avengers63

I managed to spend several hours in front of the television last night dressing the frets on the Aelita & StraTele necks. I haven't messed with the break off on the Kelly neck yet. I'm thinking that tonight I might try and re-buff the bodies and see if that makes things better.

The only thing I was gonna do in the garage tonight is press the frets in. So me being me, I forgot to brace under the 22nd fret and snapped off the end of the FB. 1) It'll glue back on. 2) It's OK of it gets a little wopperjawed. I rarely go past the 15th fret anyway. Seriously - everything past the 17th is just for looks. I'm just not a shredding soloist.

If that's how you feel, I'll send you some wood and you can knock one out for me.

So here's the scoop. About 2 months ago, I went into training for the new job. Everything went exactly according to plan. I'm with a FedEx contractor driving linehaul overnights. I take trailers of packages between hubs from about 7pm-5am, M-F. This leaves -zero- time through the week to get anything done. Lately, weekend overnight temps have been around 70, but with about 70% humidity. It's hard to breathe when the air is that thick. Between that and getting accustomed to the schedule and overnights, not a single thing has been getting done. So tonight ima try and get some fretwork done in the kitchen. We'll see how it goes. L-R we have the Aelita, Jackson, church guitar, and the StraTelecaster necks. I'm not done buffing out any of them, but the fretboards are all ready.

That looks a lot like oak to me. Ash has a similar grain, but isn't nearly as dark. Please tell me it's not oak. It would prolly sound good, but it'd be a shoulderbreaker.

KIT BASH build thread For those who didn't follow the build thread, this thing fought me every step of the way, including not having matching screws for the neck plate. Absolutely NOTHING in this build went according to the initial plan. Even it's original purpose flew out the window. The only thing left from the original kit is the neck and headless unit. Everything else found it's way into the bin, some sooner than later. What we're left with at the end of the cat-ass-trophy of a project: generic maple neck & rosewood fretboard from a kit headless trem & headpiece from a kit My Defender double cut body, modified for the headless unit: 7 piece center block of ash, black limba, and cherry, with mahogany-like wings. HSH-like pickups, because that's the closest thing I can call them to what they are. The bridge is a twin rail & single in a HB form, while the neck is a twin rail The finish is a simple linseed oil soaking.

At least the back looks decent

And this is where it always falls apart for me. I only do the initial leveling with the ROS. The rest is all wetsanded by hand. And it never matters. I've read all the books, I've watched all the videos, and none of it ever seems to matter. Oh, it's flat as glass and just as smooth... and I always have the lines. I really don't get how y'all do it. Wetsand in one direction until all the sanding lines from the previous grit are gone. Next grit, do the same in the opposite direction. Repeat until you're through the grits. Buff with Maguiar's Swirl Remover on a buffing pad attached to a drill. I mean, it's labor intensive and time consuming, but it's really not that complicated. But here we are anyway.

I still have to brush on my finishes. This not only makes them thick in a hurry, but radically uneven. 220 levels it out pretty quickly. The thickness of the finish makes it rarely an issue. I also learned a trick when I'm sanding lacquer: Give it a light scuff, but don't clean off the dust. Then brush on some lacquer thinner. This will "melt" the dust back into the finish and help level out the whole thing. This may make the leveling take several days, but it leaves the finish in that much better shape.

Almost immediately, disaster tried to ruin my night. I put a couple of light coats of amber shellac on the back of the Kelly body. Poplar is plain and kinda weird looking, but it takes color like a champ. The amber evened out the color and looked damn good!. The first swipe with 220 on the ROS immediately sanded through. (My inner thug takes over) Dat's aight. That is ALLLLLLL right. I got sumpem fo you ass. Ima strip it all off, buff that wood up to 10K - you know, when it feels like plastic. Then Ima dye & oil it. Can't sand through it THEN can ya! How ya like me now? I get like this sometimes. I don't get a lot of human interaction outside of my house. Working overnights is just gonna make it worse.

4 bodies that need to be buffed out. A fresh stack of micromesh sanding disks that go up to 10k grit A 5" round sanding block A 5" random orbital sander 5 hours set aside after everyone has gone to bed. (I'm working overnights now) This will either be insanely satisfying or you will hear me cussing in Texas, Finland, England, and Australia.

The back is definitely more interesting to look at. So then we're agreed - it's a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back.

On non-structural pieces wormholes just add character. Not that my two cents mean anything. For a long time, I've wanted to make a 1/2 scale acoustic guitar shaped like a mandolin. The small body would look silly with the wide guitar neck, but so what. I've -zero- interest in learning another instrument. A 12'-16' acoustic guitar would be an interesting project. I could easily make it like an 8-string mandolin and just tune it like a guitar. Anyway, it's good to see something other than a guitar being built.

I'm back to being in that boat. I start a new job today - overnight driver for a FedEx contractor. I don't want to drive overnights, but it's better than going back on the road for 5 days at a time.

I'm thinking this one should be over in the build section.

Here's what Waifu & I came up with. I'm gonna let it sit and marinate for a while. Once it's cut, it can't be un-cut.

Watching "2 Broke Girls" and polishing up the neck & fretboard prior to oiling. I got some cheap micromesh pads on Amazon. 240-10,000 grit. 2 double sided of pads of each grit. Each side is only good for one pass over the whole neck before it craps out. BUT the pack was only $16. We have a pile of consumables used in every guitar. I figure $4/neck isn't bad for the glass-like polish it gives the wood. In the long run, considering the finish & sandpaper needed for a finished neck, this is cheaper and easier.

I was gonna buff the neck out today, BUT.... The closed grain cherry fretboard is fine. The open grain spanish cedar needs some more finish. On the good side, there's one big benefit of shellac I had forgotten about. It's almost impossible to get bubbles or brush streaks in it. It's not impossible, but you have to be trying to make it happen. Even then, you really have to work on it. Amber shellac on both maple and spanish cedar.

In the car resto/custom world, there are two types of cars: drivers and trailer queens. The drivers are meant to be driven daily. The queens are for show. It seems that in our little world, the same thing exists. We often make a piece with the (nearly) sole intent of functional wall art. I'm not criticizing as I'm doing it right now. You've made a player, It's a utilitarian workhorse of a guitar. Sometimes I'd rather see one that's meant to be used and abused. Well done.

Seriously - If any of y'all are willing to offer some suggestions for a final headstock shape, I'd really appreciate it. It's the top that is my roadblock. The sides are basically defined by the inlay - about 1/4" from the edge and we're set. The top NEEDS to be both ornate & classy, and IDK what to do with it.

I haven't been doing much lately for several reasons. 1) the wood binding is going to be a real PITA and I don't want the aggravation right now. 2) I'm not satisfied with mt proposed headstock shape, so I'm stalling, hoping inspiration will hit. In the meantime, I was playing with the micromesh I ordered in. This is how you turn ebony into plastic. Taking it to 10K grit really makes the wood smooth as glass.

So here we are now after several thick coats of black poly. It needs some cleanup and hasn't been buffed, but it's what needed to be done. If you can't fix the mistake, hide it. FWIW: I taped around the edge with blue tape, using it as a wall/dam. It makes it soooooooooo much easier in the long run.

So I have proof of concept. However, my nearly freehand execution leaves me only one choice - paint the headstock black to match the body. Folks have previously complimented me on me "warts and all" documentation of when I monkey up the operation. While I appreciated the compliment, that's not why I do it. All I post is the truth. Sometimes, the truth is we've done something wrong. I got cocky and thought I could essentially freehand this. Clearly I was wrong. Now I have to get an acceptable result. This entire "f* it up and figure out how to fix it" is an essential part of the process. Making guitars is hard. We're gonna mess it up, regardless of how long we've been doing it. I feel this is an important lesson not only to the rookies, but to remind the old heads as well.

Final design. I prefer a structured, mathematic, draftsman approach to lettering, and so many more things! Precision, straight lines, and visual balance are extremely satisfying to me. This is probably one reason I'm so drawn no Art Nouveau. The graceful, swooping, organic lines are both beautiful and beyond my natural ability and inclination. Anyway, this is the lettering I'm going to be routing out and packing with the powdered red stone I did the oversized dots with.

Say hello to my old friend, amber tinted shellac. I just love my bug juice. It's so easy to use. It's a good, durable finish that's almost as hard as lacquer, but without the fumes. The amber is also a near clone of the vintage Fender amber tint. In addition to being a barrier finish that is cheap & easy to repair, it's giving the whole thing a lovely amber glow. This is making the white pearloid inlays turn slightly golden. This will compliment the gold hardware nicely. I didn't even consider this happening, much less plan on it, but it's a welcome surprise.