guitarnut

I have a female black lab of similar nature.

Thanks, Muzz!

A couple of sound clips. Dirty Clean [media=]http://www.crenshawweb.com/2012/2012clean.mp3

Thanks! Scary, Demonx. Your post count hit 666 with that last one.

Gotta disagree on that one. I considered the white pickguard in my previz but it made the guitar look like it was wearing spats. It was too much.

This was my entry in the TDPRI 2012 Build Challenge. It's based loosley on the #2 protoype. It has an alder core that is chambered and alder caps front and back. Double bound in white. Custom PG. Nitro finish. There's no obvious control cover. The top is routed under the PG and the pots were slid in from there. I wound the PU for this one, too. 8600 turns of 42awg, potted with DC resistance of 6.8K. A5 mags. The neck is flame maple. It was dyed and sanded back to enhance the figure and produce a roasted maple effect. Hand made single action TR, black clay dots, bone nut and vintage tuners. Also started my logo decal on this build.

Thanks! Ha! Yeah, candy is beatiful. Tricky to work with but well worth the effort. Thanks, Scott!

I finished these up this weekend. I don't think I started a thread here since I already had a Strat thread going. If I did, I couldn't find it. They're basswood bodies with maple tops. The Candy Red has A3 pickups and the Candy Blue has A5. Both colors sprayed over silver metallic base coats. </p>

Edit: What the heck has happened to the posting options? I had to type HTML code to get pics to show up. After a long break from building, I'm back at it. I've changed direction on this one. The top had a fair amount of tear out in it so I ended up laminating some nice figured maple veneer on the top. Since I was doing this, I also added an arm contour. I ended up going with a darker burst. Sort of a smokey, root beer look. It's a field of vintage amber with tobacco brown burst. Black back and sides. It has a few clear coats on it now but needs a few coats of sanding sealer to level out the figure in the veneer. </p>

I like the red/black bulls eye much better than the white/black. It's bold enough to be effective but subtle enough to not over power the guitar. The build is looking good. Nice job on the mockup, too. Mark

Is something like this what you're referring to?

Wow! Looking very nice! I haven't been hanging around here much lately...I would have chimed in much sooner if I had been. Looks great! Subscribed Oeace, Mark

Thanks for the input guys. The angles of the body are from a detailed plan by Carmello Giannetto so I feel like they're spot on. The monkey grip was a last minute addition from the client (16yo kid). It's a tough fit on this body style. It needs to be in the tummy cut to be functional at all or you're grabbing a 1.75" thick body. If you look at the back, with the Floyd Rose there's really no other option on the tummy cut. I tried sliding the grip down a bit but it was too close to the bridge on the front of the guitar. When we settled on the current location, I advised him of the balance issue but he's fine with it. I get the feeling it's really more about form than function in his mind. The inlays and headstock were his choices from many designs offered to him. I was just pushing and pulling around points in Illustrator...wasn't aware if the inlays were available pre-cut or not. The bolt on neck was also his choice. I tried to sell him on a tenon type joint but he was uncomfortable with not being able to remove the neck if needed....guess he's seen too many Gibson headstock casualties. The square neck heel is likely going to be rounded out and the screws and ferrules staggered a bit. Mark

Well, I haven't started a new thread here for quite awhile. Mostly because I haven't been building much and or done anything out the ordinary. This one is different enough from the others I've built, I thought I would start a thread for it. Mahogany back with bookmatched flame maple top. Steve Via monkey grip, custom inlays and blue burst finish. The hardware will be a Floyd Rose bridge with 2 humbuckers...yet to be decided which model. This is a build for a friend and I hope to get started on it in the next few weeks.

The heat has been a bear lately and the shop has uninhabitable so I have made any progress on finishing. I've been able to spend a few hours in the mornings working on getting all my builds ready for finish. Here's the state of things. This build and the others are ready for grain filling (as needed) and finish. More soon. Mark

The heat has been a bear lately and the shop has uninhabitable so I have made any progress on finishing. I've been able to spend a few hours in the mornings working on getting all my builds ready for finish. Here's the state of things. This build and the others are ready for grain filling (as needed) and finish. More soon. Mark

The heat has been a bear lately and the shop has uninhabitable so I have made any progress on finishing. I've been able to spend a few hours in the mornings working on getting all my builds ready for finish. Here's the state of things. This build and the others are ready for grain filling (as needed) and finish. More soon. Mark

The heat has been a bear lately and the shop has uninhabitable so I have made any progress on finishing. I've been able to spend a few hours in the mornings working on getting all my builds ready for finish. Here's the state of things. This build and the others are ready for grain filling (as needed) and finish. More soon. Mark

The heat has been a bear lately and the shop has uninhabitable so I have made any progress on finishing. I've been able to spend a few hours in the mornings working on getting all my builds ready for finish. Here's the state of things. This build and the others are ready for grain filling (as needed) and finish. More soon. Mark

With the cut line marked, I cut the heel on the band saw, leaving a bit of material so I could take it the line with a block plane. I also trimmed the top of the tenon 5/8". Since I leveled the fretboard before I set the neck angle, I moved on to markers. The likely choice for material would be walnut. I used a 1/4" plug cutter and cut some plugs. Glued them in, cut them flush and the put a 12" radius on the fretboard. A failed neck pocket template clamped to the bench, helps hold the neck in place while blocking out the radius.

This is the 6th set neck I've built and I'm still trying to refine the process. I started out using a router sled and it was just too much setup and produced results that weren't repeatable from neck to neck. The last 2 necks I made, I rough cut the angle on the band saw and fine tuned it with a plane and sanding block. This worked fine, but setting the angle was still a bit of trial and error. On this one, I came up with the following. It took all of 5 minutes once I thought out the plan.' After trimming and fitting the tenon to the pocket, I traced the area where the neck bordered the body. This gave me the amount of material I needed to remove (A). I transferred this measurement to the bottom (. The point marked zero cut is just that...I don't want to remove any material either side of this point...it's my height reference for the neck so the bottom of the fretboard sits just above the guitar top. To get the angle I set the neck, fretboard down, onto my band saw table. It's aluminum plate and the flattest surface in my shop. I used a digital angle gauge and zeroed it out on the back of the neck. It doesn't matter if it's truly zero to the horizon or not, it's just a reference. Then, with the heel clamped loosely as a hinge, I slid a pencil under the neck until the gauge read 2.5 degrees. I used a known good straight edge to mark the 2.5 degree line on the heel. Then, using digital calipers, I transferred the line to my zero cut point and a point further up the heel and drew my cut line.

Next was the neck. I started with a blank that I glued up and routed back during my first prototype build. Huge time saver. After installing the truss rod, I decided to do a BM walnut veneer for the headstock. I used a simple pressure fit to glue the delicate joint. I was making good time so I didn't take amny pics of slotting and tapering the fretboard. It was slotted in the StewMac miter box. I replaced my first gen fret saw with the Japanese saw that SM sells and this thing cuts like butter compared to the original model they sold. After rough cutting on the band saw.

Much work done on this one yesterday. I've made some design changes also. The binding has changed to faux binding on the top...it's just too pretty to cover up. Plus, I was struggling with double bound that borders maple on top and walnut on the back. With the maple lams connecting the bidings, it just didn't feel right to me. So, to commit to the new design, I did a generous round over on back. I like the way the maple lams now roll from the sides to the back. Next was the neck pocket. I was careful to line up on the BM center line. Sadly, my angles on the back didn't center up like I had hoped. I cleaned up the wedge up on the jointer before gluing and I must have taken more off one edge than the other...oh, well. Onward and upward.

I made some progress on the top last night. I ended up resawing a new piece of maple. It was actually a 2 piece top that was glued up for carving but wasn't bookmatched. It's now resawn into 2 thin BM sets. Here's one of them before planing to final thickness... And after planing and glue up. After rough cutting the outline of the top, I'm ready to glue it up. I decided not to chamber the body since the it's only weighs 4.2 lbs before the top. I've learned to hang the cauls and body over the edge of the bench while starting the first C-clamp. It makes it so much easier to wrangle everything. Once it's set, I can flip it around and set the rear C-clamp and check the center line. Clampzilla!!! I'm pretty happy with that. I had planned to do plastic bindings in w/b/w but I may do flame maple after all. I could do a faux binding on top but the top doesn't match the lam strips of maple...the bindings are from the same stock as the lams. A little more work, but worth it. Mark