ROCKETROB

OK, Some of you may remember this one from an earlier post I did showing the test fitting of parts. Well after 9 months of planning and building it's just about done. Just some fret work and thats it. It plays pretty well right out of the box, but some of the frets need leveling. Sounds good too; very vintage strat like (duh) with a little more edge. Two piece Alder body, GFS vintage premium pickups, hardtail bridge from Guitar Parts Resource. Wired like a Tele with 4 position switch (includes N + B in series) and a push-pull switch on the tone control that turns on the middle pickup at any time. Color is Vintage Cream from Reranch. It is far from perfect. I made alot of mistakes and some still show; but I learned alot. I would like to thank everyone at Project Guitar for their contributions to my project. The help I received here has been invaluable; I could not have made it through with out it. Thanks, Rob. Click on the photos to enlarge them

I don't know what happened to my post. It looked fine in the preview. I'll try again. Check below; It's all there now.

That Koa top looks great. Nice carve on the tummy cut too. Should sound interesting with the Koa over Swamp Ash. Rob.

Jim, I've had a few 335s over the years and one favorite es345 that I've had for almost 35 yrs. (yea , I'm that old) and a strat too so, maybe those shapes have just jelled in my brain for too long. The best part of this forum is, for sure, the exchange of ideas and information. I'm constantly being pushed along by the great vision and skills of the people here. It's a real treasure. Rob.

I'll see that Wow and raise you a double Awsome!! Really nice work. Rob.

That fender Tele dbl. cut is pretty sweet. I like the P-90 pickups. I heard fender was making one after I started my project. It's interesting that fender put a set neck on it. I hope that doesn't spell trouble for my design Rob.

Very Nice! I love Les Pauls with P-90s. I wish I nad never traded the one I had. Rob.

cool shape! I like the carve. It looks like a race car or hydroplane boat. Interesting placement of the jack too. Rob.

Thanks...I think I was trying to capture some of those automobile curves of the 50's & 60's with that pickguard. I really like the vintage type stuff. What can I say; I'm a little vintage myself. I have a nice piece of swamp ash waitng and that one will have a black pickguard and see through finish for sure. Rob.

That metal flake is unbelievable! You'll have to pass out sunglasses to everyone close to the stage. Nice routing on the cavities very clean. Rob

Very impressive work I must say. cool way of making the sides. Why not maple for the center block? I think this is what es335s have. Looks like you did a great job planning this build. Looking forward to the finished guitar. Good luck, Rob.

very interesting. nice programming. I like the recessed pickguard and control pate. Can't imagine what it will sound like. rob

thegarehanman: This is my first build so I'm using construction techniques that are well proven and documented. Some where down the road I would like to make a set neck type and a semi hollow one too. I am a little concerned about the neck pocket and overall stability of the neck on this guitar with the double cuts. I'm curious about the sound/vibration transfer between the neck and body with so much wood removed from the side of the neck. I'll post results after it's strung up and played a bit. Rob

tirapop; When I started this project I was going to make a standard tele, so I bought the neck. The more I played around with the drawing...well you can see. I have two more guitars planned using this shape, and one of them has a neck with 3 tuners on a side and a headstock of my own design. the other will be a real tele clone type with swamp ash body, tele bridge and tele style neck pickup...with double cutaways of course. american; maybe I should take your advise. I messed up the last pass I made today. I can't beleive how many times I've sanded this thing. Rob.

Thanks for the kind words. The color is "Vintage Cream" from reranch. Too late for the satin look I started spraying clear gloss over it last night. Rob.

Thanks for the pics Drak. They give me a lot of ideas on chambering. I have some alder that has some imperfections That could be routed out and made useful by chambering the body. I'll have to try it. Rob.

Thanks idch, I can't wait to play it either. Not sure what you mean about the jack area. Most teles have a squared off section around the jack. I will be using an electrosocket type jack. Rob.

Here's a few pics of what I've been working on for a while. Just an idea of what it will look like when it is done. What do you think? Rob. 1. more here: rocketrob's guitar project 2 rocketrob's guitar project 3 rocketrob's guitar project 4 I hope these links work. never posted pics here before. edit: just looked at the pic. bad quality; don't know why.

jer, I feel ya! I do machine programming every day. Nothing worse than a program that takes off on its own. Great work by the way. Nice mill, cool design, beautiful wood. Keep it up.

I too, have access to some CNC equiptment, but I used it only for making templates. I did not want my project to be totally "machine made". I designed the templates myself in CAD then cut the templates from 1/4" hardboard. Then I used a bandsaw,router, and alot of sanding to make what I needed. the shaping came out really well. It's the finishing that is making me crazy. Soon I'll have some pics to post.

Try your nearest auto upholstery shop. Many tines they have remnants or surplus material that they will sell pretty cheap. I,ve done this a couple of times. Upholstery shops have a huge variety of colors and textures. Good luck, Rob.

I need a little guidance please. I've sprayed a few coats of color (rattle cans from Reranch) and it looks like it will need some sanding. How far do I need to sand the color? Does it have to be down to where there are no pit marks at all? What about fine scratches? Start with 600 wet and go up to...what? Then clear coats and alot more sanding I know. Just not sure about the color coat. I've been researching this for quite a while, but it seems I'm still a little confused. Also, this body has a single plastic binding around the top edge. I taped the binding on the wide side but not the edge (top). I'm going to scrape the binding before clear coating, and spray all surfaces together with clear nitro. I'm a little worried about blending the edge where the binding and color meet. Any suggestions? This is my first project; and its been a struggle. Almost six months of ups and downs, but I'm enjoying it. I'm already gearing up for number two! Thanks, Rob.

I'm at work too;but I do alot of computer work, and when I'm not swamped it's easy to check in here. I have received alot of great support from the people here. I would not even know where to start without their help. Just a little upset right now. I'll get over it.

And sting it does. Since it's oil based, I'll have to wait a couple of weeks for it to be hard enough to sand off. I've got everything ready to go for my next project, so I'll start routing the body while I'm waiting. Rob.

Sorry, I am still feeling the sting of my own stupidity.