JayT Posted May 14, 2020 Report Share Posted May 14, 2020 Getting her done, and beautifully at that. Scrolling through your pictures I can't help but notice you're getting way better results than I with mostly the same exact tools...down to the brand name. For sure I'm going to use that improvised router table rather than my death-trap contraption I came up with. Also, nice 515o stool! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted May 15, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2020 hy JayT, from a distance things usually look better I see a lot of imperfections that I need to deal with somehow, but that's what doing a prototype is about isn't it? I was looking for a nice stool to work and play guitar on, might as well get one in style haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted May 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 and again a nice day to work outside, so I created a very, very simple jig to enable me to carve the neck. ( whatever works right?) again I'm impressed with the fast results using the shinto rasp. My first neck carve (zebracaster) came out a bit too thick, so I first used the rasp to thin the neck down by 3mm. Then I put on some lines for my desired assymetric D-profile and started carving away. The transitioning to the headstock with a volute took the most time, but all in all it went pretty quick. Sanded it afterwards up to 180grit. I found it wasn't perfect in thickness between frets 1-9 and 9 onward so I had to do some more sanding to level it out. Yesterday I drilled the holes in the headstock and body for the tuners and trem-studs. I also drilled for the pickup switch, but found that one screwhole doesn't fall into the electronics cavity, yikes! I remember that I first wanted to do a 3-position switch but later changed it to a schaller superswitch..... That will ened some work in the cavity I'm afraid.... My workbench/picknicktable carving jig making some progress: looking like a neck!: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted May 16, 2020 Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 13 minutes ago, 10pizza said: again I'm impressed with the fast results using the shinto rasp Shinto rasps rule! Nice progress 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted May 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 Forgot to mention, before carving I radiused the fretboard with my 10" radius block. Easier to do with a square neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted May 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2020 sooooo, staining did not give a satisfactory result. I dyed it and sanded it back a few times, but not happy with it. So I'l be giving it a solid color. Trying to find a nice shade of blue. This will be the most-sanded guitar in my history 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2020 so, I'm afraid the June competition will be too soon for this build. Weeks went by due to various things: new job, wife crashing the car and fun stuff like that. Got some nice paints to give this one a solid color, but the spraying quality wasn't wat I expected, not a smooth result. So I'll have to do some sanding (again!) before I put on the clear coat. Hope to get the clear coats on this weekend and then finish up the neck with frets, nut and tuners next week before I polish the body. Want to give it enough time to harden so it will be early July before I can install the neck, electronics and hardware. Putting on the primer A few coats of blue, yes baby-blue you can see the result is not smooth at all in places. little drops and orangepeel which I need to get rid off before clearcoating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 24, 2020 Report Share Posted June 24, 2020 1 hour ago, 10pizza said: A few coats of blue, yes baby-blue you can see the result is not smooth at all in places. little drops and orangepeel which I need to get rid off before clearcoating. The babiest blue... the same as my baby's blue eyes... if my baby had blue eyes. Those steps in painting are pretty normal.....at least at my house anyway. Looking good. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted June 25, 2020 Report Share Posted June 25, 2020 Good progress. Nice colour which compliments that very pleasing shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2020 Thanks guys, Got me some nice new sheets of sanding paper so will try to get it smooooooth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2020 Finally got myself a dremel workstation for my Dremel. Had a go with it installing the fretmarkers. (advice: don't drop a 3mm abalone fretmarker on a not so recently vacuumed carpet ) also used some 400grit paper to wetsand the body. It's improved a lot. Still have some spots I'm not happy with, but don't want to sand through the coat, so it will have to do as I have no spare can of this colour. today clearcoating and then I'll let it rest for a week. Next week fret-installation and making a trussrod cover / cavity covers! Dremel fretboard markers sanded body Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2020 Had some unexpected available time yesterday, nice to make some more progress. Last friday I clearcoated the body after wetsanding with 400grit. I'll let it cure for a week before I wetsand the clearcoat in stages starting with 400grt up to 8000. A while back I ordered some headstock decals from Rothko&Frost, real good quality stuff, the decal-edges are almost invisible. Yesterday installed the frets, beveled, flattened and crowned them, only fret-end-dressing left to do. All that work is much more enoyable playing a nice record on the turntable always love the look of a neck after installing the frets, really make the project come alive! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGTay Posted June 28, 2020 Report Share Posted June 28, 2020 5 hours ago, 10pizza said: always love the look of a neck after installing the frets, really make the project come alive! Totally agree, makes a huge difference and feels like good progress is being made. Looking good, liking the layout of the fretboard markers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted July 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2020 Trying to get this done for the July gotm entry but am faced with a small setback, apparently I used the wrong routing template for my neck pickup Will try to route without damaging the finish tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted July 29, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2020 I'm glad I'm considering this build as a prototype, lots of imperfections I need to deal with on the next build of this model. Will take some time to write up my lessons learned and share that with you all. In the mean time, I'm finishing up. First time installing a Gotoh/Wilkinson floating trem. Had to route my neck pocket in an angle of about 1,5 degrees to make the bridge line up better to allow for decent action setup and correction. Also had to do some routing in my cavity to be able to tighten the output jack. After these corrections I was able to set it up and intonate correctly. Also installed the electronics and did a test-drive. Playing and sounding good, allthough I think I will have a final look at the neck thickness. next pics will be in the August GOTM submission thread! yay! Now I only need to find me some cheap white plastic to use as cavity cover and to make a trussrod cover...... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted August 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2020 In the end I ordered some blank pickguard material from Thomann in Germany. Large piece for acceptable cost, allthough still on the expensive side given it's just some plastic... However, I've made the cavity covers and installed them, so now ready for fotoshooting. As my wife is a photographer and I gave her some nice backdrops to shoot against for mothers day it's a nice opportunity to try those out with my guitar! Hoping to get those done over the weekend. As I'll be building another model identical to this one, i've noted my lessons learned for the next one. There were a couple of first times for me in this build, so I did learn a lot! - pre-drill jack-output hole before cutting out the body. It will make it easier to get a recessed output hole that is not perpendicular to the body - use more primer to really smooth things out. In this guitar I fixed some holes with filler, but you can still see them in the end result if you look carefully - use an extra can of colour finish and smooth sand in between every couple of layers. - extra attention to finishing of pickup cavities - As basswood is very easy to dent, be more careful in general and add additional layers of clearcoat Next week I'll start on the next one. I'm preparing as much as possible and I'll take another approach to the routing of all the cavities. I'll do the routing on my body blank and then I'll cut it out and rasp/sand it into shape. I'll be timing all the steps I take to see how much time I actually need to build this one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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