Thicknessing headstocks

I know, I have always said I prefer to do this with chisels and small hand planes. But these resonators will have metal friction tuners instead of the usual violin pegs and it is a great advantage if the front and back sides are parallel.

So I tore out ye olde shoppe made drum sander, the modified lathe. And that worked so well I'm tempted to forgive its shortcomings when it came to sanding soundboards.

I also spent some time with an RO sander so the bodies are more or less done.

Now where did I put those fretboards..?

Aligning necks

I've put the barrel bolts in place and made a dry fit on both resos. They're quite tricky to get straight and get the neck angle perfect. But they're getting there, both of them. The "plan" is to attach the necks and backs, then start the awful job of sanding the bodies.

I'll wait until I get back from Palestine and Austria before I start on the fretboards.

Resonators are so fiddly. After you've done all the hard work it's time to start improvising around the bought hardware.

Necks shaped, at last

Some of you know that last week, when I was carving the wenge neck, I cut my finger really bad. So I had to put it on hold a bit. (In the meantime I fixed and gave away two guitars that were taking up valuable space in the shop.)

But yesterday I had an hour to spare so I finished carving with a short two-handled knife. Kind of like those failsafe launch buttons in movies, which require two operators. Then I sanded, a lot more than I usually do. Wouldn't have been possible without the excellent dust mask I got for christmas from my wife - both wenge and walnut are awful to have in your nose.

You can also see on the wenge neck the recess I cut into the heel. Alignment and angle are crucial for these resos, and it's far easier to achieve a good fit if you make that recess.

Both necks will be bolted on with barrel bolts.