mistermikev Posted April 7, 2020 Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 39 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said: Finally some bass progress - Made a couple of MDF templates from measurements taken from the pickups. As above, I had to use a 1/4" straight bit to get the correct radius on the corners, so once I had made the templates, I sealed all the edges with wood glue to make sure the were hard enough to withstand the high speed bit with no bearing and I did most of the routing with a larger bearing bit, then just used the straight bit to get in the very corners. Did a test route first on a walnut offcut to get out the template. it was all good except not deep enough. Marked out locations and hogged out waste with the pillar drill Then routed, managed to get them perfectly square on the centre line and square with each other fortunately, because I need to make a ramp out of some pheobe wood offcuts to go between the two pickups. Also did a test first, starting to look fairly basslike now. In fact it's not really that far away. I just need to drill holes for the 5 pots, bridge and an earth wire, sand the hell out of it and spray some lacquer. Hopefully all that won't take another 6 months. looking good! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 8, 2020 Report Share Posted April 8, 2020 Nice neat and tight fit with those pickup routs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 8, 2020 Report Share Posted April 8, 2020 I'm looking forward to seeing some clear on that pheobe wood. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted April 9, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 Caught up with Snuffy and figured out what we're doing with the layout of the pots, he wants something like this but I think I shall move them all down a bit so the volume isn't quite so close to the strings. I also need to be able to fit the battery and preamp in the control cavity. I've also finalised the neck carve as it was a bit chunky at 23mm at the first fret, it's now down to 25.5mm and gradually ramping up to 23mm just before the heel, sorry no photo. I also spent quite some time on filling all the tiny pinhole voids with dust and superglue, then finally brush some sealer into the top after getting the whole thing sanded to 320. Now I need to get the back and the neck fine sanded and grain filled next, Also got a final coat of sealer on the LP so that's ready for lacquer too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted April 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 I feel like I have pretty much done nothing but sand guitars for the last 2 days, in reality I've been constantly heckled and called away by a certain 2 year old with a paddling pool. But after all the sanding, this evening I dug out the sprayer and got a coat of lacquer on the bass and the lp. I'm feeling rather smug and excited about the bass. Couple of quick vids I managed to get a run on the back, which I'll probably level off in the morning Didn't mange to get any decent vids of the lp but a couple of pics, I just did a light mist coat for the first coat just to be sure the colour doesn't run as I've not use a tone of sealer. I'm also much more to keen to avoid runs on the front Due to have good weather again tomorrow, it was still day, mid 20s (celcius) and around 40% humidity according to my gauge so perfect for spraying outside. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted April 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 They've both had another wet coat today, and starting to look good. But I'm struggling a bit with coverage because I'm outside and holding them while spraying which is pretty awkward given the size and weight holding them at arms length (especially the bass). I sprayed the blue one from last summer in the garage while it was hanging which was a lot easier to control the gun but I'm trying to avoid spraying in the garage as the fumes linger. It's supposed to drop 10ºC tomorrow and be colder for at least the start of the week. So I'm packed the sprayer up until next weekend. I'm hoping I can make some sort of bracket to screw to the wall so I can hang it outside, or buy some hanging basket brackets. Here's how the purple ones looking. I'll use the time off these to get back to some woodworking on the other ones. I'm not complaining because the unexpected heatwave has meant I'm ahead of schedule on my builds 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted April 15, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2020 Made further progress on the billy bongo today. I've now got a bracket on the wall in a secluded corner of my garden that I could have the guitar from and spray instead of holding it which has worked really well so I got another coat of lacquer on the bass. But annoyingly I obviously hadn't cleaned the gun out properly last time because it started spitting when I was spraying the top, I was trying to preserve lacquer thinner as I've now run out (that will teach me) so I used the last of it to soak all the gun part after stripping it down and I'll see if I can fix it when the new thinners arrives. So I've now got a bit of orange peel and a few runs I need to fix, up until now I've been really impressed with how little orange peel I've been getting from that gun. So I decided to get the pot holes drilled, which was rather scary and I won't be doing that after lacquer again. I should just about have room to mount the battery holder on it's side on the north eastern wall. Haven't figured out how I'm going to mount it yet though because I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get the drill in there for screws. I did have a bit of a wobble when drilling one of the holes, fortunately it is well hidden under the knob but I think I might just get some super glue in there to stabilise and maybe use a bigger washer. This wood is so insanely brittle, I couldn't even carve the lower horn with a gouge without chunks coming away (the wrong chunks) Speaking of lower horn, I think that's my favourite feature of the bass. I still need to make a ramp to go between the pickups and do something about the warped control cover, but this one is close. After the spray misshap with the bass, I decided not to give the LP another coat, so it's chilling while we wait for thinners to arrive. This guitar looks so weird in some lights, it's almost as if it was masked off down the centre line. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ADFinlayson Posted April 24, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted April 24, 2020 gonna leave these for a few weeks for the lacquer to harden and make a start in the tele body. ive been having issues with the gun, probably technique but I was struggling to get a decent spread and I was missing patches, so I thinned down the lacquer a bit more and it came out better. Hopefully I’ve got enough on there, especially on the stained top 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 25, 2020 Report Share Posted April 25, 2020 Those are looking excellent, @ADFinlayson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 25, 2020 Report Share Posted April 25, 2020 The gold colour of that Nanmu/Gold Phoebe is stunning, especially in the darker areas. For many years I've wanted a Les Paul with a faded burst in that sort of tonality range. I'm sure that many call it honeyburst, but hey. The thing is, it's one of those especially subtle tonalities where it's difficult to describe what one perceives. If anything, a very minor greening at the periphery like an old true bronze goldtop. Brittle eh? I'm wondering how far it could be pushed as a thin ~3,0mm or so vacuum-veneered top with mild radii....it might be possible to slacken the wood's resistance slightly with a water-alcohol-glycerine mix. See what you made me do?! Goddamnit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted April 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2020 18 minutes ago, Prostheta said: The gold colour of that Nanmu/Gold Phoebe is stunning, especially in the darker areas. For many years I've wanted a Les Paul with a faded burst in that sort of tonality range. I'm sure that many call it honeyburst, but hey. The thing is, it's one of those especially subtle tonalities where it's difficult to describe what one perceives. If anything, a very minor greening at the periphery like an old true bronze goldtop. Brittle eh? I'm wondering how far it could be pushed as a thin ~3,0mm or so vacuum-veneered top with mild radii....it might be possible to slacken the wood's resistance slightly with a water-alcohol-glycerine mix. See what you made me do?! Goddamnit. Yep, but there is no stain, that's all natural as it's just a coat of sealer and 5 coats of clear lacquer . I would be interested to see how you get on with bending it. My first attempt with a 5mm drop top was a failure, even with soaking, heating and gradual clamping, left it clamped overnight, glued it up the next day and a hairline crack still opened up (on a previous prototype build). That being said, that was the first time I have tried a droptop so an experienced builder like you would no doubt fair better. But I would certainly not entertain carving this with hand tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted April 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 So I had a couple of runs to sort out on the lp top, my initial thinking was that I'd just make sure there was enough lacquer on there so that I can sand them down without sanding through the areas around them, but I decided to scrape them down, used a small round crimson scraper, a scary job but surprisingly easy to do in the right light. Then today I decided to give it one more final coat of lacquer and it's looking a lot better. Pulled the paper towel that was filling the void under the fhole. Really happy with how it came out, a definite improvement on the first fhole I did - the natural sides makes it stand out a lot more and carving the underside of the top to make the area thinner gives the perception that the chamber is a lot deeper than it is. And here's a vid clip from the bass after I put the last coat of lacquer on it. The lacquer I'm using is precat and it says not to thin it down more than 10% but I'm getting much better results with I thin as much as 25% - 30% 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 Wow I didn't realise how long it's been since I updated this thread. I clearly need to get on and finish some projects. I got the billy bongo all levelled off with 600 and sanded the blend at the neck heel and the headstock (the body and headstock are lacquered but they're going to blend into oil on the neck). Sanding the blend was a real pita and I had to reapply some grainfiller to get it looking seemless, I've now given it a last thin coat of lacquer, but before I did that I had a catastrophe... I hung the guitar on the hook, turned round to pick up the gun and the guitar was not on the hook, it fell 1' and the tip off the headstock bounced on the stone flags below. As I turned round I caught it on the rebound but it took a couple of minor scrapes on the body too. I got really lucky as the damage was only in the lacquer. So I fixed the issues with some sanding, drop filling of neat lacquer and more sanding before doing some more lacquer, decided to give it a couple of coats given what had happened. But I decided that day I was not in the right frame of mind to be touching guitars any more that day. I'm really lucky that happenned to the bass and not any of the guitars I'm working on - the moustache headstock would definitely not take the kind of abuse. Anyway, back to the blend - I decided that taping off the neck shaft is not the best way to do the blend, a bit of technique with the spray gun has produced much better results with far less work. I don't know I realise sooner that the spray blends naturally anyway I'll leave this one another week or so then start sanding at 2000, I can wet sand up to 7000 with what I've got then hand buff. I've sanded the purple lp up to 1200 all over too but I've got that gut feeling that there isn't a lot of lacquer left and I'm worried about sanding through when I go up the grits, so I'm going to give it another fine coat to be on the safe side. Picks to follow when the weather is better. I'm having real trouble when it comes to spraying at the moment. We've had the weather for it but the builders behind us are kicking up so much dust that I can't spray, when they've not been there we've had high winds and today it's much cooler and wet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 One final thing, the above saga with dropping the bass has taught me one thing - nitrocellulose is flipping easy to fix! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said: I hung the guitar on the hook, turned round to pick up the gun and the guitar was not on the hook, it fell 1' and the tip off the headstock bounced on the stone flags below. Been there, done that, invented new swear words....and once solicited ethnic curses to help chase away the demon that caused it. 1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said: One final thing, the above saga with dropping the bass has taught me one thing - nitrocellulose is flipping easy to fix! That's one of the things that keeps me coming back! SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayT Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 (edited) Beauties, both of them! Excellent work. On 4/15/2020 at 7:08 PM, ADFinlayson said: I still need to make a ramp to go between the pickups What do you mean by ramp? EDIT: nevermind! I got it ... Edited June 3, 2020 by JayT 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 26 minutes ago, ScottR said: Been there, done that, invented new swear words....and once solicited ethnic curses to help chase away the demon that caused it. That's one of the things that keeps me coming back! SR yes there was some anger, some strong expletive use and various articles thrown around the workshop 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 31 minutes ago, JayT said: Beauties, both of them! Excellent work. What do you mean by ramp? EDIT: nevermind! I got it ... Interesting video that, I learnt stuff so thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 3 hours ago, ADFinlayson said: Interesting video that, Didn't know what a bass ramp is, now I do. But that guy was super lazy! Power tools for such a small piece because "hand tools would take much more time"! Oh come on! Thicknessing would be the hardest task to do and even that could be done with just various grits of sandpaper. A saw and a couple of sanding blocks (one flat and one made of a piece of broomstick for the round indents) plus sandpaper is all that would be needed. And a radius guide of sorts, even a printed one would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 20 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Didn't know what a bass ramp is, now I do. But that guy was super lazy! Power tools for such a small piece because "hand tools would take much more time"! Oh come on! Thicknessing would be the hardest task to do and even that could be done with just various grits of sandpaper. A saw and a couple of sanding blocks (one flat and one made of a piece of broomstick for the round indents) plus sandpaper is all that would be needed. And a radius guide of sorts, even a printed one would do. in his defence, I was going to sand in a radius with a radius beam but nut of my radius beams are wide enough! My initial thought was to use a hand plane but I want to orient the grain in the same direction of the fretboard and the idea of planing across the grain makes me shudder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 Why in the first place did he choose to put the grain direction across the strings? On the blonde bass in the video the ramp was in the same direction as the fingerboard. You don't actually touch it while playing so the grain direction doesn't matter - and even if you'd use it for doing bending with your right hand fingers it wouldn't differ from bending cross grain on the fretboard! So why should things have to be made complicated? Simply think of it as a separate extension of the fretboard. Same grain direction, similar properties etc. Another thing that caught my eye was his way to estimate the thickness. Alright, measuring the end of the fretboard was clever but adding a couple of mm's to be adjusted by ear not so much. The most accurate way would have been to measure from top of the strings to the body at the bridge and at the fretboard end, then measure the distance of the two, then measure the locations between the pickups. Simple fraction math would give the exact wedging thickness of the block. If that didn't make sense I can easily draw it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Bizman62 said: Why in the first place did he choose to put the grain direction across the strings? On the blonde bass in the video the ramp was in the same direction as the fingerboard. You don't actually touch it while playing so the grain direction doesn't matter - and even if you'd use it for doing bending with your right hand fingers it wouldn't differ from bending cross grain on the fretboard! So why should things have to be made complicated? Simply think of it as a separate extension of the fretboard. Same grain direction, similar properties etc. Another thing that caught my eye was his way to estimate the thickness. Alright, measuring the end of the fretboard was clever but adding a couple of mm's to be adjusted by ear not so much. The most accurate way would have been to measure from top of the strings to the body at the bridge and at the fretboard end, then measure the distance of the two, then measure the locations between the pickups. Simple fraction math would give the exact wedging thickness of the block. If that didn't make sense I can easily draw it. I hope you don't tear my youtube videos apart like that 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayT Posted June 4, 2020 Report Share Posted June 4, 2020 @ADFinlayson was there any thought to making the ramp an actual part of the body? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 4, 2020 Report Share Posted June 4, 2020 9 hours ago, ADFinlayson said: I hope you don't tear my youtube videos apart like that I do, don't I. And I've done it on this very forum. Read my comments for the first ones! It would be interesting to know if the guy has made any changes into his design as that was his first one back in 2013. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2020 10 hours ago, JayT said: @ADFinlayson was there any thought to making the ramp an actual part of the body? I didn't consider that tbh, but it would require a lot of precise planning and carving to get the ramp the right size and in the right spot in relation to the pickup routs, and precision in terms of neck break angle and fretboard height etc. I tend to make things up as I go along and make adjustments as necessary. I expect Snuffy will want to be able to remove the ramp as well and I don't know how good he is with a flush trim saw 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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