My Month at Crimson Guitars

a short diary of a luthier experience

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So this is it!! Last day at Crimson, this is how it looks! And I bought a fancy, unbreakable (and pricey) made-in-England Hiscox flight case for it, so when it’s finished I’m ready to travel the world. (After I learn to play it really, really well!)

I’ll be finishing it up it the next few weeks, back in Finland at Omnia vocational school in Espoo. And I’ll post up a few updates here as I do, so stay tuned... If I feel up to it, I may continue with this log too. If you found it interesting or useful or have any questions, please drop me a comment!

-Mayim

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Gluing the linings on the back edge of the ribs, after the inside mould is removed... With my fancy home-made clothes-pin clamps!

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Finally gluing the fingerboard on the neck - note the fingerboard extension also fit and glued!

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The dovetail fits! After, how many... 6... 8 hours? I was after all nearly pulling my hair out- you’re fitting at least 4 surfaces you can’t see and of course when hand-cut they’re not flat (though you try...) And you can give up when it’s 80%, if you can. I can’t, by some flaw in my system, so although it was 85% good after 3 hours, it wasn’t “good enough” until after, well, I stopped counting because I was annoyed it was taking so long ;-)  But once you’re there you can’t give up...

Next time I’ll take the time to make the router jig. If I ever do it again after it would be worth the time investment.

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O, I forgot to post this, from the 3rd week... Grinding a bevel on notched straight-edges, 20 of them. Loads of fun, and healthy too!

Crimson really does make all their own tools, mostly by hand... pretty cool.

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Clamping up the top to glue it on, and then... voila! You don’t see the time it took! But finally the inside mould is out, and it starts to look like an instrument!

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There is some real woodworking that happens here at Crimson... here again Tom’s two handmade planes, based on James Krenov’s style of laminating pieces to make the bodies. Beautiful, and very functional planes!! I’m going to be making some like this myself.

The true key to their brilliant usability, according to Tom, is the thick Hock blade. I’m sure that helps, as Hock blades are indeed wondrous. But it might have a bit to do with Tom’s skill too ;-)

[luthiermayim-blog]

Crazy me - of course I wanted to make a real traditional dovetail neck joint.

And because the only template they had around the shop was a Martin wide model (not doing many dovetails there, on electric guitars), well it was too wide a taper for my delicate lithe octave mando body. 

So (crazy me) I just decided, instead of doing all the trial and error to make a new working router template of the right taper, well I’d just cut it all by hand!! Here’s the first stage: decide the dimensions, draw it out, and rough cut with a japanese saw.

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Back to my octave mandolin - got the f-holes knifed out! What do you think? I’m pretty happy- it’s strange how there are so many possibilities... This is a sort of conservative choice, based on Weber and old Gibson f-holes combined.

Next one I might go a bit more experimental... let’s see! It may depend on who wants to buy the next one, and what they want...!  

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Another project with copper-leaf alchemy...

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Ben Crowe’s famous workbench... oh yes he does love his tools! And what a collection!

He also seems to be in a bit of an alchemy phase - that’s a solid plate copper top semi-hollowbody electric there on his bench, with copper leaf inside and will be all over the guitar! Time will tell if and when it gets that odd beauteous copper-green patina... Definitely alchemous.

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Ok, I know I’m kind of lousy at this blog thing- I mean the point is supposed to be to keep up with things, right?! So here I’ll catch up a bit, after the fact.

This is a curious experiment of Crimson’s - a wood they call “Lake Ash” being used for bodies. If I understood it right, it’s basically “sinker” timber, meaning it’s from a log which has been hauled up from sitting at the bottom of a lake for years. The water, pressure, and probably microorganisms too all do strange things to the wood, including this fantastic coloring, and making it REALLY LIGHT. It remains to be seen how it will resonate but why not? The finishing process however is a pain because unfinished it’s very soft, meaning it must be impregnated for stability. We were experimenting with, what else, Superglue!! Which just happens to be found in abundance around the Crimson shop... 

We’ll see soon how it works, when they finish this batch of Artist Series guitars - I bet it’ll be featured in the videos...

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Burning dust is a thrill, and a nasty mess! That’s Josh doing the pyrotechnics...

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The view out behind the shop... the rolling green of Dorset.

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The power tool room...

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So... back to Crimson’s jobs, this week!! That is, back to the grindstone, literally...

Grinding aluminum leveling bars. And I hate selfies, but thought this was appropriate! Good protection is essential- metal dust is nasty!

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Laying out f-holes with my template (mandolin-style shape!)

Drilling the eyes in a nearly finished top was a good test of nerves, and brains! This could be better done before finishing the inside arch, to avoid tearout inside (I did get some, despite supporting the back well.) Best would be to get handheld circle cutters of the proper size, and sharpen them well... That’s next time!