Komodo's Metal Tele

[komodo]

Do you mean the lack of shank in the collet? That's my starter bit to get the first few routes in with the  bearing on the template. I've got a longer one in the other router (not seen) that I finish up with.  I had the short bit extended it out a LITTLE farther with my pup template to get just a tad deeper til I could transition the the longer bit. One of the last trem routes on the backside - at the back of the block, gets down to almost 1-9/16 (40mm!). 

[Prostheta]

Yeah, there's a fair amount showing. Some routers - especially those with a little runout or single locking collets - cause havoc with longer bits with a lot of shank showing. Palm routers are awful for that. I like that bit....I could do with a shorter milling bit for the same task. Great for cavity cover recesses and transferring the first cut from the template to the workpiece.

[komodo]

More.

Instead of two templates, I had a wide router bit with an undersized bearing that was great for cavity cover ledges but I can’t find it. Otherwise it’s moving right along.

Had to take a break and give some attention to my lovely girlfriend. 

[ScottR]

Your girlfriend is reflecting a hose that looks like a neon light.

And she's drooling.

SR

[Prostheta]

I could come up with some far more salacious comments, Scott.

[komodo]

The best part is my lovely wife Robin gave me my girlfriend. She thought she would soften the blow of turning 50, but mostly it was a thinly disguised blocking maneuver to avoid a motorcycle.

[ScottR]

6 hours ago, Prostheta said:

I could come up with some far more salacious comments, Scott.

Some of those crossed my mind....but a man does not insult another man's girlfriend.

SR

[komodo]

And so now, I'm at the point where I need to solidify what I'm going to do for finishing. Relicing parts is one thing . . .but doing a nice finish and then destroying it is another. I'm sure of some things: 
-My goal was to have this dug up from a barn kinda look, Including "vintagy" parts like the witch hat knobs, the oxblood Tele switch knob, and crusty PAF covers.
-I've finished white limba before and it can be pretty stark without some kind of amber tint. I'll probably go with some thin coats of amber tint nitro.
-I'd like to pull off some heavy crazing. From my digging it seems like several extreme freeze / thaw cycles are in order. I'm thinking heat gun and electronics freeze spray would do the trick. I'll need a test piece to try it out first. I do have a chest freezer and since it's only the body it will fit. Hmmmm

The little voice in my head keeps telling me I should really build a neck for this, but that Carvin neck is really sweet. I'm not sure what i would build that would be different unless it was a solid rosewood or coco neck. 

[komodo]

Minor progress. I broke all of the edges.

[komodo]

Work is slow today, considering final wiring.

I'm thinking two volumes, no tone, and possibly two mini toggles for coil splits on each pup. 

[Prostheta]

What pickups are you using again? I've always found dedicated humbuckers to be somewhat bland when forced to pretend they are singles, and humbuckers designed to be split into single make disappointing humbuckers. I've always liked the "semi coil tap" where a coil is dialled out of humbucker either by a switched volume or a tone pot. The all or nothing approach seems a little stark and less characterful whilst dialling in a medium has more funtimes associated....have you tried this proposed combination out yet? I think it's good to test the waters with any wiring combo just to see if it meshes. I've done a switched dual semi coil tap circuit (I think it works, bear with me) however I haven't yet tried it "hands on" yet. It's a bit whacky for me as it stands....! Having it on a single tone pot is nice, however I've not tried it on both buckers at once as an option.....

[Prostheta]

On 7/9/2018 at 9:00 PM, komodo said:

And so now, I'm at the point where I need to solidify what I'm going to do for finishing. Relicing parts is one thing . . .but doing a nice finish and then destroying it is another. I'm sure of some things: 
-My goal was to have this dug up from a barn kinda look, Including "vintagy" parts like the witch hat knobs, the oxblood Tele switch knob, and crusty PAF covers.
-I've finished white limba before and it can be pretty stark without some kind of amber tint. I'll probably go with some thin coats of amber tint nitro.
-I'd like to pull off some heavy crazing. From my digging it seems like several extreme freeze / thaw cycles are in order. I'm thinking heat gun and electronics freeze spray would do the trick. I'll need a test piece to try it out first. I do have a chest freezer and since it's only the body it will fit. Hmmmm

The little voice in my head keeps telling me I should really build a neck for this, but that Carvin neck is really sweet. I'm not sure what i would build that would be different unless it was a solid rosewood or coco neck. 

 

I guess that you could oxidise the wood (if that's the correct term) using an iron(iii) acetate solution. Not all woods react the same since this is reliant on tannic acid in the wood. You can add tannin by "painting" the wood with a strong black tea and then iron(iii) acetate. White Oak, Mahoganies, Cherry and Walnut are excellent candidates however I'm really not sure about Korina. I don't recall many specifically-Korina relics.

You can always try a test piece to see how chilling and thermally-shocking the wood crazes it. This guy does some inspiring relic work:

 

 

 

[komodo]

I've done the iron (rust) method before on several things including a bathroom sink cabinet of oak. It's basically an ebonizing process that works REALLY good. Instead of a pigment covering the wood, it just changes the woods color and keeps all the grain intact. It made the oak look like a dark rosewood. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to use either amber tinted lacquer or maybe a honey iced tea like look not unlike the one you posted above.

OOH you did remind me of the ammonia fuming technique that makes oak look old and kind of antique. I wonder what it would do to limba? LET'S FIND OUT!

 

BTW - everything you ever wanted to know about Limba:
https://www.prota4u.org/database/protav8.asp?g=pe&p=Terminalia+superba+Engl.+&+Diels

If you go back up to the index there is that much info about nearly every wood you can think of. It can be very useful.

[Prostheta]

Nice link, thanks!

Careful with that ammonia though....you don't want to gas yourself. My thoughts were about the grey oxidised/weathered look that you get on exposed wood that has been sweated on. Iron(III) acetate should pull that off, however it should be tested of course. I have a really old mix of that which turns Pine a dark grey which is awesome. Very tempted to use that on a relic job one day.

[komodo]

I tuned up my bandsaw and put on my resaw blade that I don’t believe I’ve ever used before. Using the Krieg single point fence made resawing a breeze.

Then I pressed a piece of foamcore into the cavities and cut with an Xacto knife to get a perfect template for the covers.  This is a quick and efficient way to make these when you don’t have a set of templates premade.

You can see the outside surface of the piece I used is older and colored different from the fresh cut body. Once I start sanding it’ll all blend. The covers were left slightly tall so I can sand them flush to fit.

[komodo]

On 7/13/2018 at 5:11 PM, Prostheta said:

What pickups are you using again? I've always found dedicated humbuckers to be somewhat bland when forced to pretend they are singles, and humbuckers designed to be split into single make disappointing humbuckers. I've always liked the "semi coil tap" where a coil is dialled out of humbucker either by a switched volume or a tone pot. The all or nothing approach seems a little stark and less characterful whilst dialling in a medium has more funtimes associated....have you tried this proposed combination out yet? I think it's good to test the waters with any wiring combo just to see if it meshes. I've done a switched dual semi coil tap circuit (I think it works, bear with me) however I haven't yet tried it "hands on" yet. It's a bit whacky for me as it stands....! Having it on a single tone pot is nice, however I've not tried it on both buckers at once as an option.....

I missed this yesterday. The neck is a Seymour Duncan APH2s (Slash - Appetite for Destruction era Alnico 2). Not an insane Slash fanboy, but they are reputed to "sound better" than the SD Alnico 2. No extra $ was spent on the name so I don't care.

I never said what the bridge pup was, but wondered if anyone could tell by the oddball double screw covers. We may as well spill it now as it's the main voice of this axe. Picture in your head the opening power chord of Whitesnake - Still of the Night. John Syke's Les Paul loaded with Gibson Dirty Fingers. I've got one that was sitting around since the 80s and I've never had anything to use it with until now.  It's only got two leads so I can't split or tap, but I could split the neck. I'll see if I can't plan in real estate for a switch if I change that pickup to something more modern that would split.

[Prostheta]

Sounds like a good choice for the neck. I wanted to fit a pair of those into the SG/RG hybrid but settled for IronGear "teSla Sharks" which are a copy. They might be good, they might not. An AlNiCo-II pickup run a little hotter is a nice idea whether it's a name model, the APH-II or whatever. I appreciate the touch sensitivity they have, and I think a lot of the character comes from the potting, or relative lack thereof. I'd be interested in hearing how they sound to you.

So you're aiming for a beyond-hot ceramic pickup in the bridge? I get the impression that they would be even more horrible to attempt splitting! I can't think of a direct alternative to the Dirty Fingers other than say, an SD Invader or maybe a Bareknuckle WarPig? If you talk to some winders then you might be able to get a splittable pickup with characteristics of both worlds.

[komodo]

The original Dirty Fingers can't split. And yea it is super hot, but the response is not like a typical ceramic. It has a three ceramic mag configuration and the sound is not as bitey, more organic and mid-rangey than typical high gain ceramics.

My fallback if this one doesn't work out is a Duncan SH-11 Custom Custom, hot A2 at 14k.

[Prostheta]

Magnet types are maybe less meaningful if you build in accordance with their characteristics. Sounds to me like the DF was very nicely-made around the way ceramics act that AlNiCo doesn't. My favourite bridge is a TB-11 Custom Custom as well. Really kicking pickup but lovely and "real".

[komodo]

Well I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to let go of the nagging “you should really make a neck for this” voice in my head.

The Carvin neck is killer, maybe i’ll try it on my strat or sell it off, IDK.

Weighing my options, I’ve got more Limba which would be a good neck through, I’ve got a half finished laminated maple neck, but the headstock is a short 3+3 modern thing. 

A long time ago, I was smitten by the Ibanez Voyager that Reb Beach in Winger played and swore I would build one. It had an amazing Koa body (fav wood) and a solid Pau Ferro neck. The idea of a solid Pau Ferro stuck with me and I just happen to have a wicked quartersawn neck sized piece that was destined for this. So, as Johan Segborn says . . . “Let’s go!”

 

[Prostheta]

Are you getting to it yet?

[komodo]

I am! We've been mostly consumed with getting the boy moved into college, and I redid the Tolex on the new amp head. But I did manage to route an ugly channel for the truss. Alas, I didn't take pics.

Working Pau Ferro is pretty nice as far as sanding and chisels, but routing was another story. I had immediate smoking from friction that didn't go away no matter how low I set the router's rpm at. At one point I actually had small EMBERS coming out of the channel. It would've been much cleaner if I had a table setup with a fence,. but I did it with my big router and an edge guide.  It pulled away once or twice in the first cuts and made an ugly channel but it's serviceable and will be covered by the fingerboard. I'll glue the headstock "ears" on this week and get the neck profile rough cut. 

Also, I did the massively long drill bit trick to connect all the cavities. Next up is finishing the cavity covers, start filling and sanding, finish the neck (might need new fingerboard, as this one isn't perfect like I thought. The weather is getting good for spraying, so I will concentrate on the body. 

In the meantime (HA!) I'm doing some tube rolling on the new amp, and finishing up that mandolin I was rebuilding. Just need to re-glue the neck and do something to the finish. Once this guitar is alive I will get back to the RS tremolo and se if I can't get a working model setup to check it's geometry and action.

[Prostheta]

Yeah, I've had some brown-trouser moments when sending embers up into the high-speed high-volume air extraction full of oxygen and fuel. Mmmm. Splosive.

[komodo]

Luckily I was outside on my Workmate! It absolutely would have been a problem with my cyclone collector.

[komodo]

Slow but sure. I got some new dragon files, cut a new FB, did a rough radius on that, started rough shaping a volute and rough cut the headstock shape. In the next day or two I will install truss and glue on FB, cut neck width and finish shaping it. As hard as Pau Ferro can be to work, it’s wuickly becoming my favorite neckwood. I decided to basically clone the Carvin neck because it’s pretty much perfect for this build. The only difference is the Carvin is 25.5” and the Pau Ferro is 25”.

Bodywise, I still need to sand the control playes to thickness, drill and counter screw holes, and cut the jack hole. Finish sand and then I’ll start finishing. Weather is telling me it’s time si I need to hurry up!

Other news: finally finished the mandolin and I’m learning every rock song that uses mandolin starting with Heart - Dream of the Archer off of Little Queen.