"Look at this photo....HIBBIE GNARRRR!!!!"

Nothing really to add in terms of narrative, but lots of pictures. I'll explain each picture in the caption.

MONTAGE!!!!!!

I received my Mexican Cocobolo fingerboard in the mail. My sister says that it looks like bacon.

I also got my Adirondack Spruce guitar top. The tap tone is already killer, and its still 1/8" thick!

My Padauk back. I also have sides that look like this. I may or may not stare at this picture on a daily basis because the wood is in storage.

Red Wing at night from the top of one of the bluffs. That was a fun night hike.

This was hanging on the wall of Potbelly's in Dinkytown. Part of Zach and Steve's man-date 2.0.

I also played this 1963 Fender Jazzmaster. In most guitar shops, this would be locked behind glass and you would need to give up your first born child and/or a $5000 collateral. Not at Willie's.

Mother Nature finally got over her constipation about snow. My car is under there somewhere.

Minus a few odds and ends, This is my acoustic guitar. it all fits on a 2' x 3' shelf.

Still cranking out fret jobs at home. They've gotten much easier/quicker to do.

A shot of the workbench in its natural state: controlled mess.

We caught a bit of the Dr. Steve Brule fever this past week. Drawing done by yours truly.

Using the fret press to press frets into the fingerboard. Crazy how that works, right? I like this method much more than hammering them in.

I can now also solder guitar wiring diagrams.

its kind of fun. changes things up a bit.

That is more or less what I've been up to these past 3 weeks. Now I have to do a bit of clean up work and study for my written exams.

cheers.

What Ever Happened?

Well...

It has been a while since I've posted something on here, but I've been really busy with class and going on adventures to various places to really take the time and write out something.

In fretwork class (which basically has taken the place of the neck reset class in terms of frustration-causing and swearing) I have progressed quite a bit further in the process, even if it has been fighting me the whole way. Before I was able to band saw and trim route the excess wood away from my mock up, I had to clean away a pant load of dried and hardened glue squeeze-out. That wasn't fun at all. Then, after that was all cleaned up and trimmed away, I had to radius my fingerboard. This was probably the easiest step of the whole process (in terms of not fighting me every step of the way)

 

That was the last of the easy parts, however. Next came bending and cutting the fret wire to length before hand hammering it into the fret slots. A bit of advice I have for future Steve is DO NOT OVER-BEND YOUR FRET WIRE. Over bending causes all of your frets to not seat properly against the fret board and you will need to do a whole bunch of gluing to make your frets sit in their slots better. Based on this picture of Damian, you can clearly see just how much fun this is.

He wanted to smash his fingerboard with that tiny hammer.

gluing ALL of the frets...ugh

 From there I was given yet another tiny neck to work on; this time for practicing the techniques for leveling, crowning, sanding/refining, and dressing fret ends.

Leveling, crowning, and dressing fret ends isn't that bad of a process. It could be considered fun at times, but the sanding and refining step of the process sucks something fierce. To try and explain this, leveling makes sure all of your frets are the same height, but it leaves a flat spot across the very tops of your frets (roughly the width of the fret). This is bad. The next step is crowning the fret, which entails you taking a fancy file and rounding off the corners of the flat fret top, leaving you with something resembling the top of a school bus. There is still the flat spot in the middle, but it is narrower and the edges of the fret aren't as angled. Next comes the sanding and refining process, where BY HAND, we shape the fret even further back to its rounded shape so that there is the tiniest flat spot left on the top of the fret (1/64th of an inch if we are being generous). Words cannot describe out painful (literally and figuratively) this step in the process is...seriously, I'm developing tendonitis. Dressing the fret ends isn't that difficult. Just a few passes with the file to remove any sharp pointy things that would otherwise poke into your fingers. Finally, rub with some ultra fine steel wool, and theoretically, you should have one fret job done. 

masking tape to protect the board while working on it

the tools

the mess

theoretically done

Elsewhere, I have made a whole mess of trips the past few weeks, to Des Moines and back and Home and back. Whilst in Des Moines, I visited my sister and met her new puppy, Gatsby. We're the best of buds and I didn't have to bribe my way in with dog treats this time (sorry Comet).

I also ate at a restaurant called "Zombie Burger" which was an all-around bitchin' place. Zombie themes and awesome menu in jokes, combined with great burgers...good experience.

That weekend, I also stopped at Dave's Guitar Shop on the way back to school where I was able to play all of guitar...My favorites were the Derek Trucks model Gibson SG as well as the Vintage Original Spec. Gibson SG. Ooh baby...simply killer.

 

 

the Trucks SG

the V.O.S.

Fast forward though a frustrating few days of fret work (see process above) and it was time to hop in the car again for thanksgiving. Overall, it was a really low-key couple of days. The family all got together (including Gatsby!) to stuff ourselves silly with food and generally enjoy each other's company. Unfortunately, the tryptophan didn't prevent me from taking over the kitchen table to work on various design element drawings I needed to make for my build classes in the spring.

Oh well. Its only 3 weeks until Christmas break and the end of the semester (crap! I still need to order my building materials!) Its crazy to think of how quickly this school year has gone by so far. I have a feeling that I am just going to need to put my head down and power through some things near the end here, but I wouldn't change this for anything. Well, except for the tendonitis I am developing...I could do without that.

Steady as She Goes

Ok, time for a new blog as I have promised...

I believe my last post covered up to the start of my final week of my first group of classes. man, I feel like I need a flow chart or a diagram for that sentence; so many adverbs and modifiers...anyway, not the point.

That last week was a doozy. I was able to knock out that final neck reset with a day to spare, at the cost/sacrifice of a couple of points because I choose to take that hit in order to use that class time for the numerous other projects I needed to complete. Could I have gotten the full points? Probably, but it would have taken time that I really didn't have to spare. Why didn't I have enough time, you ask? Because of the evil that is the pyramid bridge project.

There it is in the process of getting the pyramid facets shaped. The tape is there to attempt to protect the already shaped sides from damage, as well as act as a guide for how much material needs to be removed from where. Because the rosewood is so dense, you could only do so much chiseling with it before you run into a chipping scenario (that and you can only chisel easily with the grain, which as luck should have it is only on one half of the triangle you are trying to make flat). Sanding is probably the best way to attack getting all of the facets flat, but that creates a fanny-load of that ever-so-irritating dust I mentioned before.

Here is what the final product looks like...good enough for a "C". Luckily, because the instructors realized how difficult of a project this is, they decided to adjust the grading to be out of 30 points instead of 40, so my 33 went from a C to an A+...sweet. Yeah, if any of those lines are crooked or slightly off-center, it is really noticeable, which is why the instructors chose to test us on this style of bridge. All I know is that I am happy that I was rewarded for all of that work and damage to my hands.

The tendonitis is my fingers started acting up again...I blame hand tools and rock climbing. Fortunately, everything popped back into place a day or so later, and I was able to rest them well over the weekend. I just need to remember to take breaks and not power through everything.

The bridge reglues went well, except it resulted in my first chisel related injury where I sliced my finger open, not on the business end of the chisel, but near the handle where, while flattening the bottom of the chisel, created a sharp corner the length of the body. I rubbed my guide finger on that and cut it open. Oh well...

Now I am in fretwork class and electric guitar set up, and with these new classes comes a new lab station:

The most difficult part of this whole thing is trying to find a place to put all of your tools, and then finding them once you have put them away. I have 10 drawers now as opposed to the 4 I had at my other bench. Also pictured is the early progress of my fretwork mock-up (a guitar neck that I will be putting frets in, dressing them, then pulling them out a whole bunch of times).

It started as a slab of rosewood that I had to run through a jointer plane (basically a giant block plane) because the material is too thin to run over the power jointer. Then I taped a special template to the slab of rosewood that would allow me to cut all of those fret slots on a special, thin-blade table saw. Measure and cut the taper, then finally remove the excess wood at the bottom. For this, my instructor said that we could do a small design at the base of the fretboard, but not to go too crazy because we would need to sand down each time we pulled the frets out.

it is what it is...

Now I get to glue that fingerboard to the rest of my neck mock up

and then trim and route the excess wood so I get a pseudo neck to work on (that comes tomorrow)

I also made a fret wire holder out of a scrap of wood...so there's that

I was also able to finally work on one of my own guitars today...I replaced the crappy plastic shims from under the saddle on my acoustic guitar with shims made out of scrap rosewood from my pyramid bridge. Nothing too big or noticeable because the neck on that guitar needs to be reset eventually as well as getting new saddles...it has a laundry list of things wrong with it, but I don't have the time, or in the case of the neck reset, the necessary tools to fully complete the job. At least it gives me something to do while my roommate has "quarantined" himself in the living room with my xbox while he gets over "strep throat"...read into that all you want. All I know is that I am the one who is stuck in their room all evening. BOGUS. Joke is on him when he finds out I cancelled my Netflix subscription that he would take full advantage of...ugh. Can it be Friday so I can go visit my sister and her puppy, Gatsby?

Until next time, folks...

Stages of Obsession

Do you guys remember from a few posts back, when I first was working on that second neck reset how I figured it wouldn't take me all that long to complete? Well, It seems that I jinxed myself with that one and that second reset took me until this last Thursday to complete. (I just looked back at that post...from 2 weeks ago). Now I am working on my third and final reset which is due this upcoming Thursday. Luckily, I am only moving the neck angle half as much this time around. Also, with the addition of a table-top bench vise that I just purchased, I am able to bring my reset home to work on. I forgot my pieces of shim stock at school, so I can only do so much, but already I am pretty darn close to the measurement I need to achieve.

Being able to listen to music while I work is also something I enjoy, and helps me work better (easier? I'm not sure which word to choose there). Sanding goes so much better when listening to Rage Against the Machine (for example). It is eerie at times in the lab when everyone is silently working on stuff, and our instructors don't want us talking too much.

Outside of that project, I am working on making a pyramid bridge from a technical drawing out of a nice piece of Indian Rosewood. The rosewood is very different from all of the other pieces of wood that I've been working with so far. Its stiffer, but it cuts cleaner; yet it wants to chip-out a lot more. It's really interesting to work with, and it smells really good. The dust created by it, though, from sanding, is really irritating to my nose. I get to bust out my dust masks and other protective gear.

Halloween costume? Nope, just my regular self.

Trying to lay out all of the bridge measurements

The plans, conveniently cut off on one side of the page. Luckily the design is symmetrical.

The lines are really difficult to see against the dark wood.

top view

 I also need to complete 3 bridge re-glues this week (scrape away lacquer to bare wood, glue bridge to wood, remove bridge from wood) x3 and then 2 more guitar action diagnosis-es. The action diagnosis goes really quickly, so I'm not too worried about those particular projects. It's everything else on my plate that has me a little worried, but I should be able to get, at the very least and barring any unforeseen set backs, the majority of everything done. Then, I get to switch classrooms and start a whole other set of classes.

How do these instructors expect me to get anything done when there's playoff baseball on tv? I'm not even celebrating Halloween because of all of the work I have going on for class. I'm choosing to celebrate through all of the pictures that are starting to make their way onto the Facebook. Oh well...I'm just waiting for the candy to go on sale at this point.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some things to work on.
 

Hustle and Cuss

Well, it has come to the point where I can do the final shaping of a saddle blank in just about an hour.

All of the processes leading up to that stage, with all of the stringing up, checking the height, de-tuning, making your adjustments, re-stringing, checking adjustments (repeat until correct), de-tuning so you can put your intonation marker in, retuning, checking intonation, de-tuning to move the intonation marker based on it it was sharp or flat, re tuning, checking intonation (repeat until correct), then move on to the next string....UGH. (about 2-4 hours on a good day)

That is what I typically deal with when I am making a saddle, but interestingly, I enjoy it for the most part. It is just the right amount of frustrating to keep me engaged and wanting to keep doing it. Each one is a little mountain to conquer.

I've also gotten to the point of making copies of guitar bridges. This involves taking a pre-existing guitar bridge, and with some careful measuring and tracing, and a hell of a lot of sanding and scraping, we hopefully come out with an as close to exact replica of what we started with. Power sanders become your best friend in this exercise. When I was working on this back at the house using only sanding plates and blocks and elbow grease, I wasn't getting anywhere with my coarsest sandpaper and a few hours of rubbing. I take it to the edge sander in the shop, zip-zip...two hours of sanding done in about 15 seconds. It is really helpful in the early stages in the shaping when you need to hog off a lot of material to get it closer to its final dimensions and not so "beef-a-saurus rex" as my buddy/work bench neighbor, Jake has taken to describing it.

 

I also took a road trip back home this past four day weekend because as great of a place Red Wing is, I need to get the heck outta dodge every now and again and the cities doesn't always cut it. Plus, when I go back home, I get this crinkly puppy to play with:

I decided to drive this time around as opposed to being at the mercy of whenever the train decided to pull around into the station. 4.5 hours one way isn't so bad when you have good music/audio books. Plus, my car needed to be run for longer periods since I was getting super-shitty gas mileage with all of the short trips I make everyday. I was also able to raid the pantry at home so I could put off grocery shopping for a few more days. Victories all around.

Other than that stuff, it has been very low-key on my end. A lot of just putting your head down and getting to work. Hopefully something exciting happens that is worth mentioning, because even I am bored with this post and I'm living out all of this stuff.

Until next time...

Do it Good

Hello again friends.
What new adventures do I have for you, you wonder?

Well, I am glad you asked...

On Monday, my instructors had all of the second year guitar students bring their acoustic guitar build into our first year class and us first year kids were able to ask them all sorts of build questions like which woods they used, bracing patterns, body styles, etc. and, most importantly, we were able to hear them being played. All of this in an effort to help us first year kids develop some sort of idea about what we want/will be able to build in the spring semester. It most certainly helped me solidify some aspects about what I want to build, and because I am a visual person and really have nothing better to do with my time most nights, I took to the photoshop and created my guitar from photos of the different woods I intend to use and other stock photos of the body shape and miscellaneous appointments.

The Spec list for this guitar is pretty neat:

• Body style: OM (with dreadnought depth)
• Scale length: 24.625"
• Bracing: UNDETERMINED
• Body Wood: Red Spruce
• Back/sides: Padauk (its this really awesome bright orange)
• Neck: Mahogany
• Fretboard: cocobolo (brown with mustard yellow-y stripes)
• Bridge: indian rosewood 
• binding: "tortoise shell" 
• headstock: custom design with indian rosewood veneer and abalone silver fern inlay 
• fret position markers: abalone micro dots 
• rosette: #137
• tuners: gold grovers (probably)

Other than that bit of fun, I was finally able to work on a guitar saddle (read a guitar was finally available for me to work on). I had never wanted to smash a guitar more than I did after working on that guitar that first day. The saddle slot in this particular guitar was filled and re-routed for proper intonation; except when it was re-routed, it was routed WAAAAAAYYY too deep. I didn't realize this fact until I had redone a second saddle for this guitar, had barely taken any material off of the blank, and it was STILL reading .02" too low. So I had spent an entire work day on fitting a saddle to this guitar that would read too low no matter what i was going to do to it. The guitar required some minor surgery in the form of a shim glued in place by my instructor in order for me to be able to work on it. The best part of this whole thing is that this whole out-of-my-control-set-back caused my saddle to be turned in for grading a day late and 10% of my grade on it. I still managed to do well on the saddle despite all those problems, but the "lateness" (which I am still pretty butt-hurt about) caused me to go from a solid B to a very low C. It is my first C in guitar school. I also forgot to take a picture of it.

In neck reset class, I finally got my neck set to flush after too many hours of shaving and fitting and shaving a bit more. Now, I have to shave a 1/8" rise in the neck angle, which should take about a dozen or so passes with a piece of sandpaper. Not a whole lot.

oh, there it goes...I DID IT!!

 My friend Jason came up this past weekend, too. For whatever reason, he seems to really like this town. I reckon it is because he thinks this town is like a movie set in feel and appearance. To me, it is just Red Wing. He also found out that the bar scene in Red Wing ends at about 10 and not regular bar close because, Red Wing. Now, I have an extra-long weekend to look forward to this upcoming weekend and I think a road trip of sorts may be in order.

real key lime pie from the Florida Keys. My roommate gets the weirdest crap in the mail.

Same Old Thing

I don't have all that much to tell you at this current junction in terms of fun, interesting, or exciting guitar school news. A bit of carry-over from the previous blog post, the train ride home was pretty good. Apparently La Crosse is a hot bed of college girls because 90% of my train car was filled with them. Of course I didn't talk to any of them because I am still an awkward and shy 24-year-old, but that is another discussion for another time. (See, Johnson...I told you I would mention that LaCrosse=booty city)

I have been a guitar nut-making-machine in class. I made 3 grade-able nuts this week (including a 12 string nut...those suck) to go along with the 2 nuts that I made detrimental mistakes with in the final steps to bring me up to 5 guitar nuts in 4 days. I lost a whole day's worth of work on those 2 screw ups. Needless to say I was pretty upset. I was also pretty burnt-out by Wednesday; so much mindless sanding involved in getting the nuts to the proper thickness. It would also explain why the grades on my last few weren't as good as some of my earlier ones. I know people keep telling me that the grades in this class aren't necessarily what is most important, but the skills that I am learning. I see what they mean, to a point, but this is also the first time in a long time that I am succeeding and doing really well in school, and I want to keep that going even if it is just so that I can feel that extra bit more proud of myself.

Neck reset class has been a real thorn in my side this week. On Thursday alone, I spent 4 HOURS trying to correct a differential in the twist of the guitar's neck of .003 inches. THAT IS 3/1000 OF AN INCH. I can't even think of anything that I can use to illustrate how small that is (and internet searches are letting me down). Again, needless to say, I needed a break this weekend, only so that I can refresh and get back into it again next week, where I can add making intonated guitar saddles into the mix.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! -Ric Flair

Thanks Internet!

At least on Monday I get to hear/see the acoustics that last year's students made so that I can get a better idea still of what type of guitar with what woods I want to build next semester. It changes almost every other day. Red Spruce, Englemann spruce, Port Orford cedar, Indian Rosewood, Mahogany...it sucks that I am already an unbelievably indecisive person when it comes to making any sort of purchase. Remember my whole iphone vs droid debate? WOOF.
I also found out that I am not allowed to do a set neck design for my electrics build class, so that throws basically every electric guitar idea that I thought of out the window also. I'm not a fan of bolt-on necks, and realistically, I could just convert my design to a bolt on neck.

decisions, decisions.