gpcustomguitars
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Posts posted by gpcustomguitars
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Thanks! I still have what is left of the board, so I'll have to figure out what to build, too...perhaps a tele with a reverse headstock?
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Did some more work on this...first the boards were cleaned and thicknessed on a planer to 42mm. I think I chose the nicer looking side for the top. Screwed the template to the body blank and routed everything at once in many shallow steps (1-2mm). Yesterday I got a new toy
, so some sanding followed.
We agreed on bound top/rounded back for now, so I routed those next. Also, I don't want to route the neck pocket before getting the actual neck on the table.
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Time for a new project! I've promised my friend a new body for his Tele. He likes the neck, but would like to replace everything else. We still have to determine the absolute details, but it will be a standard, one piece body, and we got a slab of ash for it about a month back, enough for 2 bodies and something crazy
It's at 9% now, but I'll still go slow and see if it has any movement hidden. I bought the standard AlNiCo vintage styled pickups for it from ali, they seem OK, interested how they will sound.
First, decided where to cut. I'll wait a bit and get it trough a planer, and then it's lots of routing...
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Thanks a lot Andy, glad you like it!!! I would have liked to make the claw more precisely, but this is what I was able to do with hand tools
Next to do are 2 projects for a friend, a tele and another 335.
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The pickups arrived! Had to redrill the height adjustments holes, as they were too tight, but otherwise, I just loosened the strings and they slipped right in. Happy
I think white rings are just right for this guitar. Toggle is also white, and I've changed the tuner buttons with pearl ones.
Other than some more minor tweaking, it's missing a cover and input jack is probably wired wrong. I've tested it's 3 legs with a cable, but forgot that the ring one will also read as ground...will re-test and re-solder as needed.
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We have a new table cloth
Not completely happy with the looks of details on the claw, but at least, it's polished. I would like to get some proper tooling, but that will have to wait.
Did basic setup with some used 11 strings I saved for such a purpose, and let it sit over night. No movement, so I switched to lighter gauge, 09, and did some more tweaking. Waiting on it to settle, re-tweaking once a day, seems all good. I would like to lower the strings a little more in the long run. I play with 10s, but I think that for a child 9s are better. I taught him 2 chords, we'll see
What's left to do is to wait on the mailman and to check whether I got all the soldering right in the first take.
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Thanks!!! Did some wiring last night, according to a PRS schematic I found. As planned, treble bleed 100k/470pf, with 22nf. What always gives me some trouble is which connector is which on these types of jacks
Waiting on the mini hums, and some polishing of the hum rings still to do. I'll leave them white, it seems to go well with the theme.
I'm postponing the making of a new block as my drill press setup seems too unreliable for 40mm deep drilling until I get a real drill press...
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Pots and bridge studs are in, I'll need to deepen the toggle area for a hair and reapply a piece of the foil, shouldn't be a problem. I didn't take the cupping of the dip in the top/washer into account, if that makes sense...otherwise, seems OK, I'll start the wiring. I'm planning a treble bleed, a 470pf/100K combo, any other suggestions? The pots are 500k.
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Thanks! The TR cover is plastic I bought on Ali, it was really cheap so the plastic has some slight texture, but it looks OK here
It flips open, so that looked interesting. Still waiting on mini hums.
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Thanks! Yes, that's the idea, I want to set it up with a floating bridge. One thing that I can't make right now is to have a sliding nut to go with the screw that tightens it down once it's been set up. It would need a tiny rail, and that would be an overkill
I might do it later with, say, 2 brass strips and some shallow routing, but that can be done on any string change if needed.
Just a quick pic of cutting the slot - last time I cut twice and drilled once, and this time stacked 3 saws on the frame to get the width needed. Used 2 clips to keep them nice and tight during the cutting, worked fine. Just one cut, and it stayed pretty straight.
No pic of the finished part, I just sanded it a bit and chamfered all the edges after this. This is all not machined-straight, but for the setup I've used, it's OK and functional.
Regarding the design - thanks! I Think I will make it during this year, perhaps altering it a bit more to get a better thumb access. But first, I need to finish a few other things - the BillyBo sibling I've started some time ago, and a tele and a 335 commisioned by a friend.
10 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:design of the soon-to-be-revealed Swift Lite mark 2
Waiting!!!
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OK, the claw, v.2
I've cut a new blank, marked all the lines and holes and drilled trough with a 2 mm bit. It seems that the brass cuts much quicker on small diameters, and enlarging them gradually is fairly easy. The drill was set at almost minimum speed.
I tried to drill 2 depth stops (6.5mm) without pre-drilling and that went very slowly for a depth of 5.5mm.
The most challenging bit of work was the angled drilling, I broke a few drills as my setup obviously has a lot of play in it, and then the 7mm bit wandering, causing the rough inner surface.
I decided to use slightly longer screws, but the heads had to be turned down a bit to fit into the slots.
Quite some filing to do yet to square it all up and remove (most, where possible) tool marks. I'll cut the spring slot later today, and I think I have a nice idea on how to do it a little bit better than the last time.
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Thanks! Haven't had any time for the shop for a few days now, but I could squeeze in a few hours tonight. I'm looking forward to trying this out.
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I agree, but the accessibility of the adjustments screws could be an issue, and it would be a bit more discreet in person I think. I coloured the parts for the drawing, but it would all be less pronounced when machined, and the part itself is pretty small, 20x32x10mm. I might make both to compare.
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I think I have a better version of the claw, with better access to adjustment screws. First idea was not very user friendly, and I can't assume I'll be the only one to play/adjust this guitar.
The adj.screws should have hexagonal heads, for better access between the springs, but we'll see. Perhaps not needed...I will have fun making another one
...and will use the drill press this time -
Some more work on the claw. I might make v.2 with different layout of holes, but I think this one will be OK, if I don't break it when I drill the adjustment holes.
I made 2 cuts first, then drilled trough, and finished the cut with the round file. I'm planing to have the claw screw trough to the neck when adjusted, so that the vibration transfer is maximal.
It was already dark, so the pics are ...... , but I did manage to get 3 coats during the day. Scars on the back are pretty obvious, but I'll see if that bothers me enough to do something like veneering or not, probably not. All the holes and cracks were nicely filled, but the downside is that the dye cannot be applied evenly.
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Thank you all! I don't use a thumb much at all for fretting, perhaps a F# when playing a Keith Richards-like D chord, so I don't immediately think of it. I'll probably tweak it some more, and perhaps make one during the summer. I think I have most of the parts needed already.
Managed to drill the wire holes nicely for both pickups, trough the 12mm hole drilled for the jack. Ground hole from the spring claw was easy then. Exit points nice and where intended
Also, finally got around to routing the ledge. I drew the shape, scored it with a marking knife and used a Dremel in the routing jig with a straight 3mm bit. Some sanding to do to clean it all up.
Then I made the body of the claw - brass stock, 20x10mm. The cavity is 10mm deep so it should sit flush. Still some drilling to do. When I buy some larger stock I'll attempt the trem block too.
And a nut cut, just for a pic for now. I've cut that one before, synthetic, but I'll cut a cow bone one too.
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After a lot of sanding I applied 2 coats of gold paste. Still one to go, mostly to touch up some highs spots that have popped out after the second coat and require yet more sanding.... My pickup routing template worked perfectly fine as intended. I taped it permanently to the 8mm MDF, and routed trough with a bearing equipped short bit. As I had the corners cut too sharp, MDF has four ledges in the corners, due to the difference between the acrylic corners and the bit diameter, which holds the acrylic insert perfectly fine for routing two screw pockets.
So, first drilled 2 pilot holes fi12mm to 24mm depth, routed the pup cavity to 12mm depth, and routed the pockets flush with a 6.35mm straight bit. Went fine, and reasonably quick. I should drill 2 holes for pup wires before the last coat of gold (which is really durable, I've level sanded it and it's a tank. Also, dries in seconds), and route the cover ledge, which I completely forgot about in the last session.
I have lent the fretless bass to a guitar playing friend for a while, his band is about to record their second record, and they would like it on 2 or 3 songs
We joked about a guitar version of it for a while, so I used a quiet part of the day to come up with this:
nove gitare1 1 by Goran P, on Flickr
Any obvious mistakes in my thinking? Should balance nicely and be pretty light, but I was hoping to make it more sitting-friendly, and allow some thumb space for people who play that way.
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Well it only gives my wife an excuse to buy more... I have a rubber mat I use, and we use the kitchen table for crafts and stuff for school and kindergarten all the time, so it's completely legal. And sanding is already unpleasant, no need to add winter cold to the experience Yes, white acrylic sheet, 5mm thick. The process I mentioned I found on YT, it was a part of a relicing/ageing process on a LP. Not my thing, I make mine pre-dinged and scratched
but the work itself was nice to watch, great attention to details. Search Dr.Nitro, if it's OK to mention it here?
The theory is that the acetone softens the surface, alcohol slows the softening, and the dye can mix itself in the softened surface and stay there. Works fine on YT, I would like to try it myself.
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Nothing much to show for now, just this one pic of the pup rings I had laser cut. I also made the routing template in the same session. It has the ring part for routing the actual cavity and the insert part for routing the two dips for the adjustment screws. I think I will be able to get away with routing basic pup cavities to 10-12mm depth, leaving about 12-14mm of the tenon intact.
So, I have to rout the pup cavities and the cover recess on the back. In the meanwhile, I've been sanding (on the kitchen table in the evenings), filling cracks and wormholes, resanding, refilling etc. It's looking better and better, but still a lot of sanding ahead until I can dye the back, sides and the neck some sort of light walnut/mahogany brown.
The pup rings are really white, but I won't do anything about that until assembly time. I would like to see how will they look on rubbed gold top as they are. If needed, I found a really nice method using yellow dye, acetone and alcohol to dip parts in and then repolish.
New tablecloth
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Yet another routing session last night. Managed to clean the electronics cavity route and did some more CA saturation/filling in spots, more to go. I managed to route out the spring cavity using an improvised jig, I hope this will work as intended. The claw block cavity is 10mm deep, and the rest is 9mm. It might seem silly, but I want as much wood around that tenon as possible.
Still to rout is the electronics cover recess and the pups, I'll get the jigs laser cut from plexi along with the pup rings...
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Yes, it will be exposed as this is going to be a goldtop. I'm planning to saturate the glue lines with epoxy, or to inlay two lines of MOP between pickups to prevent the lines to show after a while. I should have enough small MOP offcuts, but I'm still not sure how it would look - goldtop + MOP? The neck, sides and the back will be dyed light brown.
, so some sanding followed.
It's at 9% now, but I'll still go slow and see if it has any movement hidden. I bought the standard AlNiCo vintage styled pickups for it from ali, they seem OK, interested how they will sound.
Well it only gives my wife an excuse to buy more... I have a rubber mat I use, and we use the kitchen table for crafts and stuff for school and kindergarten all the time, so it's completely legal. And sanding is already unpleasant, no need to add winter cold to the experience 
PRS-like project(s)
in In Progress and Finished Work
Posted
Thanks a lot! I expect we'll see more rain in the next few days, but it's definitely spring here. The temperature on the day of that photo was 21C! We are finally out of the house, I'll start building the additional workbench I have planned for a while, and my son can start a little garden that he wants
He pops up in the shop every now and then, mostly to have fun trying to file something and pestering me to let him use my spokeshave 