A delight indeed. The joy of playing music and of building the instruments. Yesterday I enjoyed both.
This is a shot of the Community Players practice held at Gail McDonald's studio. We practice twice a month for a monthly gig at one of the assisted living institutions in town. Bringing the joy of music to those mostly elderly folks. The practices are always fun, last for a couple of hours and we are getting pretty good. I play my "son of gut bucket" two string bass. Great fun.
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Then, back in the workshop, it is time to install the bindings on #108, A Kasha tenor made with Bubinga Sides and back and a Port Orford Cedar sound board. This ought to be a good one.
First I must cut away the notch that the upper end of the binding will fit into. Here you see the pencil marks indicating the planned cut.
First I must cut away the notch that the upper end of the binding will fit into. Here you see the pencil marks indicating the planned cut.
And here the pencil mark indicates the planned cut on the back. Here the top of the binding will be visible and this must be done well.
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Two cuts are made with a very fine toothed Exacto saw.
Then the curve is perfected with the edge of this big bastard file.
Next, with a sharp chisel I cut away the Spanish Cedar heel to the level of the upper edge of the binding. Several layers of veneer and the heel cap will fill this cutaway space.
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Yep, this looks about right.
\Now for the top. Here I am clearing out the slot so the binding will fit in it properly with a tiny chisel from my considerable stable of carving tools.
Wood carving has long been a fascination for me and I have collected a pretty good variety of carving tools. They frequently come in handy building instruments.
Now with the first binding carefully fitted, I am ready to glue it on, secured with several dozen small lengths of this orange "binding tape'. You must get the tape pieces cut and ready as this is a timely exercise.
Now the first two pieces of binding are glued on. The clamps are to assure that the ends will be firmly pressed to the instrument. They tend to want to spring out. I will let the glue set for two hours and then attach the remaining 2 pieces of the curly koa binding. So far things are going well.
