'37 Hauser

My winter project is to build a classical guitar for a friend. I have all the wood and am about to start making the forms and molds, various jigs and such--all the foofaraw that seems to go along with any sort of hobby that I undertake. Why can't I pick a seemingly innocuous hobby like stamp collecting, bird watching, or empire building? I fly-fish. Lots of gadgets there. Have you seen the vest of the average fly-fisherman, lately? Knot tiers. Fly dope to make your fly sink or float. Fly boxes. Forceps. Extra fly-line spools. Fly patch. Multitools. Hook removers. That's just in the top two pockets. At last count, I think I found 23 pockets for all of my stuff and I still need more.

Building a modern guitar is just as bad. You have the plantilla, the workboard, go-bar clamps, side-bending jig, circle-cutting jig, purfling jig, fretboard-slotting jig, fretboard template (in both metric and imperial), about 400 clamps (which will still not be enough), countless planes and chisels, not to mention trying to decide on the type tuning machines to use...I love it!

So for the next few months I'll be posting some pictures and describing the process (mistakes included) of what it takes to build a guitar in my basement here in Wisconsin.

Just a teaser:

Soundboard: German Spruce

Backs and Sides: East Indian rosewood

Neck: Spanish cedar

650mm scale length

Plans: Hauser '37--one of Segovia's favs.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Of Molinism and Compatibilism

I realized that I haven't posted for a long time. A lot has happened. I've a job. Not necessarily a career change, but it provides for what we need as a family. My youngest son is now 15 months old, communicating more and more, forming some beginnings of sentences (at least in his mind), pointing out objects, and saying "Wow!" as we look at the mountains of snow in our Wisconsin front yard. And as winters are very long here I have to confess that I have been doing a lot of reading--not a lot of thinking to process what I'm reading--just a lot of reading.

Short list?

Eusebius, a biography of Wycliffe, Calvin's institutes, and The Works of Jacobus Arminius. Perhaps the diet of seminary students but I think I want to be one someday. As I've continued reading I've had the beginnings of discussions with some friends over some coffee and I've been thinking that Christianity has within it its own spectrum of thought. On one side you have yer Calvinists and on t'other you got yer Arminians and right smack dab in the middle of both of them--almost as if they're trying to somehow meet and be somewhat in one mind and harmonious--you have these ideas of Compatibilism (soft-determinism) and Molinism (soft-something--I'm not sure what). Of course I'm in danger of oversimplification and going to incur the wrath of both camps. Nevertheless, the nuances that exist are remarkable. Both seek to reconcile the paradoxes of Scripture. I'm not even close to being able to figure them out. In fact, I think it's more confusing.

Oh well...