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After selling my first instrument I earmarked that money for various things to offset the cost of building my instruments.  I bought tuners, pickups, and tools and the biggest purchase I made was for more C clamps.  

I had bought some really good quartersawn red oak and it had just been sitting there leaning up against the wall and I finally ripped it and made neck blanks out of it.  I had some slab cut maple that I ripped and laminated to orient the grain on the quarter and placed a decorative cherry strip in the center just to get me to the width I wanted. I had noticed on build #5 with the Fender style bridge that the string spacing made my strings a little too close to the edge further down the neck.  

I won't be trying to build 10 guitars at once, but I know a lot of times is consumed in the neck, so I just got a lot of necks set up for future builds and two of my next three instruments are going to be based on my fretless Punch.

A friend of mine who knows I like to dabble in making my own guitars has brought my attention to a Dutch feller called Yuri Landman. He's an experimental performer and instrument maker, and he's holding a workshop only 15 miles from me in Bradford. During the workshop he will demonstrate making an instrument he calls a Triochord which everyone will make and get to take home.

This is his Triochord. 

I'm still unsure if I'm going to attend the workshop, it's going to be £35 and I reckon I could knock one of those out without the lesson. Mind you, there's an added bonus of playing with an orchestra of Triochords the next day. 

Here's Yuri's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/yuri.landman1

This is a rather fascinating brochure that showcases his unique instruments: http://issuu.com/yurilandman/docs/2011_a6_folder_3e_druk_issue

Currently building a few amps based off the LM3886 IC

Attempting my first CBG build soon.

It is gone.  I'm a little excited and a little sad.  I really liked it and I was not planning on selling it today, but someone saw it, played it and pulled out cash.  What's a girl to do?

I am now in a frenzy to build its replacement and I have one Punch box.  I think I'm going to try for 3 at the same time and finish in a month.  

Kids get a week off from School in February and Dad gets all out of sync with the schedules.  Inspired the following spontaneously sung this morning.  Could have used and accompanist.
 

Hard wakin' up this morning and didn't get to choose

Rolled out of bed and didn't get to choose

Dad was pourin' the milk and them cold cereal blues 
 

I got them blues

Them cold cereal blues

Soggy flakes and milk

Them cold cereal blues
 

I was thinkin' pancakes and a fried egg or two

Pure maple syrup and a fried egg or two

But Dad was pourin the milk and them cold cereal blues
 

I got them blues

Them cold cereal blues

Soggy flakes and milk

Them cold cereal blues
 

Soggy flakes and milk, glass of orange juice

Lookin' like dog's breakfast and a glass of orange juice

Dad's pourin' the milk and the cold cereal blues
 

I got them blues

Them cold cereal blues

Soggy flakes and milk

Them cold cereal blues
 

I got them blues

Them low-down

dirty stinking  

Monday morning back to school

shoulda had pancakes and eggs

Why does it have to be soggy

I don't want to go back to class

lunch isn't going to be any better

Joey says potty words to me

Cold

Disgusting

Soggy

Cereal blues!

                                             And now a word from OLD SCRATCH about the real Devil's Music:

hi guys im new here so if i goofup ple be gentle im new to the whole internet thing and this is the 1st chat room forum thing that ive ever done so...i just finished a build that ide like to show to all of you but i still havent figured out how to use the webcam.anyway i built w the help of my dad a piper harp the entire thing is made from pvc it was designed by john covack and truth to tell she(there alll she's to me) sounds very nice she has a very soft voice but ill be installing the pickup that he sells at his web site some time in the 1st week in march and since i jam w some other christians at a local beach every thurs evening (i play autochord , guitar , and penny whistles) im also getting a honey tone amp the battery one so that i can start playing the harp anyone know a better way to amp something like this pls let me know. i own a small yamaha amp but i dont have an ext. cord  that long so ...any ideas pls point me in the right dirrection im eager to learn anything i can and am willin to share w others as well tks and ill be back soon stevewootten aka lobo

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Last week I went to the lumber yard and found a piece of cherry that was in their half off bin.  I got a board about 8" wide and over 4 feet long for a little over $4.  This is 4/4 lumber and there is some very pretty wood in it. 

I am making my own box since one of the guys I work with made a boxjoint jig and is making a guitar along with me on this one.  We are both using spruce for soundboards that formerly graced the insides of a Steinway piano for about 90 years.  

Here are a few pics of our work this evening after the shop closed.

Hi All

Further to yesterdays blog i can now supply you with the following

Thermo black ash,mahogany,black walnut,american oak,maple and wenge ,

All the above exept wenge are £5.65 inc postage and the wenge is £9.25 inc postage. Sizes can be machined to suit your requirements but stock item sizes are 510mm x 45mm x 8mm 

Leave your details on my website www.justplaytheblues.co.uk or message me on my page on CBN 

Happy Building

I really love that there are people here from the other side of the world from me. I think this is one of the best things about the internet and this site in particular.  I am in the southeast part of the United States and getting tips and suggestions from people in New York, Australia, UK, etc is just a treat.  It just deserves being said that I really enjoy this aspect of CBN.

Well, I had every intention of working on my 6 string, but since the box joint jig is not finished I am at an impasse on that project so I took my worst box and my worst piece of neck wood, an imperfect fretboard and embarked on m first 3 string.

The neck is poplar reinforced with two 1/4"X3/8" splines of red oak. 

The fretboard is ebonized maple with maple position dots.

The electrics will be a double piezo embedded in the bridge and wired straight to the jack with no pot.

I picked the worst things I had because I planned on working fast and wanted to try some new ideas out.  The wood position dots are just one of the new ideas and they look fantastic.  What an easy thing to do!!!  The pics I put up represent my entire Saturday and I think I got a lot done.

I carried #5 to an open mic that my daughter was performing in tonight and the guitarist that I had in mind when I planned this instrument sat in with another performer and used it to play lead and #5 and Rob sounded fantastic.  What a rush to hear a really good picker play an instrument I made and the audience really enjoyed it as well.  To top things off I got a request for a refret on a telecaster. 

My daughter took video of Rob playing my cbg and hopefully I'll get a video up in the next day or so.

I was so pleased with the size of the box on my last build that I would like to repeat it, and I will, but I'm going to start building my own box tomorrow.  I've sparked interest in at least one person I work with who is now building his own box for his first guitar and since I want to learn how to make boxes I'm going to join him in making one.  He is a really talented guy that can do ANYTHING.  His first is going to be amazing I'm sure and I'm really excited about building my own box.  My woods are going to be cherry, Brazilian cherry, maple and spruce.

I haven't given up on my improved version of #5, but this build my own box thing popped up today and I can't pass it up.  I'm going to do my best to photograph the entire thing and post it.

I won't be using Elemer's yellow glue any more. The thicker viscosity makes it a poor choice for gluing where you are using anything other than substantial clamps.  Spring clamps just don't have the force to give a good glue line using Elmers.  Titebond is a little thinner and this helps it perform better under clamping pressure. 

Well, I'm waiting for the corners to come back from being nickel plated, but the time is here for me to think about my next build.  Decisions, decisions, decisions! Several weeks ago I bought a really beautiful quartersawn oak board with really straight grain and not a hint of a knot anywhere.  There is enough in that board to make 5 or 6 necks.  Today I bought a  really nice piece of jatoba very nearly on the quarter.  Only the ends of the board give it away, Really nice color, hard as a rock, straight and clear and should make some great looking fretboards, faceplates, bridges, laminated necks and along with the maple I have and various other woods salvaged from pianos being either discarded, uncrated or getting new soundboards, wood is not a problem I have.  

Very soon I'm going to build my first 6 string electric with a couple of twists. #1 I am going to want to build my own box so I am going to learn how to learn how to do that with either finger joints or dovetails. 

#2 and this is really the payoff for wasting your time to read my little blog.  Working in a piano rebuild shop I get access to soundboards  that have graced the insides of a Steinway & Sons or Mason Hamlin grand piano for up to a hundred years and I have gotten myself a little stash of very old spruce soundboard material that will see a new life in a cigar box style guitar.

How did this happen? Who cares, I'm having a really great time building these instruments and I thought I would put up a little rant about what I have in mind for some future builds, stuff I have bought related to this lovely addiction and whatever else comes to this weary old mind of mine.

My blogs will look like an exercise in loose association and can be extremely random, so there you go.

Do not buy a guitar from this guy he has my money and has not provided the product and is not answering my e-mails or taking phone calls!!!!

I've just been messing around with GarageBand on my computer...I haven't a clue what I'm doing...and an hour's fiddling about has produced about a minute's recorded stuff..I hesitate to call it music...but here it is...my first effort...Aint%20right.mp3

Vocals and guitar recorded direct to the computer using the inbuilt mic. in my Mac.