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.