The Mortise and Tenon

      After 16 or so hard hours of fitting, I finally got the neck on the body.  It is very difficult for me to get the joint properly lined up, so I end up with a lot of finagling.  I only have to cut the inlay in the headstock and do some sanding on the heel of the neck and I'll be able to glue it together.
      Two new videos to look for; one coming out tonight, a Steely Dan-ish tune written by Michael, and a Christmas song I wrote for Donna, coming out Christmas eve.  Check for them on Facebook, or Maggie and the Romantics on Youtube.
      Quote of the day comes from Rumi.   "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.  When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.
      And I need to add this one I just found.  It sounds so much like where I'm going,  "Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you.  Unfold your own myth."

Dots or no dots

The body binding is done except for the scraping, and the fretboard and neck are done except for sanding and inlays.  I will try to cut the mortise and tenon this week and join the neck to the body.  The question is position markers (dots), or not.  What do you think?  Here are pictures both ways.
      The big news is I'm a grandfather again.  Jesse and Kyla had number 3.  Una Bernice Savage.  Three girls.  I hope you have a house one day that has at least two bathrooms, or you'll be banished to the great outdoors.  I'll write again soon, and checkout our new video.  It's a tune I wrote for our song a week project.

Joseph Campbell

       We finished recording our fourth video tonight, a blues tune written by Maggie called,"Tough Love." Check it out on facebook, or youtube.
       Last night I got home from playing a gig with maggie, and Owen, a sub for Michael, who is a very gifted upright bassist, and a drummer from Charleston named Randy.  I played with him one time several years ago and he just gets better.  It was a great night and we had a very attentive, enthusiastic crowd.  Anyway, when I got home I decided to unwind by watching a Joseph Campbell documentary titled "The Heroes Journey."  In it was one of the clearest statements about truth that I've ever heard, so I've transcribed it here.

"It is so simple to believe in God.  God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought.  Even the categories of being and nonbeing.  Those are categories of thought.  It's as simple as that.  So, it depends on how much you want to think about it.  Whether it's doing you any good; whether it's putting you in touch with the mystery that is the ground of your own being.  If it isn't, well it's a lie.  So, half of the people in the world are religious people who think that their metaphors are facts.  Those are what we call theists.  The other half are the people who know that the metaphors are not facts, and so they're lies.  Those are the atheists."

          It seems that we have to believe that the story actually happened, or it's not true.  So we are forced to believe in something that is unbelievable in order to pursue our quest for God, or we give up and say it's all just a fairy tale.  But what if it's as simple as God being so beyond our comprehension, that stories (metaphors) that show us truths about who He is, have to be used for us to begin to understand Him.  Have you ever read a poem that you really couldn't explain to anyone, but you understood it in your soul?  Or have you ever seen a movie, or heard a song that conveyed a truth, and not just a small thing , but something that changed your life?  And then it dawned on you that it was a story that someone made up?  Does that mean it's not true?  As Bruce Cockburn said, "We are the insect life of paradise. Crawl across leaf or among towering blades of grass.  Glimpse only sometimes the amazing breadth of heaven."  We need to take God out of the box and let Him show us who He is.,

Back in the Saddle Again

     Man, I have been busy.  I've been playing so much music I haven't had time to work on the guitar.  However, I got quite a bit accomplished in November.  As far as the music I've been playing, checkout our song a week.  We (Maggie, Michael and myself) are writing and video recording a song every week.  Look for a special Christmas song to come out Christmas day and a New Years Eve tune.  You can also check them out on Youtube.  Starting in January we will have a special guest sitting in with us once a month and we will write a song to showcase their talents.
     Now, on to the guitar.  The body is together.  The tap tone is great, although I hope it's not too responsive, or it may be a feedback monster.  The f holes are my own design, but after I cut them in the top I came across a builder named Framus who's design is almost the same.  I was trying to find a shape that flowed with the natural curve of the guitar, but also had a somewhat traditional look.  I guess he was doing the same thing.  I finished the binding on the top today and will do the binding on the back tomorrow.  And  I've cut the headstock shape out and started shaping the neck, so you can see what it will look like.  I'm going to put black and white purfling on the fretboard on this guitar and I'm debating on whether to use bloodwood to bind the neck with.  I have bloodwood veneer on the back of the neck and I think I'll use it and a black and white accent on the headstock, although the main wood will still be ebony on the headstock face.  If I can find a nice piece of bloodwood for the butt seam I'll probably use it there also.

       Things seem to be going smoother with this guitar, but I haven't cut the mortise and tenon neck to body joint yet.  That is always a challenge.  I think I'm learning.  I've gotten better at using my ears and nose instead of just my eyes and hands.  I have learned to listen to the wood as I carve it.  You can hear it getting thinner.  You can hear what it wants to do, what it will do, and what it won't ever do.  When I'm bending the sides and the binding, I can smell if the iron is too hot, or if it's right.  I can feel the fibers stretch and I can hear the noise the steam makes when it's heating the wood and the noise it makes when the wood is dry.  All these things go into becoming a Luthier.  It's all about learning what the material wants to do and then figuring out how to get it to do that.  Don't contend, best to be like water.  A good example of using your senses, provided you are used to working with your hands, is to put in really good ear plugs and then try to drive a nail.  You'll realize how much you use your ears to set that nail.  Here are a few pictures to give you some idea as to where I'm at in this process.  You'll notice the mummified guitar; that's how you hold the binding on while the glue sets.  It is very messy.  I'll post more pics after I get it all cleaned up and you can see the binding.
        So, as far as my spiritual life goes, I'm wondering if this is all just a grand distraction.  Is it good to be writing music, playing gigs, building guitars, along with being a husband and father and trying to make a living?  Or, does this, in reality take me away from my primary goal of seeing the face of God?  What do you think?  The scriptures never mention art, unless it's tied together with music as worship, or craftsmen using their skills to build the temple, or the walls of Jerusalem.  The Bagavad Gita and the Upanashads speak of God as creator, even singing creation into being (no this wasn't C.S. Lewis' own original idea), but relatively nothing about us following suit.  And the Tao seems to say, no action is best if you can do that (hold uncarved wood).  I haven't read the Koran yet, but it's on my to do list.  In other words they all seem to say, "Seek first the Kingdom of God", but how do we do that without doing what seems to be so much a part of who we are?  I feel closer to God than ever, but I also feel like I'm running out of time.  I need to choose wisely.  Would it be better to spend my last 30 years being an awesome guitar player, an incredible luthier, a brilliant songwriter, a mystic of old testament proportions, or is it possible to do it all?
I'd love to think I could do it all and I'd love to hear what you have to say.  I'll close with my latest meditation passage.
                         

O Great Spirit
whose voice I hear in the wind
and whose breath gives life to the world,
hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty
and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears grow sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength not to be greater than my brother or sister, but to fight my greatest enemy, myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes
so, when life fades as the fading sunset my spirit may come to you without shame.




   

I haven't had much time to work on the guitar, but I have managed to get the spruce top looking like it should.  It takes many hours of carving and then too many hours of sanding to get it right.  You begin by using chisels and then a violin finger plane, and finally sandpaper.  I use a palm sander to speed things up, but you still have to do a lot by hand.  Eventually you get what you see in the pictures, and then I'll carve the inside until it is very thin.   I hope to get the outside of the top finished tomorrow and start on the back.  Maple is much harder to carve.  The first time I tried carving my hand looked like this.
        I've been playing a lot of music.  I subbed for Michael at a restaurant in Highlands, and got to play with a great sax player.  I learned that the only thing harder than taking a solo with only a bass player, is taking a solo by yourself.  It was fun.  Michael and I now have a professional live CD to sell.  Thanks to Dave Magill who recorded us at the Sunday afternoon concert series at the old Webster church.  It sounds great.  We are going in to his studio sometime next month to do a recording of Maggie and the Romantics.  By the way we (Maggie and the Romantics) are doing a show at Soul Infusion.  We also have a video someone took at City Lights Cafe the last time we were there.
       I'll close with my new favorite meditation passage.  I think this is profound.

The ancients who followed Tao:
Dark, wondrous, profound, penetrating,
Deep beyond knowing.

Because they cannot be known,
They can only be described.

Cautious, like crossing a winter stream.
Hesitant, like respecting one's neighbors.
Polite, like a guest.
Yielding, like ice about to melt.
Blank, like uncarved wood.
Open, like a valley.
Mixing freely, like muddy water.

Calm the muddy water, it becomes clear.
Move the inert, it comes to life.
Those who sustain Tao do not wish to be full.
Because they do not wish to be full,
They can fade away without further effort.

I just got home from playing a gig with my good friend Michael at the Tipping Point and thought I might write a bit.  By the way Michael and I are playing tomorrow night, the 29th at City lights Cafe, with Maggie Tobias.  She is a great singer.  You may know her name as a writer for the Sylva Herald.  I'm sorry for all the links, but some of you might like the info.

        So, I got the wood back from the cabinet shop and had some tweaking to do, but finished that and got to work.  This is what you start with (top picture).  This is the back.  It is maple and it's very hard.  The top is spruce and much softer.  I spent quite a bit of time making the joint to connect the two pieces together.  As I said before, you hold them up to the light and if you can see any light through the joint, you're not finished yet.  It is interesting that you don't want to see light through the joint, but later the guitar its' self will be so thin I will be able to see, not only light through it, but the shadow of my hand.  When I get to that point I'll take a picture to demonstrate.  It makes me think of the importance of light in art.  We see it in visuals, like photography and painting, but don't think of it much in sound, but I think it plays a big part.  It gives us a reference point and helps us create.  When I'm carving I'll turn the lights off and shine a clamp light across the piece I'm working on and the imperfections become obvious.  My life is much the same way.
          Anyway, the bottom picture is of the top of the guitar and the neck with the truss rod groove cut.  Seems to be coming along nicely.  I'll leave you with a quote from Madeleine L'engle, "There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation."  If I can ever afford a real website I'd love to put that quote on the home page.  It is the only reason for building anything.

The Neck

     So, I tried to get the wood for the plates planed, but my friend at the cabinet shop was gone.  I went today and dropped it off, so it will be available sometime this week.  Rather than wait, I decided to work on the neck.  It is a three piece laminated neck like the last guitar I made.  A laminated neck is supposed to be stronger and less likely to warp.  I used bloodwood laminate between the maple.  Bloodwood is the closest to red you can find without dyeing.  I watched a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy called Rivers and Tides.  He is an amazing artist who creates his work outside in the place he finds himself in, using no tools and only the materials that are found in nature.  He works with leaves, vines, wood, snow, sand.  Pretty much anything available.  Anyway, he was talking about the mysterious power of red and how it is so primal to us that we have this attraction that we can't explain.  My idea is to use bloodwood for most of the accent, although I have heard it is very hard to bend.  If it is hard as ebony, I'm not sure I'll have the skill to achieve this, but I'll try and you'll hear about it.  Just the name "bloodwood" congers up such a mystical picture in my mind of wine and oil paint, of Christ and salvation, of death and life, of earth and working with my hands.
     As a sideline,  I wrote this musical composition after watching his documentary.  His way of using nature is what intrigued me.  I came home the other day and my wife, Donna, was listening to this most amazing sound.  I immediately thought it would make a great idea for a song.  It turns out the sound was a wood thrush, but it was slowed way down so that you could hear the individual notes.  I have been listening to Jason Moran quite a bit, and he uses different things for a muse to write and also to improvise along with.  If this makes no since to you listen to ringing my phone.  First I learned the melody of the birdsong and then what key it was in and what key changes took place, then I wrote a very sparse arrangement with a limited amount of bass notes so that the tonal center could be minor, or major according to the improviser's interpretation.  Then I used my metronome to find the tempo that the birdsong had been slowed down to.   I then recorded the song structure and the melody on my loop pedal and finally added the wood thrush to see what it sounded like.  Very cool.  When I can make a decent recording of it I'll add it so you can hear.
       So, the neck is glued together (top picture) and will have to sit over night.  The picture on the bottom is the bloodwood sitting on top of some Indian rosewood, which I used on the last guitar.      

        Tomorrow I'll take the clamps off and go from there.

The beginning

My idea for this blog site was to write about building my third guitar as I work on it.  My ideas about God and music will also be included, because the three things are meshed together in my mind.  Working on the guitar becomes a prayer sometimes, as does listening and playing music.  God seems to speak clearer when I'm doing these things.
    For those who are interested, I've posted pictures of the first two guitars I built in various stages of completion.  The pictures that look professional were taken by my son Jesse Savage, who is getting his website up and running, but you can click on the link to see some of his work.  The blonde is my first, which I built as a student of Brad Nickerson, an amazing luthier in Asheville NC.  The second is the sunburst, which I sold last month.  The third I will start tomorrow by taking three sets of tops, and backs and sides to a cabinet shop to have them trued up on a planer.  Then I will begin the tedious task of hand planing the pieces to make the plates.  I am building another archtop, so it will take awhile to get the joint just right.  The two pieces for the top are 1 to 11/2 inches thick and are bookend matches of each other, as are the pieces for the back.  You have to plane them perfectly, so that when you hold them up to the light (this is referred to as candling) you see no light through the joint.  The last time I did this I had 8hrs in one set and 4 in the other.  I hope to be a little speedier this time, but I'll let you know.
     My goal as a luthier is simple.  I am 51.  I built my first when I was 50.  I intend to get good enough, so that by the time I am 65, I won't be handing out carts at Walmart, or mixing paint at Lowes.  I figure if I can sell two a year by then, I'll be doing ok.  We live simple and don't need a lot to enjoy life.
     The best days of building are when you start, when you close up the body, when you put the strings on and it doesn't sound like a banjo, and when you polish the finish and put it in the case.  Tomorrow I start one of those days.  The adventure begins.