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The Guitar Builders blog | 30th April 2012

Welcome to the Crimson Guitars photo and video blog, this week we see a few new designs come out, one in this time lapse video (a bit long but worth a watch if you’re interested in seeing how a guitar design is realised on paper..) and one with me just cutting into one of our Dissident guitars, just because.. On top of that the custom detachable twin neck guitar is fast coming together

Now, unless you follow our daily stream of tweets and status updates you will have been left last week having seen these custom pickup surrounds on the bench waiting for a pickup.. here they are in position and I am very very happy with the result!
Before I set this custom guitar aside to settle into her strings a little basic setting up is in order.. I know I won’t be able to resist the odd strum over the next week!
Next up this 45rpm model guitar, destined to have a Korg Kaoss pad controller and various other fx units installed, needs its grain filling.
A fixed bridge version of the Robert Fripp signature guitar is next on my bench, a few days without making any dust and I get a bit antsy..
This is pretty heavily carved already
but is in need of a bit of adjustment.
The neck joint looks pretty comfy, and it is by Les Paul standards,
but we can do so much better than that.. no joint, no hard lines means complete comfort!!
And fine sanding begins.
Several hours and a few hundred grit of sand paper later the first coats of oil are applied.. and a guitar suddenly becomes a living breathing creature.. I love this part of a build!
Comfy..
and beautiful… after about a dozen coats of oil this will be glossy and even more attractive *(though I am, of course, a bit biased!)
The base section of the custom detachable twin neck guitar.. the fretboard is masked off with two layers of tape.
The frets are marked with permanent marker..
filed level.. a formality really with a well-made new guitar.
They are then profiled and polished up to their final comfortable high gloss.
Un-masked and oiled.. what more is there to say?
Richard adding a few of those coats of oil!
Back to the dusty work (my real passion.. or couldn’t you tell?) A padouk Les Paul type guitar is carved..
And then we”re on to another Dissident guitar.. or is it..
we have a few Dissidents being built right now so I decide to take the bandsaw to it!
The guitar is carved using an angle grinder and a Holey Galahad carving disk.
It still needs work..

remove the lower horn entirely and reshape the upper..
some detail carving by hand
And here is the next Crimson Guitar model.. unique, light weight and rather pretty.
To counter all the curves the control layout is simple and straight..
The padouk neck is carved to its final shape and final sanding begins.
Richard in the meantime is making a batch of control cover plates.
like so..
these are the last major pieces to be made for this batch of guitars.
I love timber control plates, they can be carved to match the shaping of the back giving the guitar a homogeneous design and feel..
The new model… in need of a name now, sanded down you can see the what the final result will be.. although I’m thinking a trans black stain?
..Ah.. in case you didn’t watch the video at the top of the page here’s a close up of the other new design.
A chunk of ebony arrives in the post.. destined to be a solid through neck on a black and white themed custom Explorer guitar.. I can’t wait!
Steel.. destined for the lightest guitar I’ve ever made!.. mmmm
I do like playing with fire!
but when I get to fire up the engineering lathe I’m in heaven!
Each piece is dished out carefully.
To remove some weight.
They are held onto the guitar with the potentiometer nuts.
and are the locating pins that will hold the bass and guitar together and in the right place.