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awilcox

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Everything posted by awilcox

  1. This is my Flying V Supreme. It is my 4th guitar project and likely my last for a while. This one has a fast thin feeling neck that just plays great. The specs are: One piece flamed maple neck Mahogany body Quilt Maple Top and Headstock Laminate Flamed maple back and cavity cover Ebony Fingerboard Gold Pearl dot inlays and matching truss rod cover Unbleached bone nut Abalone side dots Gold fretwire - 6105 Abalone Pearl "W" Headstock inlay Overwound Golden Age Pickups 1 vol, 1 Tone, 3 way switch Recessed output jack placed near the straplock Gotoh Bridge String thru Ping Tuners Full binding on neck, headstock and body - front and back Charcoal finish (black dye) Nitrocelluse Lacquer A couple of more pictures: Back Body Back Neck Full Shot 2 Full Shot 3 Full Shot 4 Full Shot 5 Body Link to build thread: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...t=0&start=0
  2. I finished up the Flying V build on the weekend. I think that I am getting there with my skills. This one is a great player - it has one of those necks that feels just perfect (to my hands anyway). Sounds great too. I have had a few offers on this one but I don't think I can part with it. Body Shot Headstock Back Back Body Back Neck
  3. I really like all of the entires this month, all top notch looking stuff. I am just proud that I can build something that can stand beside these guitars and actually get a few votes. But I gotta comment on the ESPERANZA too. I mean a 1 piece hollow body - that is really something - I mean hollowing it out through the F-holes. I really like the idea, the inlay and the shape - especially the reccessing of the tailpiece and ferrules, nice touch.
  4. Drak, thanks for the information - I will try your method if I ever run into this again, but hopefully I won't. I wasn't using anymore water than usual and I was doing my best to keep it out of the holes. I think the problem was that this guitar had already been sanded and buffed once, and I had already cleaned up all of the holes of overspray and rounded the lacquer down around the holes to avoid chipping. But I wasn't happy with the top (a few deep scratches here and there) so I started over again with the 2400 micromesh working my way up again, but now the guitar was smooth and the edges of all of the holes rounded over so I think the water tended to seep into the holes easier.
  5. I tried the method above and it worked fine. Under close inspection with a bright light, you can still see a hint of the cracks (because the lacquer did not seep all the way down into the crack - this could have been remedied by first widening the cracks with a knife) - but it is good enough that it will never be noticed by anyone but me - and that is only because I know they arew there.
  6. Well I finally got these two guitars buffed out and assembled. I entered the Double Cut in the GOTM this month. Now I can start at buffing out the flyng V! Single Cut Front Double Cut Front Double Cut Headstock Double Cut Body Single Cut Body Single Cut Back Double Cut Back Double cut no flash Single cut no flash
  7. Thanks for the replies. I found a tutorial on fixing cracked laquer on frets.com. Basically, as thegarehanman stated - drop fill the cracks - wait for the lacquer to cure - scrape level with a razor blade - sand and buff. Like I said, this guitar has been a curse (lessons learned): 1- When I shot the burst, a big drop of colored lacquer spit out of the air hole in the top of the gun and landed right in the middle of the guitar (this taught me to put a paper towel over the lacquer cup, secured by and elastic, to catch the lacquer that spit out of the airhole from back pressure). I had to sand the top off, re-dye, seal, shoot the burst again. 2- Then when I was buffing using a sponge pad on my drill, I pushed a little too hard when buffing the neck and the pad fetched up throwing the drill which hit the horn and took a big lacquer chip out, I had to drop fill that and fix it (this taught me to hold the drill tighter). 3- Then when I buffed the top I noticed big sanding scratches in it here and there where I must have not spent enough time with successive grits, I had to start over and go through all 9 grits of micromesh again (this taught me to make sure I spend enough time with each grit). 4- Then the lacquer started cracking around the bridge pin holes and control pot holes, which is the topic of this thread (and this taught me to be very careful with the water when wetsanding around holes). Good lessons to learn as each mistake adds about another 1-2 weeks waiting for lacquer to cure.
  8. I was wetsanding my recent build with micromesh and I noticed the lacquer starting to crack around the tailpiece holes and the control holes. So I stopped and waited, the cracks got longer and longer, and finally stopped after an hour or so. I must have got some water in the holes, I was being careful beacuase I heard this could happen. This is my 4th time wetsanding a guitar and I was being as careful as I was with the previous 3 which did not crack - oh well, this guitar build has been cursed from the start. Anyway, does anybody have any suggestions on repairing the cracks? It is nitro lacquer, cured for 2 months. I could leave it, but this is my best finish job - I hate to leave it like it is as I was considering trying to sell this guitar. I tried to take a picture, but it looks worse in real:
  9. Here is my entry into the guitar of the month for December. This is the second guitar that I have completed, I call it "The Lure". It is an original design, although I am sure it resembles many other guitars out there. Body - 1-piece mahogany, carved flame maple top Neck - 1-piece mahogany, flamed maple headstock laminate Pearl/Abalone "W" inlay on headstock Pearl truss rod cover Ebony Fretboard - offset mini pearl dot fret-markers Jumbo Fretwire Golden Age Overwound Pickups Gold Hardware 1-vol, 1-tone, 3way switch Nitrocellulose triburst finish Flamed Maple, bound control cavity cover finished to match the top (not sure if I am crazy about this after putting it all together) Another shot of the front - no flash Cut aways Body shot
  10. That is one nice guitar! The thing I like about your guitars is that they are very original.
  11. I really like it! It looks very classy in white too.
  12. I actually got the idea from the Les Paul Supreme - which has the flame maple front and back - but I went with quilt on the top to switch it up. But the back/flame almost looks better and suits the guitar better. My first idea was going to use flame on the front as well and make it a carve top, 3/4" in the middle carved down to 1/4" on the edge, just cause I never saw a carved top V out there - I would like to see somebody do that - but after just completeing two carve tops I wanted to do something flat.
  13. Thanks to the great streak of weather we have had over the last week I got the V all clearcoated (note: I spray in my un-heated shed). I will let this cure for a month or so now while I start finishing off my other current projects. Body Shot Headstock Back Neck Front View
  14. Well, I learned a good lesson on this build - when bandsawing out the rough shape, always leave a little extra wood to straighten things out if the wood moves. I was lucky with my first three neck builds ( one was a maple/oak/maple laminate and the next two were one piece mahogany), they didn't move a bit when cutting. And figuring out how to set up jigs to use the router as a planer to make things flat and shave things down was also a great help.
  15. I agree that the wood would have looked very nice if left natural, especially the neck (the pictures can't do the neck justice, it is a beautiful piece of wood), but I wanted to have a go at staining it and I couldn't talk myself out of it. Actually, this is the first guitar that I have built with a flamed maple neck - but it took me 2 tries to get it right - I wasted the first one. Both neck blanks came from the same place and were adequately dried. The blanks were about 3" x 3.5". With the first neck, I ran it across the joiner to get a flat surface for the fretboard, cut the truss rod channel and then cut it down to 2.25" by taking stock off of one side only. Then when I cut out the side profile, the neck warped both back (negative relief) and sideways (the truss rod channel was no longer straight) - and I had cut it almost to finished size so I could not straighten it without ending up wit a neck that was too thin and too narrow. So back to the wood guy to pick up another blank (and a nicer one too, if that was any consolation). He told me to try to take the stock evenly off of both sides when cutting it down to size width wise, and when cutting out the side profile, leave the neck a little thicker in case it bows backwards - which id did silghtly. Then he told me to wait a week - which I did - to see if the wood moved anymore. I then planed the fretbard surface flat again and planed the back of the neck to the proper thickness (using my router planing jig) and carried on - and it worked out nicely. He told me that there is a lot of internal stresses in flamed maple and whenever you cut a piece to a different size it can warp one way or another due to this. Also, he said the heat generated from cutting it will cause it to warp, so cut slowly with a good sharp lade (but that should be the same with any wood?). But, I didn't think properly dried wood would warp when it was cut? I used a martin U type truss rod in the first neck (which I wasted), and a stewmac dual action rod in the second one (which I used). When I strung up the guitar (before finishing), the neck did bow forward a very little, but still very playable. I did not adjust the truss rod at that stage because I wanted to leave it at its zero point for levelling the frets later. So, I did manage to get a good sturdy usable 1 piece flame maple neck, but it was tricky.
  16. I finally settled on transparent black. I stained last night, sanded back and restained with diluted black tonight. Here is the results. I just need to clean up the binding and then I can start the clearcoating. The headstock http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilco...06/100_1382.jpg The back http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilco...06/100_1379.jpg The neck http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilco...06/100_1378.jpg
  17. I make my necks the Jed Clampet way - start with a block of wood, and cut/carve away evereything that doesn't look like a guitar neck.
  18. Nice looking guitars. What process did you use to finish the top on the tele - as far as type of dye/stain and color?
  19. What method did you use to drill the hole for the jack? Did you clamp the guitar and drill freehand, or put it on a drill press?
  20. Of course I did not HAVE to do dot inlays - and at the time I did not know that you hated them, well now I know - haha. Originally I did a nice split block inlay Gold Pearl/Abalone/White Pearl/Abalone/Gold Pearl. It was my first inlay job and it turned out quite nice, but when I radiused the fret board, the Gold part of the Gold Pearl started to disappear - by the time I was done radiussing and flattening the board the gold pearl part of the inlay looked more like nicotine stained teeth. I now understand that when using gold pearl, you either have to get high quality (gold all the way through) or make sure that the inlay is done in such a way that not much will be taken off when finishing - expensive lesson learned. Anyway, I am not particularly fond of dots myself, but after a botched 10 hour inlay job I wanted to get on with the build, so gold pearl dots it was - took about 20 minutes. This was my original inlay before the radiussing.
  21. Well, I got the guitar completed tonight - well all except for the pickup rings, but I will do that tomorrow night. I was pleasantly surprised when I strung it up and it played great - not a buzz anywhere - and the frets have not been levelled yet or the truss rod has not been touched - and the nut was not custom cut - just an old one I had laying around. So, after I get it finished and set up correctly - it should be wicked. It has a great acoustic sound, lots of sustain and midrange. Anyway, on to the pictures: The Body: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilcox_2006/G4-51.jpg The headstock: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilcox_2006/G4-52.jpg The back of the body: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilcox_2006/G4-55.jpg The neck: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilcox_2006/G4-56.jpg The endview: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilcox_2006/G4-57.jpg Now what color to dot it - trans black - trans red - tiger eye - definately not the trans pink: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h7/Wilcox_2006/G4-41.jpg
  22. That was the same with me - all that they would tell me is there was enough for a 24 fret neck. I have ordered from them multiple times, and 1 neck has always been enough for 2 (22 fret).
  23. I like getting my fretwire from Warmoth - it comes pre bent to about a 12" radius. They sell it "by the neck", but if you have no waste you can usually fret two 22 fret necks with one order. I really like there gold colored fretwire.
  24. Oh, I should add that at $90 it is a tad expensive. I have since been buying kiln dried/aged rough sawn 2"x15"x22" mahogany at the local lumber yard for about $40. It is a little nicer to look at than the primavera and a lot cheaper. Check at your local lumber yard.
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