[Seattle Luthiers Group Notice] February SLG Meeting

[Jay Gordon]

February 10, The Seattle Luthiers Group gathered for an evening of
construction discussion, with the focus on necks - design, fabrication,
fitting, truss rod treatment, attachment, etc.

16 of our members assembled at Rob Girdis' shoppe for a very informative
and lively evening.  Rob most graciously and meticulously 'walked' the
attendees through his design and build process with much focus on jointing
and alignment. The emphasis was on hand tools  with a minimum dependency on
machines (careful hand planing being the name of the game).  Having
reviewed Rob's neck techniques, the conversation inevitably evolved to the
next phases of construction, with Mr. Girdis' Spanish style building
techniques - side to neck attachment, fitting of individual kerfing blocks
for tops, and carefully bent, solid back kerfing. Members were treated to a
chance to view a number of Rob's  parlor guitars in progress, and all were
suitably impressed by the variety and beauty of the tonewoods employed,
from yew, to ebony, to rosewood, to myrtle.

Having whet our appetite on the ultralite approach, Jay Hargreaves then
took us all the opposite direction. The neck philosophy changed 180 degrees
-  to mass and rigidity, with carefully machined surfaces. The extensive
use of pin routers was described and as we moved on to alternate assembly
discussion. Mr Hargreaves described his "no kerfing' top attachment,
replaced by a carefully applied and hand balanced epoxy and microballoon
fillet.

To top off the evening, a large selection of ebony and topwood was
available purchase and tempted more than one of the attendees. The
availability  of a bit of scotch no doubt added to the willingness to deal.

The evening concluded with the announcement that Eugene Clark will host a
French Polishing evening at our April meeting.


J.D. Gordon,
IBM Certified Executive Project Manager,  PMP
Manager, Business Management
Boeing Project Office
IBM
(425) 865-2280  (Boeing office/Bellevue/WA)
(425) 865-2063  (Karen Goto, Assistant)
(425) 865-2799  (Fax)
(425) 241-2050  (Mobile)
E-mail: jgordon at us.ibm.com