STEVE MCCREARY: Fretwork they played on yesterday. There actually has some steel bars here. I don't have any neck lengths right now without the fretboards on. We actually have some steel bars we put inside the neck too to add mass in the neck, keep the vibration in the body, and keep the neck solid.

Here's a Blackwood that's lodged with a neck bars, and you can see the Birch dowel that is kind of sunk into the tenon there.

PATRICK OGLE: Are all of your guitars adjustable?

STEVE MCCREARY: Yes with a two-action truss rod that goes in with a little relief in it so I can go either direction. We've selected the parts, getting ready for the [INDISCERNIBLE], you know, getting the right fretboards, the right kind of veneer, inlay, the proper nut widths and stuff for the fretboard.

Finishing the fretboard. Well I have those, a couple of a variety of processes. Before it's [SOUNDS LIKE] fixed and graded, it will go on a fixture rehab for presenting a compound radius on the fretboard. I have a little sanding jig. It has a different radius on this and this and I can rock the neck on it, put my compound radius in, and then we'll set the neck to a body, also we'll full thread it [INAUDIBLE] depending on the scale length to whatever the guitar. We have this little fixture that tells us where the bridge is, you know the height of the bridge therefore he knows the right angle to put the neck on, you know where everyone wants to set the neck to, so that's what he's working on. So once the neck is set, the fretboard is radiused, then it will go to the fretting station and get fretted.

PATRICK OGLE: Okay.

STEVE MCCREARY: And then carved, final shaping. [SOUNDS LIKE] We may use a variety of sanding blocks with different radiuses as well as sanding blocks with different thicknesses that's padded on them, and then just slot it. He goes in there so he's got his burr off the slot. There are chisels and file and rasps and again there are some different sanding blocks and stripers for doing the neck shape properly.

[INAUDIBLE] the stain on [INAUDIBLE] head slot, rather [INDISCERNIBLE] make it nice and smooth. Then he'll want to go finish it and get its first coats of finish, and this is intermediate sands between coats of finish. You'll see that [INDISCERNIBLE] sanding.

This is the finish room. Everything -- Obviously, everything has to come through here. There's a variety of processes from filling the pores in, staining, sealing, spraying, color, scraping bindings which is a very tedious -- bindings, scraping bindings, a big part of the job. You got to have a steady hand and better eyesight than I do. [SOUNDS LIKE] There he works on all the varnish finishes, a little bit of vodka for the lacquer finishes. For example, a sunburst in a lacquered guitar, you can just take the lacquer to different colors [INDISCERNIBLE]. The varnish is where you just have to stain the wood because the varnish already has a enough a lot of color in it. The varnish is a lot trickier to work with so it takes a lot longer time, probably about a year and a half or two years back quarter now for the varnished guitars.

[INAUDIBLE] the varnish rack [INAUDIBLE]. You'll see a difference in a little bit yellower color on the varnish, more amber color than the lacquer finish. Mahogany is filled and stained.

PATRICK OGLE: Depending on the [INDISCERNIBLE]?

STEVE MCCREARY: Depending on the color of the guitar that's stained, maybe a different color or [SOUNDS LIKE] before filling/staining obviously, and then the [SOUNDS LIKE] spray booth. See through the door here, we have the three spray booths, and it's, you know, sunburst is done in different ways. You put on a base color and then build up colors around the edges to do sunburst, or we have the tinted lacquers for doing the different colors. It's different with the tortoise binding on that sunburst. Mandolins and processed mandolins are getting all natural, all lacquer, build up the color rings for the sunburst and then scrape them the clear lacquers and then sanding, and then spraying it and more sanding.

This is a recently sunburst I35 and a recently sunburst Collings Jumbo. We've got an interesting color for the mandolin. I think this is called a honey amber [INDISCERNIBLE] with tortoise binding. Another tortoise binding with a little black-white purfling around the side to show off the tortoise [INDISCERNIBLE].

We tried to do -- We have kind of standard colors we use and we'll try to do -- This is kind of a custom sunburst I think. We try to accommodate when we can. Again, when, you know, hand-mix the colors, there's always a little variation and we try to give what people want. Sometimes we can. Sometimes we can't meaning we have to say no. Sometimes we try and then try again and try again so it's hard.