Cyclone

A little about myself. My name is David Scott and I am from Lafayette Louisiana. I have just turned 35 and have been playing guitar for almost 20 years. I have a BS in Industrial Technology (Industrial Engineering). I work for one of the worlds largest helicopter service providers. My first guitar was a hot pink Series 10 that I modded with Dimarizo pickups (God I am amazed that I actualy rember that). When I was about to graduate highschool I became familiar with Warmoth guitar parts and decided that I would build a guitar from a kit as it would cost far less to do that than spend $1500 - $2000 on the Jackson/Charvel that I wanted.My Warmoth Well a few years passed since I built that guitar and one day I was looking at it and decided that it could use some refreshing so I scuffed it and put about 7-10 more coats of clear, sanded smooth, buffed and polished it. At that point I had a cousin talk to me about refinishing an old Charvel I had to give to his daughter for Christmas. I sanded it back painted it black and did a gothic Micky Mouse theam mural on it, and rewired it. It was at this point that I was made aware of this forum. I sat back back for a while and read alot of the posts before I decided to join in. My wife was about 7 months pregnat with my little boy at this point and I wanted to build something for him so I figured that I would try my hand at making a guitar from scratch. Well months have passed and it has almost become an obsession with me. I am almost finished with my first from scratch build (for my son, I know he wont be able to play it for years but one day I hope that he will appericiate what I have created for him). I have learned alot from everyone here and I hope that we never get to a point where we dont continue to learn or get to arragant to think that there is no one here that can teach us something. My philosophy on building is that something is only broken if it cant be fixed. Mistakes ar an opertunity to improvise. We make progress by making mistakes, improvising, adapting and overcoming. (Did I mention that I was a Marine for 6 years). Right now this is just a hobby for me but I hope to profit from it some day. As Forrest Gump would say "Thats all I have to say about that". Peace.

This is the first time that I try something like this so it is all trial and error for me at this point. I am trying to achieve a desert burst for the front and have the back retain the darkest shade of the front. I would like for the profile to be the darkest shade with a natural feaux binding and the back of the neck the darkest shade with the exception of the maple strip being the lightest shade and maybe burst the head stock. If any one knows how to achieve this I am oper for suggestion. thanks.

well its update time. I have sanded everything back. I am not quite finished yet but here are some picts for your viewing pleasure. sanded back pic of the front sanded back pic of the back sanded back and stained amber I think that I may sand the front back some more so that the amber is more prevelant. all comments are welcome.

I agree 100%. At this point you do not know where the problem lies, so you have to start from scratch.

Matt, does your wiring set up resemble the link below? wire diagram

This is the first chance that I have had to look at your project and its kind of amazing how much our neck heels relemble each other. Its looking great and I can't wait to seed it finished.

Matt, I may be able to help, can you give me a run down of what you have installed by way of electronics and how it is wired. It may be asking a little but diagrams would help.

Matt, I am not sure if this will help, but if you go to Seymour Duncans web site they have alot of wire diagrams there that may help you. Here is the web address seymour duncan

I have Just finished with the grain filler, sanding and I applied the first coats of stain to the whole guitar. I stained every thing brown to amplify the figure and maybe later tonight I will be able to sand back. Below are a couple of pics front and back. Please feel free to comment.

SWEET!!!! Thats what Im talking about. The inlay is a perfect complement to the rest of the guitar and realy sets it off. My congratulations to you on a job well done.

Well its time for an update. After taking into consideration all coments made about the neck heel I decided that before I went any further I would revisit its shape. So earlier I carved some more of it away, below are a front and side view. Please feel free to comment but keep in mind that I am not quite finished. I still have a little more sanding to do. If it matters I like this much better than the way it was before.

News Flash Head lines today read "Local guitar builder after creating countless Tele's, all being equally stunning and attractive, developed an anurasim and his head burst open like an erupting vulcano. On lookers that witnessed the spectacle said it was almost like a moth was being drawn to numerous flames and could not decide which to go to. Others said that it was the pressure of choosing which one to play that killed him. It is rumored that this loss will be greatly missed." What, it could happen!

My two cents: after seeing the wood and reading the thread all I could think about was a large carved top. I agree with you on the 335 (one of my altime favorite guitars). For the core of the body I am not sure that I would use the Walnut, I am thinking mor of a chambered mahogany, a carved figured maple back cap with a maple neck and Wenge fret board. To finish it I would stain the whole thing brown, sand it back to highlight any and all figure and grain then clear coat natural.

Matt, I agree with RAI6, (IMHO) I think that an elaborate inlay would just take away from what is already there. The randomly stagered blood dots would accent the whole astetic look and feel. Great work, I am especially excited with this project as I am a huge fan of guitar murals as they are true insite to self expression of the builder.

Drak, I find all of your truly inspirational. There are a few members here that really make me strive to push what I think I am capable of and you are one of them. As always this project is breath taking. Please continue to create and inspire. On another note, (and I know this is probably a stupid question but) what does "WOD" stand for and is there any reason that all of your projects are Tele's.

Maiden, thanks for the advice. I had considered using epoxy but I wasnt sure about how to go about application, staining and the order of application. However I did find a wood filler that comes as a powder and is mixed with water. You mix it into a paste and apply with a rag by wiping it on. Once its dry you sand smooth, stain and clear. Thats what I did with the scrap piece of wood below. Please keep in mind that I didnt go through the trouble of doing a final wet sand and buff in addition to the fact that the clear is an off the shelf from Home Depot Polyurithane Simi-Gloss. The first picture is one side of the scrap next to the stained fingerboard. The scrap was stained using an amber shade. The next picture is the other side, which I stained brown, lightly sanded back and then stained amber. At this point I am unsure which sample I should go with for staining the mahogany portions of the guitar. So every one please feel free to comment. I am however leaning toward the brown amber combination because I want to get sort of a deasert burst look on the front.

HELP! HELP! HELP! I am almost ready to stain but I need to grain fill the Mahogany portions prior to staining. Does any one know if homedepot/lowes or the like sells a grain filler that is compatable with Aniline (alcohol soluable) dye.

Everyone thanks for the kind words, advice and complements, they are very motivating. with regard to the heel area can any one define what they mean by a smoother heel. Maiden, what size bit did you use for the knob recesses on your blue guitar, by the way that turned out awsome. With regard to the stain you did on it, I guess that you stained black and sanded back. If that is the case how far back did you sand it? did you sand back to the extent that no more black could be visably seen or did you sand to a point where you could still see black in the grain?

yeah, I plan on leaving them in. I can think of no reason to take them out.

here is a picture of the bridge installed. I have a couple of repairs to make on the fret board and then I will start the staining process on it and install the frets.

well I have the bridge located and recessed and it fits near perfectly. I think that I will continue to add a slight carve the the rest of the parimeter as I did the back side.

thegarehanman, sorry about that, I forgot to add that I carved the back more than I had previously. Attached is a profile picture showing what I have done. Thank you for the complements and the inspiration. I think that I may still do some more shaping to the heel.

Its been a while since I have last posted. We have had alot going on around the house and I have barley had time to work on the guitar. For all intrested my little boy is now just over 6 mos old, doing fine and growing like a weed. Back to the guitar. since I last posted I have located the controls, control cavity, and inlayed the neck with ebony block inlay that I cut and trimed from a slab of ebony I got from a friend. The next thing that I have to do is locate and recess the bridge. I have to recess the bridge because I didnt put quite enough angle in the neck. Oh well I guess we live and learn. Shown below is a picture of my current progress. All comments are welcome.

Matt, Glad to see you back. It looks like the Impaler came out great. I was wondering if the info I gave you on finishing it worked out. It looks as though it did but I still am curious.

genbloke & Maiden, Thanks for the complements and comments. I havent quite finished with the shaping and carving as of yet and I probably wont be until I put the clear on and then I will probably still question myself and its shape. However I have been able to start and almost finish the carve of the top as can be seen in the pic below. I welcome all comments but please be gentle, this is my first time.