Hi everyone! I'm so excited to show you all the progress we've made on my guitar at Hawkins Guitars! The long awaited moment is not so long off as we walk through these final steps of building... Lets get started!
The first thing we did was make a new bridge. I know what you're thinking, "This is the 3rd bridge this guy has made, what's he thinking?", But Brian came up with new innovations for the bridge to help with the guitars stability and intonation, so we made a new one implementing this new design.
Here's a pic of the new bridge....
*Routing space for neck
After making the bridge, Brian cut out a space in the body where the neck would join. We then used a tool to carve a bit of the neck where the neck would touch the body to prepare it for sanding. After this, we took some .220 grit sandpaper and lightly glued it to the body right in the place where the neck would join. Using this we took the same part of the neck and sanded it until it was flesh with the body, thus leaving no space between the neck and body. *Routed space
The goal as I've meantioned before, was to get the neck flesh with the body, making sure no light got through. After much scraping and sanding we got it down, and finally we were ready to put the neck on.
Before putting on the finish or gluing anything down, Brian likes to put the guitar together to hear how it sounds. The first thing he did was align and put on the neck. He uses a few tools for this. I would explain his process further, but I don't have any pictures for you to see what i'm talking about. Just know that it takes a lot to get the neck aligned, straight, and in the exact right position.
After the neck was on it was time to position the bridge, which takes a few of the same tools to align it as well. This part is also very detremental, and takes a few tries to get right (again no pictures).
*Nut
Once the bridge was placed Brian used two screws where the 1st and 6th peg heads would normally go, and two pieces of wood on the inside (for the screws to go into) and attatched the bridge to the top of the guitar. He then began to file down the saddle. The saddle is made of cow bone (you can see it in the picture of the bridge). Then we put shaped the nut, which is also made out of cow bone.
Once we got the nut in there, we strung it up! When I played it the first time, it was love at first strum! The action was very high, so Brian had to make many adjustments, sandeing the saddle down to size and making the notches deeper in the nut. We'll be doing a more precise set-up once the finish is on, and everything is glued down.
Here's what the guitar looked like once finished!
I played for a long time after this, I didn't want to put it down! At the end of the day I recieved the best news of all... I got to take it home to play this week!
I made a small video at home of me playing the guitar. The video doesn't give the guitar justice, since I only used the internal mic of the mac, but I wanted you guys to get a teaser anyway!
So without further adieu...
HERE IT IS!
We still have more things to do: making a new nut (that one is a bit dirty), finishing, making the side soundole, putting on the heel cap and gluing everything down, but the guitar has already surpassed my expectations! It's the best guitar I've ever played! I hope I get to share it with each and every one of you in person.
To hear more about Brian, His Guitars, and his School, click HERE for his website, and HERE for to "like" his Facebook page.
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Until next time,
~Daniel