Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all,

I have just completed my first guitar; hopefully more will follow! I would like to think that it is the first guitar to be built in Antarctica - well, at least there can't have been many... I have been living at the British Antarctic Survey base Rothera Research Station for the last 2 years, and have spent the last austral winter building no. 1 - it has given me immense satisfaction. Some pictures of the guitar and a video of me playing it are here:

www.robertwebster.org/blog.html

I wanted to say that although i haven't posted here before, i have gained an immense amount of knowledge from this forum and have a great deal of respect for the other builders here. Thanks.

Thats all!

Rob

Nice looking guitar! I like the sapwood headstock.

That's pretty cool. So much for my petty complaints about shipping costs from LMI.
Looks good.

Danny

Nice Job!

Wow! How cool is that? Hanging off the bottom of the planet building guitars. Did you have to beg to use the shop or can anyone use it? Now that is using your noggin to stay sane in a very desolate place. I have ALWAYS wanted to go to the Antarctic. How does one get a gig like like that?

Yes, I'm technically trained.

Mike

Nice work Rob. Must have been a great feeling of satisfaction to have finished in such a remote and inhospitable place.

What was the RH like in the workshop?

I had a look through your blog and there is some sensational photography there.

Thanks for sharing.

Bob

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Hi folks,

thanks a lot for the comments, much appreciated! I was lucky enough to get a job as a meteorological assistant on a 2 winters, 3 summers contract - my degree is in physics. I don't know much about the way other national Antarctic surveys recruit, but BAS has 22 people over-wintering, including a full technical services complement (plumber, carpenter/builder, generator mechanic, 2 vehicle mechanics, and an electrician. Besides that there is an electronic engineer, a communications manager, a lab manager, marine bio assistant and a marine biologist, a chef, a base commander, and 5 field assistants (mountain guides, for wont of a better description).

I thought that i would have no chance of getting down here, so my advice would be to contact your national survey - chances are they employ for a wide range of jobs, since the base needs to be completely self-sufficient.

The carpenters workshop is pretty well stocked and anyone can use it after getting shown the ropes, which is an incredible resource for wannabe luthiers!

Sorry to direct the topic away from guitars - if any would like more info about the Antarctic, feel free to e-mail me at emedentes AT hotmail DOT com.

cheers,

Rob

The RH in the workshop is generally low - in the range 20 - 30% most of the time. I am hoping i won't have too many problems upon bringing the guitar back to the UK...

Rob

Cool, both guitar and playing. Offtopic I see you guys get to do some mountaineering around there, thats great!

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Build log

Nice job Rob. The headstock looks great and watching you play your first build at the bottom of the world is inspiring.

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Ron

Congrats Rob!!!

Tell me do you guys have satellite TV and if not or you don't have cable obviously..... how do you cope?

Also I see you in a T-shirt - it's now around 30F here in Michigan and I am freezing my butt wedge off so you guys must keep it nice and warm in there correct?

And most importantly - regarding your beautiful guitar - great job!!!!

hesh - cheers for the comments! - we have no TVs but to be honest i don't miss it - we make our own entertainments; i do a fair bit of recording and playing music and we have pretty good facilities for that - i've learned drums since ive been here.

we do keep our buildings pretty warm! plus it's summer here so it's hovering around zero to -5 outside which is pretty tropical for the Antarctic (we're on the Antarctic Peninsula, only about 100 miles inside the Antarctic circle, surrounded by sea, so its generally not too extreme temperature-wise)...

Thanks once again for all feedback!

Rob

Wow, balmy weather!

Love your blog and the photography. That's stuff most of us never get to see. Thanks for giving us a look.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Oh, I'm just dreaming. I wish I had thought of it straight out of school. Kids, career, etc, make that dream a pipe dream. I would love to go for a season though.

Mike

Building guitars in Antarctica!
Awesome!
Congrats on the guitar Rob, and thanks for sharing your story and site here.
-Dan

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http://www.threepartharmony.net/category/guitar-project

Sweeeeeeet!!!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Very nice guitar and a great story, I have no doubt it's a unique instrument.

One of my regrets in life is that I turned down a chance of secondment to the BAS many years ago while I was with the BGS. Small children and long trips to the Antarctic didn't really go together.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Nice job on the guitar and thanks for sharing. The Internet is awesome.

George :-)

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George :-)

Thats quite the story and the accomplishment!!
But for some reason my computer won't even load any part of your website, you wouldn't happen to have this video up on youtube would you??

Josh

Nice job rob and I enjoyed the Video too.

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Rich S

"The inconvenience of poor quality will linger long after the thrill of a bargain has been forgotten"

I'm afraid i have not dabbled too much with youtube yet, so no video up there. My site can be a little bit temperamental sometimes so it might work at another time on another browser? Thanks for the interest!

Rob