Guitar School Adventures Episode 3: Boxing, Binding and Bonding

Week three few by, it was just a week long blur of work. At this point my top back and sides were ready to be glued together. A little bit of dremeling and some "go-sticks" or "Go-Go-Girls" as I like to call them and I realized that all this wood I have been carving and sanding looks like a guitar. A sickness had begun to roam around the school. A few students got hit and missed a few days but as a class we were pretty far ahead so it wasnt so bad. Wednesday and thursday were pretty slow and steady. Brian gave us a brief lecture on pre-war martins and such, and how they used to "tune their tops" in the old days as compared to today. He then used a makeshift neck steamer out of an espresso machine and a plastic tube to remove a neck for a neck reset. It was quite the experience and I great opportunity to absorb some knowledge instead of following orders. By the end of the week we were all caught up and the day ended with another blow out of the shop. Saturday morning was a huge breakfast, french press stumptown and cleaning. My house mates and I went searching for a game system of sorts to have for the house but we couldnt find anything except at a pawn shop where they had either ALL the games but not the system or the system but absolutely no games. Hopefully we can find something to further cement our luthier bro binding experiences. Thats all for this week, stay tuned for the next episode. -G

Guitar School Adventures Episode 2: Cutting teeth and braces.

Week two of school was all about acoustics. Sides, backs, tops, braces, maple, spruce and rosettes. I was just in a haze of nervousness and fear. The wood for the tops are so delicate you are in constant fear of scratching the hell out of it, which you do. Its an inevitability. Bent the sides with a process involving water, heat and a fancy jig. Shaping the head block and end block was simple but doing the same for the braces was a different story. Focus is key and its easy to feel like youve completely destroyed the whole thing. Luckily the school is never short of replacements to reshape if you mess up. I fell behind slightly, not because I wasnt as good, it was really only because I was a little more cautious. Once the sides were on however I ran into a bit of a snag. A device called the "parabolic" sander is designed to evenly sand the tops of your sides to the proper radius. I made the mistake of reading the calipers wrong and sanded about .050 of an inch farther down than was required. May not seem like much but when you hear "50,000ths of an inch" it sounds like a HUGE screw up. All it means is that my guitars body will end up being a little more narrow than everyone else's. By the end of the week I was sanding and shaping the braces I glued on. Im told next week we will be "Boxing" up the guitars, or in other words, putting the top and back onto the sides. Im looking forward to that as long as I get a chance to finish my braces without any added pressure. Saturday I took a pickup winding class and got the chance to wind my own P90 pickup for my electric. The class was super informative but two guys outside of the school came in to take it and they were a couple of boobs. By "boobs" I mean they were the worst combination of arrogance, ignorance, self-centeredness and awkwardness. Every word out of their mouths was about the gear they owned, obscured boutique guitar companies, how good (they believe) they are at guitar and just general one-upmanship. It was the most annoying thing. Trying so hard to come across as all cool and knowledgeable when in reality they were just a couple of nozzles. Wasnt too bad, I did get a P90 out of the deal! stay tuned for episode 3 and more boob nozzles. -G

Guitar School Adventures Episode 1: Sanding and sanding with more sanding.

On March 9th I left my home in Medina Ohio to attend the Galloup School of Luthrie in Big Rapids Michigan. These are the tales of my weekly experience as I become a more rounded guitar craftsman. Week one - March 9th-14th The drive took about 5 hours and 30 minutes. I filled my car with The Wonder Years until I reached Michigan, then It was Pink Floyd all the way to school. When I arrived I was presented with my work bench and a binder that was filled with a condensed but organized treasure trove of procedures, measurements, tips, tools to buy places to go and checklists. We signed a few agreements, went over rules, checked our benches for all the tools we'd need, took a tour of the shop and made general introductions. I was introduced to my house mate Martin from the Netherlands and we got settled into the house. That was just the orientation, this week was filled with so much information it was easy to get lost but I hung on pretty well. First day was pretty much just a step by step demo/lecture on how to refret a guitar. The following day was AAALLLL SAANDING! We sanded our electric guitar bodies and necks to prep them for the spray room. My forearms were super stiff but it will be all worth it in the end... hopefully. Im told that even the slightest imperfection in the wood from improper preparation will show up in the lacquer finish afterward. Tuesday was more filling and sanding but once we were finished our necks and bodies were hung in the spray room. We got a chance to practice refrets on the dummy guitars. Mine went pretty well considering it was my first attempt. Wednesday was my first experience using the spray room. we sprayed an amber burst finish on our guitars, and waited till the next day to start the gloss lacquer coats. Continued working on my refret, by this time I had the frets on and started preping them to get leveled and recrowned. Day ended early with a "blow out" where they basically sprayed down the shop with an air gun. A film crew were coming in the next day to record some segment about the school. Thursday was spraying of the lacquer coats. This was a little frightening because the coats need to be perfect. If its too thick the lacquer cracks, if its too thin you end up sanding right into the wood. Film crew rolled in and filmed their segment. SIDENOTE: Cute redheaded girl was operating the boom. First time id seen a girl in person for days, it was like meeting a girl for the first time in kindergarden. Friday I was feeling pretty good until one of the teachers knocked my refret dummy onto the floor while I was in the spray room. "Thats why you need to lock your guitar in the vice when you arent at your bench." Lesson learned but it demoralized me until lunch. We sanded our guitar bodies before applying the next coats of lacquer. Over all its what I expected and a little more. Im looking forward to starting the acoustic next week. Stay tuned. Much love G,