CHANGING THE RATIOS

Trying to change the ratios between inspiration, perspiration and frustration. It doesn't make this process easier to convey when I wait too long between blog entries and forget my password. However, there are a few minor breakthroughs in my personal guitarbuilding development. I'd tell you, but then you'd know the secrets. Let's just say, 3 dimensional objects combined with wood movement and lack of desire to learn modeling software leave this caveman luthier no choice but to devise ever-increasingly bizarre tools, jigs and methods. Like chopped flat pencils mounted to scrap spacers tracing a 3d profile onto a bent side, riding inside a 15' radius domed workboard. Sshhh, don't tell anyone.

After using the wonderful and almost universally used 'Fox bending machine' (named after one of my heroes, who now resides in Portland) to bend sides in the past, I have now regressed to the hand bending method which involves a hot pipe, sizzling water on the thin side ribs, occasional burns on fingers, and a balancing act between letting the wood bend and hearing the fatal crack of a ruined side. I guess there are a few reasons for the regression: these two classical guitars have cutaways on the treble side (too complex and tight to use the Fox bender), and really just for the shear visceral feeling of bending and releasing, going almost to the limit of destruction, then letting the process happen. As we all strive to make the process faster, more production-friendly and more consistent to the millionth of an inch, it's easy to lose sight of some of the funner parts. Like staring up my nose in this picture. Let the ratio change continue.

COFFIN #2

At long last, here it is. Imbued with a character of supreme Coffination, this thing is rock-ready and good to go. Hand crafted entirely by yours truly, this guitar is the natural finish, one-piece swamp ash body twin to the first Coffin (made of African mahogany).

Specs: swamp ash body and neck, Indian rosewood fingerboard, African mahogany head cap, Jescar evo gold fretwire, Gotoh tuners, tremolo bridge and miscellaneous other hardware, DiMarzio D sonic humbucker in the bridge position with push-pull switch for coil-tap, Reverend USA P-90 (neck)

Finish: Epoxy pore fill, shellac build coats, satin nitrocellulose lacquer on body and back of neck, high gloss buffed lacquer on headstock.

Come see the dual Coffin attack tomorrow night, Friday the 13th, when Rust plays Ash St Saloon, 9:30 pm.

CULTURE SHOCK

One week ago. Houston International Airport. The endless line of wheelchairs on the gangplank as we exited the aircraft was the first sign of things to come. After a week in England, where I literally saw no wheelchairs, people movers, guns or obesity, here in Texas things were different. This was an eight-foot guitar/sculpture entitled 'Final Approach,' and no doubt commissioned for an absurd amount of money:

My alternate title: 'This One Needs Repair.' Note diamond-tread pickguard and high string popping out of the nut:


After writing some scathing impressions of Houston (and by extension the U.S., from being outside for a week) based solely on airport observations, I boarded the next flight, to Portland. A couple of Houston locals I met (on each flight) so defied my juvenile and shallow observations as to humble me completely. This is the importance of travel. But that guitar still needs repair.

My Own Coffin

Ah, a fitting title for a lutherie project. If the wood dust doesn't kill you, the time it takes to build a guitar just might. Like many weirdo semi-artist types, I have to be creative when the urge strikes, no matter how hard I beat myself up or try to adopt a daily work routine. I have a full time job for that. Excuses aside, as the temperatures climb into the hundreds outside, I'm spending some time in the cool basement, carving up the neck for the second Rogers Coffin guitar. The first one went to a shredding player who is quite happy with it - see previous posts. The headstock on this Coffin has the tuning machines on the bass side, a mirror image of the previous guitar. When using templates for routing headstock shapes and drilling tuner holes, it's easy to flip the template over for the mirror image design. And now, back to work.

If you see this, run.

Exhibit A: the Gibson Robot guitar, with broken electronics. Despite our status as a long-time Gibson warranty center, this should have scared me. The new Robot Guitar is not one to practice electronics troubleshooting on. Nor is it a good idea to pull off the protective plastic film from the pickguard without first looking under the bridge (you'd have to take the strings off, then pry the bridge upward to even see these ribbon connectors). Fortunately for me, the customer found this out before I did. Nevertheless, I somehow agreed to troubleshoot it. Possibly out of a sense of duty to the great Gibson company, or possibly just as an act of masochism. I got lucky on this one, but there are always others. Beware the Ides of Gibson!

Slightly More Info

After handing off the guitar to Justin over an excellent dinner that he paid for, I realized that my somewhat lax description of the finished Coffin should probably be added to. For me, it's kind of like recording an album - after being immersed in the details of creating something for several months or more, the tendency is to not want to think about it as soon as the creation is finished. Fortunately for me, Justin posted quite a few pics with good captions - here it is: http://siemprelaluna.com/index.php?itemid=609. Look to your right, above Bruce Lee and you'll find the link to his excellent site, Siempre La Luna. I'll make a few additions or clarifications:

So the neck shaft is actually domestic ash, and the fingerboard is Indian rosewood. Many luthiers would be hesitant to use ash because it is light, a bit punky, and not nearly as strong as maple. I used it for many reasons: tonally it's amazing; for the woodworking challenge of the massive differences in density between early and late-wood grain; and it looked right the way the bare wood absorbed the stain deeply in the visible porous grain lines and almost not at all in the wider portions. In regards to strength, I was fairly confident that I'd be able to end up with a very straight neck after carving the shaft, gluing on the fingerboard, truing the fingerboard in preparation for receiving the frets, and installing the frets. All of these operations can quickly make a neck unplayable if not done right. Also, I used a double-acting truss rod made by Stew-Mac, in my opinion it is an extremely effective one. This was shown to be the case when all it took was a very slight tightening of the rod from the neutral position to balance the tension of the strings, giving the neck proper 'relief' and excellent playability with low 'action' or string height above the fingerboard.

The scale length is the same as Justin's Ibanez's, at 25.5", I'm glad he thought it was shorter. I take that to be the difference between factory (admittedly pretty good) fretwork and a really dialed neck with accurately leveled frets. It makes for excellent playability with an easier feel. Justin is right about the frets - they're .045" tall and .103" wide, still in the "jumbo" category but just a tad smaller than the ones in the S series. Can a good player tell the difference? Hell yes. On the next guitar I may experiment with a hypo-allergenic fretwire that contains no nickel, lead, or other really nasty metals and happens to be 25% harder than typical nickel-silver wire. For someone like Justin, who has excellent technique, plays very light strings, and use no more fretting pressure than necessary, the typical nickel-silver wire is still probably the better choice. That's all for now, if you've made it through this somewhat nerdy discussion, I congratulate you and recommend a future in guitar-building.

Coffin #1 Reality

Congratulations, it's a guitar! Rising from the grave at 8 lbs 6 oz and 42.5", this long, skinny riff machine is ready to see the world in all its beauty and horror. Commissioned and subsidized by my good friend and bandmate Justin, this Coffin will be in the hands of a great player. Interestingly enough, Justin learned much of his technique from a badass who was dubbed the Grim Reaper of Classic Rock Bands.