High End Build - this one is gonna take a while

[iommichild]

This is going to be awesome!

[ScottR]

Excellent start!

SR

[avengers63]

I looked up how to use contact cement to glue veneer. I've REALLY been doing it the wrong way! Contact cement is SOOOOOOOOOO much easier. If you do any veneering, like maybe putting a 5A veneer on a guitar top for example because it's $400 less than a 5$ 1/2" drop top, do yourself a favor and look into C/S. The job is done in 30 minutes and it's ready to be worked.

I glued the headplate onto the neck this morning. No pics. {sarcasm]Cuz why would we take pics of wood being glued together.[/sarcasm]

So anyway.... I got her onto the backer. Trust and believe - it'll be a hellofalot easier to inlay it as one big piece. The blue tape has no purpose at this point. I just haven't taken it off yet.

When I was scaling the piece, I had intended to make it MUCH smaller. I wanted the "halo" to fin fully inside the width of the upper bout, understanding that the cutaway would delete some of it. Well.......  I missed.

The backing veneer is thicker than normal by about 50%. This will effectively give me close to 4 layers of veneer thickness as the main image is all 2 layers thick. This is RAPIDLY approaching the total thickness of the back. I'm not sure how close it is as I haven't removed the picture that's glued onto it. I HAVE to leave some of it as that's the guide for things like her face, nipples, and scarf. We'll see what happens next weekend. I might need to try and add some thickness to the inside of the back, which would be a whole adventure unto itself.

Once I get all the necessary lines inlaid with recon stone, I'm seriously considering making some thinned down dyes to "paint" on some extra blue & tan shading onto her dress & skin. This whole build is about as extra as it can be, so why NOT take it all well past the line of absurdity. I'm over the line already, so I might as well burn that bitch to the ground and go running into the hills, babbling like a madman.

[henrim]

To each his own. No contact cement for me in any guitar building or any other woodwork for that matter. That gummy goo is everywhere if you have to sand a glue seam. Nasty stuff to get rid off. It’s handy substance with many other materials when you need an instant bond and you know you don’t need to sand it.

[Bizman62]

Same here. It's the perfect choice for leather, I can't remember how many soles I've glued to some of my shoes. But it definitely doesn't want to be sanded!

[avengers63]

The Les Trem came in this week. It's more art deco than art nouveau, but it's so minor a design deviation that I'm not worried about it.

 

I was starting to get busy on the initial inlay this morning. Finalizing the position and tracing the outline was simple enough.

But routing out the depth presented an issue I was on the lookout for. There just isn't enough meat left. I'm going to have to glue a veneer onto the inside of the back just for stability.

[Bizman62]

14 minutes ago, avengers63 said:

It's more art deco than art nouveau, but it's so minor a design deviation that I'm not worried about it.

Art is art, no matter if it's deco or nouveau - both are French to me!

[nakedzen]

Somebody skipped payment to Mucha?  Wonderful build! He's my favorite artist so I'm partial.

[avengers63]

The inlays came in while I was on the road this week!!!!!!!   I'm REALLY eager to get started on them, but it won't happen for several more weeks. Last weekend i just emotionally crapped out and did absolutely NOTHING productive, and it was wonderful. I apparently really needed a full day of just rest. This weekend we have a church picnic. Going forward, I REALLY need to get the back inlay put into the back while the temperature is still amenable. The J is a little smaller than what I was imagining, but so it goes.

[avengers63]

I haven't been able to get a single damn thing done on ANYTHING is about a month. First apathy hit. I just.... couldn't. Then I just needed a break - do absolutely nothing and rest. Now.....  I've been sick as a dog since last week Friday. At first we thought it was this years C19, but it's not. It's a NAZASTY strain of flu. It's been laying my punk ass out for 9 days now. I lost a week's pay over it.

In other news, I have a secret project about to happen. It involves wenge, Mary Kay white, pink monther-of-toilet seat, and 70's Hofner pups

[ScottR]

On 11/5/2022 at 2:30 PM, avengers63 said:

In other news, I have a secret project about to happen. It involves wenge, Mary Kay white, pink monther-of-toilet seat, and 70's Hofner pups

SR

[Bizman62]

Again, having to figure out what you folks are talking about, I've learned something new! There's only one thing that puzzles me about Mary Kaye: Why was she called "the first lady of rock and roll"? By all the images and videos I could find including the website carrying her Trio's name she most definitely was a lady but the music was far from R&R! Very good music and performed well but more in the style of, say, Frank Sinatra than, say, Chuck Berry.

[Crusader]

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Again, having to figure out what you folks are talking about...

Huh, that sounds like me!

[ScottR]

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Again, having to figure out what you folks are talking about, I've learned something new! There's only one thing that puzzles me about Mary Kaye: Why was she called "the first lady of rock and roll"? By all the images and videos I could find including the website carrying her Trio's name she most definitely was a lady but the music was far from R&R! Very good music and performed well but more in the style of, say, Frank Sinatra than, say, Chuck Berry.

My first thought was a color from this cosmetic line.........

https://www.marykay.com/CGreen54151?msclkid=9700c21394e91b0506d6a1791a56d652

But you may be on to something.

SR

[avengers63]

 

For those of you who remember that this neck side project was a thing. I have a 4-day weekend and I will NOT be wasting it. Not sure exactly what I'll be doing, but we can rest assured that something productive WILL be done all 4 days.

[mistermikev]

can't wait to see that giant inlay... for once I can look at a tittie on the internet and not have my wife get mad lolz.  looking nice.

[avengers63]

2 hours ago, mistermikev said:

can't wait to see that giant inlay... for once I can look at a tittie on the internet and not have my wife get mad lolz.  looking nice.

When it's done, I wanna take it to church and play it. But some of the folks there are REALLY uptight, even though it's clearly art.

 

In the meantime....

The double bound maple burl block inlays are in the guyana rosewood neck. They're sitting REALLY proud, but that's the sort of thing that can happen when you make your own inlays. We know it'll be fine in the end. It'll prolly be a few months until I tough this thing again. That's just how it goes with your side-chick.

[avengers63]

Every week. Every week it's like this.

Y'all know I'm a trucker now, gone M-F. The weekends are the only time I have to make sawdust and relax in the garage.

Every week I'm out now it's in the mid 50s through the week, but it won't break 32 on the weekend. That's too cold for this old man to putter around out there.

Every damn week. 

[ScottR]

On 12/4/2022 at 7:40 AM, avengers63 said:

Every week. Every week it's like this.

Y'all know I'm a trucker now, gone M-F. The weekends are the only time I have to make sawdust and relax in the garage.

Every week I'm out now it's in the mid 50s through the week, but it won't break 32 on the weekend. That's too cold for this old man to putter around out there.

Every damn week. 

I grew up on the KC side, but yeah I know just what you're talking about.

Had to move south....

SR

[avengers63]

I haven't been able to touch the giant back inlay since late September. It's really been getting under my skin.  Today was the day! Muwa ha ha ha ha!

The cavity cover isn't routed out for the inlay yet, but everything else is done to my satisfaction. On something this damn big, I am not skilled enough to get a super tight fit like we can with a fretboard inlay. Even THEN I still have gaps that make me unhappy but can be disguised by doing it in a dark wood and mixing some dust into the epoxy. For this beast, I'll be doing EXACTLY what Mucha (the original artist) does: outline it in black so that it looks almost like a cartoon. That will cover up a multitude of sins. 

The inlay cavity is pretty rough. Without a CNC or a pin router, it's damn near impossible to keep a perfectly consistent depth on something this big. You inevitably lose half of your surface, losing any semblance of stability. I'll be taking a small sanding block, maybe an inch square, and try to smooth it out somewhat before I glue the whole thing into place.

[avengers63]

I can FINALLY get to doing the inlays on the headstock!  When I take the headstock out of the packaging, a few pieces have popped off.

 

I explain to waifu that I wanted to make a paper rubbing of the shape so that I can make a basic template from a paper rubbing. While I'm good at the fiddly details, she's even better. She managed to glue it back onto the backing so I can make the rubbing.

 

This was then cut out and traced to make the basic outline. Things are going fairly well so far. I'll finish it up tomorrow. I'm saving the ebony dust to mix into the epoxy. The epoxy will read as mostly black anyway, but the dust will take it a step further. There are also little planer chipouts that I can fill in with the dusty epoxy.

 

I'm also hoping to glue the big ass inlay into the back tomorrow. I brought it inside today to acclimate to the inside temperatures. Gluing anything in freezing temperatures (out in the garage) seems like a poor life choice.

[avengers63]

Today's looks a lot better than yesterday's. It'll all be amazing in the end.

 

[Bizman62]

I definitely have to try inlaying! One thing that has kept me hesitant has been the fear of cutting the pieces. But apparently there's services that do the cutting with tools I can't even imagine! I'll just have to find one that will cut my design and post it here...

[Professor Woozle]

That's looking damn good! It's also prodding me to get my arse into gear and finish off the major inlay job I've been doing on a Shadow S100 for far too many years now...

[avengers63]

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I definitely have to try inlaying! One thing that has kept me hesitant has been the fear of cutting the pieces. But apparently there's services that do the cutting with tools I can't even imagine! I'll just have to find one that will cut my design and post it here...

I got this set from DePaul Inlays. They do custom work. 

https://luthiersupply.com/21/information/yourlogo.html

 

IMHO, the best tool for routing for the inlay is a Dremel with the router base. I got a pile of teeny bits from my dentist. Tooth enamel is a LOT harder than wood, so when they're no good for dentistry they still have plenty of life for this. He gave me about 30 for free.  Ain't no telling what your dentist would do, but if he's just throwing them away anyway....