the crimson guitars workshop blog | 070112

Happy new year! We’re back and this is going to be a great year for Crimson Guitars, the first batch of stock guitars are taking shape and everything is looking rosy!

The biggest new news is that we’ve finally finished the editing down of the 15 video series following the entire paf 25 build process from start to finish.. you’ll find all the videos here.

The Paf hollow, the lacquer is rubbed down, no finish is perfect straight out of the gun!
We use wet and dry paper from 600 grit up to 1500 or 2000 grit to get a perfect matt finish.
Once there it is time to start polishing, and polishing..
This always looks better under natural light.. even the light we get here does ok..
The back of this guitar is a much easier shape to buff up than the front was, but then I’m not know for making life particularly easy for myself!
Quality control is of prime importance, especially at the finishing stage.. this after all is the first thing that people see!  There are inevitably scratches left from the lower grits of wet and dry paper that need attention before the guitar can be signed off on.
The first part of any guitar to be completely finished is the fretboard, before that though the frets have to be leveled..
marked off..
flattened,
profiled and rubbed out with wet and dry paper and wire wool..
and finally polished to a high gloss with jewellers rouge and a buffing wheel..

Here are a pair of videos following the fretting process that may be interesting..

We’ll be creating many more videos this year!
The new paf hollow (based on this guitar.. one of my favourite ever Crimson Guitars!)
meet a few stock Dissident and PAF guitars.. there are even a few Robert Fripp models in there :)
Now, this is after the short holiday break (mostly spent building a very cool toy kitchen for my kids complete with many many leds, knobs and bits of stainless steel :) )
Back to work though and it’s still time to play with mdf.. a nice solid bass is put together.
and still with the kitchen theme out come some drawer runners…
Axis number one is the vertical, I’m not trying for much travel here so these L plates with a bearing work perfectly..
The other two axis are next..
left and right front and back up and down..
the original idea was to use this table with a mini dremel drive shaft
and a locator pin..
However, for what I want at least, the dremel is simply not robust enough..
Time to disassemble a quarter inch router!
the main body of the router is fitted easily.
and after a bit of  fun with an angle grinder the base of the router, which was the perfect size, is used to hold a drill chuck which will have the locator pin in it..
time to test out the new 3d copy router mark I.. what could be better than making a new toy car for my boy..
A little rough, but after sanding etc I am a very very happy man!  This is the small version for replicating pickup surrounds and bobbins, I will be making a much bigger beast for copying guitar bodies and neck profiles soon.
A break to have some fun with the prototype Crimson Amplifier.. Oh my!!  We’ll have the updated version in a few weeks and then I’ll be designing the cabinet and doing test videos etc.. we are going in to the boutique amp business after years and years of ..well, to be frank, procrastination!! but still..
Our timber is getting a bit too dry, time to turn down the dehumidifier! ..it is such a fine line when building hand made guitars.
And the most important part of your custom guitar is the neck, the stock range is coming together and these necks are made from solid  blanks rather than our usual multi-laminate necks so it is very important the wood is as stable as possible!
the pin router is set up
and I start getting the final neck shape.. in this case the neck is solid padouk.
What more can I say, a perfect fit!
The direction of travel is marked on each neck to make sure I don’t screw up!
and of course half way through the main bearing in the router decided to blow up..
little bits of bearing that really should not look like this!!
Still, I got enough necks done to complete the first batch of  stock guitars so no real delay.
Back to the new paf hollow,
this is an entirely hollow instrument and the internals are stained matt black to make the top stand out.
Now, the padouk  neck has it’s truss rod access routed,
and drilled out.
the glue is spread evenly over the whole neck, with masking tape there to protect the truss rod from the glue as it cures.
Finally the fretboard and neck become one.
Time to select and fit each neck to the specific bodies, each one of these ‘stock’ guitars is nonetheless unique.. I can’t bring myself to just replicate the same guitar time after time!
A bubinga bodied dissident with padouk neck and wenge fretboard.. maybe one to keep for myself!? :)
…
Back to the paf, the honduras rosewood fretboard is planed down to match the neck shape
the inlay positions are marked out and triple checked.. a mistake made at this point is soul destroying!
although it is fun working with such pretty materials!
though the fretboard in this case is prettier than the mother of pearl!

lovely fretboard simple inlays.. perfection!

Meet our secret weapon, Richard has been building guitars part time since 1976 and a pro cabinet maker since 86.. And supported hendrix in 67!! Now here a few days a week :-)

With the inlays filed flush to the fretboard it is time to make sure the depth of each fret slot is right, the masking tape on the side of the japanese saw marks the depth I want the slot to be and makes the job much easier!
the frets are cut to size
and installed.. theres about 45 minutes in between those statements that have been the subject of entire books!!
..I’m looking forward to this guitar, simplicity of design coupled with beautiful woods..

All my best,

Ben

Crimson custom Guitars UK

By crimsonguitars | January 20, 2012

« | Main | »

Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off on the crimson guitars workshop blog | 070112

Comments are closed.