In The Workshop Recently......

The Guild Songbird is now nearing completion. Ths picture shows it will the colour now applied, but since then it has

had the final coats of lacquer. Should be completed for the next update. Latest project is this 'Black Special' back from

Jersey for a visit. The owner has decided on a different trem and a natural finish for it. So plenty more rubbing down to

follow.

Also visiting recently was this Ibanez RG. The owner wanted the body modifying to accept a Fernandes Sustainer. This

model originally had only a single pickup, so it was routed out for the Sustainer, the circuit board and also the battery box.

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Work has been progressing on the Thin body Guild, it is now down to bare wood, and will be getting some colour soon.

Plans have changed slightly from the original, so look out for further developments.

Also, this lovely Gretsch came in for some fret work and a set-up.

This was followed by this rather unusual Hohner electric which features a Steinberger trem, requiring a set-up.

And finally this Squire with EMGs was in for some tweaking. A previous owner had fitted the Kahler trem, but it was too

near the neck, and the height meant that the neck had to be angled back. To get round this, we routed the body to lower

the trem by 3mm, and moved it further back.

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Things have been pretty hectic here recently, for all the wrong reasons, so a bit of catching up to do.......

This interesting custom has been with us for a while. The owner wanted a new look, and a few improvements. The

scratchplate was replaced with a nice Birds Eye Maple item, inlays added to the fingerboard and some side markers

also. The bridge was also raised up with a Mahogany spacer.

The headstock inlay was also renewed, with a Birds Eye Maple veneer and new Black and White pearl inlay.

As this guitar has an LR Baggs pre-amp, we also shielded the back of the scratchplate and the control cavity to keep

everything hum-free.

One of the great things about this job is the wonderful variety of beautiful guitars that come to visit. This Washburn acoustic

and Yamaha Baritone were in for some minor work and set-ups recently.

A major project on the go is this slim bodied Guild acoustic. Another Barry Gibb model, it is in for a complete bare wood

refinish. This may be with us for a little while........lots of rubbing down still to do !

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Two guitars from one of our regulars. Kevin from local band Risky Bizness, brought us these nice acoustics, both in need of

some fretwork. The red guitar is a Guild Barry Gibb signature, the the other is an Ovation Adamas.

This owner of this Washburn wasn't happy with the flat (20" radius) fingerboard on this othwerwise nice guitar. So he decided

to have the fingerboard replaced with a compound radius one in ebony. With traditional clay dot markers, and an LSR roller nut

to keep everything smooth, and Stainless steel frets.

This beautiful Charvel came to us with a major problem. The neck was very unstable, and would not keep a playable set-up.

It was decided that the best remedy for this was to remove the existing fingerboard, replace the truss rod, install 2 Carbon rods,

and fit a new fingerboard in Santos Rosewood. This was finished off with Pearl dots, and some Jumbo stainless frets. We also

replaced the bridge pick-up with a Bare Knuckle Abraxas.

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We had this rather nice pair of Ibanez Jems in recently. The Stunning Blue model was in for a set-up, but the Black one had a

strange pickup selection problem. This was soon cured with a new switch (after a lot of head scratching ! ).

This single cut SE had already visited the workshop for a set up, but the owner decided that it needed a bit of an upgrade.

The machine heads were replaced with a set of locking Schallers, the bridge was also a Schaller item with adjustable saddles,

and the pickups are Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays, with some new Black surrounds and a pair of matching Chrome Knobs.

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It seems to have been all Les Pauls recently in the workshop.

The Gibson on the left came in for a well deserved fret dress, and a new bridge to replace the worn original. And the rather

pretty Green Epiphone came in for a set-up, but this also needed some fret work to get everything straight.

We also had an Epiphone Les Paul Custom in for a fret dress, and we also changed the pickups for a pair of Mighty Mite

Motherbuckers, as the original bridge pickup was found to be lacking.

And finally, another Epiphone which had sadly sufferred a knock and needed a badly cracked neck/headstock repairing.

Some pictures from the workshop of the construction process,

click on the photos to enlarge................

Washington IV	What happens to all the left over timber that isn't big enough for customer guitars, build one for the boss!  Apart from the top and the fingerboard, all of the wood used in this guitar is from the off-cuts bin.
	Body timbers being glued together before being split to make a book matched pair.		Curly Maple top.
	Neck lamination glued up.		Body cavity initial shaping. The bottom will be cut out and used as the cover.
	body and neck glued together.		cavities in Maple top.
	Matched halves.		Fingerboard fitting.
	Stain applied.		Bookmatched headstock veneer.
	First coat of lacquer applied.
Lucky
	Ethos Guitars' first bass guitar with highly personalised twelfth fret markers		Front side body showing "neck through" and routing
	Rear routing with the smallest amount of wood removed from the body to retain as much tone as possible
Coronet
	Headstock being shaped, routed and drilled		The body takes shape, once more as little wood removed as possible
The Aphrodite
	The first Aphrodite underway		A lovely figured top and deep control routing
	Handshaped upper and lower bouts make all the difference		Some addition of colour
	Back with center stripe and control cavities. Note the deep heel cutaway for easy upper fret access.
The Washington
	This is after initial body shaping, and shows the intial component fit to check tolerances		Bookmatched headstock facing
	You can also see the smooth recessed fit of the selector switch and pots		The picture of the rear clearly show the neck-through-body construction and the excellent access to the upper frets.
	There is no visible gap under the knobs even when the pull switch is operated
The Pumpkin
	Neck Laminated from Maple and Walnut. Headstock drilled for machine heads.		Hand Carved Spruce top made from 2 matched wedges
	The neck-through body construction can be seen here with the Walnut centre stripe visible through the pick-up cavities.		Head stock faced with book matched Rosewood, single binding applied ready for scraping
	Sides fitted and top routed ready for binding.		Binding (made up from 3 separate strips) now fitted and scraped to shape.
	Book matched Rosewood back with centre purfling.		Finished Rosewood back
	Heel detail showing the center stripe		More heel detail aslo showing the depth of the binding
	Painted and ready for polishing, wiring and hardware.		Carved top with paint applied