demonx

Hot huh!

Not a whole lot going on guitar wise here with the packing up of the workshop etc, but here are a few paint progress pics of current builds:

Looks a lot like one I was messing about with last year (really only the back & side timber) - I never took finished photos but these two pics are the most up to date ones I did take. I got it as far as string up, played if for about a minute and decided it was crap! Strings came off and it's been shoved in the back of my workshop since. In a nutshell, where I went wrong was the top wood, so don't stress about the back sides wood choice! The Redwood top was flimsy crap, I was warned, but I figured I'd risk it anyway. I beefed up the bracing to accommodate as this is what I was told I'd have to do. The guitar sounded dull and boring because of it. If I had have used a spruce or Cedar top and regular bracing then it would have been much better and there'd be finished pics to show off. Good luck with the rest of your build, so far it's looking great.

As suggested above, I'd go Danish oil over Tung. Danish oil is basically Tung + Linseed + varnish, but different brands will have a different combo. I'd suggest just buying an off the shelf premixed Danish oil (thats what I do) - make sure its mixed well and simply wipe it on. Let it cure until you cannot smell it, sand and repeat until you're happy with the finish.

Oh well, guess I'll just have to make more video/slideshows then!

As far as I know there is no-one selling Limba in Australia. Anytime I've bought Black Limba I've had to import boards and it ends out costing an arm and a leg, usually adds up to about $300 a meter or more depending on the exchange rate, which you then get one 2pc body from the meter.

I was simply copying image URL's from my Searls Guitars facebook page, so either this site has stopped recognizing the facebook url, or facebook has stopped people using pictures like that, however I don't believe it's on the facebook end as I've done the same thing on other sites like my own forum and the images work fine.

My control cavities were one of my points of focus in my major redesign stage, not only does the new cavity look much better, as well as having a unique shape to make the rear of the guitar easily identifiable as one of mine, there were more important functional improvements made also. More distance between the jack and the tone pot, more meat added around the jack area, way more space added in the cavity so I can easily add extra electronics as required. As far as the "new toys", I've purchased every single one for a reason. The only "new toy" I've purchased over the last couple eyars that doesn't get used is I bought another fret press. I used it once or twice and then remembered why I got rid of my first one. I prefer to hammer the frets in. Does the CNC take the fun out of it - no. It's just a router. It's not really any different to hand routing things, it's just that you don't have to find as many ways to mount a template on top. You have to find ways to mount the wood to the bench instead. People without CNC forget, it's just a router. When I first purchased the CNC I had it in my head that I was going to use it to cut all the parts of the guitar to completion, simply glue them together and then I would be ready to fret and paint. In reality, it doesn't work this way at all. I was a bit delusional to think so and now that I do have it up and running, my views have changed considerably. I also had it in my head that the CNC would be working in one room and I'd be working in the next like two jobs getting done at once. WRONG! The CNC needs to be watched, especially with tool changes, the second you turn your back on the thing it's out to get you. Rise of the machines! Judgement day! That sort of thing. When you're watching it, always have a remote handy with the stop button ready to go, as the thing can be unpredictable at times. I use mine mostly for roughing/waste removal. I still carve the neck by hand, it's just that I use the CNC to get most of the waste off first. I still hand carve the heel of the body and heel of the neck etc, I just use the CNC to remove the majority of the waste. It's handy to have it route pickup cavities etc and drill holes, but to be honest it takes longer than doing it with a hand held router. You still have tear out and router bit breakage issues and all that crap to deal with that you do with a standard router. The main way CNC has changed my work is it has enabled for inlay work I just wouldn't have bothered with if I was doing it 100% by hand. Still, it is very time consuming.

Build thread in 90 seconds:

I don't CNC the slots as it'd take too long being how fine the cutter has to be you need to slow the feed rate right back so it doesn't break, so I cut these on a radial arm saw using a template and pin locator. Takes about a minute or so. IF I was to model the fret slots, which I do when I'm laying out inlays, I'd simply draw a line at the exact location and then program in the CAM for the cutter to follow that line. It doesn't need to be drawn in the CAD as a X wide and Z deep hole. it just needs to be a line that the CAM can locate, the cutter size will determine your slot width and your programmed depth of cut will determine the slot depth.

I use a router table with the fence to cut my truss rod channel and rarely widen it at all. Here is one where I stopped short of completely running it out. SR That's how I did it for years before I switched to CNC. It's faster than CNC, WAY faster, if I wasn't doing other CNC stuff up top as well like carbon fibre slots and pocklet carves etc I'd still be using the router table for the truss rod slot, as by the time I've setup one neck and routed the truss slot on the CNC I could have done half a dozen on the router table.

I was about to say I've got a heap of Padauk binding stashed away that I ripped a few years ago. Not sure exactly how long it is as I ripped it to cover fingerboard length with some excess. Then I read your last post...

Nice work as always!

Sorry, I've been really bad at keeping this thread updated. Have been flat out with our business, trying to do house renovations, dealing with a property subdivision, dealing with builders for a house we're building and on top of all that trying to wrap up customer builds! Long story short, here is a video of a recent build that was just picked up a couple weeks ago, Christopher sent me a link to this video of him playing one of his original pieces, hope you enjoy:

I had a large one, 6ft X 6ft - sold it VERY quickly a few years ago on a woodwork forum. Just a suggestion that it may move quicker on a broader forum than just a guitar forum. Cheers

What he said, although not all superglues are made even. You need a slow drying superglue or it'll start setting before you even get your acetone dampened rag near to clean it up. When I say slow drying, it won't be written on the packet, you just need to trial and error different brands as to which ones are slow and fast.

Olive and Dark Grey now also available. For anyone who has already ordered and paid that wishes to change color preference, please message asap. Only two days left for the pre order pricing.

This isn't the final image, the artist is still meant to be tweaking it I'll be sending off the order to goto print at the end of this week. I'd love to offer a forum discount, but I'm already listing at a price that just covers my costs, so there's no wriggle room. PayPal payments can be made to: searlsguitars@hotmail.com

Searls Guitars Zombie/Death T-shirt. sizes S-XXXL A local artist has designed this layout for my next run of shirts. I'm paying extra for high quality shirt and high quality print. It was intended to be a limited batch of ten, but since it's sold out so fast I'm now doing a larger sized batch to bring the prices down, so now that I get them cheaper, means YOU get them cheaper! If you would like to make a preorder purchase the following prices apply: AU$20.00 local pickup AU$28.00 posted in Australia US$28.00 posted international Aussies, bank transfer only, Paypal only for international. Here is a link to the artists page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arthur-Strickland/1069258556424342?hc_location=ufi

Searls Guitars Zombie/Death T-shirt. sizes S-XXXL A local artist has designed this layout for my next run of shirts. I'm paying extra for high quality shirt and high quality print. It was intended to be a limited batch of ten, but since it's sold out so fast I'm now doing a larger sized batch to bring the prices down, so now that I get them cheaper, means YOU get them cheaper! If you would like to make a preorder purchase the following prices apply: AU$20.00 local pickup AU$28.00 posted in Australia US$28.00 posted international Aussies, bank transfer only, Paypal only for international. Here is a link to the artists page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arthur-Strickland/1069258556424342?hc_location=ufi

If each piece overlapped, like bricks in a building, you'd need minimum three or four layers I reckon, so yeah, sure, you could, it'd possibly work, I'm sure it'd possably last if you have excellent joinery skills - but why?

Some people might frown on the cavity gap, let them. When I first started making timber cavity covers I went for a small gap. The problem then was you can't get them out! First one I had to smash to get it out. Since then I make a gap not far different from yours. The guitar as a whole is looking great. Good work

Same process, but derived from the natural prey of the Drop Bear, foreign tourists.

Finally got a day where it wasn't raining, so I snapped some pics of this one: Mahogany body (radius top carve) Papua New Guinea Rosewood neck (quarter sawn) Rosewood fingerboard Cocobolo binding Bareknuckle Blackhawks Hipshot bridge 26.125" scale Brass Roman Numeral inlays 16" radius 6150 Dunlop fretwire 24 frets Ebanol nut Grover strap lock system Grover tuners CTS pots Freeway selector 0.022uf paper dipped in oil cap Stain and oil finish

It's my superstrat shape with the tips rounded off and the belly fattened up a bit to make a more standard non metal looking body shape. It's the same superstrat top carve I've been doing for years. I guess it does look rather PRSish if you look at it that way. The Hum90's are some cheapie's I bought from Dragonfire to see what they're like. The bridge is a bit thin, the neck is a much fuller sound and where I'd probably spend most of the time playing. Still, both pickups have their place and are very jazzy/bluesy and some nice tones all over. I've never used P90's so I have nothing to compare to! I'd like to try a bareknuckle version to compare a $450 set to this $80 set (post inc)