Day 7 – Trimming Headstock, Front Bracing, Choosing Accessories

I didn’t really maximise my day as I had decision making issues haha. Took me forever to decide what I wanted so that I could then progress. Above was the rosettes I narrowed down to – I ended up asking you guys for a lot of help throughout the day and it was amazing. Everyone’s opinions helped me a lot as I’m incapable of choosing for myself haha. I just know what I don’t want.

The little I did get done was.. trimming down the headstock. It was a pretty tight one with the band saw so I really had to be precise, but I was really proud of myself for doing a neat job of it!

 

Then I sanded it down to the headstock…

I then had to choose machine heads…. I just stared at this shelf and thought “They really should’ve just given me a set and say THIS IS WHAT YOU GET” because I just took forever. So I took a photo of my favourites and asked you guys again.. I loved the prompt replies too because I really needed to make decisions pronto. The classic Waverly type silver ones at the front right was the most popular – and is what I ended up going with.

Tor then got onto his binding. I’m not doing binding for mine as I just want simple joinery so it was interesting (and super smelly) to watch them do it. The glue was so putrid though.

It was then time for me to choose my fretboard… I really liked how purple the left one was against the golden Blackwood of my body but then the beautiful stripes of the right fretboard is hard to ignore and it matches up safer in colour… so I threw it up to you guys again, and the majority went with the right. It all darkens and changes colour a bit once we wax it though. You can see I did a test strip on the bottom.

 

Dane brought his cigar box guitar in for me to see. It is so delicious and sounds like a bluesy charm. I loved his silver inlay work on the headstock. The whole thing is made of Australian timber too, I was in love with the creamy coffee colour of the Queensland maple neck. Mmm.. Australian wood is divine.

It was time for me to glue the other sides of the blocks.. once that was done and dried I put it into its jig ready for me to slowly assemble things together.

I then got cracking on making my front bracings from scratch. Through using the band saw, belt sander, radius dish to sand the bracings to a concave, plane, sandpaper, chisel and saw I got the front bracings done. Probably just needs a bit more of finder sanding. When they showed me what I had to make in the beginning, I thought – no way! But I couldn’t believe I made it myself, the general woodworking skills I’m picking up is just so invaluable.

I’ve never used a plane before too! So that was fun, and this was a cute little baby one.

Ready for a lot of work tomorrow.. hopefully I don’t come into some decision making forks otherwise I’ll be slowing right down. Haha – also I wore my own shirt for the first time today, who even does that? I used my jeans to tuck in my name though hahahahahaha.