Four Part Harmony

Work on the guitar has really slowed down this past week or so. I’m not sure quite what to attribute it to, but it’s likely due at least in part to the fact that I’m treading in to uncharted territory somewhat. I’m really getting to the part where I need to work on tasks that are going to significantly affect the playability of the guitar, and it’s daunting. A week or so ago, though, I did manage to tackle an inlay project on the headstock of the guitar, and even remembered to take a few pictures while I was working on it.

I had been kicking around ideas of potential designs practically since I started building, but I had never come up with anything that really struck me. But the other day, Anna and I were coloring and one of our little scribblings started to plant the seed of what eventually became this design. I sketched something up and got out my little scraps of mother-of-pearl and started cutting. The infinity/figure eight symbol was really the main piece that I wanted to see if I could do, and I kind of tried to build a simple design around it. I started cutting simple shapes and dots, and then arranging and rearranging them on the headstock until I came up with something that seemed like it would work. The layout I finally decided on wasn’t at all much like the one I initially drew.

This picture and the one above show the routing process already underway (I didn’t think to grab the camera until I got to this point). The routing was as painstaking as I thought it was going to be, and much more frustrating than just routing out those little squares and diamonds on the fretboard. I ended up with quite a few places where I ended up outside my scribed lines.

And here’s the finished routing job, you can see a few places here where I nudged the bit outside my lines. I was hoping that the old ebony dust and superglue was going to be able to work its magic again.

Here’s the pearl all glued up with the ebony dust. It always looks pretty bad at this point. I went to bed hoping for, but not necessarily expecting, the best.

And here’s the finished product. I have to say overall I’m pretty pleased with it as a first try. The dust and superglue did a great job of seating everything, though in some places the gap was just too big to be unnoticeable. In person, in good light, the pearl pieces really shine and I think they’ll look pretty good with the rest of the guitar as a whole.

Well, assuming I get myself down into the shop at all in the next couple weeks, here’s what I’ll be working on:

-further refining the neck (just one last time)

-installing fretwire, dressing frets and finishing fretboard

-once fretboard is finished, glue fretboard to neck and neck to body.

-make bridge, nut, and saddle

-finishing (much to learn here).