andyt

Got some parts out, but think I going to go for a wraparound just for looks

Your inlay cavities look great. WAAAAYYYY better than mine. I need to remember to do that primer thing.

Your fretwire is huge! Or maybe it's just the picture, I don't know. But those frets look massive!

Micheal, thanks, fretwire is just normal jumbo size

Holy cow I checked out your inlays, total respect for how insanely fiddly that must have been

Realy nice inlay work man.

Cheers Paulie, how it turns out half a cool as your lefty

Looks great. Inlays turned out great.

That fingerboard timber is stunning.

thanks

Neck angle at 4 deg

pocket cut

everyones fav neck test

Does it get to the stage where the neck pocket is too tight for the glue?

Ok made sure no socks & crocs were visible, can't wait till its flipflop season and can break out these badboys again and yes I've got all 3 pairs!

http://www.vanhalenstore.com/page/VH/CTGY/flip-flops

First inlay experience..

Controlling the dremel is not too bad, with a tiny bit it doesn't wander or pull like a router would, the most difficult thing is seeing the line you are trying to keep to. I sprayed the board with a real light coat of white primer, then drew round the inlays with pencil - made it much easier to see. Some people like to scribe round the inlay, then cut deeper with a blade. I tried this on a test, but had more trouble following the outline with a knife than just using the dremel up to the line. If I was doing pyramids or block inlays cutting with a knife would be the way to go.

Glued in the inlays with rosewood dust mixed in, (remembered to tape the fret slots as the bound board would have been a pain to clean without that special Stewmac saw) let it dry then used a flat file to level them down to the board

Nearly flush with the radius in this pic

went through the grits with the radius block

fretting

METAL TELE

Swamp Ash body, Python covered

Antique bronze hardware

late 80's Dimarzion PAF Pro

Flame maple one piece neck 25.5" 12" rad

build thread

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46370&st=0&p=505442&fromsearch=1&#entry505442

belly cut

inlay, only broke 3 drill bits

JS Donnie Maple

Basswood JS shape body, 'Donnie Hunt big face' paintjob 2K finish

Truoil flame neck, unfinished board

Recycled Ibanez cosmo hardware

Dimarzio pickups

Painted this body about a year ago & finished it with Rustins, it didn't like it & crazed in a month, so stripped it completely, repainted and cleared in 2K. Made a flamed neck to go with it, left the board raw as I love filthy maple - must be a VH thing.

Looking fantastic so far! You're making it look easy

thanks

I might try my first inlay

couple of tests with the dremel - I need the right bits. All I had was one that was too wide & the one I used was some cone shaped one, so to get the correct depth it was cutting angled walls.

Got some thinner ones coming from ebay, like the look of the stewmac downcut ones, but not at 18 quid each

Just measured my CE22, it's at 9/16" thick.

Chris

14.3mm, cheers Chris

Rosewood binding, was going to try grain match by cutting strips off the board, but by the time I'd jointed them would have lost a couple of mm. So cut some more strips with a bit of a contrast

Board on

trim down the binding on the router table

Started getting the neck outline started, now got to decide if I want pickup rings or not.

Thats gonna be a BIG volute, lol. Love the binding/headstock cap combination.

thanks, should be pretty normal once neck is thicknessed down

What thickness are u sanding down to on the headstock?

normally use 15mm, no idea what a prs is?

filing down flush

another wiz on the router table to take down the outside profile, hmm that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be

thicknessed down the headstock on the sander

repair ok

Time for some binding

bending the rosewood over a paint stripper gun

Pre bent pieces

Not going for any fancy mitres on my first attempt

Looking good so far. I have a suggestion and a question. I notice that with most PRS builds, the biggest thing they mess up on is the carve on the bottom cutaway. They don't make it big enough. On the PRS, its more circular than I see people make it on their builds. As for the question, I notice you use wenge. I have a big slab of wenge but I heard about skin irritation problems when cutting wenge. Could you share your experiences with using wenge? Thanks.

Sorry no feedback on wenge, perhaps because my fingers are covered with superglue? Seriously though I do wear a mask most of the time there is dust about. I think there is a thread about wood toxicity somewhere..

Trimed down the ebony plate with the router

and remembered to angle the plate to the headstock angle

Drilled small holes through the back of the plate then used a reamer to get them up to size, didn't want to risk chips

Then went for it, first time binding a headstock, used the stewmac dremel guide. Notice the bit on the ear that chipped off & glued back another piece on

ears

ebony plate

cavity

new homemade clamps worked well

trimed down and a quick sand

Couple of screws where the pickup cavities go hold the top down in the right place when gluing

rough cut on the neck

and truss rod cut

cutouts

all the clamps

New build, got some PRS templates I've never used. The nearest I've been to a PRS, was my Washburn RS10v back in 1986, bought it mail order, when it arrived it had one half quilted maple, one half flamed. what were they thinking?

Mahogany and wenge neck blank

Got to decide how to cut it up to get the most out as its long enough for a neck thru as well

Brown wood

quilty goodness

oiled the neck

and black binding to match the ebony

Might leave it as it is for a bit & poss clear the top later

Hmm, not sure on chrome binding, I want to keep it tasteful..

How big was the snake? If I saw it i'd crap my pants, bought if off ebay a few years ago and honestly forgot I had it, found it last week and had to give it a try.

Used contact glue and vacuum bagged the top, then today CA'ed it a bit so I could redo the binding channel and tidy up the routing, so it was actually cutting the skin rather than fluffing the edges

Cheers all

Sick! I've wanted a tele like this for a while Nice fret work too, very well done.

Is that a PAF Pro? Only thing I'd have done differently is sculpt the neck joint a bit more like an old school ibanez neck joint. Cant wait for this one!

As is was going to be a trad tele I left the neck joint old school. But having played it, you don't even touch the joint as it only a 21 fret neck.

Yep old school Paf Pro, sounds great when I plugged it in to test.

Went for it today, snake ate my tele

Going to cut a piece in where it wasn't quite wide enough

Levelled frets and strung up for a twang

Had a black control plate that when sanded matched the trem, so tried another recess

Metal finish?

Had a go at a recessed neck plate, bit of tear - time for some new router bits

Also tried out allen bolts and screw inserts in the neck that I bought of ebay ages ago & never used

I had some tele bridges, but went for a floyd, thats when it changed to a metal tele

Some routing and contours

Had a nice swamp ash tele body cut out for ages, so I was about time to do something

Flame neck blank, didn't have a tele template so just looked at some pics on the internet and drew one out

Drilled the holes, then bandsawed the headstock down

Ebony board

fretted and end filled with black CA

Hello everyone this is my 1st time here and my first time doing a clear coat. I have a swirled JEM style body from Out of this swirled. So I am told that it currently has only a base coat sprayed on for shipping purposes. Alan at OTS has instructed me to not use any spray cans or Nitro clear coats and to only use Acyrlic Clear Coat. He has suggested using a brand called 2 pack, but I can not find it in the U.S. only in europe. So I guess I am trying to find 1. the best product and 2. the best way of applying it to the guitar. So far I have heard every possible take on the situation but no one agrees. Some say Nitro will eat the paint. Plus the base coat is Acrylic so I need to keep that going. I have been told that Krylon Triple Thick clear coat in the shake can actually works really well. Does anyone have any suggestions. Much appreciated.

Simon

Simon if you spent money on one of Al's swirls and don't know what you are doing, I'd get it cleared professionally. As far as I know Al ships his bodies with a barrier coat to protect the swirl which is just a light coat of 2K Clear, if you look at one of his youtube vids it describes the process - scuff up his barrier coat then clear it with 2K clear. Any Local body shop who sprays 2K would be be your best bet if you can't find a 'guitar finisher'

Well its changed colour, went to match the paduk headstock. Run out of 2k Clear, so its got a couple of coats of Truoil so far

This week did some dye on the neckthru & cleared a Donnie body that I sanded down & repainted after the Rustins plastic coating yellowed and cracked in about 6 months (1st and only time I've used it)