pshupe

1957 Futura build I've been building for about 7 years now. It's a hobby I started with my dad where we built a couple of guitars together at his work shop. Since then I have been adding to my own workshop over the years. I have been pulled towards the "golden era" of electric guitars. The late 50's and through the 60's. I started with almost no wood working experience but I have a background in CAD and computers. Here is the link to the build thread here - 1957 Futura build Here is how the guitar looked when finished. It was my first attempt at a vintage nitro cellulose vintage finish, complete with finish checking. Regards Peter.

Yeah - I would go with an allen key adjuster and this is exactly why I use it. The bottom of the adjuster can rest on the bottom of the route. You can ask. I just do not like talking about it. Rickenback necks are notoriously thin, with thick fret boards. The truss rod route was too deep and at finish sanding I noticed a small depression where the wood was so thin it was pressing into the channel. DOAH. Cheers Peter.

Thanks - I almost wish that I kept this one! I guess I could make myself another one or maybe an Explorer?? Cheers Peter.

I kept going with the pick guards and beveled all the edges on both sets. I used my router table and just screwed the pick guards to a 1/4" mdf template and set my 45 degree chamfer bit to the correct height. I set it up with all white and will just pack the black when I ship. It's a pain to switch out the pick guard because the bridge sits on top of it but the two are exactly the same so it should not be an issue. So this is pretty much where I started with this thread. I packed it up and sent it off to the new owner on Thursday. He should have it by tomorrow and I am looking forward to his reaction. So that's it for this one. Thanks for watching. On to the next project! Cheers Peter.

Yeah - I don't generally get too crazy. The stuff isn't that expensive. Also if I leave some chunks I can always cut something out that I need later on. I really just wanted to get the stuff I needed for this build and see if I had a bit left over to test truss rod covers. Cheers Peter.

I cut the plastics tonight and took a quick shot of the control cavity. I picked up some pots, and a cap from TB the other week, so I got those all wired up as well. I cut black and white pick guard, control cavity cover, and jack plates. I've been experimenting with beveling and counter sinking the screw holes in the plastic. I bought a counter sink from Lee Valley and it works really well. I set it up in my drill press and set the stops so all the holes are drilled the same. testing depth stop - Cheers Peter.

I will be cutting both black and white front facing sets. My day job has been busy lately and I will be away for the weekend so I may finish this up completely for next week or so. Luck permitting. It's been a really fun build. I'm laying out pick guards, jack plates, control covers, and might try cutting truss rod covers as well. Here are a couple of layouts to try and maximize my vintage 4 ply bwbw plastic sheet. I have a template already cut from 1/4" MDF for beveling the edges on the pick guard. I have a couple of 90 degree bevel CNC bits but they do not work particularly well and I can cut right through with a straight bit and then just flip over for the white and black front faces. Cheers Peter.

So work has eased up a little bit and I managed to setup the Futura. Drilled for stop tail and bridge, intonated, fret level, and dress etc etc etc. I got the pups in and the electronics and test mounted the pickguard. I will be cutting two new sets of plastics for this guitar. I bought some plastic vintage pick guard material from Dan at Mojoaxe and the stuff is really really nice. I'll do a set in black and a set in white. I was too busy to take pics, mostly because I forgot, but will have that pickguard off and on more than a few times in the next little while so I'll take some more pics. I also want to take some glamour shots once I'm done. This thing is awesome. Thanks to TB for all the help with finish. Cheers Peter.

Well one thing about that type of finish. It's all done in a couple of days. If you mess it up, you didn't waste 5 -6 weeks waiting for it to cure. Cheers Peter.

So the guitar is ready for final assembly. Here are some pics of the body after the freezer. The checking is subtle but it really turned out nicely. I'll take better pics once I get it all setup. I still have to do some fret work and intonation as well as laying out the pups and pickguard. It looks like the best light is overcast grey diffuse lighting. close up of the front - and back - blow up - As I said the checking is quite subtle but in the right lighting conditions you can really see it. I am very happy with the result. It is going to look killer with all the parts and electronics installed. I'm sad that I will not be keeping this guitar. I might have to make another one for me. Cheers Peter.

Level sanded today with my new sander. That's pretty sweet. Variable speed paddle control and very quiet and light. Went straight to 800 grit, then 1000, and 1500. It went very slow at the beginning and picked up as I got more familiar with the sander. back in the spray booth for a few coats - a little bit of setup time and then into the freezer with some friends. Cheers Peter,

Into the booth - looks pretty bland prior to finish and the booth lighting is not good for photos but great for spraying! couple sealer coats of clear and then some vintage amber quite a few coats later - Cheers Peter.

LOL - I was a little punch drunk I think. A little over tired. Not much secret involved really. I use timbermate pore filler which is water based for my non-vintage builds and I get some oil based vintage correct filler from Tom Bartlett for the vintage builds. You nailed it. I cut 2 logos out of the one piece of pearl so I could use one as a mask when spraying the black. But I forgot it at home. I just used a small dental tool scraper with some magnifier glasses and scraped to the edge of the pearl. The black is pretty opaque but you can see the edge of the pearl through it. Also I used black epoxy so if I happen to scrape a little off the pearl, it's not noticeable. It's pretty fool proof but forgetting the inlay cost me some time. The humidifier just has some stain on it, not blood. There is no shortage of blood splattered around the shop, but generally smaller amounts. Cheers Peter.

Alright now that I am sick of sanding I can pore fill. Oh wait, does that involve more sanding?? Damn! Pore filled with my secret recipe. Don't ask, it's Top Secret! I think I am over tired. I pore filled and sanded last night until after mid-night and up at 5:30am to get me to the place that pays for all this fun stuff! Here is a pic with all the pores packed - natural for the korina and tinted for the mahogany. I did both at the same time and had no issues. I thought there may be some cross contamination but the stuff I use dries so quickly by the time I rub off the excess and clean up a bit it's dry enough to start the other colour. I forgot to take a picture after I sanded it all off but it came off very well and the pores look good, so it was one coat for this one. Cheers Peter.

I popped over to a friend's place to spray my head stock. My shop is a mess right now and my gear is all over the place. Ended up not packing my second big G inlay so I had to scrape the paint off the pearl. Damn, I was looking forward to NOT doing that scraping but it wasn't too bad. Man does it take a lot of black until it looks black! Here it is after about 10 coats of black, which looked maroon up until the last one. and here it is all scraped. That looks better. back to my place and lots of finish sanding still to do. My friend's shop has much better lighting and I instantly saw things I didn't even notice in mine. So I tried some mood lighting and went to town with the hand sanding. Cheers Peter.

I almost forgot side dots. Not a big deal but they are a pain to put in after the neck glue up. I had to fill some bubbles in the epoxy so mixed up another batch and let it set up for a couple of days. I used thick pore stuff and it takes quite a while to cure but is nice and liquidy when using. I though it would fill the small gaps I left around the big G inlay. I mark pencil around the inlay so I can see if I am hitting the veneer while filing down the epoxy. This stuff is really hard and a steel file works much quicker than sandpaper but I have to be careful to not ding the veneer. much better - no bubbles or gaps. on to the neck join. I measured the bridge height and it was a littlt too high so I took about 1.5 mm off the bottom of the tenon and the top of the guitar. It went pretty well and looks like I may not even need the shims after all. Then out with the HHG and neck set time. One nice thing about this type of joint there are a lot of surfaces and once you set the neck in that long joint and mate all the surfaces it only requires one clamp and you're done. It's looking like a guitar now! Cheers Peter.

I installed the tuners. I like to have all the holes drilled before I finish the guitar and I find it much easier to drill tuner holes before I glue on the neck. I stick a riser block to the back of the head stock and drill 1/4" holes though with a brad point bit. I used a printout of my head stock template to mark the tuner locations with an awl then I followed that hole with the brad point bit. I have most of the bushing reamers that Stew Mac sells and depending on the tuner choice I select the correct size and put tape on as a depth stop. It makes really clean work of drilling the bushing hole. Then mount the tuners and mark and drill the tuner screws. I press the bushings in about half way so I do not have a hard time getting them out again. Now I can continue with the progress toward glueing on the neck. I have the neck fit pretty good so I will have to cut small shims for underneath the fret board on the sides of the tenon. I should have cut this before I glued the fret board on because I can use the neck as a jig to cut the correct angled shim. I stuck my aluminum sanding beam to the fence of my band saw and cut a couple of shims and sanded them flush. I'll taper them and then I can size them correctly. Cheers Peter.

Yes a straight channel, 1/8" deeper at the heel. I get a lot of my stuff from Tom Bartlett. He just started selling the pre-bowed fret board clamping cauls. link here - Clamping Caul Cheers Peter.

I have heard that about the tensions. Also if you are using a one-way rod, like a vintage instrument may have, you can use a slightly forward bowed caul and clamp. The neck is glued into a slight forward bow so that the truss rod will always have tension. If for whatever reason the neck develops a slight back bow that does not come out with the string tension. The one way rod will not work. Another reason to glue on after carved. Cheers Peter. PS - I always use a double action rod and clamp with my aluminum radius beam on non-vintage builds.

The reason is pretty simple. I use my CNC machine to carve the neck and transition to the head stock and depending on the neck the sholders and tenon are cut as well. I need a flat surface to mount on my CNC machine, so I always carve my neck first then put the board on after. Here is an example of an LP style neck with tenon. I carve everything here at one time. Cheers Peter.

so I took the clamps of the fret board and it looks pretty good. quite a bit of squeeze out but the hide glue was a pretty thick consistency so it didn't get too far. I really like the hide glue for cleanup. Scrapes right off and or a little hot water and it cleans up nicely. before cleanup - after - very nice clean crisp joint. Another thing I like about hide glue. It seems to pull the pieces together to create such a nice joint. Could've been the clamps as well. So let's check that joint now. Now I have added two more surfaces to the mix. There is a little bit of a hump on the one side. Back to the thin strips of sand paper. It's getting there. I'll probably finesse it a little bit more but it's gonna be in about this position. Notice I will have to cut some slivers of mahogany about half way up the body neck joint. Also this is a good time to check bridge height. I like to have about 5/8" or a little more for a ABR bridge. Pretty much dead on. Cheers Peter.

and glue on the fret board. More HHG and I enlisted my wife to give me a hand. I find this hard to do by yourself even though I have indexing pins and fixtures all setup. It would be nice to have a big long clamp that I could just put on the glue index the board and then slide the neck in and clamp with one hand. Or those pneumatic clamps like they have at big manufacturing plants. One can dream. I'll let that sit over night and then I will check on the epoxy for the inlay and think about mounting the neck to the body. I also picked up some parts from Dan at Mojoaxe. I had them delivered to my friend's place in Buffalo and brought them home this afternoon. Great stuff and I had a real issue with USPS but Dan was right on top of it and everything worked out perfectly. If anyone needs vintage stuff either aged or NOS Dan is the guy. Check them out at www.mojoaxe.com Cheers Peter.

Got back from Buffalo late this afternoon and started filing the epoxy. I got it down to the inlay but it seems a little tacky still. So I moved on to finalizing the neck body join before putting on the fret board. I bought this box of thin rolls of sand paper from Lee Valley which are really handy for finessing a neck body joint. I slip a piece of sand paper in the tight side of the joint and then place the neck in and pull the strip through the joint. It sands off the high spots and gets a nice fit. Onto the fret board. I have a stainless steel fret board template that I use for shaping the fret board and I also use it for aligning the fret board with the neck. I clamp the template on the neck and the fret board and drill a hole with a depth stop so I can use a small hardwood dowel to align when I glue on the board. Regards Peter.

Mixing up some epoxy. I'm trying something different. I realize that when I routed the inlay pocket it may be a little too snug to allow the epoxy to flow. I had some thinner stuff from the SG build I used so thought I'd give that a try. It's definitely thinner than the 5 min epoxy I have used in the past and it seemed to flow nicely around the inlay. I'll probably let it setup the rest of the day and check back on it tomorrow. Cheers Peter.

So I cut out that little piece of maple close to the edges around the pearl. The pearl is really stuck down there. I sub-merged it in some acetone while I had dinner and when I went back out it had slid off the backer. Wow that was easy. This will be my go to work flow from now on. I took the clamps off the head stock and flush trimmed to the veneer head. Test fit the inlay. Looks pretty good. Cheers Peter.