Some good, some bad.

the bad?@

I had ordered a bunch of stuff from Madinter in Spain. the order went through. My Visa company phoned to check that this was a genuine transaction and I confirmed it. after 3 weeks I emailed Madinter to ask where the order was. A VERY nice sounding Spanish lady phoned me to say that the Visa company HADN'T released the funds!!

DURN!!

this means that Steve's bracing is 3 weeks behind schedule as it's only now making it's way from Spain to me.....

BOO!!!!

Ah well, I've shaped the headstock and fretted the neck in the meantime.

Other jobs under way while I wait are spraying the brace of mandolas that have been under way for what seems like AGES

I also have plans to build myself a decent electric bass. I have a stash of Ash planks, to today I glued two chunks together to make a body blank. this is a definite long finger build, but I had the plane out and a half hour with no other important jobs pending.......

I've set a bass bridge on top to give an idea of scale.

I'll take off the cramps and maybe get round to drawing on the body outline, but this one won't be done till after Christmas.

this week has been mayhem with the deadlines for school coursework coming anfd going and pupils begging for more time......

still between digging kids out of catastrophe and making new PCBs for circuits that shopuld have been finished three months ago I managed to get a LITTLE luthier work done.

I got the neck on a mandola and the first coat of "find the glue splodges" varnish. I must be getting better at sanding as the last three haven't needed any repairs at this point, just more coats of varnish!!

Steve's guitar continues, with a LOT of sanding on the neck and the marker dots on the side.

Hopefully I'll get more opportunity to work on these projects next week, but the kids want into my room at lunchtimes to work.... and it seems bad to stop them!!

12 String complete & home. It sounds & plays nicely, and my onl7y grip is that the headstock is too wide. Ah well, it's a keeper and not for a customer, so not the end of the world, something to mark down to experience.




Steve's 6 string continues......

marked out the width of the fretboard & cut it,

the new rosette is purfled and planed, and I roughcut the back of the neck to get an idea of the shape of the beast.

there is a LOT more work to do on the neck.

Love that 5th pic!! shows what happens when you have a really sharp plane, nicely set up!!

a bit of neckwork.

first I cut out a rough profile with the bandsaw.

then glued on the wings to widen the headstock and cut the tenon for the neck join

then I sanded the face of the head flat because its REALLY hard to do AFTER the fretboard is glued on..... (don't ask how I know this ;o).... )


Then after milling out the slot for the truss rod, all assembled and left to dry overnight.