pauliemc

OK. Im starting to freak out here. I have a funny feeling the green is fading. a few days ago i notaiced that the wood was almost showing thru when the light caught it at certain angles. I usually rub a colour back to be very light on areas to realy make the grain work, but this seems to be getting lighter by the day. this dye came from stewy mac & they swore blind it was fade resistant. They were so confidant about it they said it even says it on their site. Its under 5 coats of UV resistant clear at this point. realy realy tiking me off I realy hope to fook im just imagining this

these things are coming along realy nice. cherry never fails does it, slightest carve & its freaky grain city What kind of finishes you thinkin of ?

Glad I could be of service

You may not be too far from the truth there, I rekon the acoustic is dead. Maby ill salvage the body aswell as the tuners, Make up for there only being one strap button

Just a quick test fit. to help line up the heel for carving. Im liking the look of this thing

Got the back of the headstock roughed out. I think I will be inlaying my logo in here, Thinking about it anyway. Enough meat here to compensate for the floyd nut bolts & still be stronger than a standard ultra slim necked shredder axe. Side dots worked out fine. Nice clean little jobbies, stand out a mile against the rosewood. The oil finish should deepen the wood colours around then & make them stand out a little more. Which is goo as there will be no markers on the face of the board. Im realy diggin the grain on this board. Glad I kept this piece for myself, streaky as hell . buff, polish & a fret job needed now.

Anyway. Back to the gitir being built here. Got some more done on the neck. Cleaned up the face of the headstock to take the quilted veneer. Got the shelf cut for the nut aswell. Cant decide if I should bookmatch the veneer here. I dont think I should as it may look a bit funny on a 6 in line head. Any toughts ? Started putting in the side dots. Tried clear epoxy for the adhesive, with UHWMPE Nylon for the dots. Started the carve on the back of the neck aswel. My usual thing here, Go at it with a heavy rasp to make big scallops along the area to be carved, Then use the rasp to level it all out. once its all level I shape the curve with - you guessed it - the rasp. has to be my fave tool No piks of the carve process, not that im an idiot & forgot to take any - I Swear !!!!! just get so into carving necks that everything else gets lost in the background noise. I doubt im the only one here like this.

Yea, My crappy photography doesent show the full extent of the damage. On the bass side the crack goes to the 6th fret, But on the treble side it goes all the way up to the 11th. That second crack, The one that looks like a failed scarf is a killer aswell. as for the missing chunk, lets just not mention that But the real problem is that the worn patches on the treble side (looks like ring damage from playing Id say) those are soft. Kinda spongy. & a lot of the fretbaord is still kinda fluffy/raised grain in texture. It seems to have warped to one side aswell. Maby it was leaning more on one side in his shed. Against an un-insulated block wall in ireland for fook sake. the centre line of the nut end of the board is off by 2.25mm from the body line. I rekon it needs to dry for a long while yet, then maby a new neck.

Check this thing out. Was asked to have a go repairing it. Seen this thing first about 8 monthe ago when it was a lot worse. Aparently his kid jumped on it & that hammered the **** out of the neck. the strings were never tensioned off after the break, instead the guitar was put into a shed out his back yard for storage - for 3 years . when I first saw it the break was much wider, I had him bind the neck up in surgical tubing & keep it indoors in a consistantly dry - warm room since then.

The colour is not vivid or bright enough, It needs to reeeeaaaaly hurt my eyes. Right now im only partially blinded by it Ah no, seriously, that looks savage, came out realy cool.

Thats god trying to tell you something man. He wants you to build a 7 neck mocking bird. im tellin you man, its true

ha ha ha, Why is it we all have so much to say about the enchanted forrest of clamps. Iv tried most things over the years for putting on fretboards. even down to figuring out the precise locations, foot dimeters & exact numbers required for clamping necks of various sizes (used to be an engineer) Tried the clamping with a caul & 3 clamps aswell. I even made up a clamping jig to glue up to 3 necks at once. But in the end you always end up going with what feels natural, most comfortable to you. Wez is correct, the elastic banding does work on its own but I always use the clamps aswell - Just in case. Killemalls clamp / caul treatment is fine also. but like you say. not for a radiudes board. Speaking of clamping up necks. I just got handed an acoustic for a repair. broken neck job. Ill put up some piks this evening for the horror fans among you. Nasty

why not just alternate the clamp direction? half facing forwards, half facing back - just so you can get your hands on them eh ? ok. never even crossed my mind. Ill do that next time. its amazing, you make **** loads of necks over the years & a little thing like that never clicks

You could just glue it into place. dont have to approach it as the original manufacturer intended. Modify it to make it work as you see fit.

Its the little things that make yer day, I was just mailed a link from a friend. http://www.guitar-list.com/brands/aeolian-guitars Tought to myself "ha ha cool" its like seeing yourself in the yellow pages. Even if you know its there you still get a little kick out of it

sounds good to me, Throw in the 3 P's & your sorted. Pool, Pole dancers & Poker

Yep. Little small pliers to get a hold of them. There is not always enough room to fit my fingers in between clamps when i do a board so I use a little pliers to turm em Not over tight. still only hand tight you know. sometimes I use a set of jaws I have, 36 inch long things for a vice. Just put it in & put the pressure on. but it stained a board a while ago, so I need to make up new facings for it. Anyway, I like doin the clampasarus rex method. So screw it

I tend to muck about with it to figure it out. I make the centre block out of scrap pine & use straps to mock up the whole thing for a test fit. keep tweaking it until it feels about right, then use the pine as your template for the real piece. I find that placing the necks @ a slight angle to each other works best. I havent done many but I did notice that the bottom neck seems to land almost smack on the position of the bottom horn of the top guitar maby just freaky coincidence, but it happened 4 times in a row.

Got a little done on the neck today aslo. The truss rod chanel cut & the rod installed. The headstock is very thin here as I am putting a quilted face on it. 2mm thick. Began the curve up to the fret board with chisels. Will finish that up with scrapers then apply the quilted facing. The other neck is for a strat for the chick. Rough cut the fretboard & glued it into place. I usually go nuts & turn the thing into a Clampasarus rex, then wrap it tightly in heavy elastic bands. today was no exception. The bands keep good pressure all along the edges of the board & ensure a good joint with no gaps. Neck out of the clamps & elastic bands. Everything went well. needs a clean up but its fine for now. 2 in the morning. Time to call it a day I think.

Getting the clear onto the front aswell. 2 light coats so far Ill get 3 more on monday then cut it back flat & take it from there. Bridge sat in place to help with the neck construction. I rekon the gold looks good against the green.

It does. You just described my standard AEolian platform style neck profile . Been shaping them like that for a few years. totaly flat on the back with beveled sides rounded off to a large radius. Not as dramatic a change from the norm as a full Trapazoid so most players arent thrown by it visually. Its very stable & fast as fook !! The extra bit of meat that gets left in the neck doesent hurt the tone either. Guitar is looking realy good,

OK. My eyes a a lot better so back to work. Got some more done on this. Not much but progress anyway. Got the colour sorted for the back. The cherry-black burst is woking better than the first dye job. Looks good without being overly deep & lush looking. Starting to get the first 2 coats of clear on the body to seal it all up aswell.

Now your talking. Thats more like it. Its freaky how fast it lightens up as you strip the wood out isint it

Not forgetting the depth of shine you get from all those clear coats. I rekon Drak has it about right. Tinted clear coats of amber to start with. the stain wont blotch then.

Tell me about it. Try rubbing it into your eyes. great fun, anyway im getting back to normal. can start looking at the neck now. Will get some piks up later.