NGBD - New Guitar Build Day

Yesterday I cut a few more holes in your body. I don't suppose you felt a thing. In one picture you can see the deliberate mistake. I had to do this because only God can make a perfect thing. It won't be there after today. I also did some fine adjustments to the trem rout as I intended to keep the trem close to the body.
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Rough routing
49+-+roughout.jpg


Control cavity:
50+-+controlpocket.jpg


All the holes are now made, cutaway cutaway, 12mm radius made and I have to do the final hand sand on the body (which looks and feels good) so today I should be able to glue the neck in.
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Rough tummycut:
51+-+gutaway.jpg


Position of the jack plate:
52+-+sideoutlet.jpg


Sanding the radius of the edge:
53+-+sandandsandandsand.jpg


Finished:
54+-+bodydone.jpg
 
Yesterday, Chris did the following.
Chris:
I checked that all the angles were correct and that the trem would fit low in the body, made the wedges that fit under the overhanging fingerboard end, masked off the body, slapped in some glue and clamped the two parts together. Too late to go back now!
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Checking the angle of the neck:
55+-+wedge.jpg


Glued & clamped:
56+-+joint.jpg


Looks rather good from a distance:
57+-+longshot.jpg
 
I would love to hang out in the shop or even apprentice for someone like Chris with those skills. Fascinating!

Thanks for sharing this.
 
On wow!!
Beautiful...
Thanks for sharing.
I second the thought of hanging out with Chris at his shop. What a blast that'd be.
 
Next up is one of my favourite parts of the guitar building: the heel.
The glue has dried and this is how it looks:
58+-+aftergluing.jpg


Then Chris starts working on it with a chisel:
59+-+chisel.jpg


After scraping and sanding it's finaly done and looks like this:
60+-+done.jpg


A fine piece of craftsmanship I would say.
Now all it needs are the back plates and the first layers of lacquer can be applied.
For those who wanted to read the old newsletters, it's better to use the links at the bottom of his homepage.
This is the link for the last newsletter:
CLC Newsletter - October 2013
 
Enjoying reading through this MisterE. Those look like some big frets he's using, but it could just be the pics distorting things as often happens. Looks like you're getting a unbelievable instrument out of this. Congrats..
 
Thanks.
I've got three Larkins already and they're all brilliant.
Chris has never disappointed and I hope this one will meet or exceed my expectations also.

They're bigger that what you normally find on a strat: Dunlop 6110 It's wide and tall but not like a Jumbo.
I like taller frets because I got chubby fingers and I like to get some meat under the strings for heavy bending ;)
 
Last update for this week.
Chris is attending an art fair with his wife, The Lovely Syra.
She's a talented and renowned painter.
Syra Larkin Shoreline Studio Figurative,Symbolist.arist
Chris sent me these pictures:
61+-+drill.jpg


You can see him driling holes in the back plates.
The plates are made from the same wood as the body with matchin grain.

62+-+fitted.jpg


Normally, I always remove the tremolo spring cover plate for when I need to adjust the springs.
But I liked these back plates so much - they'll be even better when cloured and lacquered - I don't want to remove it.
So I asked Chris if he could find a solution so I can leave it in place.
He suggested a Schaller Sure Claw.
That way he'll only have to drill a small hole to fit the allen key.
63+-+springadjuster.jpg
 
That's really impressive how Chris, has got the matching woodgrain for the covers. It almost looks like he cut the covers out and then did the routs but probably not. How did he do it ?

Perhaps he had cut a thinner piece off before forming the body and it's made from that. One thing for sure he is a real craftsman.
 
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Perhaps he had cut a thinner piece off before forming the body and it's made from that
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That"s exactly how he does it.
Same technique he used on Tim's guitar. But that had a carved back!
My origina plan was to have Chris make me a strat with a quilted maple top and an inlay scratchplate from the same wood.
But so far neither he or I have been able to get our hands on a piece that's good enough.
Mastergrade quilted maple is getting harder to find since all the big companies are buying almost everything that's available.
But as soon as we find it, you'll here about it 'cause that'l be then next Guitar Build Thread ;)
 
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