Wild Mountain Thyme

Getting my feet wet on this whole “vlogging” thing. I should have turned the lamp off. Oh well. The take was too nice to trash. My arrangement of “Wild Mountain Thyme”, or “Holy is His Name” when I play it in church, either way a timeless Celtic melody. Performed on the most recent guitar built by me.

I’ve started transcribing this into notation. As soon as it is done, I will post it here.

Ready to finish…

neck is installed, fretboard slotted and glued on, fretted with Gold Evo 110, neck carved, pores filled, french polishing commences tomorrow!

Cedar/EI rosewood in progress

Neck is ready for the headstock to be profiled and slotted. I have a couple of new jigs that will greatly reduce the time and labor involved in executing this. The body is ready for binding and purfling route and install:

(Click on image for larger view)

Rosettes!

 

My attitude towards rosettes is pretty simple: Any hardwood and veneer that has an interesting look is fair game. I like to use natural hardwood veneers for the ring lines and for herringbones. I inlay directly into the top in stages: Route channels for hardwoods and/or herringbone, glue those in, let dry and level. Then rout channels for the veneer lines, glue those in, let dry and level. Mary and I were in a hardwood store a few weeks back. The spalted maples they had just did not have much in the way of “inking”, which is precisely what makes those look interesting. They did have a block of spalted tamarind that had very nice inking, but it was not big enough to yield continuous circles. It sure made for nice tiles, though:

(Click on image for larger view)


Cedar/cocobolo with 640mm scale

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

The simple things…

The simple things often are exactly what works the best. This is the same workboard I have used for joining plates since day one of my adventures in lutherie. It just works, so why change? Dig my weights:

mother nature…..

……sometimes, mother nature all on her own can provide one with the best mechanics and aesthetic. Other times, she can kick one right in the groin. In this case, a couple of ugly knots appeared in this neck blank after a half a mm thicknessing.