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.