I Ended Up Selling That School Desk Guitar

My last post concerned the building of a second guitar from the school desk top I picked out of a dumpster, last Thanksgiving Day. I had planned on keeping that one, but my buddy Jesse looked at it with longing in his eyes, every time I played it at the Tavern, so I made a deal with him.

But, before delivering it, I actually finished the build...

Above is how it sat after the initial build, with the big, goofy Epiphone headstock and less than stellar tuners which came on the neck. I had ordered some repops of the Kluson Deluxe tuners, like Gibsons often came with in the 50s (and some still do), with the greenish knobs. I thought that they would not only improve the tuning of the guitar, but they would also look more appropriate on this build.

I used a Chock Full O' Nuts coffee can to draw the radius I wanted on the headstock (again, following the barn-build aesthetic), then cut close to my mark with the bandsaw. After that, I used my power sander to get a bit closer to the final shape. I did the final shaping by hand, with a small foam sanding block and 3 grades of paper. I hand-sanded the face and sides of the headstock, in order to avoid accidentally sanding a dip into wood. 

The TableTop Guitar monogram was burned in with a wood-burner, as was the SD (School Desk) on the truss rod cover. Black Walnut Danish Oil finish topped it all off.

I delivered it to Jesse, last night. I was happy with how happy he was with the finished product. I really did plan on keeping that one, but I'm glad it went to a good home!

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