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Finished! Alembicesque - No 1 of Brace (2) of Six String Electrics


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48 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

21st? It can be fixed. It should be as well, because the frets will make it look more obvious. You're really sourcing some fine-looking woods, Andy.

No - it's the 5th :).

It sounds like I need to check the 21st too :lol:

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The body carve and shape is pretty much finished.  In the back, I added a scoop at the lower cutout for good upper-fret access and managed to cut a sliver of the camphor laurel for the control cover:

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And yes - needing new glasses or not, the string bar IS supposed to be on a slant  :D

The fretboard's not glued yet but the fretmarker positions are better (don't worry about the 3rd - it is 1mm smaller but is indeed in line with the rest):

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The top is coming out nicely.  With the final gloss coats this is going to look really nice :)

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And Tim's sent me the profile measurements of his favourite player:

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Every guitar has its own feel, but my aim is to try to get in familiar territory for Tim's first playing experience.

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28 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Are those P-90s I see there Andy?

SR

Yes - just the covers in this shot. 

Tim has had a custom builder make him up a set of stacked P90 humbuckers.  It will be interesting how they work out as sometimes you end up with the worst of two worlds rather than the best of two worlds :rolleyes: 

The only challenge from a building point of view was that they are very, very deep...in a body that's relatively slim.  Here's how much deeper they are than the covers

_MG_2795.thumb.JPG.1aa52a29747171b18a153cb670ca242e.JPG 

I'll probably end up mounting them on bass-type foam cushions rather than springs.  It's a very fancy Schaller pre-amp / piezo magnetic mixer too.  This fancy circuit board is actually hidden in the control chamber:

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Seems a bit of a waste.  Glass control chamber cover and internal lights, do you think? :lol:

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52 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

 

Do you think that you can sell him on this idea....? :wOOt

Well....I've had an even BETTER idea.  How about a glass cover at the front !  And a mirror stuck to the inside of the back cover.  That way the light from the LED's would not only illuminate the Flagship, but also bounce off the mirror and shine a beam onto the music stand.  Great for dark venues when you're trying out new songs.

It won't take me 5 minutes to rout through to the top.  I'll just get the Bosch out now.  I'm so excited.  And Tim will be sooooooooooooo surprised - I just LOVE these builds :hyper

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I keep getting mixed up on this- so- the other guitar is getting the snakewood fingerboard right? Is this the figured ebony one then? Looking good-did the figure stay any or did it sand out a bit?

. are you going to flood/fill that top with something or leave it be and "breath". i think you said this was a bit swiss cheese or maybe it was the other top. I have some wood like this- and wondering what I will fill with. watching with interest

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Hi, @Mr Natural 

I know - I should go back to building one at a time :)

Yes - this one has the ebony fretboard.

I've filled the fissures - the main fill with epoxy mixed with wood dust, and the smaller dints by slurrying with tru-oil.  Still a few dints and hollows left but it's almost ready for the gloss coat.  The figuring is great already but will really pop out once I've put the gloss on!

 

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On 11/10/2017 at 9:52 PM, Andyjr1515 said:

Hi, @Mr Natural 

  The figuring is great already but will really pop out once I've put the gloss on!

 

Of course, I'm talking about the wrong figuring, @Mr Natural :rolleyes:

Yes - the figuring on the ebony is still there just as strong.  On the edge of the board you can actually see the waves in the grain that are causing it.  Once it has been fine sanded and treated, it should stillbe quite visible :)

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15 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Gloss? I think a little raw oil would be perfect. At least, if you have any scrap pieces then try each possibility....

Once more I may have confused the issue by answering the wrong question above :rolleyes:

For clarity, the fretboard will be oiled and buffed (likewise the neck), but for the body I'm going for gloss on this one.  The wet-look versus dry look is like chalk and cheese when you see it in the flesh.

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In my personal experience, I've found that Ebony is great as-is. At least, after sanding and buffing up to as high a grit as possible. My 7-string has an "Indian" Ebony board which I think was taken somewhere in the region of 8000 grit, and from there it exhibits a deeper glassy look. Oil seems to flatten it out with Ebony. Unfinished, it is pretty difficult to maintain though. The Indian Ebony I used was a mix of brown streaks in black, which gave it the depth of Tiger's Eye stone. Very attractive. I'm unsure whether this can be brought out in figured Ebony, however I'm sure it would be spectacular if it could. "Ebony under ice" springs to mind....

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9 hours ago, Prostheta said:

In my personal experience, I've found that Ebony is great as-is. At least, after sanding and buffing up to as high a grit as possible. My 7-string has an "Indian" Ebony board which I think was taken somewhere in the region of 8000 grit, and from there it exhibits a deeper glassy look. Oil seems to flatten it out with Ebony. Unfinished, it is pretty difficult to maintain though. The Indian Ebony I used was a mix of brown streaks in black, which gave it the depth of Tiger's Eye stone. Very attractive. I'm unsure whether this can be brought out in figured Ebony, however I'm sure it would be spectacular if it could. "Ebony under ice" springs to mind....

I think you are right - I do something similar and certainly from a functional and visual point of view it needs nothing else.  I do, though, generally add a single thin wipe of oil which I immediately buff off in what is probably a misguided and unnecessary last step :lol:

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I'm stuck in two minds as to what might happen to be honest. Figured Maple always pops more with oil; the chatoyancy and movement increases. Ebony is so tight-grained - even compared to Maples - that I'm unsure if oil will do anything other that provide a fine surface film. Ebony seems to almost seal itself when polished up. Definitely one to test.

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I've agreed with Tim the headstock shape.  He wants 3 a side and staight runs.  I've tried to go halfway between the long thin Ibanez SR bass approach and the short, triangular Wolfgang EVH/Seagull electric and acoustic approaches.  I've also managed to cut another sliver of the camphor laurel off an offcut as the headplate:

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The plate at the nose will be sanded through to reveal the laminates beneath.

While doing that, I've been continuing to creep up on the neck heel.  I'm still doing this more by feel than anything else.  To keep the fairly modest lower horn cutaway of the front view, but to get better access to the top frets I'm now deepening the rear cutout carves into the neck itself.  Because this takes away wood where the side of your hand would normally hit the body, it makes a BIG difference to the feel:

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Still got to reduce the neck depth taper for the upper frets and get rid of the lumps, bumps and sharp edges, but it's starting to get there.

At the other end of the neck, the headstock wings are just being glued as I type :)

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32 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I'm now deepening the rear cutout carves into the neck itself.  Because this takes away wood where the side of your hand would normally hit the body, it makes a BIG difference to the feel:

Agreed. And it makes for a very nice organic transition. Good stuff Andy!

SR

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