Gluing the neck block....really...I swear.

I did it!! I glued the neck block. At 11:30 PM I said, much like Tom Cruise's character in Risky business, "Sometimes you gotta just say 'What the cluck!'" He actually used a naughty word, but I think I have to classify this blog as adult content if I do that.

Anyway, I needed to do it. I wanted to do it. Not doing it was holding me back from doing anything else. And my wife wanted me to move the mess out of my "workshop" so she could clean today. My "workshop" alternates between my coffee table in the living room, and the floor in the corner of my computer area. Neither are ideal for work that requires any type of precision, but I read about this guy who built the same type of guitar I am building in his kitchen in a one bedroom condo in Seattle. His workshop was also not ideal and his guitar turned out pretty nice, so I figured I would up the ante and really make things difficult for myself by not even using a table. He used his dining room table. Pansy.

Back to the action. Let me set the stage for you: I explained to my wife how important this step was. Her reply was a sane and well thought out one. She said I should wait until tomorrow when I had more time to make sure I do it right and I could remeasure everything to ensure I do not screw up this most vital of steps. To which I replied, "Listen here woman, I am doing this NOW!! Get my glue!! Hand me those clamps!!" To which she replied, "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. (She stopped to inhale here) Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. Whatever. Don't say I didnt warn you if you mess it up." She threw in one more chuckle as she recalled how I tried to be bossy and manly, then she went back to her work. I grabbed my clamps and glue and went to work. I checked everything one more time, dry fitted everything with the clamps to make sure my clamping procedure would work and it was finally the moment of truth.

I smeared glue on the head block and its spot on the body and following the instructions from the man who made my kit, I rammed that bad boy in place. I clamped it all up, and cleaned up the glue squeeze out. Here is what is looked like with the clamps in place right before I went to bed:
Close up!!

Ken Cierp, of KennethMichaelGuitars.com has many mentions of "good craftmanship" in his instructions. I could build a beautiful guitar on the outside, but when you look inside of it, there could be glue everywhere and marks from the chisles and sandpaper, and that would detract from the whole thing. So I did what he advised and cleaned up the glue while it was still wet so it wont look like crap on the inside. One day, I want to be proud of this thing! Here is a picture after I removed the clamps:

And now.....drum roll please..........OUT OF THE MOLD!!! Ta-Daaa!!For comparison purposes, here is the rim I just made in front of an actual guitar. Notice how my guitar rim looks sort of empty? That's because it has no soul yet. That step comes later.

Not bad huh? Its starting to look like something guitar-ish. I hope things continue this well.