Wednesday, February 29, 2012

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.

     

Saturday, February 25, 2012

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

Saturday, February 18, 2012

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."

Sunday, February 12, 2012

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."