gpcustomguitars

and here's the neck so far... My router just stopped working last night while I was thicknessing the headstock veneer, so I'll have to make a stop at the repair shop.

I'm planing to make it the classic red, and to lacquer it by brushing, seems to work fine so far. I hope to have some shop time later today, so I can make a few pics of the neck so far. Waiting for the parts is frustrating.......

For no apparent reason at all, I've started a new project - a simple SG. I had a 35mm thicknessed board in the shop, a printed out plan and some thin MDF, so it was all ready to go. First, glued the plan onto the mdf and made the template for routing. Body blank was missing some width, but I've glued some stock from the same board to make it up. Routed out the shape and the pup cavities in one go:

then, planed, filed and sanded the neck angle in

filed the bevels then sanded

upper horn revealed a crack when shaped, which I've stabilized with CA

routed the tenon

and then drilled the pot/toggle holes, drilled to a bit less that depth form the back, and routed out the cavity

I've started the neck, scarfing 25mm stock, routing for a Stew-Mac HotRod which I have and almost ready to glue on a Stew-Mac rosewood fretboard, pre-slotted and radiused. Also, cut and fitted the tenon, confirming the correct angle and fit. What I do have to do next is to find a cherry offcut to thickness to a 1mm headstock veneer, glue the fretboard on and fret/shape the neck. No photos, but I will post some later.

Also, finally got around to start finishing this:

I've started using locally produced oil-based boat lacquer, both straight and mixed with oil varnish and oil thinner as a home made wipe-on solution. This body has a neck too, need to do the frets and add a MOP logo to headstock.

a bad pic, but it shows where it's at now...hopefully I'll get some pickup rings for the hums I've got, I did the electronics (not in the pic, 2 vol, 1 master tone, 1 master bass cut), and have to get a tune-o-matic and a stop bar...

After reconsidering this, I've sanded the top to bare wood, and redid it as a somber blacktop. Due to corona, had to use a brush for lacquering over the dye, but it turned reasonably well. Hand polished, and waiting on the parts to arrive.

After some time, guitar is ready for dye (to be done by customer's wife) and than should be back to me for assembly

Well, I've spent the weekend trying to dye the top, and this is the result - originally, I wanted a faded blueburst. Actually found the dye in the form of the toner for the wall paint, waterbased, worked just fine. But, my top, although bookmatched, is plain maple, and quite uneven in terms of both pores and the texture. So, after qute a few applications and sandbacks I got the central part pretty much done, but for the life of me couldn't get the re-curve area to stay the same dark blue all around with the same intensity. So, I went into the shop searching for the flat black, and find an unopened can of copper...4 light coats later, it was all coppery, but still not it, so remembering that copper oxidizes blue/green, decided to sand and polish trough with a dry cloth, sort of in areas usually distressed with constant use. I'm not 100% OK with this, but between wall toner, dead t-shirt, 2 brushes from IKEA  and a forgotten can of copper spray, this is what I got. 1 coat of waterbased primer on the top, sanded the back and sides some more and applied 2 coats of true oil.

The headstock was more straightforward - 2 applications of iron-oxyde based dye, 1 coat of primer brushed on.

I want to inspect the neck again prior to applying the oil, It's 20.5mm on the 1st and 23.5 on the 12th fret. 20.5 is OK. but I could perhaps scrape of 1mm off the 12th?

Back with oil applied - the funny swipe-looking area isn't oil, it's actually the grain.

and the top with primer brushed on - I added a touch of yellow to the blue areas with a finger, just rubbing in a bit of watercolor from my daughter's school kit.

The top will be finished with watebased lacquer, also brushed. This primer is supposed to be compatible with all well dried finishes, so I'm thinking about perhaps lacquering the whole guitar with waterbased, once I've highlighted the cherry grain with true oil.

Scott, it's for this project - http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/49451-couldnt-resist-a-new-design-project/

I've routed the cavity already, pics to follow, still need to route for floyd. It's a cavity template in the shape of future cover plate. I did it that way to avoid any fitting mistakes.

Andy, I hope to stain the top blue and sand back to sort of worn denim effect, if I manage that with what I have available at home. Overall finish should be true oil, but I'm still not 100% sure. I might use waterbased acrylic primer and gloss coating, I did that before and the results are nice.

Some more work done over past few days:

started with cutting off the excess areas and routed the slope, still not final thickness.

drilled and cut the TR adjustment acess

and glued the plate to the headstock

still have to saw the nut line in, perpendicular to the fretboard. Then, sawed/chiseled off the overhang of the fretboard. I might have done this differently, with less steps, but this felt more comfortable...

and after some filling and rounding the corners, it fits!

I can inlay the body part of the alu line now, radius and fret the neck, shape it and start sanding...again...

Hi! After the holiday break, started with cutting the previously glued templates on the scroll saw. Left one is for last years project that I would also like to finish this spring. 

Fixed to the LP with 2 layers of tape - holds better that way as I can brandish both sides. I followed Andyjr1515's good advice to drill all eight corners with a proper radius bit, and it worked great! Thanks! I was able to route it all with just my favorite short bit without switching to smaller radiused one just for the corners. Removed some material with a 25mm forstner  before, to just about final depth. I'm really glad that my true center line is actually on the seam.

and after adding a heel cap and refining the heel profile some more, here's where it's at now:

So, just one final round of ...sanding... and I can start the finishing. I'd like to stain the top blue, then sand back for a denim effect. Back, sides and the neck tru oil with a drop of tobacco brown, have to read if it's compatible.

For the electronics, I've previously planned to drop in a treble booster, but decided to leave it passive, but I will wire it with 2 volume, master tone and master bass roll of pot. It's still 4 pots, so if I don't like it, can revert to standard.

I was cleaning my phone and found a few pics of the first stages, when I was splicing the neck blank and the top part together.

This was a bit scary in terms of ruining the piece, but worked just fine. Note: all the supporting pieces were held bu double sided tape and the clamps both, didn't want to risk anything slipping.

and the same procedure was done for the top part. I left a lot of spare thickness, so after gluing and leveling on the router, there was no problems.

Managed to glue the fretboard on yesterday. Still haven't removed the clamps, some coffee is due first

and of course

Il be sanding the headstock area absolutely flat next, and glue the headstock plate, probably today.

OK, back to this project now - I sawed off a part of the headstock, and reused it for adding the width to the headstock where needed. The spring clamp was there as a set of makeshift legs to hold it upright sideways.

Lower bit I actually had to remove yesterday cause it was it the way of the router sled, but safely replaced later. Pics later. Also I hope that the today's schedule permits the gluing of the fretboard on. Then, headstock plate gluing is next.

Thanks! This will be the most ambitious inlay I have attempted, but with a cheap and forgiving material, we'll see how it goes. I finished the shaping of the LP neck, and glued it in. I might do a final revision before finishing. Color scheme is (for now at least) faded blue top and natural brown oiled and waxed back, sides and the neck.

Here it is:

I must make a new template for 2 hums first though. Also yesterday, I routed the neck pocket on the....???caster thing (it had to have at least a small blemish ) and of course, the test fit

Good morning!

Started the day yesterday by finishing the rough carve of the neck, and then sanded it to shape. I've made a habit of using the longer radius blocks for that job, as they reveal any dips and bumps, and also leave curved facets. Finalized transitions with a fine half-round rasp and hand sanding.

This is the body I'm planing on using, one piece cherry. Cut it a long time ago as a mix of strat and tele lines, and drawn this inlay idea in. The black bits will be 3mm acrylic. I'll probably cut a bagful of triangles first, and some stripes on the scroll saw.

and 2 coats of tung oil later

Then, drawn the guidelines on the LP neck (btw, 3-piece, cherry) and started the transitions on the spindle sander

and fretted it too. 2.5mm Sintoms wire.

I've beveled the ends, but the actual leveling and dressing will be on the guitar. I did carve the neck half way, but didn't take the pic. So, for today, I hope to finish the neck carve, and glue it in. I will fine tune it some more on the guitar later. The body for the tele had unfinished horn shapes, so that is also done, now I can set up the neck pocket routing.

Thanks Scott!!! I basically just use what's available and have fun trying to make it work. And I actually like the look of knots and filled cracks, they add some nice character.

Had a good day yesterday, LP neck unclamped, made the template for shaping

thicknessed the tele neck, and sanded the transition smooth

tele radiused, the little black ring is where a little knot void used to be, the yellow side of the fretboard is a bit softer, so I'll probably soak it with CA to be on the safe side.

then I sanded in the min and max thickness on the tele neck 21mm at 1st and 23mm on the 14th, with some initial transition lines

LP neck tenon was still wrong, cca 2mm to the treble side, so sawing off the excess on the one side, and some more veneer on the other

ad the centerline is dead-on, and it's a snug fit. I'll actually sand it down a bit before actual glue-up, so that the glue doesn't get squeezed out. Also, fretted the tele  neck, added the dots (not in the pic) and flooded the board partially with CA

and started shaping the tele neck, about halfway there

I hope to fret the LP neck today and at least rough in the transitions and finish shaping the tele neck.

Thanks!

Finally got around to inlaying the dots on the neck, since I can't buy any now, had to cut a few on a drill press with a 6mm plug cutter out of white acrylic, but had to clean them all up by hand with a small file. 2 black dots are ABS binding, cut with a 2mm leather punch.

It's actually done, better pic tomorrow.

With a lot of shop time on my hands these days, since we are working from home, I have a chance to actually finish some of the stuff left on the back burner over the years.

This is my starting point - a LP body and a rough cut neck with a fretboard

Someone made a mistake here -cough - but nothing a few bits of veneer won't solve

and then, found another neck, a reverse tele, so it got a fretboard, a piece of the Canadian walnut. 

some thicknessing of the LP neck

headstock thinned to 15mm, and transition sanded in

then glued the tele neck last night

and shaped the LP headstock, sanded the back roughly flat and marked out the shaping lines

prepared the fretboard for glueing

and the tele neck is out of the clamps

sanded in the slope

marked out the frets, 25.5"

and hand cut the fret slots - two small voids, filled with wood dust and CA

and drilled and glued the dots

Tomorrow I'll thickness the headstock, thickness the neck and sand the radius (9.5")...

Thanks everyone!

Scott, I sanded this so much that I'm actually starting to like it -

I still have the chance to fix a few details, so I will try to straighten the cavity a bit. This was a fun build, and a  comfy scale length, 32", so I will, among a few other projects, make another one for me from a questionable piece of wood that is already cupped, so a lot less shaping needed. This will be differently constructed to permit the use of this particular piece of wood. It's quite old, probably poplar, so I expect no further movement. It used to be a seat of some kind, got it some years ago.

Thanks a lot! I made a few small mistakes, but I've enjoyed this build. So much sanding though...

Thanks! I like to take photos of all the details of the process, for the case I have to do something again the same way. Also, I do make slideshows from the pics, there are a few on my YT (obviously named )

Almost done!

I made the paper template of the cavity and the cover, and punched trough the places for the screws. Then cut the cover from some fretboard offcuts, slightly thicker than the recess.

and then beveled the difference in height, and marked and chiseled the access

after more sanding than I care to remember, finally, tung oil time! First coat:

second coat:

and also oiled the fretboard - this is how the Canadian walnut looks like for real:

and after the 4th coat, started to lightly wax, using my wax mix, and a old thirt

and then, some attention to the cover - drilled with 1mm bit, recessed with 6mm bit

screws go in

and the magnets go into the cover with some CA

and this is where it's at now - I made a few small mistakes, but not too easy to spot. Two ant holes were supposed to get planed off, but ...at least it's pretty solid now. Shielding next, and then I should dress the frets and figure out how to do the assembly with most parts missing...

Well, some more details done - bridge pup fitted, routed some relief for the pickups wiring/drilling and routed shallowly, then chiseled the cavity. I was kinda afraid of routing it, but this was stress free and worked OK. I'll pretty it up with a dremel sanding drum a bit later. Recess for the cover was all chisels, didn't want to marr the surface with my dremel router base.