Second Project

[guitar2005]

All in all I think it's going well, a few things here and there that will need a little cosmetic correction, but nothing really serious so far:

When routing the neck pocket, the bit made a small (about a mm) notch on the top edge of the pocket. I will need to refill it with some maple-dust epoxi mix.

I needed to reshape a little bit the lower cutaway after the neck pocket had been routed. The bit produced a little tear-off (or is it tear-out ??) at the front edge of the pocket. Again, some cosmetic filling will be required. Both can be seen here.

This can be frustrating. With naturally finished guitars where you see wood everywhere and there's no paint to hide mistakes, you have to wonder how to get it perfect for next time.

I haven't seen a factory guitar in a while but I wonder if they also have these small blemishes or flaws.

I'm struggling with my current build to get it perfect and it seems that I keep making these small mistakes. Some can be covered up with cosmetic features but others just have to stay there, as is, as a reminder.

Before you fix the maple, make sure you do plenty of tests, especially if you stain the top. Cutting a small piece of maple to fill the void might be the best option there (vs maple dust and epoxy).

[Mattia]

Very, very nice (and I dig the headstock design, too).

Man, you're so much faster at building than I am it's not even funny. I've done, uh, almost nothing since you came over to rough-cut that neck blank!

[Andronico]

Simply fantastic work Blackdog ! Your first guitar was beautiful but this one will be better !

[Setch]

Yup - this build is totally floating my boat! Love the inlay on the trussrod cover in particular.

[brutas]

Looks fantastic! Well done!

[Blackdog]

Thank you guys for the nice words and the support.

Love the double binding. It adds a lot to the guitar. This is definitely something I want to try on my next build, probably an LP Custom type.

That binding around the headstock must have been quite challenging to get on there.

......

I'm struggling with my current build to get it perfect and it seems that I keep making these small mistakes. Some can be covered up with cosmetic features but others just have to stay there, as is, as a reminder.

Before you fix the maple, make sure you do plenty of tests, especially if you stain the top. Cutting a small piece of maple to fill the void might be the best option there (vs maple dust and epoxy).

I agree, the double binding looks great. As a matter of fact I will use it again in the future. At a very least one layer of some contrasting wood under the fretboard, headplate and even between the maple top and the back wood. It looks classy and it's reasonably simple to do.

The binding was made from 7-8mm strips cut from the 1.5mm maple veneer. My wife cut the strips and did the bending for the headstock. It required litteraly boiling the maple for a few minutes and then bending (while still hot) and tight strapping to a headstock template until cold and dry. Rather difficult indeed, but now I'm spoiled: I don't see myself using plastic binding now...

The small mistakes seem to be unavoidable. I'm beginning to think it's the nature of a handbuilt instrument. Factory instruments (even the cheap ones) are more "perfect", once you've got the program right the CNC machine will do its thing exactly the same, every time....

I will have to make a few tests regarding filling the maple, since it will be stained. I will run into a similar situation when inlaying the top. I thought about enlarging the blemish a little and filling with solid maple material. I guess I'll have to test the different options.

Very, very nice (and I dig the headstock design, too).

Man, you're so much faster at building than I am it's not even funny. I've done, uh, almost nothing since you came over to rough-cut that neck blank!

It's not that I am fast. Killemall is fast !! I think it's something else...

Spring it's almost here, was it summer when I went to visit you ?? One of these days I'll need to rough-cut another neck, you better get busy so you have something new to show me !!!

Yup - this build is totally floating my boat! Love the inlay on the trussrod cover in particular.

My wife designed and made all the inlay work on the first build and she's doing the same for this one. She says "thanks".

The concept for the fretboard inlays is pretty much ready, she's currently cutting the pieces. It's going to be a continuation/evolution of the feathers we used on the first build, just to keep a "family connection" between the two. Future builds will definitely use something else.

As a matter of fact she just told me she's got the design ready for the body inlay, I'll see it today when I get back home.

I tried to advance to top a little bit yesterday without much success. My scrapers are dull. Some of them have barbs that leave ugly marks. Is there a tutorial on how to "sharpen?" scrapers in the forum ??

Edited February 8, 2008 by Blackdog

[Setch]

I don't believe there's one on here, but there are a good few around online - try googling it.

[jmrentis]

I agree with Setch check around the web, I've seen some good tuts and even some good videos. Once you setup your sharpening process and get good at it, it literally takes a minute and you'll be pulling the fluffiest curls without much effort. I know you don't need to really, but I bought myself a burnisher, normal style. I just get it all nice and square on a 10in single cut file,edit missed a step here, I started with trying stones to smooth the squared edge, but I ended up switching to sandpaper of a high grit, works just as well for me, then once squared and smooth I put the scraper in my vise between two pieces of mdf(crappy vise), I take the tiniest dab of oil run it on the edge of the scraper with my finger, then run the burnisher down perpendicular to the scraper like 5-7 times or so, then I do this again angled to each side, though usually less times. You can vary the angle to create more or less hook depending on what you want. It definitely takes some getting used to and don't be afraid to put some pressure on the edge, just don't slip and gouge yourself on the corner. With practice some process close to that should get you a nice curl. You don't need to square the scraper everytime either, you can resharpen a couple times before needing to resquare things. This is just how I do it now, I learned basically from online tuts videos and some helps from all the guys at rockler who all are quite proficient with scrapers. I'll look for some of those tuts and videos I used and link them if I can. Best of luck. J

Here is a good link with many, many articles and a few down on the page there is a great video that explains it all very well and will show you exactly how, once you know how it just takes practice. One thing to keep in mind is you shouldn't be getting any dust, it should curls of wood, dust means resharpen time. Also experiment with the angle you hold it at while scraping, if you angled the hook too little, you might need to hold the scraper almost vertically to catch that good cutting edge. Experimenting and understanding the angle and such will help you to find your preferences. Best of luck. J

Scraper Sharpening tuts and vids

Check the 10th link down first, great video to get the idea, very helpful. There should be a few like this around the web, I've seen probably 3 that are all almost exactly like this one. The pdf file after the video is also great, 11th link down.

Edited February 8, 2008 by jmrentis

[guitar2005]

I tried to advance to top a little bit yesterday without much success. My scrapers are dull. Some of them have barbs that leave ugly marks. Is there a tutorial on how to "sharpen?" scrapers in the forum ??

Try Lee Valley online. I know that when you buy a scraper from them, they give out free info on how to sharpen them. If you can't find the info, I could scan it and send it to you. Let me know.

You'll need to file the scraper so the cutting edge is smooth & flat, then you need a burnisher to put a hook on the edge.

[Blackdog]

Thank you all for the links. I actually found that following the instructions it's no big deal to sharpen the scrapers. As a matter of fact in less than 1/2 hour I had the two scrapers I use the most in top form and ready for the action !!!

So now I have a carved top :

This is a mockup, nothing is fixed. Just wanted to have a peek at how's going to look like. The pickup rings shown are ebony, but I'll use rosewood for this guitar. Same with the knobs.

A couple of angle shots to show the carving of the top:

One side.

The other side.

There are a few humps here and there, some scratches still refuse to disapear (read more sanding required), but this carving is pretty much what I was going for.

The maple top in the pictures is just the bare wood and completely dry. It looks like it's going to be one hell of a top once stained and lacquered !!!

[rob_tart]

schlleerpp!! thats going to look lovely!

[Andronico]

Beautiful !! Which colour you´ll use for stain ?

[SnowGTR]

The carving looks good. Better than the PRS

I prefer a more domed shape like a Les Paul, than the flat area that PRS does around the bridge.

Well done.

[Blackdog]

Beautiful !! Which colour you´ll use for stain ?

Thanks !! Regarding colors, what I know right now is that the neck will be finished with a few coats of Danish oil, to keep the bare-wood look and feel and still get a little glossiness. The body will be lacquered glossy, with a grain filled natural back and faux-binding and only the top will be colored.

I will be using StewMac's concentrated stains, what I have available is Vintage Amber, Medium Brown, Cherry and Blue. So any combination of those is possible. I'm thinking about double or triple staining, and also saw this thread where a sunburst is applied at the staining stage... So anything is possible. I would rule a dominant blue out as I don't think is going to look good with all the rosewood...

The carving looks good. Better than the PRS

I prefer a more domed shape like a Les Paul, than the flat area that PRS does around the bridge.

Hope I'm not disappointing you, but there's a flat surface where the pickups seat, and another where the bridge seat.... It still is more rounded than the PRS carve, though clearly along the same lines.

[Kenneth]

Great looking guitar man.

As Wayne and Garth said "We're not worthy"

Really impressing. I'm starting a PRS SC build pretty soon and noticed that in one of the pics you planned the top thinner.

Is it 19mm when starting or 19mm after!?

I have about 14mm thick bookmatched maple and would love to be able to pull of the PRS style carving with faux binding.

But I'm not sure that 14mm is enough, so I'm considering using curly maple binding found on stewmac.

Looking forward to see it after its stained.

[Blackdog]

Great looking guitar man.

As Wayne and Garth said "We're not worthy"

Really impressing. I'm starting a PRS SC build pretty soon and noticed that in one of the pics you planned the top thinner.

Is it 19mm when starting or 19mm after!?

I have about 14mm thick bookmatched maple and would love to be able to pull of the PRS style carving with faux binding.

But I'm not sure that 14mm is enough, so I'm considering using curly maple binding found on stewmac.

Looking forward to see it after its stained.

Thanks !!

I've done a good deal of checking and measuring (I own a McCarty and a Hollowbody II) to actually understand what makes the PRS carving so graceful. The results are that prior to carving you have to break the top into three planes or flat areas, as per the following picture:

And this is the operation you saw in my previous posting, and you end up with this. Then the neck pocket has to be routed with respect to the plane defined between A and B, adding a neck angle as needed.

If you leave a consistent 6mm all around the perimeter for the faux-binding this leaves you with 13mm (at the belly area) and 7mm (at the horns area) carving material.

You can, of course, do it without any top angle (keeping the top parallel to the back of the body), but some problems become apparent. This is how I carved my first build (see signature), leaving 13mm carving material all around. In the first attempt the horns had a very deep carving, that from some angles gave the impression that they raised above the level of the top. So I sanded the horns down for a much more pleasing effect. Still, from certain angles you get the impression that the central part of the body (where the pickups seat) raise above the top level. But this is a much more tolerable effect.

Now to the second part of your question, 14mm might be quite enough:

While for Customs, McCarty's (and apparently Santanas) PRS seem to use 3/4" maple tops, on Singlecuts the carving is far less pronounced and (according to a couple I inspected) they seem to be using 13-14mm tops. The philosophy is still similar, there's "at least" an angle from the bridge to the front edge of the body, but with 6mm binding there's much less carving material to work with. And it shows.

The situation is simple, the more material you have available for carving at the highest part, the more pronounced the "belly" you can achieve. And for the horns you can usually get away with significantly less.

Another useful alternative to enhance the apparent depth of the carving is the recurve, but that's a different story.

Hope this clarifies what I did and why.

[Kenneth]

Thanks Blackdog, great explained!

I thought I'd make a template using MDF and check if the carving looks good using 6mm faux-binding and then make another without faux-binding.

This will also let me practise the carving-part. On my first build a made the carve like your first and recognize the issue with the horns you mentioned.

Thanks again!

[superfly]

Wow Blackdog, nice work love your carve.

This one will become one of the nicest PRS clones in the Low Lands thats for sure.

Regards

Wim

[John Abbett]

Inlays from DePaule Supply

For some good ideas for inlays and for good product, check out Andy's stuff. He has a bunch of great inlays. I have so many future inlays already picked out and almost all aren't predesigned sets, though most of the pre-designed sets are wicked. Anyhow, just in case you haven't seen that site, its well worth a look. Andy is a great guy and takes good care of his customers, I highly recommend and suggest his products, just as someone did to me.

I agree about Andy DePaule. He's got some great stuff, a HUGE inventory, and is a super friendly and helpful guy.

I got him to do an original design of my name because I have never done any inlay at all (and frankly don't think I could with very good results) and it turned out great. He keeps your design on file in case you want another one someday.

Blackdog, it looks like a great guitar. Congrats.

I just went to the website mentioned above. WOW that is amazing stuff. I spent 1/2 hour looking, then called in an order and the owner Andy was great. He spent 15 minutes chatting with me. Now I know the difference between black and red MOP!

http://www.luthiersupply.com

Anyway, I'll update when it arrives to let you know what the quality is, from the pics on the website I'm sure it'll be top notch.

-john

[Blackdog]

Progress report, now the holes for the controls have been finished and the control cavity deepened as required. Here I installed the switch, pots and knobs to see how everything fits.

Another view.

I didn't take pics of the cavity, but it is much cleaner than my first. I routed a recess where the 90° switchcraft toggle seats, so the rest of the cavity is not weakening the top by being unnecessarily deep. I'm using long-shaft pots for this one and routed a recess for the washer and nut on the top to allow the knobs to sit low into their dishes. So the top is only thin enough where it needs to be.

I have to drill the jack hole and the strap pins' holes, and then the body is basically finished.

[al heeley]

Great work - thats looking really sweet.

[Blackdog]

Great work - thats looking really sweet.

Thanks, Al !!

I've repaired the tear-offs at the front edge of the neck pocket with some pieces of mahogany and maple glued on and sculpted back to shape. Now the neck fits tight again. So I did the mockup thing once again, for the pictures of course, and to check the string geometry. I run a couple of strings (outermost positions) from the bridge up to their expected locations at the nut, and they align perfectly with the edges of the fingerboard: I'm veeeeery happy and relieved.

Yesterday I finished inlaying the fingerboard.

Closeup 1

Closeup 2

Closeup 3

Not nearly perfect (my wife does a much cleaner job, but she was busy with a Tiffany Lamp project...), but close enough. Inlay on rosewood is much more forgiving than on maple. The body inlay will (hopfully) be done by her.

So now I will start fretting. Second time ever, and first time with binding... Wish me luck.

[Andronico]

Not nearly perfect (my wife does a much cleaner job, but she was busy with a Tiffany Lamp project...), but close enough. Inlay on rosewood is much more forgiving than on maple. The body inlay will (hopfully) be done by her.

Not perfect ? I think that looks very well !

So now I will start fretting. Second time ever, and first time with binding... Wish me luck.

Your fretting will be right as usual, you have the skills to do it well. But in case you need it, good luck !

[Blackdog]

Ok, some progress has been made.

Frets are in. Not as smooth a task as I had expected (check post #13) but still much better than my first attemp.

Now I temporarily put the neck in the pocket (it fits quite tight), a couple of tuners, a cheapo nut, the bridge in place and run a couple of strings with minimum tension to see how everything aligns...

Looking good I'd say.

The pieces for the body-top inlay are already cut.

And I'm already doing some color tests on maple off-cuts, I think I will go for just one color this time (no sunburst)...

[j. pierce]

I was too distracted by the inlay in the previous neck shot, and somehow missed this thread earlier on, but I *really* like that headstock shape, particularly with this build.