So What's On The Bench?

Thought that I’d give you a brief run down of what’s happening in the workshop.

First, we have Alan’s rosewood and cedar Model 1 steel-string- it’s now fully bound and purfled (is that a word?) The neck went on yesterday and I’ve just glued the carbon-fibre reinforcement rods in place. You can see that I take the carbon-fibre right through the dovetail and into the end block- can’t help thinking that this must make the neck joint incredibly rigid, which enhances sustain and volume as energy isn’t being absorbed by the neck joint.

The carbon fibre is glued in with epoxy and on top of the CF, I glue a strip of hardwood for the fingerboard to be glued to. The strips of hardwood stop a little bit short of the end of the carbon fibre. The idea is to allow somewhere for excess epoxy to ooze out.

As you probably know, you can’t compress a liquid (basic hydraulics) and the danger is that you clamp the CF in place and if the epoxy can’t go anywhere, the pressure builds up and you can split the neck! And you don’t want to that!

Secondly, we have Chris’s “Hare Signature”- Chris ordered a guitar from me awhile ago, but having seen the Hare video he has now chosen to go for one of these. I’ve been slowly putting together a “kit” of parts whilst constructing Alan’s. So once I start polishing Alan’s, Chris’s should go together quite quickly.

Cocobolo

I’ve just got in some truly wonderful cocobolo for Brendan’s twin-pointer.......more to follow.

And in case you’ve not seen it, here is the video of the “Standard” mandolin which at the time of writing is still for sale.