guitar and from there I work out to the heel and then to the end block. Although Ive reduced the sides down to an even 2mm, at the tightest bends I thickness down to 2.7mm to make the bend a little easier and avoid any splitting.

The waist to the heel end of the guitar is complete, its time for a cuppa so I clamp the side into the jig to stop the side unwinding as I'm attending to the tea pot. Its also important to keep control of the heat on the bender, it takes some practice to tell when your bender is running too hot, if you set your clothes on fire then you know you have failed at this :) I use my tea break to cool down the bender.

Here I'm comparing my bends to the template, gradually easing and coaxing the rosewood into shape......

The finished side clamped into the jig.

Both finished sides clamped into the jig. Things are shaping up :)

Just some photos.....

2010-04-08T17:30:00.005+01:00

pictures, photos, bits and bats......

Lloyd Welly - Headstock veneer

2010-02-16T15:49:00.016Z

Ready to glue the truss rod, you can see ive masked off the truss channel to prevent glue getting in there and causing all sorts of heart ache. Ive routed the channel to such a precision that i can lay a strip of 1mm ply on top of the truss rod, Ill plane it flush to the fingerboard surface when the glue has dried.

Clamping the truss rod in position as the glue dries. Ive laid some paper over the top to prevent the clamps getting glued to the piece by any excess glue!

A couple of photos of the ebony headstock veneer that i prepared a earlier, clamped and glued.

The headstock shape drawn on to the veneer, ready to be shaped. Its really important to have a straight square edge where it meets the fingerboard so that the nut will be a perfect fit between it and the fingerboard.

Lloyd Wellington - routing the truss rod channel

2010-02-11T17:23:00.023Z

The headstock surface clean, flat and square. This is a great piece of old, dense mahogany that was given to me by my friend The Cledwin who was given it by the wife of a local wood turner who passed away. Its a terrific piece and Ive still got 5 necks worth in my stock! Cledwin, incidently, tipped a load of used motor oil over the original pieces, but a nifty bit of trimming saved them from damage. *Cledwin hangs head in shame*

Ive made the fingerboard surface perfectly flat and square with my no.5 and block planes, measured against my precision straight edge. The headstock surface was then shaped at a 14 degree angle to the plane of the fingerboard. The angle of the headstock is an often debated issue with guitar makers, as it will affect the break angle over the nut and so the apparent tension of the strings.

A couple of photos of me setting up and lining the router ready for the 10mm wide cut. Ill do multiple cuts, initially 2 mm each pass, until i eventually get to a depth of 10.7 mm. This is the perfect depth for the truss rod and the thin layer of ply Ill lie across it.

The finished cut, in the last photo you can see where Ive carried on out over the headstock for 20 mm to make a good access recess to the truss rod nut.

Hopefully Ill be installing the truss rod tomorrow....

Lloyd Welly Acoustic - bits and bats....

2010-02-08T12:44:00.015Z

In this photo Im thicknessing and flattening a piece of ebony that will be the headstock veneer for Lloyds guitar. Ive drawn white lines across the piece to make it easier to see how effective the scraper plane is. You can see where Ive taken off the high points and left the white pencil marked low points untouched. Many passes with a light setting on the plane is the most effective practice here.

The final thickness is 2mm. Note the lighter streaks through the ebony, on many production instruments the ebony is dyed completely black but Ill be leaving the natural colours in for character. Although, once the finish is applied, the veneer will become a lot darker anyway.

Here Im making the endblock from mahogany. The endblock ties the front, back and the two sides together and the output jack/strap button will be fitted through here at the end of the build. The face that ties the ends of the two sides together must accurately reflect the shape of the guitars curve. This guitar has quite a well rounded bottom so the curve is almost 2mm on this piece. In the above pic you can see my initial shaping to start building in an accurate curve.

Here Im almost at the desired curve, just some slight tweaking using my straight edge to take out any fullness in the curve.

Lloyd Welly Acoustic - Fingerboard and Linings

2010-01-21T18:05:00.025Z

In this photo I'm preparing the glueing surface of the Ziricote fingerboard. I'm using a scraper plane to get the surface flat to make a good match with the neck surface for glueing.

The right side of the finger board in this photo, is the side that Ive made completely straight with my No.5 plane and a shooting board. Ive measured it against my precision straight edge.

I then use this straight edge as a reference to layout the final shape of the fingboard.

Back to the shooting board to get to the final shape. The critical measurements are taken at the nut and at the 14th fret. These I measure with calipers and make sure the length of the side is straight with a straight edge.

In the photo you can see the stub of a candle that I use to wax the side of my plane that is in contact with the shooting board. This makes for a smoother planing action up the length of the board.

A few photos of me making the linings for the guitar. The linings hold the sides against the front and back of the instrument. In the first photo I'm just cleaning up the glueing surface of the mahogany strip.

In the second photo I'm using my block plane to create the desired shape.

The third photo shows how I use my fret slot cutting jig to make the lining flexible, even though its one strip of mahogany. The lining can then form to the sinuous shape of the guitar.

The last photo shows my precious haul of lining, that should keep me going for a while :)

Lloyd Wellington Acoustic - fitting and glueing the bridge

2010-01-09T19:11:00.010Z

Lloyds bridge is made from Ziricote, and will have a matching fingerboard. It's an interesting looking piece of browns, greys and blacks that looks similar aesthetically to Brazilian Rosewood. In this photo you can see I've prepared the blank and also left a little message to myself in case I come over all stupid.

Here I'm using a coping saw to cut the bridge blank to shape, next Ill finalise the outline shape with files, then sand the edges to 400 grit. Its easier to sand the edges now than when its glued to the soundboard.

It usually takes me a good few hours to fit the bridge to the soundboard depending on how strongly the force is flowing. The soundboard has a 3.5mm curve and the bridge has to be an exact fit for optimum sound transfer and also so that it doesnt get pulled off by the pressure of the strings.

Here Ive got the bridge glued and clamped and Ill leave it to harden overnight.

Lloyd Wellington Acoustic - Thicknessing the Sides

2010-01-04T17:07:00.016Z

Lloyds guitar has Indian Rosewood back and sides, here I'm thicknessing them with my Jack plane to 1.9 mm. Later I'll be thicknessing the area around the waist to 1.7mm as this is the tightest bend on this particular guitar. It'll be easier to bend into the correct shape at this thickness.

Im using a toothed blade in my plane, this helps me to avoid tear-out, especially on this piece where the grain is a little erratic.

In this photo you can see my thicknessing calipers, this enables me to measure accurate thicknesses to 0.01mm.

I use my scraper to get a smooth surface on the piece, getting rid of any fine plane marks. You can see the fine curl of shavings that I get with this tool.

This months current soundtrack is a pleasant prezzie from Santa, Dave Rawlings Machine 'A Friend of a Friend'

I love the tone and aesthetic of his small bodied archtop, which is an 1935 Epiphone Olympic apparently. Hmmmm, a project for the future I think......

A few photos....

2009-11-26T11:06:00.009Z

Just adding a few photos, as i get them organised from digital chaos, of the small bodied acoustic that I was blogging about a while back.

Im using a router and a specialised jig here to make an accurate, flat an level saddle slot. Thanks to Phil Messer of the Totnes School of Guitar Making for generously letting me copy his jig :) I'm allowing myself a little room in the relationship between, bridge height, slot depth and saddle depth in case I want to add a pick up later.

In the above photo you can clearly see the radius I've set for the string to fingerboard radius relationship. Including a safety line to stop myself from getting over excited :)

more photos soon.....

Also coming up soon, Lloyd Wellingtons acoustic...

Go X - Avalon Rivers and his Cherry Tele

2009-11-03T16:21:00.031Z

(click image to embiggen)

"Think Lost prophets meets Fall of Troy."

Avalon is the lead guitarist of Welsh band Go-X and is pictured above holding the guitar I made for him earlier this year. The body and neck are made from Cherry; the fingerboard is made from Walnut; all the hardwear is Gotoh and it packs some mean Bare Knuckle Blackguard 50's pickups which has a four way selector for an extra series/parallel tone option. Avi plays his Tele through a Cornford Hellcat 35w and uses theses pedals:

Zvex ooh wah II, Zvex Fuzz Factory, Boss Tuner, Boss CE-5, Boss DD3,Rothwell Atomic Booster and he's also getting an Ibanez WH10v2 wah pedal when they're released in November!

Avi quite often turns up at the workshop with bass player Murphy in tow. Nine times out of ten they both look like tramps who are about to cry, due to hangover agony, after they 'somehow managed' to get locked in a pub the night before. Funny boys.

visit their MySpace here:

Have a listen to 'James Bond vs Dr Kananga' here:

See them next, launching their new EP at Dec 18th Solus, Cardiff with Ian Watkins of the Lost Prophets. Ill be going, rocking out with the youth and dancing like my dad. Yeh!

Parlour Acoustic - Quick Update

2009-09-07T15:35:00.027+01:00

Slow but steady progress at the moment, here are a few pics of where I'm up to....

Careful marking out of the saddle location on the bridge. The scale length is measured on to the bridge then the correct treble and bass distances are calculated to take into account the variation of string stretch so that I can get perfect intonation. Even finer intonation adjustments are made on the actual saddle itself later on....plenty of opportunity to get myself in a major maths muddle here.....

Next drilling out the peg holes. Tricky to do a very good job here, a well seated pin allows free movement of the string through the bridge, while trapping the ball end firmly between the peg tip and the bridge plate inside the guitar.

I was a bit naughty and forgot to take pics of me stoning and levelling the frets, oops. Here I'm polishing the frets after re crowning them. I move up through 400, 600, 1000 grit and finally, fine Mirlon pads to get a super slidy shiny rounded fret. I made things a little difficult for myself here, I should've masked off the white stripe on the laburnum fingerboard. I made it pretty dirty in the polishing process which means I'm going to have to do a nifty clean up job on it after. Listening to Springsteen, not paying attention. Damn you, The Boss :)

After the frets have been polished its time to fill the fret ends, where the saw has emerged through the sides of the fingerboard. To do this I melt some dyed shellac with a soldering iron then sand it flush......you can see the shellac stick in this photo.

While the guitar is in this position its a good opportunity to add the side dot markers. Here I'm using 2mm white mother of pearl dots. There's been some careful depth gauging of the hole going on here!

And in this pic I've started work on the truss rod cover. A piece of laburnum, cut to the required shape, taped down to the work bench then shaped with 150 grit sand paper. In this pic here the outline is a little uneven, more work needed.

I'm off to Bestival for 5 days tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be getting things finished by the end of next week. Woo-hoo!

U2 360 Degree Tour - Cardiff Millenium Stadium

2009-08-29T12:53:00.010+01:00

The small bodied acoutic is almost finished, i'll post the results soon.

Meanwhile enjoys some pics of the U2 build the other week, working on the Cardiff leg of the U2 360 Degree Tour. Here's some pics of the construction. The initial steel build took 3 days; then there was a day for the production load in of sound, lights, video and backline. Showday, then 3 days getting everything out.

The Hours and Glasvegas were supporting, the place was packed, good times all round :)

Parlour Acoustic - Neck Shaping

2009-08-27T18:18:00.011+01:00

Final neck shaping starts by using an in channel gouge to take the neck down to its final thickness. Using these reference points I'll join up the neck shape with a spoke shave and sanding block, referencing with a straight edge.

A lot of time spent in this area, getting a really good shape for a comfortable grip and for the instrument to feel great in your hands. I love to carve these areas, by now I'm using finer and finer files.

In this photo you can see three transitional areas where the shape is not yet fluid. At the head stock and two areas at the heel. I will spend some hours making the whole neck flow as one, making it as playable as possible with a great shallow 'c' shape.

Ive got a little behind at the moment as i was working on the U2 360 Tour at the Millenium Stadium, building the fantastic 'Claw' stage. Ill post an update on this later this week.....

Deptford John - guitarhospital.co.uk

2009-08-17T13:31:00.009+01:00

Working recently at the Oasis and Take That Carnival Tour at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, I was asked by John 'Deptford' Armitage to bring down some of my guitars for him to have a look at. I got the thumbs up and managed to generate a lot of interest.

Deptford is the guitar tech for the Take That band, responsible for the day to day maintenance of the on-tour instruments. Hes also tech'd for bands such as Iron Maiden Motorhead, the Manics, Stereophonics and the list goes on.....have a look at his site here:

http://www.guitarhospital.co.uk/index.html

Heres the biog from his site:

"After 30 years travelling the world with rock and pop superstars, John decided it was time to put his talents to good use nearer home. The result is the Whitstable and London based GUITAR HOSPITAL.

John started his music industry career back in 1978 as a favour for his next door neighbour and has never looked back!

He has repaired and maintained guitars literally across the globe both on tour and in the studio, working with rock acts such as: IRON MAIDEN • THE BLACK CROWES • MOTORHEAD • MANIC STREET PREACHERS • DOGS D’AMOUR • THE VERVE •THE CHOIRBOYS • DEF LEPPARD • STEREOPHONICS • WHITESNAKE • DREAM THEATRE • SCORPIONS with the ultimate rock gig being SPINAL TAP at Wembley Stadium for Live 8 where John had 11 bass players to look after during one song!

He has looked after guitars and basses for the top session players in the UK on massive arena and stadium pop tours over the years including: THE SPICE GIRLS • S CLUB 7 • GEORGE MICHAEL • POP IDOL and the reunited juggernaut that is TAKE THAT – their 2009 tour being an 80 truck tour of the UK’s stadiums where John looked after 5 different musicians.

He has worked with many female artists and their bands including: ANNIE LENNOX • MARIANNE FAITHFUL • ALANNIS MORISETTE • SARAH BRIGHTMAN • NATALIE IMBRUGLIA • MEL C • KYLIE.

As well as a variety of eclectic artists such as: JOHN SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION • ROBERT PALMER • NICK LOWE • JAMES • NEW ORDER • CRAIG DAVID • DANIEL BEDINGFIELD.

John also maintains several private guitar collections for various music industry luminaries including MICK JAGGER. As well as maintaining and repairing guitars under extremely pressurised circumstances (backstage, understage, in the dark, mid stadium show, mid song……!) John also builds and maintains guitar systems to create the individual sound required by the guitarist on particular tracks in the studio as well as on tour. He is a specialist in vintage guitars and amps."

Parlour Acoustic - fret installation and neck shaping

2009-08-03T18:34:00.023+01:00

In its current state, the strings will reach the bridge at 13mm from the soundboard, so here I'm just tweaking the angle of the fingerboard. A figure just below 12mm will future proof the guitar from any future up-bow in the neck that may result from string pressure as well as providing optimum action and tone.

Next job is to radius the fingerboard. I use a block plane to achieve the desired shape at both ends then join then up using a scraper plane and a sanding block, referencing from my straight edge.

Below you can see the end of the fingerboard in silhouette, note the radius I've created. At this point also, I add some initial relief to the fingerboard. Following the trial string I'll be able to judge the natural position of the neck and then add the perfect relief to the frets for a super action.

As soon as I'm happy with the fingerboard camber, I run through grits 150, 240, 320 and 400 with a soft sanding block. Next I cut enough frets to match the slots and nip the tangs so that there's not too much waste overhanging the fingerboard edge.

Installing the frets past the join is tricky, i don't want to use the hammer because I'll be exerting too large a shock on the sound board which is only 3.1mm thick at this point. I use a clamp here.

After the join I use the traditional method of the fretting hammer, spilled tea and sore finger tips :)

(note its an unusual 13 fret join rather than the 12 of a small bodied guitar or the 14 fret join of most guitars. The extra fret access at this position aids playing access but also allows me to move the soundhole position into a slightly more responsive area of the Sitka sound board. I cant wait to string it up!)

After trimming the edges of the frets to the fingerboard, I use a 400 grit diamond stone to get the fret edges flush and smooth. Later when I dress the frets, there'll not be a sharp edge in sight.

Parlour Acoustic - more finger board fun and rough neck shaping.

2009-07-29T17:50:00.030+01:00

As soon as I'm happy with the glue surface of the fingerboard, I place the nut in position and make sure I get a really straight and accurate line up before I add clamps to hold it in position. At various strategic positions I drill 2mm holes through the fret slots and 5mm deep into the neck. Cocktail sticks through these holes help anchor the fingerboard to the neck to stop any drift when I'm glueing later.

Next i prepare a caul the same shape as the fingerboard to protect the laburnum and to provide even pressure through the calmping.

Next I apply glue evenly all over the neck and upper bout area, not actually on the underside of the finger board as it will curl. I place the finger board in position accurately with the help of my cocktail sticks; snap them flush, put the caul in place then add clamps from the nut end down. In the photo below you can see the caul.

After leaving the clamps overnight I'm ready to remove the wings and the waste areas of the neck around the edges of the fingerboard.

I saw the wings off with a coping saw then start taking the waste away with an in-channel gouge. I follow up with a chisel to make the surface flat and flush with the fingerboard edge. A satisfying job on a Saturday morning, with the radio on and a cuppa close to hand.

Compare the two photos above and you can see I've also done some shaping to the cheeks of the headstock, doing some initial blending into the neck shape.

Next its some rough neck shaping, I'll remove some of the bulk of the neck. In the picture below I'm using the calipers to measure down to my initial neck thickness. I'll do this at 1st fret and 12th fret then use my block plane to take the waste material down to these levels. The neck is made from Mahogany, by the way.

Parlour Guitar - fingerboard activity!

2009-07-17T16:46:00.013+01:00

Here I'm preparing the glueing surface of the fingerboard, the underside. I'm making it flat to an even 7mm thickness, using a small block plane with a toothed blade. The toothed blade helps me avoid tear out in the wood. Later I will use a scraper plane to further flatten the surface.

Here i'm carefully marking out the fret positions in preparation for cutting the fret slots. Lots of double checking, calculator bashing and head scratching going on here :)

Carefully cutting the fret slots useing a jig that helps me keep the saw cut at 90 degrees to the centre line and also helps me cut to an accurate and even depth for the fret tang.

Fret slots are cut and the fingerboard is ready to be located for glueing. If you look at the hygrometer in the photo you can see it reads 74% relative humidity, which is far too high for glueing.

I'll store the guitar and fingerboard in my wood store, this is kept at around 43 to 53% relative humidity. This is where i do most of my glueing. I'll give it a few days then get the fingerboard glued on.

Parlour Acoustic - the story so far.....

2009-07-13T19:58:00.017+01:00

Here's some pics of a small bodied acoustic guitar that I've been working on over the past few weeks. I'll write in a bit more detail as I work on it over the next couple of weeks and explain some of my techniques.

Sitka spruce top with Indian Rosewood back and side. Mahogany neck. I think this will be an interesting guitar, the bridge and the fingerboard are going to be made from Laburnum. The headstock veneer is an interesting piece of book-matched and joined Walnut.

2009-07-13T18:15:00.001+01:00

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Ibanez Blazer Re-Finish

2009-06-21T14:35:00.000+01:00

Local guitarist Bob Patterson recently dug out his Ibanez Blazer from a ten year coma and brought it to me for a re-finish. The plan was to strip the body back to its natural state and re-lacquer.

Here is the instrument in its initial state:

I used a hard block and 150 grit sandpaper to remove the lacquer and colour from the body, serious elbow grease here, being very careful not to lose the original shape and contouring of the guitar:

Once the body is clean I sand and smooth up through grits 240 and 320 until:

The body is now ready for grain filling and the lacquer spraying process.

Below is the finished body. 21 coats of waterbased lacquer, each one cut back and flattened by hand to its minimum thickness. The final coat then polished with micromesh through the grits from 1500 to 12000. Finally the last spell of elbow grease to rub in burnishing cream for the final polish.

Glorious!

Finished, Cherry and Walnut Tele

2009-05-06T17:57:00.001+01:00

A few photos of the finished guitar. Cherry body and neck, with a walnut fingerboard. All Gotoh hardware and Bare Knuckle Blackguard Flat 50 pick ups. Lacquer finish over a custom coloured stain. Four way selector to add an additional parallel/series switching option. Yum.

Steve of Go X tearing up the workshop....

Final tweaking, nut slots fine tuned and pick up heights adjusted. Final action at the 12th fret also adjusted.

All finished, Steve is happy, and i'm moving on to the next project:

Coming soon!

Love is hot, truth is MOLTEN!!

2009-04-16T18:15:00.000+01:00

I love BBC 6 Music, a digital radio station staffed by dj s who are true music fans. Most of them are musicians or have been in bands. Also they have access to the BBC library of live sessions, which often turns up some mega tracks.

Getting into the workshop for 0730 with a cuppa and Shaun Keaveny on BBC 6 Music for company. Sometimes Shaun can't hide the fatigue in his voice as he hauls himself in for the breakfast show and often I worry that he's on the edge of tears :) But thats why i like him, he may rue the fact that he's now a pilates loving, smoothie chuggin class traitor, but hes an ordinary fella who loves his music and is amusing company in the mornings. Plus, you know hes gonna hit you with some Led Zep at any moment.

click here to hear me speaking to Shaun on his 'Toast the Nation' feature:

10am and its radio off and the CD player on.

The past year has been dominated by arts and crafts vampire Bat For Lashes; folk-mouse Laura Marling and thespian poet Johnny Flynn. The right mix of the beautiful and the strange makes for good wood-working music and for reaching some kind of contemplative frame of mind.

4 pm and its Steve Lamacq on 6 Music followed by Marc Riley at 7pm if i'm still at it by then. I used to work quite late in my old workshop, but not so much these days. Marc Riley is an ace character and most nights has some great bands playing live in the studio with him, followed by some amusing, self-effacing and mildly insulting banter.

Saturday mornings are all about Adam and Joe and some genuine laughing out loud at their good natured monkeying around. Funny, creative boys. I wish i could find the clip they made of all the times they said 'um' or 'urr' in the space of an hour, after comparing themselves unfavourably to squeaky clean Steve Wright. This will have to do instead:

Undisputed title of KING OF THE WORKSHOP has to go to the crazy mix of folk, jazz, pop and psychedelia from Donovan Leitch.

I would make him Patron Saint of Luthiers if such a thing were possible :) Theres nothing like planing away to the sound of Donovan yelling, "Love is hot, truth is MOLTEN!!" as if hes urging me on to some kind of higher mystical plane of luthery. Haha!

BANNED FROM THE WORKSHOP: Bruce Springsteen.

The problem is I either start dwelling on the lyrics and making a mistake or I get gee-ed up by the Boss's commitment and air guitaring with a chisel in your hand is not clever and also breaks countless Health and Safety laws. heh.

A lot of the time theres just silence though. Sometimes you need to fall into a kind of reverie (some would say stupour!) and listening to the sounds that my tools are making has become more and more important to the making process.

The ultimate workshop sound however, is the sound that emerges from a newly made instrument the first time you string it up and start to tune it. But thats a post for another day :)

Finishing

2009-04-10T12:08:00.000+01:00

The whole instrument is sanded down through 150 grit to 240 and 320, getting a finer and finer surface, eliminating the scratches from the previous grit.

At this point I 'raise the grain' by applying water to the surface then sanding back at 320 again. This is important because i'll be using water based dye for the colour work and a water based lacquer for the final finish. Broken fibres standing proud could ruin all my good work :)

Ive mixed up and tested a colour I've named 'Avalon Swamp Murk' that Steve is happy with and i'm going to apply it by hand to try and achieve a more organic stain to the edges, not really a sunburst. I don't want to lose the character of the cherry tone wood.

Let the spraying commence.....

Tele Headstock Inlay

2009-03-29T12:46:00.000+01:00

The original Ov guitars logo didnt really fit comfortably on the tele shape headstock, so Steve and i decided on an ivy and floral type inlay running up the headstock. I'm going to use the Ov logo shape and turn it into a flower.

In this photo you can see i've cut out the pieces of green abalone and im now scoring the outline with a scalpel.

The stem of the ivy is epoxy mixed with walnut dust which has been sanded flush to the surface.

The abalone pieces are 1.6mm thick so i've used a mini router to make a depth of 1.5 mm for the pieces to sit flat and just proud of the surface. Later they will be sanded flush. If the routed areas are too shallow you run the risk of removing the colour and figure from the abalone during the sanding process.

The finished inlay. Here you can see the fret board ready for stoning and final set-up.

Tele-type guitar cont....

2009-03-10T19:55:00.000Z

Ive attached the neck to the body, without using the traditional plate. The ferrules here are countersunk into the body for comfort and access. The bottom right screw position is slightly set back so i can soften the treble edge fo better access.

Pick-up cavities routed, good progress.......

With the through string holes drilled from above, then counter-sunk from behind after some (extremely) careful measuring, the wiring channels are drilled out with an auger bit. The pencil lines you can see across the piece are to help me stay on target. The channel from the neck pick up to the control cavity is drilled from the (in this pic) top right corner of the neck pocket, through the neck pick up cavity and into the control cavity.

Wiring up the gubbins, getting ready for a trial stringing and this instruments first foray into 'Born To Run' :) A four way selector switch is being used to put the bridge and neck in series at the fourth position, this will provide a higher output and a 'beefier' tone.

Steve Avalon Telecaster

2009-03-03T02:25:00.000Z

I’m currently working on a telecaster for Steve Avalon of www.myspace.com/gox

This is a guitar I was making for myself and had shelved while I was working on my acoustic instruments. Steve came round the workshop to talk about having a telecaster made and fell in love with the cherry body and walnut fingerboard combination.

Originally I was going to put some Bare Knuckle Boss pick ups in it but Steve decided on a set of Bare Knuckle Blackguard Flat 50’s for a vintage tele sound, but with a little more added power. Also we decided to add a four way switch to bring an extra series/parallel switching option. This will give Steve a really great extra sonic option.

Here’s the progress so far:

The neck has been thicknessed and cleaned, the surface that the fingerboard will be glued onto has been made perfectly flat with a jack plane and a precision straight edge. Here I’ve just completed routing the truss rod channel. The cherry is a pleasure to work with, its seems somehow dry and soft and smells slightly of singed earth or herbs.

The truss rod has been glued in after a little work on its flexing action. I’ve decided on access to the adjustment nut at the headstock end, rather than the body end, this will make for easier access for any future adjustments.

Here I am regretting the decision to have headstock access to the truss rod! This is a slightly awkward drilling process to create a good access recess. Fortunately there’s no audio to this page, as no one wants to hear a grown man cry.

Truss rod glued in, and the fingerboard prepared and slotted, ready to glue. The underside of the fingerboard has been made perfectly flat and the piece as a whole thicknessed to 7mm, leaving enough material for radiusing and for adding relief.

Rough outlining of the neck width and headstock shape, using a coping saw. Later the headstock will be shaped and smoothed out with hand files.

The walnut fingerboard is held in perfect alignment with the use of Luthiers professional fingerboard anchor dowels. Not cocktail sticks, honestly :)

The fingerboard has been radiused and made flat along the length of the string lines. Initial relief is then added along the string lines, measured with a straight edge and feeler gauges. Final relief figures will be added into the frets after the guitar has had a trial stringing and the amount of up-bow has been measured. The frets were positioned by hand with a fretting hammer.

Note here the headstock shape has been finalised and the machine head holes drilled.

The cherry body has been book matched and joined is now ready to be routed for the neck pocket. The template I have made here has been created for a precision fit to the actual neck on the left. I’ve left 0.3 mm excess in the template to allow for the thickness of the lacquer in the final stages….

Here I’m shaping the neck to the desired thickness and ‘C’ shaped profile. Initial rough shaping is carried out with rasps and files. The final shaping is done with a spoke shave and monitored with a precision straight edge. An important benefit of having a hand made guitar is that you can specify your ideal neck profile and thickness….

The telecaster shape has been cut out from the joined cherry tone wood and here I’m final shaping with a sanding block. The psychedelic patterns of this characteristic piece are making my head spin. Must be time for a tea break...