Electric Flapjack Guitars: fretwork

A Week in the Shop

31 Oct 2023 - delfinen, finishing, fretwork, hästen, verkstaden

Putting in the time: nothing new this week, just a week of getting on with the jobs I started previously in the workshop, with more staining, more oiling, and more fret-dressing and polishing.

A photo of two guitar necks hung up on rack in room otherwise filled with wood on shelves. Both necks are made from maple: one is hung so you can see the back, showing the birds-eye figuring, and the other is hung so you can see the fretbaord is covered in masking tape.

A Week in the Shop

22 Oct 2023 - delfinen, finishing, fretwork, hästen, oiling, painting, staining, verkstaden

Lots going on in the workshop this week as I push three guitars, body and neck, through the finishing process.

A photo of a guitar body being held over a workbench, caught in the sunlight coming through an unseen window. The face of the body is yellow stained birds-eye maple, and the top 5mm of the side is natural unfinished birds-eye maple, and then the back of the guitar is painted gloss black.

A Week in the Shop

5 Aug 2023 - bass, design, fretwork, Fusion 360, grain filler, hästen, verkstaden

This week I had both the highs and lows as my neck building exceeds my expectations before I'm knocked down a peg or two on the next stage. I also prep two guitar bodies ready for the stray-booth, and I do some CAD work on bass guitar work.

Two guitar bodies sit on the workbench, ready to go to the spray booth for painting. Both have a stick screwed into the neck pocket to be held in the clamp during spraying, and one has a cardboard mask on one side as only the rear will be painted.

A Week in the Shop

30 Jul 2023 - fretwork, grain filler, hästen

I move the Hästen guitar build forward slowly, moving both the body and the neck forward with generous application of elbow grease.

A shaped but unpainted guitar body sits on a workbench surrounded by sanding disk.

A Week in the Shop

10 Jun 2023 - älgen, blues deluxe, electronics, fretwork, hästen, inlays, lacquer, noel gallagher, spraying

A busy week in the shop: getting ready to spray a 3D-printed guitar body; learning to use metal rods for dot-inlays on a neck; and when copper insulation goes rogue inside a guitar.

A selfie of me in the spray booth, wearing all my PPE (respirator, eye-protectors, goggles), and behind is the over-exposed 3D-printed body of a guitar ready for spraying with lacquer.

A Week in the Shop

22 Apr 2023 - fretwork, necks, paintstik, plectrums

The Älgen guitar is now something I get to live with for a little, two necks get some work done, I worry about how to promote myself at shows, and I explore some guitar music outside my usual listening.

A rack of guitars sits next to an amp and pedalboard. The most obvious guitar on the rack is Älgen, which is part 3D-printed, making it stand out from all the other guitars.

A Week in the Shop

19 Feb 2023 - 3d printing, älgen, bhm, delfin, fretwork, memphis minnie

A shorter weeknotes this week, as I've been heads down on slow tasks: fretwork and 3D print iterations. I also learned about the person who wrote one of my favourite Led Zepplin songs back in 1929.

A work in progress guitar neck, shaped and fretted, sat on a workbench. Beside the neck is a black sharpie pen, and closer inspection reveals all the frets have been drawn on with the sharpie ready for fret shaping work.

A week in the shop

18 Jul 2022 - älgen, fretwork

Pondering about what it is I do, pushing towards the finishing straight with Älgen build, and learning a new process for my fretwork.

A productive and frustrating week in the shop

11 Nov 2019 - fretwork, the green tiger

Two weeks in the shop

28 Apr 2018 - bridge, effects, fretwork, hoxton, mastery, owl, pedals

In which I work on the frets for my prototype offset build, check out the nice Mastery bridge unit, and try coding up some of my own effects with the Hoxton Owl pedal.

A guitar neck sits on the workbench, with the fretboard covered in masking tape to leave just the ferts showing. Half the frets have black sharpie on them, waiting to be shaped, the rest are shiny where they've been worked on.

Tags > fretwork