Why another guitar?

Why?

And that's a sensible and logical place to start this, my third musical instrument building blog – after all, we don't aspire to be the Von Howells family musical group and even before Covid lockdown we didn't have a handy novice nun to get us going. This then is our third project and by slipping in the first person plural I've given you a clue to the 'why' – this is not a Philip Howells solo but a duet.

In fact, while I shall endeavour to build the guitar itself to as high a standard as I can, my role is quite distinctly split into two parts. In between the two sections, preparation of the wood of the body and finishing of the fretboard and neck, on the one hand, and the assembly and finishing of the instrument, the production will be undertaken by my good lady wife, she of the graphic art skills and matching academic qualification. She will use the front, back and sides of the guitar body as blank canvases on which she is promising to exercise her talent and current artistic passion for a form of abstract art created using a combination of poured acrylic paint manipulated, blown, shaken and otherwise imposed upon by the artist herself.

Once again I've bought my kit from Universal Musical Supplies who import Coban Guitars from China. Again the fit of the neck to the body was given a once-over by the company before the item was shipped and in fact, I'd say this was the snuggest joint of all three purchases I've made from them.

Day One was given over wholly to the sanding of the guitar body and neck from the delivered state through 180, 400 and 600 grit to a final of 1200 grit. I did purchase a small container of stainable wood filler but it's well-nigh impossible to discern the difference between filled and unfilled wood and sanding back all the unrequited filler is a real arm ache.

                                                                Rough cut of headstock

I'd originally intended to 'de-populate' the three-ply white/black/white plastic 'pickguard so that Niki could use that as part of her canvas. Her concern that it might not work as we intend it should, led us to remove the guard. It'll also mean temporarily filling the empty routed spaces.

Before the end of the evening, I hope to be able to give the body a coat of white acrylic primer/undercoat. If a second coat is necessary it'll be given after a thorough drying.

Finally, as the photos will illustrate, the style of headstock I've chosen lens itself to a repetition of my previous signing of the headstock to dispense with any suggestion or fear that by using a similar headstock design to a builder active in the UK, we're in any way trying to pass off my home-built guitar as something it isn't.

 

                                           Sculptured headstock with rolled edge on bass side