While London Burns and the Stock Markets Crash . . .
It is almost surreal turning up to the workshop each day to continue making a guitar while the ‘civilised’ world is apparently crumbling around us. I really don’t understand what is happening with the riots and civil unrest that is apparently engulfing the UK . . . and the market volatility is something that seems to be beyond the control of most of us. Perhaps it is time to batten down the hatches yet again?
Our little bubble has an entirely different perspective – Richard was excited when he arrived as his gorgeous daughter Mia had drawn a ‘painting’ for him and it now has pride of place in the workshop. And there must be a gag that goes something like “how many luthiers does it take to change a scalpel blade” . . . Phil could not do it so he called in and two of the finest luthiers in the UK for assistance!
 |
| Who's a proud dad then? |
 |
| Scalpel blade ceremony |
On with the Show . . .
Phil and I arrived at the workshop early . . . in fact we met each other like a couple of rafter rats scurrying across the open passageway through the upper reaches of the building. We seem to think in similar ways . . . cunning and devious, probably! We are all getting to know each other and sharing our lives – like did you know that Richard was bitten on the bum by a wasp while naked and chasing another bloke along a river bank! Well, that is the shorter version of the story anyway! And I am beginning to learn that a staple of British food is a bag of 'lightly salted' crisps - Patrick seems to have one of these every lunchtime!
 |
| Health food of a nation! |
On with the Job . . .
My first task was one of pure pleasure . . . I took the other half of my sides out of the bender and arranged them in the shape of the guitar and looked at them in a loving way. Phil and Patrick shared my moment of joy as it hovered amongst the airborne dust particles in the workshop. And it wasn’t long before Phil had cut out his sound hole . . . the other photo below was just waiting to be taken! The scary thing is that we are all dressed the same!
 |
| How good is that! |
 |
| Dumb, dumber and dumbest! |
More Routing . . .
Richard gave Phil and me instructions on how to rout the two smaller channels for the carbon fibre rods that go either side of the truss rod in the neck. As with all routing, this is a fairly simple task once everything is set up correctly and the results are instantaneous.
 |
| Doing the extra channels |
 |
| Routing done |
On with the Sides . . .
The first main job in preparing the sides involved the application of yet another ‘dark art’ – using the bending iron. While the bending machine is very good, some minor adjustments to some of the curves are inevitably required. Sounds simple, right? The problem is that as soon as you bend in one place everything is slightly out of kilter. The trick is (which I have not really mastered) to make judicious adjustments in exactly the right places so that the overall is just right. More practice needed, I think!
 |
| Finessing the bending |
Today’s Talk . . .
Richard took his place at the ‘lectern’ once the clock struck 11:00 and music was turned down – although he needed a caffeine and sugar hit to get wound up. Today’s topic was bracing, which seems to be the darkest of the dark arts that we have covered so far.
Those of you who have read the previous posts will remember that making a guitar is a compromise between leaving the wood free to vibrate and amplify a rather weak signal from plucking the strings and building it strong enough so it does not fall apart. It seems that every luthier and manufacturer has a different opinion about this subject and they all put the X-braces, tone bars and other braces in different positions. And then there is the scalloping of the braces . . . everyone seems to do them differently as well.
 |
| Dr Richard in action |
 |
| Bracing for dummies |
Cutting the Sides to Length . . .
This is one of the most maddening tasks so far . . . in order to determine how long each side needs to be you first have to clamp it into the mould very precisely, arrange it perfectly, mark where to cut, cut and then do the whole thing again to check. It took me several goes to get it right and needless to say I am now an expert at clamping sides into the mould!
 |
| Some trimming required |
 |
| A simple process really - once the clamps are on |
Lunchtime Interlude . . .
Unfortunately Nick missed his 11:00am cue to join today’s Nick and Dick talk, but he came and shared his lunch with us and we went and had a look at his workshop just down the corridor. And just a reminder, Nick is one this country’s leading luthiers and is well recognised all over the world for his guitars. Apparently there is a two and a half year waiting list to get one of his guitars – and yet he a very courteous man and generous with with his expertise . . . a fact that we very much appreciate.
The workshop itself is a little smaller than Richard’s, but he does not conduct classes and therefore does not need that kind of space. He has put a simple partition to divide the room into two – one side is for the dusty machines such as the belt sander, bench press (drill), band saw and routers and the other side is where he does the detailed construction work. I was surprised at how small his main bench is . . . but it is the one he built for himself years ago and he likes to be able to leave the job in place and quickly access it from most sides. It is also built at the right height so all jobs can be done while standing up.
Nick showed us the guitars that he is making . . . he prefers to make them in batches so as to get some efficiencies and all but one have been pre-ordered. His own guitar is gorgeous – and it is a ‘unique’ half cut away so he can easily reach the upper frets (or the dusty end of the fretboard as I have heard it called). He is also experimenting with a new design of electric guitar.
Back to the Sides . . .
Finished . . .
Young Hamish and Nick walked up the stairs with the finished steel guitar. It really is a lovely thing and very simply made. Nick provided Hamish with some old Telecaster bits that he had lying around the workshop, so the ‘routing’ was done to match those components (it was actually done using a drill and will never been seen).
We all shared Hamish’s moment of joy and of course it was plugged in and given a bit of a play – although we had to improvise with a glass as no-one had a slide.
 |
| Sharing Hamish's moment of joy |
 |
| It is best to start them young! |
My Own Bling . . .
Now was the time to decide on my own logo. We were asked to turn our minds to this subject before we arrived at the course and we have previously had several discussions about it. In the end, only Patrick is using his original ‘design’ - and even he waivered for a while! Luckily Richard’s previous life as a graphic artist has proven very useful for all of us.
We tried various options for my logo yesterday and today . . . and Richard helped me draw some options until the decision was made. Naturally I referred the decision to the focus group in the room - but in the end I did what I have done with all decisions of this type . . . relied on the advice of the professionals, which this case was Richard. The principles behind my iconic design can be easily over analysed . . . but my rationale is that it is very similar in concept to Richard’s logo (see www.osborneguitars.co.uk). His is a slightly open ‘O’ with a dot in the middle – mine is an even more open icon to represent a ‘P’ and will also have dot in the middle. And of course it is flipped up the other way . . . we do live in different hemispheres after all. The Others . . .
From what I could see, Patrick got on with his kerfing, scalloping his X-braces, even more kerfing, cutting and attaching the other top braces, adjusting his kerfing and even more rounding of the top and back.
 |
| Minor adjustments |
 |
| Patrick on the red carpet |
 |
| Happy birthday to you! |
 |
| More bracing |
 |
| More kerfing |
 |
| More sanding |
Phil changed his scalpel blade (with assistance), cut out his sound hole, started the bracing for his top and finished and inserted his ‘bling’ logo – we are all excited about seeing it in the morning when the ‘ebony dust’ has settled.
 |
| Preparing the top braces |
 |
| So what's next Gov? |
 |
| Phil's bling |
 |
| About to spread some ebony dust |
 |
| Routing in action |
 |
| All cut out |
The Dorset . . .
Phil and I diligently continued our research into the pubs and ales of Lewes . . . this time we went to the Dorset to have one of Harvey’s Best. Our detailed and comprehensive research has uncovered that the pub itself is actually called The Dorset at Cliffe and is defined as “an ancient and historic public house dating back to 1670”. We found this out by reading the very large sign on the front wall! It was lovely sitting outside in the evening sunlight reflecting on the day and how happy we are with our guitars. And as Phil said during the day, never once in his 35 year working career did he ever look up at the clock and wish it was earlier!
 |
| The source document for our detailed research |
No comments:
Post a Comment