Rob Hines with Melissa Lawson

Rob Hines is a Bell convert. He plays with 2008 Nashville Star winner Melissa Lawson in this video. This was a free concert in downtown Arlington, Texas.



His model is a Jazzblaster with humbuckers.

Mo Tele

Did some more work on the tele shape centers today. We goofed and had to scrap one because of human error, so we will have a run of 6 instead of 7. Today I learned how to properly create the g-code for the CNC machine. So there.

Back to the TELE!

Went to the shop on Monday for a few hours and got some work done on the Tele-style guitars. We use the 3D models to create the 2D programs for the CNC router to use for cutting out the shape, neck joint and light pockets. We are at an impass, however, as we need to double check the hardware specs before we continue. Next up is cutting the basic shapes of the plex, then fusing the wood and plex together.

More eb 0 and Neck Snap!

Re-fretted the eb 0 last night. It was my first time doing it with the neck on the guitar, so pressing the frets was a little weird. It's interesting all of the intricacies that go into working on an instrument. So many times sounds play into the mix more than just visualization. Filing away the frets' edges until you slightly champfer the fretboard is an example. When the sound changes, you know you've reached the fretboard, but you've got to be able to hear through the grinding of the file. It's hard to explain, and I didn't really grasp it fully. Don does this stuff like it's second nature, but I'm still relying on my eyes. I made a few errors on my frets while filing away the edges where the fret meets the board making a corner. I was pressing to hard and rotating the file to follow the crown of the fret instead of keeping the file at 90 degrees and only making two light passes. I eventually got that, though, and Don says it was a really good re-fretting over all.

Andy Godwin's custom SG style 7 string had a very Gibson accident. The guitar fell off of the stand and broke the headstock off. From the looks of it, it broke pretty clean so it should play exactly the same, Don tells me. Also, it's looking pretty worn, which I think suits it, but Don doesn't understand. Don't look for road-worn or relic manufactured guitars from Bell anytime soon.

This weekend Don and I are going to be working on the Tele models and the Prince clone guitar. Life's been throwing curve balls at Don keeping him away from the shop. Repairs are piling up but things seem to have settled back into normalcy, so hopefully D will be back on track soon.

eb 0 Progress and CAD assembly

After the sanding was completed, we used some high-quality filler resin to fill in the gaps around the hack job logo.

Sand it down to reveal the pearl and level off the surface.

Then do the same for the points and the crown on the top, as the sharpness was sanded away in the previous refurbishing effort.

Sand again carefully around the filled areas.

We decided to go ahead and replace the frets, as they have been played hard since '69.

I'm starting to get excited about how it's shaping up. It's going to be brand new with original components. Awesome!

As for the CAD machine, we got it up and running yesterday. It took a little jerry-rigging from Don to get the thing to act right, but we think we've got it. Production resumes!

On a side note Don had to slaughter two snakes while they were making serpent love. This has got to be a good sign, right? Also the AC is out at the shop. Yeah. Poor Don.

You know what might look nice...

Black with a tortoise shell pickguard on the eb 0. It would be different yet traditional. Hmm...

Prince Cloud Clone

Don's doing a Prince Cloud guitar clone for an impersonator. The guitar is an impersonation, too.