leoroberts
C.O.G. 
Posts: 26,268 
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on May 26, 2021 5:16:12 GMT
There's been a lot of chat on this 'ere forum about the different perspectives on Eurovision. The UK, of course, 'underperformed' a little or, perhaps, was 'under-voted for'. I can't imagine why that might be. It may be that our song was in a major key whereas all the top 10 songs were in a minor key. It's almost as if we're (and excuse the pun) out of tune to current popular music thinking. Maybe Eurovision audiences are fed up of pretend jollyness. Lots of artists have said they'll have a go next year if called upon. I think we need a sort of X-Factor competition to choose our entry. We'd still get no points, mind. All of the above is just a set-up so that I can introduce the following pun to accompany the next picture: the Eurovision Spruce X-factor brace cap is then glued on using fish glue.  Was it worth it? No. No it was not. But did that stop me? No. No it did not. I never knew that guitars had teeth. But they must have otherwise there'd be no need for luthiers to fit them with a brace. I wonder if it's so you get more bang for your buckteeth? Anyway, the brace behind the bridge-plate is glued on using hot hide glue.  Dave is back to mixing his glue types. I have no idea why some bits need fish glue and others require hot hide glue. An answer may be forthcoming from instrument builders if they've read this far. They may decide that I either don't need, or don't deserve, to know. I would accept their judgement. I understand, and accept my limitations. I just hope they tell me gently. There's no need for them to take that sort of tone with me. But there is every need to take a tone bar. And fit it.  And then to fit the split tone-bars.  I seem to recall a punk band in the 70s or 80s (or they may have been 'new wave' - I'm not very clued in when it comes to popular music genres) called Stiff Little Fingers. I don't know if that referred to their pinky fingers, which were stiff, or to the fact that they had Trump-sized hands. It must have made it difficult to play the guitar. I wonder if they had their fingers in splints? That'd certainly make them more difficult to bend. My guitar (and I suspect yours) have finger braces. I know this because davewhite sent me photographs to prove it.   And finally for today the notches for the brace ends are cut in the top linings and the top glued on using fish glue. I didn't realise that Marillion had died, let alone been re-purposed. This means that the box can be closed!  More news as we get it. But for now, back to the studio for Carol with the weather. |
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davewhite
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Post by davewhite on May 26, 2021 7:09:51 GMT
You use fish glue on Fridays  |
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on May 26, 2021 9:39:01 GMT
..... But for now, back to the studio for Carol with the weather. Excellent. I always find Carol's extensive warm front to be a very comforting sight. Keith |
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 26,268
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 11, 2021 15:25:42 GMT
I have never, to my knowledge, purfled. It just doesn't sound like something I would do - or be comfortable doing. However, as with many luthiers, davewhite tells me that he really enjoys purfling. I suppose it's just part of the rich tapestry of life, different strokes and all that sort of thing. For this guitar, Dave has purfled some Maple and glued it onto the Coyote Wood bindings and they were then taped together with the Maple back purflings. The bindings and purflings were then bent in the Fox-Bender.  Then it’s out with “The Scutter” to cut the binding channels. The channels are first cut on the top the width of the linings and the depth of the linings plus side purfling. Some scrap pieces of the side purfling are stuck onto the top at the end graft with double-sided tape. The router rides on these to cut the rest of the binding channel. The channels are tidied up with a chisel and the side purflings can be mitred. So he's scuttered and purfled all in the space of one session. It's no surprise he's thin. I just wouldn't have the energy.  Back in days of yore, Chinese girls had their feet bound - a process that involved a hammer and bandages. And pain - a great deal of pain. It was a barbarous practice. Not having been born in days of yore, nor Chinese, my parents didn't bind my feet. In fact they did the exact opposite and ensured that my shoes were always from Clark's to ensure a comfortable fit. I recall, none to fondly, the hours spent sitting on a little stool in the shop whilst my mum pressed the very end of the shoe to make sure that there was plenty of room for my toes. I should, I suppose, be grateful. Although it has had the unfortunate side effect of stopping me wearing fashionable shoes as they are all too slim for my feet which grew unencumbered by fashion. Fortunately, fashion has never been a strong point for me. Dave is not Chinese, nor medieval, either. But he's happy to bind guitars, though not feet. And you can't do binding without cutting a channel. So he did. Just before he glued them in with fish glue. These are the top and bindings. You'll've spotted that.   To ensure aesthetics, a similar, if not identical, process is undertaken on the back. Plenty of gaffer tape involved. Some luthiers use rubber bands - but that always strikes me as having a S&M vibe. Mind you, gaffer tape is an essential component of any kidnapper's kit. Perhaps it's best to not dwell too much on these issues.   A little more manual labour is required - lots of sanding and scraping (not necessarily in that order) - to ensure the bindings are flush with the rest of the box. Then, and only then, can the hole for the neck extension be cut.    As you'll know, Dave has retired from full time luthiery and has developed a new business model. But it would be a shame if those skills were lost - so he's taken on an apprentice. Once Jack had progressed from trying to bang the round peg through the star-shaped hole with a wooden hammer, and could get the blue triangle shape through the triangle-shaped hole with a success rate of equal to, or greater than, 64%, Dave decided it was time to introduce him to the workshop. The DeFaoite legacy is assured...  |
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Post by earthbalm on Jun 11, 2021 15:49:51 GMT
Fantastic! Not only to I get to drool over some guitar pictures but I also get to laugh while doing it. Glad I wasn't drinking tea when I read the arm break paragraph- it would have quickly exited through my nostrils. Thanks very much both.
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 26,268
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 24, 2021 19:39:37 GMT
We've mentioned many clothing accessories so far in this thread, caps, belts, braces... so it's time to add another one: a scarf. Luthiers spell it wrong, though. I suppose they can't be good at everything. I had always assumed that a scarfe joint was a vertebrae in the neck. Apparently not, though it is related to the neck. I'm prattling on here because I really have no idea what I'm talking about. You probably can't tell because I do be so araldite erudite. Anyway, below is a photograph, probably taken using a camera (unless it's one of those super detailed pen and ink things) of the scarfe joint having been cut in the Spalted Beech neck blank and glued up with hot hide glue in this jig. Does that mean Dave did a jaunty dance when the scarfe joint was successfully glued? Maybe he then waltzed out of the workshop... wait, no, he didn't; there's more to come...  Now, everybody knows that you can only get matador boots with a Cuban heel from Flagg Brothers (well, according to Billy Joel). Stacked heels are relatively more common. Personally I can't carry them off, although I enjoy the fact that they nudge me towards 6' (well, they would if they were 2" stack heels) but I get dizzy at such heights and, frankly, if my calf muscles were any more defined they'd be in a dictionary. So I leave my stacked heels to the guitars. I was bird watching last week. The sun was out and it was uncomfortably warm in the cabin. I was wearing shorts and the back of my thighs stuck to the bench. This is another definition of Hot Hide Glue. But not the sort of hot hide glue with Dave used to glues the stacked heel together. Thank goodness. That's a lie, of course. The only bird I spend time watching is the Liver bird. Although I saw Red Kites once near Strathpeffer and watched them. Only til the bus came though. There was nothing else to do.  Dave believes in doing things the old-fashioned way. Which I admire. Rather than use a SatNav, I assume he used an OS map and a compass to route the truss rod slot. I mean, it seems to be fairly simple: start at the middle of one end, finish at the middle of the other end, and try and keep it straight in between. I suspect there's more too it than that, mind you.  Next, the slots for the two carbon fibre rods are routed. It all depends on pronunciation and context doesn't it? I recall last season when Aston Villa beat us 7-2 and the commentator said we'd been routed. This is different though. At least, I reckon it is. maybe not.  And finally for this update, the truss rod is then glued in with a Spalted Beech cap together with the carbon fibre rods. This has the effect of hiding the fact that the carbon fibre rods are even there. It's a bit like having skin over all your bones - we know the bones are there and do a reasonably useful job, but accept that it would be unsightly if they were on display. So God gave us skin to improve the aesthetic. Thankfully, She didn't make skin out of Spalted Beech - that would be unwieldy and I reckon I'd've preferred an exoskeleton.  And now we go to the newsroom for your local region... |
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Post by martinrowe on Jun 24, 2021 20:52:19 GMT
What happened to Carol?
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 26,268
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 24, 2021 22:43:17 GMT
Last seen supping a Chardonnay with ocarolan on the back seat of a 2CV. Not heard of, nor seen, since... you'd better ask him. |
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Post by martinrowe on Jun 25, 2021 3:55:27 GMT
hmmn... I'll have a good think on how to enquire in the most appropriate way. Perhaps he'll mention her when posting to the Friday Lunch thread.
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 26,268
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 25, 2021 5:21:46 GMT
hmmn... I'll have a good think on how to enquire in the most appropriate way. Perhaps he'll mention her when posting to the Friday Lunch thread. You reckon he's a cannibal? |
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Post by martinrowe on Jun 25, 2021 7:40:36 GMT
He lives in Somerset!!
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 25, 2021 9:05:17 GMT
... only as a result of a simple twist of fate! Yorkshire is where my heart lies! I'll endeavour to persuade Carol to have lunch with me, though I no longer own a 2CV I'm afraid, and anyway the back seat would have been rather small. Mind you Rosie's ancient Peugeot Partner with wheelchair ramp at the back should provide more expansive accommodation in the back .... I'll let you know how I get on. But it'll be in the Friday Lunch thread - acousticsoundboard.co.uk/thread/724/friday-lunch-time-again-derrrrrrrrr?page=63Keith |
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 26,268
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 25, 2021 9:25:09 GMT
I always knew he was on the level. |
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Post by martinrowe on Jun 25, 2021 14:43:02 GMT
hmmn, "methinks he doth protest too much"
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 26,268
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jul 2, 2021 11:57:35 GMT
Back in the days when Liverpool was at its height as a commercial port, and you could wander down to the docks and buy anything you needed/wanted without it having to clear customs if you knew the right gaffer, a popular dish for sailors and wharf rats alike at cafes like Frank's on the Dock Road was Sheep's Head Soup. The recipe was simple: nick a sheep's head from the back bins of the local butcher, throw it in a pan of boiling water, add a few vegetables (if available) cover and let it simmer for 2 or three hours until 'gloopy'. Serve with bread (didn't matter if the bread was stale, dunking took care of that). There was a version especially made for American sailors - sans brain. I suppose, if you forego the vegetables and allowed the concoction to simmer for a long enough time, you'd end up with stock rather than soup. That would make it sheep's head stock. Obviously you'd shorten that to 'Head Stock'. You've worked out where I'm going with this now, haven't you? The Coyote wood headstock veneer has the nut edge sanded at an angle to match the headstock to neck-shaft angle and is glued on using fish glue.  But it's not just the front of the headstock that gets prettified. Oh no, sireebob. The Coyote wood back-strap for the headstock is also bent on the hot-pipe and glued on using fish glue. It's called 'aesthetics'. I thought that was luthiers who don't believe in God but apparently it's different.  As far as I can gather, a headstock only exists for the purposes of having somewhere to put the tuning pegs. I'm sure someone will explain that it is also a means of compensating for the weight of the body so that the guitar balances better but, if they did, I'd assume they were talking specious bollocks. Unless whoever told me that was making me a guitar in which case I'd absolutely believe them 100%. Dave hasn't said that. But he did send me a picture of the headstock marked out and the tuner holes drilled...  The peghead then must needs be shaped and the tuners fitted. I know that Dave is quite innovative in his instrument building but he's gone with what I like to think of as the 'traditional' arrangement of three pegs on each side. I suppose he could've gone 4+2 or even 5+1. He couldn't go 6+0 cos that would be a Fender. This is also your first intimation that this is going to be a 6-string model. Well, it is if you can count.  I spoke a lot (a bit) about 'stacked heels' in a previous post. There was a lot of gluing involved. And gluing means drying time. It has now dried and is ready to be fitted in the appropriate place. Fitting it in an inappropriate place would mean the guitar wouldn't work as well, or possibly at all.  So the guitar is now in two parts: a body and a neck. That's all it will have. Guitars don't have arms, legs and feet. They do have shoulders though, to which, in humans and other great apes, arms are usually attached. I assume dispensing with arms on a guitar was a design decision made by someone whose name has been lost in the annals of history but to whom we are all immensely grateful. Arms would just get in the way, wouldn't they? As would legs, come to that. So well done you, whoever you were. Of course, the two parts must be joined somehow. Dave has, thankfully, eschewed nails and gaffer tape preferring something altogether more sturdy and permanent. Not that nails can't be permanent. I'm losing my thread here. Nails don't have thread. That's screws. And bolts. Bolts have thread, too. Not all of them, mind. Bu8t some of them. And washers. I think I remember that you're supposed to use washers with bolts, but not screws or nails. Anyways, as I was about to say...the neck is cut to fit the top fingerboard extension slot and the heel sanded to fit the body with the neck in correct alignment and angle in relation to the top. Then the positions for the threaded inserts are marked, the holes drilled and the inserts fitted.  Which, having been done, means that the two can finally become one - a Holy Duality (one less than God managed but enough for mere mortals like me). And this gives me, and you, dear reader, a chance to see an approximation of what the final result will look like. I've made the assumption that anybody is actually reading this rubbish. There's really no need - just look at the pictures if you want. I don't mind. Now you know what my congregation feel like.  Looks good to me! |
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