Blackdog

So, to get this started. First activities were, obviously, to prepare the banks for the parts. Body backs were thicknessed, tops were book matched and thicknessed, There was quite a lot to do with a couple of the tops. The boards were seriously twisted and there wasn't enough extra thickness to account for it. So I had to press them into flatness: got them wet on the surface and put them under pressure (more than 150Kg) for a while. In the end they stood under pressure for almost a year before I actually did something with them.... By that time they were flat alright ! Body blanks and book matched tops were all sized to common dimensions and mounting holes for the operations on the jigs, this simplifies the setups when making more than one of the same design. Now, the Hollowbody is somewhat different from the other two in that inside of the top is carved in the sound hole area. This is to obtain a top thickness consistent in the area once the outside part gets carved. This is something that needs to be sorted before attempting any other operation with the top. I used a set of “topographic” templates designed to align with the templates used for the top carve. These are all referenced to common alignment points to ensure that everything will align properly and the top thickness will remain even and predictable in the sound hole area. I was aiming at 4mm thickness this time to keep things reasonable without too much risk as it was the first time I tried this method. I theory, the step ridges of the topographic routes on the inside will align with the step ridges on the top, an operation that will happen much later. So I am really depending on the accuracy of the alignment to the reference mounting points of the templates. This was a proof-of-concept for future fully carved tops and backs (outside and inside), it worked beautifully as you’ll see in the pictures. The inside carve templates: Once again, a set of 9 templates were used (same amount as for the top). The top with the topographic routing on the inside. The top with the inside carve smoothed and ready. Now it would be a while until I could verify the success of the approach: After carving the top and when the sound hole gets cut open.

Hi Scott, thanks for the welcome back. I'll try to keep up with the posting. Mind you, I've gotten lazy with the pictures lately, but I think I have enough archive material to show here and keep the thread interesting. Yes indeed. I had another build that was dormant for 5 years. But that was truly frozen, these builds here have been advancing, though at a somewhat glacier speed...

Hey ! Hi there ! Now that you mention it, yes... a fastened seatbelt is probably needed.... Hope you guys are doing well in these rarefied times....

Loooong time without posting in this fine forum, where I learned so much ! Its great to see so many beautiful builds going on. Many talented builders in the forum, as always, and a lot to learn from them. It is hard to believe that I started this Single-cut project almost five years ago…. Shortly after that I changed project at my day job and it became much more demanding… And a few of those rare breeds called “customers” kept me busy making some 335/355s…. So, let's say, I got distracted. But the project was never truly stopped. It just slowly moved forward by spasms of activity followed by periods of rest… The design itself also evolved a little since the original proposal. The concept remains the same, but the shape was refined a little to make it even more gracefully LP-ish while keeping the DNA of the Blackdog Singlecut original design. And the scope of the build was consolidated to three BD Bluesbreakers: The FiftySeven: A gentle carve, more LP-ish, on a hard maple top that will be a Goldtop. Solid, light Mahogany back and a Spanish cedar neck. This one will have a cream plastic binding on the top and the cocobolo fretboard. Fret markers will be my offset dots. Humbuckers, ABR-1 bridge and aluminium tailpiece. Vintage Kluson tuners and a simple black faceplate. The FiftyNine: Has a bit more dramatic carve on the top of nicely flamed hard maple. Will be a Sunburst. Solid, light Mahogany back and a mahogany neck. This one will have a faux binding on the top (exposed maple edge) and flamed maple binding on the cocobolo fretboard. Fret markers will be MOP trapezoids. Humbuckers, ABR-1 bridge and aluminium tailpiece. Vintage Kluson tuners and a cocobolo faceplate. The Hollowbody: Same carve as the FiftyNine, on top of more evenly flamed hard maple. Unknown finish at this time, probably something modern. Hollowed Mahogany back and honduras mahogany neck. This one will have a faux binding on the top (exposed maple), a single sound hole and cocobolo binding on the B. rosewood fretboard. Fret markers will be black MOP/abalone “V” blocks. Humbuckers, locking ABR-1 bridge and aluminium tailpiece. Schaller tuners and a cocobolo faceplate. A lot of work has already been done, and now with the current situation it seems I will spend most of the summer at home, so maybe the perfect time to complete these builds…. These are the first “true” new Blackdog designs I’ve done in a while, so If there’s still interest in following some more of my builds I will update this thread accordingly. These are the new concept drawings for the updated design,

I think it's about time you get your wife the guitar she wants and deserves !! But I'm afraid 9 euros wont get you very far.... The ABR is a nice design. Located correctly it will provide all the range you will ever need. Good ones have less free play on the moving parts and over the posts. I used to find the right position of the bridge by finding the correct intonation at the 12th fret on the two E strings (moving the loose bridge around the expected position on the top), then using the bridge post holes to mark the post positions on the top. But checking the resulting positioning of the posts from the 12th fret in several finished guitars (same scale, obviously) I found that they all ended up within 0.5mm of each other. So today I'm just using the measurements to position the loose bridge, confirm the intonation, and mark the holes on the top.

Hi Carl. Yes, you're right, it's a can of worms in a way... But come on ! You know what I mean when I ask the rethorical question... It is a true fact that the SG started as a Les Paul, but let's be clear, it has as much in common to the "real" Les Paul as a Vee or an Explorer do. I'm after the Bluesbreaker Les Paul sound and feel.

…and what does make a Les Paul after all ? No, I'm not going to post a Les Paul build thread. (Or am I ?) Last week I finished and delivered an ES335 for a customer in the UK and he asked me “What’s next now ?” And it was actually a good question, since I have several new projects awaiting for some quality workbench time… And now I think I have a winner project. Been playing a lot lately with the idea of a Les Paul flavoured Blackdog Singlecut. I’ve discussed this here before, the original Blackdog Singlecut design was heavily influenced by the PRS style of solidbodies. Longer scale and different maple/mahogany ratio have a deep impact in the way the guitar sounds and responds. Nothing wrong with that, but it is different from a Les Paul in both accounts. But a good Les Paul has always been a favorite of mine. It was my first love and every time I strap one on is like coming back home. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this... ;-) So, why not merge the elements that I believe make the LP sound and feel experience with my Singlecut design ? It took a bit of refining of the design, but the looks are close enough to my original Singlecut and still different enough to not make it a Les Paul copy. The elements I’m bringing from LP-Land into this design are: - Thicker mahogany back, around 1.75”. - Thinner and harder maple top: 5/8”. Hard-maple might not be so beautifully flamed as big-leaf, but is indeed harder and it has an impact to the sound. - 59 LP Scale lenght and fret spacing: Rule of 18 based on a 24.75” scale. Thinner fretboard. - One piece mahogany neck with old style compression rod (Yes, I'll be going old-school with this one. If the neck is well made and the wood is stable there’s no need for a two-way rod. And the old school one means more wood and less steel in the neck: I like the idea of that). - Steeper tilted back headstock: 17*, and of a new design, with strings fanning out to the tuner posts. Vintage style low mass tuners. I won't be using a volute, but I may try an idea I have for reinforcing the headstock area without betraying the design. We'll see. - Bridge/pickup positions geometry like on a 59 LP. The most significant details of comfort of my original design will be kept: The belly cut on the back and the progressive heel for a better upper fret access. And a few up-class details too, like faux binding on the maple top, flamed maple binding on the fretboard and some interesting head plate. But nothing too over the top, these shall be players’ guitars. I have already worked out the general plans and specifically those for the templates: for the body, neck and top carving. The plan right now is to concurrently build two of these. A Goldtop with a wraparound bridge and twin P90s and a Sunburst with ABR/Stop Tailpiece and twin Humbuckers. I’m also toying with the idea of making the Sunburst a semi-hollow/chambered type, with a single soundhole. This just to keep things interesting… This is what these will look like (hopefully): (Pics lost to the great Photobucket highjack) I promised that the next Blackdog design I'd build I would post the thread here, so this is it gents. I haven't even started yet (other than collecting the wood) and it's going to take some time, so I hope we will all have fun together. BTW I think I will call these LP flavoured Blackdogs the BluesBreakers.

You're so right ! We tend to overthink things and sometimes a big block of hardwood, sandpaper and elbow grease is all that's needed !

Hi Chris, I see you decided to use the topographic templates for the carving. I liked the method so much that I developed similar template sets for the carving of my own designs. But I get the impression that you're hurrying a bit too much. You need to take your time with these things. The first template routing is really dangerous, you have to remove wood from a rather large area and hand control of the router is critical as it is hanging on the edge of the template for most of it. It works better if you reverse things. For this first step I prefer to use a table router, so the router is stationary and the piece is solidly seated. Hardly any chance to go wrong in this way. For the rest of the steps I go back to top-routing, as I prefer to have good visibility of what's going on. But you got past that already. Now about the neck angle. Like I told you by PM 3.5* is a bit too shallow for a Les Paul using a normal ABR type of bridge. Even with the bridge bottomed to the top you will not be able to attain a decent action. The beauty of building a well researched model like a Les Paul is that everything has been figured out by now, and the 4.2-4.4* neck angle is the magic number. Now that I see pictures of your jig I think that your body was not sitting flat in the jig, this could well be your problem. Another thing I can think of is the possible flexion of the beams under the weight of the router. For this kind of applications I tend to use "L" shaped metal profiles, which are significantly more rigid. Try to see what could have gone wrong and then touch up that neck angle on the top.

Building a tube amp is hardly rocket science, but it is not for beginners. Any tube amp can kill you if you do not know what you're doing. Not trying to be mysterious here, just warning you that the risks are serious and real. I started with this electronics business when I was really young. I was a technician before I became an engineer, and to make a buck while I was studying I worked as a TV repair when they were mostly tube (Yes, I'm THAT old !). So I learned my way around old school electronics many years ago. Now that I think of it, pretty much everything about me is old school…. Gee, I think I'm Vintage !

Man you do display some sweet old amps in your shots. I'll bet that Princeton sounds sweet. Which is your favorite? SR Well, the Princeton is the only "real one". It's a '64 that I have modded (in fully reversible ways) into a Princeton Reverb, added a Deluxe Reverb output transformer and replaced the baffle with a 12" ceramic Jensen. All this to make it a bit more useable, the non-Reverb BF Prince had one less gain stage and sounds a bit weak and the original Oxford 10" farts a bit on the low end… It sounds great for low volume situations, you can crank it up to 8-10 for a sweet break-up without rendering people deaf or killing small animals. The one on the left is a prototype I built (before I started building guitars). It's a 20Watter with 6V6s and Marshall style PI, two fully independent preamps, one is a pure Plexi and the second is pure Blackface. It's kind of an old school dual personality disorder amp. The Vibro and Marshall 18Watter are actually clones I built. I'm an engineer in electronics and I don't really believe in vintage amps. Electronics don't age well, electrolythics dry-up, carbon composition resistors shift in value by as much as 50%… By the time you replace all that to make the amp dependable, it's not "vintage" anymore… So I just built the clones to original specs, point to point wiring, the best available iron and correct components. IMO it's the best solution: much closer to the vintage ones than the "brand" re-issues and fully gig-able.

WOW !!! That's really Old School !!! Respect !!

Thanks Scott, some better pictures of the finished product. Not the best lighting conditions but still much better than the utilitarian pictures I usually take... Can I post porn in this forum ?? Cookin' with classics….

The '58 Vee I don't focus on building replicas, but every now and then I get "the itch" and then I research the instrument as much as possible and stick to the techniques used to build the originals. I use the process to learn how things were done back in the day, and more often than not, I learn a few new tricks here and there. This is pretty much a vintage correct replica of a 1958 Korina Flying V. Very few details depart from the original design: Laminated neck, offset fretboard dots and a cocobolo faceplate with the de-facto Blackdog logo: the feathers inlay. The vintage correct construction, dimensions and processes were documented in . The generalities: Korina (white limba) two piece body. Korina (laminated with a rosewood accent) neck with 17* angled back headstock (no scarf). Traditional compression one-way truss rod in a rounded, hand-filling, neck profile. Vintage correct scale (24.75") and fret spacing (rule of 18). Unbound cocobolo fretboard, 12" radius, with rolled edges. All important joints were done with Hot Hide Glue, and finished in thin Amber nitro. Hardware: Kluson tuners, for correctness and to keep the headstock as light as possible, Faber bridge, CTS/Switchcraft electronics. Pickups right now are Gibson Classic 57/57+ but will be replaced with purpose built Blackdog pickups as soon as I get a clear idea on how I want to fine-tune the amplified sound. Light as a feather, at exactly 3.0 Kg (6.6 lbs). The rest you can see, as faithful to the 1958 instrument as it was possible to make. Thanks for looking !

Regarding the general cosmetics I'm still not sure if I will stick with the antique white pick guard. This is 1958 correct for what is worth, but maybe the 5-ply black pick guard will look more "correct" with the black pickup rings and knobs (and the black ribbed rubber atrocity). I may try that when I install the final Blackdog pickups.

Hi Peter, thanks ! The neck is lacquer finished just like the rest of the guitar, I just gave a slightly lighter amber shade to the shaft.

I will eventually wind pickups for this guitar, but in the meantime I tried some reference pickups to get an idea of the sonic signature of the guitar. First I put a set of Bareknuckles The Mule (PAF-ish wind, unbalanced coils, Hi 7K Lo 8K Ohms DCR and alnico IV magnet) which were a bit nasal and slightly harsh. Alnico IV is probably the wrong choice for a Limba guitar, which will naturally enhance the upper mids and have lighter lows. So I changed for a set of Gibson Classic 57 and 57+. These are Alnico II's, 8K and 9K Ohms DCR and the balanced coils give them a smoother sound which suits the guitar much better. For the custom pickups I will stick with balanced coils and Alnico II, maybe just make the pickups slightly hotter, but that should work. Better, more professional pictures will come, but the very basic "Look mum ! It's a Vee !" pictures are here:

Good news, the pointy thing is finished. A few in-process pics, not really many… I'm no finishing expert by any means. Matter of fact I'm learning a bit more with every single guitar I'm finishing… But this is my process: I final sand with grit 320 after the pore filling, and spray a good few coats of clear to seal and have a bit of build-up. I use Clou nitro lacquer (pretty much the only nitro still available in Europe) dilluted to 2/3 with the dedicated thinner for most of the process. It flows well and still builds up decently. Let this dry for a couple of days and level sanded with 320. Now it's time for the color. In this case is just a heavy amberish lacquer. This was colored with StewMac transtint products: Vintage amber and a touch of medium brown. The originals were sprayed with Canary Yellow and then the clear went amber with the years. I just went for the right color from the start. After this, some more clear build up coats, a few days drying and level sanding again with 320. The final touch is a few coats of clear dilluted 50/50 with my best gun. This, and some careful spraying, produces a very fine orange peel. Now the usual recommendation for nitro based lacquer is to let it dry for at least 4 weeks to get the maximum solvent evaporation (I have no clue why people refers to this as curing. There's no such thing, this is an evaporative finish). This produces a lasting glass like surface after polishing. With this guitar I was after a "thin finish" look, one that gives the impression of being thinner than it actually is. This looks specially well on these vintage inspired models. You need to start with a reasonably thin finish to begin with, of course, but the trick is to let it dry for a week or 10 days . By then the surface is hard enough to take a polish well without much sandpaper blocking. The orange peel I get is fine enough to allow me to start wet sanding with grit 1500. I use Micromesh with the supplied rubber block, and naphta as a lubricant. Good ventilation and a mask are recommended, otherwise it can be an intoxicating experience, but not in a good way... I use 1500 to get rid of the orange peel, then 1800 and 2400 to finish off. I clean the guitar well and move to the buffing wheels with the different Menzerna solid-paste polishing compounds (pre-polish, intesive-polish, final finish). Here it is important to have a wheel dedicated to each grit and to clean the guitar well (paper towel and naphtha) between grits to avoid contaminating the next wheel with a coarser paste. This produces a mirror finish at the time, but since the surface of the lacquer has been broken it will accelerate the evaporation of the solvents still there. During the following couple of weeks the lacquer will slightly sink and delicately follow the grain of the wood on the surface. This effect makes it look like a very thin finish, as opposed to the "dipped in glass" look of polishing a fully hardened lacquer. But enough blah, blah ! Time to assemble the thing !

Involve her in the process !! Get her to help you on something, it works wonders !

No idea… It will depend on what your attachments look like. I have to admit that it took me a while to convince myself of buying the robo-sander things. ANd at the time they were sold individually !! But once I got them I found several uses for them. They are fantastic for shaping the back profile of the necks after the rough cut, using a jig like this:

This is very good advise ! Get a clean template first ! You'll have enough work sanding the routing marks off, you don't want to have to deal with shape correction on something thicker than 1/2". Another good advise ! To avoid tear outs I run the pieces through the Robo-sander first. These template following drum sanders present zero tear out risks and the follower plastic bearing is slightly oversized with respect to the sanding cylinder, so it leaves a bit of margin. Then I use the routing bits, and since there's very little material to remove the job is much cleaner and the risk of nasty accidents is reduced significantly.

Very slow progress...Finished the sanding yesterday… All going well I will start the lacquer spraying tonight.

Very interesting build and choice of timbers ! Zebrano and Macassar, won't that be a rather heavy neck ?

Finally some progress !!!! The stars aligned and I found the time to fine sand this thing and leave it ready for the pore-filling. This means sanding to grit 320 and blowing the pores clean with compressed air. Got my wife to do the pore filling as usual. Believe it or not she likes it ! For this one we used the oil-based Rustin's stuff (that dilutes in white spirits). Now I'll let it dry for a day and will sand any remaining excess of filler off. Then I will be ready to spray the finish. In the meantime I also got the case for this guitar. This wasn't trivial at all ! Not many decent options for a Flying V. The plastic SKB is really horrible. The Gator options are Chinese made and the quality is very low: I tried the Gator Extreme (that can be configured for several odd-shaped guitars) and it was so poorly made that I sent it back ! I decided I wanted the Canadian style hardcase, like the ones Gibson use, but the shop that usually stocks those in Holland (under the SCC brand) did not have the "V" shaped case available. I ended up buying it directly from TKL in the US. They gave me a good "builders discount" but with the shipping and local customs it wasn't cheap. But it's a good quality, elegant case.

Have you tried sprinkling some water on the concave side of the wood and pressing it flat for a couple of days ? It should remove some, if not all, of the cupping. Probably enough to use directly.