New Guitars, Update

I finally have my last two tops finished. I can't get enough of the Gates of Hell design, so I did another one. For this motif, I keep the pencil lines to a minimum, just sketching where I want a flame. The fun is letting the curls and whisps just flow with the steady rythm of the fret saw. Where the walnut and cherry "Gates" is raw and edgy, this one in maple is more refined. The other top is bookmatched hand spalted beech. I'll tell you more about this wood later. Know, for now, that I have been working with this wood for almost five years. It is quite simply the finest spalted wood that I have ever produced. For you woodworkers out there, you may truely eat your heart out, for I have this material stacked to the rafters and coming out my ears.

Finger board art is progressing nicely. You can see the Eat Your Heart Out one is not quite done. The curly hearts motif requires more precise layout. Just to make sure that folks know that it is hand made, though, I do pencil everything in by eye. Each design takes place right on the wood, with no advance artwork. I just put things in where it looks like they should go.

Note: my finger board construction is completely unique. It is the result of my self taught approach to woodworking and produces a very stiff, flat and strong fingerboard.

Most finger boards are a solid piece of wood. Even if you work from a quartered, split bolt, once you have a quarter inch thick, perfectly flat board, there will be some grain runout. You are also at the mercy of wood movement across the fingerboard, which can not be good for frets in the long term. Cutting slots for the frets causes great weakening to a solid board.

My finger boards consist of three pieces of 3/32" veneer. The grain is all running the same direction, but the minute diferences are enough to produce a very stiff laminte. Fret slots are cut to about the middle of the center layer, leaving two plys beneath for stiffness and strength. Wood movement is greatly curtailed across the grain so pressed in frets stay put. Inlays and bindings stay tight.

Most inlays for fingerboard are store bought and very thin. About half as thick as my veneer. They are usually epoxied into routed out areas and then the whole thing is given some putty aroung the edges. There is a reason you see inlays missing on old guitars. All that flexing and seasonal wood movement will test the strongest glue bond. With nothing mechanical to hold them in they fall out.

With marquetry, the top layer of veneer is inlaid from the underside. Wedgeshaped inlays, picture little mountains, fit into wedge shaped holes and are glued in place with wood glue. When the 3 ply laminate,(Titebond3 coldpress) of the finger board is formed the inlays are thus prevented from falling through the front by virtue of their shape, this and the incredibly precise cutting achieved with the hand fret saw. The thickness of the inlay is the same as the top layer of veneer 3/32", so there is plenty of wood to wear. Fingerboard veneers are selected carefully and must survive a fingernail test for hardness to be used for grounds or marquetry.

Of course, you are thinking that this must require some very precise work. You are correct. Few have the skills for this demanding, detailed work. I have been precision cold laminating drawerfronts, table tops and picture frames with fancy marquetry for many, many years. My entire process is self learned and self taught. I have revived an essentially dead art. What I have come to think of as true marquetry. There are perhaps few who can do what I do with a fret saw. Most books on the subject dismiss it as too difficult. What I bring to my electric guitars is truely a unique skill. And the end result is a truely unique guitar. And, oh so original.

IW