Aelita

[avengers63]

Sometime last year, I bought an oddball pickguard assembly. Pickups, switches, pots... the whole thing allegedly untouched and probably working. As it turns out, it's from a Russian guitar from the 70's/80's called Aelita. IIRC, the assembly cost me around $100. It turns out you can find the whole guitar on Reverb for $200-$300. I'm not entirely positive I made the right move in the long run. Oh well... we're here now, so let's go.

The blank is supposed to be African mahogany. That's how it was labeled at Rockler. BUT... when I was cutting & planning it, it let off a somewhat acrid medicinal odor. I don't remember African mahogany smelling like this, but it's also been quite some time since I've worked with it.

I'm planning on dyeing the body black. I might or might not go with an actual finish. Linseed oil is a distinct possibility.

I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing for the neck other than it'll prolly be a reverse banana. There are plenty of available options sitting on my shelf: hickory, cherry, walnut, paduk, purpleheart, ash, anigre, and a few others.

When the time comes, I'll be taking the whole thing to a shop to do the wiring. I have -zero- confidence that all 3 pickups, 6 push button switches, and 4 pots are all free of issues. Finding and fixing them is well above my pay grade.

[henrim]

Beautifully brutal Soviet design on those pickups! The thing I love the best though is the way they tied the cables together! I have to try that myself! Thanks for sharing!

[avengers63]

3 hours ago, henrim said:

Beautifully brutal Soviet design on those pickups!

Right!?!? I've listened to some demos of this on youtube. They're similar to a regular s/c, but with their own vibe. I'm just hoping that the wiring isn't too screwed up.

Thinking just a bit... this thing is clearly an oddball. In that thought, I should use a strange fretboard. I have a black palm that I'm unlikely to use on anything else....

[henrim]

3 hours ago, avengers63 said:

Right!?!?

Referring to their looks. Same vibes as in Soviet era modernism in architecture. Not necessarily something you would describe as beautiful but at the same time they do have character.

3 hours ago, avengers63 said:

I'm just hoping that the wiring isn't too screwed up.

Caps may be dry,  But I wouldn’t change them before trying them out. Otherwise I wouldn’t expect much problems. Looks neatly done and is kept well.

[avengers63]

6 hours ago, henrim said:

Referring to their looks. Same vibes as in Soviet era modernism in architecture. Not necessarily something you would describe as beautiful but at the same time they do have character.

In my eyes, they reflect some of the 60's & 70's Japanese pickups. 

 

See, I'm a sucker for non-traditional pickups. They have a vibe that your "normal" s/c & hb can never have. Some of the surface mounts have a rubber magnet and are wound to about 5.5 or lower. We have some boutique builders reproducing them, but they're using A5 magnets, so they aren't going to sound anything like the originals. The sad thing is that the boutique pups cost more than the originals but don't sound like them.

[henrim]

35 minutes ago, avengers63 said:

In my eyes, they reflect some of the 60's & 70's Japanese pickups. 

I'd guess that is what they copied, Adding just a bit of that USSR aesthetic with square magnets. 
This will be an interesting build!

[avengers63]

I planed the body blank down to 1 3.4" (if I remember right!). Then the ears of the bass horn and trebel side of the lower bout are being glued on. It's just a little too wide at full width to go through my planer. The oddly shaped and slightly offset body jives with me somehow.

I bought a quart of water-based poly and had it tinted black. The plan is to lay down the black poly and sand between every coat. With the finish being tinted, I won[t have to worry about any sand-through. The hope is that it'll end up transparent black with some of the grain showing through. If it ends up opaque, that's fine too.

[avengers63]

routed to the template

With this being a top-routed swimming pool route that's getting a side jack, basic rounded edges, and prolly a forearm contour & belly cut, this will be a VERY easy body for a change. The beck is gonna be a white limba reverse banana that's about 1/4 done already. I haven't decided on the fretboard yet, but it certainly won't be anything extravagant. Most likely cherry, chechen, walnut, or something else simple I have lying around. Ya know.... I've never seen anyone do an ash fretboard. 

 

[Professor Woozle]

20 hours ago, avengers63 said:

Ya know.... I've never seen anyone do an ash fretboard. 

Does ash wear too quickly, I wonder? That might explain why, if you end up with an irregularly scalloped board after not all that much playing.

[avengers63]

What a fine way to spend a 59 degree Saturday afternoon: milling, rough radiusing, and slotting fretboards.

 

 

L-R is bubinga, bloodwood, mahogany, maybe cherry, cherry, guyana rosewood, chechen, flamed maple, walnut, chechen

I bet y'all have never seen a mahogany fretboard. We all know I pick a fretboard based on aesthetics alone. I've used white oak before. I was tempted to make one from poplar. I don't have any ash sixed right or that would absolutely have been in the mix today. FWIW - 3 of these will see relatively immediate use.

 

This is what I landed on for the Aelita f/b. It's 4th from the left.

 

I'm honestly not positive what it is. I THINK  it's cherry. Whatever it is, it's dead perfect quartersawn and a pleasantly light color. It will contrast well with the black body and tortoise p/g. The markers will be dots of an undetermined material. Leftover recon stone is a distinct possibility.

[avengers63]

I haven't been able to be in the garage for several weeks. My old man back is telling me I REALLY overdid it today. I'll be paying for this for a few days.  I DID, however, get a lot done. There was aside projects and a jug that I'm not posting about, but the Aelita moved forward.

As the body template is a one-off, I had no problem carving it up to make a template for the ridiculous amount of electronics that are on that pickguard. From there, it's the boring tedium of hogging out an absolutely gigantic cavity. My iinitial swiss cheese-ing with a 1/2" bit went just a bit too deep. I'm not routing any deeper just to hide it.

[Bizman62]

11 hours ago, avengers63 said:

My iinitial swiss cheese-ing with a 1/2" bit went just a bit too deep.

That's something I've encountered as well. No matter how accurately you adjust the depth, the depth stop seems to give in just enough to dig the tip of the drill bit deeper than intended.

[Charlie H 72]

This is awesome— what a cool shape. 
And a huge cavity holy cow

im impressed at all the fretboards in one day too. I keep buying my fretboards pre-slotted from stewmac but the quality has been off lately so maybe it’s time. What’s your process like?

[avengers63]

Nothing too interesting to report today. At least not with this build. Tangentially, I had a LOT going on in the High End Build. Here it's just rounding over the body. I didn't even sand it. I don't think I'm gonna do a forearm bevel. It seem like they should go hand-in-hand with a belly cut, which I'm not comfortable even trying given the size of that cavity route.

 

[avengers63]

On 3/26/2023 at 7:26 AM, Charlie H 72 said:

im impressed at all the fretboards in one day too. I keep buying my fretboards pre-slotted from stewmac but the quality has been off lately so maybe it’s time. What’s your process like?

It's a multi-step process that needed no insignificant investment of time and product. 

1) The blank has to be dimensioned. You want to make it a little long, but we're looking at 3" wide, at least 22" long, and 1/4" thick. This often means the piece of lumber is resawn & planed. The benefit of resawing means I can get at least 2 fretboard blanks from the lumber, assuming it's at least 3/4" to begin with. 

2) I bought a 12" radius router bit on Amazon. I did a test & demo of hit here somewhere. I have no idea where it's hiding. The end result was that it does all the heavy lifting as far as raduising the board, but it absolutely needs some finishing up with a radius block. You also can't slot the fretboard first as the bit will grab the fret stots and chip out pretty easily. As the but sits vertical in the router table, I had to make a box to attach the fretboard to with double sided carpet tape. It's a simple jig, but the job can't be done without it.

3) To cut the fret slots, a slotting template is an absolute must. In the past, I was using a fret saw & miter box I bought on eBay. Later, I was blessed by a member of this board with a fret slotting setup consisting of a small benchtop table saw, a fretting saw blade ,and an intricate jig using the slotting template that REALLY makes the job easy. 

The whole process isn't difficult, but it's pretty involved. It only made sense to assembly line a pile of them. Switching tools and setting them up is what takes the longest, so it's just more time-efficient to have done 10 of them at once.

[avengers63]

 

Just a neck pocket. Nothing special. Next up for the body is laying down some water-based lacquer I had the store add black into. Hopefully it'll be only transparent enough to see some grain through the finish. It it ends up completely opaque, that's fine too.

I'm changing directions on the neck. I WAS going to have a black limba neck with the cherry fretboard.  But mahogany/limba would be a very dark tone. No balance. Instead I'm either gonna make a cherry or maple neck. But that ain't gonna happen for a bit. My bandsaw completely died on me and there are NO repair shops in the whole of the St Louis metro area. We have a 3 million total population, but -zero- places to get shop tools repaired. THAT is a huge pile of bullshit. 

On the good side, wifey is going to let me get the last bandsaw I'll ever buy. It'll either be a Rikon or a Grizzly, depending on how all the shipping, possible financing, and various other financial considerations pan out.

[avengers63]

Everyone is gone for a week! I get to work on whatever I want, wherever I want, for as long as I want! So first up today is playing with the finish.

 

This is what I had them add black pigment to. It SAYS it's "triple thick". I'd thin it down by 50% normally, so let's do 1/3 finish to 2/3 water and see what happens.

 

Hello, Mr. Test Piece!

 

I'm gonna give it several coats and see how it goes. Even the un-thinned stuff has a blue-ish tinge to it, so I'm anticipating needing to dye the wood black first. As this is water based, I could mix up some strong black dye and put it directly into the finish. This IS a complete experiment, so whatever works is what we go with.

[MiKro]

On 4/2/2023 at 3:16 PM, avengers63 said:

>snip< 

Later, I was blessed by a member of this board with a fret slotting setup consisting of a small benchtop table saw, a fretting saw blade ,and an intricate jig using the slotting template that REALLY makes the job easy. 

>snip<

I am very happy to hear that you are still using that setup John.

MK

[avengers63]

Yes sir! You have no idea how grateful I am that you gifted me that setup what... 10 years ago? It has really made life immensely easier.

 

So three coats later and I'm satisfied that the results will come out basically like I was anticipating. This gives me the confidence to go ahead and start on the two bodies I'll be using this technique on. After I get a little bit of a thickness built up, I'll be sanding it smooth. Lather/rinse/repeat until I'm satisfied with the results.

 

Mahogany on the left, white limba on the right. So wait.... I didn't tell you about the white limba Strat body routed for a Nashville Tele setup? It might just have something to do with one of the quartersawn white oak necks I have in the garage that I also didn't tell y'all about. Or it might not. There might be a maple Strat neck hiding out there. 

Ans speaking of things I've been keeping to myself....

 

Bubinga neck/bubinga fretboard. 1) This stuff is dense. 2) It also polishes up smooth as glass. 3) Crushed stone inlay is fun. 4) This wood is THIRSTY! It's just drinking up the linseed oil. This is the 3rd heavy coat just on the top. The next day there it looks mostly dry. I hope all this moisture being introduced doesn't do anything untoward to the wood.

 

[MiKro]

51 minutes ago, avengers63 said:

Yes sir! You have no idea how grateful I am that you gifted me that setup what... 10 years ago? It has really made life immensely easier.

>snip<

 

 

Has it been 10 years?  Wow how time is moving forward. LOL!!!

MK

[Crusader]

On 4/27/2023 at 6:34 AM, MiKro said:

...Wow how time is moving forward. LOL!!!

Yeah we're living in the future!

[mistermikev]

On 2/6/2023 at 3:36 PM, avengers63 said:

 

The blank is supposed to be African mahogany. That's how it was labeled at Rockler. BUT... when I was cutting & planning it, it let off a somewhat acrid medicinal odor. I don't remember African mahogany smelling like this, but it's also been quite some time since I've worked with it.

 

have no idea what that is but it's got really nice straight grain.  the aaaaaaah FRICKEN mahog that i get tends to be a LOT more orange/pink.  I know there is an asain variant that is supposed to be lighter in weight and tends to be more tan... never heard of it smelling different tho.  

mahog just smells so nice when you work it... sort of that cinnamon thing.  that... walnut and oak are my fav smells!  "these are a few of my favorite smells..."

 

shout out to @MiKro !  truly is a treasure on this forum!  a very generous individual indeed.

[avengers63]

10 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

mahog just smells so nice when you work it... sort of that cinnamon thing.  that... walnut and oak are my fav smells!  "these are a few of my favorite smells..."

 

Bloodwood is the best. It smells like Christmas cookies. I've encountered a couple that smell like cat piss. IIRC, Spanish cedar was one of them. And then there's poplar. It sometimes gives me dry heaves.

[mistermikev]

1 minute ago, avengers63 said:

Bloodwood is the best. It smells like Christmas cookies. I've encountered a couple that smell like cat piss. IIRC, Spanish cedar was one of them. And then there's poplar. It sometimes gives me dry heaves.

note to self: avoid spanish cedar and def snag some bloodwood!

[avengers63]

On a less cat-pissy note...

Reverse hocky stick quartersawn white oak neck with quartersawn cherry fretboard. If oak is anything like ash, and I suspect it is as they are structurally similar, this neck will add a distinctive mid-range growl to the bottom end of the mahogany body. Single coil pups are naturally bright, so this should have an overall good tonal balance.