Guitar: Milling the Lumber

I built a guitar... It is still fun to say! This will be a three part writeup. First the milling, then the assembly and last finishing. Bangladesh was a tough place for me to live. In order to cope I sort of threw myself into work. I needed the creative outlet. The idea to make a guitar started from looking at all the amazing wood available in Dhaka. I also wanted a small guitar that I could travel with and something that the kids could actually get their arms over. A friend of mine had a Baby Taylor which is a 3/4 size guitar. It has amazing sound for its size and I thought it might be pretty easy to copy. So I borrowed it and traced and measure and returned it.

I think it took me three months of weekends and evenings to finish. This was not a kit and because of tool limitations each piece was a challenge. Once I had the basic design secured, next was choosing the wood. The woods available in Bangladesh are some of the standards for tropical hardwood. As far as tone wood goes, I would need to do something different as spruce was not available to me. I had heard of a few guitars that used Mahogany as the face and obviously plenty that used Mahogany for the back and/or sides. I did not want to have an all mahogany guitar though. Other woods available here are teak, iron wood, Korai, and a handful of other exotics. There was a nice piece of teak that really caught my eye so I started researching the feasibility of using teak in a guitar. My thinking was that using different woods would make for a more interesting guitar visually but more importantly different woods would resonate at different frequencies which would give the guitar more diverse character.

I decided to mill up some lumber and see what it sounded like with the tap test. All of the lumber used was milled in Bangladesh and allowed had cured for at least 3 years before I started. The mahogany started out as a 3inch thick slab that I would need to re-saw down to get the thickness needed for the back and sides. Since the pieces were so wide, I could not cut them on the band saw in the shop. I ended up cutting as deep as I could on the table saw from both sides and hand sawing (yes, you heard right!) through the middle section. My arm hurt after that day. Here is a pic after table sawing:

I had to do the same thing with the teak. Yes with a hand saw again and teak is much harder to work with! Next was planing the pieces down to a usable thickness for tone wood. I had a 12 inch DeWalt planer, which is not exactly ideal. The issue is that the finished tone wood needs to be thinner than what is possible on the planer. So I had to run the 1/4inch stock through until I could not get any thinner and then run it through with a piece of thin balsa on the bottom to get even thinner. I blew through a couple of pieces of teak and the mahogany sides. The problem was that as I got to the right thickness the blades of the planer would chip out the entire piece. After sharpening and adjusting the blades, I was able to get some workable blanks. You can see in the picture below the plywood pattern for the front and back, the teak, the mahogany and the sides. Notice the chip out in mahogany pieces.

I glued the front and back pieces together. Next I used the plywood pattern and a router with a pattern bit to cut out the front and back. At this point I still had not decided which was going to be the front and which was going to be the back. I loved the book matched teak and decided to use the white part of the mahogany as a feature strip down the middle. This picture was taken after I hand sanded the pieces down to 3/32 of an inch to get rid of any chip-out from the planer. More arm pain...

At this point I think I went on vacation for a week which allowed the wood to rest/cure/dry. When I returned I could hold the front/back pieced at one point on the edge and strike it with one finger as a way of getting to know its tonal properties. It was amazing how different they were. The mahogany was bright and crisp but the teak was more muted and deep. This was the first time that I actually got excited about the prospect that this guitar might actually sound good! I still could not decide which was the front or back so I decided to cut out the blank for the neck. I went with mahogany and found a piece big enough with the grain in the right direction and cut it out. I should mention that I designed a neck that is not a copy of the Baby Taylor, but more of a copy of Taylor's full size guitars. In front of the neck blank is the fret board which is cut out of Korai local to Bangladesh.

Stay tuned for the assembly!

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter has always been one of those holidays that I really enjoy. There are no religious connotations for me, I just feel like celebrating the coming of spring, it just feels right. Spring always feels like I have woken up from some kind of hibernation, my energy level goes up, I am inexplicably happy and I want to get out in the world and see it all. I try to have a big old bash at my dad's place but, like this year, it doesn't always work out. This year we went to the America Club Easter egg hunt and then to a lovely brunch. The weather did not cooperate to give use that spring time feeling but it did invoke a sense of urgency to the egg hunt. Here are some pics of Lola in action:

                The worries of how the hunt will go...                     The lovely ladies

                   The excitement, the anticipation!                                    In action!

Go Lola go!

All in a day's work...

The easy and relaxed look of a pro egg hunter after delivering another basket of the goods.

Garment Factory

One of the 7th grade field trips at AISDhaka is to one of the garment factories in Dhaka. This was all about expectations and I was expecting the worst. After seeing how a lot of Bangladeshis live and that the majority live on about a dollar a day and all the news about sweat shops the picture in my head was not pretty. While I am sure that something close to what I was thinking is out there in Dhaka, what we actually saw was not so bad. The factory we went to made only bottoms and they make clothes for JC Penny, Walmart and Diesel among others. They employ about 2,000 workers that earn 4,000 taka a month. To put this into perspective that is about 47 US dollars a month for 6 - ten hour days a week. The environment was clean, well lit and cool. Here are some pictures:

One of the hundreds of pallets of fabric

This is one of those lucky shots where I just happened to be taking a picture at the right time. She is smiling at all the students walking by.

This is the cutting station. Fabric is layered on top of itself many times and then all cut at once. The cutter is a pretty tool machine. You can see it on the left hand side of the picture.

Here is a close up of the fabric being cut. You can see how precise the cutter is. The guy running it wears a steel mesh glove on his left hand and pushes the cutter with his right.

Ironing station:

There was an entire floor dedicated to seem checking. Each table is dedicated to a certain area of the garment.

This was one of the coolest parts to see. This machine sews the buttons on. The worker slides a button into the machine, lines up the shorts and then turns on the machine. It takes about one second for the  machine to sew the button on. The needle moves around precisely through each hole.

Drinking Beer!

So I am finally enjoying my first batch of Bangladesh Beer. The recipe is a Dark Lager kit from The Beverage People in Santa Rosa. If you know your beers, a lager goes through a period of refrigerated fermenting (or Lagering) before its second fermentation and then bottling. As you can imagine i have no way of lagering five gallons of beer for weeks at a time so I did not lager my beer. So I am not really sure what to call it... For those familiar with the Ukiah Brewing Company it is remarkably similar to a 10 Guilder. For all you others out there the closest thing I can come up with is a bit darker and more flavorful version of a Negro Modelo. There are some issue that have taken me a few days to figure out. When I added my priming sugar to the beer apparently I did not mix it very well because all the early bottles are carbonated well and all the later bottles have no carbonation at all. So now I need to go back and re-prime the uncabonated ones... At least I will have some to drink while I do it!

Critical Mass #3 Bangladesh

So the critical mass in Bangladesh is three months old today. I missed the first two so I made a point to make this one. I am not sure about an actual count but there were over 200 riders! Bangladesh keeps surprising me with how progressive certain aspects are and how unbelievable backwards other parts are. I never would have thought that there would be a critical mas here and would have laughed if you told me there were more riders than I ever saw a the critical mass in San Luis Obispo.

I took the cargo bike and was going to take Lola but was glad that I did not! We rode a little over 12 miles and the entire ordeal took about 3 hours. There was lots of energy in the air and the number of cultures represented was pretty impressive. But I have to take my hat off to the number of Bangladeshi riders out there.

The Cargo bike was a hit and I became a shuttle for a couple of young kids that had run out of steam. The streets were lined with people pointing and clapping and cheering. There were riders blocking traffic and press photographers on motorcycles, guys with megaphones and all kinds of bikes. Here are some pics from the day.

The first riders trickle in...

 The big group amasses

Bike Parking

Couldn't resist...

I am thinking about importing a limited run of these. The demand would be epic...

Some live dancing and drumming. All part of the package.

Ken testing out the trail-a-bike during the mass photo.

I just rode single track!

So Bangladesh just moved up on my list and I owe it all to my newest aquaintence, Ken. My principal's wife Sara sent me "biker guy" Ken's email and sent Ken my email. Within hours Ken had emailed me letting me know that he would be out of town for a bit but when he got back he would contact me about a ride. He also mentioned a 15 day bike trek he would be taking to Nepal in April. All I could think was, "Seriously? 15 days in Nepal for the sole purpose of riding. This guy is legit!"

So Ken made it back and we set up a "Mountain Bike" ride which I was thinking would be lame dirt roads but that I was hoping would be more. We met at 7:00 am with 4 other riders and started the mad dash to get out of Dhaka. After about 5 miles of road riding Ken just hangs a left onto a trail I never would have seen. For the next 50 Km Ken led us on a dizzying maze of interconnected trails and paths in the delta areas outside of Dhaka. When I got home we had riden 70 Km, my legs were sore, and I was beat! I had ridden hills, hucked my bike off of 6 foot drops, crossed levy trails that were 6-12 inches wide, ridden through bamboo forests, seen ferrets, walked over bamboo bridges, had some close calls, and laughed like a kid again. One of the guys on the ride, Satish, took some pics and here they are:

TRAILS IN BANGLADESH!

And they were fun too. All the excitement of Mt. biking with a people factor. Kids would run out from their homes to yell greetings and wave. Some would just laugh! It was like a mountain bike race with people on the course cheering us on. Most of the trails were walking paths for people getting between villages, getting to the fields or from animals being led out to pasture. We were never far from civilizations but I felt like i was in nature. Cool sights fun riding and cool people.

Oh yeah, and it turns out I did not have the first Santa Cruz bike in Bangladesh... Yep, Ken has a SC Nomad... Bro-mance? I hope I don't come on too strong and scare Ken away! At least our bikes are different colors. Anyway, Thank you Ken for showing me some dirt, I needed it.

You don't want pics of this...

A couple of weekends ago it was the second Eid (religious holiday) here in Bangladesh. This Eid is known as the Bloody Eid as the people who can afford it, sacrifice a cow. For the three days leading up to Eid there was a livestock auction just outside of our neighborhood. After the auction cows were herded throughout the city to their new owners. Some well off families would have many cows. So for two days these cows were tied up outside of houses and washed daily. Some of these cows were good looking animals. Here are a few pictures of cows that were just down the street.

Conrad (one of the interns at the school) called the day before and asked if I wanted to go on a bike ride. I have been finding it very hard to get motivated to ride because the air quality here makes riding hard. So the outside motivation was welcomed and we agreed to meet at 7am to ride.

The ride was nice and we got out of Dhaka enough to see the pace of life slow. On the way out the the kids were all huddled around nondiscript locations on the side of the road. As we would ride by they would all turn around and yell what English they knew. Usually consisting of "Hi", "How are you (as a statement not a question), and "Thank you". Once in a while they would yell "What's your name?" like they expected us to stop and shoot the breeze with them. They would run after us for a little ways. We finally realized that because all the adults were at mosque they were trying to keep the kids occupied so they had set up these roadsides stands to distribute sweets.

On the way home all of the Mosques seemed to get out at the same time so the roads were flooded with people. Adults and children all dressed up in new and overly ornate clothes walking to their homes. We were just outside of Dhaka when we came upon our first cow being slaughtered. We road by in quiet shock. The next one we passed was right on the side of the main road. This gets pretty gruesome, so if you just ate you may want to skip it.


The cows are hobbled and then tipped over. The owner and friends or staff will hold the animal down and a special person then does the sacrificing. They cut the main artaries in the neck of the animal. Then they cut through the throat and pull the head back to let the animal bleed to death. For the next minute or two the animal is alive and is kicking and making the most horrible breathing noises through its now cut wind pipe. Pretty intense to watch. The rest of the ride home we saw countless cows in various stages of being butchered. Cows being skinned, being litterally hacked apart, cows being gutted... The worst was that part of our ride was through a small village where the streets were narrow with barely room for a rickshaw and people to walk through. The streets were boardered by walls on either side with doorways every so often leading to peoples homes. In this small street we were forced to get very intimate with the process.


I am not sure why it had so much significance to me but at this point I had to ride through a stream of cow blood that was running out of on of these poor animals. The worst was watching one cow be wrestled to the ground. There were cows that had already been slaughtered about 20 feet away so the cow must have known what was coming. There were about 40 people standing around watching so there was no way to get by. The cow was tied up around his neck and was kicking to keep the people off of him. It was quite dangerous in those tight of quarters. They eventually got some rope around the cows legs and then eight guys worked really hard to get this cow on the ground. The cow fought amaizingly well. The guys where pushing it over and twisting the cow's head by the horns to force it to the ground. It finally made it to the ground and I used the oportunity to sneak by.


Once we were back in Dhaka, cows were mostly in the skinning stage and they were everywhere. The main streets were lined with spectators, blood and cows. Animal sacrifice seems so dated. I eat meat and I realize that an animal had to die for it. I know millions of animals die every day to feed the human population of this earth. It is just the unnecessary cruelty that bothers me. Why not kill the animal quickly and painlessly and then let it bleed? I am not sure how I feel about the next aspect.

The owners of the cows are expected to give away a good portion of the meat to those in need. On the surface I think, yeah that is cool. In reality it is a bit more complicated. Begging is a profession here in Bangladesh. Women rent babies and then walk through the major intersections where traffic is stopped. Anyone with any kind of physical deformity will draw attention to it. Holding clubbed hands up to the window of your car. Part of the culture here is this attitude of giving to those in need but it has created a huge problem. It is said that the beggars can make a really good amount of money but then they have to give most of it to these pimps (I can't think of a more appropriate word) that bring them to town from the villages. Pretty crazy aspects of the culture here. Glad that Eid is over!

Fabric Market

Jessica organized a trip to the local fabric market. First stop was the "New Market" and the next was "Chadni Chowk". We were a caravan of two cars and a total of 5 people and a baby. It took us about 30 minutes to get there as traffic was light and both cars made it at the same time (a feat I still cannot explain). We started wandering through the New Market which is just a collection of permanent, semi-permanent and temporary shops. The vast majority of which are completely useless because they are not what we were shopping for or were a near exact copy of the ten other stores right next door. Here are some gems from the New Market:

If this were the US the guy would have boxed them up and used a hand truck or maybe a small golf cart to deliver these. It is not only simpler here but it just looks better!

The stairway in the middle of the market. The best part? Guy in the middle is rocking a half shirt and it is not pretty.

The real deal

Veggies. Is it wrong that it looks better on some nasty concrete than it does under some florescent lights in a grocery store. The grocery store still wins though because it would take about 10 minutes of bargaining to get a decent price here.

Not sure I even need to caption this...

Its the little things. I still have not figured out the color coding system.

The next stop was Chadni Chowk's. I huge fabric market. The outside is temporary tarp covered stands selling shoes, clothing and the like. Inside are tiny little stalls, the largest about 8feet by 10 feet and the norm was about 6 feet by 4 feet. Each owned by a different person. Lined floor to ceiling with folded fabrics of pretty much any style. At this point all were overwhelmed and we just wandered through a fraction of the stalls. We will be back though! My mom would love it. It was really hard to get good pictures because of the close quarters and the florescent lighting but here are a few to give you the idea:

Jessica in the zone.

Hands on the hips signifying the resignation that there is no way any decisions are being made today.

Liz with baby and Wendy wheeling and dealing.

Michelle and Jessica.

The Stacks. I have no idea how things stay so neat.

Ride Number 2

This weekend is Eid (the end of Ramadan) and so a lot of the people in Dhaka go out to their villages and celebrate with family. It has a similar feel to Christmas in that there is an overwhelming sense of happiness and family love. All the stores close, people are dressed up in their finest and the streets are quiet. Really. All construction has stopped and traffic is down to about an 1/8th of what it was. So I, being the heathen that I am, think nothing of religion during religious holidays and decide that this will be a perfect day to ride my bike! I found a route on MapMyRide.com and spent all day yesterday trying to figure out how to get the course on my GPS unit... Wasted time. I got it on there but it turned out to be useless as far as giving directions so I had to go off memory of the map. Surprisingly I did not get lost! Here is a map of the ride from my GPS:

This was a great day in the saddle. Amazing scenery. I was on this one lane road that weaves through the river delta areas and all these small villages. People all taking it easy because of the Eid holiday. The random English greetings were thrown my way included "Hi" "Hello" "Howareyou" and my favorite, "Thank You" People would just shout thank you as I road by. I like to think that they were just thanking me for being so inspirational... nothing to do with the fact that they have no idea what thank you means. Here are a few pics of the day:

The local way of running pipelines

The barge that pumps the water:

Finally a decent picture of the local fishing nets:

These saw mills are all over. Pretty cool.

Boats docked right next to the road:

The colorful boats:

Finally got some good light and kinda clear skys.

Here are some randoms from an outing and some from our roof.

How could I not take a picture of this?

The partial view of a Mosque from the neighborhood park.

Another had to take.

Bangladesh, the land of the legal teeter totter, eat your heart out America!

No idea what this is called but it is a bush that for a flower it produces some pink leaves that surround the small yellow flower. In this picture the yellow flower has not opened yet.

Shot of the Mosque architecture.

After taking a bunch of pictures Lola asked if she could take some. So we gave her our old Point and Shoot and she has taken about 200 Pics. Mostly extreme close ups of stuff partially covered by a wayward finger. The pictures of her taking pics are way better!

After every picture she takes she shows it to you. By the time the camera makes it in front of your face the picture has disappeared. At least she is cute!

 This is a shot of my favorite local building from our roof. My goal is to get invited to the roof.