Week Ten
Local Timber is more appropriate
Trips to the hospital, for three separate tests, at three different hospital on three consecutive days have occupied a fair amount of this week, along with a fair amount of mileage! They have covered QEQM at Margate, William Harvey at Ashford and the K&C at Canterbury, so the way things are going I’ll probably end up seeing a consultant in Maidstone for the results! 
For environmentalist, there has been good news coming out Read more…
Week Nine,Legislation
A week missed and a day late! Not very good, is it? I’d like to give a bunch of excuses about being busy and that sort of thing, but unfortunately they wouldn’t be true. I just haven’t been able to concentrate, but that has now been righted by a trip to the Oncologist to sort out the lump on my temple that has been growing for the last few weeks. So this week coming, apart from a blood test and a couple of scans, I should be able to get back on with things. 
Some important legislation comes into force this week, namely The EU Timber Regulations aimed at reducing the trade in illegally logged timber, estimated by Interpol Read more…
Week 7 Sermon
New jig week, along with finishing the move around, and a couple of repairs have taken far more time than they should have, but each has had it’s own rewards.
The move around, as mentioned last week, has provided something verging on a dance-floor’s worth of space, along with a sensible Read more…
Week 6
UFGB Tenor
That short month I mentioned last week got even shorter over the past week when we decided we needed to re-arrange the workshop. Not just moving a couple of bits, but changing the whole thing around! It took three days out of the week, and will take a couple more to complete the process properly.
The whole exercise has been worthwhile though, with a couple of major benefits already noticed. The first, and the most obvious Read more…
Week 5 already!
January was a month that, at times seemed to drag, and at other moments simply shot past. In
4 finished Tenor Ukes
retrospect it has gone pretty quick! It has seen the completion of seven instruments (One of those five tenors got a bit behind due to some extras needed on it) They include 4 tenors, Ben’s 8 string, Andy’s Soprano and that project instrument that those of you following this will have seen glimpses of.
I’ve called it a Read more…
Sunday Sermon, Wk 4
No improvement over last week as far as temperatures are concerned, even Tru-oil has been taking 48 hours to cure properly, some 40 hours longer than it would in the summer! Today though, it did improve considerably.
On top of that, the far end of the Craft village has been having some major Read more…
Sunday Sermon, Wk 3
Using a workshop that is no more than a converted cattle stall, combined with sub-zero temperatures, and now, a carpet of snow, has had it’s moments this week. Most glues state ‘Protect from frost’ on the label and should not be used below 10 degrees C, and keeping the workshop at those heady temperatures has bee difficult. Thank heavens for Hide Glue!
Mind you, carving seven necks has kept the body warm, it’s just the air temperature that has been a problem!
The instruments seen here all had their necks caved during the course of Read more…
Sunday Sermon, Wk 2
To say we’ve had a hectic week would be an understatement! A simple plan, outlined last week, gone almost completely to pot this week. Batch building, yes, it’s a good idea, but the building methods that were in use are totally impractical in that situation.
Go-bar Deck
To overcome that drawback, I decided to build a contraption called a go-bar deck. This requires a radius dish to complete Read more…
Sunday Sermon
I’ve not been very good about keeping this site up to date of late, so for 2013 I have decided to post religiously, every week. And to keep the religious theme, I’m going to call it the ‘Sunday Sermon‘! The religion, of course, is the Ukulele!!
Ben’s 8 string
The tail end of 2012 got a little busy, not least because, for a while the bugs got into the staff (me) and I didn’t feel up to doing a lot at all. Fortunately, most of the jobs that had to be done got there, and those that didn’t weren’t a disaster. On the bench for the start of 2013 are Ben’s 8 string Tenor (is that a Taropatch?) and Andy’s Soprano while a third instrument, an experimental one, is also Read more…
The ‘Custom’ advantage
The advantage of having an instrument built for you, as opposed to buying one off the shelf, is that you can have more or less exactly what you want. And that is not just having certain timbers or colours or tuners, but having the whole instrument designed for your specific requirements.
Take, for example, my daughter Lorraine, who you have seen before in these pages. She has always struggled with some aspects of playing a full sized guitar, due mainly to never having reached the five foot mark in her growth and having hands to match. By any standards they are tiny and the whole hand has difficulty spanning three frets!
The answer was a custom guitar, and although I don’t build many guitars I decided (as Dad’s do) that she deserved one for Christmas. As size was the main criteria I based it on a baritone ukulele body with a 22″ scale length. It was half built before she knew anything about it, but once the neck was made I thought I’d better check with her that the size of the neck was suitable. At that point she wasn’t shown the body!
I guess you would call it a Parlour or Piccolo Guitar, but the strings are so close together that virtually nobody else could play it sensibly. Many Thanks must go to Gary Zimnicki for his invaluable advice while building it.
She got her guitar for Christmas and earlier today she came along to the workshop to tell me how she could now form chords that were impossible with ‘normal’ instruments. I now have a very happy daughter!
This will be my last post for 2012, so may I take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy and prosperous New Year.
