Roy's Guitar, From Sketch to Reality

One year since Roy and I began to trade ideas, a sketch once on a page has turned into a Guitar. Slide show and recordings of this instrument to come.

Roy's Guitar, Intonation Nation

Intonation is the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument. Or in guitar terms, the open notes in the lower register are in tune with fretted notes in the upper positions.
The steps:
1. Strum the open E string.
2. Using a good tuner (picture) (I salvaged this one from an old school's music room that was being gutted when I was 16) tune the open E string.
3. Now, fret the string at the 12th fret, this is the "high E" (picture), the tuner is telling me the note is flat.
4. Adjust the bridge (picture) by moving the E-string saddle forward until the open E is in tune with the fretted E.

Roy's Guitar, Soldering

Guitar wiring can be difficult sometimes. The wiring diagrams found on the web are a big help. Using a soldering iron one makes the needed connecting the wires from the pickup to the three-way switch, to the volume control and out to the 1/4 inch jack. I looks like chaos in the control cavity but it works.

Roy's Guitars, Installing the Gibson Pickups

The pickup mounting rings (black plastic rectangles) have been sanded to the proper height (b/w picture). After this the pickups and rings were mounted to the guitar. A schematic of the wiring configuration for this instrument was printed off the web. Soldering will commence shortly. From the front it is starting to look like a guitar (color picture).

Roy's Guitar, Back to Work

Just got back from Virginia visiting friends and family. This week the opportunity has presented itself to give Roy's guitar some solid attention. The last finishing touches are very detailed oriented: The frets must be smoothed, the action set, pickups and other electric components wired/soldered and the cavity covers fitted. In this picture the nut is being shaped and filed. This is a important because if there are any sharp edges on the nut the player will feel them. I feel good about what will get done this week and will keep you posted.

Roy's Guitar, Truss Rod Cover

I wanted to use Roy's actual signature but not being able to find a product called "gold write" I had to try something else. Gold Write, a product no longer made, was a small piece of paper with one side coated in gold. It allowed one to sign and transfer his/her signature onto a medium. But I have used something with results which will turn out great.
The steps: a. choose a font which could I route with a very find routing bit.
b. printed out R. Ponce and glued it to a piece of rosewood
c. routed the letters away leaving an imprint in the wood
d. filled the imprint with silver dust, which I filed off a silver letter removed from an old belt (bought at Goodwill)
e. dropped super glue over the letters (picture)

Next step will be to sand off the glue and shape the truss rod cover.

The Rufus, Neck Shaping

Using a rasp the once square neck has now become rounded. More to come.