after a couple of coats of clear, and a 45 min lunch break, it's time to assemble....

tuners on....



pup in and the volume pot and jack socket soldered together......



control plate screwed into place.....



and once the fret layout is printed and stuck on under a sheet of clear acrylic......

its playable!!





in the car and heading home before 3 pm!!

he did the vast majority of the work.

I marked stuff out for him and did the curved cut under the head, and did the fretboard layout and made the acrylic cover for it, but he did ALL the rest.

as I'm typing this all I can hear is him playing "another one bites the dust" and "smoke on the water"!!!

tuner holes marked out and drilled......



and then the whole thing sanded a bit.....



after studying the colours available he decides on red......



as the first two coats dry, its onto the metal work (11.00 am!)

this is shaping the end of the steel (ok, its a lump of brass bar, but it's still CALLED a steel!!



Cut out the bridge & nut.....



once the holes are drilled the ends are filed and emeried smooth....

so, it's the school holidays, but due to contractual commitments I need to show my face in the building on one day during the summer break.

at the end of this year in his school, 12 year old Joshua will have a "make a musical instrument" competition......

hmmmmmm......

everyone else makes shakers with pasta & a pringles tube or wraps some rubber bands round a shoe bow to make a twangy thing........

Josh is going to make a lap steel, he plays cello, so he WANTS a 4 string tuned CGDA, but so that there's room for expansion down the road, I've persuaded him that six string availablility is a good thing, even if he only puts on 4 strings FOR NOW..........

so, 9.30 or so, josh has a block of Beech.....



I cut the awkward curve under the headstock, but he cuts the sides....



and then sands them....



the route for the pup is marked out and then drilled with a fostner bit......



then squared up on the vertical mill.