Do You Have The Time, To Listen To Me Whine?

September 18, 2026

Last week I talked about being excited to get back into building guitars. This week reality reared its ugly head!

I was overly aggressive with my feed speed on a profile cut, and the router bit dug in... hard! My CNC router is something I designed and built, including the router mount which is 3D printed. It was no match for an angry 2" compression bit, twisted like a wet noodle. The bit tore big chunks out, made my neck pocket about 1/4" wider than it was supposed to be and left a very rough and torn edge around the whole body.

I was pretty discouraged after that, so I set that body to the side and decided to look through my ever growing collection of half finished bodies and necks to see if there was anything I could salvage. I came to the conclusion it is time for a big bonfire! I have been staring at 5 bodies and 6 necks on my bench all week, trying to come up with ways to save them from the trash. I am VERY discouraged now.

But this did make me stop to think about what was causing all these problems. Most of my issues are self-inflicted, caused by impatience, lack of focus and inconsistency.

Impatience
This is one of my biggest struggles. When I see a guitar shape starting to magically appear before my eyes, I can't wait to see it finished. But this leads me to start taking shortcuts, some that I've tried before with similarly bad outcomes. This is especially true when it comes to finishes. And it doesn't matter what type of finish, paint, dyes, stains, oils, I know what it takes to make a beautiful finish... time. As I mentioned last week, that amount of time I have to dedicate to guitar building is very limited, so my default setting it to try to get as much done in the shortest amount of time possible. NEVER WORKS! Patience is something I will be working very hard on moving forward.

Lack of focus
I also contribute this to my limited time (and maybe a touch of ADD); the feeling I need to always be "producing" something. I am learning that sometimes the best thing you can do is to stop and think about what you are getting ready to do for 5-10 minutes, instead of just jumping straight into it. Walking through each step of a process in your mind before ever touching a tool is not wasting time, it is an ounce of prevention to save a pound of cure. I must admit though, I have always been an 80% guy, I am great at getting the first 80% of a project organized and knocked out, but I despise the last 20% - which when building a guitar, is what everybody cares about the most! I am working on being more present in the task I am currently doing, and trying not to think about the next thing as much.

Inconsistency
For the past couple of years, I have been very hit-or-miss on actually working on guitars. I have spent months on several side quests; building a guitar-based project/inventory management website, designing and building a CNC router, building several apps, and even RaunchTone.com. I had very good intentions, all of these things are to help me build guitars and grow a business around that, but in hindsight, it has kept me from doing what I wanted to - actually building the damn guitars! I think I have gotten all the distractions out of my head and I can get back to consistently working on my guitar building processes. You have to show up, and you have to put in the hours. That is the only way you will ever get better at something!

To summarize, I am the problem! I am aware of that and I know what I need to do to get better. Now it's time to shut up and make some sawdust!

Jeff Daniel
Owner - RaunchTone.com
jd@raunchtone.com