Stuart Fuchs commissioned a Kasha Tenor yesterday. I am so honored and excited to build one for him that I got started today.
I searched my stash of East Indian Rosewood and found a gorgeous piece. it was large enough to make an entire back. This instrument will have no back seam.
Stu said he liked long stripes, so I found two matched pieces and cut the striped side from each. This is a matched set of beautiful East Indian. I ran them through the thickness sander today to remove the saw marks and to be sure that the color match was perfect. they will be thinned down a great deal, to bending thickness, in their next session on the sander.
Then I searched through each set of my Watertank Redwood that I had previously tapped and graded with my top grade of #5. I found this delicious set of Redwood with extremely tight grain that rang like a bell when tapped. I think it will make an exceptional soundboard for an exceptional player.
Then I selected a nice piece of ebony with some subtle woody streaks, and my very best Honduran Mahogany neck blank from those I had put together several months ago. Beside it you see the carbon fiber neck stiffener that I will put in the neck. The neck is made of three pieces of wood glued together, but in this one, you cannot detect the glue joints.
So the parts are pretty much selected and assembled. Next step is gluing the soundboard together and installing the many tone bars of the Kasha system. That will begin tomorrow.
So the parts are pretty much selected and assembled. Next step is gluing the soundboard together and installing the many tone bars of the Kasha system. That will begin tomorrow.
Don't fret Ron, I got the Babinga sides mounted on your baritone soundboard today. It really pays to get a good bend on the sides. They went on without stress and tension because they very closely fit the design shape.
I also got all of the soundboard tentalones glued on. This was the first batch, I finished installing the rest after dinner. These tentalones or linings are what hold the sides to the top and bottom of an instrument. Very important, made of basswood.
So here, once again, is Stu Fuchs playing my #100, a Kasha Tenor, and deciding that he had to have one too. His will be #111, and hopefully my very best.
