The Luthier Community

Aye Lad;

I killate I read your post - A coupla points for ya - Wearing a kilt is not a burden, it's a bloody privilege, and dinna you forget it!

Secondly, you've got th' wrong bloody tartan on, but what the hell, it gets the job done.

Third, although the pic isn't that clear, it almost looks like the groom is wearing hunting Munro - Do you know his Clan?



Urb

Since the Kilt was a rental, and since there is no Feissli tartan, Brenda went with Gordon which is her father's first name. It was supposed to match the swath that Olivia had around her waist, but I thought the pattern was different. They told me what Ben was wearing, but I forget. It might be one of the Murrays as that is Ardith's Maiden name.

The groom's name is Robertson and I thought his tartan was too, but we didn't talk about it.

Nobody wore the Braveheart tartan which was apparently invented after the movie was so popular... tartans apparently didn't exist when William Wallace was around.

So Eben, are you related to the Munroe who surveyed the Munroes?

I am indeed Eben Monroe Atwater of the Clan Munro, and I have the lineage, tartan, and tattoo to prove it!



If you're speaking of the mountains in the home country, (They, like the clan, are spelled Munro, although Munroe, Monroe, etc are all pretty much derivations of the proper Clan spelling). If that's what ya meant, than indeed I am; any mountain over 3000 feet in Scotland is known as a Munro, so named in honor of Sir Hugh Munro, who surveyed and catalogued said peaks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - He was indeed a Clan member and a fine mountaineer in his own right!

E

There are apparently quite a few (over 300) and Ian (the groom) has walked them all.

Raymond

Aye, I kilate there are...

E

So Ray,

It is now over a month since your postings of Scotland. How is that guitar coming ?

Olivia will be in collage soon - you need to get her guitar done.

Amazing how life just sets our goals for us.

What a wonderful experience for you to be able to take those kids to Scotland.

How short sighted of the school officials.

One part of me says you need to keep batting your head against the wall and try to change the school system.
The other part of me says you only have two kids - do the very best for them, in the here and now, that you can.
Fixing the system sounds like a crusade - or at best a quixotic wind mill joust.
I feel certain that you had far more patience for/with that school administrator than I would have had.

So - how soon will that guitar be done ?

Steve

Hi Steve.

October was the wettest on record, and it has only gotten below 60% relative humidity 5 days since we got back with most days over 70%. Even so, I'm putting what I hope are the last coats of Varnish on tonight. Then it's sit and wait for 10 days before polishing and buffing. Hopefully she'll be done before Christmas.

Raymond

Well, it didn't get done before Christmas, but I did make quite a bit of progress. I did put the last coat on this one and another at the end of November and set them aside to cure for 10 days. About 20 days later I started the polishing. I'm working on 2 at the same time so it took a few days to get the finish buffed out. I then glued the neck with pre-attached fretboard on, and have since attached the bridge. I tried a slightly different approach this time which I hope will line up even better than in the past.

I planned to use the stew mac bridge placement tool I got in one of the raffles, but since I'm way behind and both these guitars are built with my standard fret spacing I used the jig I had made awhile back. It's basically a piece of Lexan shaped like the fret board with a pin at the nut, center-line and saddle location scribed into it.

I scribed a line for the 12th fret and saddle location for my 2 favorite lengths. The thing I did differently this time was to locate the bridge first, tape it in place,

then mark the bridge pin holes, clamp the bridge in place at both ends along with a caul on the underside and then drill out the bridge pin holes. I then used the 2 outside holes as locators with plastic bridge pins.

Got good squeeze out all around, which I let set for about 15 minutes so that it turned a bit leathery making clean-up easier.

After it was fully cured, I used a damp paper towel to clean-up any residual smears.

I'm not fully decided yet, but even though I used a bradpoint bit to avoid wandering, the holes are not as well aligned as when I use a drill press. I made them undersized so I think I can straighten them up as I enlarge the holes, but what a pain... Next time I'll probably use a variation on the theme with the holes pre-drilled in the bridge.

Raymond