Well not strictly a woodworking project as such but it is made from Indian rosewood, and will probably bore to death most of you so apologies in advance for the story and feel free to skip.
I've been developing my skills in the Luthiery dept. and the lockdowns have given me time to develop them away from the day job.
I have a 50 year old Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. It was my first 'grown up guitar' and was badly re-fretted 35 years ago by an silly person. Basically he planed the fingerboard, why I'll never know as it was fine, but being young and naive I believed the "expert". The expert managed to damage some of the pearloid inlays !!!! His remedy "don't worry I've repaired them with Araldyte and silver paint"...... So you can imagine how upset I was at the end result.
Luckily I befriended a proper Luthier a little while later called Graham Wheeler from Ashington, Sussex. He's done the odd bit of work for some blokes called Eric Clapton and Midge Ure, so I guess I was in safe company. He replaced the damaged inlay with some 60's pearl but it never matched, and the fingerboard was way too thin, the position marker dots were half moons.
So I had the crazy idea during the first lockdown of removing the fingerboard, making a mahogany packer to go underneath and hiding it with fresh binding.
OOPS. My friend Graham advised against it as it was a lot of work for a skilled Luthier let alone me but I gave it a go. No manner of fancy fingerboard heaters would budge the glue and as I worked my way down from the nut I ended up with a mosaic of old fingerboard pieces as they would crack and break at every fret line due to their thickness or lack of.
I rapidly came to the conclusion that the immaculate Gold Top nitro finish would suffer damage if I proceeded with my "work" so I chiselled the rest of the board off, thinking I could at least get it replaced by a specialist, which I could but we're talking £1500 or so with freight.
So I bit the bullet and made my own. I had to buy several rosewood blanks before I came up with the right shade to match what was on the old girl. Then I shaped, inlayed, bound and fretted the board. Much to my surprise it came out alright (and I am very fussy, with a good eye for detail).
It did it provide my Luthier friend with a great deal of amusement but his mantra was "You won't f**k it up" and he was right!
I've just noticed that when I posted this, the word I D I O T it was automatically replaced with silly person, seriously!!
Brave attempt,I’m glad all went well.Did you remove the neck from the body?....check out Playability enhanced .Show you how Martin guitars finely tune the action on their guitars.
They are 60's pearloid made by the Italian company that made the originals. Cost about £50. Laser cut. I inlayed them with a mini router base on my Dremel and marked the lines with a sharp scalpel for definitionvery nice job, did you use mother of pearl for the inlays? they look very neat. I've met a few dodgy guitar techs myself over the years of playing.
Since you insisted...Nice tealight holder. Very neat.
Now you've got to make a matching set
Bunk bed for Daughter's bedroom. The aim was to create more space. I'll be installing a basic desk underneath.
Made from stud/CLS material and painted.
I don't enjoy this work but buying a ready made version is poor value for money. This one will be easy to recycle at a later date.
Thanks for the feedback. If I had any I would be happy to share them. I just built it as I went.I was very pleased to see your bunkbed project - a job well done. This is exactly what I want to build for my 7-year old granddaughter.
Do you have a cutting list/plans/list of fixing, or anything that you are happy to share?
Thanks.
Lovely work guitardoctor! So much more skill involved than the work I do which is all straight lines and square angles (occasional 45°) Luthier work is all curves!Well not strictly a woodworking project as such but it is made from Indian rosewood, and will probably bore to death most of you so apologies in advance for the story and feel free to skip.
I've been developing my skills in the Luthiery dept. and the lockdowns have given me time to develop them away from the day job.
I have a 50 year old Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. It was my first 'grown up guitar' and was badly re-fretted 35 years ago by an silly person. Basically he planed the fingerboard, why I'll never know as it was fine, but being young and naive I believed the "expert". The expert managed to damage some of the pearloid inlays !!!! His remedy "don't worry I've repaired them with Araldyte and silver paint"...... So you can imagine how upset I was at the end result.
Luckily I befriended a proper Luthier a little while later called Graham Wheeler from Ashington, Sussex. He's done the odd bit of work for some blokes called Eric Clapton and Midge Ure, so I guess I was in safe company. He replaced the damaged inlay with some 60's pearl but it never matched, and the fingerboard was way too thin, the position marker dots were half moons.
So I had the crazy idea during the first lockdown of removing the fingerboard, making a mahogany packer to go underneath and hiding it with fresh binding.
OOPS. My friend Graham advised against it as it was a lot of work for a skilled Luthier let alone me but I gave it a go. No manner of fancy fingerboard heaters would budge the glue and as I worked my way down from the nut I ended up with a mosaic of old fingerboard pieces as they would crack and break at every fret line due to their thickness or lack of.
I rapidly came to the conclusion that the immaculate Gold Top nitro finish would suffer damage if I proceeded with my "work" so I chiselled the rest of the board off, thinking I could at least get it replaced by a specialist, which I could but we're talking £1500 or so with freight.
So I bit the bullet and made my own. I had to buy several rosewood blanks before I came up with the right shade to match what was on the old girl. Then I shaped, inlayed, bound and fretted the board. Much to my surprise it came out alright (and I am very fussy, with a good eye for detail).
It did it provide my Luthier friend with a great deal of amusement but his mantra was "You won't f**k it up" and he was right!
I've just noticed that when I posted this, the word I D I O T it was automatically replaced with silly person, seriously!!
Farmer Giles,
What resin do you use that doesnt bubble?
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