A short week notes this week. I took a few days off in Brighton to chill after working full on for the last month or so, and then my body detected it could have its moment with the work pressure briefly removed, and so I spent the weekend full of cold rather than in the workshop. My general policy is when you’re ill, don’t try to fight it, just rest and get better. That sounds much better when I’m telling someone else to do it rather than having to be stuck at home myself. But the cost of mistakes on a guitar build can be high, and with commission #10 so close to completion I really don’t want to be pushing it and make mistakes now.

So, a very short week, and apologies if none of this makes sense, as my head really is full of cotton wool right now 🤧

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The one thing I did do in the shop was do the final pre-finishing prep on the neck at the start of the week:

As with the body, this was going over it and removing all the fine marks from carving it and getting every surface silky smooth.

Last week I mentioned that I’d rolled over the edges of the fretboard before I put the frets in, and as I suspected the issue there is that as you do post fret-work sanding this puts a sharp edge back on there, which you have to take out as best you can. Im not sure what the ideal way here is, but with a little bit of fine effort using narrow strips of sandpaper I got the edge back on, so all is well.

When I do get back into the workshop this coming week, it’ll be oiling time for both the body and the neck, though I’m in Wales for a few days (I scheduled a bunch of time off thinking I’d be done this guitar by now), so that’s probably the main progress I’ll make this week. I will try to also do a CNC route of the pick guard for this guitar.

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One nice thing to see was our Clydesdale build out and about, which we were commissioned to make by Stewart, lead singer and guitarist for the Glasgow band Layaway, and delivered back at the start of the year. First up, Layaway’s new single, Falling Knives, just dropped:

You can see the guitar I made in action in the above video, which is a surreal thing for me to see still - a proper music video that has a guitar I made it in, and indeed not to forget the single itself made with the same guitar. Layaway have been reworking their sound this last year, and it’s great to hear all that hard work paying off.

They also played a gig at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut a couple of weeks ago, which means that two guitars I’ve built have made it onto that hallowed stage! I’m totally humbled by that - had you asked me when I lived in Glasgow about the chances of this happening I’d have said zero. Just goes to show what can happen if you find a thing that gets you excited and you make time to push through - and you have the support of family, friends, and clients to encourage you through the tough times 🙏

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The only other guitar related thing this week was I went to visit Woody’s Music down in Brighton, where the owner and seasoned luthier David Hardwick, happily talked to me about guitar building. I’ve said before how kind and sharing the luthier community is with their time and knowledge, and David was certainly no exception. We had a talk about the economies of guitar building, and how he’s been focusing of late on trying to use reclaimed woods for his builds from local building renovations.

If you’re in Brighton and need a guitar either fixed up or built, then you should give David a call. (I failed to take pictures of his workshop, as I didn’t want to seem to be pushing his welcome, so you’ll just have to go see it yourself!)

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Okay, hot toddy time for me 🥃 I hope to be in a better state next week!