Barbara Brown Taylor

   I was telling a friend about this wonderful book I read several years ago called "Leaving Church," by Barbara Brown Taylor.  I picked it up again today to try and find a quote that I love.  It describes the community of people that I have come to love and be a part of.
    "We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by are inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well.  Like campers who have bonded over cook fires far from home, we remain grateful for the provisions we have brought with us from those cupboards, but we also find them more delicious when we share them with one another under the stars.
        This wilderness experience sets up a real dilemma for some of us, since we know how much we owe to the traditions that shaped us.  We would not be who we are without them, and we continue to draw real sustenance from them,but insofar as those same traditions discourage us from being with one another, we cannot go home again.  In one way or another, every one of us has gotten the message that God made us different that we might know one another, and that how we treat one another is the best expression of our beliefs."

Fasting

     You know, I never really understood the reason for fasting.  I've had it explained to me and I've tried it several times.   As I recall, it made me hungry and cold.
     When you carve a stringed instrument,  you take away more and more material.  You tap on it and listen to it.  As you use the violin plane you can hear the tone change and the voice begin to take shape.  I remember when I made my first guitar I was carving the inside of the top plate, which no one will ever see.  I was close to being finished when Brad got out the clamp light and turned the lights off.  The shadows from the light show all your imperfections,  but the light also shows how thin you have carved the instrument.  I could see my hand through it!  It kind of scared me.  What if it was too thin and cracked, or I carved all the way through?  But when I put it together, this empty space, these thin walls, this material that couldn't hold light, held sound so beautifully.
       I hope you're not tired of Rumi.  How could you be?

There is a hidden sweetness in the stomachs emptiness.

We are lutes, no more, no less.

If the sound box is stuffed full of anything, no music.

If the brain and belly are burning clean with fasting,

every moment a new song comes out of the fire.

The fog clears, and new energy

makes you run up the steps in front of you.

Be emptier and cry like the reed instruments cry.

Emptier, write secret with the reed pen.

When you are full of food and drink

Satan sits where your spirit should,

an ugly metal statue in place of the Kaaba.

When you fast, good habits gather like friends

who want to help.  Fasting is Solomon's ring.

Do not give it to some illusion and lose your power,

but even if you have, if you have lost all will and control,

they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing

out of the ground, pennants flying above them.

A table descends to your tents, Jesus' table.

Expect to see it when you fast, this table

spread with other food, better than the broth of cabbages. 

Now I Can Rest

      Before Christmas I struggled with this guitar.  I had put the frets on and dressed them only to find out that the neck had such bad back bow in it that I couldn't pull it forward.  I found out that a common problem is, gluing the fretboard on the neck dead flat.  Sometimes when the glue dries (because you are dealing with two different woods, ebony and maple) it can cause back bow.  This is such a common problem that Paul Reed Smith began glueing his fretboards on with epoxy, which doesn't have the water in it that tight bond does.  This would be fine assuming you never have to take it off again.  I like to keep all my options open.  Anyway, I had to heat up the neck until the glue softened and then use a caul and some clamps to pull it forward.  Now the neck has just a little relief in it, which is just right.  Consequently, I had to take all the frets back off and refret the whole guitar.  I finally got the strings on Christmas eve.  I came close to breaking it into little pieces, setting it on fire, and scattering the ashes  as I ran naked through the neihborhood laughing, "I've killed it!"   But I took a few days off for the holidays and came to my senses.
      I had a few buzzes I had to track down and fix.  Then I made the finger rest and decided to try to make a knob for the volume control.  I actually made two of them.  One out of koa and one out of some streaked ebony.  The koa knob is the one in the picture.  Bare in mind that the koa, and or the ebony, will be much darker after I put an epoxy finish on them.
       Today I finished dressing the frets and made the heel cap for the neck, and the truss rod cover.  The strings are on and I love it.  It plays like a dream and has the most acoustic presence of any guitar I've made so far.  I can't wait to hear it amplified.  Now, all that is left to do is to sand it down and spray it.
        Chris wanted a dark color, but I'm afraid that would hide the beautiful binding, so I think I have a compromise, which I haven't talked to him about yet.  He doesn't want a sunburst, so I thought I would do a walnut, or mahogany shaded finish on the front, that goes from darker on the outside edges to lighter in the middle.  Like a sunburst, only not as drastic and all the same color.  And then do the back and sides natural, with just a hint of honey blonde.  I almost wrote horny blonde, which would take on a totally different meaning.   I got this idea from looking at the Ribbecke Hafling.  I like the way you can have color on the guitar, but still see the dark binding.  It will be much harder and time consuming to spray, but everything else has been an effort, so why should this be any easier?
         Here are some pictures and my new meditation poem.  It comes from a book of Rumi poems translated by Coleman Barks, which Donna got me for Christmas.  If you are not familiar with Rumi, just go out and buy anything Coleman Barks has translated.  It is food for the spirit.
       

           Do not go anywhere without me.

Let nothing happen in the sky without me,

or on the ground, in this world or in that world,

without my being in its happening.

Vision, see nothing I don't see.

Language, say nothing.  The way the night

knows itself with the moon, be that with me.

Be the rose nearest to the thorn that I am.

I want to feel myself in you when you taste food,

in the arc of your mallet when you work.

When you visit friends,

when you go up on the roof by yourself at night.

There is nothing worse

than to walk out along the street without you.

I don't know where I'm going.

You are the road and the knower of roads,

more than maps, more than love.

       
     

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! "