Burn Out.
As the title suggests, I’ve burnt out. My body shut down at the end of the week with a cold. The body and brain are tired from this week's events. A lot going on from different angles of life. But as I mentioned in last weeks post, whatever will be, will be.
Even though the week was a bit of a first world struggle, I pushed through it. I started to plan the build more strategically, meaning, what can I do in advance before the shoot and leave what’s important for the shoot. This strategy worked. I didn’t feel rushed. I was more or less waiting for Jonard and team member Ralph to get the shots they needed. I felt like I was in control of the build again. The shoot today was amazing, the crew captured more than enough footage and we all look forward to another teaser by Jonard.
This week was all about details. In particular, the ‘f’ sound port. Noel has been voicing his concerns about volume of the guitar, and one way we addressed this was adding this custom sound port. A sound port is like the sound hole found on the top of the guitar however, this port or hole is found on the player’s side of the guitar to help the player audit his sound better while playing for his audience. The other important detail was dressing the sound hole in a custom handmade rosette procured from Russia. With these two customizations in place, this guitar is beginning to form its unique personality.
It is important to note that this week came with a few mishaps on the guitar top. The good thing is, I was able to correct both of them. While gluing in the rosette and then thicknessing to its proper dimension (using the drum sander), after the first pass, it looked like sand was getting impregnated into the top grain. Immediately, I was like, “WTF”, where is this sand coming from. After examining the drum sander and 4 passes later, still, sand getting introduced into the delicate top - but getting pushed deeper into the grain. Plan B took its course, and I hand sanded the top to its proper thickness. It took a lot longer, but got it to the place of amazing. I had made sure to leave an extra 1mm for finish sanding. This saved the top.
The next mishap was on the rosette. I’ve been playing with idea of going overboard around the sound hole, using a hardwood right at the edge of the hole to give even more of a customized look while at the same time giving the sound hole more strength. Anyway...I sanded through the walnut inlay! Right down to the hardened glue. I didn’t set the depth of the router deep enough into the top. Rookie mistake. I had to start over on the sound hole edge inlay. The second time I used an even harder wood, East Indian rosewood, more grain character, and this will tie in nicely with the sides and back. I took my time and ended off in a win.
One thing I learned early in this project is that the journey will be a struggle, but the outcome will be incredible.
