Mr Natural

That is one of the nicest pieces of padauk i have seen. How did it sound (volume wise) strung up?is it a ringer?

One of the best sounding basses I made when I was younger was made of pakauk and I have not been able to find decent quarter sawn lumber here in the southeast. I got that piece I used previously in Syracuse NY by chance at an estate sale. Every now and then I find quartersawn but its only 3 or maybe 4 inches wide. Ok for necks- but trying to find for one piece body or even 2 piece hasnt proved sucessful. 

15 hours ago, beltjones said:

I think I figured it out. I already have some forstner bits and router bits. I can use a forstner bit to make a circular hole in the MDF, then use a rabbeting bit to enlarge the hole, then a top bearing patterning bit to complete the hole. Repeat until the correct diameter is reached, approximately 45 min later. 

Or I could spend $10 on a hole saw. 

sometimes the journey there is half the fun.

I tend to complicate the hell out of simple often. 

19 hours ago, beltjones said:

 I was just walking out of the garage to go back into the house and grabbed a beer from the beer fridge, then remembered I wanted to snap a quick picture for you guys. 

we appreciate the pics, and the fact that you have a beer fridge just upped your respect level with me. I lost my beer fridge when my daughter moved back home. I now have a "beer crisper drawer" and it sucks cause we eat lots of fruits and veggies and need the drawer. Feel free to contribute to the "beer" thread in off topics section if you come across anything interesting. 

10 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

That looks great!

+1

office? Thats the beginning of a man cave. Nice. 

Congrats on number 3 to you and your wife Matt. Its always a blessing. 

@KempGuitars 3 things

1) you can never get rid of that blanket

2) the pinky looks fantastic. I am jealous of your paint jobs- so clean. you obviously go the mile+ in prep and it shows. Well done man. 

3)-is there ever sawdust in your shop? I am not sure I have seen a pic yet with "dust". 

@KempGuitars forgive the thread derailment- 

@Prostheta-I find your comment on Khaya interesting- and I am wondering if perhaps your area is getting a different species of Khaya than what I have here in the southeastern US. I built a Carl Thompson copy out of Khaya several years back and while the wood was nice to work with- it was heavy as hell. that bass was over 10lbs (four string). I have a couple different boards from different suppliers and a couple body blanks and they are all the same- heavy. I do love the ribbon stripes in that wood though. I actually quit using it due to the weight. TBH- its probably marginally lighter/same weight compared to some of my Eastern Maple- though I dont have equal size boards to compare to so that is a guess. . 

1 hour ago, Skyjerk said:

Nope. In the skillz area, my sharpening skills are the ones most in need of improvement

ditto. 

if you do get gouges- I found this thing to be a life saver. I was introducing all kinds of "wrong angles" when I attempted to do it by hand. this thing makes it so much easier and in my case idiot proof. 

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/flexcut-slipstrop-sharpening-kit?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI182KntWg2QIV2rbACh0Q2AYoEAQYASABEgKvOfD_BwE

i have wood for your wood. (cheesy wood porn joke attempt)

cant wait to see this. 

this thread is really interesting. very cool seeing the process/progress. 

I knew I had seen a bronze -or rather bronze dipped guitar previously but couldnt remember where. Then it just now dawned on me- Robbie Robertson of the Band played a bronze dipped strat  on the Last Waltz.

so-just googled to find a pic- and what do you know- fender made a replica- how fender of them. 

I dont really pay attention to the commercial guitar market (much) anymore- so- this was news to me- probably old news to most. 

rarely has Mrs Natch complained, but I think I have experienced a case of 

"pre-mature congratulation"

(where is the damn rim shot emoji when you need it)

actually-,my apologies- I saw that GOTY poll closed yesterday- and assumed so did GOTM. GOTM is actually still open until 2/2. My apologies. Foot in mouth. carry on

well done Andy, congrats on the GOTM win. 

Congrats on guitar of the year. Very deserving, its a beautiful guitar and a fitting tribute to your son. 

glad to hear you are ok- and a good dose of "power tool respect" has been gained for a lifetime I am sure. 

wow- I cant believe the tear out you got there Scott- grain run out right in that area it appears(?) you are going to want to go super shallow super slow when you route those PUs. that stuff looks to be as bad a purple heart and wenge-two of my least fav woods to work with.

glad you found that chunk to glue back in. coming along nicely 

I am trying to post pictures in order- but as I have stated before- having issues with dates on imported camera photos- I did an import from the camera and it created 1200 folders- with dates all over the map. Then when I did another import a week later- I ended up with over 3200 folders- with dates all over the place- like the photo below- found in the 6/16/1999 folder.making slow progress getting these in order. The guitar body and neck are pretty much done-i havent done the frets yet and i am having a second go at the inlay as i wasnt happy with first result. The black epoxy I used sanded out grayish and then stayed that way. I will post more as I come across them in pecking order. 

first time I have used a hand held router with edge guide to do an truss rod channel. It went a lot quicker than setting up the table- but I think I still like having the router mounted and moving the work piece vs moving a spinning blade. 

that top is SICK

welcome and congrats on some fine builds. 

Looking forward to the travel guitar build. 

I noticed it appears you used Solarez on one of your builds- would be interested in your experience with that finish. 

I actually have another (old one) that I started, stopped, started, stopped- its started again- I need to find the thread and bring it back to life- 

welcome back man- we hadnt heard from you since.....the hurricane(?)I think- was wondering if maybe you had been affected by it- glad to see all is well. Cool axe- as usual. 

i was going to finish this before posting all the pics but the issue with my pc and camera dates being off leads me to post now as I come across the pictures.  

it starts with a plan- I try to find a pic- as "straight on" as possible of the whole guitar- that I know the scale length for. 

In MS Paint- i remove as much of the unnecessary as possible so as to save printer ink and paper using the eraser function. I already have a jig for a six string ritter neck- so- I just need part of the neck/nut to confirm I have the right scale when I blow this up. 

I measure from nut to approx saddle position on the bridge and a little math- I use the skew/resize function in MS Paint to increase both horizontal and vertical aspects of the picture. I print out a one page- usually of the bridge- to see if its in the ball park of being correct- My bridge has a 3.5" string to string spread- and from measuring the strings-this was about spot on-

so I print out the whole thing- and check scale from nut to mid bridge adjustment travel- the plan isnt laying perfectly flat- but the measurement is about spot on 35" scale. I will be using a 34" scale for mine- but wanted the picto 35" scale as I know that is the scale for this particular instrument. 

cut it out (sort of)

glue to mdf. I probably should quit being a cheapo and buy some spray adhesive- but I just use titebond and spread it oh so thin with my finger.  If it gets too sticky to spread- I just spritz some water via very fine mist on my finger and it spreads like nothing. The half assed lines you see on the mdf was me roughly outlining where to spread glue. I must have been drinking- geez. 3 rd grader would do better. I use a roller to press out from the center. If any of the edges are not visibly glued down- I put some on my finger and go along the edge- I hate when you sand the edge and the paper comes loose. 

i debated between using alder for the body and poplar-I will be using a figured maple top- think I am going to try the poplar. Saving the alder for a more vintage type instrument. The body will be painted on this anyway. at least that is the plan.

So- i mentioned before that my pics are coming into my computer all wonky- ie- dates- I have literally thousands of pics on my computer- and the build photos are coming in as 2009, 2012, 2016 and finding them is a PIA. Trying to keep these in order as best I can. This is a pic of my thicknessing jig. The base is made of 2 layers of 3/4" plywood- and is straight and flat. This jig has functions on both sides- the one side facing the bench in this pic has 80 grit sand paper on it- I use it to flatten sand surfaces, and it also has my myka neck angle jig. This side has screw downs that held the Turner Model one I did a few years back and I can use my 25" radius router rig with. with the rails and screw downs off- I use this side also for my flattening jig- nothing fancy- sides are mdf stacked up, another piece of mdf for the sled with a 3/4 in piece glued and screwed into the edge to keep the sled from dipping under weight of the router. the router itself is screwed in from the bottom (recessed screw holes) to keep from rocking or tilting off the sled. Ghetto as hell but it works.

i ended up having to use the fret slotting jig I made for a chapman stick size neck blank (not sure where my regular size jig went to), it requires a "carrier" lumber underneath- in this case- mahogany. I have sized it so that when the saw bottoms out" on the guide- the cut is deep enough in the slots. it works ok- but I miss my other jig-probably hiding down in the basement in some plastic tote packed away with a bunch of my daughter's crap. 

12 hours ago, ScottR said:

That center stripe of Katalox is super hard....and looks like a slice of steak.

medium rare I would say-leaning towards medium?

Being unfamiliar with Katalox-is that darker edge where the glue line is natural or caused by oxidation prior to gluing? from the pictures it almost looks like you have 2 additional laminations of a dark brown wood in there. 

cranking it out Scotty!

I was wondering how the electronics were going to fit in there. I had a friend try a 1.5 inch thick body (starting thickness)- but after sanding it came in around 1.3"- and he ended up having to put a thick control cavity cover and hollow out the inside of it- the flush control cavity hit the back of the switches and caused a ground/shorting issue with the emgs he had on there. 

looking forward to the finished product here Andy- I think the alembic style you did for Tim was your best axe to date. Hoping this surpasses that.