Each day that goes by raises the risk that any mistake will send us back to the beginning, not fatal but certainly would be a big setback . . . . And the repetitive, boring tasks are the most dangerous in this respect.
Finishing the workshop at 10pm every night means that eating and drinking doesn't start till 10.30pm, and becoming accustomed to these southern European ways, we need at least five hours for that!
And, we have to get up an hour before we go to bed . . . . (I think that was Monty Python or Peter Cook/Dudley Moore) . . . So the mornings are a sombre affair . . . .
Day 3 was a lot of detail work on the guitar bodies, sanding, rasping, shaping, more sanding . . .
I found the wood for my guitar neck and completed the tricky task of getting the headstock angle set and cut. Sounds simple, but there was some serious geometry involved (see photo).
Although not difficult, it was one of those moments where you knew it could all go 'Pete Tong' . . . . (or 'tits up', if you prefer).
At the four hour lunch break we hung out by the only pool in San Ferran, 50 meters from the workshop, in the hotel that most of the other inmates are staying at. A basic little hostal, opposite the wonderful Fonda Pepe bar and owned by the same family. Quite a nice break in the heat of the day when you have been covered in sawdust all morning. Several San Miguel's and some playful banter with the other 6 made it a very pleasant interlude.
The class is made up of Martin and Christian from Germany, Marcel, Jo and Roland from Baden/Zurich region in Switzerland, and Luc from Luxembourg. Eric, being an American/French/German/Spanish/English mongrel, is the group thesaurus. My african heritage adds to the cosmopolitan feel . . . .
The other participants are the security guard team, 'catto' and 'doggo' (or similar . . ) . . . Tough job!
Eric is into the shaping of the body of his bass, but I havent really started that bit yet. So we downloaded a photo of a PRS body to Erics iPad and viewed for a sense of the scalloping required to get a violin shape (photo).
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The workshop ended with a little blues jam with the the 'professor' on bass, and we had a laugh with a blues boogie . . . . He is quite a jazzy bassist . . . .
So now, uno mas cafe solo,
