My Take On A Prs Santana/lp Dc

[Ripthorn]

Hey all, this build is already under way, but nowhere near finished. I figured I would post because I am looking for some opinions on a couple things. First of all, the specs:

7 piece neck-thru, maple/walnut/maple/mahogany/maple/walnut/maple

Body wings are laminated walnut/alder/mahogany/alder/walnut

Carved top (nothing too stellar, my first one)

Dual humbuckers with coil split and tone cap selectors on push pull pots

Black and gold hardware

Here is the first in-progress pic:

Now for the advice part. On the top walnut lam, I wasn't able to get clamping pressure everywhere, so when I carved back to the alder, there were parts where the glue was visible. I figured that I could make a cool accent out of carving a small channel around the transition from walnut to alder and then filling with some sort of contrasting material. I was thinking mahogany dust with glue, but I am looking for suggestions. I have also thought about some sort of black inlace or possibly another color, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think would look good? Here is the best shot I could get of the channel (still a little rough).

[pauliemc]

honestly, I think a mix of wood dust & glue will look crap. the glue & sawdust thing is realy only for small areas of tear out or chips that need a quick fix & dont have to look good.

Id make the channel a little deeper & use abalone or mother of pearl. use a decent inlay material to make a realy nice pin stripe around the walnut.

Maby even some pearloid or foe-turtle shell. Both of those will bend (unlike the shells) if you get them warm & are fairly cheap (maby $5 worth to sort this out id say)

[Reinhold]

+1 on the shell

[Ripthorn]

I hadn't even thought of that. I did some poking around and like the look of gold and brown pearloid (I found some binding strips). The gold would really go well with the hardware. Thanks for the idea. Any idea how to get a nice, uniform channel for putting that stuff in?

[Reinhold]

I would make a jig for use with a router for the parts of the same distance, but its kind of hard to think of how to do it with the varying distances. I think stewmac sells one for binding that might give you inspiration on how to make one.

Edited March 14, 2010 by Reinhold

[pauliemc]

I hadn't even thought of that. I did some poking around and like the look of gold and brown pearloid (I found some binding strips). The gold would really go well with the hardware. Thanks for the idea. Any idea how to get a nice, uniform channel for putting that stuff in?

Your gona have to make yourself a template & use a narrow router bit to cut the channel. Its easier than it sounds. Just take your time & it will be no problem.

[Ripthorn]

I suppose that would work. Of course, I am still seriously contemplating inlace, some sort of black with gold dust or something.

[pauliemc]

I suppose that would work. Of course, I am still seriously contemplating inlace, some sort of black with gold dust or something.

I sometimes get bell brass, go at it with a file & make a heap of filings, Mix it in with clear epoxy.

you need to make up the mix while the brass filings are still bright, so within a few hours of filing them. Then use it like filler for your trim. Once sanded smooth (wait 4 days to sand it) it looks realy cool.

You can use stainless steel aswell, or chrome. Not chrome plate, actual chrome bar. its a bitch to find but it looks cool.

[Our Souls inc.]

I suppose that would work. Of course, I am still seriously contemplating inlace, some sort of black with gold dust or something.

I sometimes get bell brass, go at it with a file & make a heap of filings, Mix it in with clear epoxy.

you need to make up the mix while the brass filings are still bright, so within a few hours of filing them. Then use it like filler for your trim. Once sanded smooth (wait 4 days to sand it) it looks realy cool.

You can use stainless steel aswell, or chrome. Not chrome plate, actual chrome bar. its a bitch to find but it looks cool.

could one use glitter / gold flake too ? Oh the possibilities!!!!!!!

[Ripthorn]

Where do you find clear epoxy? Pretty much all I find is "clear" that dries more yellow.

[Ripthorn]

Well, since it's been a long time since the update, let's fill in some gaps. With the channel, let's just say that things went poorly, and every time I touched it, it went from bad to worse, to worser. So, what is going to be done is fill the channel with filler and do a kind of partial brown sunburst. That is, a brown sunburst around the edges of the lower bout. No pictures of that yet, but the test scraps I did look good.

Now for the pictures. First is the ubiquitous "gazillion clamps gluing on the fretboard" photo.

The next couple photos are of the neck carving progress. I carved it with a rasp and scrapers. Let me just say how much I dig my scrapers. The only beef I have with the neck carve so far is that the volute still looks chunky and awkward. I think that it's too thick, so I will take it down some and recarve and see what it looks like. The heel is still fairly rough, but I think I like how it is starting to look. Progress will probably be kind of slow, seeing as how I have other projects and very little time to work on it, but such is life.

[Ripthorn]

Ok, I need some opinions. Here are a couple photos of the volute as it stands right now. It looks so big and clunky, so I am wondering what you guys would do. I could take it down and make it so that there is virtually no volute, or leave it as is or ... ? Come on, guys, I need your help with this.

[Narcissism]

To me, the headstock looks pretty thick. I'd thin down the headstock, while thinning out the voulte. If you look at killemall's builds, you'll see what I'm talking about. His are a bit oversized, and in a similar location with what you have to work with.

I'd like to see some other opinions though, as I've never made one

[Reinhold]

Yeah, I would leave the part closest to the body relatively the same, yet make the rest more v like and make it run smoothly into the thinned out headstock, if you get what I'm saying at all.

[pauliemc]

To me, the headstock looks pretty thick. I'd thin down the headstock, while thinning out the voulte. If you look at killemall's builds, you'll see what I'm talking about. His are a bit oversized, and in a similar location with what you have to work with.

I'd like to see some other opinions though, as I've never made one

+1

headstock looks a little heavy. Thin it out & take it from there. You will be surprised how much of the volute will vanish if you take about 2mm off the head. What thickness is it just now ?

[Ripthorn]

The headstock is at about .65" at the thinnest point. But I totally agree on the headstock looking a little thick. I think I can take it down a bit without a problem. I took it in to work for a couple guys to check out and that was one thing that they mentioned, "thin the headstock a bit".

[Ripthorn]

Long time no update, but I finally got this one finished off. Every time I touched that channel where the walnut transitioned to alder, things went from bad to worse to worser (didn't quite get to worst). I finally decided that my last three resorts were do a partial burst around the transition, paint the whole thing, or scrap the entire build. I didn't like the idea of the last two, so I did the partial burst. I think it actually looks pretty good. Some final updates:

Electronics:

Iron gear rolling mill pickups (overwound bridge)

push/pull pots with coil splitting and series/parallel (meaning the neck in series with the bridge)

The fret marker dots are epoxy mixed with artist's charcoal dust and brass.

This thing sounds really good and plays amazing. After putting in the frets, I put my precision straight edge on the fretboard and took a .0015 feeler gauge. I couldn't slip it between the straight edge and any of the frets.

Here are a few photos.

[Drak]

I am quite saddened to see you had to do a partial burst around the edge, I think the guitar is absolutely beautiful, and it's a shame you had to do that, I wish there was a way you could have left it natural as planned, beautiful beautiful guitar besides the (necessary) partial burst.

[Ripthorn]

Drak: Thanks for the kinds words. I know you call them like you see them, and after seeing all your beautiful work, I take your comments as very high compliments. I know the partial burst was not choice number one, but it was far better than painting the whole thing. I have come to like it now, though I still kick myself for my dumb mistakes, but it's all a learning process and you can bet that I won't be quite as stupid on the next build.

[pauliemc]

Glad to see this one didnt get left unfinished. Looks realy cool. Pity about the burst, but you might come back to it in a few years & get it sorted to how you realy want it. Either way - cool guitar