A Tale of Two Guitars.

James Follett on the left and Gerry Page on the right playing a pair of Willis "OM"s at an audio/video recording sesion in November 2008. Note that the audio on this clip is purely acoustic, the only mike used is on the Canon s45 used for the recording. James's guitar is a Brazilian Rosewood model while Jerry's is an European Walnut model. The piece of music they are playing was writen by Jerry and is track number 15 on their new album called "The Quirk". To see and hear more of Follett and Page go to; www.myspace.com/follettnpage.

They launched their new album on the 7th of March at the "Counting House" in Eastbourne, copies of their album available through their website above.

Saturday in the Workshop 2

This is the tool that I use to shoot a perfect flat, straight and square edge to both the soundboard and the back plates of the instrument that I am making.

The base is made from a piece of 25mm birch plywood. On the front edge I have screwed an Axminster Bevelled Straight Edge part number 100416.

Behind this I fixed a piece of 60mm X 18mm hardwood as a slide for the Makita trimmer to slide on. I rub a plain wax candle on the slide before I use the tool.
The bookmatched back or soundboard timbers are held in place by an 18mm x 75mm birch ply clamping bar.

The screw down adjusters are made from 8mm studding with plastic knobs, once again from Axminster Power Tools, super glued on the end. I found a couple of coil springs to go under the clamping bar which hold it up while positioning the plates.

I find as I get used to using this superb tool I can joint a seam, even oily cocobolo, in one pass in minutes instead of the hours of frustration it used to take when doing it by hand with a plane.

I use the Makita for most triming and routing jobs in the workshop. The cutter I usefor this operation is 6mm diameter solid carbide downcutter bit, also available from Axminster Power Tools. More on the Makita trimer next week.

In the Workshop Feb 2009

I thought you might like to see my new way of slotting fretboards. First the table saw cross slide is made from two strips of oak that have been prepared to slides snugly in the cross slide slots on the table saw. I then fixed a strip of 9mm birch plywood to the oak cross slides. Next a vertical strip of 9mm birch plywood was attached and the whole assembly was fitted with a strip of mahogany to strengthen the assembly. I chose birch plywood for two reasons. First it is very stable when kept dry and secondly it was free.

On the face of the cross slide I fitted an off cut of bone top nut, Corrian would have worked as well but is not as good as bone for wear. The width of the top nut just happened to fit into the comb slots. The position of the bone slot locating bar is not critical, just place it somewhere near to the centre.

I use double sided tape to fix the slotting comb to the fretboard, a strip two inches long at each end is all that is required.

I scribed a centre line down the middle and underneath of the slotting comb and fill the scribe line with bright yellow highlight pen for visibility. This line must be parallel to the comb edge. next I draw a centre line down the middle of the glue face of the fretboard and attach the two short lengths of double sided tape to the fretboard. lastly I lay the slotting comb over the fretboard making sure that its line is directly over the line on the fretboard.
Lastly I set the height of the saw blade and cut the slots on the fretboard.

This photo shows a 650mm scale comb sitting on a completed fretboard.
The comb was cut on a CNC table router and the slots are cut to a 0.0001mm tolerance, no more guessing which part of the line to cut on with the saw. Production combs are made from Lexan.
The fret positioning formula that i use compensates for string stretch as caused by the height of the strings over the fretboard.
I can provide these slotting combs, in metric scales, for most scale lengths. Email me at sales@willisguitars.co.uk. for prices.

2008 in review. Continued 2.

Sidmouth folk week did have its brighter moments.
Amongst the many excellent guitar players that tried out my guitars was the inimitable Grant Baynham. He is playing one of my "OM" cutaway models. This guitar is still for sale. The body is made from highly figured Brazilian Rosewood with an European Spruce top and is fitted with a Headway Snake 3 under saddle pickup.
I will be back at Sidmouth again this year, hope the organisers have sorted out the floor plan
I finished at Sidmouth then drove overnight to my next show at Michelham Priory. This is my local show for The Sussex Guild, of which I am a member. The show takes place in the grounds of Michelham priory and runs for four days starting on the Thursday.
I wont be at Michelham this year as I am taking a years sabbatical from the guild to concentrate on both making guitars and working on completing my first novel. Notice the Mandola, I sold two in 2008, more on the way.

At the end of the month it was off again to Towersey, which in my opinion is one of the best folk festivals going. Here I am just home from a hard day on the stand, newspaper in hand and a cider in the glass.
The reason I am able to look so relaxed is because of all the hard work done by my lovely wife, Nancy, keeping me fed. This photo was taken outside her shed at her allotment. This is where she grows lots of very tasty vegetables.
Towersey was a very good show, work wise. I sold my last Mandola and took in three guitars for major work. Please note, if you have a guitar that requires work I can post it back to you if it has a hard shell case. I use the Post Office and always ship guitars First Class, insured. The average cost of shipping, depending on insured value, is about £30.00.

The last show of the year, at the magnificent Town Hall at Cheltenham. This was for the second annual Acoustic Guitar Festival. This show is truly a magnificent occasion, especially since I took a commission for an OM in Brazilian Rosewood. Delivery on this guitar has been set for the end of February 2009.
Notice how few guitars I had left for sale, it truly was a good year.