As the latest batch of customer guitars have moved onto the painting process - I've been distracted by a big ol' pile of reclaimed, remilled Baltic spruce that's been mellowing in the corner of my 'shop for a year or so.
This timber once served as roofing purlins for a Western Melbourne warehouse. After drying out under tension for 100 years or so the boards have a lovely ring to them and some real character in the form of ebonised bolt holes, saw cuts and mortises. The spruce smell is still terrific after all these years when the sawblade hits these planks.
All cavities, holes and splits have since been filled and stabilised with high quality, slow setting, translucent resin.
I have trued them, and glued them in the shape of a shapely, tight - waisted 1941 National Chicago arch-top guitar that I once knew ( with the addition of a florentine cutaway from my favourite Kay bass ).
Aesthetically, one of the ideas I'm working with on these guitars is the contrast between the hard-working industrially aged wood of the guitar bodies and the spectacular 'high end' maple caps that I have just finished clamping up onto their tops.
My typogrphic play on the F Hole tradition is just another curve ball for these instruments - I decided they were looking a little too 'traditional' so 'Exclamation Holes' it is ...
Necks will follow as the summer progresses - I'm looking into my files of old mail-order / department store headstock designs, but ultimately I'm aiming for something original, maybe even a little 'Atomic Age' to compliment the aluminium cafe-edge binding that will follow. I also have some new ideas regarding pickups - a twist on the classic P90 styles which ring like a bell in a semi-hollow guitar.
These two instruments ( I'm intending a 25" scale 2-pickup guitar and a 30" scale, wooden bridge, mellow bass ) are being built 'on spec' and as-yet have no final destination.
Please contact me here if you'd like to talk about placing a deposit on one of them and helping me shape their final specs.
AP