I just thought i’d write a bit on where we are in the prototype phase, since it’s been a few weeks.

First of all, the “we” is myself, darren wilson, and my partner Brian Bowes. Brian’s been building over the last six years, honing his skills and absorbing every bit of knowledge he can get. He’s great on the tools and is as uncompromising with his builds as i am with the design. He’s also a good and patient teacher, helping me to get my skill and confidence on the tools up to workable level quickly. I’ve been focused more on the design side of things, and taking more of a “book” approach to the practical side of things… learning by intensely reading and observing. Our complimentary skill sets collided a little over a year ago, so it’s exciting to see the collaboration starting to bear fruit.

Overall, things are moving along nicely. It’s a good thing i’m a very patient person, because this guitar-building business moves at its own pace, and it’s not something that can be rushed. Go too fast or cut corners, and you’ve got expensive firewood. Thankfully, i’ve been building these guitars in my head over and over as i’ve been designing them for the last 20 years or so… While i’m anxious to have them see the light of day, i’m even more anxious to not screw them up. So i’m taking my time, and being very methodical.

On to the update…

Prototype 1 is coming along nicely. The body is rough cut but awaiting routing before i can carve it. I made MDF templates for doing the final trimming, but i’ve got acrylic templates coming soon, so i’m waiting to do things with those. Last Friday, i glued up the neck blank. It’s 3 pieces of East Indian rosewood. It’s going to be quite lovely, and i think the warmth of the rosewood should compliment the brightness of the walnut nicely. Oh, and rosewood smells like warm honey when you cut it on the table saw. Mmm… sweet.

Prototype 2 is also progressig nicely. The neck has had its truss rod channel cut, and has had the scarf joint for the hedstock cut and a headstock blank glued up. I’m very impressed with white limba so far. It’s a lot like mahogany, but seems quite lightweight. It also cuts and carves nicely.

I’ve sent off detailed drawings for neck and body templates to Guy at Sawdust & Noise… we should have those soon, and i hope my dimensions are right. They’ll make production move MUCH more quickly.

The next prototype (the Cutlass ‘singlecut’ design) has also started taking shape, along with what could possibly be the first couple of official Decibel builds after the prototypes are finished and analyzed. The prototypes will likely end up being my own personal instruments. The designs have been revealed to a select audience, and so far the reception to them has been great and there haven’t really been any surprises on the builds so far.

That’s about all for now. I’ll likely be doing some further posts later, talking about some of the supplier relationships we’ve been building, some of the wood we’ve bee acquiring, and where we go from here.

Cheers,

darren.