Delivering the guitar...

Tonight we delivered the guitar to Ron at his sister-in-laws house where they were visiting for Christmas. He treated us to a couple songs on it, and here is a video of one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZjVZEPwSC0

And the winner is...

This winner of the raffle guitar is .... Dr. Ron Rutowski! And who is he? Well in addition to being Uncle to several of the AHS band kids, he is also head of the Biology dept. at University of Arizona, a world renowned butterfly expert, and former member of the Jeff Dayton Band, which was also the backup band for none other than Glenn Campbell. So the guitar will have a good home.

Here are a couple video links of myself and my son trying out the guitar after it was finished:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xn-WiCVQ5w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoPnEBYT_lc

and more pics

Kudos...

Before I forget, I need to give credit and thanks to Kevin at Gurian Instruments in Seattle. Kevin did the CNC inlays for the fretboard and headstock, which includes adopting the CAD drawings in the computer to realize my vision for the morphing Greyhounds. Even though I outsourced this, Kevin is himself a former Atascadero resident, so we're still keeping it local!

Thanks Kevin for all your help!

More Finished pics.

Here it is with final finish coats applied. I lost count, but it looks really good. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be done by tomorrow. I'll get the bridge sanded and attached, and maybe the saddle cut in, but I'll need a bit of time to get the string setup finished so it plays right. Definitely by Christmas.

 I also need a week or so for the finish to cure before final buffing.

Finishing....

Some finishing pics. The beauty of the wood is already showing with just a couple coats. I'll probably do about 8 or 10 coats.

Locating the bridge

Here's the bridge being located with a full scale jig which shows where to drill holes for the bridge pins.

Here's how it looks.

Neck finished...

...mostly. The fretboard is attached and drying on the neck. Now I can put the nut in place, locate the bridge, and start finishing.

Fretting the fretboard...

Pre-bending the fret material.

I fret my fretboard/fingerboards before attaching to the neck as it avoids the tendency of the neck to bow if you fret it in place. Because this fretboard is bound with Koa binding, I need to make the frets overlay the binding rather than stop at it. That means I have to remove a part of the fret tang with my handy "Fret Tang Nippers". Then I shape the ends into a smooth dome using a file so that it doesn't catch any skin while you're running up and down the strings playing the lead from "Hotel California"... 

Also, the fret material is run this handy home made fret bender to put a little curve/bow in them so the ends stay down when in place.


Finally they get pressed into place using a fret presser chucked into the drill press. This is better than pounding them in with a hammer as it applies even pressure.

Nipping the fret tangs.

Fret ready for shaping

Filing the end round

Ready for installation

Pressing in place

Fret installed.

Back of headstock finished...

 Here's the back of the head stock after final carving and profiling.

And with the Gotoh tuners in place...

Neck almost finished...

 The fretboard is bound, radiused, and ready to be, well, fretted. Once that's done I can attach it to the neck, and that will allow me locate and mask off the bridge area, then we'll be ready for finishing...

Head with template applied ready for routing

Finished headstock with hole for tuners drilled

Here's how it all looks together

And on the guitar!

Progress for the day....

Too tired to make individual posts. Here's a pictorial of todays progress.

Fretboard is here!!!!!!!!!!

Santa apparently disguised his sleigh as a UPS truck and fly up here from L.A. on a special trip. The Fretboard arrived at about 10:20. Here are pictures of the inlays as well as the band logo on the headstock overlay.

There is however another slight problem. Fretboards on classical guitars are flat across their width, but on steel string guitars they have a radius of 16 feet. The fretboard stock I had dropshipped from LMI was supposed to be radiused, but this one is flat. That means I'll have to radius it myself and that's a lot of sanding. and I'm hoping it doesn't blow through the pearl inlays as it does deep on the edges....