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