Feb
01
2006
Well, after some patient prodding I finally reconnected with Randy, who did the last few bits of shaping. He rounded off the neck heel, and a few transitions on the curves leading into and away from it. This, of course, required me to completely disassemble the guitar. After he finished that last bit of shaping, I was able to start on the finishing process. The finishing process is one that requires patience. The first step is sanding, followed by sanding, then more sanding. After that, I applied several thinned coats of boiled linseed oil.
Here are some pix taken after the oil was applied.
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Jan
01
2006
Here’s a somewhat boring
audio demo
of what the new guitar sounds like when played in three positions, using the three switch settings.
Dec
04
2005
Well, I’ve posted some more pix of the guitar project. The first set shows Randy Simon cutting out the body, and doing some work on it. It also shows the body after the edges had been rounded by a router, and the two top cut-outs shaped for ergonomic considerations. The last three pix depict some finish tests.
The second set shows the assembled guitar, the wood still unfinished, and a few details remaining to be addressed. The edges of the neck block (on the back of the body where the ferrules and screws are) needs to be rounded, and a small portion of the body leading to the neck pocket needs rounding also. The string ferrules are not installed, and will be pushed into their holes when finishing is complete.
I’ve had the guitar in this assembled form for a few weeks now and, aside from some very minor issues, I really love the way it feels and sounds.
Nov
18
2005
It has been a long and winding road (as Paul used to say), and although it isn’t quite over yet, I reached an important milestone yesterday. As you may know from previous entries, I’ve been working on the construction of a custom guitar for a good long time. I ordered a beautiful custom neck (24 3/4″ scale ‘LP Conversion’ with flame maple & a pau farro fingerboard, with high-tech Planet Waves tuners & a corion nut) from warmouth, hunted down some curly African mahogany, designed the body shape and had Randy Simon carve it for me, had Seymour Duncan design a custom pickup based on my specs, and handed everything over to Steve Soest for routing, drilling, and assembly.
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