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gpcustomguitars

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Everything posted by gpcustomguitars

  1. Four clear coats on! It's some sort of a 2 component nitro-based lacquer with extra durability, I like it so far.
  2. Sawed some more neck blanks, they tend to warp slightly, so I saw them in advance to give them some time to settle. I'm taking the bandage off tommorrow! No1 is ready for lacquer.
  3. Making the truss rod cover template, while waiting for some dry weather...
  4. Thanks! I was lucky with the binding fix, as it could have ended as you say, replacing the piece or the whole thing. Looks fine now, and I got some experience which might come in handy later on. I think I might change the procedure on the next one, spraying one clear coat first on the bare wood, so the paint looks more uniform. I used a plain maple piece, which I like BTW, but the one or two flames it has are too visible when dying the wood directly. For the back, I'll stick with this, as this red color is very nice.
  5. Thanks Geoff! It took me a long time to clean all the details. Working without my right thumb is so weird... Cut a few blank pickguards, the whiteness complements the top color nicely, I think. Clear coats should add some yellow shades.
  6. Cleaned the binding etc, looks nice to me. I'll see if I still like it tommorow I'll look it over for any missed details, and prepare it for the clear coats.
  7. Started spraying finally! Headstock first, and I hope to spray the rest of the color coats today. Got a new small gun, 100ml, should be handy for the small amounts used, I hope. Had a delay due to the wrapped up thumb, had a encounter with the band saw while doing something non-guitar related, punishment I guess. Good thing I had gloves on. Should have the bandages of in a week or so...2 weeks total. So, safety first
  8. Resawn some more neck blanks, and recycled the top offcuts to headstock plate blanks. Nice, nothing is wasted.
  9. Making some new necks, I'm leaving these to settle as they might warp some. The lams I've clamped seem to be reasonably straight, so I left them to settle together. Still sanding the No1, but it's about done. Picked the body base, this one looks nice.
  10. It worked! I scraped and sanded it, and it's looking fine. I'll drop fill another 2 low spots, but now I know that the method actually works, so no worries. Still sanding, but I've decided on ther color scheme, and found a place pretty near me, 5 min drive, that can scan the sample picture and the material to be dyed and mix the exact match of stain. I'll try waterbased for the first time, we'll see how it goes. Our Souls, I'm attempting a a five piece batch, that's 2 necks down and 3 more to go I'm teaching a friend to install frets on that one. Workingman, thanks! Please post some pics of the restoration!
  11. Thanks pan_kara! I went sanding, and shaped the neck finally, but being a bit away in thoughts, almost sanded trough the portion of the binding. Decided I might as well learn how to patch up such things, so here's what I did. I think it will look OK. Basically a thick mix of abs and acetone, made a thin strip of the same material, and welded it together using the mix. Than scraped it away, and filled any low spots with more of the mix. Now it's pretty solid, but I won't touch it until tommorow...
  12. Thank you Scott! He just fell asleep and didn't wake up, I kinda feel I've let him down somehow, didn't see it coming, but there were no signs...
  13. Glued in the neck, so it's just refining the shape and sanding now... I had to burry my dog this morning, so I'm feeling numb. Being alone in the shop might help, or it might not...
  14. Glad you like it! Roughly shaped the neck, it's still to thick, but getting there. I brought it home to look it over for high and low spots, I always miss something if I do it in the shop. BTW Scott, you have a great advantage if you enjoy sanding, I get bored too soon. I like carving the tops, that's one of the reasons I don't use stairstep routing. But I'm fighting the urge to stop sanding too soon, and I have to get my finishing abilities up.
  15. Thanks Scott! I actually hate sanding it's about the only thing you can do for hours and not see much difference, and if you don't do it right it looks horrible
  16. Frets are in, so I plan to shape the neck next, and glue it in. There are still some details to take care of, but I plan to have it glued together by the end of the weekend. Then it's sanding...
  17. Glued on the fretboard, and routed the pup cavities, 26mm neck, 28mm bridge. My template worked OK, but one of the screws unglued a tiny bit of the treble side binding, so I had to reglue it. No harm done, will have to move the offending screw hole on the template... Frets are probably next, after the sanding of the body sides.
  18. Found the true centerline, less than 1mm off under the bridge! Making the pup routs template...
  19. You could epoxy an graphite rod in before the fingerboard, that should make it pretty stiff. Never tried it, but perhaps you could also use a 2mm thick strip of aluminum instead of graphite? With ~10mm depth? Perhaps even two parallel ones?
  20. My hands hurt, but it's done! I should perhaps get a bigger plane, this small one works really great, but the blisters are a problem...and I use gloves and wrap my fingers in masking tape before work! Scraped the top of the binding flush with the top, and sanded the top and the back with the orbital, still got sides to do. Then its time for the humbucker routs.
  21. We posted at the same time BTW, I taper the neck thickness prior to all this, so there's not much material to remove.
  22. Hi, looks you are doing great! I like the way you solved the drill press issue. Regarding your question, I can tell you that I do necks as you have described - I shape the fingerboard while glued to the neck, and hammer in the frets while the back is still flat, for the exact reason you mentioned. It doesn't rock, and I don't get any marring. I never had any issues with warping. Perhaps someone else can offer a different wiev, but this method works fine for me. Be sure that you have correct fretwire width for the slots you have sawed, that could cause some backbow (err..it happened to this friend of mine....just once ). And chamfer the slots, ofcourse. Hope that helps!
  23. Blisters!!! I've bound the body, and carved a big portion this morning. Just Ibex 10mm for now, scraping etc later today or tommorow. Perhaps stoping was a mistake, as starting again in a few hours will probably be more painfull ... I've made some templates for the top carve profiles to check against in a few places, they're nice help.
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