The Home Stretch

Well Christmas has come and gone, heading into 2010. I have been back in California for nearly two weeks and even in these lean economic times I can say it was pretty Merry. I have seen some of my family and some good friends and I must say I am looking forward to returning to AZ to finish up, come back home and get started. Where? not sure yet. I am trying to put a plan in place, we will see what God has in store for me. The pictures you are seeing for the most part completed guitars, construction-wise, they are done, just final tweaks on the electric and final assembly, neck to body, bridge, frets and nut o the acoustic. The last four weeks are to have been the repair and restoration portion of the school. We lost some time due to instructor's illnesses "The Scourge of RV" and we are now playing catch-up, just trying to get the guitars done. I somehow managed to not miss much time, only about 4 or 5 hours total. I hope the last section is complete and we get all we should out of it. If not, It's the Dan Ehrlewine book.He is one of the most foremost experts on the subject of repair and restoration and is part of the curriculums text.The pixs are of the headstock, back and sides of the acoustic after spending about a week in the lacquer booth, I will have to flat sand it, and buff it to final finish. But if I must say, it is rather spectacular looking wood. The electric is nearly complete, I just need to carve the nut, set up and intonate and make a cavity cover for the electronics.
I have been remiss about staying up to date on the blog, but it has been a mad rush to the end. I hope to have at least two more entries, before I end school and then start fresh with the blog detailing the beginnings of JD Casey Custom Guitars.
I have lots of design ideas and look forward to getting started. More in January! God Bless and and have a safe New Year celebration!
Scotty

Nearing The Finish Line!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I did-even though I was not with all my family, my AZ family made me feel very welcome, and my wife, Michele came down for a quick visit. It was great! A few nice walks a great dinner and nice lunch and Church service with one of my new friends, Dave Beahm. Dave is quite a craftsman and will be a force in luthiery, be sure to watch for SunBeahm Guitars. We all have so much to be thankful for.
Here it is Saturday afternoon, Dec. 5, I can't believe it! At first the time seemed to go slow, now it is rushing by! I am supposed to be wet-sanding my electric in preparation for buffing it out, That is the final stage before final assembly, which will take place in January during the Repair and Restoration section of the class.If you saw the pics of the electric hanging after final spraying the buff-out should make it about 100 times shinier and bring out the 3D quality in the woods. This week has been very arduous in that we have begun the completion of the acoustics. Last week-I finished the shape carving of the headstock, all the inlay of the headstock and fretboard, radiused the fretboard, carved the heel where the neck meets the body, and prep sanded the guitar body for shooting lacquer, 2 days on the heel carving and 2 days on the hand-sanding-9 hour days-do the math! During the heel carving and after all the hours spent inlay and fretboard and headstock, part of the process is band-sawing the edges of the neck to prepare for final shaping. To my dismay as the scrap came of, a large area of checking, where there is natural occurring crack, or separataion in the grain of the wood. NOT GOOD! It is not visible from the outside, and it is quite a surprise! Well, I did not want to lose any time or work I had put in to start a new neck. ASK THE INSTRUCTOR WHAT TO DO. THe answer is, "What would YOU do?" Its part of preparing for problem solving for the repair portion of the school and in my future. My suggestions was to either make a slurry of super-glue or epoxy mixed with mahogany dust and force it in there, clamp it closed, wait for it to dry and sand down the outside. Or at worst case- cut a chunk out, replace it with new, glue it and hope for a good match.
All good ideas, but, John Reuter, who is an acclaimed builder and repairman, had other ideas. He found among his tools, an old backsaw, which just happened to be as wide as the checking area, about 40 thousandths of an inch. He very carefully sawed through the checking, all the way to the bottom. and the we took a piece of scrap,form my neck, matched the grain and pore direction of the checking area, thickness sanded it to 39 thousandths slid in in with glue, carved the outside with a chisel and the sanded it flush to the neck heel. It is virtually invisible! it was a great opportunity for me to get private one on one instruction from one of the best. Be sure to check out John Reuter Guitars on the internet. By the way- I was contacted by a stranger via email who stumble upon the blog. I will include the emails here.---- Hi, Scott. My name is Rob and I will be attending RV next year. I came across your blog about a month ago and want to tell you what a valuable resource it has been for me and I'm sure it will continue to be so for prospective students in the years to come.
I'm trying to gauge the right approach to my tenure at RV so I was wondering if you'd mind if I ask a few questions. I'm 37 years old (older than your average student, I'm sure) and I'm not too keen on pursuing an internship upon graduation for that very reason (no spring chicken). I'm hoping to get started right away on my own business once I return home. I have 4 guitar designs and 1 bass design in mind, I just need to be shown the best way to build them. Have you found, thus far, that RV gives you the education necessary to create just about any design you want? Or more specifically, are they more than willing to help you see your designs come to fruition even if they don't follow the basics taught by the school? I'm worried that I may be coming in with the wrong approach. I mean I will definitely keep an open mind, but I'm pretty sure I know what I want. But perhaps I'm being delusional and an internship is necessary.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for your time and I look forward to the next blog update.
-Rob
My reply-
Rob-
Nice to hear from you, thanks for your kind words. I too am no spring chicken-55 this month, and after a lifetime as a guitarist, and collector, hobbyist builder, I too decided to follow my dream to be a builder. If you have not already toured the facility, I suggest you do. I was a bit surprised after my first visit. The atmosphere is to say a little, rustic.
But nonetheless, the staff is very knowledgeable and RV has produced many, many prominent builders in the 20+
years they have been around, at one time the only school of its kind.
It is my understanding that they will be moving into a new facility maybe by the spring. I would check into that. I thought we would be the first class in the new building, but I guess permits, etc. made that impossible.
Apprenticeship, I think will be mandatory, even for an old guy like me. There is so much to know, More than I ever thought, I learn more everyday than I thought possible. If you want to build on your own and have the where with all
to finance it all yourself, then it may be doable. Many of the older guys are planning to do just that. Myself included.
But I also think that the amount you can learn from other luthiers is an invaluable asset, so I plan to work with or apprentice with whomever, I can, whenever I can. The curriculum is fairly demanding, more than one would think, and physically demanding as well. Long days and lots of hard work. But these guys are the best at what they do.
As far as design goes, the first two instruments can be of your own design, but must be approved by the instructors. There are some limitations. One solid body electric and one acoustic.
Headstock designs, inlay, etc. are up to you upon approval. Full scale drawings of all instruments have to be approved. It is pretty much wide open design wise for third instruments. But still must be approved. The wood selections are wonderful. I think the only limitations on the first two are, no pickguards and no chambering or carved tops. A dreadnaught or an OM as far as acoustics go. I had to adjust my designs a bit as well.
Well, thats about it. I am glad I reached at least one person with my blog. It is my intention to increase awareness about the art of Luthiery. If you don't mind I would like to share this communication, via the blog, with my other readers.
Your email information will be kept confidential. Good luck in your endeavors and if I can be of any help in the future,please feel free to write. You will find the community of Luthiers is a very open and sharing group.
I am here, at RV by the encouragement of other builders as well.
Best of everything!
Cheers.
Scott D. Jeffers
J.D. Casey Custom Guitars!

His reply----
Thanks, Scott! You've answered my questions and then some! I'm glad to hear the third instrument is open to anything. You know, I saw a post in a forum from a guy (Elysian Guitars??) who attended RV and built 5 guitars while he was there. Pretty much a mix of everything, which is what I want to do (i.e. flat top, carved top, chambered body, tremolo/fixed bridge, fretboard binding, peghead binding...a little of everything). Financially I can manage this, but not sure if I'll learn quickly enough to do so. I'll have to wait and see how I progress.
Yes, by all means post my email. I hope others will follow suit as well. You know, I'm surprised RV doesn't have something like this already on their website. It's a good advertisement (you should be getting paid!).
Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. Maybe our paths will cross in the future and I can't wait to see pictures of your final projects. Take care.
-Rob

It's really great to know that all of you are out there watching my progress, and even better that it might be inspiring someone else, a stranger, to follow their dream! Thanks Rob!
The pics you are seeing are the final carved and inlayed headstock fretboard and neck heel, and the "butt wedge" or end wedge of the acoustic-also very difficult to do!. Oh!- and a sticker I designed for the school-I left my mark on Roberto-Venn for life! I will post pics of other labels I designed for other builders in the next issue!
BTW the necks were also fitted to the bodies this week-The hardest part yet! must allow for neck pitch and side to side straightness- Very difficult!! But rewarding..
Love you all hope to see some of you at winter break!, 2 weeks from now and also in January-Santa is coming Home
Standby for Guitar Reveal News in January !!!!!!
God Bless you all
with much love-gratitude, and Thanksgiving.
Scotty

New Photos!

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404090130260989170" />

Yet again it has been awhile since my last post. The days seem to be getting shorter as we have more and more to accomplish,
and very little time to get it done. The weather is a little better,even a little rain today, Saturday. As you can see by the pics, I think in order they are the finished, (new) Headstock Cap and neck,the body top and body back. I opted not to do any color,sunburst or tinting because the top is so beautifully figured and just shot clear. I have finished all my spraying of lacquer in the spray booth, about 25 coats with scuff sanding in between every seven coats. It is amazing to see the guitar come alive when you do the very first spray coat. It will now cure for 14 days and then final sanding and the long awaited buff-out.
The spraying process seemed to come naturally to me, If it were something I was to choose to do,it is a specialty that could be quite profitable, mind numbing, but profitable. Then the close up of the "birdhouse" the top, back and sides glued up with the label inside, and the finish sanding, or leveling in process. Bubinga, which I don't think I will ever bend again, is very hard, brittle and bumpy, making it very difficult to hand sand. I can only go about an hour of handing before I have to stop and do something else for awhile. I will have to find a mild way to sand with a sander when I get home. the close up is to show how beautiful this wood figuring is. I had been quite ill for about a week or more, but got the doc to send me some pills, feeling mostly better now. I am making some good friends here, and networking contacts. I will be starting to create a brand new resume for my new career, i think I will be specializing in repair and restoration while I build on the side and quite possibly work for some one as well. If you know any one with lotsa guitars or a shop that may need help I am ready in January 2010.
I raised my grade up, so I am now eligible to do a third instrument. I am planning to identical guitars which will be milled and cut and then finished at home. I need to concentrate my free time on creating templates from the school's vast collection.
Well thats about it for know, going to see one of the school's employee's band tonight -The Brown Tones should be fun!
Thanks again for reading and God Bless!

I got the turboocaloosis and the sinus flu!

BY THE WAY - ALL OF THESE PICS ARE CLICKABLE TO GET A LARGER VIEW-IF YA DID'NT ALREADY KNOW!
PRETTY WOOD!

< REMIND YOU OF MR. GREEN JEANS??



ALS0-This is my friend and classmate Sheriff Frank Hughes-He is a retired AZ Sheriff who was shot in the line of duty, not too serious, and is attending classes with his son, Scott. Roll call goes, Frank, Scott, Scotty, etc. I had bought an apron and the strap around my neck was bothering me, I had helped him with some design work for his inlay, and he offered to have his wife, Sue, sew something on to pad the strap. I thought that was very, nice. When he returned, not only had she fixed the apron but also sewed a new apron out of old Levi's- Very stylish eh? I hope to meet his wife soon and thank her accordingly.
NICE MAN!

Not that serious-There was a very bad virus / flu thing going around the shop- it actually made one guy so ill, he was out for over a week! I have been overdosing on C since I got here so that may have stayed it off for a while-but this weekend, it finally got me-I went to sleep early friday, and took Nyquil saturday, slept for almost 14 hours! I may have nipped it in the bud! Staying on top of it-I have not missed a day yet and don't plan to! So all is well, thanks for your on-going prayers.
As far as guitar building goes-we are VERY busy. Trying to get our electrics, which are essentially done, into the spray booth. That
takes six days to spray, and then two weeks to harden, I have to finish putting frets on my electric neck and do the finish sanding, which is mostly done. We are in the process of getting our acoustic bodies assembled, and then carve and inlay the acoustic necks-that, on top of lectures, demos, studying and trying to stay well, I have been quite busy. Weekends are such a blessing!
I mentioned last entry that I was adding BING DING, mispelled, typing error, Binding, the decorative strip around the edge of the top of the guitar, is in, tortoise shell, looks really nice-The bubinga headcap I had put on the electric is gone, there was a slight flaw and I had to re-do it, I was not pleased, but in the long run, the new one matched the body better. so all is well and now I know how to fix that problem in the future!. Not many pics this week, as I just have not had time for much of anything.
I will post what I have , I think me carving top braces. Thats all for now-be praying for Lloyd, He is the one that missed so much- he has a week to catch up, starting Monday. Love to all-see you at Christmas!
SDJ

Another Week OFF!

As it turns out, my weekend home was quite a whirlwind. It was great to see my girl Michele, my dog,Jake, and the few friends I got to see at the two weddings on Saturday! I got to have a sushi dinner with my good friend Jon and Darlene, sweet of them to take the time! I also spent my daughter Heather's birthday with Her, Josh, her beau Geoff and Mish at our fave mexican place. It all was way too brief, and it will be another 6 weeks till I see Mish on Turkeyday! I miss everyone so much! The result of this time apart will be well worth it. As for that, you can see by the pix, our electrics are really starting to look like guitars!
I have received 90% of the hard ware, just waiting on the pick-ups. I made a custom headcap for my electric as well, which is made og what I call Bubinga paper, a piece of book-matched bubinga, left over from my acoustic sides, thickness sanded to aroun .030, about half as thick as a toothpick! I had to pre-bend this, as there is a slight arch on the headstock, it had to match, which required making a matching clamping caul. It took almost all of friday and was rather nerve wracking as if you mess it up you have to sand it off and start over! I also routed channels for the tortoise shell binding that will be going all around the body. I will fit and glue that in on monday. Next comes finish sanding and we will be in the spray booth by middle of next week, then fretting and final assembly. There has been rumors that the electrics will be done before Thanksgiving, or pert near. The acoustics obviously take a little longer, care and work. As you can see we have carved and glued in the sound board graft, transverse brace and X-bracing. Face braces and finger braces will be carved and glued in neck week, we are also gluing in kerfing, that holds the top and back to the sides and give you something to stiffen the sides and rout bingding channels- I also assume we will be doing acoustic neck inlays and neck carving next week and the following. Although the work is hard and sometimes overwhelming, there is a sense of comraderie among most of the people in the shop. People commenting on how good each others guitars look and comensurating when mistakes or accidents happen. And they do! the thing is, you have to look at mistakes as an opportunity to learn how to fix the problem without starting over! So it is applicable to the restoration and repair part that we will learn later on. The instructors to their own repair work while they work with us and so occasionally they will "DEMO" how to fix a top crack, repair a loose brace, replace or repair a tuning machine or fret work. A constant influx of incoming information. There will be so much to learn even after school is over, I guess thats why they call it a "practicing" luthier- you never stop learning, from practical experience, from others, books, etc.
Please be thinking, praying that a plan is already in place for me to use this new found knowledge and to use it in a way to help others. I have a lot of studying and note transcription to accomplish this weekend, so wish me luck!
Taking a few hours out tonight for a church sponsored OKtoberfest party then back to the books tonight.
I will eventually post all the links to the instructors music and instrument websites, I have to search teh web and compile them. soon.
Thanks again for your love, support and prayers! Miss you all!
Scotty

What a week(s)!

No blog info last week-what does that tell you, It was a tough week, In the creative sense, I am attempting to do a decorative head cap on my acoustic guitar which require me to make a laminate of hard woods that are thickness sanded to about .015
(that's thousandths of an inch) 1 piece of Maple, 1 ebony and then the decorative Bubinga and bbony cap all to equal around .070 see pics. on top of all the other work we have to do. I am currently cutting out support braces for the soundboard top-BENDING SIDES!-Lets just stop here a minute-They make it look very easy, but I will tell you this is like trying to wrestle a wildcat into a paper bag. The process is simple enough, wet them, wrap them in aluminum foil,put them in the bender, wait ten minutes, cool down for ten minutes then clamp them into a mold that is the shape of your guitar. Simple right? well this process require about 15 clamps, with cauls and four extra hand as well as the strength of 20 year old! and they must fit perfect, and they must com in and out of those molds to trim them to fit end to end, on the CENTER LINE! So at the end of that day I was spent! Everything else seemed to be going well, sound hole rosette was inlaid, the back braces installed and carved. My decorative inlay pieces cut and ready to fit. then it came time to align the neck for my electric. One moment of stupidity can ruin your whole day! I zigged when I should have zagged and wound up cutting my fretboard too short. Which means starting over on that process. That means thickness sanding, re-cutting fret slots, re-radiusing the fretboard, and re-registering and tapering the fretboard to get back to where I was the day before. Lemons to lemonade- I got to do all these processes again on top of performing a step that is usually reserved for the instructors, radiusing the fretboard-Kris Olsen (instructor) was very helpful and supportive. He showed me how the machine worked, how to set it up to carve an arch in a flat board and then actually perform the task of cutting a compound radius fretboard. So good came out of it. I am still performing quite averagely on my quiz's. There is so much info to absorb and retain, I am never sure what to study! I think I mentioned it we had a little mini concert by the Harp Guitar Trio-I will post their names and links soon. with more info-some pics for now.Things overall are coming along quite nicely- there will be plenty of beautiful guitars coming out of this class! Keep praying for knowledge and for me to keep all my fingers! I am looking forward to a trip home in a week! I miss you all but may only get to see a few-I apologize for that but I have two weddings on Sat. and church and a birthday on Sunday.
We are already in week 5 of a 20 week course so it will fly by. We have been told we will be spraying (finishing) our electrics in less than 3 weeks! I will take pics of it but will not post the finals until I return. Tease. Thank you all again for your thoughts, support and prayers. Here are a few pics
Love and miss you all-
Scotty

Guitar History 101

Well quite a week has unfolded. The good news is I think I have finally done fairly well on the math portion of our second quiz, although I am embracing it I am afraid math is not by best subject. We have very full plates and work is piling up, yet I am managing to stay current with our projects. I'll get straight through to the explanation of Guitar History 101-As we were having our morning break,enjoying a delicious "Roach Coach" snack, an elderly gentleman rounded the corner of the building asking to see someone in charge. I immediately recognized him as Richard "R.C." Allen, one of the last remaining luthiers from the golden age of guitar building in the late 40's and 50's, co-designer and artist of the original Paul Bigsby "Merle Travis" guitars and cohorts of famed builders Leo Fender, Doc Kaufmann, George Fullerton and many other notably historic guitar builders and early celebrities of guitar. His brother John Paul Allen accompanied him, as per usual, and filters questions from the masses. He had dropped by,Roberto-Venn on his way to Mesa, AZ on a family vacation, and as we would soon find out would be a "surprise" guest lecturer. He brought with him many of his archtop guitars and the venerable "Paul Bigsby" model (which I got to play!-see photos) which was made by from the original templates made by himself and Paul Bigsby in the late forties. He also brought with him an original fretboard template made by the original Dopera brothers whom founded the famous Dobro Model Resonator guitars. Most of our class was really too young to appreciate that this guy was the "REAL DEAL" a man who holds a place in guitar making history. Those of us who did know, where all excited and goose-pimply and hung on every word. Once they all realized how important a figure he is, they all sat, spellbound, in a hot sticky lecture room listening intently to all the famous storys of who did what when and where, as if they were there. As i said a few of us got to play his archtops and the Paul Bigsby guitar as well as the new Model "Uncle Chester" model which he was given the blessing by Gretsch guitars to use that name, of course named for Chet Atkins. R.C. Allen is building "molded" archtops in a process that he came up with and built a machine to produce them using hardwood plywoods, that he makes, no one else has this hame process although on a grand production, hardwood ply guitars are made, just not in his manner, which he explained the process in great detail to us, almost to sort of, "pass the torch" to younger builders. Making sure me knew, "there is always a new way to accomplish and old task." The instructors and staff at R-V were all especially buzzed about Mr Allens' visit and we all continue to recount the stories he told. A fairly big event for all of us. Mr Allen is 85 years young and is still taking orders for guitars. The "Uncle Chester" is surprisingly affordable, and I would think, highly collectable. If I can find a way to order one, I will, and try very hard, I will. I would suggest to anyone that just because what and who he is, the last of the breed, it would be money well spent. As for me and school I will be brief, Mr Allen's visit was the highlight of the week, let's see we are designing our rosettes for our acoustics (soundhole ornamentation) which is very laborious in that it requires hand cutting, with a jewelers saw pieces of ebony, abalone, mother of pearl, etc. to a tolerance of about .065 thick by .032 wide. we have also glued our electric guitar tops to the bodies and have cut them to shape, rough sawn our acoustic necks and will glue thos up next week, chose our pick-ups and binding materials for the electrics and installed the back braces into our acoustic guitar backs. The process of making braces and rounding off the backs to a 15 foot radius is all done by hand in hollow for sanding decks that are precision made and have 80 grit sandpaper glued into them. I will post as many pics as I can tonight and post the rest on my "Mobile Me' .mac gallery later. I am very happy and grateful to have this opportunity in life, not many people get to chase a dream. The love and support of my wife, Michele, is paramount. as well as the support I get from my Kids, family and friends. I am truly blessed with the best of all the aforementioned. I am homesick. I will look forward to seeing a few of you, in October as I will come home for a weekend visit for a couple important weddings and my special daughter's birthday. I f I don't get to see you, It doesn't mean I don't love you, it is just a quick, furlough. Again, thank you all for your prayers, support and confidence. I will do the best I can. Blessings and Peace.

Short Week, Long Days

Even though we had a short week after the Labor Day weekend, We were hit with a ton of information and projects to do.
As I said- The math is a real problem for me, I am trying to embrace it, but I just do not have a head for numbers.
I am sorry there oar no pictures this week, I just didn't have the time to do any. We are into many projects in order to get our guitars done-we have thickness sanded the sides of our acoustics-book matched the scraps from the sides in order to use that for the headstock head cap, (re-designing headstocks for approval this weekend.) although I have not done all of this we have cut out the backs of our acoustics, and will be preparing an inside center seam with a wood strip that runs in opposite wood grain directions so that when the wood "changes" with cold, heat, humidity or dryness, the back seam where the wood is book matched will not separate. This process of gluing the center strip is don with "go sticks" I will try to do a pick of mine when I do it next week. We have also begun to learn the art of inlaying, mother of pearl, abalone, wood marquetry, almost anything that can be sanded flat enough to inlay can be. I think I undertook a little too much for my first inlay when I began cutting out J.D. Casey, in a script kind of font. It is all dine with a jewelers saw-very fine blades that break easily! And a little bench mounted sawing jig
called a birds eye that is nothing mire than a small piece of flat scrap wood that has a small slot and a small hole that looks a little like a birds eye. The material you are sawing has the design drawing glued to it, and then it just a matter of cutting it out slowly and carefully. The dust is not very good to breathe, actually a little poisonous, so breathing protection is worn. It was a struggle- and lots of broken blades but I did it! Hot water takes the design paper off and then all the rough edges are sanded smooth with needle files. An arduous task but hopefully it will be worth the trouble. I think carving necks for both of our guitars is in the near future-as well as starting to cut out the electric guitar bodies and putting on the decorative tops.
I was prepared for a lot of hard work and learning, it has become increasingly more intensive as far as workload and the knowledge and information that must be assimilated. I hope this old body of mine will be able to keep up with the youngsters!
I sure do miss everyone and I am looking forward to a brief visit in October. Thanks, as always for your continued prayer and support. More pics next time- I promise!
I put a couple pics of some of the design work drawings- Headstock and inlay design and the small mushroom shaped dealies are the neck fret position markers, ( re-thinking that design!)
Love you all!

OK Two in one day! SELF TUNING GUITAR

Don't forget to look at the one below-cuz I am posting two in one day!
The reason is, I forgot some stuff! The lectures and Demos are one of the most important parts of the class-although it is hot and sticky,YUCK!- we have had some very interesting lectures on many different subjects regarding building processes, wood selection, inlay, rosette design and on this day, the Director, Bill Eaton gave a lecture on the "temperament" of guitars or how and why the fret board is laid out the way it is. We were also lucky to get a demo of one of his most recent builds. A double neck, one acoustic, One electric, and a harp course. The electric aspect of this beautiful instrument has an on-board computer that actually will self tune to over 200 different tunings with the push of a button within about 2 seconds. It all runs on servo motors that remember tunings that you load in. It also employs a synthesizer hex-pickup configuration for triggering midi synth modules for some really crazy effects, all the while being able to "mix in" the acoustic sounds of the actual instrument-CRAZY! Jon and I actually saw the tuning module demo'd at the NAMM SHOW on year when it first came out.
This particular lecture also dealt with scale lengths string tension and intonation. There is a certain amount of science and mathematics that have come way before me-thousands of years ago, some one figured this stuff out and it has been in a constant state of improvement ever since. I will post a picture of Mr Eaton as soon as I get permission from him and also a link to his website that details his work with other great artists such as Carlos Nakai, the great Native American Fluteist.
I will also ask Mr Eaton about recent CD's he has available-a gentleman and very inventive individual!
I also have been going to the Sail Inn on Sunday eves at 4pm to see "The Noodles" - a better than the Dead, Grateful Dead tribute band complete with the reproduction "Jerry Garcia" Guitars built by another instructor, Jon Reuter He also plays "Jerry"
in the band and I was very impressed with them and what great crowd of 'DEAD HEADS" complete with tye dye and spinning hippies! SO FUN! NOT TO BE MISSED! ANYONE COMING TO AZ NEEDS TO SEE THIS BAND! I will see if I can get permission to post a link to his website and Guitars. Ok Thats it!
Be sure to watch for the pix next week!

CRAZY WEEK!

I apologize in advance for not being able to update the blog more often, things are happening so fast! There will be much I cannot even post photos for because I haven't taken those photos!

What's happening? Well, lets see, this last week we obtained the stock,(wood) of African Ebony,

a very hard black wood to use for both our acoustic and electric fret / fingerboards we thickness sanded them to .0285 (less than 1/4 of an inch) and with special jigs- we cut the fret slots. next week we will contour them to fit the shapes of our necks, add a compound radius to the top of them, (curved over for a more comfortable playing position.) and I am sure we will fret them as well. You will see the "Blueprint" for my electric build, for the sake of getting too wanky, I used the best contours of some of my favorite guitars, The top of a Telecaster the offset waist of a Jazzmaster and the cutaway of my Bluesbird. All the while considering the issues of playing comfort balance access to the upper frets and sitting position. I like it, I hope you do. Also a template was made from that blueprint for cutting out the body shape. (see pics)

we also chose all the woods for the acoustic, Top, back and sides. I chose a Red Western Cedar top for my OM style guitar and absolutely stunning Bubinga (African Mahogany) for the backs and sides. I also chose Bubinga for the Top of my electric, ( not as psychedelic of figuring) but quite flamey and figured with a Honduran Mahogany body. The acoustic top, back, and sides as well as the electric top have been bookmatched, handsanded with straightedges to a achieve a center seam with equal and opposite grain patterns. The back of my acoustic has asmall amount of "Sapwood" showing in the center (highly desirable) whisch is the outer edge of the tree that is the "alive" part of the tree that carries sap from the roots to the top of the canopy. SEE PIX!

Neck Blocks and tail blocks have been made and we are beginning to design our inlay patterns.

I think I have a good Idea of some of these designs and will post sketches as I make them.

The lectures and demos happen throughout the day, usually about 3 of them and then we are set into work, some time in teams as some of the processes require two sets of hands. like thickness sanding the sides of the guitar, which are about 3 feet long 6-7 inches wide and must be sanded to within .085 which is pretty thin! A very dusty process especially when doing the ebony as it is pure black and there is a cloud of dust coming from the work areas. We wear masks and hearing protection, but even with that we have some pretty black boogers.

Luthiers are allowed and encouraged to pick their noses, and their friends, but not their friends noses. Alas, you cannot wipe your friends on the sofa!

The pace is fast and furious, 8am to 6pm, very hot, very sweaty, I am staying hydrated, about 4-5 quarts of water a day. Very dirty, I must shower morning and night. There is no such thing as cold water in Arizona-So there is no way to cool off with a cold shower even.

Again I must express my gratitude to you all for your interest and support and encouragement, and to Rosie for taking me in. She is a very sweet lady with a great group of friends that are making me feel welcome. Carol, her sister took me to Scottsdale Christian Church this past Sunday, I was very small, but very warm and welcoming with great music and an even greater message about grace. I even have a surrogate dog, Codi, who seem to be happy I am here, she follows me everywhere! But I sure do miss my Big Dand Dog Jake. Oh, I miss all of you too...

But sure do miss that dog! I have been in contact with Heather and her Beau, Geoff, the math professor, who has been kind enough to give me some phone tutoring. Heather is hard at work in college for Art School, and Josh is still out on tour, They came through AZ and I was able to see him briefly and get them a decent meal. I will try to get an update up during the week, but as it is I am too pooped at night! I can't decide whether to continue with The J.D. Casey Custom Brand Guitars or switch over to SD Jeffers Customs, This would be the time to do it. Or JD Casey, built by Scott D. Jeffers.!?? What do you all think?

Please pray for everyones safety, take care of each other, oh and pray for Tim and Carol-

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and I keep you all in my heart.

THANKS- PEACE OUT!

Love!

Pics below are Bubinga sides- Bubinga Back, Wait to you see these with laquor! Two fretboards, Template for electric and Codi, my Arizona dog friend!

The First Week

The first week has come and gone... What can I say?, more than anything I miss my Wife, dog ,

family and friends.,I slept late today Sunday as it is the day of rest and I need to keep up with my Studies.

Life here with Rosie is great, she makes me feel very comfortable, she is a great person and is very understanding and sweet. I could be partying it up with a bunch of 18 year old's in some run down apartment with a beer keg, I am in a beautiful, comfortable home with a surrogate dog Cody, a sweet and very old Yellow Lab that seems to be glad I am here.

I am forever grateful to Rose.

IT'S HOT, VERY HOT, DID I SAY VERY VERY? Not a day under a hundred with equal humidity, forget what they say about a dry heat. I just try to stay out of the direct sunlight and near a fan. but when we all get together in the lecture room, a lot of hot sweaty men (& two girls) well that's just plain nasty.

Lets get caught up, Monday, first day was spent getting aquainted with the different types of large woodworking machines, routers, sanders table and radial saws, thickness sanders, planers drill presses and band saws all of which could rip you to shreds, there is literally one band saw called "THE BUTCHER BOY" named by the company who made it for butchering cattle, literally a flesh an bone cutting saw! So I just keep repeating,"You are a guitar player"

I move slowly and carefully and use push sticks whenever I can. We learned how to "end match"

wood so that when you glue two pieces together, the grain at the end of final piece will be equal and opposite. (see first Photo), Templates are then traced on the to the centerline, and cut out with a bandsaw (not butcher boy), oscillating drum sanders and disk sanders do the rough sanding to get the high spots off from the bandsaw, then a a router is used to cut out the neck pocket, pick-up and controls cavitiies. Orbital Sanders take care of the front and back flat sides and then alot of hand sanding of the sides, all around till it is smooth enough to do a"round-over" on the back with a router and bit. The top is not rounded over to accommodate "binding," yet another process not addressed yet. Then more hand sanding until it "feels" right.

I will only use first name as to not incriminate, Chris ,Mat, Troy, Bob and John are the instructors so far. Very knowledgeable and very strict about saftey and proper tool use. I feel confident they will keep us all safe and help us to build great guitars.

There will be tons more sanding before we finish. We also thickness sanded our ebony fretboards, the thickness sanders spin very fast and are long steel rods wrapped with sandpaper, the idea is to run the fretboard blank through over and over while lowering the roller by small increments until the board is at a specified thickness. Everyone was cover with black Ebony dust, mixed with sweat, not pretty. An education in different type of wood preparing us for wood selection for our acoustic guitar builds, their musical properties, cost, availability and reactions to other woods on an acoustic level. We have the choice of building a Martin style OM (orchestra model) or a Dreadnaught style. I have opted to build an OM with a Western Red Cedar top and either Honduran Mahogany or Bubinga Back and sides set with a Mahogany neck. Based on my bluesy playing style I thought the warmth of the Cedar top would match well with the harder, tighter back and sides to give a good "overall" sound with the ability to be punchy when necessary. Also, I don't own an OM. We will also be designing all of own soundhole rosettes, headstock plates, fretboard inlays and binding. The electric I will build will be of the Fender-ish Telecaster type with a slab-board neck and Mahogany body. with I think, a Mahogany or Koa top plate or cap with tortoise shell binding and maybe a Bigsby tremolo, maybe not, maybe a standard Tele bridge that accommodates a humbucker in the bridge position and a mini-humbucker in the neck position. The Tele body we built during the first 3 days has an option of a 'Baritone" neck, which will essentially render it a six string bass, that plays just like a guitar with string gauges to keep it guitar-like playing.

So that is the first week. It has been as I said very hot, humid and intense. I am drawing up some headstock designs and the body shape for my electric.

BONUS! Josh and "Sleep for Sleepers" came through late last night and I got to spend an hour or so with the guys. They got a good meal, but no rest they went right on to San Diego!

Make sure to go to their Myspace and follow their progress, videos, etc.

Thanks again to all my friends back home keeping a eye on Michele-

BTW if you want to contact me by email-great, I check it about every other day, so any messages you send via Facebook will only be checked on the weekends.

This is still pretty, different, but with the undying support of God, my Rock,

Michele, my wonderful wife, my kids, Heather and Josh, all of you, my wonderful friends. I will remain headstrong in my goal. Please pray that I leave all my human ego behind, and that I stay low in the boat, listen, learn and concentrate on nothing but my studies. Thanks in advance.

Well that's it for now, off to do homework, and laundry-

God Bless you all

I miss everyone very much.

BTW the first friday I did a sit-in gig! I don't think I will have any trouble finding place to play on a limited level of course! PEACE!

First Day! CRAZY!

Well... after an unbelievable evening of fun and friends and playing some fun music with my good pals Jon and Rod, and Julian, and celebrating Mishies B-day, we finally arrived, after a long morning of travel got settled, unpacked and prepared, I finally attended the first dat at Roberto Venn! A long HOT , HUMID Day but very good as far as learning goes- mostly getting aquanted with the woodworking machines like planers and table saws etc. getting our tools squared away and meeting folks and getting aquainted with our surroundings, we finally selected wood blanks for our first guitar body which will be Telecaster style and I have opted to make it a baritone guitar (simply because I do not have one!) But that may change. So we planed, sanded and joined the wood halves (alder) glued and clamped, thickness planed after gluing, and tomorrow we will cut out the template and rout all the body cavities for pick-ups etc and will probably have a finished, body by friday or monday. Minus the actual finish, then we will prepare the rest of the guitar, make the neck, and all the other parts later next week. So it's all happening FAST. Alot of young people and two other other gents that are my age and one even older! I am beat! so I will post a couple pics and will not update till the weekend.

Some shots of RV and my workstation, far right and some machines as well as the template.

Over all a very productive day. Make sure to look at the Roberto Venn website for a little history of the joint.

http://roberto-venn.com/http://roberto-venn.com/