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3rd?!? Shhhh...


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I need to keep this one a secret from the lady of the house, I'm waiting on templates for the second build still so I needed something to do so here we go!!!

i had some extra walnut laying around from the other build and just bought all of this ash so figured I better do something with it. 

I couldn't get over to my buddies house to use his planer so I had to do all of this with my router, that really sucks and I hope that I never have to do it again. 

Body specs,

walnut back planed to .750, ash top planed to .500, same shape as my first build. I really like this shape so I think I'm going to use it often and try to perfect it as much as I can  

I got smart this time and routed my wiring Chanel's before gluing the top on. I'm not sure what I'm going to do wood wise on the neck yet but I'm thinking walnut with a strip of Birdseye maple down the center, thin strips of podauk in between the walnut/maple and a piece of podauk in the scarf joint, all walnut headstock.

 

 

 

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I just noticed an hour after originally clamping that I didn't have enough clamps around the back of the body and I had some pretty big seperation in those areas so I shoved some glue down in them with a business card and clamped those areas down, I have no idea if this is going to work or not, I may have just screwed this whole body up. I guess we will see tomorrow when I un clamp it. 

Edited by 2.5itim
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Wow really? It's the same amount as I used last time and that one ended up just fine but I can tell this one isn't looking anywhere near as that one did, the top wood was a lot softer than this ash so I guess that could have something to do with it.

Crap I guess I'm gonna need to go buy more clamps. 

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Ideally there needs to be a caul platen too. They help to distribute the clamping pressure more evenly around the mating surfaces. F-clamps develop something like a quarter of a ton just just over one. You need a few hundred PSI to get ideal clamping pressure. Luis is on the money with doubling the clamps. The deeper-throated clamps are more prone to bearing pressure loss from movement in the frame. The (long) one on the top right is perfect; those around the perimeter with a thick plywood caul both sides is what you might call a gold standard I guess.

I was trying to find an old layup of mine that I did. I didn't use cauls so I had to use about thirty clamps. Crazy stuff.

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Thank you guys!  I Will see how this one looks after I get it out of the clamps and routed to shape, fingers crossed that I don't have any gaps!! 

I think that before I glue any more up I am going to make up a clamping jig out of steel. In my head I think it will work, it would essentially be a big box that I can put the body in and disperse most of the pressure using bottle jacks or car scissor jacks and then use clamps where needed. I just need to go buy a bunch of angle iron. 

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Clamp pressure spreads out in a roughly 45 degree cone of force so thick cauls also will help spread the pressure of fewer clamps.

Also going forward you might want to do yourself a favor and set up straight guides for routing your wiring channels. Pushing wires through a straight channel is sooo much easier than pushing them around corners or through big curves. Especially if the walls are not nice and smooth.

SR

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Scott, I thought about that. The only reason I went the curved route was because the way the cavities are gonna be laid out if I did a straight shot to them the wiring channel would be running right thru where my pickup rings will be screwed in so I was trying to avoid issues there. 

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40 minutes ago, 2.5itim said:

Scott, I thought about that. The only reason I went the curved route was because the way the cavities are gonna be laid out if I did a straight shot to them the wiring channel would be running right thru where my pickup rings will be screwed in so I was trying to avoid issues there. 

You could always leave something in the channel to drag them through with during the glue up. A zip tie or 50lb. test fishing line would work.

I didn't pay any attention to this on one of my first builds and nearly didn't get it wired. I invented some new cuss words and was about to the point of ripping the damn top off before I got the wires pushed through.:blush 'Twas a lesson I've never forgotten.

SR

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I chamfered the back of the body tonight (mental note taken, cut a 1/4" chamfer not a 1/2" next time!) I really like the chamfer instead of the rounded over I did on the other body, I just think that it's to big. 

The part that isn't chamfered I am gonna use a chisel to tie it in. I couldn't cut there because if I did I wouldn't have enough thickness to mount my input jack.  

The main reason for posting this picture is, I really really should have used cauls, my clamps left pretty bad indentions in the walnut, do y'all know of any way to fill these up? Maybe some kind of glue/sawdust mixture? I was thinking I could just plane the body down until they are gone but I really can't lose any thickness or else I risk my pu cavities coming thru the back side. 

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Thanks Andrew, I'll see if I can steam the rest of this dent out. I never would have thought of that. 

Haha @sirspens it's sitting on my table saw, I think it's an optical illusion because I held my camera crooked to take a picture of the body because it was sitting at an angle.  

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Went and picked up my neck woods yesterday, got them cut on the table saw, now just waiting for my buddy to get back from his weekend lake trip to use his planer. 

It almost killed me to cut this padouk board up because it really would have been a great candidate for a body blank but oh well, I will even have enough left over for about 3-4 more necks if I plan right. 

The laminates will be padouk/walnut/padouk with a all walnut headstock. 

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Edited by 2.5itim
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Before you edited, you noted that you might break the scarf up with Ash or Maple. Well, Maple is fine. Ash, not so sure. It's not a common neck wood, however I am not entirely sure as to why. Well, maybe one reason which is kind of weird and largely historical observation.

Back when PG was young (and this were all fields!) there were far fewer sources of information online. Those that did exist seemed to impress themselves as gospel, right or wrong. A lot of people quoted that Ash is "not a good" neck wood citing that Warmoth didn't/don't offer it as an option for necks. That's partially sense-based in that recommending woods that manufacturers DO use speaks for itself. I'd prefer to have solid reasons as to why not to use Ash rather than vague inferences.

So anyway. A neat little package of t'internet guitar builder historical observation for you there. I'd lean towards Maple in preference to Ash, however I don't know of any reasons offhand to rule it out using anything other than anecdotal info.

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34 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

 Aesthetically I think darker woods would suit the existing colour combination in that event anyway.

Pros, I completely agree with this! That is actually why I edited it and took that question out. I held up a piece of maple that I have laying around next to the walnut and padouk and it just looked way out of place. I think that leaving it without a laminate in the neck is the best option here. I arranged the body, neck pieces and headstock out like it would be on the guitar and I really liked how the headstock and body were the same and then the padouk broke it up in the middle. I really think I will be happy with it this way! 

That is quite a good observation on the ash, i have actually seen that a lot while researching certain things, mostly over at places such as tdpri, not saying anything bad at all, there is some good stuff over there but it seems like a lot of "well Leo would have never done that!" While no he probably wouldn't have, is there any certain reason why he wouldn't have? 

On something that I would like to use on an instrument Im not going to Guinea pig it but I wouldn't mind making up some test pieces someday  

 

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