In Progress - Blue Burst 335 Like Semi-hollow.

[John Abbett]

All,

Here is a prgress report on my latest build. It's a 335 like guitar with blue water based powder dye fading to dark blue. It's all curly maple, solid wood resawn thin. The center block is 3/4 length.

It will have 57 classic pickups and gibson style bridge and stop tail (Maybe trapese tail)

The frets are gold and all the hardware will be gold.

Scroll down a few pictures, past my wife's jewlry.

It's been sprayed with several coats of Ntro. I'll spray a couple more coats then sand buff and polish.

http://abbett2.blogspot.com/

[WezV]

looks really good in blue, nice!!

[!WOOD!!]

That guitar is looking great.How about some more pics.!!

[Geo]

That looks great. I don't think I've ever seen a blue 335.

You say your center block extends 3/4 of the body... is the bridge mounted in solid wood? I would NOT mount a bridge in top wood in that kind of guitar.

[WezV]

You say your center block extends 3/4 of the body... is the bridge mounted in solid wood? I would NOT mount a bridge in top wood in that kind of guitar.

a 3/4 centre block starting at the neck would go nicely past the bridge for a solid mount for bridge and pickups, but it also allows more of the hollow body character that a full centre block can constrict

sounds like a great idea to me and i am going to assume john knows what he is doing

[John Abbett]

I actually followed the set of plans I got. The plans call for the 2/3 length center block, I extended it a bit.

Here is the link to the plans showing the construction.

http://www.guitarplansunlimited.com./ES335.htm

Nice plans, all the views matched perfectly.

The construction method I used was to bend solid wood strips around a hot pipe, and fit them to a form. I think you can see the form in the picture, it's on the wall behind the guitar. Anyway, then I cut the center block and fitted it to the top of the mold. I fitted a tailblock next. Then installed kerfing. Once I had the outside the way it's supposed to look, I carved the shape into the center block, the edges of the center block are at the same height as the sides, once shaped. The middle of the center block is 3/8 higher, so there is a 3/8 rise in the middle on the front and sligtly less on the back. I resawed some curly maple into 1/4 inch boards, joined and sanded to 3/16 or so. Then I glued and clamped the center of the board to the center block. Using a strange system of bar clamps and wedges to put pressure on the middle. I actually clamped the whole thing down to the workbench, put a couple of bar clamps over it, and put wedges under the bar clamps to bend the top to conform to the center block angle. It worked surprisingly well.

Oh, when I carved the center block, I was sure to make the top where the neck joins the same angle as I wanted the neck to be. I think it was 4 degree's. That way when I routed the neck pocket, I just followed the angle of the top.

Once I had the body together, cavities routed (I routed F-Holes before I installed the top) I installed cream binding.

I had to make a jig to keep my dremal tool vertical while it routed, the top is not a good bearing surface. I just threw something together using a drawer rail (Full Extension Slider). I just mounted it vertically to a hunk of wood, put another hunk on it to hold the dremal and it kept it vertical. I put a little guide on it at the height I wanted to cut, and the guide rode on the top of the guitar 1/16 outside of the bit. Worked well.

Once I had the binding in, I scraped and sanded everything to 320.

I used water to raise the grain, and resanded to 320. Did this twice.

While it was still damp, I applied my first layer of Water Based Blue dye. I mixed it strong. I put two coats of the lighter blue, which is what you see in the center. I mixed up a second batch of dye, this time the strong blue with a small amount of black. This gave me very dark blue. I applied it to the sides, abour 4 coats. Gave me a dark purple/almost black. I then put a band of the dark around the edges. I feathered it in to blend the edges and the middle with the rag I used for the lighter blue. The darker blue/black rag just puts more dark on. The lighter blue fades out the blue/black.

One problem I found, is that you get one side or the bottom looking the way you want it, then you have to do the other side to match, then if you get too much on the other side, you have to go back to the first side. If you are not carful you can end up putting on more then you want. I would have left more of the lighter blue in the middle had I been happy with the edges earlier. My grandma used to like to "Even Up' the brownies when she baked, so they would be even. Of course she would invariable dig into the nice row at the end and have to even them up again. It was all in fun, but same concept.

I put the dark blue on the neck, which is quarter sawn maple. The headstock is the light blue/dark blue burst. The Neck, being quarter sawn soaked up the stain where it has more end grain near the heel and where the headstock is. Next time I'll have to figure out how to make it more even.

I let this dry for a few days and applied two coats of nitro sanding sealer from a rattle can. Didn't have to be perfect, it's was going to get smoothed out. I let that dry a day and smoothed it out with steel wool. I blew the heck out of it with compressed air afterwards. I then applied several coats of nitro lacquer. I have some rough areas where the nitro spit some, but I have enough depth to sand it back.

I'm letting it cure for a few days, then I'll sand it smooth with 320, shoot a couple of nice final coats and wait for the final cure. A couple of weeks at least. I'm hoping that if I sand it smooth, then apply a couple of coats, the final finish work will be easier. I'll have a couple of coats that are almost smooth and final leveling and poslishing won't be as big a chore.

That's basically it. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I'm not an expert by any means. I'm going by what I've read and what people have shared on this forum. This is my 4th guitar.

-John