biliousfrog Posted January 29, 2007 Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 My shed's been re-arranged, my bandsaw's setup, I've got a huge Stew-Mac order awaiting despatch....time to unveil the "Dumpstercaster" In the beginning... My first proper build was going to be this beauty but the custom neck didn't happen & my impatience led to the body being not-quite-right...anyway, whilst waiting for the neck to be built for the blue guitar I came up with an idea for the old body. The concept... I've always been a strat person. I like Les Pauls but I found them awkward to play so I stuck with the 25 1/2" scale & 3 pickups...which is odd cos I've got tiny hands & a Les Paul would look much more in proportion with my little body...anyhoo, I figured that if I'm going to make a guitar completely from scratch I might as well make something that's different to what I've already got. The blue guitar is going to be a P90 loaded semi with Piezo system...I wanted to make her grubby, ne'er-do-well brother. The kind of guitar that's been climbing trees, getting into fights & generally being a nuisance. If the blue one was a car it would be an Austin-Healey...this one, a JCB. Hence the Dumpstercaster. Construction... Mahogany body, mahogany & maple neck, two-way truss rod, 2x humbuckers, 3-a-side headstock, TOM bridge, 2x volume, 3 way switch, Stainless steel plate to front of body & headstock, mild steel to sides & belly cut. Sand through paint finish in the following colours: white (stainless primer), grey primer, yellow primer, red oxide colour primer & laquer. Extras... I've got 44 meters of .5mm fiber optic cable that I might use for position markers with an orange LED. I've also got a push/pull pot that I might use for coil tapping or phase reversal. Most of the components are ripped from an SG copy & might be replaced in the near future if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted January 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 This was the initial full size plan of the blue guitar along with my first build, "Aloha". I designed the hand drawn plan & CG mockup seperately...it wasn't until I had cut the body (here) that I realised that the digital mockup was quite a different shape &, in my opinion, much nicer...so I put it to one side & bought some more wood. The full size plan shows the internal chambering for the blue semi, this isn't being used for this guitar. The steel front is going to add a lot of weight but instead of chambers I have just drilled 1" holes across the wings in a honeycomb pattern to make the body lighter. Here is the body so far Clicky I made the tummy cut the hard way...drilling holes in a stepping pattern to remove the bulk of wood, scraping the excess with a surform & then sanding smooth with a drum sander in a hand drill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 29, 2007 Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 I'm kind of confused...so which one is actually being built? To me, the tummy cut is kind of weird-- unless you've got a wee, round little belly to match those wee hands of yours? Seems like it'd be more comfortable if the carve was stretched out more toward the rear, like a strat. I find that the strat contour hooks really nicely, placing the end of the body snug to the hip --I'm not so sure your carve will achieve that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted January 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 I'm building the one at the top of the page, the dumpster one. It was made out of a ballsed up body whilst making the blue one so I'm using it as a test bed before moving onto it's sister...at least then, if I make any more mistakes, I can cover them with a solid colour &/or steel plate. The tummy cut looks much weirder than it is. I tend to play with the guitar resting near my hip & the neck join (on a strat) in the center of my body. It's almost the same position as when I sit with a guitar but then the contour fits around my lower ribs. At the moment it feels very comfy but I won't know for sure until the neck is attached. I've got this morning off work so I'm now going to make some wood dust on the neck blank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted January 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 OK, this morning went well. I've cut the angle into the neck & also prepared the scarf joint. Because the top of the body is going to be flat I've opted for a flat neck route & put the angle on the neck. At the moment the neck is just a long wedge shape but once I've routed the truss-rod channel I'll look at tapering the neck & cutting the rough profile. The neck was constructed in such a way that I had 2 neck blanks & 2 mahogany headstock pieces. I can't remember the exact dimensions but it worked out that I had 2 lengths of 1"x2" maple & 2 lengths of 5/8"x4" mahogany...the mahogany was about 8" longer than the maple which gave me the headstocks. Piccys: Body front (ignore the random scribbles on it) Body & neck blank Body & neck in position You'll see from the last pic that the neck will go through the body, up to the bridge. I'm still unsure whether to go for a set neck or a deep set bolt-on....I want a set neck but it seems very perminent for a first neck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted February 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2007 I've been busy...I've been working on this for only an hour or so at a time & the occasional weekend so I've not taken many in-progress shots I'm afraid. I got my Stew-Mac order a few weeks ago, mostly fretting tools: fret press, radius blocks, fret bevel file, crowning files, nut files, fret wire...etc. so I've been cracking on with the neck so that I can use my new tools The neck is getting close, it has had some profiling but needs to be slimmed out quite a bit. It feels very comfy but is still more like a baseball bat than a guitar neck so I need to shave some more off. The fretboard is radiused, tenon cut, volute roughly shaped (but needs moving back a bit more...lucky that it's still quite chunky) & headstock roughly shaped. Before I finished off the neck I wanted to get it dry-fitted so that my dad can cut out the steel for the front....so last night & did some routing & then took some (very blurry) photo's. neck + body (front) neck + body (back) rough carve neck join checking for coolness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted March 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 sooo.....I guess nobody's interested in this....oh well, maybe I'll do an RG copy or a V next My dad cut the stainless front plate a few weeks ago, the necks been radiused, fretted, profiled & fitted, pickup cavities are routed, tuner holes drilled, steel front & sides have been fitted, cavity cover cut & recess cut, bridge post holes drilled & ferrules fitted....& last week I strung it up & had a test play of it. Next step it painting it. http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q75/bil...steelclad03.jpg http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q75/bil...steelclad01.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIRS Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 wow! nice work! how did you get the steel to properly fit the guitar body? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted March 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 The sides are very thin, they're from a biscuit tin so they conformed relatively easily. I used epoxy to attach both the top & the sides & used clamps or gaffa-tape to hold it together. The edges are quite flush, I ran the shaft of a screw driver over them to round over any overlap & quicksteel filler to fill any gaps. Once it was all set I ran a dremel over the edges with a grinder bit to smooth it off & it now looks like it's been welded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 Looking good! love the idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted March 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2007 white primer + grey primer + white primer + yellow primer + red primer + laquer + sand, sand, sand + wire wool + buff & polish = http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q75/bil.../painted_02.jpg http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q75/bil.../painted_03.jpg Hardware has been roughed up & dipped in rusty water...pickups look very grubby. Electrickery to follow, fitting tuners & filing of nut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted March 16, 2007 Report Share Posted March 16, 2007 Wow, that looks fantastic. The color scheme reminds me of oil spilled in a parking lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted March 16, 2007 Report Share Posted March 16, 2007 Cool!! Seems to be turning out exaclty as expected Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted March 16, 2007 Report Share Posted March 16, 2007 most funk-tastic. Has a kind of 'relic' vibe, without the tackiness associated with most 'relic strats' and the like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydrogeoman Posted March 16, 2007 Report Share Posted March 16, 2007 I like your guitar, but I am puzzled why you went to such lengths to add a stainless steel veneer only to cover most of it with paint. Seems you could have achieved almost the same relic finish without the metal plates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted March 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 I could have achieved "almost" the same effect with silver paint or even just by sanding through the colours but there's a few reasons why I did it the hard way... ESP's James Hetfield guitar was one of the inspirations, it is grey with fake sand-throughs of red & black. It almost works but it still looks like a regular guitar painted grey with stickers on it. Taylor have a sand-through finish (vomit or something) which looks very pretty but I wanted something more beaten up...so I went with a more industrial look. You can fake most things convincingly on camera or from a distance but it's very hard to do close up. Silver paint would never fool anyone that it was metal especially when it naturally starts to wear & reveals the wood. All of the natural wear areas are covered in steel so even when it gets some natural knocks & scrapes it will still look like a metal guitar. I was very wary of creating a guitar that was obviously fake...people can look, touch, play this & it is obvious that the paint is covering real metal, it is less obvious how much of the guitar is covered. ...also, everything is shielded by a large metal plate...although I'll have to wait & see whether it acts like a large FM reciever. Something that isn't obvious on the pics is the crazing of the paint in places....when I layed the red over the yellow it cracked in a few places & created a fantasic crackle effect. I assumed that it was because of resin left from a tack-rag. The crackle was cool but didn't really fit with this guitar, however, the finish did look old & weather beaten...So, I cleaned the top & did another coat of red which filled in the yellow cracks but left the leathery texture. I then went over the guitar with a tack-rag purposly leaving resin on the finish around the controls, pickups & under the strings, sprayed the laquer & it crackled as I hoped...instant weather beaten finish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFW Posted March 18, 2007 Report Share Posted March 18, 2007 (edited) Might I reccomend aging the tail end edges on the back? I think it would add a lil' sumtin sumtin to the agery. Edited March 18, 2007 by DFW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted March 18, 2007 Report Share Posted March 18, 2007 I love a nice beaten up look too. But I wouldn't have bothered with paint...because I like the look of the well-rusted metal itself. I made a pickguard a while back that was 'prepared' by having my two sons pee on it several times a day for a couple of weeks.... Here's a clickable thumbnail: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted March 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2007 I love a nice beaten up look too. But I wouldn't have bothered with paint...because I like the look of the well-rusted metal itself. I made a pickguard a while back that was 'prepared' by having my two sons pee on it several times a day for a couple of weeks.... Here's a clickable thumbnail: ...I bet that smells nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted March 19, 2007 Report Share Posted March 19, 2007 ...I bet that smells nice! Especially since we eat a lot of asparagus... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted March 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 I'm having a lot of troubles with the wiring on this, I spent an hour or so last night with a spare piece of wire bypassing components to see what's wrong. It appears to be the volume pots...They're off a cheap SG copy which I bought purely for parts, Tonemonkey had the neck & body...they are the most bizarre pots I've ever worked with When I attached the bypass wire from the hot tag of the vol. pot to the output the volume pot worked even though the signal was taken straight from the pickup...but the pot worked in reverse...but the centre tag doesn't work as the output....& when I checked the other pots from the SG (the tone pots), they're wired with the input at the centre tag & output on the left/right, which is contradictory to anything that I've seen before. Sooo, I'm just gonna put some decent pots in it that I know work as I expect & it should be good to go. The sound is great, very different to anything else I have both acoustically & amplified (although it hasn't had much of an amplified test yet) so I'm very happy with how it's turned out. I can't say whether it was down to wood choice, deep-set tenon, TOM bridge, metal front, chambered body or what but it is very "resonant". I was never quite sure what that referred to but "resonant" seems to sum it up nicely...it has an airy, open sound, much more acoustic sounding than any other electric that I've owned & it seems to have quite a vocal quality. It's difficult to describe but the notes seem to open up after they've been played, almost like using a compressor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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