Double cut

[henrim]

Knobs.

[henrim]

Cut a 2 mm aluminium cover plate and chiseled a recess for it.

Also prepared wiring. I left the body thicker than I thought I would so I can fit a push/pull pot in. That is used for series/parallel switching. I used regular alpha for tone.

Next I need to sand everything for lacquering. Which I don’t really like. Anyway, the plan is to spray nitro on the body and headstock, and oil the back of the neck.

I need to do some test pieces to see what to do with the imbuia top. I know it would turn to darkish brown when coated but I may stain it a bit darker first. 

[henrim]

I realized I need to shape the bass side horn a bit. Like it happens in many cases, the drawn shape may not work in real life.

This is method I like to use. I use a contrasting tape and background to see how the curvature is going to be. Doesn’t have to be a greenscreen but I find it effective. Also it is easy color to get rid of if the picture is taken to photoshop. In this case I don’t but sometimes I do.

[henrim]

After some fairly unscientific experiments I think I will add some red and yellow stain to the top. Maybe darken a bit towards the edges. But I’ll see how it goes. 

[henrim]

Tough call. Less red today, but tomorrow I may change my opinion. Of course it will get darker once top coat is applied. Which is something I’m pondering, whether to take my time and spray nitro or be lazy and go with fast drying 2k. Anyways I’m leaving the back of the neck raw and oil it.

[henrim]

This one is ready to accept top coat. Which I will do some day in the near future. Meanwhile there is some other things to do like new stairs to the main entrance of the house and a 2x12 cabinet. The cab is made of reclaimed wood I took from the kid’s bed I made about 10 years ago, and which is of no use anymore.

[Andyjr1515]

Some really nice work going on here.  That top is going to be spectacular when it's done!

 

[henrim]

Got the cab done and now doing some chiseling excises Going to coat the guitar once I’m finished with the stairs but it’s possible I have to postpone guitar work to August.

[ADFinlayson]

That neck joint is mega cool!

[henrim]

Alright. Finally got started spraying nitrocellulose on this one. 

[henrim]

One last coat today and then I leave the body to cure for a few weeks. After which I do final sanding and polishing. My plan is to polish the top and give the back and sides a matte finish. Back of the neck is still unfinished for the most part and will be treated with danish oil.

I’m in process of making a headstock inlay and probably need to spray the headstock separately.

I forgot to make side dots before gluing the neck in place so some trickery is needed to put the markers to the upper frets. I guess I need to weld a drill bit to a piece of rod make a long enough shaft to drill the hole(s) by hand. Should work ok. I left my previous guitar without any markers and I see I still need them. On this one I may even put markers to the top too. Maybe. I’ll see.

[henrim]

Headstock inlay/emblem. Aluminum and imbuia. Not yet properly seated and will get the same(ish) stain as the headstock. *Ish because I don’t think I have any of the color left I mixed for the top and headstock.

[Andyjr1515]

Very nicely done

[henrim]

Nitro finish has cured to a point that I’m going to wrap this thing up. 

Good reminder to drill the side dot holes before carving the neck. At some point when it’s s still possible to do the drilling  in the drill press. Since I have two carved necks here without side dots I quickly hacked together this drilling guide that can be attached to the neck with a rubber band. Seems to work ok.

I ended up inlaying the aluminum inlay tightly to the headstock and lacquered over it. Will be polished in a week or so. It’s possibly a risky construction but I’m willing to take a risk and learn in a hard way how not to inlay metal to wood

[mistermikev]

On 6/5/2023 at 1:30 PM, henrim said:

Neck and back roughly shaped. Neck is close but I need to decide whether to continue with the back to the the point I was going for, or if I actually want to leave it thicker.

now that's a proper dirty workbench.  guitar looks great.  lots to like there.

[henrim]

8 hours ago, mistermikev said:

now that's a proper dirty workbench.

Yeah. Every time I start doing something I empty and clean the workbench. And do the same every now and again during the process too. But it doesn't take too much time to be in the pictured situation again. I admire people who can put tools back in their place right after using them. But that ain't me. 

[Asdrael]

Build looks awesome so far, lots of clever ideas too! Not sure how you managed to get the headstock inlay that cleanly in, very impressive.

[henrim]

56 minutes ago, Asdrael said:

Not sure how you managed to get the headstock inlay that cleanly in

Maybe that is a rhetorical question but I tell you anyway  

First of all it is not really a proper inlay in traditional sense. But anyway, basically the process went like so:
- I drilled a 2 mm deep recess to the headstock with a 25mm forstner bit.
- Took a matching diameter aluminium tube and sawed a 2,1 mm thick ring out of it. I turned a bit off of the thickness from the inside of the tube to match the width of the logo.
- Then I took a headstock veneer off cut, glued it to a piece of round stock and put it in the lathe. Then I turned the piece to match the inside of the ring.
- (Repeated the previous step, first making one out off Blackwood Tek as in the picture and later the final one out of Imbuia.
- Glued a printout of the logo to the wood and sawed the logo out with a fret saw.
- Glued an other printout to a piece of aluminium sheet and sawed an aluminium positive of the logo. With the same fret saw.
- Matched the pieces together with needle files and a tiny chisel. 
- Glued the emblem pieces together with epoxy.
- Glued the assembly to the headstock recess with epoxy and sanded flat.

Metal inlays have been done for centuries all around the world. And there are fine examples of age old ones that have hold in time. Still there is risk that the wood moves and metal doesn't. Or they move in opposite directions. I have nitrocellulose lacquer on top which probably cracks if there is any movement. Observing such changes is what motivates me, so I'm taking calculated risks with my builds. If I was building to someone else I would have done all wood inlay. 

[mistermikev]

2 hours ago, henrim said:

Yeah. Every time I start doing something I empty and clean the workbench. And do the same every now and again during the process too. But it doesn't take too much time to be in the pictured situation again. I admire people who can put tools back in their place right after using them. But that ain't me. 

right on... I'm the sm way... I always think "well I'm gonna use this again in 3 mins so I'll just set it right here" and eventually I get to critical mass and spend too much time looking for the thing I just used... so I do cleanup!  a vicious cycle.

[Bizman62]

4 hours ago, henrim said:

people who can put tools back in their place right after using them.

 

2 hours ago, mistermikev said:

well I'm gonna use this again in 3 mins so I'll just set it right here

No such problem here: As it's a communal workshop we just have to clean the bench and put the tools back in their place. Five hours max to have the tools laying around...

[Asdrael]

4 hours ago, henrim said:

Maybe that is a rhetorical question but I tell you anyway  

First of all it is not really a proper inlay in traditional sense. But anyway, basically the process went like so:
- I drilled a 2 mm deep recess to the headstock with a 25mm forstner bit.
- Took a matching diameter aluminium tube and sawed a 2,1 mm thick ring out of it. I turned a bit off of the thickness from the inside of the tube to match the width of the logo.
- Then I took a headstock veneer off cut, glued it to a piece of round stock and put it in the lathe. Then I turned the piece to match the inside of the ring.
- (Repeated the previous step, first making one out off Blackwood Tek as in the picture and later the final one out of Imbuia.
- Glued a printout of the logo to the wood and sawed the logo out with a fret saw.
- Glued an other printout to a piece of aluminium sheet and sawed an aluminium positive of the logo. With the same fret saw.
- Matched the pieces together with needle files and a tiny chisel. 
- Glued the emblem pieces together with epoxy.
- Glued the assembly to the headstock recess with epoxy and sanded flat.

Metal inlays have been done for centuries all around the world.

 

Hah, the 25mm forstner bit for a 25mm tube. Clever and clean. I was impressed by that and also because to me, it really looks like you inlaid just the metal and the "middle wood" has always been there. The grain match is great. Did you use wood dust in the epoxy?

[henrim]

18 minutes ago, Asdrael said:

Did you use wood dust in the epoxy?

No, there wasn’t much need for that. I come from silversmithing and you don’t really use putties and bondos in those circles No, really, it just happened to be pretty good fit so there wasn’t need for any filler this time.

(But I have just fixed a few dings and chippings on the Blackwood Tek fretboard with CA glue and saw dust…)

[henrim]

I made this geckoesque thing for ringless pickup mounting. It allows proper height adjustment. 

The only drawback is that the pickup loses threads that are used for regular mounting. 

[Bizman62]

36 minutes ago, henrim said:

The only drawback is that the pickup loses threads that are used for regular mounting. 

I've been thinking about that and one solution is to grind the threads off the top of the screw.

[henrim]

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

I've been thinking about that and one solution is to grind the threads off the top of the screw.

Yes, a custom made bolt like that would work. One thought I had on an other build was to drill holes through the body and have height adjustment from the back of the body.

Anyways on my own guitars I have either drilled the pickup threads away (because testing various mounting methods) or re-tapped them metric (because most of the bolts and inserts and tools I have are metric). If I ever want to swap pickups I can find ways to mount them but I know I can't really sell my old pickups to anyone. But I guess I wouldn't be selling them even if they were in stock condition.