There are, when you're working with wood, the issues that can come up are infinite really because there are so many types of wood that come from so many different places in the world. A couple of examples actually, I have this neck here. This was on a guitar for a customer of mine maybe five years ago. And it was a beautiful instrument. It was a classical guitar. And the appointments, meaning, all the kind of edging, and the kind of show stuff, were made out of a wood called snakewood. It's a gorgeous wood, it's, but it's really, really dense and it has a good deal of oils or something in there. And, one of the most embarrassing things in my career for sure was when he called me and explained that the small cap, decorative cap that I glued onto this portion of the neck, this is the actual neck, during one of his performances actually popped off and fell to the floor. I mean, what an awful, awful thing that I had to learn again the hard way. But, I learned that using Epoxy especially in this particular place and with particular woods is just a no go. You can't do it, it just doesn't work. And that's happened to me a couple of times including a guitar I built for, the guitar player from a band called Maroon 5. His guitar tech called me and said I had to tape the thing under in the show. This is the worst thing I could imagine. Very embarrassing but, you have to learn those things. So, in my position, I have to know very well the different attributes of every piece of wood that I'm working with. And I need to know there's different attributes for the entirety of the build. And what I mean by that is that, the woods changed, not just in shape, because I've formed them to a shape, but they change with the seasons and with the humidity. We try our best to keep the humidity and the climate under control in here, but it's a very difficult thing to do. An example of that actually is take, for instance, one of the guitars up here. I built these guitars during the summer and you can see that it doesn't have the neck on it. And, I'm going to have to now build the neck during the middle of the winter. Well, when you go to put those two pieces together, if they were built in a drastically different climate, when they're together and the climate hits those two pieces, it'll react differently in each one, so I had to be careful to protect against that. An interesting issue that I've always had actually comes when I build this body, one of the processes that I just hate to do is called binding the body of the guitar. And it's this little edge you can see on this guitar it's ebony. It's the little edge piece that you do. So, because I hate this process so much. I will neglect to do it for sometimes months after I build the actual body of the guitar. Again, coming back to climate issues. What that means is that those small little pieces of wood might be applied to the guitar in a different climate. Sometimes what'll happen is, I have to so the body is like this and I have to cut out a shelf in order for that piece to go in. Sometimes what'll happen is if I cut that shelf and then wait a day, effectively what happens is what was a right angle in order for a square piece of wood to fit into, it might become obtuse or acute. So that, that square piece of wood that I want to fit into doesn't fit. That can't happen, so you have to protect from that. Another example of humidity with the binding as well comes, it's actually witness depending on the type of finish that you use. Some finishes, they don't move with the wood as well as other finishes. An example is this particular guitar is finished with polyurethane as opposed to a nitrocellulose lacquer. Well, if this binding was put on at a different time than the guitar, the body was built. There's actually a seam right here that you can't see where one piece of binding meets the other piece of binding. Sometimes the glue, when the body is moving, expanding, and swelling, and compressing back down. Sometimes that seam, well, it doesn't necessarily open but it put stress on the glue. And with this particular finish, it is kind of similar to a straw when you bend it, it becomes white. When that stress on that glue joint happens to humidity combined with this particular finished, this ebony, beautiful black ebony would end up with a white line where the glue joint was. It's just terrible. I mean, for someone who spends 10 or $12,000 on this guitar, it's unacceptable. Well, humidity is a big enough issue that I do have, it's actually called a fogger. It's not even a humidifier. It actually puts a very dense mist of moisture into the room. And I have gauges around the shop that signal when that needs to go on or off. And that's of course, in the winter when the air becomes very dry with the cold air and just the moisture just gone during winter. And in the summer, there's so much humidity in this area in particular. I have a massive dehumidifier that pulls as much moisture the air as possible. So, it's possible to contain an area but it is difficult. Sourcing the wood can be fun, I'll put it that way. But it can be very challenging, as well. And oftentimes, you'll end up with very rare woods which is what I like. There are great boutique as a wood suppliers, but often times you have to go directly to the source the find the wood. I actually have some Brazilian rosewood that is just a gorgeous set of woods. In fact, I promised myself that this would be my guitar. But it's a funny story because I was in contact with the guy from Brazil and he actually flew to the US with about 60 sets of this wood. And I was able to meet him and I actually met him in a Motel 8 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And it was a little scary, I have to admit because I thought and he only would do a cash deal. So and it was a great deal of money that I was spending. This is a guy that flew here to do this deal. And I thought, wow, I'm either going to come out of this hotel room with some great material or not come out of this hotel room [LAUGH]. But it really speaks to how, just for lack with better word how interesting and how rich the culture of the wood supply chain is how I think I'd say it. A lot of these boutique builders go to the source and it would be very hard to understand the reality of where that tree started. And, that there are sometimes just a guy who goes into the jungle or goes into the desert and on his back carries out lumber and it's also that we can get these exotic species of wood. They're very expensive. On my instruments, I charge an additional $3,000 to use this Brazilian rosewood, this type of wood.
