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.