Shop News

Some of the current projects happening in the shop.

Not Jim's J-45

Poor Old Sick J-45

My dear friend Jim Huffmann brought me his 1972 (ish) Gibson J-45 and asked me to make it playable. The value of this guitar cannot be measured by money. Jim played this h=guitar at his wedding 32 years ago and lent it to friends who found themself without a guitar. It is a part of Jim's life. So my first thought was "I'd better not screw this up!"

At first glance I noticed that the bridge had been replaced. The replacement was carved to resemble a Martin bridge, not a Gibson bridge. After the inspection I realized that the top of the bridge was .125 hight then the frets!, causing an 6/64 gap at the 12th fret Yikes. It also had plastic nut, saddle, and bridge pins. Again, Yikes! To top it all off the frets had on average less than .075 left, where dented and worn. So a complete fret job is in order as well.

I will post pictures on a new page. I plan to take some before pictures (i already pulled the old frets?!) then after. They will be up by the end of the weekend.

I need to move this page to a blog style layout so the dates are present. Soon Wil, soon.

Herringbone OM Project - My New Baby

UPDATE

The OM body is finished and the first binding channels are cut. I need to make the time to sharpen my chisels so I can miter in the end wedge binding to the top and bottom binding at the tail of the guitar. The new templates for the headstock shape and the bridge design are being sent out this week to Digital Craft in Portland to cut the templates on their laser. Pretty Cool!

I've begun my new OM build. I have Adriondak spruce for the top and Indian Rosewood and Oregon Maple for a three piece back. I plan to inlay the back with herringbone strips where the back joints come together.

Tom's Guitars

The walnut OM and the Mahogany Rosie have both been delivered to Tom's Guitar's in Medford. It is the only dealer where our guitars can be purchased. We are stoked to begin a relationship with Tom and his staff.

The Texas Baby Jumbo

The Texas is almost done bleeding out all the oil in the rosewood. We began the finishing process and this guitar began to "leak" it's natural oils. I spent a few hours wiping it down with alcohol and sanding to clean it up, Glenn has spent a few hours as well. Hopefully soon we will be able to get some finish on this guitar and take it to it's new home.