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Andyjr1515

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Everything posted by Andyjr1515

  1. No - it's as it was cut from the tree. I'm looking forward to see what it looks like when it's varnish is on
  2. Progress is a bit stop start at the moment with life's many distractions, but a few steps forward this morning. I got my 'I can't remember where I bought this and it's not perfect but actually does a pretty decent job' purfling/binding router jig out and attacked the top: Both channels done and just waiting a razor-blade trim of the whiskers: For both the purfling and binding I will use my preferred method - a la veneer - of PVA on both surfaces, left to dry and then iron them on with a small travel iron. The purfling didn't need pre-bending and I just went ahead with ironing it on - I'll take photos of the method when I do the binding. The binding is ebony (or was it rocklite?) with a teeny white stripe: I won't actually fit it yet, but I have started pre-bending the binding for the top as the bending pipe was still handy: I've also started sorting the end graft - it will be a simple one, really just joining the top and back binding and thin white lines. I have sawn and chiselled the end graft slot: The top and bottom binding won't be fitted until the back is on and channel routed. Then, all being well, the end graft will tally up both sides something like this:
  3. That tailpiece is very chic ! Lovely job all round
  4. Turning my attention to the bridge plate, I only then remembered that, to minimise the stretch for little arms, I'm joining the neck at the 12th, as with a classical, and not at the 14th that the X-brace pattern is based on. As such, my bridge will be further back than a standard steel string acoustic - and therefore one of the two diagonal braces is in the way! Easily sorted - a hot iron along the length of the brace soon softened the glue enough to remove it: With the bridge plate being where it will be, I don't think I need that extra brace repositioning - I'll just leave it out. Paper template done and I'll use that to cut a slice of maple or similar for the plate in the morning:
  5. And tidied up: Next jobs will be fitting a bridge plate, doing the first rough-fit of the neck angle and pondering on whether to add a side sound hole or not.
  6. Well, not overly sure just how thin to make stuff, but at least this is now ringing out with sub-harmonics and definite bass /treble tap notes from the upper and lower halves respectively. Then the linings relieved where the main cross braces will go that will lock the main strength-critical braces to the sides: Quick check fit, looking for gaps: And the old adage that you can never have too many clamps
  7. After a few days child-minding the said little people, I'm back in the cellar For the bracing, I am using my home-made 25 foot radius dish although, for this build, will dispense with the Go-bar deck - I should be able to get away with just clamps and cauls. The bracing pattern is going to be pretty basic X-bracing with the standard-recommended tightly vertically-grained spruce. I've taken a bit of a guess at how much to scale them down. I started with the X-brace with gluing the cruciform and then sanding the bottom curve on the radius dish: This was glued to the top with a long caul keeping the curved brace bottoms pressed against the radius dish while the glue cured : After that was set, it was time to add the other braces and sound bars. All of the braces will be chiselled to create the nodes, etc, once it has dried overnight: And here it is ready for tomorrow's chisel and tap-tuning work :
  8. You are doing really well with this build. There are some advanced features to the design and you are coping admirably with the challenge of making them happen! Nice job
  9. It looks splendid. And yes - purfling makes all the difference Great job.
  10. After similar trials and tribulations, I now just use a 30mm x 10mm piece of 10mm ply with some 120 emery cloth stuck to one of the faces with double sided tape, and razor cut flush with the bottom face. I can then run that bottom face of the ply along the ledge of the rebate and sand off any imperfections square
  11. I'll be using it for the dinky acoustic if all goes to plan. I'll see if I can document it
  12. That looks good. I think I've mentioned in some of my build threads that after bending to shape, I use a hot iron to actually glue the bindings. I do it like I do my veneering - I apply a decent PVA to all relevant surfaces, let it dry and then use the iron to melt the joint progressively round, holding in position with a leather-gloved hand as it cools. The advantage is that I know it's spot on before I move to the next inch or so and therefore don't suffer from accumulated positional error. And it's quick...
  13. Beautiful wood! I've always used the graphtec set up with magnetic pickups too because I used to find that the blending of the piezo emulations with the standard passive pickups added depth and/or cut-through power to the sound in the mix, especially with the acoustic emulator. That said, the 3 way toggle allows mags only/both together/piezo only and so also used to often play with the piezo emulators only. I ran the hexpander through a Roland Guitar Synthesiser (G35?...may have mis-remembered the model designation). That gave a stunning range of effects, designateable to each individual string.
  14. Personally, I wouldn't. Having fitted this combination in a number of my own guitars I class it in the 'great idea but much too hard' category.
  15. I'm assuming this is the Ghost Acousti-sonic and Hexpander? Are you planning/do you have enough depth to stack them? Makes quite a difference to the real-estate they take up if you can (and I think from memory that it takes a 2-connector multi-wire cable out of the equation).
  16. If the link works, it's this: https://www.amazon.com.au/Winsor-Newton-Calligraphy-Bottle-Indian/dp/B004GS3ZYA/ref=sr_1_13?crid=36UC2WYASYBNM&keywords=Red%2BPermanent%2BCalligraphy%2BInk&qid=1695149180&sprefix=red%2Bpermanent%2Bcalligraphy%2Bink%2Caps%2C232&sr=8-13&th=1 Shout if the link doesn't work and I'll tell you the Amazon.com.au search words to use
  17. No - it's not that. I'll see if I can track down the right stuff on an Australian website.
  18. Trust me, my comments are not flattery...that's a bass that would stop the traffic
  19. That really is coming along very nicely indeed! With stains - and particularly reds - the colour will be massively affected by the underlying wood colour @Akula The best cherry red I managed (for the shade I was looking for) was using red calligraphy ink but that was on mahogany. I used it too with a figured maple top and that was splendid too but a quite different shade - much redder and less of the blue tinge. If you do try it out on some scrap, make sure you go for calligraphy ink - it is designed for documents that need to be legible after hundreds of years...and so won't fade in the same way that some standard pen inks might. Canon cameras are notoriously poor at capturing reds, but these two shots are pretty close to how they came out: The one on mahogany: And on figured maple: To my eye, the mahogany one is blue-tinted red and the maple one is closer to a red red. Then again, there's cherry red and there's cherry red so neither of the above might be anywhere near what you define as cherry red By the way, ref fading of some inks, I see both of these relatively regularly - both were made pre-2016 and both hang on walls next to windows when they are not being played...and they both still pretty much look like this colour-wise.
  20. ...and this has to be one of the best bass-of-the-week winners for years!! Those photos are superb.
  21. Absolutely flippin' excellent. I knew they would love it
  22. The first one looks splendid. Nice touch on No 2 also with that splash - it's those little things that make all the difference. Very cool!
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