Hi my friends!
I thought that I had better check in on the OLF and perhaps update you all a bit on what I have been up to lately.
First - many, many thanks to all of you who have been contacting me and my sincere apologies for not responding to most folks... No excuses - I should have acknowledged everyone and again I am very sorry for not responding....
Next I thought that I would share some not-so-good pictures of a guitar that I completed about a month ago. This guitar was the "mule" for some training that I was very fortunate to receive from David Collins. Specifically the training focused on set-up and fretting.
As some of you know Rick Turner, when he was participating here regularly, gave many of us a wake-up call of sorts that although the guitars being produced were certainly pretty enough it really has to be all about the player and playability was every bit as important as tone and fit & finish. I took Rick's comments to heart and decided that I needed some professional training in set-up and fretting and David was kind enough to put up with me for a while....
Needless to say I learned tons and I also learned that Rick was absolutely correct - final set-up is a skill and there is a lot to a very good set-up.
So this guitar was used during my educetieon
from David as our test bed and as such it has the best playability of any guitar that I have ever excreted from Heshtone Guitar Works..... Now for some pics and please excuse the poor quality of the pics, it was still winter here in Michigan and the light was funky....:
This guitar has Cuban Mahogany sides and back from Uncle Bob and also a Carpathian (Euro) top also from Uncle Bob. The neck is one of John Watkin's killer necks and the finish is yet another Joe White Poly finish. By the way David and I measured the finish thickness in the bridge area and came up with .0035 thick!!!! Needless to say Joe's finishes are superb and the Poly is as tough as any finish I have worked with prior. Thanks again Joe, Uncle Bob, and John!!!
![[clap]](./images/smilies/smiley32.gif "adulations")
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The guitar sounds great and plays fantastic and again many thanks to David Collins for his very valued assistance!!! Sorry, no sound clip and as some of you know Smoke On The Water is about the only song that I know how to play....
Also I noticed that there is a thread right now on the gold EVO fret wire. This guitar has this wire and it was an absolute joy to work with in all respects. The frets were pressed in place and glued (yeah... CA and Hesh is now using some CA in his building.....
) and there were no issues. This wire is slightly harder than standard wire but not as hard as stainless. It also cuts and files very well too. The color is a muted gold, not an in your face gold, and as such it really is very pretty and tends to not draw your eye to it while still complimenting the earth tones of the woods that we use. I don't remember if we beveled the fret slots or not prior to pressing the frets in place.Right now I have two guitars on the bench, an OM and a dreadn*ught
and I am finding that batch building is a little... confusing at times.In addition I have been planting trees. A couple of days ago I planted 13 trees in my backyard and man am I feeling sore right now....
So that's my update my friends and I'm sticking to it!!! Thanks again for all the well wishes too.
And - congrats to my friend Bill Hodge for making the 300,000 post on the OLF!!!!!
Take care
![[:Y:]](./images/smilies/smiley20.gif "Thumbs Up")
What will the bluebirds do when you fill the back yard with trees. They like open spaces, you know. I'm sure they'll adapt. Keep it between the lines, Hesh!
