ADFinlayson Posted February 2, 2021 Report Share Posted February 2, 2021 Been pretty streeeeeessed out over the last year or so - Nightmare neighbours, covid lockdowns, work situation and house move (most of which is still on going), and it recently occurred to me that I haven't made a guitar for myself in nearly 2 years (the last one was the ziricote prs type). So I figured it was about time I made myself something tasty. I got this billet a good 18 months ago, it was actually a freebie as I ordered a couple of tops from that chap in Bosnia (sells on facebook) and there was a random lump of wood in the box - I thought he'd just put it in there to pack out the box and put it down as scrap until I ran my plane over one face, turned out to be one important looking bit of wood! So I took it down the timber yard about 6 months later and had them resaw it for me, ran it through the drum sander when I got home and stuck it in the pile for a year. But now it's time.. So we've got Bosnian quilt, black walnut body, bosnian curly (ish) walnut neck, and some nice black indian ebony. Jointed, glued her up, cut her out and let her sit for a couple of days. I drew around my Mira which is essentially the shape of a traditional Gibbo double cut, so with a carve top it will probably come out looking something a bit like a Santana and/or P J Eggle Macon. Had an absolute catastrophe during carving... Totally my fault (I mean this wood hates me and the grain goes everywhere) I was using too heavy a mallet and I just kept going when the wood told me to stop, dumb arse. Some therapy this is turning out to be right? bit of titebond, a bandaid and some moral support from Mike Ve really clean break, very lucky, back on with carving. This is it roughed out, using the shadows as much as I can to see al the divots/uneven spots etc. I used my scary router method to do the pot recesses, you can see that I got quite lot of router burn, I ran the router a bit quicker than last time I did this to prevent it eating the wood. but they came out nicely with a scraper followed by 120 grit. really important to blow the dust off often while doing this or the burnt wood dust works it's way into the grain and it just stains the area. After about 6 hours of carving over a couple of sessions and many blisters, it occurred to me to get rid off all the sharp edges (apart from important one) on my cheap thumb planes. So I used my fret end file and some sand paper to smooth them out, oh the difference. I can't believe I've carved 4 guitars (fonts and backs) without thinking to do this. So this is where we're at now. Still got some smoothing out to do. You can probably tell but I've positioned those little nasties so the top two are hidden by the bridge pickup and the other one will hopefully be replaced wit an f-hole (hopefully). That's it for now, I've got to box all my stuff up and be gone from this place imminently. Hopefully it won't be more than a couple of weeks before my next therapy session, because I fancy the therapist. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 2, 2021 Report Share Posted February 2, 2021 14 hours ago, ADFinlayson said: Had an absolute catastrophe during carving... Totally my fault (I mean this wood hates me and the grain goes everywhere) I was using too heavy a mallet and I just kept going when the wood told me to stop, dumb arse. Yeah the crazy direction changes in highly figured maple require you to cut one chip from left to right, the one next to it from north to south, and the one next to that upside down with your tongue sticking out. the better it looks the worse it is. Great recovery though, I can't see a thing. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted February 2, 2021 Report Share Posted February 2, 2021 looks lovely brother. specially the smooth pic. all my builds are therapy sessions! Not sure the therapy is working but it sure makes me forget about life!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted February 2, 2021 Report Share Posted February 2, 2021 This forum is a therapist, this thread is, you are, so is @mistermikev and @ScottR and everyone else. Great tip in the thumb planes. I’m going to go review mine and see what needs done! Funny thing about those, I kinda got them on a whim thinking “I’ll see what I can do with these. Fancy myself a violin maker” And who knew they are one of my favorite tools now. Fav: 1) scraper 2) bandsaw 3) router 4) table saw 5) thumb planes Can’t wait to see what you do with this one Ash. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted February 2, 2021 Report Share Posted February 2, 2021 for the record as your therapist I recommend to take a nice long relaxing stroll through ebay. Try to think happy thoughts while you put bits, new tools, pickups, bridges, tuners and other guitar accessories in your basket. Find your center as you hit the buy-it-now button. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 10, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2021 On 2/2/2021 at 3:20 PM, ScottR said: Yeah the crazy direction changes in highly figured maple require you to cut one chip from left to right, the one next to it from north to south, and the one next to that upside down with your tongue sticking out. the better it looks the worse it is. Great recovery though, I can't see a thing. SR I think it will be staining that makes it appear it does, I will keep my fingers crossed On 2/2/2021 at 9:19 PM, mistermikev said: looks lovely brother. specially the smooth pic. all my builds are therapy sessions! Not sure the therapy is working but it sure makes me forget about life!! Forgetting about life is what it's all about On 2/2/2021 at 10:51 PM, komodo said: This forum is a therapist, this thread is, you are, so is @mistermikev and @ScottR and everyone else. Great tip in the thumb planes. I’m going to go review mine and see what needs done! Funny thing about those, I kinda got them on a whim thinking “I’ll see what I can do with these. Fancy myself a violin maker” And who knew they are one of my favorite tools now. Fav: 1) scraper 2) bandsaw 3) router 4) table saw 5) thumb planes Can’t wait to see what you do with this one Ash. I might see if I can find some better quality blades for them, the only gripe with them now is that they don't hold an edge forever, but for about £30 for 3 planes, I can't complain. On 2/2/2021 at 11:04 PM, mistermikev said: for the record as your therapist I recommend to take a nice long relaxing stroll through ebay. Try to think happy thoughts while you put bits, new tools, pickups, bridges, tuners and other guitar accessories in your basket. Find your center as you hit the buy-it-now button. I have been strolling through ebay today, looking for insulation for my new workshop it wasn't therapy through, the price of building materials is depressing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 10, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2021 FYI, I filmed the whole process so far, condensed about 8 hours of carving, routing etc down to about 40 mines. Didn't include the catastrophe but will no doubt have enough cockups for a bloopers episode at the end of the series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted February 10, 2021 Report Share Posted February 10, 2021 Oh you mean one of these? I am still working on the model so I can CNC it. Carving it is easy. LOL!!! Just had to mess with ya!! MK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georg_Figel Posted February 12, 2021 Report Share Posted February 12, 2021 when the carve comes out great, it's very rewarding though Seems to be already a potent entry for the build off 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted April 8, 2021 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2021 Thanks Georg, I've made some minor progress on it, not as much as I'd like. I've carved out the back, cut f-hole and done all the holes for electronics. The bottom of that blade switch is a bit close for comfort, I certainly won't be using a random orbital in that department I'm planning to go for custom24 wiring: 1. Neck hum 2. Neck and bridge outer coils 3. Neck hum + bridge hum 4. Neck single + bridge hum 5. Bridge hum With the addition of a mini toggle so positions 1 and 5 can be switched to single coil too. If I can pull that off without it looking like a dogs dinner, I thought I might try tuned coil splitting so the mini toggle goes to a resistor to retain a bit of the bass in single coil mode. If I use a DPDT toggle switch, I should in theory be able to have different resistor values for each pickup. Anyhoo, next I need to sand and seal the sides of the f-hole and get on with chambering the body blank to I can glue it all up This is coming to you from my new workshop,.. which is dry but not yet organised I do have wood storage that isn't a pile on my office floor now though 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted May 4, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2021 Some modest progress on this one, got the body thicknessed and chambered and both pieces glued together. I used the table router to "blind route" the chamber, not enjoyable, not doing that again. Also got the new front wall boarded out and used a load of sheet offcuts to tie the two walls in and filled the 10" deep gap in the floor that had been left by the old garage door. had a slight water ingress issue at the bottom of the door with all the driving rain we had yesterday which is annoying and something I am going to have to live with until the weather is good enough to get it all sealed and painted properly - Correction, it's not water ingress, the water is hitting the outside of the door frame and the door frame is acting like a sponge because it's not painted yet. Fortunately I've used plenty of DPC before the floor and plasterboard. Looking forward to getting on with the spray booth but I need to get rid of all these waste sheet materials first. Very little waste as I bought it as and when I needed it but it's all little pointless strips that I can't do much with other than chuck it on the chiminea 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 4, 2021 Report Share Posted May 4, 2021 looking good. glad to see an update. can't wait to see it in color. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted May 8, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2021 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted May 8, 2021 Report Share Posted May 8, 2021 So cool to see that f hole cut by hand, real craftsmanship 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 5, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2021 Some progress I forgot to post - Neck is inlayed with abalone laminate left over from Davids PRS build of last year, bound with quilt offcuts from the top and with some jescar 55090, that's a medium sized fretwire, not quite jumbo. I did have some jumbo stainless to put on there but I decided to do a compound radius 9.5 - 12.5" and stainless on a compound radius is not a lot of fun. Gone with a different headstock shape for this one I've carved the neck but I forgot to take a pic, there is a video clip on my instagram though - https://www.instagram.com/p/CPiwduCly-R/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Spent a good hour this evening doing shape sanding to sort tidy up the horns and put a subtle recarve around the edge from the waste to the bootie. I was a bit concerned about clearance for the blade switch as the whole body is 47mm thick in the middle, but after routing I had about 10mm of clearance, so I used a bit of ebony which was 5 mm to make the cover giving me a little bit of space to squeeze the wires onto the switch lugs, It'll be fine as long as I don't coat the back of the cover in anything conductive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 5, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2021 A day of chors and visits from relatives today so didn't get a huge amount done. Did get the neck pocket routed and assessed the break angle though. I like it, maybe sitting a touch high so I'll sand the back fo the heel on a straight surface to bring it down a hair Mrs and my daughter are having a day of baking tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can get the pickups routed, a load of sanding and neck glued in by end of play. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 6, 2021 Report Share Posted June 6, 2021 looking good brutha! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 6, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2021 38 minutes ago, mistermikev said: looking good brutha! Those streaks you mentioned on your other post, I didn't comment on because I don't know what they are, but this top is rife with them. I'm going for something purpley so I doubt they will be particularly visible when it's all done 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 6, 2021 Report Share Posted June 6, 2021 24 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said: Those streaks you mentioned on your other post, I didn't comment on because I don't know what they are, but this top is rife with them. I'm going for something purpley so I doubt they will be particularly visible when it's all done well no expert either... I see a few dark one's there that look similar. the majority i see there are lighter and appear to be fleck. i imagine there are many who avoid that sort of thing in a top but for me it just adds to it. lets you know it's not a photo-quilt! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 7, 2021 Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 If my work space was as neat as yours, it would go stand in a corner and whimper..... SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 7, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 19 hours ago, mistermikev said: well no expert either... I see a few dark one's there that look similar. the majority i see there are lighter and appear to be fleck. i imagine there are many who avoid that sort of thing in a top but for me it just adds to it. lets you know it's not a photo-quilt! Ha, I can't afford to avoid pieces with imperfections. I'm trying to perfect the art of working around them 10 hours ago, ScottR said: If my work space was as neat as yours, it would go stand in a corner and whimper..... SR Don't be fooled, everything has been shoved to one side. I really need some more storage. I'm thinking some wall hanging kitchen cabinets would be a good idea, potentially some workshop space over floor cupboards 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 7, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 Another glam shot and the next video instalment 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 7, 2021 Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 2 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said: Ha, I can't afford to avoid pieces with imperfections. I'm trying to perfect the art of working around them Don't be fooled, everything has been shoved to one side. I really need some more storage. I'm thinking some wall hanging kitchen cabinets would be a good idea, potentially some workshop space over floor cupboards well, right... when you are talking about such minor imperfections... I think most of us can't afford to work with the "most expensive tops money can buy". I mean, we probably could, but like anything else there are diminishing returns the more you spend. for the record wasn't saying your top is anything less than stellar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 7, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 26 minutes ago, mistermikev said: well, right... when you are talking about such minor imperfections... I think most of us can't afford to work with the "most expensive tops money can buy". I mean, we probably could, but like anything else there are diminishing returns the more you spend. for the record wasn't saying your top is anything less than stellar. Well it definitely wasn't perfect. If you look at the top edges of the bridge pickup route there are two really dark spots and there was another really nasty one that was cut out of the f-hole so I had to position the blank to hide those and I actually lost some nice figure that was just above the horns in order to hide all the blemishes, just gotta work with what natures gives us! Still, this bit of maple was a freebie and by far the nicest top I've worked with. Just wish it was less of a PITA to carve, but you can't have em all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 7, 2021 Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 31 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said: Well it definitely wasn't perfect. If you look at the top edges of the bridge pickup route there are two really dark spots and there was another really nasty one that was cut out of the f-hole so I had to position the blank to hide those and I actually lost some nice figure that was just above the horns in order to hide all the blemishes, just gotta work with what natures gives us! Still, this bit of maple was a freebie and by far the nicest top I've worked with. Just wish it was less of a PITA to carve, but you can't have em all. welp... there's def something to be said for turning a 3/4 into a 4/5. I think you learn more finishing tops with some minor flaws... every one I've done has had something to work around. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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