ESP M-II type "Invaders" Superstrat

[mistermikev]

3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

There's no reason to believe that wouldn't sound terrible.

they have a video on facebook where they are playing guitars w/o the beads (perhaps they are made by them?) and it sounds good... then they play the bead guitars and it doesn't sound good... so I guess they needed more tone beads.  anywho, sorry for the diversion.

[Prostheta]

Yesterday, I realised just how much I despise inlaying Maple. Short of cutting everything using a laser or CNC, it's stupidly-difficult to get nice perimeters on inlays. Being a couple of days at about -18C to -20C, I really didn't want to go out to Hobbylinna to buy some epoxy so I used thick CA. That might have been an error.

Pantograph setup. 7,5mm pilot with a 2,5mm burr cutter. I clamp the board with the pearl on it in different locations to extract 10mm x 5mm blocks. The template is a 30mm x 15mm scrap of Sapele since this is a 3:1 pantograph. The template was given a little additional allowance (just under a mm) both dimensions to compensate for the runout in the ('king terrible) Dremel's spindle.

 

The pockets were opened out using a 6mm and 4mm chisel until the inlay sits slightly higher than the radiused surface. The big problem as I see it is the limitations in how perpendicular the edges are from the chisel cuts. Even with them being as sharp as I am able to get them, there will always be a degree of compression in the wood, plus tearing and pulling. This isn't ideal. The first photo shows the problem well. The left and lower sides look reasonably good. The right has a small pull where a small chunk of the fibres likely flipped up instead of cut through cleanly. The upper edge will be sanded away until it's flat against the inlays of course.  

 

The second photo shows that the edges of the pocket were slightly rounded. The CA filled in the gaps, but the gradient in the shadow implies that the surface crushed inwards slightly during excavation. I don't know how this will look once the entire board is inlaid and then radius sanded. This is still entirely unsanded and straight off the router.

[Prostheta]

I'm acutely aware that I am taking very unflattering photos and that once a finish goes onto that Maple, it will look a lot better. I'm unsure what sort of finish I'll use though since this is Maple on Maple. Perhaps Tru-Oil.

[Prostheta]

Regarding the nut shelf, you can see here at 0:53 in that older production M models with jumbo fretwire had a nut shelf. This looks a hair over a mm, but it's hard to tell. The point is that the base of the shelf has a specific relation to the crown of the fretwire.

Apparently this guy is a bit of an ass, scooping up guitars cheaply and flipping them at super top dollar after hyping. It's fair enough in some ways, however if he got ahold of my old Mirage for a few hundred and would only sell it for a few thousand, yeah, not that cool now.

 

Another thing of note is how the forearm contour is actually a flat plane with a radiused contour, whereas I dialled in a cylindrical section. This seemed to feel better when matching against the parallel-ish cylindrical section of the rear contour. The way that a Strat has a visual relationship between the two over the side was the driver for this decision.

[Prostheta]

On 12/5/2021 at 4:00 PM, Prostheta said:

The strings need to pass over the first fret by a fraction of a mm, and a lot of this comes down to personal preference. For the low E, aiming for around half a mm is good whilst the high E can be a little lower. The locking nut itself seems to have this offset conveniently built-in, whether that be by design or coincidence. Subtracting the smallest of these values (the low E) from the central height gives us a reasonable approximation of where the fret crown should lay in the middle; 6,1mm minus 0,4mm gives us 5,7mm. From this the crown height of the fretwire can be subtracted, which in the case of pearly will be Jescar 57110 wire. 5,7mm minus 1,45mm leaves 4,25mm. Yikes. That's crazy thin! The Invaders neck has been fretted with Dunlop 6150 which has a height of 1,12mm allowing for a much more reasonable 4,58mm which (surprise surprise) CNC is very good at dialling in.

 

As it turns out, I was looking online as to where I'm going to source some parts. I checked out https://guitarpartscenter.eu/en_US/p/GOTOH-GHL-2-Locking-Nut-GD/7646 and they detail the spec of "nut height" at 5,7mm. This is good reassurance that I'm working things out correctly.

[Prostheta]

I'm going to need to take a short break on both of these guitars. Partially because I'm waiting for new binding to be delivered (the pieces I have vary in colour too much), plus I don't have anywhere safe to do good painting at the moment. The Invaders body needs a bit of sanding here and there that paint has revealed, plus the pearly body needs edge sanding, and binding of course. The paint for pearly will need to be bought at the very moment I'm about to do the painting since it'll be mixed there and then with something like a 1-2 day window.

[Muzz]

I think it is often a good thing to have a bit of a break from a build, it gives your subconscious as well as your conscious time to work stuff out, and then get back to making those groovy metal machines.

[Prostheta]

Agreed. The objective isn't to get past the post quickest, but in one piece. It's a good time to concentrate on finishing up my Sapele skirting boards and electrical outlet surrounds in time for the festive gluttony period and next time around the sun.

[Prostheta]

I don't have too much to offer this fine new year, however I did get some new binding in since what I had in was a bit of a mismatch. I also modified the forearm routing binding jig slightly by rounding over the cookie and re-positioning the router so that the cutter was as close to the inner bore as possible. The jig isn't that good in terms of maintaining for future use, but it did the job it was meant to. 

The binding was done by starting from the rear centreline, with me knowing that there was more than enough excess to start at the centre of the strip, so I taped it up across there. The glue of choice was some sort of Duco cement type, which is in principle a gelled acetone with nitrocellulose filler. I'm unsure of the stuff I used, but it's more or less similar in that it melts the binding and has some sort of hardened residue when it dries. That the binding I use is soluble in acetone is enough to tell me that it'll be good. In some use cases it might contaminate wood around the binding similar to how CA does, but here that's hardly an issue as we're going under paint.

 

The larger radii curves bent without need of heat. I started by glueing the lower half about 10cm at a time, moving along before the glue fully dries. That way the transitions between each "section" can be pulled to add glue that overlaps old to new and the re-applied binding will bond between both fine. Simple 3M blue painter's tape was used for all areas that didn't require large amounts of tensioning.

The horns and cutaway curves required heat, with the binding "rolled" around the curves whilst hot and held in place whilst it cooled. I must have missed or underheated one point on the lower horn as I got a crack that needed cutting into and filling out. Not the biggest problem. A proper heatgun would be useful rather than a hairdryer, but you use what you have when you understand the drawbacks. Otherwise this was fairly uneventful. Glueing the horns required more than tape, so I broke out some old flat shoelaces and went full Gibson by wrapping those up. The main trick is to get initial "grab" so that the wrap doesn't slide right off under tension. I developed a way of wrapping in an "X over and under, straight crossed sides" where the tendency for any one wrap is mitigated by being stopped by the previous wrap, if that makes sense, so tensioning wants to pull the wrap back up the hill as opposed to falling off it. In hindsight, adding a small F-clamp to the horn and wrapping behind that as an anchor would have been much quicker and simpler....

The tension developed by this technique can smoosh binding if you use too much glue. I have a small area under the upper horn that has a little of this, however I think that can be scraped out.

Binding past the forearm contour was surprisingly uneventful. I'd like to have more to say about it, but I just don't!

[Muzz]

That binding is looking as crisp as Newton's apple before it hit his head, nice.

[Prostheta]

9 minutes ago, Muzz said:

That binding is looking as crisp as Newton's apple before it hit his head, nice.

 

As you're very aware, I'm terrible with compliments because I always know I can do better with everything, but thanks! The binding cleaned up very well, and proofing with DNA shows that it looks top shelf in most places. My high water mark is whether you could clearcoat wood and it looks good. No gaps, fills, discolouration, seams, stress marks, inconsistent thickness, etc. I have one ding in the forearm from the router being too far over, which will fill out. The mentioned squish under the top horn and fill in the lower one. I could make this work as a clearcoated body in theory, so I guess it's okay

-----

I just remembered something. I used my Makita palm router with its single-locking collet to do this work. Now, these are not accurate at ALL. Every time I load up a cutter, I brea down the collet assembly and clean the cone, seat and nut out with a toothbrush. Any junk in there encourages the cone (and hence the bit) to not sit straight. This can be seen by rotating the bit whilst holding the router body securely. For longer bits this can be almost a mm! That sort of vibration is both dangerous to operator and workpiece. Anybody that uses smaller routers like these, or any router with a single locking collet (do you need to loosen it "once" or "twice"? Once is single locking) should make note of this if they weren't already aware....

[Bizman62]

4 hours ago, Prostheta said:

In some use cases it might contaminate wood around the binding similar to how CA does, but here that's hardly an issue as we're going under paint.

 

Good choice. Paint is definitely the only viable option for finishing wood like that. The figure makes my eyes hurt.

 

4 hours ago, Prostheta said:

A proper heatgun would be useful rather than a hairdryer,

Or a less proper hairdryer... My wife has one that burns my fingers when I tear off stickers from abandoned computers.

[Prostheta]

27 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Good choice. Paint is definitely the only viable option for finishing wood like that. The figure makes my eyes hurt.

It's actually the natural structure of the wood with vertical grain alignment ("on the quarter"). What you're seeing there are ray flecks/flakes, and yes, it's beautiful wood that is both a shame to cover with paint but also ideal for it. It's just how good clear, straight-grained Sapele looks with that grain orientation....there's far more spectacular Sapele out there!

[Bizman62]

24 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

<snip> vertical grain alignment --- What you're seeing there are ray flecks/flakes

I knew I had seen that mentioned somewhere on this forum but it may still take a few repeats for me to remember how that's called.

[Prostheta]

I might be wrong, since the terms vary between species. The specific anatomy of tree structure gets very complex, and is beyond my region of study. I simply know how to select wood for consistency and value, grade it for trade, the usual. I try and use good wood, even if it's going under paint...trash wood is still trash after all. The worst offender is the medium to low end of guitar manufacture, where the wood under solid paint is unselected, oriented randomly and has joins that are most liable to telegraph through a finish. It's how costs are met, but at this level where we're making instruments one (or three) at a time, we can afford ourselves the benefit of putting the right choice of wood into service.

The flakes are very similar to what is seen in Beech, Maple and even Birch/Koivu with vertical-ish grain alignment. It takes a smooth finish very nicely, so it's ideal in this instance.

[Bizman62]

2 hours ago, Prostheta said:

The flakes are very similar to what is seen in Beech, Maple and even Birch/Koivu with vertical-ish grain alignment

I've seen that on spruce and pine as well.

[Andyjr1515]

That shot is actually pretty knockout, @Prostheta

 

Points about palm router collets noted! 

 

[Bizman62]

6 hours ago, Prostheta said:

I'm terrible with compliments because I always know I can do better with everything

So let me just say this: By applying some clearcoat you've now made it unsuitable to be used for firewood as the burning lacquer might be very harmful for the atmosphere. Burning the binding might be even worse. So since you've ruined all good BBQ related options you'd better continue on the track you've chosen and watch your steps!

Or, if you like the Finnish compliment better: Vituikshan se meni, olis pitänyt arvata.

[Prostheta]

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

That shot is actually pretty knockout, @Prostheta

Points about palm router collets noted! 

Thanks Andy! Shame it's just denatured alcohol, and if only real finishes were as easy to throw on, eh?

 

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

So let me just say this: By applying some clearcoat you've now made it unsuitable to be used for firewood as the burning lacquer might be very harmful for the atmosphere. Burning the binding might be even worse. So since you've ruined all good BBQ related options you'd better continue on the track you've chosen and watch your steps!

Or, if you like the Finnish compliment better: Vituikshan se meni, olis pitänyt arvata.

Yep! How about "ei paskempi"? Much more Satakunta I think.

(context: Finns don't say anything is good, hence "it got fucked up, I should have guessed" or "ah, not completely shit"; always "from the negative")

[Bizman62]

"Ei paskempi" has a more positive vibe - "not half bad" might be a valid translation.

And speaking about Satakunta (a province in South-Western Finland), they really go through the negative.  "You're not going to stay long enough for a coffee by any means, are you?" and "You won't take any cake with your coffee, will you?" Here in the East it's the contrary: "You aren't in such a hurry that we can't have some coffee?" and "There's seven sorts on the table, go taste them all".

"Et sunkaan sää kehtaa tommosta omakses tunnustaa" - is that about right? (You're not going to confess that there being something you've made, are you?)

[Prostheta]

"Not half bad" is more familiar to me with my Yorkshire roots. There's a similar level of derision layered within - or to temper - apparent compliments so it doesn't fully come across as one in that region also. Here I think people are insanely jealous of what each other has or can do, and want to see something happen to it. "Vahingon iloinen", or "enjoyment in the minor misfortune of others" in those cases. People are weird.

So yesterday, I thicknessed the back of the headstock down to 15,5mm using the largest drum on my spindle sander same as @Dave Higham does it, albeit without having such an excellent modification to the top plate. I dropped a small block of plywood under the skirt of the cast iron top and used a big f-clamp to secure a clean large board of white Oak as a fence. "Non-sticky" woods like Maple work really nicely in this setup, with fibres coming off rather than fine dust. Even Sapele can get sticky, clogging up the paper and slowing the process down. I managed to take down a full 25mm to the final size within ten minutes without real problems.

The first step here was to establish a "stop" point where the drum cuts deepest. This is around where the transition from the back of the headstock plane to the volute begins. Since that is a larger radius than the drum, this needs to be refined off the machine. Once I got the headstock down to thickness, I roughed in this transitional curve by hand, mostly to reduce having to remove waste and making it more about shaping.

[Dave Higham]

5 hours ago, Prostheta said:

"Not half bad" is more familiar to me with my Yorkshire roots.

I know what you mean. I'm a Yorkshireman.

[Prostheta]

2 hours ago, Dave Higham said:

I know what you mean. I'm a Yorkshireman.

We do get around....!

[Muzz]

My favourite Yorkshire slang is "twerk" which does not mean waving your gluteal muscles around, as in 'Ee I better get rollin and catch the bus if I want to get twerk on time'.

[Prostheta]

It's actually a swallowing of the last part of "to", and it's common to do this throughout a sentence. "Pudit in t't tin" or "Put it into the/that tin". I'm unsure how this reads off the page, but Dave will know this North Yorkshire thing well.