mu_sound Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Hi there all, So I finally got around to updating the webpage with pics of my first finished guitar. I learned a whole hell of a lot! I made a few mistakes along the way. The biggest was choosing a crappy piece of my large maple slab to use for the top. I thought I would make far more mistakes and end up with something rather unplayable. Luckily, the mistakes I made were minor, and should be improved upon in the next build by changing some steps in my process. For example I carved the neck to shape, including the taper, made the truss rod hole, mounted the slotted & unfretted fretboard, then trued up the fretboard to the tapered shape of the neck (mistake), then radiused it. I should have radiused it before truing it up. The reason being I got a bit of "roll off" at the edges of the fretboard, (ie. the radius increases at the edges becasue my radiused sanding block slid sideways sometimes eating the edge a bit more than the center. Had I trued up after the radiusing procedure I would have cut off the part with the "roll off" issue. I suppose I could also radius the fretboard before mounting it, but I thought that would be riskier because then I have to hit true center when I glue the two together. Another mistake was not hammering in the brisge studs before I painted. beacuse I sized the hole for a nice press fit , it casued the wood to push outward a hair, which caused some of the lacquer to chip off near the bridge post The other mistake I made, and I'm not sure how to fix it on the next run is how to mask the fretted neck so that you dont get gaps at the frets (I think that I did this part ok) and also not "peel off" some of the lacquer atthe side dots, I had this happen on two frets. Its barely noticeable but I KNOW that they are there. Biggest mistake I made: I copied most of the Santana model PRS except for the inlay, scale & pickup switching, I used a 25" scale. However I forgot to compensate for the extra .5" when I located the bridge stud positions. So when I mounted the bridge I had to force screws out a bunch in order for it to intonate properly. I keep thinking I should make an adapter so that I have more metal to metal than just the surface area of the hex screw. I hope the above made sense to someone other than me. Rock on -Ed well here are the links to the pics: finished guitar: http://webpages.charter.net/hazysunshine/f...%20guitar1.html early in progress work: http://webpages.charter.net/hazysunshine/e.../earlyneck.html http://webpages.charter.net/hazysunshine/gluedneck/neck.html http://webpages.charter.net/hazysunshine/t.../templates.html http://webpages.charter.net/hazysunshine/w...d/woodshed.html http://webpages.charter.net/hazysunshine/colors/colors.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 That's very good for a first guitar, and making mistakes will only make you better. It's like they say, "the person who doesn't make a mistake, doesn't make anything." Very nice build, and beautiful guitar. How does it sound? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Irizarry Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 I can only hope to come close to your example with my own first build. That's beautiful! Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinny Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Thats really nice looking Ed, thanks for posting the pics, -Vinny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stolysmaster Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Man, outstanding job! I did not see any pics of how you carved the top. How did you do it? How long did it take to carve it, and how difficult was it to carve? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fatalities Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Now that is one cool guitar. I presonally think that you should have gone with gold hardware though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullmuzzler Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Looks great. I really like it... mullmuzzler | OSSMT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Truly a stunning first build. Congrats! I think the yellow top looks good, but part of me thinks you should have gone with the pink in one of your color samples... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Man, that's lookin' gorgeous! Nice job! Very clean and professional looking. Thanks for the pics of all the different colors, I'll probably use that when I do a build with a maple top in awhile to get ideas. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu_sound Posted March 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Man, outstanding job! I did not see any pics of how you carved the top. How did you do it? How long did it take to carve it, and how difficult was it to carve? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druss Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Man thats an awesome carve and thats a understatement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwhiteandthemaple Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Which brand of stain/dye did you use?? Seems you got the whole rainbow with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Very nice guitar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu_sound Posted March 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Which brand of stain/dye did you use?? Seems you got the whole rainbow with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwhiteandthemaple Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Wow.. those eggs are hardcore.. Dang, imagine yourself eating one of those.. especially an ostrich egg... Thx for the source! I see some pinks I like! Check out LeeValley They have some good stain colors that go well with the 'natural look' Also, you could do a burst with stains. I think there's a tutorial for that on the main PG.com site. Daaammn nice guitar!! You took 3 hours! For carving? Take a look at this. It should be interesting. He took 3 DAYS!! 3 hours.. and it still looks nice.. Daaaayyuummmm... Good job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screwdelulu Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Looks really great, I can't believe this is your first try! sorry about the "off-topic" question, but what finish did Jeff Miller used on his guitar?? (he says there that it is totally hand-rubbed!) : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu_sound Posted April 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Thanks everybody! All of your kind words have really made my week! I wish I would have posted them earlier now :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwhiteandthemaple Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Looks really great, I can't believe this is your first try! sorry about the "off-topic" question, but what finish did Jeff Miller used on his guitar?? (he says there that it is totally hand-rubbed!) : ..Lots of dyes/stains are hand rubbed.. of course "hand rubbed" doesnt mean you dip your finger in the stain and spread it.. you use sponge brush, some cotton fabric, or something you can 'brush' with.. Like these things Thanks everybody! All of your kind words have really made my week! I wish I would have posted them earlier now :-) Well deserved for building such a nice (first!) guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screwdelulu Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Oh come on! I meant, what kind of finish did he use?? I didn't know you can achieve such a nice gloss when hand rubbing the finish... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwhiteandthemaple Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Oii... Oops. My molstake. He said he used lacquer.. so I'm guessing Deft would be a nice guess. Although.. hand rubbing a clear is.. extremely difficult.. at least to me.. You could use retarders to slow down the drying and make it more level, flow.. I know StewMac has one. Sry for keep on posting on your topic mu_sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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