January 15, 2010
Hunkered Down and Handmade |
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Sometimes a year is a short time and other times, it's a lifetime. This week the music industry has its big convention in Anaheim, California. It's called the NAMM show and most music biz-types are there right now doing deals and shaking hands—pumping up the sales for the coming season.
Over the years I've attended almost every trade show that there is to go to. Anaheim, Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Tokyo, Toronto, London, Frankfurt—I'm sure I've forgotten some. The last time I added up all the days I've spent traveling to, from and being at trade shows, it came to over a year's worth of my life. That's a lot of time. Every time I go, one thing occurs to me; been there, seen that. They say history repeats itself, so keeping that in mind I only go every three or so years now. Besides, we've got work to do.
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The day started with a little planning session. Dave and I had plotted out the control layout for a customer's dream Vector model a few days ago, so now it was time to turn up the heat on the rest of the build.
Here I'm making sure that the control layout will provide enough hand clearance for volume swells by mapping the locations out on a mockup and physically trying it. Sure, we can draw all this stuff in AutoCad but nothing beats the old mockup for the final determination.
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We checked the clearances for the three mini switches that will control the splitting of the humbucker coils. This is just like the original Chaparral models that I designed about the same time John Mayer joined the Cub Scouts.
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Tom is busy with the neck and fingerboard for this Vector, which is getting a really nice piece of Brazilian rosewood, surrounded by mother of pearl. The next step is for Tom to hand-cut the shell to go around the body and headstock, so we'll check back on that in a few days. Here's a look at the rod cover he's fabricated from the same figured maple as he used on the peghead face. He's layered it with a piece of ivoroid to make it stand out from the faceplate too—nice touch Tom!
Over at the other end of The Workshop, Todd is doing the final assembly and setup on the 12 string Standard bass that we showed you about ten days ago. It's finally done, and it looks great.
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The customer wanted Bartolini pickups in a passive setup.
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Todd did a great job of blocking out the sides and making them flat as a mirror.
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One heck of good day in New Hartford, and despite the cold weather we're burnin'!
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January 18, 2010
The Week Begins with Change |
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The big snowstorm never really materialized. Instead, we got about an inch of slush that barely threatened to make the Monday morning commute a little more interesting. Out here in the woods we deal with whatever nature dishes out, but by mid-morning the temperature was rising and the sun had melted everything—only big puddles in front of the shop were left.
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Inside, Todd has a nice '59 burst on the buffing wheel. The top is quilt maple with a huge figure. He'll spend the morning buffing and then assembling it before getting it on the set up bench.
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Meanwhile, Dave had already shaped the Vector project body and was ready to begin with the routing. The control layout was there just as we'd planned it a few days ago but just for good measure I double checked the clearances on the real article. The pickguard is just for reference. At the right of the photo you can see that Tom's neck is taking shape too.
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After running the shape around the pin router twice to get the stepped channels for the purfling and outside binding, Dave began the task of building up the layers. Because this guitar will get pearl purfling, we put a thin strip of black on the inside against the figured maple top. This sets it off from the body color and really makes it "pop".
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Here Dave is tacking down the strip of black as he test fits it around the guitar and makes the miter joints at the "shoulders". It's a laborious task, building everything up by hand but the results are well worth it.
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Back over in Todd's world, things have really gone well. This Standard has a great neck and plays like a dream. The guitar is light and chords ring out some crazy harpsichord on steroids!
Here's a few more shots of the finished guitar. We'll let it sit for a day and then check it one more time before it gets packed up and sent off to its owner. Sometimes they're hard to let go.
Not a bad start to the week!
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January 19, 2010
More Pearl Progress |
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Today finds Dave cutting more shell and fitting it to the Vector, but let's turn back the clock first to see how the top gets cut for a guitar as big as this one.
First we resaw the billet to a workable thickness. Because the top on a Vector is only about a tenth of an inch thick, we start with a fairly thin piece. Then comes the hard part. Here's Dave at the mighty Northfield saw going slowly to get the straightest cut. We've got a wide-blade Hitachi but the throat won't go up enough for a piece this large so Dave uses patience and skill to saw straight.
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Now you can see why they call it book-match—it opens up just like a book (kids, ask your parents what a book is). Finally it gets machined to thickness after being bonded together, then glued down onto the mahogany back. You can see the pencil outline that determines the final shape.
A few feet away, Tom is cutting the maple truss rod cover out on the overarm router. He's taken a slice of the headstock maple from the exact place where the cover will go, and is now shaping it with a form he's made from mahogany.
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Dave has already shaped the body out and routed the cavities for the pickups, electronics and neck pocket. Besides Todd's smiling face, in this shot we can see that there is a plug in the neck socket to protect it from tear out and breakage. That's right—three humbuckers!
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Back to the present, Dave continues to cut the pearl after having completed the inside black binding layer. He starts with large pieces and draws his rough line with a pencil.
After cutting on the jigsaw he'll sand the piece to shape—continually checking it against the guitar for fit.
Look at the size of that pearl piece. Most shops will just lay a bunch of small rectangles around a curve, but we like to give our customers the big pieces. It's more costly, but when you take the Pepsi Challenge, you'll know where that extra money went!
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At the next bench, Ferdinand is laying the first layer of black binding on the headstock in preparation for the same shell treatment. This guitar will get mother of pearl all the way around!
Wow that's a lot of progress and it's only Tuesday. Next time we'll take a look at the backplate treatment because it's pretty cool too. See you then.
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January 21, 2010
Thursday Update |
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Just a couple of quick looks into The Workshop today. It's been a busy week so far, and things are moving along well. In the mill, Ferdinand is busy slitting binding while over in the finishing area Todd is putting the polish on a "stock" guitar finished in Aztec Gold. As much as we love to do the intricate custom work, some clients still want our guitars just as we designed them. After curing for a minimum of seven days, the first step is stripping off the fingerboard mask. In this shot, Todd is cleaning up any excess lacquer with an Xacto knife before he sands and buffs.
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After over an hour of sanding, down to a 1500P grit, our man Todd takes it to the wheels for another hour of polishing. He's going to work with this one for the rest of the afternoon—taking it through assembly, wiring and finally set up.
Around the corner and just within shouting distance Tom has routed the Vector III fingerboard for inlay and binding. Tomorrow we'll catch up with him on more of that job.
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Meanwhile, Dave is plotting out the control cavity and planning to make the back cover. This is going to be a matched mahogany part with stainless steel mounting screws—more on that later. See you then!
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January 27, 2010
Mid-Week Workshop Report |
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Wow. It's hard to believe that it's only Wednesday. There's been a lot of activity here in The Workshop already this week, and it feels like more time has gone by than actually has. Yesterday a couple of really interesting custom orders hit the shop floor—one with a really cool wiring set-up, so stay tuned for that one. Jon Herington checked in and reminded us about some upcoming gigs with the Jon Herington Band. On top of that, I just finished speaking with one of our really good clients (who has over thirty of our guitars) about a particularly challenging treatment that will set the bar pretty high for the guys in the shop.
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Back on the bench, Dave has finished routing the cavity on the Vector III. You can see the areas that are slated to receive threaded inserts to accept the cover-plate fasteners, which will be stainless machine screws.
He's taken a slice of the Vector III body material and is fashioning it into the back-cavity cover. The trick is to find the matching grain and get it lined it up with the grain on the guitar body. Then Dave makes a pencil outline and takes it to the bandsaw. After roughing it out, he'll sand it by hand to get the exact fit before drilling the counterbored holes.
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Around the corner, Todd has an Aztec Gold guitar on the buffing wheel. Getting one of these babies polished takes a lot of skill because of the angles, and a lot of time because of the amount of surface area. This and the Vector are two of the hardest guitars to get right. Other guitars are much easier to buff—the curved surfaces hide imperfections from the untrained eye, but straight lines and flat surfaces will test the skill of any finisher. Lucky for us, Todd is one of the best.
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I thought I was done with the phone for the day. I was about to go into the spray booth to shoot some new color samples when I got another call.
This time it's from a pro player who is raving about his new guitar and wants another one just like it—with a few tweaks. We'll show you how that one turns out too.
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January 29, 2010
Friday and Freezing in New Hartford |
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Oh, how quickly things can change. A few days ago we were taking our breaks out in the warm sun in shirtsleeves. I'd even caught myself thinking that winter in New England wasn't so bad after all. Today the mercury plunged to around 13 degrees and the whipping wind took my breath away as I walked towards The Workshop door. Nevertheless, inside things were heating up just fine.
Inside, enjoying a mild 70 degrees at 45% humidity, the guys were cranking up some T-Birds and getting down to business. Ferdinand had gotten the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard on the Vector III neck and Tom had completed the first layer of binding on the headstock. here it is with Tom's carefully matched flame maple rod cover.
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Over on the assembly bench Todd was putting Klusons onto a beautiful example that he'd just buffed out yesterday. I like the way the knobs look on this model.
Using a straight edge Todd makes sure that the machine heads are aligned and straight before drilling the final holes and screwing things down.
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Using a straight edge Todd makes sure that the machine heads are aligned and straight before drilling the final holes and screwing things down.
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This photo shows the unique sculpted heel area . Todd has done a masterful job of leveling the lacquer—you can just about read a book in the reflection. The fact that the finish is a mere .007" thick makes it all the more impressive.
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Back in the wood shop Tom has moved on to the task of joining some African Limba and bringing it to the proper thickness for a neck blank. The customer has specified very straight grain wood similar to what we used on a limited edition model a few years back—only this won't be a solid body.
There's so much fun stuff around here, we've all forgotten about the cold outside.
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