I don't like to plan ahead. I'm just not that guy. I measure once and cut twice (and then sand out all the mistakes). It's my thing and I've been fighting it for as long as I can remember. But I'm also a Lemonade from lemons kind of guy - so it all works out in the end...
This carries over into my blogging. I like the finished result but don't always want to do all the steps in between. So, as you may be able to tell from the above picture - I've moved ahead a bit. When last I blogged the lapsteel had two wings and not much else. I wasn't even sure if the "fretboad" I'd chosen was the one I really wanted. Well, such mundane concerns haven't stopped me in the past - so why should they now? I inlaid the fretboard into the neck. It's glued in - so now I'm stuck with it. Prior to inlaying the fretboard I wasn't sure what scale length I wanted to make the guitar and I wasn't sure How I was going to make the trench/valley for the fretboard to lay in. Like I said - who needs to plan? I've got wood filler. Let's get to work!
I started out by making a template for the fretboard valley that my router was supposed to follow. I say "supposed to" because a template is only useful if you make it the right size... and shape... and, you know, ...if it's actually straight...
I messed up the template pretty badly. I blame it on crappy vice clamps - but the tool is only as good as the yahoo using it. So, the template bit the big one. I used it anyway and was able to route out (with the router) a pretty decent shaped valley for my fretboard to lay in. The only problem was the corners. There were none. Router blades are round. Fretboards have 90 degree angles.
...what to do?
Why, make it up as we go, of course! So, I grabbed the one lonely chisel I have and tried to make a right angle on all four sides of the valley. The chisel was pretty blunt and the chiseler was too - so the fretboard valley wasn't exactly perfect. Again, this is what wood putty, filler, and extra sawdust are for (or so I keep telling myself). Once the trench was routed and chiseled I glued the fretboard into place overnight. Once I fix up the rough edges it should look okay.
It was at about this time that I went back to my "plans" and realized that the body shape was a bit off. As it was - the neck was too long and the body too short to accomplish what I'd hoped for. So, I had to do some gluing. I added two small blocks of wood to the neck right above the wings that will be shaped later.
I won't tell you how horribly they were joined. I won't comment on how poorly they were cut. And I won't share with you how ugly the bottom looks right now - if you think the top looks bad - you wouldn't believe how bad the bottom looks. Let's put it this way - I will probably want to buy stock in wood filler/putty. But I digress...
Actually, the entire bottom is going to be covered in black material (probably felt) so that the guitar doesn't slide around on my lap. This is what I've seen on the bottom of some 50's and 60's lapsteels - so I'm thinking there might be something to it.
After such an eventful and less than successful day working on this - I took a few weeks off from production and came back to it in early November.
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