My new bench!
As the busy summer winds down, I’ve got great news! I’ve moved into my new shop space in Southeast Portland, where I’ll be renting a bench in a furniture makers shop. Our compact woodshop is in the middle of a warehouse full of bicycle framebuilders…it is an inspiring place to be. I’m officially taking in repair jobs, especially fretwork, setup, and general maintenance. I’ll be ramping up to build some guitars as well!
My favorite store in Portland, the best place for jeans, Stetson hats, and woolen garments.
Som inspiriation from the Cyclepedia exhibit at the PDX Musuem of Art
Right now I’m working on an early sixties Epiphone Granada; this guitar has been passed down from father to son, and it has lots of honest play wear. It buzzes up and down the neck, and the original jumbo frets have been leveled to flat bars. I’ve planed the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard nicely flat, perfectly radiused the fingerboard to original specs, and refretted with Evo fretwire. The Evo has a golden color which tarnishes to a brassy sheen, and it is significantly longer wearing than regular fretwire. I’m also making a new bone nut to replace the original synthetic nut. I’ll be fabricating a new imitation tortoise pickguard to replace the shattered original creme plastic. Fun Job! Here is the progress so far:
The Brazilian board, with divots and crust galore.
The planed and radiused fingerboard, beveled and ready for fretting.
Mixing up some fresh hot hide glue to glue in the new fretwire; just like the originals!
the beginning of making a new nut. the bone blank is hand sanded to the correct thickness, then carefully fit and shaped to match the original (though likely better than original).
The unfinished nut blank, and the freshly fretted neck. More to come, after the glue is set!
Chris Miller Guitars 
so proud of you to follow your dreams
Another challenging job, how wonderful! I know it’ll be beautiful when you’ve finished.