Sander Roscoe Wolff

Create(!), a local instrumental electric free improv christian group, has been pushing the envelope for ages, both in performance and on record. Just when you think they can’t go anywhere, they reinvent themselves in some new and wonderful way. I received an email from them that announced a remix contest. They posted the individual tracks that, together, make Six Dreams Divided from their upcoming album, A Prospect of Freedom. Listen to the album version of

.

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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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Here’s a somewhat boring

of what the new guitar sounds like when played in three positions, using the three switch settings.

I recorded a

a few days back. It is quite different than my normal stuff, which tends to be in time, carefully arranged, etc… This began as a purely improvised guitar track and, from that I added two more tracks that played with the first.

To me, it evokes a bittersweet feeling that, for some reason, I associated with memories of my late mother.

Anyway, please feel free to leave comments.

From Poor Old Joe, there’s

and . Both are written and sung by me, with Brian Nelson on Guitar and Dave Pratt on Drums.

From Blue Dot, there’s

and . Both songs were written by keyboardist Neal Weiner, with Mike Weber on guitar, John Feijoo on drums, and Emily Ensley singing.

I play bass on all the tracks.

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.

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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Many years ago Brian, my friend and band-mate in Poor Old Joe, disassembled a guitar he had and gave the body to a co-worker who painted a lovely surrealist image onto it. When he got it back, all the parts went into a box.

Flash forward a good number of years. Brian’s sister, Judy, calls me to say that she found the box and Brian, now living in Korea, told her to give it to me. When I collected it, all the hardware and electronics were gone, with only the neck and body remaining. Although it took me several years to get motivated, I finally decided to see if I could put the thing back together with new hardware and electronics. Continue Reading »