Workshop refit didn't happen, it has now.

GSPBASSES

The plan was to close the workshop early September for a total refit and reorganise the woodshed. I've already started sorting out the workshop by matching up necks and bodies together ready for my black Friday sale, I did post photos of some of these necks and bodies a few months ago.

Unfortunately quite a few my customers might have been a bit worried that it I might not open again, as a consequence I was totally overwhelmed with work. Although I did manage to remove 12 sacks of rubbish from the workshop on the first day, then decided to give it up and go back to work.

 Below some photos of what I've been doing over the last month or so, I haven't gone into any great detail on the builds as are all quite straightforward.

Fairly standard telecaster,  Alder body with a Spalted Maple cap.

Swamp Ash SC with a roasted maple neck.

Swamp Ash  F hole TC with a flame maple with a roasted Maple neck.

Alder RG maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.

Black Korina F hole TC with a roasted Maple neck.

LP standard with a flame maple cap, bound body neck and head stock.

DrBob

12 sacks ? Good grief man that’s some going.
Lovely work above as always Graham

CasperCaster

Lovely work as always. Those Tele's are particularly gorgeous!

Jalapeno

Wow'd - great work as usual !!!!!!!!

Doug

GSPBASSES said:

LP standard with a flame maple cap, bound body neck and head stock.

Stunning!, any chance you could post a pic of the back view of this guitar please?

GSPBASSES

Doug said:

GSPBASSES said:

LP standard with a flame maple cap, bound body neck and head stock.

Stunning!, any chance you could post a pic of the back view of this guitar please?

Sorry it's already gone out.

GSPBASSES

Will it is now, not all the workshop's but the woodshed has now been fitted out properly as you will see from the photos below.

This needed to be done as I'm now planning my retirement, I needed to know exactly how much wood I had in stock, plus how many part built bodies and necks I have.  I've stopped buying wood in bulk, although I've just ordered in Swamp Ash to make about 30 bodies. At least 20 of these are already spoken for from one of my trade customers. I've already got loads of rock maple in stock for the necks to go with these bodies.

I have got a great deal of Mahogany in stock to make Les Paul standards and about a dozen LPJ DC’s.

The plan to run down GSPBASSES will take about 18 months from now, I'm hoping by December 2020 I will use up all my wood stock and completed all the outstanding trade orders I have. In this period I will take orders from outside the trade but generally only if they are fairly straight forward (Strat’s Tele’s LPJ DC and SC, P Basses Jazz Basses), Custom orders that look too complicated and likely to give me a headache will become no no’s! Although if something interesting comes my way I may well consider it.

Before

After

 

 

The above photo shows some of my stock of Rosewood, so if you fancy a solid Rosewood telecaster put your orders in now,  once it's gone I will not be buying any more Rosewood or making anymore Rosewood Tele’s

stephen.wood125

Amazing to see. I definitely have to get at least one more guitar before you retire. 

Jetfire

@GSPBASSES ;

Do you have many RG style bodies in stock? Or was this one a one off?

https://i.imgur.com/FprWUL3.jpg

GSPBASSES

Jetfire said:

@GSPBASSES ;

Do you have many RG style bodies in stock? Or was this one a one off?

https://i.imgur.com/FprWUL3.jpg

I do have some part built with necks, I'm out the workshop for most of June so lead time to complete one of these will be 6 to 8 weeks.

GSPBASSES

Decided it's time to start using some of the Rosewood I have in stock, I have a Strat and Jazzmaster on order plus lots of enquiries for solid Rosewood Tele's with solid Rosewood necks.

 

  First on the bench a Jazzmaster, this will be a standard sandwich construction, consisting of 2 equal thickness pieces of Rosewood top and bottom separated by a thin piece a white wood.

Top

Bottom

The white wood to make the sandwich, this is glued to the bottom part first.

Into the gluing press.

One I made earlier, well actually it's a Telecaster, it's waiting for solid Rosewood neck to be made.

Some of the neck blanks I'm about to use, the neck at the front was going with the telecaster above but it turned out too much of a different colour.

 

The next lot of Rosewood I will be using.

I've also started to convert some of my Mahogany into 2 piece LPJ DCs and SCs

GSPBASSES

 

Went out to David Dyke’s today to pick up the first lot of Swamp Ash. Got it back to the workshop shop, where it was cut up into body blank sizes. I calculated what the body blank would weigh when it was turned into a Tele or a Strat. The heavier blocks will be turned into Thin Line Teles

I'll pick up another batch next week when I'm back from my holidays.

The number on the end of the blocks are the weights in lbs and oz’s, I use a heavier blocks for F hole and Thin line Teles, as if I use the lighter blocks for F hole Tele's I can end up with a  body weighing less then 3lb. Alternatively I can use them for Tele bodies that are chambered but with no F hole to keep the weight down.

paulnb57

Rosewood looks great Grahame, as does the new stash of Ash!...

guitargeek62

Nice work as ever Graham!

GSPBASSES

First body completed after my holiday, a nice lightweight thinline Tele. If you look at the pictures above this is made from the blocks I had an estimated weight for standard telecaster of 5lb 4oz, The finished weight of the thinline is only 2lb 13oz.

DrBob

Stunning as always Graham !

GSPBASSES

Very busy today, having taken off most of June I have a bit of a backlog. A few days before I went on holiday I glued up lots of Swamp Ash ready to be turned in to Tele’s, most will be Black Guard T/C’s. The photo below shows 3 standard Tele’s plus 1 left handed T/C that's been chambered purely for weight reduction. It also has a book match cap (well as much as you can book match Swamp Ash), it also has white banding. Still got a little bit of work to do on this one, only drilling holes for the bridge and the neck pocket. It just got too hot in the workshop this afternoon to carry on. I still have at least 3 more T/C to make next week.

Some of the T/C’s are for stock. I generally make 2 T/C’s at a time. The idea being if a customer orders a body to weigh 2kg by making 2 bodies at a time hopefully one will be the correct weight.  A customer who wants the body to weigh 2kg or less I will make 2 with a estimated weight of 2Kg. It turns out one body is 1.9Kg and the other 2.1Kg the fist photo, the body that slightly heavier will go into stock.

Next week I will make some more bodies plus finish off the necks go with all the bodies.

IvisonGuitars

Great work as always Grahame! I got wood looking at your wood....  

GSPBASSES

IvisonGuitars said:

Great work as always Grahame! I got wood looking at your wood....  

I know exactly what you mean, I'm a total junkie when it comes to wood. I'm just addicted to buying wood. I was out at David Dyke’s today to purchase some Roasted Maple neck blanks, which I did, I needed 6 but purchase 12, I just can't help myself. He also had some wide planks ( 8” ) of Roasted Maple that are nearly 50mm thick, that is really unusual. It's normally only available about 30mm thick and about 100mm wide. I just had to buy enough to make one Strat and one Tele. Haven't got orders for them, but I just had to buy them. 

TTony

GSPBASSES said:

 I needed 6 but purchase 12,

That’s not going to help the retirement planning.

Which is good news for us

SnazzyGeezer

Do you make Les Pauls with Flame or quilted tops ?
It doesn't need to be arched,it could be a flat top
But  would like it to have a Gibson headstock shape,with crown inlays,and binding to the front body and neck
Would it be possible for a quote for an arched and flattop version please.