# Bedemir & Galahad - 2 Larkins



## MisterE (Jul 12, 2014)

Hi All,

A while back, I ordered another geetar from Chris Larkin.
The order was for a soloist model, archtop, neck through.
This is the conspec:
Customer: Geert Annys (VSP) 
Quotation/Update/ date: 04.03.14 
Model Type: Soloist carved top Bedemir model 
Body Timber: Mahogany or fiddleback sycamore (stained brown) or something else 
Top: Lovely quilt as supplied 
Colour: Black cherry 
Pickups Type & Position: TB4 black in bridge, middle to be decided, Sustainiac at neck 
Switching / Circuitry: Vol/piezo volume/Sustainiac intensity/5 way selector/2 mini toggles laid out as Strat. 
Graphtec Acoustiphonic pre-amp. 
Bridge/Trem Unit, Type & Colour: Graphtec Ghost LB63 black 
Neck Timber: Neck through design. Laminates of finest flamed maple with veneer details. 
Neck Profile: Flat C. 
Fingerboard Timber: Ebony with white binding and those lovely 7 string type inlays! 
Fingerboard: Camber 16" Frets type and number 22 Dunlop 6110 (Fender bass type) 
Scale length: 25.5" 
Machines, Type & Colour: 6 Schaller M6 bottom locking 6L, black 
Comments / Customising: Schaller Straplocks. 
Fingerboard width 43mm for the trem nut. 
Black pickup rings. 
2 side outlets. 
Larkin headstock. Faux binding? 

The piece of quilt I wanted to use for the top of this geetar is this






Then I decided I needed a bass too.
So this is the conspec:
Model Type: 5B CONTOUR BODY 
Body Timber: Poplar 
Top and back: Quilted maple 
Colour: Gloss AC lacquer, cherry burst. 
Pickups Type & Position: Larkin/Armstrong humbucking pickups. 
Switching / Circuitry: Mag vol (pull for passive), mag blend, bass, mid and treble, mini switch for mid frequency select(Aguilar active), 
Stacked dual concentric for piezo. 
Bridge/Trem Unit, Type: Hipshot A, 
Colour: brass, gold. 
Neck Timber: Laminates of flamed maple with carbon fibre, mahogany veneers between. Two way trussrod 
Neck Profile: Narrow (47-70mm), slim depth. 
Fingerboard Timber: Rosewood. 
Pearl custom markers. 
Fingerboard Camber 16" 
Frets type and number 24 X 6110 Fender bass frets. 
Scale length 889MM/35" Machines, Type & Colour 5 X M4 gold 
Comments / Customising: Contour body, Dunlop Straploks, case. 

This is the wood for the bass:




I started the order with ; "I have a plan, and it involves wood"
So that reminded Chris of a scene in Monty Python & The Holy Grail where Bedemir explains that they'll build a wooden rebbit and that he, Galahad and Lancelot will climb out of the rabbit...

So we decided to call the geetar Bedemir and the bass Galahad.

In the following weeks, I'll post the progress of the build.


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## MisterE (Jul 12, 2014)

And we're off... Here's Chris' telling what he did so far... 


> I spent three hours looking at wood and trying to work out the best way to get the look I wanted for the through neck and eventually decided the right way to go was to have 4 x 20mm wide pieces of flamed maple with three 3mm stringers of mahogany.










> So I cut up the maple















> and laid it out ready to glue it.


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## MisterE (Jul 12, 2014)

> First I glued up the through neck sandwich.










> Then I cut the pieces for the bass neck and glued them up too.










> I then selected some poplar for the bass body,










> marked it out and planed it. Then I spotted some hairline cracks which just went into my marked body (the redline) area in that piece so I scrapped it.










> So I started on a second piece of poplar and when I planed into that a dark coloured area appeared so I scrapped that piece too. You can&#8217;t see these dark patches until you plane into them.










> The third piece, I was able to plane to size without a problem.










> On the quilt for the bass overlay I marked out and cut out a piece suitable for the headstock overlay then trimmed the remainder to suit the body shape.




















> On the bass side of the body there needs to be an section removed for the arm relief.










> This is smoothed and the overlay bent to fit over this. How I did this is a secret! Well I could tell you, but not the organisms.


You might wonder where the organisms come from.
I posted the first build he did on sevenstring.org
Hence: a post for the organisms.






> The overlay was then glued to the core for bass and treble sides.


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## MisterE (Jul 12, 2014)

> The sandwiches for the through neck and bass neck have been tidied up - the figure is good.










> The headstock for the bass is wider than the shaft so I cut out a piece from the sandwich that would become the headstock and glued &#8216;ears&#8217; to it to get the required size.


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## pondman (Jul 12, 2014)

Looking handsome.


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## MisterE (Jul 12, 2014)

Apparently Chris had some visitors, one with a perfect 1954 Gibson L4 archtop and, a few minutes later, a guy with a Dyer harp guitar


> After my visitors left I heard a strange hissing sound in the workshop. I couldnt see any snakes ( perhaps St Patrick missed one?) so I investigated further to find the water drain valve on the compressor tank was leaking. It took a bit of messing around but I was able to fix it but at the expense of working on your instruments. In the time that was left I planed the joint and glued the bass body halves, cut a section from the through neck for a headstock, dimensioned it and glued on the headstock veneer and did the same for the bass headstock.
> 
> 
> 
> Who know what will happen today? Life is a mystery!


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## MisterE (Jul 13, 2014)

I found the two pieces for the tops of the geetars in Holz Fascination, Germany
Chris informed me that the thick piece was actually too thick for the carved top so he proposed to cut a slice off and that could be used for a future project.
So now I'll be obliged to have him build me another geetar next year




Anyway, Chris also needed to cut of two slices from the side for the binding. So he asked me for the dimensions of the model - a G&l Interceptor.
But I was too late in answering his e-mail.
This is what he wrote:


> I&#8217;m trying to find the name of the limited edition guitar that you have so I can get dimensions and know how to cut the big slab of quilt so that a slice can be used for one in the future. I&#8217;m terrified to cut this piece in case I make a mistake (of any kind!)
> 
> 
> ChrisBandSaw.



He's always signing his e-mails with ChrisSoAndSo with the so and so related to the message
Next he wrote:


> Dear TooLateTwin,
> 
> I made an executive decision. I overcame my fear of the dreaded quilt and I cut off the edge of the pieces for the binding which left 180mm and I think this will be enough for any electric guitar. So no need for any ruling on your part.
> 
> ...



He calls me his younger twin since we share the same birthday, have the same sense of humour, share a passion for motorbikes, chocolate cake, wine and have a lot of uncanny similarities. We discovered this when I went to see him while he was building my sevenstring.

Next he wrote:


> The Lovely Syra didn&#8217;t force me to watch any football tonight possibly because there isn&#8217;t any.
> 
> 
> Dear Doctor. I had this irrational fear of cutting this piece of quilted maple that was causing me anxiety and sleepless nights until now when I decided it was time to get my chainsaw out, put on boxing gloves, a blindfold and attack it. And you know it was not so bad and my life has taken a new and happier path and my creative consciousness has been re-awakened. Thank you for your advice and support. ChrisPatient.
> ...















> Then I did a rough layout of the through neck on the neckshaft by comparing it to a number of bits of other guitars all of which feature in some way in your Conspec. This actually took a lot of thinking because there are a number of technical difficulties in doing this guitar and I need to be sure that I had covered them all before I did any damage.










> After all the thinking I was able to mark up the neckshaft with component positions and other critical bits.










> Then I did a rough layout of the through neck on the neckshaft by comparing it to a number of bits of other guitars all of which feature in some way in your Conspec. This actually took a lot of thinking because there are a number of technical difficulties in doing this guitar and I need to be sure that I had covered them all before I did any damage.










> After all the thinking I was able to mark up the neckshaft with component positions and other critical bits.










> Now I knew what bits of the neckshaft I needed and what bits I didn&#8217;t. So I cut those off which made quite a bit of expensive firewood.










> Now I knew what bits of the neckshaft I needed and what bits I didn&#8217;t. So I cut those off which made quite a bit of expensive firewood.










> I prepared the scarf joints for the headstocks as I now knew where they had to be placed.










> I made the joints and glued them up.















> So endeth the day. It was a good day and having confronted the demon quilt I can now work on with confidence. There will still be those technical problems but I&#8217;m pretty sure I have a good handle on them now.
> 
> 
> ChrisReborn.
> ...


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## VSK Guitars (Jul 13, 2014)

Very cool man... It's awesome that he's giving you so much detail in the build process


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## MisterE (Jul 14, 2014)

Some more news from Chris:


> Good evening WineLovingTwin,
> 
> 
> We have opened a bottle of Corbieres and it is rather nice! We both still have colds and can&#8217;t taste a lot but we are going to enjoy it.
> ...


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## MisterE (Jul 14, 2014)

Part deux:

The overlay glued





pickup lead slot:





cutting the sycamore fiddleback for the wings:










Layout for the wings:


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## M3CHK1LLA (Jul 14, 2014)

looking good so far...


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## BlackMastodon (Jul 14, 2014)

Chris has the best pic stories. Excited to see these done.


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## MisterE (Jul 15, 2014)

Yesterday Chris sent me this:


> Strange day. This morning I helped The Lovely Syra dismantle the Castlegregory Carnival Art and Craft exhibition for an hour and then we had visitors from Germany who stayed until lunchtime. They were Joachim and his wife who are on a tour of Ireland. He has bought two of my instruments in the past and has an idea for a new acoustic so I was happy to spend time with him.
> 
> 
> After lunch I did some trimming to the through neck (more waste wood!) then dimensioned the wings and glued them on. This is quicker to describe than to do! It&#8217;s starting to look more like a guitar now. I then levelled the bass neck ready to make the neck joint. But I can&#8217;t go ahead with this until I know the dimensions of the bridge. I was promised that the drawings would be emailed to me last week but of course they were not. I emailed them early this morning to remind them but,until now, They have not responded. It&#8217;s annoying.
> ...


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## MisterE (Jul 15, 2014)

This evening, I got another e-mail and this time Bedemir is starting to look more and more like a geetar



> A nice technical day which I enjoyed. Loads more expensive firewood created which we will be grateful for next winter.










> The joining surfaces between the core and the overlay had to be made perfect and this is done slowly with a hand plane and lost of checking with a straight edge. Satisfying when done right.















> To fit the overlay to the core the neck end has to be trimmed&#8230;.










> ...and a straight tenon created with the router.










> The mortice is cut into the overlay. This has to be exact to keep the strength around the heel area on the finished instrument.










> To get this perfect there is a lot of trimming with a chisel. Not only does the joint have to be perfect but the overlay has to line up with the body centre so it takes a while.










> One last check.










> I then created some even more expensive waste.










> And glued the overlay to the core. I used three screws to hold the overlay in the correct position while I put the clamps on. The two nearest the neck are inside of the pickup area and the one in the middle (not visible in the pic) is where the trem will go so the screw holes will not be visible on the finished instrument (unless I have made a terrible cock-up!)










> I called Hipshot in NewYork and got them to email me the correct drawings for the bass bridge which was a good result.
> 
> 
> So, another good day.
> ...



That's all for tonight folks.
I'm getting really excited.


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## Semi-pro (Jul 16, 2014)

> A nice technical day which I enjoyed. Loads more expensive firewood created which we will be grateful for next winter.



If I was waiting for my guitar being built by this guy, I don't know which would make me wait for the updates more, the text or the pics 

Looking good, can't wait to see the result. Seems like he really knows what he's doing


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## callankirk (Jul 16, 2014)

This guy is incredible!!! Man, I feel bad now about only taking pics after big steps...He's super talented though!


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## MisterE (Jul 19, 2014)

Lots of new info & pics.
I'll have to split it into several parts.


> Good evening HairyTwin,
> 
> Before that I made a copy template that I fitted onto the rough body to define the final shape. Naturally I forgot to take a picture of the next stage where I used the template to guide a router around the body to remove excess wood. Then I sanded the body edges to the exact shape. I then did a final layout for the pickups and trem positions. I have adjusted pickup position to strat style as the original Jackson template is for 24 frets. Ignore any blue ink marks on the overlay which are just rough guides from many steps ago. What you see now is the final and exact shape. I think the next thing I should do to the guitar is make the fingerboard to ensure that everything lines up. But tomorrow I will work on the bass so it catches up with the guitar.


 

Making a copy of the template





Sanding the edges





Layout






> With a normal through neck with a thinner overlay there is a lot of the neck going under the overlay. In this case with a thick overlay there is much less which is why it was so important to get the overlay to neck joint as perfect as possible yesterday. And it is very good. I think I will put two dowels through the outside of the joint to further lock the overlay and neck together and transfer the pull of the strings through the two components (neck and overlay). A pic when I&#8217;ve done this will explain all. I&#8217;m thinking out loud which is a sign of madness so I&#8217;ll stop.
> 
> 
> ChrisRaving


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## MisterE (Jul 19, 2014)

> Good evening RedWineTwin,
> 
> First, and a day late, here is the copy template for the body that I forgot to take a picture of yesterday. I couldn&#8217;t use the master template as I need to allow space for the neck end so I made a copy and mutilated it! This was screwed onto the body top to guide the router.










> Also here are the dowels I talked about last night and I fitted today. They help lock the top to the through neck.










> While we are at guitar things I made the ebony fingerboard (rosewood bass blank also in the pic), cut the fretslots, made the binding and glued it on.























Next up is the bass.
But that's for later. Time to enjoy the sunny weather ;-)


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## teleofseven (Jul 19, 2014)

fret slots look guite huge. please try on some fretwire, cause i'd hate to see the fretboard come off after being glued on. 

maybe i've just become too frightful of errors from my experiences, but please just check the slots


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## MisterE (Jul 19, 2014)

Part I


> Now the bass. This going to be a bit detailed because I want to use this for the Tech Bit in the next newsletter. So, if you are bored, Im sorry.
> 
> 
> This is how I make the mortice and tenon joint for my fixed neck instruments.
> ...










> The template is aligned with the body and then raised to get the correct neck to body angle. You can see the calculations I did to get this angle written in pencil on the body top!










> A router works by cutting away wood with a rotating cutter. The guide ring around the cutter follows the template.










> The router is set to a final depth of 26mm and the mortice cut in a series of shallow cuts.










> Nice clean job.










> Now to cut the mortice on the neck. Both mortice and tenon are offset 3.5mm to the bass side which allows for an asymmetrical final carving of the heel which gives better access than a symmetrical one. The neck angle is transferred to the sides of the tenon and these are cut to the correct depth using the radial arm saw.















> Cutting lines are marked and cut oversize on the band saw. Why oversize? Because it is easier to make the tenon smaller to fit the mortice than to make it bigger if I cut it undersize!











> With a bit of trimming the tenon is made to fit the mortice.


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## MisterE (Jul 19, 2014)

Part II


> The body side of the joint is given the rough shape it will have on the finished, asymmetrical joint and this is transferred to the neck too.
















> Now the tricky bit. The neck side is adjusted with a chisel so that all 4 faces of the joint match the body perfectly and keep the correct neck angle. I use a feeler gauge to check the clearance. If it goes in the joint is not good enough.










> So more chiselling until everything is perfect.















> Sometimes this fitting takes 20 minutes, sometimes 6 hours! This one was about two hours. I dimensioned a rosewood fingerboard, cut the fretslots and then checked the alignment and neck angle.










> And to finish here is a picture of the most expensive firewood in Ireland!










> That&#8217;s enough for one day.
> 
> 
> ChrisTiredAnd Happy.


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## MisterE (Jul 23, 2014)

I'm a bit behind with my report so here's the update from friday:



> First job was to tidy up the bass neck headstock and then glue on the fingerboard.










> I trimmed the binding on the guitar fingerboard and checked the alignment (it was perfect).










> With the fingerboard nailed in place we now have a guitar shaped thing.










> The end of the fingerboard needs to be supported so I made a suitable piece to do this.

























> Next to headstock binding. First I had to shape the headstock and cut the binding channel. This was more difficult than it would be with a regular neck as the extra weight of the through neck and body made it &#8216;interesting&#8217; to balance the guitar on the router table.










> Quilted maple is very difficult to bend so the best way to fit the binding was to make it in three sections. First the two curved pieces.










> Then the long section first bent on the bending iron and then glued in place.















> And that was the day done. Next is dinner with a bottle of cold white wine. Yum.
> 
> 
> ChrisGlueFingers.


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## MisterE (Jul 23, 2014)

The trouble with Graphtech:



> After sanding the headstock binding down (I forgot to take a pic) most of the day was spent thinking and measuring thanks to GraphTech. If you read the paperwork that comes with the trem unit they say it is a direct replacement for a standard Floyd Rose. So, if that is the case I can just use my incredibly clever jig with interchangeable templates to fit it in the guitar. But it doesn&#8217;t look right so I dug out an original FR and a Schaller FR to compare to the GraphTech version.










> I usually fit the Schaller version on my guitars which is slightly different from the original but I can use the same templates for both. Not so for the GraphTech which has a narrower and less wide baseplate. You can see this (if you have perfect eyesight and a good imagination) when I put it on top of the Schaller trem in the Stocklist Pointy thing.










> But with a few measurements it turned out to be worse than that. If I were to use the same pivot holes as I normally do relative to the scale length it would be impossible to get the saddles on the Graphtech to intone - the guitar would not play in tune! This is because the saddles they use to hold the piezo elements have different break points to the normal FR.
> 
> I then went to the internet and downloaded a dimensional drawing of the GraphTech to compare with the Schaller drawing and found a Strat body which had a FR fitted at the factory. Then I spent a long time looking, comparing and thinking.










> Eventually I made a decision on where the pivot points should be and drilled the holes for the inserts. You can see the guitar clamped in my lovely FR routing jig. A thing of beauty and clever too.










> The way the jig works is that the body is clamped in the jig and lined up with several markers on the jig and then various templates can be inserted into the opening in the top and the router used to cut the correct holes and cavities that the FR requires. The clever bit is that once the body is clamped you can turn the jog over and it exactly lines up the back with templates to cut the spring cavity and cover. I hope you will see this tomorrow if I still have the will to live after today. That is for a regular FR. In this case I will have to alter my templates by glueing in some shims (temporarily) to allow for the GraphTech&#8217;s weirdness. Here is one.










> And even with these shims I will still have to do some extra routing to get the nasty thing to fit. For example the front of the spring block cavity will have to be enlarged to allow space for the piezo leads. Also the string locking screws on the GraphTech are longer than the Schaller or Original FR so will need extra clearance at the rear of the unit.
> 
> 
> Anyway at the end of the day I had made a start on the routing with two templates.










> Did I mention that I have a sore hand? When I was removing some wood in the area of the string block cavity using a powerful hand drill a 14mm drill bit broke and jammed in the hole. The torque of the drill twisted my hand and arm through 90 degrees and it hurt. I&#8217;ve never had this happen before and it goes to show how careful you need to be with power tools. My medical bill will be added to the final invoice.
> 
> 
> So I hope things go better tomorrow.
> ...


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## Renkenstein (Jul 23, 2014)

Now THAT'S a FR routing jig. This guy is a flippin genius.


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## MisterE (Jul 27, 2014)

Some more news:


> You know some of what went on today. I got the trem routing done, the spring cavity and also the rout for the humbucker. It took ages doing little adjustments to the trem rout with makeshift jigs.







Adjustment for the Graphtech rout:










Template for the humbucker:





Back jig with some templates:





Back tremolo cavity done:







> The a hard afternoons routing the bass body. No nice jig here, just old fashioned templates and clamps - the way our grandfathers did it. Character forming. To save routing time I often remove excess wood using a drill and try not to injure myself. Safer using the drill press.








Routing the control cavity:





Template for the pickup cavities for the bass







> I had to stop here because JJ Cale was on the radio playing Magnolia and I had to grab an acoustic guitar and play along! I&#8217;m OK again now.


Cavities for the pickups done:





Drilling the wiring channel


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## MisterE (Jul 27, 2014)

> As I said to you earlier today I had to make new templates for the router to fit the components. And this is how I did it.
> 
> First I made rough drawings on the body top of the various components that have to fit in the cavity and then adjust them so that the controls what will appear on the outside look pretty! I then transfer the various shapes to a sheet of clear plastic which is my first template for the template making. Note the reference marks that line the plastic up with the body shape.










> Turning the guitar over and using those same reference marks I can see if what i want to do on the front looks OK on the back - that it will work in practice.










> In this case the lower edge of the template is too close to the body edge so I have to make adjustments.Once I was happy with that I drew on the places where I would want the screws to go that will hold the backplate on. I cut out the plastic template and draw around it onto plywood. Since the &#8216;real&#8217; final template for the router needs to be 3.2mm larger in all directions I make sure to add this amount to the plywood.










> I can now cut around the enlarged drawing to create the &#8216;real template.















> I compare this to the guitar body. It looks good but I need to test this with the router just to be sure it is OK so I do a shallow rout on some scrap wood. and compare to my plastic template.










> So the hole will be Ok. Now I need to make a second template for the cover. Using the hole template I draw around it with a 3.2mm felt tip pen which gives me the right size for the cover. This shape needs to be tidied up so it will look smooth.










> As with the hole template I cut this one out and then do a test rout over the hole test rout to see if they work together. If they don&#8217;t at this stage I would have to open a bottle of wine to drown my sorrow. Unfortunately they do work perfectly so no wine.










> I use the real templates to mark the position on the body back where I want to go routing making sure I have the correct clearances. Then I remove most of the wood using the pillar drill.










> And rout the hole first and then the cover.










> Looks good. I have not routed to the finished depth yet. That will happen after I carve the top.
> 
> So that was my day and I&#8217;m happy with the result. These new templates will be useful in other jobs I&#8217;m sure.
> 
> ChrisTemplateMeister.


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## MisterE (Jul 27, 2014)

> So most of the holes on the body are complete now. I made up more templates (somebody has to do it) so that I could rout the cavities for the batteries and for the single coil pickups. I had a template for a single coil from another job but it didn&#8217;t look great to me so I made a new and better one. Making templates is time consuming so I consumed some time.













Cavity for the battery:












> And the bass pickups arrived and, luckily, they fit.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Jul 27, 2014)

Loving how detailed the progress is


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## Pikka Bird (Jul 27, 2014)

I love Larkin's way of communicating with the customer. It's basically a how-to on the entire build, and it shows that he has nothing to hide. 

And he uses the Sure Claw, which is a definite bonus point on my scorecard.


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## MisterE (Jul 27, 2014)

He used a sure claw on another guitar he made for me.
The reason being that the back plate was made out of the same wood as the guitar and I didn't want to remove it.
A sure claw makes this easy.
I'm thinking about installing it on all my guitars.
He did have to modify it a bit though.
You can read about it here:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...customizations/207784-new-larkin-project.html


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## immortalx (Jul 27, 2014)

Builds are beauuuuutiful and i love the way he comments!


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## MisterE (Jul 28, 2014)

Thanks. Here's some more news:



> I glued the fingerboard onto the guitar.










> And then here are some stages in carving the bass neck. First I marked out the rough depth.










> Then rough cut the neck out on the bandsaw.










> I need to get a flat surface of the correct taper as a reference point so I do this with the hand plane.










> The shape is further refined with a small block plane (forgot to take the pic) and then I shape the volute..










> ..and refine the shape further using a rasp&#8230;.










> &#8230;remembering to check the dimensions from time to time.










> The carving is smoothed with a scraper which removes tiny amounts of wood with each pass.










> I also shaped the bass body to it&#8217;s final profile. The slot where the bridge will be is the canal for the piezo cables into the control cavity.


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## MisterE (Jul 30, 2014)

Continued:


> Nice slim bass neck carved. How I am looking forward to doing the inlay for that and the guitar. You can&#8217;t imagine how much.
> 
> Any way, a bit more scraping and a lot of sanding and then the rest of the day at the computer doing the Newsletter which is almost finished.
> 
> This sanding the neck level with a long block.










> And this is fine sanding to get a good finish.










> And this is the finished carve.










> It suits the body.










> The guitar looks good with the fingerboard on too.


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## MisterE (Aug 2, 2014)

Sometimes Chris' working methods are rather unconventional. Just have a look at hou he removes the excess wood from the neck







> So Ive almost finished drilling the guitar with holes, just the tuner holes and the two outlets - technically challenging those two - which will be fun.










> Speaking of technically challenging we dont need a CNC machine to do tricky things. This is how I removed most of the excess wood from the neck so I could carve it.















> Cunning eh? So now the real work started with hammer and chisel, chisel, spokeshave, rasp, plane and, most importantly, scraper. Never underestimate a good scraper which actually does the final shaping. All the time remembering to check the dimensions at fret 1 and 12.


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## MisterE (Aug 2, 2014)

> There was an amount of sanding with blocks and by hand and this was where I finished tonight. It still needs fine sanding which I&#8217;ll do tomorrow. I like the profile and feel of the neck.


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## VSK Guitars (Aug 2, 2014)

That's looking pretty damn tasty man... I love the way the darker wood runs wider up the neck transition


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## immortalx (Aug 2, 2014)

Never seen anything like that! Did he actually calculated where the outer pinstripes will fade with the neck taper? That's crazy!
+1000 respect points!


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## MisterE (Aug 2, 2014)

> In the afternoon I first fine sanded the guitar neck (nice!) and then I had to confront the problem of drilling the holes for the two socket outlets. They require an Imperial 7/8th of an inch hole and there is very little space in the lower part of the side to fit this in so they have to be drilled very accurately. My plan was to make a jig that would hold the guitar solidly on the drill press but, despite modifying the supports for the drill press, it would not go low enough to manage this. So about an hour wasted. But knowledge gained. After much head scratching I came up with a cunning plan. I put a drill head on the drive shaft of the radial arm saw with the 7/8th cutter in it, made a raised bed for the guitar body and clamped it to the bed aligned with the cutter.










> I was then able to lean over and slowly, very slowly, pull the body of the saw towards the guitar so the cutter could do its work.










> The saw motor runs faster than the cutter likes so, despite my slow pulling, it still produced burned sawdust but made the accurate holes I needed.










> I told you there were technical problems with this guitar. So far they have been managed!
> 
> After this I was mentally exhausted and decided to have an easy afternoon sanding the two bodies after rounding both edges of the bass and the bottom edge of the guitar.










> Quilted maple has very interlocked grain so, even with sharp cutters, it tends to machine with fluffy edges that have to be sanded smooth. You can see this on some of the earlier pictures where I cut the pickup holes.
> 
> So a couple of hours hand sanding made the bodies look a little better. I have just noticed that the second picture is of me sanding the sides level before I did the rounding.















> The arm cutaway and the back cutaway on the bass body were made.















> So at the end of the day I had two pretty well sorted bodies ready for working on the fingerboards tomorrow. That is, if no German ladies arrive!
> 
> Later tonight the August Newsletter will be published. If anyone is interested this is the link that will get you to it. Nice recipe for crab cakes amongst other things.
> 
> ChrisTiredArms.


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## Taikatatti (Aug 2, 2014)

this guy is just amazing


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Aug 2, 2014)

What's the planned finish going to be on that bass? That top would look sweet with some green on it


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## MisterE (Aug 3, 2014)

Both satin black cherry


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## MisterE (Aug 3, 2014)

> Good evening dear WineDrinkingTwin - dont deny it!
> 
> So the dreaded inlay process begins. First the fingerboards have to be radiussed and for that to work they have to be straight. Double acting trussrod helps here.











> And then I use the long, sharp plane to make the correct shape and check it with a template.




















> Then I drill the dot holes. For a regular neck I can do this on the drill press as with the bass but for the through neck I have to use a reversed drill stand.















> And then fit the dots in the bass


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## MisterE (Aug 3, 2014)

> Now for the start of the cutting of the pointy bits from pearl slabs. Using a pearl saw I cut the shapes - 9 minutes for Each















> As I started the first one the doorbell rang and some Belgian bloke was there with his wife from Leuven. They were on holiday and could he see and try some basses? Of course he could! So some 2 hours later he had tried the three stock basses to death and his wife was so bored she was considering suicide. They left and I continued cutting pearl into the night!
> 
> I stopped when I had completed the bass pieces and I was ready to commit suicide. On the 7 string all the pieces were more or less the same size but this time they start smaller at the headlock and get bigger as they go down the neck.










> Before I inlay them I have to make the moon shape in the short end of the triangles. That&#8217;ll be a job for Monday
> 
> ChrisInlaidOut.


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## MisterE (Aug 8, 2014)

Not a lot of news this week. Chris had a lot of visitors.
The good news is that he sold some guitars amongst which the ones he made for the Leonardo project.



> Dearest PatientTwin,
> 
> More Belgians today but they came to see Syras paintings and bought one. Somebody who works for the EU in Brussels so had loads of money.
> For my self I started inlaying the bas neck.
> First the triangles had to have the ends shaped to fit around the dots. I did this with a round file.















> Then I had to cut out the holes for the inlays to go in. I start with a large(ish!) cutter to do the rough work and then a fine cutter to do the pointy bits.





> First routing









> Big cutter









> Smaller cutter










> Once each piece fits in its hole I can start to glue them in with superglue.




















> And that was a days work. Actually I could have sanded the inlays down but two guys came as i was finishing who wanted to see the guitars and I think may have sold the lacewood Leonardo guitar. Ill know tomorrow.
> 
> ChrisFingersStuckTogether.


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## MisterE (Aug 8, 2014)

> Yo AnxiousTwin,
> 
> No I have not topped myself - yet - but we were due at a cd launch by one of my customers in Dingle yesterday evening so I had to rush off from work at 5.30 so no time to download and send the pics.
> 
> There is not much new to see as I just repeated the process I had used for the bass inlays - I cut out the triangles, shaped them, and cut out most of the inlay routs before we left.















> This is how the bass ones turned out.










> And these are the output sockets that I has ordered for the guitar which arrived in the mail yesterday. I rather like them and hope you do too!










> &#8217;ll have the inlay finished by coffee time. There is a guy who is very interested in the second Leonardo guitar coming over some time today so I will have to love bomb him which might take a while!
> 
> ChrisBusy.


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## MisterE (Aug 8, 2014)

Chris' latest message:


> Good evening Dearest FrustratedTwin,
> 
> All I got done today was the inlays in the guitar. I actually cut some of them again as I was not happy with the gradation of the sizes but they are OK now.



Apparently Chris thought I was frustrated by the slow progress. I wrote him he couldn't be more wrong. I'm glad he got a lot of visitors and he sold some guitars. I'm happy with every bit of progress, how slow it may be.







> The guy who bought the guitar comeback to collect and talk so not a great day for progress. And tomorrow will be worse!
> 
> Even though it is not the weekend there is bottle of white opened to be enjoyed - stress relief!
> 
> ChrisDistracted.



And he earned it!
Have a good week-end


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## House74 (Aug 8, 2014)

Shit those inlays look fantastic! I cant wait to see these finished!


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## MisterE (Aug 13, 2014)

I'm again a bit behind.
On Monday, Chris wrote me this:


> Good evening MondayTwin,
> 
> I got the frets into both necks today. Normally I just show a simple pic of the neck unfretted and then fretted but I thought I could do it in a bit more detail and show some of the tools involved.
> 
> I buy my fretwire in industrial rolls from Dunlop in California. The rolls come in a standard radius which is too flat for the necks I make so I have a special tool that can adjust this by passing a length of fretwire through it. This tool is adjustable so I can alter the radius to suit. For the 16 radius on these fingerboards I make the fretwire radius about 12.










> Fretwire before and after.










> As you know the fretslots were cut some time ago on the radial arm saw. To make it easier for the frets to go in I lip the top of the fretslot (about 0.3mm deep) with a triangular file about 70% of the width but not the ends of the slot where I want the fret to seat strongly.










> For the bass it is then just a question of cutting a piece of fretwire to the correct length and hammering it in (gently - honestly!) with a dead hammer. This a hammer that has lead shot inside the hollow head so that as the head hits the fret the lead follows on a microsecond later and prevents the hammer from bouncing.










> I forgot to show the fretslot depth tool that I use to make sure that there is sufficient depth in the slot to allow the fret to fully seat so here it is. Its adjustable for different fret types.










> When all the frets are in I use drops of thick superglue to seal the fret ends. This will be invisible when the neck is lacquered.










> Then I file the fret ends level with the fingerboard.










> .and then fit the side dots (no picture, sorry!) and the job is done.


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## MisterE (Aug 13, 2014)

> The guitar neck requires some different treatment as it has binding and the frets have to be undercut so that the tang (the bit that goes into the fretslot) does not touch the binding but the fret crown can overlap the binding. There is a special too for this too.










> Fret undercut to fit










> Apart from this, which takes time to get right, the fretting process is the same and the sun came out when I had finished!










> Just time to cut out two shamrocks for the headstock inlays.










> And then rout the headstock on the guitar for the inlay.












That was all for Monday


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## MisterE (Aug 13, 2014)

Tuesday:


> Good evening TuesdayTwin,
> 
> I think I had a good day and I hope you do too.
> 
> First job was to fit the headstock inlays and drill the tuner holes. It&#8217;s easy to drill the bass neck because I can hold it with one hand and use the other hand to work the drill press. Not so with the guitar which had a body attached so I could have made some sort of stand to support it but instead I used a Lovely Assistant!




















> When the neck is completed is when I stamp the serial number on the back of the headstocks. So here they are.















> With a bit of sanding the neck of the bass could be glued into the body. But I didn&#8217;t do that. I had more ambitious plans - carve the guitar top.
> 
> How do you do this then on a through neck? The answer is with difficulty!
> 
> First I used a small router to set the height of the faux binding. This is the level I have to carve down to.










> Then using a larger router and a guide roller I cut a series of &#8216;terraces&#8217; which removes a lot of wood.










> Because of the size of the router this cannot work on the two horns so I set to work with chisels and a mallet to remove wood and roughly shape the horns.










> When this is done I took the guitar outside and did a rough levelling of the &#8216;terraces&#8217; with a grinder. Messy job!


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## MisterE (Aug 13, 2014)

> Then back inside and use scrapers to refine the carving and make the re-curve. Then hand sanding with 120 grit abrasive. I forgot to take a picture of the gauge I use to compare the shape of the carving at different parts of the top - it needs to be symmetrical if it is to look good. You can see the gauge under my phone!















> So now the basic shape of the carve is done but the top is only sanded roughly. I won&#8217;t do any finishing sanding until I have finished working on the control pocket and a few other bits. But even roughly sanded it looks OK.










> You can see where I have made indents for the control knobs. I am actually thinking of slightly refining the neck shape at the body end - it doesn&#8217;t feel quite right to me.
> 
> Just one more pic of my carving tools which I inherited from a skilled German carver.










> &#8217;til tomorrow,
> 
> ChrisSatisfiedWithTheDay.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Aug 13, 2014)

Nice looking carve on that top 

Also, those inlays are pretty awesome, a bit more unique, but still simple & classy


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## MisterE (Aug 15, 2014)

Late message from Chris last night:


> Hello WideAwakeTwin,
> 
> First job was to shape the bass heel. Chisel, scrape and sand, and sand, and sand..



































> The dark line around the joint is not a bad joint! It is caused by some pencil graphite that I used to mark the jointing area when I was making the neck joint. I forgot to clean it off and the glue seems to have drawn it out of the wood. Hopefully the cherry colour will cover this. Its a mistake!
> 
> For the bass backplate I used the piece of Irish fiddleback sycamore that you admired when I had the inlay pieces stuck on it.















> Same machine screws for this.


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## MisterE (Aug 15, 2014)

> Next was to sand the top of the guitar to within an inch of it&#8217;s life going through all the abrasive grits. I don&#8217;t think I have ever sanded a guitar top so much but I want to get every bit of quilt to shine!















> I can do no more!
> 
> Time for backplates. Remember this?










> It&#8217;s the piece of the through neck that I removed from the top so there was space for the quilty bit. I saved it for the next stage.










> OOOh look, it matches the back! And with a bit of work the plates line up!















> The plates will be held on with machine screws into brass sockets- a classy job!







And right he is!!








> And I made the hole in the trem plate for the sure claw adjuster.










> I didn&#8217;t make the control cover for the guitar today as I had to add a piece of mahogany to one edge so as to match the stripes in the back and the glue won&#8217;t be set until tomorrow.
> 
> I&#8217;m hopeful of getting a wash coat of lacquer on both instruments tomorrow except for the quilted bits. I&#8217;ll explain why tomorrow. I&#8217;m frightened of doing anything wrong as I&#8217;m so close to finishing.
> 
> ...


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## Renkenstein (Aug 15, 2014)

This guy is a true master of his craft.


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## MisterE (Aug 21, 2014)

I completely agree. I will pass it on to Chris.



> Good evening CuriousTwin,
> 
> Tomorrow morning I&#8217;m going to spray all the parts of the bass and guitar that are not quilted maple or fingerboards. But why? This is my thinking. The way to get the black cherry finish is to first stain the quilt black and then partially sand it off and then stain it cherry and then lacquer over it.. The problem with this is that if any of the black or cherry stain gets on to anything that isn&#8217;t quilt then it is very hard to remove it because the stain soaks into the wood - don&#8217;t ask me how I know this! My solution is to spray all the non quilt with 4 coats of clear lacquer which will seal it and then any spilled stain will not go into the wood. Oooh that was clever Chris! It also means I can protect the edge of the faux binding. That&#8217;s very clever too Chris. But this is a pain to do because I will have to re-sand the quilt again after the spraying to remove and glue from the masking tape - but you are worth it.
> 
> So here are some shots of the masking which I think are self explanatory.



































> I also had to make the cover for the control compartment on the guitar. Since I had not used this shape of control pocket before I had no template for the cover. Here is how I made one. First I made a paper master.










> I stuck this onto some wood and adjusted this to make an exact fitting template. The numbers on the paper are the type of lacquer I use and I had to order this for next week!










> Using the wooden template I made the actual cover from another piece of the stripy through neck with the addition of a small piece of mahogany on the top edge.










> And the covers need to be sprayed too so they are attached to sticks so I can move them around to get the lacquer on them.
> 
> So that was another good day. White tonight!
> 
> ChrisMaskingMeister.


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## MisterE (Aug 21, 2014)

The next day:


> Good early evening DiningTwin,
> 
> On Saturday I sprayed the clear lacquer onto the non quilted bits of the instruments. Today I took off the masking and found that some of the lacquer has crept under it so I had to carefully scrape this off back to the wood which took a lot of time for both instruments. I did this in the conservatory as I could sit down!










> Then both instruments needed to be washed and fine sanded to remove any glue from the masking tape. At this stage I was wondering why I had decided to do the masking! Time for some colour so I rubbed on the first coat of black onto the bass. The masking worked as the colour stuck to the quilt and not the lacquered bits.










> When the black was dry I sanded most of it off.










> Time for red. The first coat looked good and the quilt stood out.










> I was doing a parallel piece of quilt as a trial and did a second coat which looked good so once the first coat of red was dry on the bass I added a second.










> I like it. Tomorrow I will do the same to the guitar and should be able to get some clear lacquer on both of them which is when the grain should show properly. I will try a third coat of red on the trial piece to see how it looks.
> 
> Speaking of lacquer, tell me exactly what you want me to do on the top and backs of both instruments. Bedimir Conspec says silk for top and cherry back, bass Conspec says gloss but that was for cherry burst and now it has a black cherry colour. Gloss on the Bedimir top would emphasise the lovely carving I think, with cherry silk on the back. But you are the customer and the customer is always right.
> 
> ChrisBullshittingSalesman.


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## MisterE (Aug 21, 2014)

The next day:


> Good evening SilkTwin,
> 
> I put colour on, took colour off, the guitar today and then put 3 coats of lacquer on the colour for both bass and guitar. Also cleaned up the edges for the faux binding and removed colour from the shamrocks and other fiddly things. I like them.



































> Tomorrow I have to put at least three more coats of lacquer on the quilty bits. These coats front and back are just to fill the grain of the wood and then, when sanded back, will give a smooth surface for the final finish coats.


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## asher (Aug 21, 2014)

Those colors are turning out to be quite lovely.


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## MisterE (Aug 23, 2014)

e-mail last night


> Hello WeekendWineyTwin,
> 
> We had a day of visitors. Andreas parents and brother were here most of the morning then we met some friends from Northern Ireland who have a house here when we were having our walk. They came back for tea and talked.


Andrea's has nine basses all build by Chris and Chris is building another one for him at the moment.


> Anyway I spent what working time I had sanding the lacquer off the instruments. How many times have I hand sanded them now? The plan, as you know, is to sand until there is a smooth surface for the colour and finish coats of lacquer. I did the guitar first and then masked off the bits that are not going to be coloured.




















> And this is as far as I got with the bass before dinner time. Ill get this one sanded and masked tomorrow morning then have the colour on tomorrow evening.








Chris doesn't use a pore filler (like most big brands do) but sprays layers of lacquer that he polishes in between. This way he gets a deep dark shine and a depth the bug brands never can get. As you may have gathered from this thread, it involves a lot of sanding and this is all hand work. 
This is why all the big brands (ans so called hand manufactured guitars) use a pore filler because it's cheaper, faster and doesn't need as much hand work.
Hence my statement that any mass produced geetar shouldn't cost more than 1500. But they charge just as much or more than I pay for a fully hand build instrument.
Highway Robbery!!


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## MisterE (Aug 25, 2014)

> Yesterday evening I sprayed the red on the backs and necks. I didnt take any pics until this morning. I screwed the back plates in place when I sprayed to ensure an even colour. The fiddleback sycamore takes the colour rather well I think.
















> Today I will remove all the masking and clean up any accidental overspray then I should get the final coats on both.


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## MisterE (Aug 25, 2014)

And here's some more:



> Good evening HomeTwin,
> 
> I scraped the binding and all the rest of the places where there were edges of masking tape, signed the headstocks and sprayed the final coats. That&#8217;s it for today. I&#8217;ll let the lacquer cure before going to the next stage which will be finishing the finish.






























> Cheers,
> 
> ChrisSprayedOut.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 25, 2014)

Goddamn, that red.


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## CaptainLuckeyBeard (Aug 28, 2014)

Whoa...that red really makes these things pop. So clean! I'm a bit jealous lol they look killer


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## MisterE (Aug 29, 2014)

Monday:


> This evening I started on the bass. First I checked that there were not any lumps on the finish (you don&#8217;t want lumps, no you don&#8217;t) and then I rubbed all the lacquered bits with very fine wire wool lubricated with fine beeswax - no silicones.










> A quick rub with a clean cloth and the finish feels nice - no stickiness. Next job is to work on the frets If you can remember there were two layers of tape on the fingerboard. Why two layers Chris? The top layer protected the fingerboard from lacquer and the second layer protects the fingerboard from me when I work on the frets. So, off with the upper layer.










> At this stage I want to protect the body of the guitar as, from now on, I am going to be working with some sharp metal tools and we wouldn&#8217;t want to slip! Stiff cardboard is cut to fit around the fingerboard end and some masking tape is used at the headstock.










> After fitting the frets I levelled the fret ends with the side of the fingerboard. Now I create an angle (about 30 degrees) using a file between the fret end and the edge of the fingerboard. If I didn&#8217;t do this there would be a lot of blood when playing the guitar as the player&#8217;s fingers were shredded by the sharp fret ends.










> The fret ends are still quid sharp after the angling process so I round off any sharp edges using a triangular file.










> At this point I should explain that my fingernails were clean when I started this process but are now filled with wax and wire wool residue from the first part above! I am not a dirty person (except sometimes when I am working on my moto but even that is temporary!
> 
> When the frets were fitted I tried to get all the tops level. This is almost impossible so now I use a long metal file to gently remove any high spots. I do this under the overhead light and when I can see file marks on all of the frets they are level.










> Anywhere metal was removed by the file the frets will be slightly flat so I have a special concave shaped file that round off the flat bits. This is called crowning the frets.










> After the files I rub the frets with abrasive papers to remove any marks that the files may have left. I start with 320 get, then 600 and finally 1200. But even that is not good enough so a final polish with fine wire wool does the job.










> Peel off the second layer of tape and the frets look pretty good. And so do the inlays.










> Final job for the end of the day is to wipe the rosewood with a little lemon oil to seal the surface and then I can go off to clean my hands before dinner!










> Now I have to think hard before I do anything else so I&#8217;ll say good bye for now. But I will be back later.
> 
> ChrisFretboardKing.


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## MisterE (Aug 29, 2014)

Tuesday:


> I got to the workshop and started by shielding the cavities of the bass with very expensive, self adhesive, copper foil. Why are you doing this Chris? Pickups and circuitry can act as aerials for radio frequency interference. What??? Radio frequency in this case is the interference caused by electrical stuff around the house, in the studio or on-stage, stuff like fluorescent tubes, dimmer switches, stage lights, mobile phones and, in the countryside where we live, electric fences. Even digital watches. This interference is amplified by your amplifier and could spoil you wonderful performance. So if you cover all the components in a guitar with a copper envelope and connect it to earth it acts as an aerial and absorbs all the interference. Actually you can&#8217;t cover everything but you can get close. This copper foil has a glue that is conductive as well so you can just stick bits of it together which makes it easy to cover as much as possible. It is also possible to paint the cavities with a conductive paint and earth that but it isn&#8217;t as effective. The first thing I shielded were the pickup cavities. The piece of copper you see in the picture that is in the bridge cavity is the link that will join the foil in the bridge cavity to the neck cavity and then onto the control cavity. Enough cavities, we need pictures.




















> Next on to the pickups. These are custom made humbuckers. The one on the left with the wider gap is for the bridge position. It has a wider gap because it has more magnets than the neck pickup because it needs to have a stronger output. Why? Because the strings vibrate less closer to the bridge than they do over the neck. It makes a difference.










> Humbuckers can be wired in two ways, with the coils in series or in parallel. Series wired have more output and more midrange. I don&#8217;t think you need this in a bass so I prefer the parallel wiring for basses which widens the frequency response producing a softer sound with less output. So here are the pickups with the coils wired in parallel and fitted into the body.















> The bridge is fitted with RMC saddles which will give an alternative and more acoustic option in sound to the magnetic humbuckers. The wire from each saddle has to be marked when inside the control cavity so that I know where to connect it on the RMC circuit.










> Now if I had some tuners (Schaller&#8217;s finest) a nut and some strings it would look like an instrument. Tuners have to have locating screws fitted and the nut has to be made from a piece of micarta. Strings are hand made Newtones with taper winding on the most bass strings.


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## MisterE (Aug 29, 2014)

> At this stage I can tune the bass and adjust the trussrod. Next the nut slots have to be adjusted to give the correct clearance at the first fret. For basses this should be 0.5mm. When this is done I can roughly set the action which will be set perfectly later along with the intonation.










> Time for a bit of wiring. This is quite a complicated system with magnetic pickups, piezo pickups, a 3 band active EQ from Aguilar, a buffering pre-amp from RMC, six potis, one of them with a switch, another stacked and a 3 way miniswitch! I reckoned the best way to do this was to chuck all the components into the control cavity, go away and make a cup of coffee and hope that the Wiring Fairy would come and connect it all together while I was away.










> It didn&#8217;t work this time (it never has!) so I started to solder the components for the EQ first and this is as far as I got by 7pm which is stopping time.










> In case you are wondering why the copper shielding comes out of the cavity it is so that it will connect with the copper shielding that will be on the inside of the cover plate so making a copper box.
> 
> ChrisNearlyThere.


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## MisterE (Aug 29, 2014)

Wednesday:


> Today did not turn out well. As I had the magnetic pickups installed I decided to try them passive before I did any more wiring. Each pickup worked on it&#8217;s own but they would not work together. So I put on my Electronic Sherlock hat and eventually discovered a faulty balance pot. I had one other pot in my stock and, when I checked it with the meter, it was also faulty. Now it was almost lunchtime and there is nowhere in Ireland that would have a new pot so I called my supplier in the UK, told him this was urgent and could he put some perfect balance pots in the mail for me immediately. This he has done so I hope to have the items by Monday or Tuesday.
> 
> Then I moved to the guitar and did the same stuff to it as I did to the bass so no pics. In this case as all the pickups are humbucking and enclosed so I did not need to put copper foil in the pickup cavities just in the control pocket. So here is the single pic for the organisms so they won&#8217;t be disappointed.










> Tonight I have to start the Newsletter if I am to have any chance of finishing it.
> 
> 
> ChrisHolmes.


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## Renkenstein (Aug 29, 2014)

This guy needs to write the Guitar Building Bible. His customer updates are better than anything I've read in any lutherie book.

#edit# spelling and grammar


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## immortalx (Aug 29, 2014)

Exceptional work from an exceptional man!


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## CD1221 (Aug 29, 2014)

This thread needs to be stickied. Awesome reference for us novice builders.

That floyd template jigamatic is genius.


Great looking instruments, btw.


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## MisterE (Aug 31, 2014)

Last bit before I'm off to Ireland when I go to meet the master and collect my toys:

I received this on friday:


> Hello RelaxedFridayTwin,
> 
> The wiring continues. Im doing the sustainiac bits first as they are by far the most complex! The sustainiac driver is a single coil but there is the option to use an internal preamp in the sustainiac circuit to make it sound like a humbucker. It will be hard wired not switched. Do you prefer SC or HB?
> 
> Other than that things are very slow. After fitting the shielding and the claw adjuster I was able to fit the trem, tuners, locking nut and string the guitar up.















> I tuned it up acoustically and set the action and also checked that intonation adjustment was possible.
> 
> When I started to fit components I realised that the sustainiac PCB and the 5 way switch were too tall for the cavity. The 5 way switch was easy to fix - I just ground some of the switch off until it fitted! For the sustainiac I had to rout a pcb shaped channel through the shielding and into the wood 2mm deep. I do not like using a 1.5hp router on an almost finished guitar!















> After repairing the shielding the pcb fitted.










> So I started the wiring which is very slow work as there is very little space to work in, the switch I am using does not correspond with the diagram from sustainiac and there are wires that I therefore have to find homes for. Two of these are for the preamp I mentioned above. This is as far as I have got by the end of the day.










> Tomorrow I again have a full day of repairs but Ill try to do the most important ones and then get back to the wiring. I started the Newsletter last night and maybe will get some more done tonight before dinner. After dinner and wine I wont want to work.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> ChrisWiredOut.



Next day:


> Good evening GiggingTwin,
> 
> Just finished for the day. Wiring is complete but needs a little tweaking. On testing the magnetics work perfectly but the Sustainiac just squeals when I switch it in circuit. On the piezo side there is nothing!. I did start looking at the piezo side because it is simpler but could find no fault. At this end of a long day I have had enough and will sort it out tomorrow or Monday. Looking forward to my wine tonight.
> 
> Here are some pics.


He calls me giggingTwin because I told him about the gig off our Alice Cooper Tribute band The Elected Babies


















> ChrisTiredAndEmotional.


So that was it.
Next message will come straight from Ireland;-)


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## Prophetable (Aug 31, 2014)

Man. That control cavity looks like an enormous amount of work.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Aug 31, 2014)

MisterE said:


>


----------

