28 Jan 2015 - Upright and Three Conversions

I have several pictures today. Let's get started.

The first thing that I did today was glue back a seam in a plywood double bass.

This bass has seen better days. The top is caving in underneath the bridge, and one of the seams had come unglued. We checked inside to see if the bass bar or soundpost were cracked or loose, but they were both in place. Unfortunately, the caving in is simply due to cheap construction materials.

We were able to fix the open seam though. Between the two of us, Scott and I were able to bend, glue, and clamp the seam.

I'll take the clamps off and give the bass one more look over Monday.

After clamping up the bass, I got started on three more of our Harmony conversions. Part of my learning process involves rebuilding old Harmony guitars. Many of these guitars were built by Harmony but branded as Kay, Silvertone, Stella, or a handful of other names. We rebuild the guitars using techniques and designs based on old Martins and Gibsons. By the time we're done, these cheap old guitars actually play and sound like fine, handmade instruments. I've completed two small-bodied rebuilds, and these three are my first full-sized guitars.

Sears Roebuck (SR) OM-style (aka #9)

Kay Dreadnought (aka #13)

Silvertone OM-style (aka #38)

We use numbered tape or stickers on each guitar to keep track of which necks and bodies (and sometimes other parts) go together. I start by removing the bridge, pickguard, tuners, and any other removable parts like tailpieces from the guitars. Then I remove the necks from each guitar.

Today, I also removed the backs and internal bracing from #9 and #13. Unfortunately, when I removed the neck from #38, it took a small piece of the top as well.

That piece from the top needs to be glued back on before I can continue to removing the back and bracing. I glued and clamped it back in place today, and I'll remove the clamps and hopefully be able to move forward on it on Monday.

Today was a productive day. If the repair on #38 holds nicely, I should be able to make more good progress on Monday.

27 Jan 2015 - Vantage Flying V

Today was just more of the Vantage guitar from yesterday. I had to soak the bridge in WD-40 to get a couple of the saddles to move, and I had to steal a couple of saddle adjustment screws from an old bridge because this one was missing two. Once I strung it back up, I noticed that I had filed the nut slot for the low E string at an angle, so I had to fill that slot, grind the nut down, and slot it again.

At the end of the day, though, the guitar was done. It actually sounded pretty nice for an old Gibson knock-off, too.

Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to post tomorrow.

26 Jan 2015 - Vantage Flying V

Today is the first instrument day of the What's On The Bench blog! I spent most of the day cleaning up and organizing my bench now that I've finished my first two Harmony conversions. I still have a lot of organizing to do, but today I just wanted to move everything such that I can always have a clean space at the end of the day. I'd love to leave the shop each day with nothing but my shot bag and maybe an instrument on my felt pad. After today, I'm headed in that direction.

Today's guitar is a well-used Vantage flying V style guitar. It's in for a full set up. Like I mentioned, I spent most of the day organizing my space. As a result, I only got the neck of this guitar done today, but the body should go quickly tomorrow as long as there are no nasty surprises waiting for me underneath the pickguard.

The picture that you see is the guitar before I started. Going forward, I'll also start including a picture of my bench at the end of the day (as long as there's something on it). I'll also post before and after pictures of any instruments or jobs that I completely finish during the day.

Here's to tomorrow!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new What's On The Bench blog!

I'll be posting short updates each day that I'm in the shop (usually Monday through Wednesday) showing what was on my work bench during that day. I got the idea today as I was cleaning up and organizing my work space. I still have a lot of organization to do, so you'll get to see a little bit of that process, too, as I figure out which tools I'll be using most frequently and keeping in the easy to access spots around my space.

I hope that this will be a fun way for me to process everything that I'm doing during my time at Baxendale Guitar as well as for you to get an idea of what it is I'm doing and have a peek into the world of a luthier-in-training.

Enjoy!