Second Build - "the Wol"

[Johnny Foreigner]

it was one of these fellas:

http://cgi.ebay.com/TWO-WAY-TWO-COURSE-GUI...=item5d2a181ee4

and no, it wasn't glued in, just held in by the tightness of the route.

[Johnny Foreigner]

Ok, with the finishing on my other one waiting to cure I'm back to this one again.

Got enough wood for three necks:

As I'm giving this guitar away for nowt, I chose to give it the least visually appealing of the three: padauk, bubinga, maple, bubinga padauk.

It should end up looking like this, if my photoshop skills are to be believed:

Here it is glued up:

[Johnny Foreigner]

scarf:

truss rod channel routed:

I forgot to take pics of shaping the neck and headstock, so we skip onto gluing on the fretboard, which I salvaged from the old, broke neck.

[Johnny Foreigner]

Now, mainly for reasons of aesthetics, the top of this one needs to be as free of clutter as possible.

So I'm only having one (mag) pickup, and because of the depth of the body, I'm not going to be able to direct mount it, but I also don't want to use a pickup ring.

So I decided to make pickup holders out of acrylic that are basically the end bits of a pickup ring, without the aroundy bits.

I was prepared for the edges of the acrylic to be made opaque by the machining, but I maintained the patience to sand up through the grades all the way to the end of my micromesh, and while I wouldn't claim total transparency, I think these came out kinda good.

[ScottR]

Those did come out nice. The neck is going to look good as well. Your posts have come across as if you've been remarkably patient with the demons in the neck.....perhaps we got the PG version?

I still don't have the body figured out. I will be watching for the final version with intense interest.

SR

[Johnny Foreigner]

Those did come out nice. The neck is going to look good as well. Your posts have come across as if you've been remarkably patient with the demons in the neck.....perhaps we got the PG version?

Nah, I'm pretty stoic. I am English, after all. Passion is a dangerous thing, characteristic of the French. The main thing is that with everything that goes wrong, at least you learn the lesson and make sure it doesn't go wrong again, right?

I still don't have the body figured out. I will be watching for the final version with intense interest.

I look at my photoshop mockup and it makes me giggle everytime, but that's because I and the eventual recipient have a shared and very very stupid sense of humor. We'll both find it hilarious, everyone else will probably be nonplussed.

[Johnny Foreigner]

rough carve on the neck:

lil smoother:

And I'm now essentially back to the point I was at when it was pointed out to me that my last neck was a trainwreck. That was July 25th. Sigh.

[Johnny Foreigner]

frets in:

This is one area where I've noticed a definite 'practice makes perfect' improvement over the last build. I learned a lot and applied it here to end up with a better (tho not perfect) fret job. awesome.

and this time I got a nicer, tighter fit on the neck pocket, tho didn't 100% manage to line up the neck on the centerline. not that you'll be able to tell.

and the neck goes in to glue. getting close on this one now.

[ScottR]

This one will definitely pull into the station.

SR

[Johnny Foreigner]

Ok, time for the big reveal.

And remember, this is for one of my best friends, in celebration of his 30th birthday.

And also remember that he and I share a stupid sense of humor.

....

....

IT'S HIS OWN FACE!

[Johnny Foreigner]

in place:

glued in place, with a slit cut for the piezo under-bridge pickup, and a hole cut for the mag pickup:

I used spray glue, by the way, deviating from Our Soul's published guidelines. I had previously tested it on a piece of scrap, using the corner of the printout, which I then shot a few coats of sanding sealer over. Looked fine.

All tidied up and trimmed flush:

and with the cutout glued onto the mag pickup. not sure how this is going to impact tone, but as this is essentially one big joke, who cares?

[ScottR]

Dude That's AWESOME

SR

[Stewey]

Oh man, laughing so hard. Perfect placement having the neck come out of his forehead.

[supplebanana]

this looks like something Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick would play...lol..... don't forget to get piccies of his reaction when you give him it.

[Johnny Foreigner]

Ok, it's been a while but I got this one finished out... sorta

originally I sprayed some waterbase lacquer, but when it came to do the final sand I just wasn't happy with it, so I stripped it all back and, since I'd now moved from my house to an apartment, opted to try a tru-oil finish.

So as part of that I removed the old graphic (printed on glossy paper) and got a new one printed up on vinyl.

Once again I used spray glue, but after several weeks the stuff still hasn't set and I can still move the vinyl around on the top (with a fair bit of pressure). My initial thought is to lift the edge and go around with some CA to seal down the edge in place.

There's also something funny going on with the pickup switching which I need to figure out before I ship it off to the recipient.

Overall, this was a very ambitious project and I'm happy that it's turned out as well as it has. It actually plays much nicer than my first build (yay! improvement) but the EMG-HZ pickup sounds like utter ass. As on the first build, the piezo under the bridge works pretty well for an acoustic-esque tone.

[ScottR]

The bridge makes it look like he just spit out his braces. And now that it is strung up, I've just realized that to play it, he'll be pickin' his nose....unless he plays finger style, which could possibly cause him to thumb his nose.

SR

BTW, I take it the vinyl wasn't adhesive backed?

[Johnny Foreigner]

I take it the vinyl wasn't adhesive backed?

No, it was marketed as a 'window cling' - that way i'd have more control over the adhesive used....

[Our Souls inc.]

Love it! Has he seen it yet??

[Our Souls inc.]

O - and the vinyl isn't allowing the air to dry your spray-glue , so it's being preserved underneath. Try a hairdryer to warm it up a bit , but be wary , it could make the vinyl stretchy too......... If you sealed the body first, it'll likely never dry..... well, one day, but who knows how long thatll be?

[Johnny Foreigner]

O - and the vinyl isn't allowing the air to dry your spray-glue , so it's being preserved underneath. Try a hairdryer to warm it up a bit , but be wary , it could make the vinyl stretchy too......... If you sealed the body first, it'll likely never dry..... well, one day, but who knows how long thatll be?

no, i didn't seal the top. i'll try the hairdryer trick..... carefully.

and no, he has zero idea about it - will try to ship it out before xmas.

[ScottR]

I take it the vinyl wasn't adhesive backed?

No, it was marketed as a 'window cling' - that way i'd have more control over the adhesive used....

Window cling, aka static cling, clings to very smooth surfaces because it has a very high level of plasticizers in it. That creates an almost oily film that holds it to the glass. That may be what is keeping your adhesive from curing...or it may be curing but just won't stick to the "cling". When we print on it here, we often have to wipe the excess plasticizers off with alchohol to get the ink to stick to it. You should probably at least do that and then test your adhesive by applying it to the vinyl and seeing if it will stick. Did you save any scrap?

SR

[Johnny Foreigner]

I take it the vinyl wasn't adhesive backed?

No, it was marketed as a 'window cling' - that way i'd have more control over the adhesive used....

Window cling, aka static cling, clings to very smooth surfaces because it has a very high level of plasticizers in it. That creates an almost oily film that holds it to the glass. That may be what is keeping your adhesive from curing...or it may be curing but just won't stick to the "cling". When we print on it here, we often have to wipe the excess plasticizers off with alchohol to get the ink to stick to it. You should probably at least do that and then test your adhesive by applying it to the vinyl and seeing if it will stick. Did you save any scrap?

SR

of course not. that would have been the sensible thing to do, therefore the thing that I didn't do!

I'll try the hairdryer thing and if that doesn't help I'll maybe rethink...

[Johnny Foreigner]

Ok, the guitar was received today and the recipient's girlfriend obliging took some photos:

[ScottR]

That was fun. Who enjoyed it more, he or she? Did you get your adhesion issues solved?

SR

[boudy077]

I know that this thread is pretty much dead, but being late to the game I couldn't help myself from telling you that this is without a doubt the funniest build I've ever seen on Projectguitar. Well done sir.