Mr Natural

Ken- PM sent- forgot you told me your son's name when we spoke last- sorry about that! Scott

my paint booth is my garage, with a couple of 2X4s attached to one of my benches, with framing square clamped on top, and a fitted bed sheet to catch overspray. Aint pretty, but it works. I have a "door" that I attached after the spray has settled and it keeps the dust out. I shoot McFaddens laquer thinned with 15% thinner/pigment mix and a dab of retarder. I am shooting thru (dont laugh) Preval sprayers. One day I will have proper woodworking and spray equipment, but for now- well this will have to do. I tried the McFaddens white on this but it wasnt the brilliant white the kid wanted. This white is Colortone White Pigment.

frets on

Headstock/fingerboard dyed black and pearl cleaned up. Sanded the body, started to sand the finderboard and realized I hadnt tensioned the neck/rod yet- you can see where I started to sand off the dye on the finger board. The middle of the board is more black. That dye really does a good job with the ebony.

Resto- Just curious- have you tried McFadden's laquer? If so- what do you think about it? I have used it a few times in the past, and I am shooting it now (with the addition of some retarder due to the weather here in the south the last few days)- I just hate that extended open time - nothing like fumes all day. It builds pretty quick though- I shoot straight laquer instead of filler, and just shoot it real heavy and sand back, repeat. McFadden's filler SUCKS. But the laquer is pretty decent. You should be in about the same climate as me (just Northeast of Atlanta)-curious if you have tried it. Scott

double post- see below

just when you think everything is going good. so- on the lefty- routed access panels, made left handed control panels out of purple heart and ebony veneer- stained the ebony black(cant find plastic control panel for left handed gibson, not even from gibson direct) did the headstock veneer inlay- I did this off the body incase I screwed up- (which I often do- see below)- the kid wanted the Gibson block style for his last name- a friend of mine found a script style pretty close and sent me an email which I printed out and used as my guide. For the record- my first attempt at cutting this FAILED. My friend (who does woodwork, but not guitars) suggested I try a different blade, which along with some wax made all the difference in the world cutting these. and now the big fat FAIL- this took me THREE times to cut this out. I finally got it cut, inlaid, used some "artist fresco powders" with clear epoxy my friend sent me which i must say blended nicely with the ebony (better than the stew mac black epoxy)- so I am thinking- this is probably the best inlay I have ever done. looks good right? and I did mention this was for a LEFT handed guitar right? so anyone out there named Gabe need a right handed truss rod cover? so- after picking my heart up from my feet.......I shall live another day, learn a lesson (which I share with you all)...and try again. ugh. and I have been so careful labeling everything "this side up" or "lefty" etc. well- my record is still intact- this is my 7th or 8 th build- and I have screwed something up on everyone of them.

a bit of work on the fretboard for the lefty I started to carve the top of this with an IBEX finger plane. What was I thinking - as you can see- I have pulled in the reserves to help out (note grinder to the right in the pic)- the progress in this shot is with just the finger planes. My forearms now look like Popeye's. sorry for the exposue on this shot.

ibanezdudeCK- this little buger is going to weigh about 10 lbs I estimate. I should get a better reading once I radius the body Ponticat- I had thought about getting a "flycutter"- but the nearest rockler/woodcraft store is about 50-60 miles away and I figured I could whip something up with what I had-(I had checked homedepot/lowes/ace- none had these) good to post though so people can see that tool if they are not familiar This weekend I reworked the headstock template- the original from my "ghetto template" printout wasnt going to work- I used graph paper to clean it up-cut out the headstock, started working the neck pocket here you can see the single ebony veneer on the front and the 5 layer ebony/maple veneer on the back. The volute will have that "alembic" style look (rick turner after all was one of the priniples behind alembic guitars)

a bit more work on assembling the jig to cut the radius in the guitar body-at first I was going to try to glue down the pvc pipe- and realized that wasnt going to work- so instead I used a brad point bit large enough to create a hole that my screw bit would fit in- and then screwed down the pvc pipe that way. This keeps the pipe nice and straight, and didnt alter the surface the jig would ride on. I also added some blocks to keep the body from shifting- keeping in mind the body will have one screw thru the middle of the pickup hole holding it down. Once I cut the radius in the front, I will need to put in some "shim" type blocks to keep the body steady when I go to cut the back since I wont have an outer edge on the body once the radius is cut (an edge that will rest against the jig anyway) I will post pics along the way to show what I am talking about I plan on doing some test runs this weekend with it- cant wait.

routing body shape-bought templates for these adding weight reduction chambers - done freehand (obviously)- I didnt take the time to make nice neat templates for these routes since these will be covered up by the maple and a couple coats of shielding paint in the wire channel since I wont be able to get in there once the maple goes on. This lefty doesnt really need it (since the kid wants EMGs)- but I figured I might as well since he may grow up to enjoy passives one day.

Thanks Scott- hey- what type of glue do you suggest? This may or may not be glued to the body wood -as I was planning on chambering-or rather hollowing out-parts of the body. The back side of this may not contact solid body wood. edit- disregard- I just re-read your response Scott- sorry- mulitasking at work- would rather be building!!- I see what you are saying now. I guess I was thinking I should glue the crack first- then join- I see now you are saying it may close up when I join the boards and then drop fill. Gotcha- didnt think of that. I may try just a bit of glue on the back side of the board that wont face out. let that dry and then sand join these boards and give it a shot- Not sure why I am so freaked out about this- maybe cause I have been holding on to those boards so long I dont want to waste them!

Build- lap steel- 25" scale, chambered mahogany body and neck, figured walnut front and back, p-90 pickup I need some input here please- I could kick myself for letting this happen. I have been saving a couple of pieces of figured walnut for -I dont know- atleast 12 years now. One piece is flamed- the other is like a feather crotch pattern. I started to plan this lap steel out this past weekend, and I left the crotch figured boards out of my "controlled" storage room where I keep my lumber, and left this out overnight in the garage. its been really dry here- and low and behold- one of the pieces cracked. I want to save this board- but I am scared to get this anywhere near a jointer fearing that crack is just going to blow out completely. If I can save this- I may opt for a sanding board or similiar to join the edges. I have the board back in my wood storage room, I have been watching for the last 4 days, the crack has not grown any. my main concern is to stabilize it, it would be a bonus to hide it. The boards are .25" thick- the crack is just under 2.5 inches long. I was planning on using oil on this- however- being a lap steel it may be better to shoot laquer on it to provide more protection. Any recommendations on fixing this? I didnt want to put any type of glue in it fearing that it would ruin or not accept the finish. I dont think I am going to be able to "close" this up completely, and unfortunately I cannot position the wood to where this will be (completely)cut out for a bridge or pickup. atleast not with the plan I have at the moment. At first I thought just force a little glue in and clamp it- I thought I would ask opinions incase anyone here has gone thru this already. I dont want to clamp it and have the crack just grow. any suggestions appreciated-

I love the idea of having the wedding guests sign that guitar- What a great keepsake!

2 les pauls- one lefty, one righty one piece mahogany bodies hard maple tops mahogany necks- the lefty will have- ebony fret board crown inlays white paint- no binding, gloss laquer finish the 12 yr old getting this guitar requests the emg 81/85 set. zak wydle set fits the bill. Headstock will be inlaid with this kid's last name in MOP, the truss rod cover will have his first name (so when anyone asks what kind of guitar he plays- he can say its his own custom model) righty- rosewood fret board black paint- white binding-not sure about the rest- this one is taking some time- it started out for someone else, now its for me. every guitar starts as a board

control holes drilled and battery compartment routed. I free handed the battery compartment, I will tidy that up a bit before putting the radius in the front of the guitar.

The newer "featherweight" models have chambers. The old original MB1 models were solid from what I understand. Take a look at this- (I found this after I started this project)- according to this from Turner's site- with the exception of the control chambers- its solid. http://www.renaissanceguitars.com/pdf/MakingTheTurner.pdf also- I am basing this model after the "basic model"- nonbound, no top or back wood- like the guitar in this video- there is no upper control knob like the illustration on the turner site, so with the exception of the pickup cavity, the battery compartment and the control cavity on the lower bout- this momma's going to be solid. when it is done I expect this to weigh about the same as an old les paul. maybe a little less since the body on this are rather small. Peace- Scott

gluing up the front veneer, the back veneer was already glued at this point. here is the body cut out with the pickup mounting hole routed as well. I had to cut around the body outline with my router cause the 9" ryobi bandsaw I am pimpin wasnt doing well with that 2.5" mahogany chunk o wood.

Tim37- is that your guitar?

yeah- the pickup is in a housing that rotates like a clock face. I am not sure what the "travel" is on a real Turner model one- but I will be allowing this pickup to turn from roughly 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. The pickup housing is connected via a screw in the back of the guitar- which runs thru the body in the exact middle of the hole in the front of the guitar. The pickup can be positioned straight up and down (vertical to the strings), or you can have the top of the pickup more towards the bridge or neck. Kind of like how a tele or strat pickup is angled, except you can line it up towards the bridge or towards the neck. Not sure how much difference it makes sonically, just copying how they are done. This guitar has a lot of those little things I have never seen on other guitars, so this will defintely be a learning experience. (part of why I wanted to build it)

One of Turner's employees drew up an artistic depiction of how a model one is built. It revealed to me that many of their necks have a solid mahogany headstock. This makes sense- the outside mahogany laminates in my neck will "flow" into that headstock, and any other laminate woods would only be covered up by the front and back headstock veneers. nothing fancy on how I do my scarf cut. Going old school: I clean up with a block plane and sanding board headstock attached. using a hotrod truss rod as I happen to have a couple on hand. The headstock picture (glued to the mdf) didnt reproduce so well- I will be re-working the final template for that one after using graph paper to "even things up a bit"- there is shadowing from the original picture and the headstock angle, once blown up for my template, made it unuseable. It did atleast give me some reference to use to attempt to keep things in proportion.

Manny- There was a vintage les paul JR at the local Guitar Center here in Atlanta a couple years back (for the low low price of $25,000)-anyway- I noticed on that guitar there appeared to be no neck angle. While I cant swear that there wasnt at least a small angle- the neck was way above the body of the guitar. They also had a vintage Les Paul Special TV model- and that definetely had a neck angle. The neck was no where near as "protuded" above the body as on the JR, and you could see that there was an angle introduced on that one. This is similiar to some of the gibson flying Vs. The 1971 medialion Vs have a neck that is raised above the body by 3/8". Those Vs- and even the later 75' models didnt seem to have a neck angle- keeping in mind that they have a TOM type bridge- and I am not sure if those bridges are the same height as the wrap around on the JR. That bridge height is key. you can either raise the neck above the body join, or introduce an angle to keep the action in check when dealing with a bridge that is taller than say a fender type bridge. Raising the neck up definetely gives a "different feel"- I noticed this at a guitar show where I played a 67V and then a 71 medialion. The neck immediately jumps out at you- especially on the upper frets. Just my 2 cents. Scott

on my body template, I needed to cut a perfect circle in the middle where the rotating pickup housing will be. My circle cutting attachment for my router wasnt small enough, the attachment for my dremel router base was too large as well. Ended up drilling a small hole in the dremel router base itself and tapping in a pivot nail (you can see it here)- perfect. I would route a full rotation, vacuum it out, lower it a bit, repeat. about 8 rotations later- a perfect circle I ended up not liking the thickness of the maple in the neck, so I thinned it out- glued it up and I made sure I got 2 blanks out of this, incase I want to make another of these.

one of the interesting things about the turner model 1 guitars is that they have a 25 degree radius on the front and back of the guitar body. Here is a picture of the jig I will be using to accomplish this with. Its not set up yet- but you should get the idea. The router sits atop the jig. The legs of the jig have a 25 inch radius cut out of them. The tubing will be attached to the outside edges of the base (the base is my version of David Myka's neck pocket jig upside down). The router jig with then ride atop the tubing, and I take it back and forth (side to side) slowly cutting the radius into the face and back of the guitar. Turner uses a planer with a radiused blade to do this- I dont have that luxury unfortunately.