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| Fitting the fretboard (no frets yet) |
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| Fitting the bridge |
I was thinking about some of the terminology used in guitar making and how odd it can be: One who makes guitars is called a luthier in spite of the fact that he/she may never have touched a lute; you thickness a top, back or side panel by making it thinner; we usually fret about the frets, because their placement is crucial to the intonation; you tune the instrument, although rarely by playing a tune. Okay. I'm sure that there are lots of other jargon that could be added (in fact, if you're inclined, e.g., head up, feet down; add your ideas of strange terms associated with instruments and their music.
Anyway, I fitted the bridge, fretboard, armrest, back and back braces, bent the binding and purfling for the top and will add the fret slots, rout the channel for the bindings, put the final touches on the neck, add a head piece and drill the complex holes for the tuning pegs, make a nut, align everything and get ready for a glue-fest, all except the back and back binding.. there are probably several other steps that I've left out, but you get the idea. We're on the backstretch, headed for the last turn.
Finishing is a bit up in the air, but it will be finished in fine shape. This should be a very responsive guitar and some testing in the final stages and tweaking, if necessary, will assure that it will sound really terrific (as always, there is a bit of uncertainty here, but it should be minimized by the methods I'm using.
I fret about how Dmitry is doing on the Rosettes for C's guitar.
Civil War stuff: I was pondering my great grandfather's role during the Civil War and know that, except for a period of illness in Corinth, MS, he served throughout the entire war. This included Sherman's march to the sea and the incredible distances these troops put under thier boots, assuming they had boots. Which led me to thinking of Morgan's assignment. He was part of the - what I think now would be the Quartermaster Corps attached to the 10th Michigan Infantry. What a herculean task it must have been to provide food and equipment, weapons and ammo to the massive number of troops under Sherman's command. From what I've read, there are mixed reviews as to the behavior of the troops responsible for commandeering supplies from the local populations on the periphery of the main contingent of troops marching across the South. I looked up what was designated as standard equipment and rations that the troops were officially entitled to, and it is enormous. I doubt very seriously if anything near that was actually provided. I'll find the reference again and plug it in here. Logistics must have been next to impossible. More research is in order here.
Here is a list of official rations and supplies:
12 oz of pork or bacon or 1 lb. 4 oz of fresh or salt beef; 1 lb. 6 oz of soft bread or flour, 1 lb. of hard bread, or 1 lb. 4 oz of cornmeal. Per every 100 rations there was issued 1 peck of beans or peas; 10 lb. of rice or hominy; 10 lb. of green coffee, 8 lb. of roasted and ground coffee, or 1 lb. 8 oz of tea; 15 lb. of sugar; 1 lb. 4 oz of candles, 4 lb. of soap; 1 qt of molasses. In addition to or as substitutes for other items, desiccated vegetables, dried fruit, pickles, or pickled cabbage might be issued.The marching ration consisted of 1 lb. of hard bread, 3/4 lb. of salt pork or 1 1/4 lb. of fresh meat, plus the sugar, coffee, and salt.
Thinking about this would surely cause one to fret and would give you fits!!!!
Here's a list of some of the actions the 10th MI Infantry was part of:
I know there were more early in the war, in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.
The regiment suffered 7 officers and 95 enlisted men who were killed in action or motally wounded and 2 officers and 223 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 327 fatalities.
[1]Battle of Missionary Ridge
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
Siege of Atlanta
Battle of Jonesboro
March to the Sea
Battle of Bentonville
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