Muzz Posted December 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2021 On 12/14/2021 at 9:13 PM, mistermikev said: two things: 1 headstock looks good. 2 = I am familiar with strongbad/trogdor and I also freq have prune juice in my fridge. carry on. Cheers Mike, talking of prunes, Q. What did the gum trees say to the Australian home owner after he pruned them? A. You clipped us 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 15, 2021 Report Share Posted December 15, 2021 Botanical name, "Eucalyptus Eubludygalah"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted December 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2021 On 12/15/2021 at 11:13 PM, Prostheta said: Botanical name, "Eucalyptus Eubludygalah"? Close enough ! You probably have read the November edition of Guitar World, it contains the most complete history of EVH's guitar I have seen yet, I also like the shark pre surgery, I would love to get my hands on one of those sometime. The neck is drinking the poly 4 coats so far, these photos are after the first coat. Sizing up the decal. pretty close Time to recline and listen to Pure Rock FM https://www.purerock.fm/ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted December 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2021 So my experience with wipe on poly was a good one. I think if you are not in a rush this is a very good way to finish a guitar. Each coat went on very smoothly and didn't need much sanding, I used 1000 grit every 4 coats or so. I am happy with where it is now, but will do more coats over the decal after it goes on. I had a go at preparing a decal with old water slide paper, It didn't go so well I have got some new paper and will try again soon. If that fails I am going for a vinyl laser cut decal. That truss rod channel also needs the veneer removed from it soon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 30, 2021 Report Share Posted December 30, 2021 I seal my decals to prevent lacquer or whatever from melting the ink, but I'm surprised to see this happening in water just releasing the film! Crazy. I found that wiping approaches (in my test case, Tru-Oil) wasn't satisfactory when sealing a decal. Vinyl sounds the way to go in this case, but I'd expect a lot of ridging. Test on scrap material if your cutter can provide a bit so you know it doesn't get messed up by the varnish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted December 30, 2021 Report Share Posted December 30, 2021 5 hours ago, Muzz said: So my experience with wipe on poly was a good one. I think if you are not in a rush this is a very good way to finish a guitar. Each coat went on very smoothly and didn't need much sanding, I used 1000 grit every 4 coats or so. I am happy with where it is now, but will do more coats over the decal after it goes on. I had a go at preparing a decal with old water slide paper, It didn't go so well I have got some new paper and will try again soon. If that fails I am going for a vinyl laser cut decal. That truss rod channel also needs the veneer removed from it soon. as prostheta pointed out... your problem there is you need a clear coat of something over the waterslide b4 you soften it. I usually use acrylic as it doesn't seem to react to other things I use. the key there being a coat heavy enough to seal the ink... but not too heavy or you'll see lines of the edges under whatever gloss you use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 30, 2021 Report Share Posted December 30, 2021 I was actually surprised that the ink ran from the water and not the solvents in the finish. I guess this is more of an issue with the inkjet or whatever printed the decal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted December 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2021 19 hours ago, Prostheta said: I seal my decals to prevent lacquer or whatever from melting the ink, but I'm surprised to see this happening in water just releasing the film! Crazy. I found that wiping approaches (in my test case, Tru-Oil) wasn't satisfactory when sealing a decal. Vinyl sounds the way to go in this case, but I'd expect a lot of ridging. Test on scrap material if your cutter can provide a bit so you know it doesn't get messed up by the varnish. 16 hours ago, mistermikev said: as prostheta pointed out... your problem there is you need a clear coat of something over the waterslide b4 you soften it. I usually use acrylic as it doesn't seem to react to other things I use. the key there being a coat heavy enough to seal the ink... but not too heavy or you'll see lines of the edges under whatever gloss you use. 15 hours ago, Prostheta said: I was actually surprised that the ink ran from the water and not the solvents in the finish. I guess this is more of an issue with the inkjet or whatever printed the decal. Yes there were a few issues that could strike the reader as possible culprits. Here is the last water slide decal I did a few years back. That decal and the last one that ran were clear sealed before getting dunked in the water, so that wasn't the problem. That left, 1. The age of the water slide paper, it is about 3 years older 2. I have a new printer 3. the printer uses a different brand of ink The new water slide paper arrived yesterday, I printed out some decals, clear coated them and tried one out on the practise neck, All looking good, no running ink in the water, it looks like issue 1 was the problem and has been solved. I'll let that decal dry and wipe some poly on it to make sure the decal is not going to crinkle up, and if all OK, do it all again on the real neck. It is nearly time to party so, fill up the esky, the chilly bin, the cooler or whatever you call it in your part of the world and go and have a wild night and welcome in the New Year. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted December 31, 2021 Report Share Posted December 31, 2021 Happy New Year Muzz! Still have a little over 12 hours to go here.... SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted December 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2021 5 hours ago, ScottR said: Happy New Year Muzz! Still have a little over 12 hours to go here.... SR Happy New Year Scott It's about quarter past ten in the morning here and about quarter past five in the afternoon in Texas so we are currently in different years. Hope your celebrations tonight are fantastic! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2022 This time the decal isn't bleeding ink. The first go at positioning the decal did not go so well and I got a fold under at the top, so I took it off and put a new decal in the water. the second go went well and it positioned all OK. I'll let that dry, coat it with poly and then do the decal on the back of the headstock. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 So the construction of the individual parts of this guitar is nearly over. the neck is close to finished. In fact two more coats of finish should do it. The water slide decal material is incredibly diaphanous and gets buried to the point where you can't feel the edge under two coats of poly. The neck is getting two more coats over two days to complete the clearcoat then I'll let it harden up. and I can screw everything together. The model name, country of origin and serial number went on today, the machine heads were dropped into the holes to help position the info where it wouldn't be obscured by the hardware, This is the last of the home made templates to show you. which was used to slice out the scratch plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 3, 2022 Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 Whoosh! The back of the headstock looks neat as hell man. Nice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 3, 2022 Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 35 minutes ago, Prostheta said: The back of the headstock looks neat as hell man. The entire build looks that neat. And even the templates. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 On 1/4/2022 at 2:46 AM, Prostheta said: Whoosh! The back of the headstock looks neat as hell man. Nice. Cheers Prostheta, it scrubbed up alright, amazing what some sponjing, a sticker and some nice tuners can do On 1/4/2022 at 3:23 AM, Bizman62 said: The entire build looks that neat. And even the templates. Cheers Bizman, so glad I discovered the existence of template following router bits back when, life-changing So it is now time to start putting this guitar together, first I have to hack the veneer away from the truss rod nut, measure out where the machine head screws go, bash in the sink-in front washers and then screw in the neck. If all goes to plan the neck should drop into the body, like it was made for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 I tried the neck fit without any screws, it's snug. Then I went to put in the tuner grommets in the front of the headstock, it was too snug a fit. I measured the diameter of the grommets again, it was not 8 mm as i thought, it is 8.5 mm. So I burnt rubber up to Bunnings for the gazillionth time to get an 8.5 mm drill bit. The screw holes for the tuners are all marked out. The grommets will go in tomorrow, as will the neck screws. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 This is one of the few cases where I advocate for the use of twist drills. You probably will only find 8,5mm in those anyway. Remember that when you open out these holes, run the drill backwards so it doesn't screw itself in or chip out the rim. I know you probably know this, but I'd rather sound patronising in advance than tell you after the fact! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 17 minutes ago, Prostheta said: This is one of the few cases where I advocate for the use of twist drills. You probably will only find 8,5mm in those anyway. Remember that when you open out these holes, run the drill backwards so it doesn't screw itself in or chip out the rim. I know you probably know this, but I'd rather sound patronising in advance than tell you after the fact! It's good to remind/remember the technique to avoid chips when enlarging the the tuner holes. I am going to Kango those holes into the right diameter so the the headstock wont split when I tap in the grommets with my beer hammer which seems to have come up in the conversation a few times in this thread. On that topic I am feeling so lazy watching Graham Norton's show that I couldn't be bothered going underground and getting that tool for its secondary function and I have just used the world's worst ever bottle opener. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 Best ever. Bit of wood with a nail in it. That's done us for over twenty years and countless beers. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 8, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2022 15 hours ago, Prostheta said: Best ever. Bit of wood with a nail in it. That's done us for over twenty years and countless beers. That is fantastic, I will have to make a BOWWANII bottle opener some time. If I ever use these tuners again on rock maple, I am going to drill 9 mm holes to start with and push the grommets in with a little bit of glue. 8.5 mm holes (I am guessing) would be fine in mahogany but in rock maple they still needed a lot of grating with a bastard file before the grommets would go in safely. Anyway. they are in now, 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 8, 2022 Report Share Posted January 8, 2022 21 hours ago, Prostheta said: Best ever. Bit of wood with a nail in it. I used to have one somewhat similar to that, guess it went with my ex. The constuction was a bit simpler as it didn't require bending anything: Just two screws at one end of a piece of wood salvaged from a fruit box. I tried with one but with two the cap aligns just right even after a dozen bottles. As the base was flat the caps didn't even bend so they could be reused by my poor student friends who tried some home brewing. A small hump might make it more effective, though, as less force would be needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 9, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2022 On 1/8/2022 at 8:04 PM, Bizman62 said: I used to have one somewhat similar to that, guess it went with my ex. The constuction was a bit simpler as it didn't require bending anything: Just two screws at one end of a piece of wood salvaged from a fruit box. I tried with one but with two the cap aligns just right even after a dozen bottles. As the base was flat the caps didn't even bend so they could be reused by my poor student friends who tried some home brewing. A small hump might make it more effective, though, as less force would be needed. There are some amazing bottle openers at http://www.home-designing.com/cool-and-unique-beer-wine-bottle-openers-corkscrew my favourites are the T.Rex and Alessi Diabolix. Today I got time to do some neckin. I did the one solder joint that was required. All the rest were already done. Then I screwed on the loaded scratch plate and tested everything was working using my iphone. I also tested the height of the nut, all OK, and glued it on then marked out the holes for the truss rod cover. Drilled in and screwed the cover on. Now I just have to let my nut glue dry overnight and I can put some strings on this thing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 10, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2022 I have just finished and strung up this guitar, its dusk so I have snapped a couple of phone shots, I'll take some shots in better light soon and shoot and post a video of the guitar getting played to let anyone who is interested hear what it sounds like. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 10, 2022 Report Share Posted January 10, 2022 What an oddball! It's weird to think that back in the 70s, these would look like this out of the factory. Since I never grew up around this era of (rare) guitar, I'm only used to seeing them with a few decades on the clock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 10, 2022 Report Share Posted January 10, 2022 Looks like it's dying to be played Muzz. Well done! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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