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tele for a cop...


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so... a lifelong friend of mine, who happens to be a cop... has been asking me to build something for him for a while.  I'm gonna do it despite being nutz deep in my bass builds.  should be a nice way of saying 'thank you for your service' anyway, and tele's are a lot of fun so... this is my placeholder for that adventure.

talked him into letting me get a bit experimental so... doing a complex radius... sort of a bell curve between 12r and 30r.  this is the guitar I think I'm planning to do a bookmatched fretboard on... probably do a radius back and thinline with a radius hollow area.

here's what I have so far...

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anywho... this one is now verified...

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this shot here (below) is my best attempt at capturing the transition (or lack thereof) between the neck and neck pocket.  It has come to my attention lately that what feels good to me afa upper fret access is all about the thumb.  With that in mind... I carried the profile of the neck right up to hilt.  it looks like it would be less comfy as there is not much transition... but it actually feels really good and I think I'm going to expore this some more going fwd.

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so... minor update here... I got my body chamber all figured out... the chamber is radius'd to the same arc as the top... so I'll be cutting the body in ash, then cutting the f holes in a top, then bending it over and gluing down, then cutting the pickup holes and neck hole... but this gives you the jist of the inside anyway:

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also, did a goto meeting with my friend and we hashed out remaining details like controls, headstock, and tuning machines.  We also named it... was thinking "wang master" but since my friend has kids finally settled in on 'Twang Master'

 

so this is the final version:

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1 hour ago, ScottR said:

That should be fun. Especially binding the F-holes! What are you going to do the headstock inlay with?

SR

well jokes on you jack... I'm thinking I'm going to stain the top, tape off the f holes, and follow the f holes with a small ogee bit.  sm with the body 'faux' binding... that is unless I decide that a dumb idea and do something else.  haha!!

headstock inlay is going to be abalone for the mv logo and then the gold transfer paper like I did  on the les flaus.

also planning brass tube inlays... I'd love to do abalone inside brass rings... but I'm not certain that won't end up being a pain.  might just do epoxy and something blue inside brass tube.... still kind of working that out.

thank you very much for the reply sir!!!!!!

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8 hours ago, mistermikev said:

I'd love to do abalone inside brass rings

Should be easy enough. The trick is to redrill the tube after gluing and filing. I've done the tube side dots on my current build but the abalone dots I have don't match with the brown turtle binding. I could do some dry fitting, though, if I only could find the bag of 100 abalone dots!

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So I found the abalone dots and instead of dry fitting I used super glue. Either the abalone dots were a tad over 2 mm in diameter or the drill bit was a hair too thin. As I beat the dot into the tube with glue I saw a shard fly which most likely knocked half of the top off... Thus reaming the tube with a round needle file might be advisable as brass doesn't give in like wood does. Also I should have filed deeper as the bevel of the tubing cutter is still visible. An inexpensive pipe cutter starting from diameters of 3 mm (1/8")  can cut 8 mm short pieces of the thinnest pipe, very recommendable.

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8 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

So I found the abalone dots and instead of dry fitting I used super glue. Either the abalone dots were a tad over 2 mm in diameter or the drill bit was a hair too thin. As I beat the dot into the tube with glue I saw a shard fly which most likely knocked half of the top off... Thus reaming the tube with a round needle file might be advisable as brass doesn't give in like wood does. Also I should have filed deeper as the bevel of the tubing cutter is still visible. An inexpensive pipe cutter starting from diameters of 3 mm (1/8")  can cut 8 mm short pieces of the thinnest pipe, very recommendable.

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right on.  for me... I could cut the abalone dots myself with cnc and get a pretty close match on diameter.  but obviously taking epoxy and filling a brass tube with it, then chopping the tube into slices would give a tighter fit.  

If I can find a brass tube with the right inside diameter that might be best... just don't want a gap inside it because getting the hole centered could result in results I wouldn't like.  can be done... but can I do it 10 times without a mistake?  prob not!!

thanks for the reply!

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I just had to file it deeper... Not perfectly sanded as you see and definitely shattered. But it's perfecly centered. And actually that was my first ever abalone inlay!

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well, looks nice.   a lot to potentially go wrong drilling twice on the face of the fretboard, and potentially into brass.

on a 6mm dot facing front you are def going to see it more.  getting that to work 10 times in a row seems like a lot of risk but in a pinch it would solve the problem. 

 

what I'd really like to find is liquid abalone! 

one thing I've considered: i have some faux abalone binding... could try taking short lengths of brass tube and pounding it into that.  maybe sharpen the edge of the brass and put it in the drill press and press it.  then chop off the end.  lot of work tho.

might have to do a little experimentation with a few methods.

thanks for the input. 

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2 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

 a lot to potentially go wrong drilling twice on the face of the fretboard, and potentially into brass.

Hey, that was a tube with a 2 mm inside diameter and I used a 2 mm bit just to get rid of the burr from filing the tube flush. Drilling to a solid rod would be a different matter.

I was thinking about filling the tube with abalone dot pieces before assembling but then I started thinking: What if the tube had to be leveled just a hair proud between two dot pieces? That would create a gap as you can't cut a slice of 0.1 mm off a 2 mm abalone disk. Much easier to fit the abalone inside the tube afterwards, and if something goes wrong you can always drill the center open again.

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well... technically 2mm does not fit inside 2mm.  it likely fits inside 2.05mm!  haha!

I had considered the abalone chunks as well.  I don't get what you are saying with the issue there?  my main concern with the method is you don't really get the benfit of a nice looking solid layer of abalone.  

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1 hour ago, mistermikev said:

my main concern with the method is you don't really get the benfit of a nice looking solid layer of abalone.  

Ahh, alright, now I understand. That should have been a solid layer of abalone, the pieces are round and have a shiny flat surface but I had not opened the tube enough for the piece to fall nicely in. I guess abalone doesn't like hammering either? And obviously neither the abalone puck and the brass tube gives in a hair if the fitting is too tight. Other than that I didn't find it more difficult than a standard dot inlay.

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14 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Ahh, alright, now I understand. That should have been a solid layer of abalone, the pieces are round and have a shiny flat surface but I had not opened the tube enough for the piece to fall nicely in. I guess abalone doesn't like hammering either? And obviously neither the abalone puck and the brass tube gives in a hair if the fitting is too tight. Other than that I didn't find it more difficult than a standard dot inlay.

oh, i wasn't saying your method... more the method of putting abalone dust/chunks in and then epoxy.  yeah, abalone/mop is surprisingly delicate stuff. 

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16 hours ago, mistermikev said:

well jokes on you jack... I'm thinking I'm going to stain the top, tape off the f holes, and follow the f holes with a small ogee bit.  sm with the body 'faux' binding... that is unless I decide that a dumb idea and do something else.  haha!!

Nice! Good thinking.

SR

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You can always do the f-hole binding this way. Using a 30* v-bit, carve the f-holes to size. Now using the same v-bit make male inserts that glue in (inverse of original v-carve). Once done use a standard end mill to cut the edge binding by the offset needed.

Here is a PDF file that shows the dimensions of v-bit cutters from a side view. :)

MK

 

V-Bit Chart.pdf

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18 minutes ago, MiKro said:

You can always do the f-hole binding this way. Using a 30* v-bit, carve the f-holes to size. Now using the same v-bit make male inserts that glue in (inverse of original v-carve). Once done use a standard end mill to cut the edge binding by the offset needed.

Here is a PDF file that shows the dimensions of v-bit cutters from a side view. :)

MK

 

V-Bit Chart.pdf 60.73 kB · 2 downloads

that is a very interesting idea.  I think it would be a little more work so might not use it for this... but I could see some very cool applications for combining maple with wenge or other colored binding.  Def putting that in my trick bag for later - thank you for mentioning!! 

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1 hour ago, mistermikev said:

that is a very interesting idea.  I think it would be a little more work so might not use it for this... but I could see some very cool applications for combining maple with wenge or other colored binding.  Def putting that in my trick bag for later - thank you for mentioning!! 

Just a little knowledge that can make a project go from very nice to wow. :)

another thing you can do is dye the insert first, then it is easy to dye the inside edge after it is cut out as binding without the problems of bleed. :)

mk

 

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23 minutes ago, MiKro said:

Just a little knowledge that can make a project go from very nice to wow. :)

another thing you can do is dye the insert first, then it is easy to dye the inside edge after it is cut out as binding without the problems of bleed. :)

mk

 

that is a very interesting idea.  lot of potential from that one trick.

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47 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

that is a very interesting idea.  lot of potential from that one trick.

I have been at this for a long time Grasshopper. :)

If the join looks wonky when done, use the 30* again on the line very faintly and fill with pearl powder and clear epoxy or CA.

mk

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37 minutes ago, MiKro said:

I have been at this for a long time Grasshopper. :)

If the join looks wonky when done, use the 30* again on the line very faintly and fill with pearl powder and clear epoxy or CA.

mk

i know master po - you are full of good ideas!

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so... feel like I didn't accomplish a whole lot this weekend... but I did spend a lot of time designing necks, jigs, finishing my body plan... and I glued up two blanks.

you know... it's harder than it looks!  Plenty of times I had the perfect cut... but the wrong grain... or visa versa. 

I kept getting a very slight (about the width of a human hair) pocket in the middle - which is odd and could spell danger.  I wonder if my fence has a slight bulge there.  Will have to inspect it a bit and perhaps clamp on some wood fence on the outside to see if I can improve it.

anywho... ho hum... body blanks.  one turned out pretty decent, one turned out 'ok'.  both have a rock solid joint... just not spectacular on the grain match.  Good news is there is plenty to learn yet!

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  • 2 weeks later...

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so... my buddy having a hard time choosing between these tops... but is leaning towards the 2nd one above.  Since I'm doing a prototype and assuming I don't render it kaputs along the way... I'll choose a top from whatever he doesn't pick and slap it on that.

 

this will be the fretboard and headstock overlay bookmatched from matching wood...

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