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I had built instruments from the early 70's up until the mid 2000's when strange central nervous system problems started encroaching on my ability to function. Due to a combination of sensory/motor/cognitive factors, I hadn't built an instrument or really done much with instruments in general since 2010 or so. The docs didn't have a good handle on what it was that was ailing me, so I sort of went into hibernation.

Fast forward to a month or so ago. I had an appointment with a new neurologist at Duke, and he seems to have figured out what's been going on. I'm not back to 100%, there is some permanent damage, but my overall state of sensory/motor/cognitive and ATTITUDE has improved immeasurably!

So, now I'm up in the mountains of North Carolina with half of my shop here, and the other half still in Knoxville (where I'd lived for close to 50 years). I decided to make an instrument while I'm in lockdown. In this case, a flat top 000 12 fret guitar. I had the materials and supplies on hand and the basic tools available to do it.

The guitar is coming out fine. Plenty of screw ups, but plenty of opportunities to practice repair work along the way! I haven't built a flat top in 40 plus years, haven't built a guitar in 10, and haven't built an instrument at all in 8 years. It's been a re-learning experience to be sure. But it's coming back, and it feels good. I think that the flaws on this guitar will be apparent to me, but probably not many others (unless it sounds like crap when I'm done).

First time I've even been interested in years. My inlay and engraving (which had been my forte for a long time) is rusty, but coming back. Basic guitar building is too. Got the box built in a little less than a week. Working on the neck, and hope to start finishing in a week or so. It's definitely making these days of sequestration pass by in a quicker and more pleasant fashion. The re-learning part is frustrating, but hey it's been a bunch of years and it is starting to come back!

Anyway, I almost feel guilty in starting to feel better and more positive right when the world is coming to a screeching stop, but at the same time, it sure feels good to be getting back into the groove and at a time where I can really focus on it guilt free! And at least to me, it's the silver lining in an otherwise cloudy situation.

Hope y'all are making good use of the downtime too.

Dave

Awesome, Dave! Glad to read your story and the outcome.

Don't feel guilty - there are no shortage of people who will come out of quarantine with nothing more than a much longer Netflix watch history. You're coming out with a rekindled passion and a new outlook. Priceless.

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Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
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I have plenty of Netflix history going on too... And yard work, and fixing appliances, and cooking. I was talking to a friend the other day and we were commenting about how, at least for us, life hasn't changed that much. But we were both old mountain hermits to begin with! I guess it's an abrupt welcoming to the rest of the world to our world. Nahhh.....You just make the best of what you've got.

Dave




Dave

That will be a fine looking guitar. And remember - sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.

Thanks.

Oh yeah, the bad always has to be there to make the most of the good! It's all good.

Dave

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

So far so good!

Mountain hermit here, too, a couple mountains north of you (outside of Mountain City TN).

Inlay work looks pretty nice for being rusty.

Glad you're overcoming your health issues and back to building.

Dave, awesome to hear that your health has improved and that you are building again! We've missed you at the luthier meetings in Knoxville (we still have them every 3 months or so). Would love to see that guitar in person after the virus craziness passes; maybe you can bring it to a meeting sometime. Mountains of NC are hard to beat, hope everything goes well for you there.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Hi Dave, glad to hear your new neurologist has got a handle on things and got you on the mend.
Thanks for your post, inspiring to see good work, and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Well welcome back! I'm glad you found a doctor worth his weight in gold. Amazing how that works.

Your health is your wealth David . Keep moving forward! with that geetar!

I'm still on the email list--I'd love to make it down when things get a little more normal! I'm only 2 1/2 hours out of Knoxville.

Dave

We'll look forward to it when things get back to normal.

Cheers,
Steve

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Congrats, Dave! Awesome that you're feeling better AND back to building.

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George :-)

Great to see you building again Dave. I recall many of your posts back when I used to frequent the OLF and look forward to seeing more. I built a 12 string 000 quite a few years back and am now building a six string off the same StewMac plan. All the best!

So glad things are looking up. And nice looking instrument, neck, and inlay. Good idea to go basic on the first one.

Ed

Glad to hear you're back into it! Fantastic news!

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Great news Dave! I'll have to check out that 000 when things get back to some semblance of normalcy. Love that inlay!

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

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John

Great news, fancy looking guitar! Love to see and play it sometime.

Thanks for all the good words! I've got the thing pretty much done in the white at this point--still tweeking the neck joint just a hair, and ready for a final sanding/masking for bridge and fingerboard extension etc. I started on it three weeks ago today, and have managed to get in at least an hour or two everyday since then. But here's a couple of updated pics of the "in the white" guitar. It's slowly starting to come back to me...

Dave

I'm interested in how that inlay was done. Any chance you would care to elaborate a bit?

Sure, happy to.

First, I cut the pearl. The little diamonds I cut with a CNC machine--they're really hard to get symmetrical by hand, even though that's how I did them for years. I have several CNC machines that I use for various tasks around the shop, but mainly CNC is where my wood and metal working, my computer programming (I'm a retired IT geek...) and music can all come together. Designing and cutting inlay shapes is a simple CAD task.

The moon, I cut the old fashioned way with a jewelers saw.

After truing up all of the edges on the pearl, I lightly glue them to the surface they're going to be set in to with a tiny drop of Titebond. Then, I take a very sharp scribe and trace the outside of the inlays onto the wood. A bit of heat, and the Titebond lets go, and the inlays pop back off. Then I rub a little bit of blackboard chalk into the scribed lines.

I've used various routers, but I've been using one of John Hall's air powered ones for a few years, and it's my favorite. I take a 1/16" end mill, and rough out the bulk of the cavities to slightly less than the thickness of the pearl. I want to sand the pearl down to the wood, but not too much. I follow up with a 1/32" end mill and cut until the chalk lines just disappear. Past this point, there's a little bit of adjusting usually necessary to get a very slightly loose fit. I don't want to see a line of filler around the inlay, but if the pearl fits too tightly, it can crack.

To put the inlays in, I use epoxy colored with either sawdust (for rosewood) or black powdered tempra paint for ebony.

After the epoxy has set up nice and hard, I level the inlays with the wood. I then sand through 1000 or 2000 grit until the pearl is nice and shiny.

At this point, I use a #5H pencil to draw the lines I'll be engraving on the pearl. I follow that up with using a square graver (actually a 110 degree graver most of the time) to engrave the lines. When I'm happy with the engraving, I use a black lacquer stick or Grit Laskin's engraving filler to blacken the lines. I use a piece of rough brown paper bag paper to remove most of the excess filler from the surface, and follow back up with 2000 grit for a final polish.

That's it in a somewhat long nutshell. I've done a lot of inlay/engraving work on my banjos--mostly at least somewhat in the style of the 19th century master banjo builders, and can't help but slip a bit of it into guitars too.

Here's an archtop uke I built a few years ago--I ripped off the peghead design from a piece of 20's tin pan alley sheet music:



And here's a little practice plate I did that kind of shows the process I use to lay out and engrave:

For being a retired IT guy, I sure suck at posting attachments! Sorry for the double up...

Dave