Johnny Foreigner Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 Figured I might as well start the build thread on this, even though it might be some time before I get chance to make any progress. I've now moved from a house with a lovely big basement (perfect for guitar building) to a loft in downtown Boston, which does not have a basement. Trying to figure out ways around the problem, but progress will be slow. The watchword for this build is "clean." Frustrated by the imperfections on my first two builds, I'm determined this one will be perfect, even if it takes me a year to finish up. ok, the finalized design: the specs are: limba body with spalt maple cap - superthin with a total body thickness of around 1 3/8" laminate neck of bubinga-maple-padauk-maple-bubinga and I'm contemplating (not on the mockup) throwing an accent piece into the scarf, using a cutoff from my 2nd build neck, which was padauk-bubinga-maple-bubinga-padauk, with the pieces all the same size for their position as in this one. 2 alumitone sc two volume, one 3-way toggle and the first couple of bits done before I moved: limba: spalt: obvious first question: what do I need to do with spalt maple that might be unexpected? any nasty surprises? I've heard talk of using CA on spalt, but not 100% clear on the process or reasoning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwcarl Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 I'm working with spalted maple for the first time, and from what I know and can tell from your photos you should be fine without stabilizing it. Your spalting is very light, the wood I'm using for mine is very 'punky' (that's what they call it anyway). The spalted areas are very soft and if I was to cut into them without first stabilizing them, they would tear and crumble. Those areas require flooding with something that dries hard and is thin enough to penetrate deep into the wood, I used very thin CA glue. Inspect your piece of wood and see whether you think the wood is stable enough to use as is. The other thing to know about working with spalted wood is that it's more toxic than usual, so use a mask and have some way of collecting the resulting dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted February 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 OK: resurrecting this thread from the dead as I've slowly started a little more work on it. Cut me my first ever bits of mop for the 12th fret inlay. On my first 2 builds I did a much more subtle epoxy fill, but I decided it was time to bust out the bling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 got the top glued on: (that's a shadow you see there due to the top overhanging the limba, not a gigantic gap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 got the top glued on: Nice clamps. If you put a slight radius on the bottom of the cross bars they will actually add clamping pressure to the middle of the deck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted February 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2011 Nice clamps. If you put a slight radius on the bottom of the cross bars they will actually add clamping pressure to the middle of the deck. ahh cunning. Though I fear putting a slight, consistent radius on would be beyond my current capabilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted February 6, 2011 Report Share Posted February 6, 2011 Nice clamps. If you put a slight radius on the bottom of the cross bars they will actually add clamping pressure to the middle of the deck. ahh cunning. Though I fear putting a slight, consistent radius on would be beyond my current capabilities. Serious? this isn't rocket science. Mark a 1/16" on each end and sand to the mark by rocking the block on the belt sander. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted February 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 Serious? this isn't rocket science. Mark a 1/16" on each end and sand to the mark by rocking the block on the [em]belt sander[/em]. Don't got one. Although I'm finally getting a jointer, which should arrive today and make the neck lams easier/nicer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted February 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Okay, a little progress on this. The most annoying thing is that my replacement jointer has been sitting downstairs since last Thursday. The day it arrived, the elevator broke and I think it's too heavy to lug up to the 5th floor, so it's going to have to wait until Monday when the elevator is due to get fixed. Until I have that, there will be no progress on the neck, so instead I did these bits: My control cavity cover is going to be an offcut from the top, dyed the same as the top for a little piece of contrast on the back. Need to thickness it and route the ledge, which I'll do towards the end. And likewise for the headplate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 If you haven't already planned to I would suggest matching the curve of the outside edge of the control plate to the outside edge of the guitar. One other thing... long term stability of the control plate might be an issue make sure you do your best to stabilize the spalt. One thing I have done in the past is make a veneer and epoxy it to a piece of plexi. If you already thought of that nevermind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted February 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 One other thing... long term stability of the control plate might be an issue make sure you do your best to stabilize the spalt. One thing I have done in the past is make a veneer and epoxy it to a piece of plexi. If you already thought of that nevermind. Nope, hadn't really occured to me. I assume the best way to stabilize is flooding it with CA. To be honest, if it's fine for a while and then becomes unusable and I have to replace it with a bit of black plastic it's not going to be the end of the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 One other thing... long term stability of the control plate might be an issue make sure you do your best to stabilize the spalt. One thing I have done in the past is make a veneer and epoxy it to a piece of plexi. If you already thought of that nevermind. Nope, hadn't really occured to me. I assume the best way to stabilize is flooding it with CA. To be honest, if it's fine for a while and then becomes unusable and I have to replace it with a bit of black plastic it's not going to be the end of the world. Ummm... CA might work just depends on the piece. I usually flood them on the back so that the finish and color is not effected. If it becomes unstable you can plane it down to a veneer and epoxy it to the piece of plastic and keep the look... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted February 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 What exactly would unstable look/feel like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 What exactly would unstable look/feel like? Seriously? Anything other than the shape it is in now. Cupped, Crumbling, Twisted, Walking, Talking... ummm maybe not the last 2 unless George Romero is involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted October 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 ...aaaaaaand we're back from the dead. not much progress on this, but some. opportunity to build has been very limited due to impracticality of doing it in my apartment, plus the insanity of quitting one's job to go full-time with one's own business. Still, I've got a little done, and hope to wrap this one up by Christmas. So i put together a neck from some laminates, got it scarfed, routed the TR channel and cut the rough profile. And it was by no means perfect, and I wasn't really loving the wood choices and how they'd look against the body (it was a 5-piece of bubinga / maple / padauk / maple / bubinga). I also found the bubinga a little difficult to work - prone to chipping. So I binned it and started again on the neck. The new one is same woods, just in different amounts / order - so it's maple/padauk/maple/bubinga/maple/padauk/maple with the 5 central strips all pretty thin (.25" or so) making the majority of the neck a nice flamy maple. I'm pretty pleased with how clean it looks at this stage, so hoping this neck overall turns out better than the last. sometimes you've just got to cut your losses. getting the stripes lined up was a little tricky. one other change to this build - I'm probably now not going to use alumitones. A friend of mine back in the UK is launching his own line of pickups so he's going to send me out a pair of P90s that I can put in this - can someone confirm the route depth i'd probably need for p90s (obviously ball park as it's contingent on bridge type/neck angle, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menapia Posted October 31, 2011 Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) Looking good Johnny . Edited October 31, 2011 by Menapia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whalehazard Posted October 31, 2011 Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 I love the green in the mockup. I hope you can get that shade in real life. This is a sweet build and the neck lams look very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted October 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 Thanks guys We'll see how well the green works out. i have plenty of scrap spalt maple so I'll be able to experiment a little to get the right tone. Got the TR route done nicely - much much happier with how this went than on the first neck attempt. Learned a lot about the unreliability of my router's bit positioning when changing bit height and was able to allow for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted November 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2011 got my neck profile rough cut on the bandsaw - i'll trim on the router table tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted November 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2011 Here's the updated designed based on a few changes I've made along the way. Pickups: as mentioned I'll be going with P90s because I'm getting a set free from my buddy at Monty's Guitars back in blighty. Neck: as I changed my neck, I figured I should update the design control cover: will now be an offcut from the spalt maple as previously shown. I'll dye it the same color as the top. truss rod cover: this is going to be formed by cutting a path in the headstock plate (also an offcut from the spalt maple) so it will sit flush with the plate, be held in place by neodymium magnets and removed by pressing on it close to the nut (I'll chisel out a little ledge to create a pivot). bridge: decided a while back to splash out on the hipshot hardtail bridge. My first build lacks sustain and I think the cheapo bridge I used didn't help, so decided this was one area not to scrimp. back: I think I'm going to leave the limba natural. partly to avoid buying orange dye that i'll never use again, and partly because I don't think it adds much. controls: I never really use separate volume controls and I definitely never use a tone control, so just a single master volume and a 3 way toggle (SG version due to lack of cavity depth) will do it. pearl: my JF ident and my fret markers will now all be mop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted November 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 No real progress from me, but my free pickups from my buddy Matt arrived. There's nothing like free stuff. The packaging alone on these blew me away so I figured I'd share: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 I'm looking forward to hearing your take on those P-90s. I love mine. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted November 15, 2011 Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 Looking good, how has the spalt been to work with so far? I have some nice spalt birch but I still don't know if I like the look of spalt enough to ever use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted December 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 I'm not taking nearly enough pictures along the way, but here's a quick update: the headplate has been thinned and marked up for the truss rod cover cutout: And with the inlays done, fretboard glued on, headplate glued on, it's beginning to look a little like a guitar. Next up: I'm going to cut the neck pocket, get my bridge and pup routes lined, then carve the neck and fret 'er up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted December 11, 2011 Report Share Posted December 11, 2011 This is looking verrrrry nice.....are you sure you want to make it green? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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