westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 Okay...so all of you might know I really dislike those Agile POS guitars that everyone wants to be great...obviously if they were great guitars it would be a steal every time you bought one,so it seems as if people want them to be more than they are... Well,I have a legitimate reason to not like them.I bought a "Swamp ash honey burst LP" a few years back...got it in,and since I am very familiar with Gibson LPs from owning a few and playing several,I realized right away all of the hype was false.But you know,I thought "for the price" Less than a year later I was trying to put a clear coat on it(it came stained but with no clear coat)and I had it stripped down and had it hanging from the neck when I noticed the fretboard starting to separate.I took it down and inserted a putty knife and started to try to remove the fretboard...since it was epoxy glued,I knew I needed to take it off and clean it all up and install a new fretboard...when I got the old one off I noticed the reason it was separating was because they only epoxied it in two thin strips of glue down the middle of the board,and the edges of the fretboard were hidden by the binding,so no chance of noticing before it failed...but besides that,the truss rod rout was horrible,the truss rod was cheap junk,and the neck joint had gaps all the way around...so I cut the neck off and threw the body into a closet. Fast forward to now. Last night I was obsessing over the beast I built and thinking about how the neck on it was so great,but it was wasted since the guitar body was sharp and pointy and though it looked nice to me,I never could stand to play it. So this morning I took out the Agile body and the Beast. I noticed the body had a crack starting at the neck joint,so I opened ita bit with a chisel and started wicking in thin CA until I filled it You can see the finish I started to put on it back then..It was rattlecan poly...so was the beast.Lucky thing too because I am going to have to remove all of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 So the neck..I removed it from the beast the old fashioned way...with the bandsaw You can see the work area I chose for today.Nice and comfy...The Beast is no more and it is now less than junk..so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 The neck is a 25.5" 24 fret jobie,and the body is for 24.75... So I measured and cut off the last two frets,and as I need a fretboard of 18 7/8" total from nut,The best I could get is 18 5/8",so I am going to have to set the neck back a little from the pup rout and fill in the leftover. The headstock on the beast in no way fits on an lp So I took out my PRS,and made a PRS-ish headstock on it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 On the back of the headstock,the reshaping brings the screw holes too close to the edge,so after I sanded through the finish and I let sawdust fill the holes,I wicked in some CA so now they are filled.The finish I needed to sand off,so I started with this and a lot of elbow grease And I ended up with this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 The neck is two outer strips of Honduran mahogany with a center of walnut...the fretboard is ebony,and the frets are SS Neck is all done and sanded to 120,now to start on the body.I haven't started that yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reinhold Posted November 7, 2010 Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 Cool conversion, can't wait to see it all come together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 So on to the body.I got the fragments of leftover rosewood and remnants of neck sanded down and ready for routing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 Drew centerlines. And routed for the neck...you can see the huge gap on the treble side of what used to be the maple neck...I am going to fill that gap with epoxy before installing the new neck.I thought about routing it all out and replacing it with a tighter fitting piece of wood,and I still might...thoughts? Just answered my own question...I will just rout a straight line through the gap with a 1/4" bit and fill it in with a piece of something...it will be a better fix and will help keep that crack stabilized.\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 Test fit the neck.You might also have noticed from the other pic that I rounded over the heel joint.Necessary to have it fit the new neck which is slanted like that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 Started sanding the paint off the back.You can see how not flat the body is,but it will be flat when I get it done. Unfortunately I ran out of daylight...so that is it for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted November 7, 2010 Report Share Posted November 7, 2010 And routed for the neck...you can see the huge gap on the treble side of what used to be the maple neck...I am going to fill that gap with epoxy before installing the new neck.I thought about routing it all out and replacing it with a tighter fitting piece of wood,and I still might...thoughts? Just answered my own question...I will just rout a straight line through the gap with a 1/4" bit and fill it in with a piece of something...it will be a better fix and will help keep that crack stabilized. I'd still take the whole thing out and replace it with a new piece. With what you've told/shown us so far, I wouldn't trust the glue joint of the existing wood. Your gluing to the remaining tenon may be stable, but is the leftover tenon gluef properly to the body? Don't trust it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2010 Yeah,you do bring up a good point...probably is the best thing.With all of the Limba chunks I have laying around the only thing stopping me would be laziness... So since that ain't a good excuse,I guess that will be the next step. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2010 By the way,I chipped my fret pullers trying to pull the 23rd fret.I forgot that I made this neck during my fret gluing phase and apparently I went a bit overboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 8, 2010 Report Share Posted November 8, 2010 Okay...so all of you might know I really dislike those Agile POS guitars that everyone wants to be great I do remember reading that at least once. I like your plan and I love your wood shop......how are you going to finish this? Black paint perhaps? I'm glad you are replacing the wood in the neck pocket , I agree with John there. I was going to ask how well the top was glued to the back, but the pictures are making it look like it was just finished to look like it has a top, or am I seeing that wrong? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2010 Black paint perhaps? Ha..how did you guess? but the pictures are making it look like it was just finished to look like it has a top, or am I seeing that wrong? Well...interesting thing going on there there...The body is solid Ash...A very light piece...but here is the kicker...even though the body is entirely the same type of ash,and all cut flatsawn,they used a cap of ash for the carved top. I noticed it at first when I cut the heel joint shorter as I went through the binding,but now I can see it(since I know it is there) in all of the cavities,and it seems to be properly joined everywhere that I can see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2010 Ahh...I had to cut that last post short because I was 3/4 of the way through my afternoon latte and my insides were speaking to me...But now that that problem is flushed away... In all seriousness,I was wanting to do a blacktop LP out of this,but that just isn't going to work with all of the heel replacement surgery,so to cover up the back yet still leave some of the ash as a feature I was thinking I would... Paint the entire back,neck,and headstock gloss black,but tape off the top,bind the body with black binding that I already have,and since the ash is bone white naturally,stain the top with a dark,dark cherry,sand back until it is only left in the ash grain,then coat the entire guitar(including the gloss black) in translucent cherry(not the fretboard,duh)of this color,but a hair darker Then put a good clearcoat over all of that..it would be similar to this in the end Except that the top would be ash instead of figured maple and the black back would look more like black cherry because of the cherry overcoat. What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 9, 2010 Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 That's a good look. How about everything you just said plus a translucent black burst in the middle layers of the translucent cherry? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Man I really don't like bursts too much...fades are okay,but I prefer crisp lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireFly Posted November 9, 2010 Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Wes has a build thread! :popcorn Im assuming you did some kind of refret or refretboard somewhere... As shortening the scale length doesn't result from cutting the last two frets off. I'd say +1 to the burst idea, but then the black binding wouldn't happen. And I'm guessing you really want to have black binding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Im assuming you did some kind of refret or refretboard somewhere... As shortening the scale length doesn't result from cutting the last two frets off. No,I measured from the nut 25.5 inches to the center of the treble insert with the 25.5 at the bridge side,then marked where the neck end would fall in a perfect world,noted that measurement as 18 7/8",then transferred that measurement onto the neck,and the 23rd fret of the neck was at roughly 18 3/4"...so I cut the neck short right behind the 23rd fret...If I had been thinking clearly I would have just cut the fretboard instead of the entire neck and would have let the tenon extend to the pickup cavity,but I got excited. Gave me a neck 18 5/8" in length from the fretboard side of the nut...then I again placed the measuring stick with 25.5" centered on the treble insert,and marked 18 5/8"...that gave me the end of the board. So...satisfied? it is not as tough as you think to modify scale length...witness warmoth's conversion necks.We are only talking about 3/4" . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Ha..that picture was really bad I will try again in natural light this weekend if you wish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted November 9, 2010 Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Looking good Wes. Glad to see you building again. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Thanks,Mike..I am feeling better about life now that my debt issues are becoming a problem of the past.Amazing how such a thing can drag you down so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted November 9, 2010 Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Thanks,Mike..I am feeling better about life now that my debt issues are becoming a problem of the past.Amazing how such a thing can drag you down so much.I understand my friend, it gets old fighting for everything. My wife and I know that battle well. I feel the same lately about getting some of the debt issues behind as well. That has started me going again, like you. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy g Posted November 9, 2010 Report Share Posted November 9, 2010 Awesome build/destruction thread. It's hard for me to go back and screw with something that might turn out mediocre at best (why do I try to build guitars, then), but this looks promising. And it's been cheap and inspiring. I've got a beater kit guitar that's either getting burned this winter or turned into something playable. I've never bandsawed a neck off. Looks satisfying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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