December 14 2005

The raw sides, then showing them already bent and being glued up. Bottom right, Joshua's signature, and the guitar's name, which turned out to be "Issa", short for the Spanish name Isabella. There is a real and somewhat metaphysical story here, but a private one between myself and my wife. Suffice it to say that Joshua's choice for the name was surprising to say the least, but in an extremely positive way.

When I saw the pictures below, I had some concerns about the final action that the guitar would have, so I wrote to Joshua, but as you can see, he was right on top of it...

Joshua,
I was reviewing the latest pictures you sent me, and it got me to thinkin' (always dangerous). I remember sending you some pretty detailed and specific requests about string height, spacing, action, etc.I see in the pictures that the neck is already let into the sides. Are the adjustments for action, string height, and all the others made independently (after) the neck is set, or does the angle the neck is set in have to be figured in advance to acheive the desired action?
--Jerry

Jerry,
None too dangerous of a question! This is all predetermined by me, to fit with your requests about the action/string height, so everything is in line with having a low action while retaining my desired bridge height. I looked over our first emails to determine if anything needed to be done differently, and adjusted the angle of the neck slightly. Final adjustments are made with the plane/taper of the fingerboard before fretting. The geometry of the neck angle is very important, and cannot be overlooked and then just fixed later, since I'm aiming for a specific bridge thickness (after all, its the largest brace glued to the soundboard).So to answer your question - Yes! Also I have a question for you - do you still want position markers on the front of the fingerboard? I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season thus far!
Best wishes,
Joshua