A veritable forest of Fox guitar side benders:
OK, not everything is done by hand. This is the business end of a sophisticated computer controlled milling and carving machine:
This machine can turn out an endless stream of identical parts such as bridges.
Now for the good stuff:
He's installing the truss rods, and some special neck reinforcement that's unique to Collings guitars:
See the two channels outboard from the truss rod?
They are filled with special spring steel reinforcing strips, here being glued in place with epoxy:
Take a look below at the arrow:
These are two pieces of spring steel (they're curved because they come on a roll.) The pieces are .043" thick by 3/8" wide, and are installed two on each side of the truss rod, for a total of 4 bars in each neck. (Small body guitars get .036" thick by 3/8" bars.)
The idea is to provide extra stiffening in the neck. It works.
Here's the latest Collings project:
Mandolins.
And here's Steven Gilchrist (right) consulting on the design of a mandolin building fixture.
Steven and Bill, trying out the finished instruments, and swapping lies:
