A semi-hollow body with a sun inlaid into the top, still being worked on

Lab

The work, as it happens

Photographs taken in the workshop while the work was going on. Nothing here was staged.

The wood

Before it is an instrument it is a board

Boards are chosen one at a time and left to season. The grain never repeats itself, and it decides the instrument before the shape and the colour do.

A top in two book-matched halves, the grain figure mirrored across the joint — Two halves of the same board, book-matched: the figure mirrors itself.

A board of Pale Moon ebony, with its black and cream streaks, on the bench grid — Pale Moon ebony: no two boards share the same pattern.

Two long boards of different woods, side by side on the bench — Different woods, different grain: the choice starts here.

The drawing

It gets drawn in pencil, on the wood

Outlines, necks and inlays start in pencil, before anything is cut. If the drawing doesn't hold up on the wood, it won't hold up later.

The outline of a body traced on the wood, the blank still held in clamps — First the outline on the wood, then the cut.

The outline of a violin traced in pencil on raw wood — The same pencil, for violins too.

The neck

The part you never see again

Inside the neck go the truss rod and two carbon rods, standard on every model. Then the fingerboard, the frets pressed in one by one, and the side dots.

A bird's-eye maple neck with its three channels cut: one for the truss rod, two for the carbon rods — The channels for the truss rod and the two carbon rods, before they go in.

Glue laid down in a serpentine line on an ebony fingerboard — The glue, in one pass: there are only a few minutes to work it.

A fingerboard with its frets just fitted, seen along the neck — The frets fitted one by one, all along the fingerboard.

The inlay

The mother-of-pearl is cut by hand

The recess is cut into the wood, the mother-of-pearl is cut and filed until it sits with no play. A sun with twelve rays is twelve pieces.

Two small sheets of mother-of-pearl in the luthier's hand — The sheet the inlays are cut from.

A sun cut into an ebony fingerboard, with the mother-of-pearl rays already cut beside it — The recess cut and the rays already shaped, before they go in.

Finished sun and moon inlays on a Pale Moon ebony fingerboard — Finished and levelled: now they sit flush with the wood.

The body

Hollowed and finished by hand

The pickup and electronics cavities follow the drawing to the hundredth. Edges, curves and f-holes are finished by hand, with rasp and scraper.

Three guitar bodies in different woods, resting on the bench — Three guitar bodies, three different woods, three different outlines.

An f-hole being finished with a scraper on a semi-hollow walnut body — The rim of an f-hole only ever closes by hand.

The back of a raw body held in one hand, with wooden cavity covers and a carved moon — The back: even the cavity covers are wood.

The back of a sanded raw body, on the bench grid — The raw body, sanded before the finish.

The finish

One coat at a time, and sanding in between

The colours are mixed in the workshop, tested on the actual wood. Then the polyurethane goes on, one coat at a time, sanded in between: drying times can't be shortened.

Seven seconds in the booth, filmed while the work was going on.

A small bag of dark pigment with iridescent glints, held in one hand — The pigments arrive as powder and are mixed in the workshop.

A small jar of metallic violet pigment, held in one hand — A metallic violet, before it goes into the finish.

A body with a flamed top stained blue, on the bench grid — The stain goes on before the finish, and brings out the figure of the wood.

A gloved hand spray-finishing two necks, one red and one black, in the booth — Two necks in the booth, one thin coat at a time.

A gloved hand sanding a white body on the bench grid — Sanding, between two coats.

Three guitar bodies hanging to dry on a rack, along with two necks — Drying. From here nothing gets touched for days.

The assembly

The electronics, to a De Gattis design

The circuit is called De Gattis Custom Circuitry: a single board, built to a De Gattis design, with the 50's/Modern switch and the pickup controls. It is tested before it goes into the body.