b'progressively made sawcuts in various parts of theBy 2001 I had a workforce of five, I didnt want soundboard to help me see which parts were underto go any further than that, but I had orders the most stress.Theory from other worlds canthat I couldnt produce, so I made another of my offer comparisons as well.DC and AC electricityoccasional jumps into the deep end. I bought a have many similarities to static and dynamicCNC Mill. CNC is Computer Numerical Control, it is mechanics; the electronic concepts of resistance,a development of punch paper tape memory, and impedance and damping have direct equivalents inhas revolutionised guitar making in many ways. I vibration within solid materials. My wife often askswas hoping to be able to shape guitar necks, cut fret me what I am thinking about, then regrets askingslots, make inlays and all sorts of other things, but me when I tell her.When she cant get to sleep I trythis all coincided with running round after children and explain some of it to her, works every time.and I didnt have enough time or attention span Ive just remembered something; that guitar withto get to grips with it. I have had the machine for two soundboards was featured on BBCs Multifourteen years, it cost me an awful lot of money, Coloured Swap Shop. Mike Reid made fun of it,in fact it is the only item I have ever bought on and sliced a hard boiled egg by pushing it throughfinance, but I have only used it to make truss rod the strings and out the other side. I wonder wherecovers, the tiny little wooden or plastic plates that it is now? can be bought for a few pence. I called it Cynthia - Cynthia the CNC, I only New technology comes and goes ever switched it on about once every six months, In 2000 I discovered that the US magazine Acousticconsequently it recently lost its memory, so I Guitar had given me a Players Choice award,havent used it at all for quite some time.from a poll of their readership. Ive no idea howA few years later I bought an Ultra Violet booth that came about, I have certainly sold quite a lot offor curing lacquer, (I call her Violet, Im SO good at guitars in the US, but I wasnt aware of being at allnames) again to try and get more instruments made high profile. I think I was a little smug for a while. Iwithout employing more people. I have now backed do smug rather well. away from all of that,returning to making small numbers Skills shared: Neil BrookBefore he came to Fylde, Neil had been Stradivari Museum in Cremona a shipwright in the Royal Navy. He wasnt (isnt?) afraid to tackle anything.If it was I am absolutely fascinated by human beings making things, and completely in awe of theweird and unusual, Neil would make centuries of development that have gone into technologies such as sword making andit.Neither of us will forget the day he violin design. picked up the bending iron while it was Moira and I were given a private tour of the Museo del Violino in Cremona: Stradivari,still turned on. Just like David Carradine Guaneri and Amati Violins all in one room. Quite breathtaking. And the Stradivariin Kung Fu.Sabionari guitar!The exit from the museum was open and unguarded. After Fylde he joined the Fire Service to We were shown hundreds of tools and patterns used by Stradivari: The only peopleget a decent pension, plus of course all who think that the best instruments are made entirely by hand, without any mechanicalthat spare time for making instruments.aids, are those who have never done it. We saw little drilling machines and the nails heHe now specialises in making sometimes used to hold the neck in position.His chisels and gouges were not there,Hurdy Gurdys, often with a modern they would have been passed onto other makers and sharpened until there was nothinginterpretation and various clever gadgets left. built in.98'