Don Chesser hosted our April meeting. He gave us a tour of his new facility in Carrollton in which he runs his fine furniture and home repair business "Chess Pieces". For those of you needing a new entertainment center or a kitchen remodel his business number is 972.304.8229.

He had just relocated the week before our meetng and his shop already looks good to go. He also showed a new guitar in progress. Pictured here at the right it will feature a fancy pearl Texas theme inlay on the peg head and as marker dot's. He also demonstrated his neck scarf joint assembly jig and his parallelogram binding ledge cutter.

Chris Jenkins gave an excellent presentation on how he builds the access panel he features on all of his guitars. Look for an article in The GAL Journal soon authored by Chris and Larry Mills.

Here is an excerpt form that article.

"As alternative sound holes become more common, some luthier's are finding that it's convenient to replace the traditional tail block with an access panel. It's almost essential if your truss rods are adjusted through the sound box, rather than at the headplate.

When you make a small sound hole or two in the upper bout, you must either give up the ability to reach into your guitar, or find a very dexterous toddler to stick his hand in there and do the work for you. A tail-end access panel is the solution."

Bo Walker gave a talk on his continuing quest to accurately reproduce a Selmer swing guitar. Here he is showing assorted false starts in his effort to duplicate exactly the complex neck joint that was used on the original. Check our tips page for a slick rig for cutting the required D-shaped sound hole and rosette.