tuesday: refret/build

Today everyone finished up refretting our acoustics. After lunch we continued working on our builds till about 7. Not a very exciting day, but still it seems like time is flying. Here are some pictures..

1st: Tim showing every how to repair a neck break on a gibson sg..thats an expensive repair!! 2nd+3rd: Me working on my guitar (for all you complainers!)

4th: New frets being installed on my acoustic. 5th: The new frets!

Acoustic Refret/ Build

so today we started refretting our acoustics. it was pretty fun working on my own instrument, and a little more care was takin not to mess it up big time. It went pretty well, no major chips or anything, then it was lunch time. Jon, Lee, and I went to a mexican place called moe's and it was actually pretty good. After lunch we all got to work on our builds like usual, and i got the arching on the top done and glued it to my body. That pretty much took all day. Here are some pictures to enjoy..

First Picture: Top being glued to the rest of the body. Second : Tim helpin me arch the top. Third: My acoustic with the frets ripped out. Ill be putting frets in it tomorrow morning..

Day Off

Today is our day off, and it sure does feel good. Me, john, and peter woke up pretty early and went out fishing. i managed to catch 2 fish, one is too small so we threw it back. it was a good time, here are some pictures..

Saturday: All Day Builds!

Today we got to work on our builds all day, making saturdays the funnest day of the week. I got a pretty good amount of work done today, including : rough cut my f holes, flattened the top, got my fretboard all squared up with the neck, marked up my inlays so they are center on the fretboard, and almost got my tuning machines installed, but we had to stop to clean up so that will have to wait until monday. The day went by really fast, and this entire week seemed to fly by. No one has cut their fingers off, and everyones builds are coming along quite nicely. The canadian guy peter chose a really hard type of guitar to make so he is lagging behind a bit, but it should be done by the end. Here are some more pictures!!

The first picture is my neck with the inlay blocks laying on top to give you an idea of what it will look like. The 6th block from the right will be cut in half at an angle and inlayed with a gap in the middle. The next picture is roughly what my guitar will look like when its done. The bridge (the big chrom thing) isnt mounted yet, and neither are the knobs. There will be a gradual arch on the top and back when its completely done, hence "archtop" guitar. Within the next week id say it'll be done, depending on how long it takes to put a finish on it etc..enjoy!

Passed 2 Days

Thursday and Friday were long days. We started to tear out the frets on our electric guitar, its pretty tough but i kinda got the hang of it. Later wednesday after lunch we worked on our builds. i've actually managed to get a lot done these passed few days with my build, and...the allparts order came in!!! all the hardware for our guitar came today. I've got some pretty good pictures from the passed two days...

Alrighty so the first 3 pictures are of a guitar being refretted in different stages. Its kind of a frustrating job on a crappy guitar, but i finally got it done today. The 3rd picture is my headstock design (do you think i should put an ebony veneer over that???, i will be inlaying my initials on the headstock). The last picture is roughly what my guitar will look like. it will have 2 f-holes sooner or later and two control nobs. I hope to put a super high gloss finish on, but that will take a pretty long time so we'll see). So let me know what you think i should do about a veneer on the head stock!! also, the alternative to the pearl blocks is small circles in the upper right hand corner. Help me decide!!!!

I think im sick..but us luthiers never surrender!!!!

So i woke up feeling pretty crumby today, but i decided the only way to get better was work it out. so we all get over to the shop and todays lesson was refrets..i worked on this piece of crap squier and the fretboard was chipping all over the place. all in all, i felt like crap, worked on a piece of crap, and got pretty dicsouraged. after the lunch break we worked on our builds, so the second half of the day was a success...here are some pics..

ok so the first picture is my headstock, not finished but its gettin pretty close. Second one is my neck and the top of my guitar. the last picture is the center and back of my guitar being glued together, dont those clamps look crazy!!! i'll be sure to buy some of those!

quote of the day "it ain't nothin but a thang" - tim joy saving my guitar from the grave..

Neck Shaping and Fret Dress

So today we started on fret dressing. This levels out all the frets so you can set the intonation properly. This usually costs between 125-160$. Its pretty time consuming, and it requires a lot of sanding in gradually finer grits. After lunch we got to work on our builds till about 6, i didnt get as much as id like, but i got some of the aggravating work done..
Ok so i cant figure out how to organize the pictures on the screen so i'll try to explain the best i can. One picture is my neck on the shaping jig, i had to sit there and carve away until it was nice and smooth and round. Another one of the pictures is of the ears being glued onto my headstock, this is to allow the extra room needed for my design. The next picture is one of the metal heads lee and one of the instructors gary goofing off, both of them are equally hilarious. The next one is of the fret dress, its hard to tell but those frets are nice and shiny, i think im picking this stuff up pretty quick. One of the other teachers, brian, gave me a 7 out of 10 for my first fret dress, thats not bad if i do say so myself!!!