Cool Stuff

These are a couple of shots of one of my singlecuts (far right) being used by Christian of Anberlin.  He was giving one of my guitar a whirl to see if he liked it.  Based on his reponse, I believe it is fair to say that he does.  We will be laying out his commission soon.

Stephen

Built Myself a Motorized Bowl Sander

I built a new drum sander machine last night out of a furnace motor blower so that I can more quickly profile my sides.  This will save me 1 - 4 hours a guitar!

Sides and Rosettes

Well,  I have been working on putting the kerfed linings in many of the sets of sides for the upcoming 5 guitars.  Additionally, I put together 3 of the rosettes for some of these guitars.  Though you cannot really tell in the pictures, there are very subtle differences in each of the rosette setups.

Enjoy!

New Guitars in the White Room

Now to some of the newer stuff...

Here are a couple of shots from the 'white room' (where the guitars get their finish).  The first several are of Pelly's 4 string Ziegenfuss signature singlecut.  This bass is really going to be stunning in its simplicity.  The guitar will have a satin urethane finish, which is just enough to keep it understated but help bring out the marvelous figure in the broad flame maple top and the marbled black walnut back.  The body core is African mahogany.  The neck is maple and cocobolo.  The pickups will be nordstrand dual coils with custom B&W ebony covers, with matching black hardware.

Then, we get into a couple shots of Feldman's OM.  This is hawaiian koa with a port ordford cedar (truly a cypress) top.  She is bound in flamed honduran mahogany, and will has ebony accents.  A great deal of work went into custom inlays on this beauty, so I am pretty excited to unveil it when it is fully done.  I imagine Feldman is excited to get this because he has been waiting forever.  Literally, forever.

Goodrich's Bryleigh Series

These are also some long overdue shots.  These are the product photos of Goodrich's satin Bryleigh Series. The guitar is built with granadillo, carpathian spruce (voiced in the same), with ziricote accents.  This is the first of its kind concerning the application of a hand rubbed catalyzed urethane finish.  Very thin, very translucent.  Dave is one of the best guys you could meet, and has supported me in my guitar venture more than anyone (aside from my beautiful wife)...many thanks go out to him, and I pray that this guitar continues to be deserving of its player.

Stephen

Crotch Mahogany Singlecut Bass

Hey everyone...

I apologize, I was away on travel recently and have not had much time to get pictures up.  Below is a series of product photos of a singlecut bass that I completed a little while ago.  The front and back of matching bookmatches of a piece crotch mahogany.  I set them over aspen.  The fretboard and other wood accents are done out of macacauba.  The bass is beautiful, sounds great, and otherwise is just really nice.  It is in a store in Ohio for sale.  If you are interested, shoot me a call 440-478-1177.

Inlay Work

Yeah, so here are a couple shots of Steve's fretboard inlay.  Figured white MOP.  I think it is going to beautiful when it is all done up.   Also, he wanted me to include sapwood in his fretaboard, which just makes me really happy...

Here a some shots of a new student and his coming bass.  He picked an incredible drop set of cocobolo for his Ziegenfuss Signature bass.  It is going to be unreal.

 All glued up with epoxy.  You have to use epoxy with coco, waterbased glues simply won't cut it because the wood is so oily.

Just whats been going on?

Is a good question to ask.  New orders have maintained their growth rate, which is really cool.  A couple more per month, and I might be able to do this full time.  I started cleaning out a new section of the basement will be setup to be more tightly climate controlled, and used for guitar setup, repair, voicing, etc...all of the delicate work.  That is exciting.

I have a number of guitars that have moved forward this week, and I did successfully drop off Feldman, Huff, and Pelham to be finished.  Here are a couple of progress pics..

 This a shot of my new comp guitar...It is going to be totally cool.  I have a show coming in the summer, and I plan on taking this to it.

  The above three shots are Huff's hollowbody with the red/brown prestain.  This will help pop the figure during finish, and will help secure the moody visuals that Seth is looking for.

 The above 4 shots are of Feldman's OM.  I set the bridge, stained the neck and got this baby ready to go.

 This is a shot of putting the center support strip in Corey's GA.

  The same in Steve's GA.

 A finished shot.

 And another.

 Well, these two shots represent a umph....moment.  After I got Jakes GA all ready to go to finish, it just felt heavy and thick.  So I removed the neck, and removed the back.  Now I can remake a new back and resecure and bind it, AFTER I thin the profile of this guitar up a bit.  The cool thing is, I have never seen one of my guitars in this state, because I glue the top on last.  So I was able to voice the top a little more, now that it is attached to the sides...VERY COOL.  

 This is a shot of installing the back strip in Adam's EIR GA.

 The above two shots show why guitar building sometimes takes so long...I spend a great deal of time ensure that the box is as clean as I can make it.  So I scrape all glue, remove all scratches, and otherwise try to ensure that the box is immaculate.  You can see the before and after shots of such a process.

And here are the collection of sides that I bent this weekend.  The bender was busy for sure...

Thanks!
Stephen