Mr Natural

so after a complete failure with a board of wenge that I had intended to use as fingerboard- I am using my last nice piece of indian rosewood I have on hand. The wenge ended up looking horrible and boring after I thicknessed it down- I had this vision- and reality just wasnt happening so- probably for the best cause I hate wenge - I really hate working with it. If I had proper tools I probably might not hate it so bad- but right now I just hate it. anyway- so I get my IR board thinned down and I touched it up with orbital sander and some 120 grit. then it occurs to me as I pull out my stew mac radius block that this board is 3.5" wide. Guess its time to make a 14" radius block that will be wide enough to handle this.

yep the cover up (dampening the wood) appears to be working. we will see in the end- but I think I will be able to get away with it. I started on the head stock overlay thingy (what ever it is called)- thinned down some poplar leftover from off cuts from the body - this is my home brewed thicknessing jig- 2 pieces of mdf attached to another piece of mdf- and the wood being thinned out is double sided taped to the mdf base. Not fancy- but gets the job done.

this is coming along nicely!

it just dawned on me why I am getting a gap. As I am "dialing in" the butt end of the neck- I am sanding/removing ever so slightly material from the back end of the neck pocket- which is seating the neck further away from the original neck pocket cut- ie- the tapered neck is now moving backwards and away from the edge. duh. hmm, well- I learn something every time I build. Making a note in my "next time I build a single cut extended neck pocket memory bank. I fully understand now why I see some builders that do not attach the top body wood of the guitar until after the neck pocket opening has been fitted and cut. "ah ha" moment of the day complete.

one last pine tele highjack - came across this video this weekend. Catch the part around 4 min mark where they say the guitar is all pine- and NO TRUSS ROD. that old Adirondack pine must be tough stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Rfv0dQttM

so- the neck profile has this curve/point thing going on- and this was a bunch of fun. I used chisels- and now switching to small files and popsicle stick backed sandpaper to try and dial this in a bit better. you may not be able to see it in this picture- but the edge between the neck and body has some hairline gaps there ( starting 9 frets in from the end), the neck profile must not have been 100 percent flat (I thought it was- I checked it with straightedge)- oh well. I am going to dampen that edge with a water dampened rag and see if I cannot get the edge to puff up a bit and then sand it smooth. The joint is tight otherwise- but this is going to bother me. I am sure it would "fill" with glue- but I am afraid of what will be visible afterwards and since there is no going back- best to get it right now.

behind on updates again neck template done (I do it on quarter inch mdf first then onto 3/4 in mdf) getting the neck lined up with the center line via laser- attaching router guides once this is done ran out of 3/4" mdf so I had to use the neck template as a router guide on one side. Most of the neck pocket you see (like over half) will be carved away in the end.

Nice job man!

"Time for decals. No more water slide decals for me" I must admit I dont know much about decals- I am assuming you are saying you are going to another type of decal? que pasa?

You would think you should be able to trust what they say. You would think a company like Gibson would have quality control in place to make sure mistakes like that dont occur- but it seems they are constantly having QC issues. I was just reading the other day about the big snafu they had with the Ace Frehley Les Paul going out the door with the wrong pickups from what was listed as spec(the "300" if you want to google it). Nice job. Have people pay a premium on a guitar and then dont get it right and let it fly out the door anyway. That sort of stuff is just unacceptable in my book. I have loved les pauls and Vs since I was a kid, and I especially love the ES-355. I was tempted as hell to buy one of the Alex Lifeson models when they came out- but I refused to because- it was a modern era GIBSON. I purchased arched plates a few years back and plan on building my own one of these days. (ok I kinda still wish I bought it- but- sticking with my principles. Gibson just seems more about money than quality these days at least in my book) Ok- obviously its my time of the month.....whew- rant over.

There was a video on youtube that I was trying to find (to reply to this "pine tone discussion"- but its gone now- its of Arlo West and a pinecaster either he made or had made- it had a cocked wah set up - it had one pickup- something like- pickup only, pickup with regular tone and cocked wah tone. That thing was freaking amazing sounding. The cocked wah sounded like shitte clean- but with distortion it was like instant Michael Schenker (albeit with a single coil pickup)- very very cool. That video had him playing "just got paid" and it was so bad ass sounding. Completely changed my mind about pine.

well- I go nuts when a trivia question like this comes up and I am one of those that "needs to know" so my brain will quiet down. So- I called Gibson. They do not have any 24" scales for ES series guitars. Those are misprints on their website. The guy I spoke with appeared to know what he was talking about (aka- wasnt a script reading call center type). He acknowledge the differences as listed on the stew-mac website for older models. he stated that all 137s, 175s, 335s lucielles, etc currently produced are 24 3/4 scale- he mentioned the archtop series has various scale lengths- ie- the byrdland at 23.50- the L-5s and super 400 at (he slipped and said fender scale.....ooops) we got a laugh out of that. anyway-for what its worth.

well- there were variations within the "24.75 scale"- depending on year and model- stewmac lists this scale I have a flying V book around somewhere and I think there were some changes from the old 50s models to the 67 if I recall- but I cant find where that book is at the moment- so- point being- there could be some fluctuation but I agree with you- the 24 sounds sketchy- I thought the only other model that was short was the byrdland- which is 23.5- which I always thought how strange it was that ted nugent played one for so long- considering he is a rather tall guy and appears to have largish hands. I always liked fender scales (as I have stout fingers aka stubs)

"Thats an ES-175" I officially need glasses. My eyes are shot to shitte. Time to become a four eyes again. and my literacy is coming into question. I just read the string again and read it again as 175. man. Friday cant come quick enough this week. sorry bout that.

yep- and you cant read it from the pic- but that is a FULLTONE band saw as well. Surprised you didnt bust on me for the cassette tapes sitting on the router table.

this is a common "thing" with Gibson guitars- depending on model, style and year- it could vary. Les Paul scale length variances are well documented- but the ES line less so. You didnt read wrong Crusader- from the same Gibson site- if you look at the "classic" vs the memphis model- the memphis model has 24 3/4 listed. http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/ES/Gibson-Memphis/1959-ES-175/Specs.aspx probably the only way to know is (hope) to find a book or site documenting the ES models over the years, or as you say- measure one if you can get your hands on it and its the style you want to know about.

so not much of an update other than I took the time to REALLY clean up my workshop/garage and get organized. I have 5 workbenches that I have built over the years- and they pretty much have done nothing more that become places to collect CRAP and sit tools on- my previous mode was clean off my "working" workbench, move the tool to it, hook it up, clean up, move the tool back. So I have learned that I only need one true working workbench-keep it clean and the others have become dedicated tool stands, where all I need to do is move the vacuum hose. The exceptions being my tablesaw- which doubles as my mitresaw stand- so I have to move the mitresaw to use the table saw- no biggy- and the 5th workbench which sits in the back of the carport to the left of the picture below- that is my official "crap stacker"- all work in progress- stuff I dont have time to put up- stays there. Still some items to clean up below on the workbench to the (front right)- but getting there Seriously folks- might not seem like a lot but this set up has saved me time with set up/clean up etc. I built some jigs this weekend- and it was pure joy in my workshop. The older I get the more I like to keep a tidy space- which is seriously a stretch for my garage- but I am getting there. I am always envious of those with tidy workshops. I finished thinning out the osage orange strips and got those glued in. will look better once its finished- I will be building up some poly on that fretboard.

Scott- looks great- sorry to hear about the issues. The curse is alive. crazygtr wrote- "is that volume knob in the correct place?" if not an oversight for quick photo- I bet the tone was placed there intentionally like some tele's I have seen set up, so you can roll the tone and "wah wah" the sound. what say ye Scott? happy oversight or intentional wah wah inducer?

ok-so now the part I have been looking forward to most- carving this sucker. Still stuck in the arse end of this thing- previous pic showed the carve depth lines- so- used the drill press to get depths roughed in. and then went to town with my little Black and Decker belt sander. Man I love this thing. I smoothed that mess out in less than 4 minutes with this bad boy. Say what you want about black and decker tools- this puppy is great. Did I mention I love this tool?

So- I then thought- ok- I will make like one of those Kreg jigs you see for pocket holes- where you clamp to the piece you want to drill and it guides your drill bit. So- piece of scrap hard maple attached to the jig I then figure out where to place the drill bit guide block using long drill bit (and the shorty on the left)- showing me where point of contact will be. The tape is marked with center line and saddle spacing of the bridge, the mdf is attached to help the drill bit "bite" into the wood since it was at such a shallow angle- at least that was my thinking. I should have used maple. And the result. Not what I wanted- the low string is off-grr (the lines are depth carve guides) all is not lost. That one hole is not that off- so- I will finish carving first- and then decide if I can live with it or if I need to plug with dust and glue and redrill. I knew this step was going to be the hardest to do- and I thought I had it nailed with the original holder jig thing- but- oh well. live and learn. I thought drilling before carving was the way to go- since I would have flat surfaces and be able to reference center lines better- but- we will see. Luckily this one will be painted. :-)

ok- so next step is drilling the string holes in the butt of this beast. This turned out to be a learning lesson in both planning and thinking thru woodworking problems for me. First I placed the bridge on the guitar and figured out what angle I needed to drill. It was roughly 10 degrees. The plan then was to build a jig to hold the body and drill "vertically" into the body- ie- cut two legs, with 10degrees cut into them, attached another board to those two legs so instead of being 90 degrees to vertical- it was 80 degrees. Then- attach the body to the jig and drill into the body. So- marked up some scrap MDF, 10 degree line. These two pieces will be the legs of the holding jig. The left side of these become the bottom- another piece of mdf is attached to the angled cut- and then the body is attached to that- holding the body 80 degrees. body attached to jig and- lesson learned- body is too long- hits top of drill press. duh. Ok- back to thinking mode

KEA- I know what you mean- but the middle board is flipped- the two outerboards have their grain going same way- the middle board has it going the opposite way. I got the wood cleaned up- flipping and reducing the amount for each pass- I just needed to apply very little pressure and just let the jointer nick off the slightest amount. Turning the board around didnt really help that much- that middle board was just going to tear out no matter what. I mean- I was barely kissing that thing and it blew out- I have never had one do it that bad before- especially considering I was taking very slight amounts in the cut. But like I said- I got it cleaned up. I am going to look into getting new blades. its been way too long. Bob123 said- "The real question... how many bolts are you going to use for the neck? xD" Probably not that many- I think that is a bit overkill. We will see. I was thinking six like the old music man basses. Lightning Mike said- "With the Willis ramp" Mike- not sure what the Willis ramp is (?) Are you referring to the Ibanez GW model bass?

Hey Mike- yeah- I am just behind on posting. We had a death in the family which took a couple weeks out of the picture for me as well. As I mentioned earlier I had to increase the butt end of this due to the string spread on the Hipshot Style D bridge I had made. Compared to the Ritter bridge, the profile of this bridge is huge, and the upper bridge post will come very close to a carve line (the line diagonally connecting the upper and lower body in the picture below)- and I hope this looks ok and not awkward when its done. We will see. I ended up not liking the string spacing, and (partially because of the size of the bridge)- ended up increasing the width of the neck 1/8" on each side, . In the pic below I am using a laser to line up a temporary neck template with the center line and then move the laser and check string line up between bridge saddles and nut. This is how I decided to increase the neck width- I didnt like the way it lined up. If I had proper plans on this one drawn out I would have avoided this- but I guess I should mention the Ritters are 35" scale and I decided (just last week) to go 34" scale. I will have a low E and not B on this one-and I just didnt want to stretch in those low positions. the neck blank as been prepared as well- thought i would share this picture- not sure if my jointer blades need sharpening or what- these nice chunks were taken out on a less than 1/16" pass. I ended up getting them cleaned up and all is well- but this first pass was kinda disturbing.

Digging this top. What are your plans for finishing on this one?

good news to hear they are all sold Allan- that is great. hey- I was wondering- do you (or any others from down under)have any experience/thoughts/opinions on that Redgum as a tone wood? We see it every now and again here in the states- and I think it has come up once or twice on this forum- just wondering. I have only seen it used on a couple of guitars- didnt know if that was because its not very good as a tone wood, not available- thought you (or any others) might be able to shed some light thanks