We worked very hard this last weekend to wrap things up, but improvised plans can sometimes go bad.  Our inexperience slowed our progress.  Paul was excited to begin, and started by using the hand coping saw and fine blade to cut out the back panel from the zebrawood and padauk wood stripes we had previously glued.  Paul did all the work, cutting, sanding, and forming while I wrote text for a DOE exascale software plan.

 

Feeling good, it was time for what we thought was the big challenge…. attaching the neck.  We drove the screws into the holes we had drilled until they tweaked out the other side.  With a clamp, we put the neck into position and then started carefully giving each screw a few turns before moving to the next.  Round and round we went, with each screw moving in easily except for one… which required an unnerving amount of torque.  After making such progress, we decided against opening it back up and adding the hide glue, so we suddenly looked up at each other and declared the neck a success.  We wouldn’t know about the “action”, and if the strings were too close or too far from the frets until we could put in the pickups, mount the bridge, and string the guitar.  We could feel how close were to jazz base riffs.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, that’s exactly when disaster struck…

While attaching the bridge one of the screws just sheared off.  I didn’t think I was turning very hard, but they were very thin screws.  Paul and I sat dumbfounded, trying to work a plan.  With a little ingenuity, I was able to grip the remaining bit and screw it out.  I told Paul I would head to Home Depot after a bit and look for a replacement screw, but in the mean time, we could attach the bridge with the 4 remaining screws.

Snap.  This time, the screw broke off flush, nothing to grab.  Paul had lost all patience.  I was certain I had not turned very hard at all.  I took deep breaths and Paul went down stairs to beat on the drum set.  I bought some dremel bits at Home Depot and a few cobalt drill bits as well as some replacement screws.

 

Back at home, the dremel whined, sputtered, and chewed it’s way irregularly through the screw and the wood.  The hole was bigger, and I grabbed an even larger drill bit and widened the remaining 4 holes.  I then tested the new screws in the new holes.

 

SNAP!  Yes again, without much effort, the screw broke off in the same hole.  Paul was shattered.  I rested my forehead on the floor and sighed and finally went to work trying to route and groove and drill the broken screw from the hole.  The metal glowed red from the friction and the blackened wood smoked as I stabbed at the hole with a fine engraving tip spinning with a high-pitched whine.

Finally, I drilled out all the holes again and put a drop of oil into each hole.  Cautiously, I managed to put the screws into the dense hardwoods and the bridge was secure.  But not without a toll on our enthusiasm.  We felt defeated, even if ultimately we had won.

We tried to solder in the components but had no fire.  The schematics looked daunting and didn’t match what we had pulled off Paul’s old guitar.  Paul said it first… “Maybe we can just finish it tomorrow”.  But I was heading off to SanFran Monday morning.  Nevertheless, we could not continue, our heads were throbbing, and we could not think about the schematic for soldering it all together a moment longer.

 

Beth and I went on Date Night, while Paul and Emily caught up with homework they had procrastinated for the week of Spring Break.

 

After our relaxing dinner I sipped on an espresso.  Back home, everyone went to bed early.  By 10:30 the clan was asleep…. but schematics, potentiometers, and capacitors were dancing in my thoughts, luring me downstairs.  With a fresh look at the wires I soldered it all together and cautiously strung the lowest note onto the guitar and plugged it into the amp.  Nothing.  I adjusted the volume.  A beautiful low Whaaaaaa jumped from the speaker.  It worked!  I stashed the guitar and went to bed.

 

In the morning I showed the work to Paul, who could not understand how I had figured out the wiring.  He quickly strung the remaining 3 strings and was playing music while Beth warned him not to miss the bus.

 

By next weekend we will be done.  All that remains is the back panel, the knobs, and the hardware to attach the shoulder strap.  Whoohoo.