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
