avengers63

First things first - Waifu loves me. Somewhere between sitting packed away in my basement and moving into her house, my old wah pedal crapped out on me. She not only got me a new one for Christmas this year, she managed to keep it completely hidden from me. I don't intentionally go snooping around, but we both buy damn near everything on the same Amazon Prime account, so you can't help but spoil some things for yourself. So hiding this from me was no mean feat! Now back to business... One last look before it's buried in the clamping plates and multiple cauls Tell her goodbye 'till tomorrow and hope for the best! One of the very good things about honeybutt running her business out of the house/garage is that there is ALWAYS a pile of MDF scrap available for this sort of thing.

I've done that before. With pieces this small & fragile, the amount of glue needed to keep them 100% stable enough to score the perimeter makes them damn hard to get back off without damaging them. Now, it's entirely possible that there's an adhesive I know nothing about that is perfectly suited to this task.

Unless it's something like this. On an inlay this big and one piece, I'd very carefully do it with my beloved scroll saw. It's just too easy not to use it.

I've used an XActo to score around the edges of larger pieces, like block inlays on the fretboard. That works great to define the edges before it's routed out. These pieces... they're just too damn small for that.

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....

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

FWIW: I just LOVE a tele bridge pickup. I honestly don't know what Fender either doesn't offer a Strat with one. I've never seen them do it, but the paring seems like a no-brainer. The closest I've seen them do is the Nashville Tele, which is most decidedly NOT the same thing.

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.

The cream p/g blank, pup ring, pots, and Jackson F/R trem came in this week. I ordered a pair of rings, but the nitwit in China only charged/shipped one. Just as well as the color doesn't match the p/g blank. I'll just make a pair from the leftover blank. At least the color will match that way.

NEW GUITAR DAY I was killing time, browsing through Facebook marketplace, when I came across this Jackson Performer Rhodes V. I looked up what they're going for on Reverb, offered the dude $200, and he bit. Realistically, since it came with a Charvell/Jackson molded case, it's a steal. The case alone should be $50-75 used. The camera is lightening up the color quite a bit. It's really a LOT darker than that... kinda blackish brown. We're calling it Root Beer. Anyway, the p/g has no screws in it, the pickups are crap, and it has the wrong trem (which is also pretty screwed up). I have a set of zebra DiMarzios I've had lying around for close to a decade, so they're going into it. A went on eBay and found a black Jackson F/R trem for $70 shipped. I then went on Amazon and bought some cream pickup rings and a cream p/g blank to make a new plate from, as well as a pair of 1M CTS pots. When it's done, prolly next weekend, I'll have a $300 investment that will play & sound like an ax 2x-3x the price.

Yea........ I can't do hammer & chisel stuff. Maybe I can mail it to you and let you have a go at it. I was seriously thinking files, rasps, and curved scrapers. This burl is pretty soft and would prolly respond well to hand tools. There might even be room for a Dremel or the Wagner Saf-T-Planer.

I've had the cove bits in for a few weeks. Let's see what happens. I'm wanting to step up the coves to simulate a deepening "carve". Remember that I'm only trying to rough out the edges. The smallest bit did basically nothing. I skipped the 2nd bit altogether and went straight to the 3rd. Finishing the step-up with the last two was simple enough. It might not have made as much of a gradient as I'd have wanted, but that's what happens when you experiment. IDK how I'm going to finish it out yet. I'm making this up as I go along. Next step is to fill in the voids with epooxy and hope for the best.

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.

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.

Fortunately, we have an advantage over just everyone else. We ultimately don't have to decide which wat to go. We can (not so) simply make another hand have it both ways. Of course, that's a slippery slope of justification as to why we NEED 21 guitars with another 4 in various stages of incompletion....

FWIW: Samsara is a very popular electronic logging system used by the trucking industry. Nobody is likely to confuse a guitar with trucking software. but.... When I was a manager at Domino's Pizza, Domino sugar company forced a company policy on us to answer the phone with "Domino's Pizza" instead of just plain "Domino's". Companies can get overly testy is protecting their IP. https://www.samsara.com/

This chick is HUGE!!!!! This is her, although completely backwards right now, then side by side with the backing veneer she'll be mounted on before inlaying. The outline is about 1/4" bigger than the actual perimeter of the back. There will be a LOT of overhang. I've clearly overdone it just a bit. Life goes on, and it'll still be amazing when it's done.

The painted mahogany body and finished maple neck for $150 are all the reason needed to get it for a mod platform. The A5 pups are actually good enough to keep and re-use somewhere else. We have an Amazon Prime account, so I get a crapload of stuff there, including any & all Wilkinson hardware. This is their retailer there: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Musiclily/page/E34E6491-7C65-4FB2-B789-3E556918C09D?ref_=ast_bln The only headstock mod needed for the tuners I used were new screw holes on the back. There MIGHT be some out there that will use the same holes, but I can't testify to it.

I was all but set on the Les Trem. I just wanted an ounce of input. In other news...... I got nearly all of it cut out. The halo is wenge, the dress is slightly flamed ash, the skin is maple, the hair is mahogany, the metal bits will be yellowheart, and the interior of the halo will be birdseye maple. It will all be mounted on a poplar backer bedore inlaying it in one piece into the back. I ordered 3 piles of recon stone to inlay into it. The eyes will be mother of pearl, the outlines jet, and the ribbons & lips some reddish stone I can't remember the name of right now. Not sure what to do about her left nipple. And yes, I have a ton of confidence that I will indeed screw this up on a catastrophically immense scale.