The Tale of Adrian Bear

A few years ago I was dating a gal who hated being called Shelly.  So I will call her that in this blog.  Again, I try not to use real names.  Anyway, I was talking to Shelly, and made a joke that after our date she would snuggle her teddy bear all night long thinking of me.  And no, I couldn't say that with a straight face.

She then said that she didn't have a teddy bear.  Which I replied, "Well, you've had a teddy bear when you were a little girl, right?"  She said, "No."  She then went on to tell me about how she didn't have that great of a childhood, (Okay, it was pretty awful,) and never really had any stuffed animals.

So I decided to make the situation right.  I went to the Build-A-Bear Workshop, and decided to make her an, "Adrian Bear."  This is what I came up with.

Okay, so I put my hat and glasses on Adrian Bear, but you can see the resemblance.  She had moved to a different place, so I mailed her Adrian Bear, and told her she now had her own teddy bear.  She loved this.  And on a side note, who wouldn't?  Adrian Bear is pretty darn awesome.  You can really see the how much we look alike. 

So, that's my touching story.  I haven't talked to Shelly in a few years.  I hope she and Adrian Bear are doing well wherever they are. 

Guitar Project #7, The Rosewood Telecaster, Part 2

Here is Part 1:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/05/guitar-project-7-rosewood-telecaster.html

Today was a perfect Saturday afternoon for woodworking.  I was actually working on two Telecasters, but I will only talk about the rosewood one in the post.

First off, I had a few things I wanted to accomplish.  I'll show the photo first, and way what I did to it.

First up, I routed out the neck pocket perfectly.  I am getting much better than I was.  I also cleaned up the pickup and cavity routes.

Next, I took the bandsaw, and cut the rest of the body into shape.  It reminds me of a very early piece of advice I got when I started my luthier training.  Cut the neck pocket first, then cut out the rest of the body.

Next, I cleaned up the neck pocket, and added the screw holes.

Mostly, I sanded the crap out of this thing.  Man, I thought maple was hard.  This rosewood ranks right up there with it.  I am so thankful for my spindal sander.  It helps with 90 degree sanding, and I don't know what I ever did before I had one.

This has me worried.  I was originally happy with this being a one piece block of rosewood.  However, this is a calcium deposit that is running right down the middle of the tree.  I have a feeling that I am going to have to fill it in with CA glue mixed with rosewood dust.

I wanted to get an idea of what this body would look like once I put a finish on it.  The easy way to do that is to wet the wood.  It also gives me an idea if I would want to darken the wood, or leave it the way it is.

My next step is do keep sanding.  I can't really do much more than that until I order parts for it.  So far I am pretty happy with it.

Guitar Project #7, The Rosewood Telecaster

So I'm back in the workshop.  As I am finishing up one Telecaster I am starting another.  I think it was more luck that determined my choice of wood than brains.  I inherited a huge piece of Rosewood.  It was big enough to make a Telecaster body out of it without having to glue pieces together.  It was a rare piece of wood that is the perfect size for a guitar body.

Back in 1968 (I believe) Fender made an all Rosewood Telecaster for The Beatles George Harrison.  He used that guitar on the last few Beatles' albums, as well as his solo album, All Things Must Pass.  It had a very distinctive sound to it.

So I knew that this would be the perfect project for me.  Here's a picture where I have just started the rough cutting.

I then laid out the cutting line for the neck pocket, pickups, and control cavity.  I put a few forester bit cuts in the cavities so the router bits could get started.

In this picture, you can see where I have used a mini-router/dremel to route out the cavities.  It may take longer, but I have better control over what I am doing, and where I am cutting.

Next is the view of the back of the guitar.

I am worried about a place right in the middle of the guitar.  If you look (side to side, middle) at the back, you can see what looks like a crack.  It's where the middle of the tree was.  It's a calcium deposit.  I will probably have to fill and glue it up.

I did a bit of sanding on the back, and boy, is this rosewood hard.  It's also heavy too.  I'm betting this guitar will have a weight balance similar to a Paul Reed Smith.  In other words, a very heavy body, but the overall balance will be nice.

More to come when work continues on it.

The Rise of the Phoenix .... Guitar

Here's a previous post so you know what I am talking about:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-am-terrible-luthier-but-im-working-on.html

Basically, I am trying to bring back a guitar from the dead  (The guitar known as Project 5.)  A guitar that I happened to screw up, but am now in the process of fixing my F-ups.  So far it's going great.  In the last post you can see how Dad made a plug for  the hole in the back.  After the glue had dried, I ground down the big part of the plug, and then used a hand planer to make it all smooth.  Here's the picture:

Right now I am in the process of adding polyurethane to blend in the wood.  It's going pretty good so far.

The other main problem I had was the truss rod blowing through the back of the neck.  I put a patch on it, and shaped it into place.  It's also looking good, and I'm putting a finish on the back of the neck.  Here's the photos:

Before I started going too crazy with the poly, I wanted to make sure my patch would hold.  I still had the old strings hanging lose on the guitar, so I tightened them up.  Great news, the neck held.  I ended up playing her for about 10 minutes, and it was great.  Except for where the strings had time to rust over the last year and a half.  That wasn't too fun.  

So I am very happy with the way things are going.  I'm not sure how much poly still has to go on the neck, but I think it's close to being finished.  Stay tuned for the next blog where hopefully I will be able to show the guitar in it's completed state.  Oh, and also put some new strings on it.

I Am A Terrible Luthier, But I'm Working On It

For quite a while now I have been building a guitar I've called "Project 5."  Here's the original post describing the ideas I had behind it.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/02/not-another-guitar-project.html

Here's a picture of the guitar that I based my design on.

But I wanted it to have that jangle and style of the Gretsch White Penguin.

Here is what I have come up with so far.

Not bad, but I have made a number of mistakes.  I have fixed most of them, but I have two serious ones.

The first big mistake I made was drilling a hole out the back of the body.  You can see the hole in the picture above.  So I decided to plug the hole.  I would like to thank my Dad for woodturning a piece of black walnut so that I could fill the hole.  Here's the piece he did.

With a bit of Titebond 2 glue, and some time, I will be able to fix my screw up.  After the glue dries I will sand down the plug, and cover it with lacquer.

The next mistake was as serious as it gets.  I screwed up royally.  I screwed up so bad that I put this guitar away for over a year and a half.  Simply put, I made the neck too thin.  Then, when I was shaving it into shape, I cut through, so that the truss rod was showing out the back of the neck.  

So, after spending some time away from the project, I had a friend on the net show how to put a patch over a broken neck.  His was way worse, so I figured I could save this guitar since it was not as bad.  This is what I came up with.

It may not be pretty, but it will work.  I tested the movement on the neck, and it seems to be holding.  I have sanded it even, and applied tung oil to fill the grain.  Once I get the hole on the back sanded even, I will start applying polyurethane to both the filled hole and the neck.  

Adrian's Insane Violin Project, Part 3

Little by little I have been working on my strange violin.  In my last violin post, I was working on carving out the inside of the backplate.  I have it just about where I want it.

I have smoothed it out a little more since this picture was taken.  But you get the idea, the shape is really coming along.

Here is the rough shape of the Adirondack Red Spruce top after it was cut out on the bandsaw.

After a lot of work, we will fast-forward to what the top plate looks like in the hands of me!

That's a lot of work.  Luckily, the spruce cuts a lot easier than the black walnut did.  So now it's time to cut out the underside.

I used my dremel tool to cut out the inside to save time.  I then use my hand planes to smooth it down to the required thickness.

Here's a closer look at the inside.  You can see the depth marks (they are the small holes.)

Finally, I will show the top and back plates side by side.

There's still a lot of work to do on the top plate, but it is coming along nicely.  I just hope it sounds good after I put in all this hard work.