Grain Filing amongst other things

Grain Filing!

I’m just recovering from spending far too long filing the grain on Alan’s rosewood model 1! Well, I say far too long but it is one of those jobs that you just keep going at until it’s done and in reality time spent filing the grain, is time saved when polishing. The trouble is, that it isn’t a very interesting or challenging task and physically you can only do a few hours a day otherwise you risk RSI by constantly applying downward pressure and moving your hand with a circular motion. Ibuprofen cream is an essential part of any French polishers kit! I have tried other types of filler but the traditional pumice method still, for me, produces the best results. You can see the before and after shot above.

Alan’s guitar is now starting to look shiny!

Hare Signature II

You can see that Chris’s Hare is coming together; the body has now been assembled and next week sees the binding and purfling go on.

Standard mandolin II

Also Standard mandolin II is progressing. Those who follow my blog will know that I’m a great advocate of solid linings. I generally bend two strips of Spanish cedar which are then glued together, however, what I’ve done this time is a kind of stepped lining- still two pieces glued together but the inner strip isn’t as tall- why? I still get the surface area for gluing and the stiffness to the rim that I want, but save a little weight. Big deal, you say- but I like to progress in small degrees.

Standard II’s body also went together this week and you can also see the neck blank- I’m going for a maple neck on this one with a Koa head overlay- should look pretty! Under those mahogany fillets is carbon-fibre.

I had intended making this mandolin with a Douglas Fir soundboard- I’ve had one knocking around for years, it’s incredibly stiff so I though that it would be great for a mando. However, having thicknessed it, cut the soundhole etc resin started to come to the surface rendering the soundboard useless! I’m only too glad that I hadn’t inlaid some fancy pearl rosette! You live and learn.

What's on the bench?

Phil Hare guitar

I thought that I’d give you a bit of an update on the various projects that are currently on the go. I’ve had a few enquires about the progress of the Phil Hare guitar. Well, the body has been French polished and the neck is being Tru-oiled, so essentially I’m just waiting for the finish to harden-off before the bridge can be glued on and the guitar completed.

Geoff’s OO

Then we have Geoff’s OO- this going to be a lovely little guitar! You can see that the body is together and the next stage will be the bindings and purflings. The back and sides are Honduras rosewood- it looks great, but what a swine to bend! It was just physically hard work- the sides were taken down to 2mm thickness but they really put up a fight. I would estimate that they took me 5 times longer to bend compared to a set of Indian.

The rosette is very nice- two rosettes in one- I’ve made a wooden rosette from the off cuts of the back and then inlaid a ring of abalone.

Talking of abalone, a slight worry here, I’ve noticed that StewMac can no-longer ship abalone and pearl products outside of the US, I hope that this isn’t a sign of things to come- supplies are hard enough (and expensive enough) to find.

Paul’s mandolin

And a few steps behind the OO is Paul’s mandolin. This one is going to be an English walnut twin-pointer with a mother-of pearl rosette. Paul wants a pick-up in this one, so we are going to try one from K&K: it doesn't need a battery which is an advantage for a small instrument.

Here is the video of Phil’s ergonomic guitar....

The two Phils progress....

You can see that the Phil Hare Signature model and Phil A’s ergonomic electric guitar are progressing nicely. Both have now been fretted and had the necks shaped.

You can see how I’ve contoured the body of the ergo guitar and also that by using a “Gibson” style bridge you can tilt the neck back slightly. This is in an effort to make the instrument more comfortable for Phil to play.

He came over last night for a second fitting and it became clear that I’m going to have to take more material away from the sloping section- this is to try to stop Phil’s right shoulder being stressed.

I love this photo of the end of the guitar with different sections of wood showing.

Production is going to slow up over the next couple of weeks, as I’m about to move into a new workshop! Once that’s up and running the two Phil’s will start to have their finish applied and the next guitar (Geoff’s Honduras rosewood and Engelmann 00.....sounds good eh?) will be underway.
Ciao!