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That's absolutely excellent! I also happen to use that exact same Pentel protractor as well for quick jobs. :thumb:

The binding work looks great. I also tend to use only acetone when binding. It's a bit difficult for finer pieces as it gets a bit squishy, but overall I find it's secure and very simple to do. I should perhaps buy some of those pipettes too....

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Thank you guys, that's nice to read. :)

Had some concerns about the binding because of the bend. But it worked out without any problems. Using a heat gun the binding gets easily formable. I've first formed the binding all around the body without any acetone and fixed it with masking tape every 5cm or so. Then I went around bit by bit dripping just a bit of aceton between the binding and the wood with the pipette, kept it pressed a few seconds with my fingers (use gloves!) and then fixed it with additional masking tape.

 

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Hey guys, the old weathered wood was just the template and in fact nothing else than a coated piece of MDF. ;)

A thing I've missed in my last update... did you notice that the bridge humbucker is mounted frameless and directly to the top?

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I did the routing "underground" to the top with a router of 35mm in diameter. This was really a scary job... one wrong movement and the top would have been destroyed. Looking back this was really a reckless job, so next time i will route the cavity before glueing on the top... :rolleyes:

As next the electronics cavity got a fold and a matched cover made of a leftover piece of the body:

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Then the body's backside got shaped. I liked the idea of a sharp edged top with a soft shaped ergonomic backside. What do you think?

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For me this worked out pretty well. The guitar sits very comfortably against my body, it's a very pleasant feeling.

While doing the shaping I was a bit afraid to expose the inner chambering. But the plan took off or better to say the luck was on my side. ;)
By the way, the thickest part of the body is merely 37mm, in the center region and the electronics cavity (such that it just takes a push-pull pot).

 

 

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Turn, turn, turn... it was time to do some pickup winding. For that job I use an old sewing machine housed in plywood box. The rotations are counted with a bicycle speedometer (setup such that 1 turn equals 1 meter).

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Potted the single coil in front simply with CA glue. Potting of the humbucker coils outstanding on this photo:

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Potted, mounted and secured with tape:

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... and chrome covered:

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T-Style Neck single coil:
- AWG42
- AlNiCo5
- 9000 windings ~ 6.3kOhm

Bridge humbucker:
- AWG42
-AlNiCo5
- 5700/4300 windings ~ 4.5/3.4kOhm
- the stronger coil is used for the SC split

 

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Then I've designed and made a pickguard and trussrod cover out of a aluminium sheet (1.5mm). Brought it into shape with a fretsaw, files and sandpaper. Lastly I've created longitudinal sanding marks on it:

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Time to bring together all the parts and to verify if everything fits together as required (it did :hyper):

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On 11.10.2017 at 6:49 PM, eubie said:

... and can't wait to see some finish on it.

Ready to go! :thumb:

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Thank you guys. I'm happy that you like it. It means a lot to me! :thumb:

11 hours ago, gpcustomguitars said:

Excellent work, nice and clean! I like that you're including skills other than only woodworking, Your pickguard looks great, any more pics of it and it's making?

No sorry, but there will follow a few pics of the finished guitar. The pg design started with a rough hand drawing, then I've refined it in detail on my computer with inkscape. I've printed out this drawing and glued it to the aluminium sheet. Then roughly cut out the pickguard with a fretsaw, filed and sanded it to the final shape. The recess for the neck pickup was done by drilling two holes of 14mm diameter with a step drill. Then again sawing, filing and sanding to bring the recess into final shape. Then the sanding marks were done as shown above with 180 grid. Finally the pickguard was lacquered with a thin coat of 2K PUR.

Let's do the finish....

...started with porefilling the mahagoni parts. This time I tried it with 2K epoxi:

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Sanding back the epoxi was a terrible job. Especially sanding at the end grain felt like a never ending story. Next time I would use pumice & shellac or wood paste again.

A next I gave the top and headstock veneer an amberish colore tone mixing different waterbased stains (Clou "yellow R" and "oak medium"). In fact I wanted to achieve just an enhancement of the natural color of the pear wood. I was happy with that ... however, I've played around too long with the stain and probably used to much water. As you can see at the armrest, the channels routed at the backside of the top became visible :angry: Damn, close to tears... have i just destroyed my guitar?

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Decided that the only solution is to sand off the stain as good as possible and to renew it in a quick manner, using water just as little as possible. The luck was on my side again... <_<:thumb:

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I do see the channels in that top picture. It looks like you did a great job of getting them out.  One of the great life lessons of woodworking is that sometimes you have to just accept that something didn't go as planned, and then either accept how it turned out, or go back and redo it.  The wood doesn't care about my whining.

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Yes, mistakes happen ... and they even have advantages as long we learn from doing them. Heard from several professional builders that mistakes happen even after years. But they know exactely how to fix them or to find elegant work arounds. ;)

Here you can see my open air spray booth... extraction, heating, and lighting provided by 100% renewable energies. ;)

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I'm using 2K polyurethane for this guitar.... started with a primer filler:

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Intermediate sanding after the base coat.... wah, what the heck? As I've started sanding the stripes came up again ... :huh:

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... however, after a few minutes of sanding the stripes became history:

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Then I've sprayed the top with highly diluted and yellow tinted clear lacquer:

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Wow, they're really haunting you! Quite likely it is to do with the solvents in the dye and finish. They probably migrate out through the wood differently near the thinner chambered areas, leaving a temporary shadow. Also, the wood may be swelling slightly differently around the chambering, so you should probably leave the workpiece a few days when sanding the finish level; flattening it in its slightly swollen state might again reveal the chambering when the vapours offgas.

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12 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Wow, they're really haunting you! Quite likely it is to do with the solvents in the dye and finish. They probably migrate out through the wood differently near the thinner chambered areas, leaving a temporary shadow. Also, the wood may be swelling slightly differently around the chambering, so you should probably leave the workpiece a few days when sanding the finish level; flattening it in its slightly swollen state might again reveal the chambering when the vapours offgas.

Yes, that was also my presumption. I guess it predominantely came from the waterbased stain. The wood above the channels just got too thin, such that each drip of water or which solvent ever lead to a swelling of the wood. However, there were a few days between spraying and sanding the primer coat (this documentary is lagging...). And by now it seems that I've won this battle. ;)

A long story short... in total 3 further coats of 2K lacquer have been applied... and, lacquering means in truth: the fun part of spraying takes about seconds and the most time you are cleaning your spray gun or you are sanding. :unsure:

To make the labourious part of sanding faster and easier I've found out what works pretty well for me: dry sanding starting with 3M soft pads (medium), Mirka Abranet 400 & 600, and Mirka Abralon 800, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000. For the large surfaces like the front and the back I use the Mirka pads with my random orbital sander, the rest is done by hand. This stuff is absolutely worth its money and i can recommend them unconditionally (no, I'm not sponsored ;) ).

I think these photos were take at a stage of 3000 or 4000:

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For sanding in between the frets I've made these wedges laminated with the 3m soft pads:

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Polishing with "Rotweiss 1100" paste applied with a polishing pad attached to the random orbital sander for the larger surfaces again. The remaining parts were polished by hand with a microfiber cloth, which worked out much easier and faster I had expected:

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