The Bridge

   I'm sorry it has been so long since the last post, but my day job has kept me more than busy.  I can't complain.  I need the money.   Needless to say, I haven't worked much on the guitar, but I did manage to get the fretboard on and the frets.  And today I made my version of the Gretsch Synchromatic bridge.  I think mine looks cooler.  The stair steps are also a Hopi symbol having to do with terraced dwellings. Tomorrow I'll start the tailpiece.  I have a new, retro (that would be an oxymoron) looking design that I'm excited about.  I hope to have the strings on before too much longer.  Here are some new pictures.  Sorry about the quality.  I wish I had a better camera.  Here's another Augustine quote I'll leave you with, "And I marveled to find that at last I loved you and not some phantom instead of you; and I did not hesitate to enjoy my God, but was ravished to you by your beauty."

Pearl inlays

    The neck is on the guitar and the fret board is finished.  I spent several days cutting the inlays and then routing out the cavities and gluing the tiny pieces in.  The headstock has the Hopi sign of the open hand, which Chris didn't request, but I love the symbol.  As Bruce Cockburn says, "Everything is bullshit, but the open hand."  The fretboard has the sun symbol on the 5th fret and the clouds and rain, and water symbol higher up.  Now I am working on the neck extension, which will take me a day, or so, and then I'll put the fretboard on the neck.

      I came across this quote last month and have been thinking a lot about it.  It is by Saint Augustine.  "Why are we not happy?  Because we are much more concerned over things which are more powerful to make us unhappy than truth is to make us happy, in that we remember truth so slightly."  The beauty of truth is that it doesn't change.  The Buddha said, "Hatred is not overcome by hatred.  It is overcome by love.  This is a universal truth."  I spend too much of my life thinking about the things that seem so expedient.  Like, will I have enough work tomorrow to pay my bills, or will I be able to get the neck joint right on the guitar I'm building, or will I be up to the task of playing music with some local musicians, or even, will I find someone to help me further my pursuit of God.  But these things ultimately lead to unhappiness.  They may begin with happiness, but it is not sustainable.  Truth on the other hand may not bring happiness, but always brings joy.

 

New pictures

       Here are some pictures of the neck, the finished body with the binding on, the front and back of the headstock, and the finished end graft.  I finished the mortise and tenon on the 31st and glued the body to the neck.  We now have a guitar!  I'll post more pictures soon.

Progress

     Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but I have been working.  The binding is on the body of the guitar and I'll finish scraping it, hopefully today, which means the body is essentially done.  Here are some pictures of the last several months work.  
      The third picture is of the outside plates before I started carving the inside.  The first couple of photos are lines I've drawn to correspond with different thicknesses that I want the plates to be.  At each line I made a series of numbers representing mm that I would then take to the drill press and drill holes to that depth.  Then I take a side grinder with a chainsaw blade on it and rough out the inside only to the depth of the holes I've made.  Pictures 4 and 5 show what it looks like after the holes have been drilled.  After that it's back to the violin plane, which I use to carve the inside.
      After much sanding I put veneer on the inside top plate where I will cut out the f holes.  These f holes are Lang f holes.   Once they've been cut I begin to carve the x brace, which supports the top plate and gives it a balanced tone.  Pictures 6 and 7 are the x brace being glued to the top plate.
        Then I bent the sides and the binding, which I have no pictures of.  After that the neck block and tail block were made and put together.  Then the kerfing goes on.  The kerfing is the mahogany stuff you see lining the inside of the sides of the guitar in picture 8.  Then the side braces and it's ready to put together.
        Pictures 9, 10, and 11 are the body being assembled.   12 is the finished body with the binding channels cut on a router.  13 is a close up shot, so you can see the binding channel and the smaller purfling channel.  14 is the end graft I put in, and 15 is the binding being installed.  You glue and wrap it with mop string to hold it in place.  Then you clean the whole thing with boiling water.  I'll try to post some pictures later of the finished body.  It is quite lovely.
        For those of you who are still with me, here is a Rumi quote that gives me great hope.


     "Everything you see has its roots in the Unseen world.  The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.  Every wondrous sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade.  But do not be disheartened,  the Source they come from is eternal - growing, branching out, giving new life and new joy.  Why do you weep?  That Source is within you,  and this whole world is springing up from it.  The Source is full,  it's waters are ever- flowing;  Do not grieve,  drink your fill!  Don't think it will ever run dry. This is the endless Ocean!
      From the moment you came into this world a ladder was placed in front of you that you might escape.  From earth you became plant, from plant you became animal.  Afterwards you became a human being, endowed with knowledge, intellect, and faith.  Behold the body, born of dust - how perfect it has become!  Why should you fear it's end?  When were you ever made less by dying?
       When you pass beyond this human form,  no doubt you will become an angel and soar through the heavens!  But don't stop there.  Even heavenly bodies grow old.  Pass again from the heavenly realm and plunge into the vast ocean of Consciousness.  Let the drop of water that is you become a hundred mighty seas.  But do not think that the drop alone becomes the Ocean -  the Ocean, too, becomes the drop! "
       

A New Commission

    I've started on a new guitar.  A commission for a friend of mine.  The plates have been joined and the material has been roughed out.  Next I'll route the outside edge down to three millimeters and then begin to carve the outside.  This is another 17 inch.  I'm going to inlay a Hopi Indian symbol somewhere on the fretboard, which I have yet to see.  We haven't settled on color, but he wants a Gretch style stair-stepped bridge, which I think will be fun to make.  Maybe some kind of Gretch f holes, but somewhat different.  Anyway, should be fun.  I have an upright bass that I need to reset the soundpost in, sand the fretboard, make the bridge adjustable, and set the action, then I'll begin the carving on the new guitar.
      I may have posted this before, but I read it this morning again and it is something I try to remember, especially when I begin this process.  "Those whose consciousness is unified abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace.  But those whose desires are fragmented, who are selfishly attached to the results of their work, are bound in everything they do."  Bhagavad Gita
     "It is not so much work that tires us, but ego driven work.  When we are selfishly involved, we cannot help worrying, we cannot help getting overly concerned about our success or failure.  The preoccupation with results makes us tense, and our anxiety exhausts us.
      The Gita is essentially a call to action.  But it is a call to selfless action, that is, action without any selfish attachments to the results.  It asks us to do our best, yet never allow ourselves to become involved in whether things work out the way we want.
       It takes practice to learn this skill, but once you have it, as Gandhi says, you will never lose your nerve.  The sense of inadequacy goes, and the question "Am I equal to this job?" will not arise.  It is enough that the job needs to be done and that you are doing your best to get it done." Eknath Easwaran
       I remember emailing this passage to my daughter when she was frustrated trying to help at a school and orphanage in Kenya.  When I'm asked to do things that I'm not comfortable doing, I try to remember this.  Any effort is a good effort.  Prayerfully I'll shape this guitar and hopefully it will be an expression of what's inside me.  As Jesus said, " The kingdom of God is within you."


     

Almost Finished

    I sanded and polished the guitar, and put it all together.  It sounds and plays great!  It has a very acoustic presence.  I broke the pickup trying to get it back off the finger rest to get a better fit to the neck.  So, I've ordered another one.  Costly mistake and hopefully something I'll only do once.  Sometimes an education is expensive.  When I get the new pickup I just have to wire it to the volume switch and drill the hole for the end pin jack.  Then a little fishing to get everything in the proper holes and I'll be done.  I'm still looking for a buyer.  I hope to get a website up and running before long.  That seems like the only proper way to market these instruments.   Here are some finished pictures and here is a quote by one of my favorite people.  "The more I think about it.  The more I wonder if God and neighbor are somehow One.  Loving God, Loving neighbor - the same thing?  For me, coming to recognize that God loves every neighbor is the ultimate appreciation."   Fred Rogers

Just days away

    Wednesday I will polish the guitar and put it together.  I am having lots of trouble with the wiring of the pickup.  I put a volume pot on this one and I can't get a good signal to the pickup.  I'm going to take all the connections apart and wire the pickup direct to see if it's in the volume switch.  It may be as simple as my soldering job, or as serious as the pickup.  Oh well.  I can't get in too big of a rush.  It really looks good though.  I can't wait to play it and post some pictures.
    On a totally different note, I had a most wondrous, amazing dream Friday night.  Those of you that know me, know that I'm into the Hindu idea of waking up inside your dream.  Meaning that you notice you are in the dream and then go with it.  So, I was having this dream.  I was in some big, weird house and there were a lot of people around, but no one I recognized.  I also had several guys that were tagging along behind me.  I don't remember what set it off, but I asked myself if this place I was in was possible and I deduced that it was not.  So, I decided I was in a dream.  At this point I thought I would try to manipulate things.  I began to turn on, or off the light switches in different rooms.  No one seemed to notice.  Then I straightened some pictures on the wall, all the time knowing I was dreaming.  Then I decided to explore.  I knew that there was no real danger.  Not that I couldn't feel pain, or whatever, but that I knew I could wake up.  I went upstairs and there was a huge elevator.  The strange guys that were with me were terrified of it, so I knew I should try it.  Nothing to loose.  We all got in.  I closed the door and pushed the down button.  When I did the lights went out and we were free falling.  The weird guys were screaming there heads off.  I was laughing uncontrollably, like when you're on a roller coaster and you know you're safe.  I was having fun!  As dreams are, I don't know what happened next, but I ended up in a room full of people.  So, I sat down next to an older, 60ish, woman and asked her her name.  She said Karen.  I said do you have a last name.  She said no.  I knew she would have no last name, because she wasn't really a player in my dream.  I am not the type of person to sit down next to a total stranger and ask their name.  So, my sub conscience  mind didn't give her a last name, because I was never supposed to acknowledge her.  I said to her that she looked familiar.  She said that I only had so many faces and names in my mind to choose from and that the images repeat.  At this point some one came along to try to tempt me into doing something that I knew I shouldn't, so I woke myself up.
      I know this sounds crazy.  As I write it, it sounds even stranger than I remember it.  But, it actually happened.  Last night I tried to do the same thing, but I couldn't decide if it was crazy enough to be a dream, or not.  When I woke up I knew it could never have happened, but during the moment it seemed all too real.  Tonight I'll try again.  No since in just sleeping when you can have an adventure!  So, I'm either on to something, or I'm loosing my mind.  Either way it's very exciting.

Days off

     I've had almost no work, consequently I have gotten the clear coats back on the guitar.  Now I only have to sand it flat and spray one more clear coat.  Then I'll wait two weeks and sand and polish it.  After that I have maybe a day of fitting the pickup to the finger rest and wiring up the volume control.   Then I'll put it back together, tweak a few things and it will be ready to go.
    While I waited between spraying coats, I was able to get the back plate for the fourth guitar joined together and cut out.  So, the next guitar has been started.  I'm actually going to build two at the same time.  A 17" and a 16".  The 17" will have a water stain sunburst of greens and yellows, if I'm brave enough to try it when the time comes.  The 16" will have a mounted pickup with volume and tone controls.  People like them, because they don't feed back as bad.
      I'll leave you with this poem that Donna found in Sojourners magazine.

The Man Watching

By Rainer Maria Rilke

I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can’t bear without a friend,
I can’t love without a sister.

The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.

What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it’s with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestlers’ sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

     

Set Backs

Yesterday I was three clear coats from finishing the spraying.  I had a smudge on the face of the guitar.  I should have tried to clean it with naptha, but I sanded it.  I sanded through the finish and the color.  I tried to fix it to no avail, so I stripped the whole instrument down with acetone, resanded everything, and started again.  Sometimes and education can be expensive.  Today we had some good weather early on and I was able to spray the color on again, but now there are snow flurries out tonight, so it my be awhile before it's warm enough to proceed.  This could have been a big deal, but it wasn't.  I think I'm learning what is important and what is not.
       Yesterday morning, before I started, my meditation verse was this, "Grieve not, is the name of my city.  Pain and fear cannot enter there.  Free from possessions, free from life's taxes, free from fear of disease and death.  After much wandering I am come back home where turns not the wheel of time and change.  Where my emperor rules with out a second, or third.  In Abadon, filled with love and wisdom.  The citizens are rich in the wealth of the heart and ever free in the city of God.  Listen to Ravadis, just a cobbler.  All who live here are my true friends."
       Free from possessions.   Can you imagine.  In a place where your soul is not effected by time and change.  This is what I was feeling when I started wiping of the finish of the almost complete guitar.  It's really not that important.
      I read this tonight and thought you might like it.  "Travelers, it is late.  Life's sun is going to set.  During these brief days that you have strength, be quick and spare no effort of your wings."   Rumi

Color

    I spent most of Thursday sanding and re-sanding.  Putting a spot light on the surface and looking for dings and scratches.  Friday I sprayed two thin wash coats of lacquer.  It looked so pretty that I decided to make it a honey blond.  A honey blonde is made with mostly yellow, but has red and brown in it also.  It's a very bright finish, which shows off the wood grain nicely.  The only downside is it also shows all my mistakes.  I'm willing to live with that, so that the natural beauty of the wood can be seen.  There is nothing more beautiful than the lines, shapes, and patterns that the wood it's self has.  I'm trying my best to work with that and not screw it up.  Today I scuff sanded the instrument and sprayed the color.  It is beautiful.  I'll try to borrow a camera and post some picture this week.  I have to decide now whether I should scrape the bindings and purflings, or leave them alone.  They are darker now and would brighten up more with scraping.  I kind of like the dark, but I'm not sure.  The scraping would require maybe 8hrs?  When I get some good weather I'll spray 5 more clear coats, then sand, then one more and the final sanding and polishing.  The only fixture left to make is the finger rest.  I'm going to put a volume control on this one, which will mount to the finger rest.  I'm not sure exactly how to do this, but it shouldn't be too difficult.  I should have it ready to play sometime next month.  I'll let you know when I take it out to a gig and those of you in the area can come and check it out.
     Here's a guitar that Ken Parker made.  Donna, my wife, actually came up with this color idea about a year ago.  It is awesome.  It's also $40,000.
    I'll leave you with another Rumi quote, "I didn't come here of my own accord and I can't leave that way.  Whoever brought me here will have to take me home."

The strings are on!

    So, today is one of those magic, historic, mystical days.  I got out to the shop around 8:15 and had my meditation- prayer time, and then checked to see if the epoxy had set on the brass piece I made to hold the strings on the tailpiece.  Everything looked good and so I began the set up process, which consists of drilling holes to screw the tailpiece to the body and cutting and shaping the nut.  I was done in two hours.  I think the last guitar took me most of two days; I must be doing something right.  The final outcome is that this guitar doesn't sound like a banjo, and I won't have to use it for a boat paddle, or firewood.  As a matter of fact, to my ears, this is the best of the three.  It has a very acoustic presence.  More so than the other two.  Probably as a result of accidentally carving it thinner and making the f holes larger.  The intonation is perfect and action is excellent.  I have to play it again before I go to bed, even though it's late and I have to work tomorrow.  If anyone is interested in buying it, let me know.  I'm new to this and can't charge a lot, so my loss is your gain.  Comes with a life time warranty.  Here is a question about design I'd like some help with: should I do cut outs on the tailpiece, like I did on the sunburst guitar, or leave it like it is?  You can see the cut outs on the other guitar, by looking at the slide show in the corner.  Let me know what you think.  Your suggestions were helpful with the decision about dots or no dots on the neck.
    I had a nice weekend with my friends Jon and Shannon.  While I was there we talked about my question of what I  should be doing with my life.  In a post entitled  Back in the saddle again,  I talked about the grand distraction.  During the weekend I finally understood what my dharma is.  51 years old, but I  now know.  This brings me great peace and makes every decision so much easier.  It's like finally getting in the water and letting the current take you wherever it's going.
    I'll leave you with this awesome bit of wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita "It is better to strive in one's own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another.  Nothing is ever lost in following one's own dharma, but competition in another's dharma breeds fear and insecurity."

Charlie Haden

I read this recent quote from Charlie Haden on NPR and thought it was so true that I should add it to the blog.   "I learned at a very young age that music teaches you about life. When you're in the midst of improvisation, there is no yesterday and no tomorrow — there is just the moment that you are in. In that beautiful moment, you experience your true insignificance to the rest of the universe. It is then, and only then, that you can experience your true significance."

Dragonfly

I finished the fretboard and decided to try and make a small dragonfly on the upper last two frets.  My daughter designed it for me before she left for Ireland.  The original design had too many parts that we so small that when I cut them out of the pearl they simply turned to dust.  Consequently I revamped the piece into something I thought I could handle.  Cutting it out was really not too bad with the jeweler's saw, but using the dremel tool to rout out the fretboard was a little scary, but if you don't try you'll never learn.  I think it turned out quite nice.  Yesterday I put the fretboard on the neck and now I'm waiting for some supplies to come so I can begin the bridge and tailpiece.  I totaled up my hours working on this instrument. I have 151 so far.  Considering I'm new at this and have had to struggle with certain things, I think that's pretty good.

I came across this letter I sent to my son last year, I think.  I'm including it, because of some conversations I've recently had with several people and I think this sums up how I'm feeling pretty well.

Hey Jesse,

     I had another dream last night I thought I would share with you.  I was reading from the Damapada before bed, specifically the twin verses, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought: we are formed and molded by our thoughts.  Those whose minds are shaped by selfish thoughts cause misery when they speak or act.  Sorrows roll over them as the wheels of a cart roll over the tracks of the bullock that draws it.         All that we are is the result of what we have thought: we are formed and molded by our thoughts.  Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy whenever they speak or act.  Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them."

     I decided I would dwell on these verses while I slept.  As I drifted off, my mind would wander and as I recognized it I would bring it back.  I've had a pain in my shoulder, which actually made me recognize that I was sleeping while dreaming.  In my dream you wanted to show me a movie that someone in your church had made.  You were upset at how ridiculous it was and wanted me to see for myself.  What I remember, is that the movie was in a cabin and we were both watching it in real time; not on a screen, almost like a play.  There was a man who opened the cabin door from outside and I could see out.  He had two children, a girl of about 8 years old and another one, which I never made out.  I began to listen to him and watch the girl play.  I never understood anything he said.  My eyes were drawn to the sky outside as he talked.  It was a summer day like we have in the south, only it wasn't hot; only nice.  As he spoke I focused more and more on the air outside.  I could see the seeds of plants blowing in the wind.  I could see bugs, and pollen.  As I looked closer I could see individual particles of matter. The air that we breathe was full of life.  At this point I was barely conscience of the man speaking,but I could still hear him.  I knew that what he said didn't matter, and that he would never be able to explain what I had come to understand.  It was as if the air itself was water.  It was so full of life that I marveled that we could actually breathe.  I laughed to myself when I realized that the man was trying to show us the path to God, when in fact He was all around us.  We were breathing him in and out.  It was like we were all splashing around in the ocean, and here was a guy trying to tell us how to find water.  Not only were we in the water, but we had been swimming since the day we were born.  At this point I understood something with my heart that I'd always hoped was true intellectually.  The Tao, dharma, and the logos are all the same thing.  Like the scientists trying to explain light as a wave, or a particle, and now as a series of dots, or something like that; I can't remember for sure.  Different sides of the same crystal.   

       I woke feeling as alive as I have in along while.  We are all a part of this cosmic way.  We are so much a part that we don't see it.  We were born into it and we will die a part of it.  It is the very fabric of who we are and we cannot be another.  We bind ourself to unreality with doctrines, with time, with passions, and with duty.  Art and music, at it's best, should be outside these things.  They should mirror nature, which mirrors God in it's perfection.  To begin to "awake", to begin to see that nothing is as perfect as "a piece of uncarved wood," to understand that, "the Father and I are one".

       We are separated by distance, but not by God.  We swim in the same eternal spirit.  We are sons of the same Father.  Learn to use your mind, while you're young, to become the man that you want to be.  "As irrigators guide water to their fields, as archers aim arrows, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their lives."

                                                 into the mystery,

                                                                           Dad