Hello, friends and family,
March 11th was the start of my retirement/beginning of my next life chapter. It was also the date we started social-distancing at our house. I was walking the dogs every day until last week which the doctors said would be the worst week of the pandemic in our country. Lucy was pretty unhappy with me all week. I have N-95 masks and surgical gloves that I use for woodworking and staining/painting and I’ve started using them when walking. Just not last week. I guess we can start walking again, this week so I will check what the doctors say before doing that.
I spent a couple of weeks cleaning and organizing my workspaces in the garage for musical instrument repairs and guitar/bass design and building. The shop is taking shape, nicely. I still have to add a hanging vacuum/dust collection system and have plans to make my own dust extractor using fans and cheap furnace filters. Dust is the biggest challenge for any woodshop. This shop will also have repairs going on so I have to make it especially dust resistant. Most of the workshop is taken up by woodworking machines and a workbench. The rest of the shop has a foam covered workbench and guitar work station/vise.
So far, I’ve done repairs and customized several guitars in the last two weeks. That business is going slow because parts shipping has really slowed down due to the pandemic. I’m getting some word-of-mouth advertising from the repairs/customizing I did previous to ‘Shelter-in-place’. Word-of-mouth advertising is fine with me as I don’t want too much work so I can also concentrate on designing/building musical instruments and playing live.
Below are some pics of the workshop and work I’m doing. The Custom Convertible Telecaster guitar is going along very well. The ‘Convertible’ part of the guitar will be the option to change the guitar’s top plate complete with bridge and pickups quickly and with little effort into a different look and pickup configuration. To change/convert the top/pickup/bridge plate will be as simple as unscrewing 8 bolts using a hex-wrench, unsnapping the output jack and reversing the process with your second top/pickup/bridge plate.
The concept should appeal to adventurous guitar players who would like to have options and different sound whenever the muse calls.
Thanks for reading and checking out the pictures and please, please, stay safe. Don’t take any chances with your health and life. And above all, the health and lives of your friends and loved ones.
Love to all,
David T
p.s. Comments are very welcome. You can comment at the end of this article.
A birthday/retirement gift from a beloved family member.
Routed, band-sawed and sanded.
The first top of two (or more if the buyer wants).
The Bookmatched Madrone top is band-sawed and sanded to shape
Brianna is earning a small paycheck while learning useful skills. I try to include her in the repair and the design/manufacturing process as much as possible. She’s good at holding down (putting pressure on) guitar necks while I adjust the truss rod. My first custom-built bass is named after her . . .
