10pizza Posted January 2, 2007 Report Share Posted January 2, 2007 (edited) Hi all, I'm a 33-year old guitar-addict from the Netherlands I'm not new to this forum but this is the first time I'm actually going to do some handcraft on a guitar, so I'd just want to try to keep you informed around the progress. This is the guitar I'll be working on, a 1973 Aria Mosrite copy from Japan: Planned Work When I bought the guitar a year ago, It had a damaged tremelo system and also some of the frets were loose. Also the tuners were crap. I also don't like the guitars sunburst finish that much so here's what I'm going to do: - refretting the neck ( dunlop 6130 fretwire ) - refinishing the body in a Gold-finish - install new hardware: bridge/Tremelo/tuners - refinish the pickguard - put on a new headstock logo So the goal will be something like this, but with a black pickguard: Gold mosrite New hardware This is the hardware I'm going to use to install on the guitar. I'd prefer an original Moseley Trem, but these are very hard to find so I'll use this: Duesenberg D-5 super Tremola and Tunamatic Bridge: Duesenberg D-5 Duesenberg Tunamatic Gotoh SD-90M tuning machines ( vintage Kluson style ) Gotoh SD-90M Duesenberg style volume/tone knobs: The Knobs I hope to receive the parts this week. Current State Last week (one has to do something around christmas :-) ) I sanded of the original sunburst finish and I have now a clean body. I'll post pictures tomorrow. I also started to remove the frets. The loose ones are out but some were put in tight so I'll use the information I found on this forum to try to remove these without damaging the board. I already had to glue one chip back in, I'd rather avoid that. Also using the information I found here I hope to do the following this week: - determine the neck radius - routing my own radius sanding-block A few questions that I've got at this time: 1. Wouldn't it be possible to use the radius sanding-block also to radius the fretwire? 2. Is glueing the frets neccesary or optional? ok guys, thanks for your attention and I'll try to keep this updated. Edited January 3, 2007 by 10pizza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetrashrocknroll Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 you gotta change that selector switch to the lower bout too. done anymore work on it? i did the same sorta thing on a onyx mosrite copy a few years ago. white paint ect like johnny ramones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 Isn't the guitar routed for the original trem? Are you going to fill that? It looks very similar to this Jazzmaster style trem, you could pick up one of those and use that instead, then you can use the route. The 'real' Jazzmaster trems are available too--they have a locking mechanism too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 (edited) Thanks for the feedback guys Here's some more info and pics. First some answers to the questions: Mickguard: isn't the guitar routed for the original trem? Yes it is, as you can see on the pic. I'm going to fill that up with a piece of Mahogany or something. The finish will be solid, so this should not be visible ( I hope ) I could put in a jazzmaster style trem, but I always loved the looks of the bigsby style and always wanted to try that on a guitar. To whitetrashrocknroll: what do you mean with changing the selector switch to the lower 'bout'? Do you have pics/stories about your work on your johnny ramone style mosrite? here's a pic of the sanded body front: and the back: Body back the fretboard: Fretboard and the peg: Peghead Newbie terror I was a bit scared yesterday when I read some posts about putting a TOM-bridge on a bolted-on guitar but since the original also had a TOM rollerbridge I think I should be ok. I'm going to try to do a dry-test when I receive the bridge so I can check if i need to put in an angle on the neck. Also I was scared that I ordered the wrong hardware because I didn't check the neck radius yet. Using the paper tool provided somewhere in this forum I determined that it's a 12" radius, the same as the Tunomatic, so I guess I'm lucky there. One question I have regarding to that anyway: It seems that all the tunomatic bridges you can order have a 12" saddle radius. Does that mean if you have a neck with a different radius you can not use a Tune-o-matic bridge? Coming up Friday I'll try to take the day off so I can try to make my own 12" radius sanding block using my router. I'll try to use the setup described in this forum. Also I need to remove the last frets from the neck. I'll try to use an iron to quickly heat it. The frets aren't glued in, but heating should help anyway. I'll buy some nippers and try to make my own fret-nipper. Keep those questions and remarks coming! Edited January 3, 2007 by 10pizza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurits Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 The lower bout is the lower/treble side horn. Looks like a fun project you have going on there fellow-Dutchie, good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 A thought that just occured to me: would it be very difficult to change this body to a non-pickguard version? I'd have to fill up the routed cavity for the electronics and then route new ones from the back of course. It would also give me the opportunity to put the input jack in the side in stead of on top. I'll do a search to check if somebody has done this before this would be the end-result goal: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 When using the Bigsby kind of tremolo with a Tune-O-Matic (TOM) bridge, don't you need to use roller saddles? It seems like the strings would bind in the saddle notches of a regular TOM bridge. You also need to get yourself a long straight-edge, place it on the neck with the end hanging over the bridge, and see if the neck angle is correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 I don't think it's absolutely necessary to have roller saddles. Not using roller sadles will give a higher risk of string breaking when the saddles are rough, but this should be ok I think. I'll do a check on that anyway to be sure. Thanks for that remark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurits Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 I heard that the string exert such a force that those rollers lock up and don't even roll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 just FYI: the pic of the Aria shown at the start of the topic is not mine. This one looks in very good shape, mine wasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AlexVDL Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 Yeah, I don't like roller saddles --they rattle too much, and they can get just as rough as regular saddles. I like Graph Tech stuff, but then, I'm a string-breaker. 10pizza, if you're going to go through all the trouble of filling all of the cavities, you're probably better off using this guitar for making a template, then building a new body from scratch. You'll be able to make an exact copy that way, and it will probably take you less time. Otherwise, you could also do what I'm doing with a current project --I routed off part of the surface (to get rid of the curved edges) and I glued on a new top. That way all of the holes are hidden (but you can still recover the neck pocket and pickup cavities using a follower bit with a router). That's easier than trying to get all those holes perfectly filled. Of course, I'd stick with the pickguard (of course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 since this is my first project, I'd like to learn as much from it as possible. I'll try to fill up the cavities and see how it goes, somehow I feel challenged to do it the hard way, allthough I'll probably be punished for this attitude. I might still use this as a template for a next project. But I'll try to stick to this one first. By the way, this one doesn't have to be a perfect copy of the goldtop I posted above. keep you posted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneMonkey Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 I'm currently playing around with an SG copy. After reshaping the neck and now about to attack the body I have learnt that it would probably just be easier to make the bloody thing from scratch. BUT, I'm learning a lot that I wouldn't do if it was a scratch build. I wanted to practice my finishing too, so this was ideal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 Managed to remove all of the frets yesterday evening using a special technique with a small chisel and a Mastercard. I used the small chisel to get under the fret and then used the creditcard to protect the fingerboard while pushing the fret out. First I used an iron to heat the frets up and then let them cool down to shrink again. It went very well, only 1 or 2 very small chips were removed when I lifted the tape from the board. I'll glue them back in tonight. One question I have though: the wood on the edges of the fretslots is damaged by the initial fret installation and removing the frets did not make the wood chip but there was ofcourse a little bit of damaging of the fretslot edges. Is it necessary to do anything about this? Tomorrow I have a day off so I can make my own 12" radius block and remove the finish from the neck and also smooth the fretslots. Tonight I'll pickup a few pieces of mahogany from a friend ( he's a shipbuilder, plenty of mahogany ) so I can fill up the body tomorrow. My friend will then use epoxy to glue the pieces in the body. Hopefully I'll receive the new hardware for the weekend so I can determine the bridge setup. I've noticed however that the neck-pocket is already angled because originally also a Tunomatic bridge was installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 4, 2007 Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 My friend will then use epoxy to glue the pieces in the body. You don't need epoxy, ordinary wood glue will work fine. In fact, maybe even better , because the wood glue will make the wood swell a bit, so it's much easier to get things to mate perfectly...I've done some patching on one of my projects in progress, and the wood glue really worked well for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 thanks for the tip. Makes things easier too just scored me some new tools and Dremel-accesories to help make my life easier Can't wait till tomorrow to get at it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneMonkey Posted January 4, 2007 Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 I glued some wood in some pup cavities last night and I used epoxy. Wished I hadn't when I was putting stuff away and found a big tube of wood glue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielM Posted January 4, 2007 Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 beware 10Pizza you can't really route pup routs with a Dremel (I've tried and it cost me!) because you run the most likely risk of burning it out. it's fine for smaller jobs though, great infact for inlays and what not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2007 An update with this mornings work. First I glued the small chips in my neck just by keeping them stuck to the tape and putting some glue beneath them. Then I built the router setup to make a 12" radius sanding block for my neck: some more pics: Router setup 2 Router setup 3 Worked like a charm! Thanks very much Anthony for this tutorial! Then I created some fills for the cavities from Mahogany. Unfortunately I don't have a band-sander so I used a cutter to do the job. Not very happy with it, but it should be allright I hope when filling with epoxy. Here's a pic: Cavity Fills This afternoon I'll visit my friends workshop to do the epoxy work. Right Now I'll check out the fingerboard and do a little sanding to remove the finish and get it ready for refretting. later I haven't received any hardware yet, so no chance to start fretting this weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AlexVDL Posted January 5, 2007 Report Share Posted January 5, 2007 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yahilltrade Posted January 5, 2007 Report Share Posted January 5, 2007 ^ i dont know bro bondo works like magic for that type of thing....the red paste for filling large gaps in wonderfull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2007 I'll post some pics of the guitarbody with the mahogany put in using epoxy when my batteries are recharged. This afternoon I went to my friends workshop and he made me some epoxy filler to get the stuff in. Now I just have to wait until tomorrow before I can do anything with it. I also sanded the fretboard a little, just to clear the roughness from the fret-removal. The chips I've reglued all stayed in, so that's a relief. As for the gluelines showing up on the body: I'm afraid you're right alex Do you know a good adress in the netherlands for getting a veneer top? any idea on the cost? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Some pics after todays work. I sanded the body fills and filled some old screwholes: A picture of the body before sanding: Filled body A picture of the fretboard after I've removed the frets: Frets removed I also sanded the board with my radius block: Sanded board Now I'll have to wait until my hardware arrives and I'll need to get a veneer top somewhere. I think the Arnhemse houthandel will be a good choice for that. have a good weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted January 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 Okay, Sunday's a nice day to do some work in the morning when you're not hungover This morning I routed the controls cavity from the back and removed the epoxy leftovers from the pickup cavities. here's the back: Now I need to get a long drill to drill the holes for the pickup wiring. My dad has one, so I'll pick it up this week. Damn! when do I get my new hardware! cu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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