103801061982

hello gents Real life seems to have gotten in the way of bench time a bit recently and what time I have had hasn't seemed to be very productive. Since I Last picked this up Ive routed an angle into the top starting infront of the bridge - mainly to thin the horns a but, but I figured that it would create a bit of air under the strings for the odd bit of clumsy picking. As the neck isn't angled it sits a bit proud of the body, but I'm OK with that. I got the pickups I sent back to Bareknuckle for covering back. A set of Painkillers is going in this. They worked really nicely in my old universe so I'm looking forward to plugging in. PIckup cavities routed. and for some reason I had a rush of blood to the head yesterday and started shaping the top. Much shallower carve on this one than the last. Greatly prefer. In a flurry of clamps I also glued the neck in last night so now at least I have a guitar shaped stick.

not much to report over for the last couple of days. Went to see Noel Gallagher on Friday and as I'm starting to get on a bit, have only just recovered really. I spent yesterday messing around with a bit of an oversight. Wasn't too keen on the space in front of the nut - I shouldn't have cut the fretboard through at the nut. I made up a wedge of bound ebony to sit infront of the nut. the looks a lot more crooked than it is as I haven't sanded it down to where it should be. This morning has been spent making some noise. I split two limba planks I had into 4 neck blanks and ran through the planer. Always a bit of a gamble when opening up, but I think I'm nicely surprised.

Fretboard on after a silicone dabbed into the truss channel. Surprisingly fits without overhang. I was starting to think Id cut the neck too narrow. One thing I did do was take the binding a bit thin around the nut on the bass side. I don't think it'll be too noticeable. but something to watch out for future builds I guess. The cream in the neck binding makes all the fettling after gluing that much more obvious. I'll shape the nut next and get it in situ and work out how to open up the truss channel cleanly.

Evening gents. fretboard day today. I made a bit of a meal out of the last two so I made a slotting aid. Nothing complicated its essentially an offcut from the neck planed to 90 degrees with a piece of acrylic glued to one edge. I sunk 3 magnets into the plastic to grab the saw and keep it vertical. It worked quite nicely so this ones a keeper - I may go back and make it look a bit nicer. Slots were scored into the wood with a violin knife through a paper pattern taped to the wood. Once slotted I trimmed about 2 mm from each side and then bound, first in cream veneer (Box I think?) and then ebony. I'll let this sit over night and then radius tomorrow.

Todays idiocy done. Loads of trimming and a bit of scraping to do but it worked ok. I was pretty nervous about bending the ebony binding with the veneers glued to the bottom, but no scorching or delamination. Couple of small voids resulting from the tape I used not having enough tack, but nothing that's not fixable. About halfway through I worked out which order the veneers should have been glued to get a better transition through the neck to the headstock. hohum. Not 100% sold on bound headstocks, but it looks a bit neater than it was. At least I know that if it needs to be done, it can be done.

Thanks Andy. Wasn't too sure before it went on but I think in ok with it. This is where I'm going with the binding. Just seeing if I can remember the acoustic building chops. Need some teflon strips really I think, but ill see what I can improvise.

5 days and no shop time, still its good to be back at the ranch. The works supervisor also paid a visit. Since last time I've glued the scarf, and faceplate. My truss rod arrived this morning so I've also gingerly routed a channel for it - slightly oversized bit for the rod, so I've glued a slip of veneer in there. I'll also put a dab of silicone in there. I also went nuts and routed a binding channel for the headstock. time for a cuppa and drilled for the machineheads.

You'd think so right? That being the easy way. Nope - nowhere near that organised. Because I started off with an offcut of ash from the top, I worked around that. Marked and bandsawed the limba and ebony and messed around on a spindle sander to fit (ive the same triton as you Steve). Theres a bit of dyed veneer between the ash and limba that was sanded flush to the ebony in there too. A bit fiddly to split as I hadn't bothered to thickness before gluing so the ash was 20mm, ebony 10 and limba 30 hahaha - not doing that again. Got quite a lot done today. Cut the scarf - which, as the nut is straighter is consequently a lot squarer and glued in a maple erm wedge. Knocked off for a cuppa at that point feeling good about myself. Watched a documentary on Grinling Gibbons - now feel like a kid with his lego set and a lot less pleased with myself. I need to learn how to do this. Need a new pencil - mech pencil on order. Thought guys you may appreciate this album cover I stumbled across. I've now been told I need to build a sniper, flame throwing guitar.

cheers Andy. thicknessing's on todays list. Shooting for around 45mm at the thickest part I think. I've taken calipers to my Ibanez and PRs and they both come in to around that. After gluing this was more like 52/53. The thickness of the last one snuck under the radar a bit until I strapped it on - this one should feel a bit more svelte. re the faceplates, you know there are only so many sanding blocks I can make from offcuts before the other half calls my gp..... as I'm waiting for hardware I'm seriously thinking of starting this ones other half. Planning on a multiscale 8 build for a high a and low b. Thinking maybe 24.5inch to 25.5 inch scale lengths may make it workable if string with an 8 up top. Not sure whether to take it shorter though.

thanks. Me too. nervy trip to the bandsaw today. This was a bit outside of what it could cope with really, but I ended up with two faceplates. The next build is going to have the headstock on the right way around.

Well, i seem to have started another build. Glutton for punishment doesn't even scratch the surface. The last one plays really nicely, bit there are loads of niggles that I want to see if I can work / think past with a bit more care and attention. I'm going to use the same shape, but take he carve right to the edge. Body will be limba and flamed ash. Neck maybe limba again, ebony board with a revised fan on the frets - nut closer to perpendicular and shortened scale lengths. It's tempting fate but thinking forward to the finish, I'm looking at natural/clear nitro on this, having had pretty good results with satin rattlers I may go for gloss this tine around. For pickups I've got a set of bareknuckle painkillers. Currently pink, they're being sent off to be covered. Other hardwear will be hipshot again. right now I've got the body glued and roughly shaped- managed to do this this time without tearing out half the body. Today was spent messing around with off cuts making a headstock faceplate. I'm now downing tools for a bit so I can think of a jig for cutting multiscale fretboards

really nicely done.

Thanks for the link, I was just about to ask I you'd covered your poly method this before. Ditto on the finish, that ink looks really rich and deep.

i was halfway through this one at this point judging by the state of the heaters. If I'm looking at the same resistor then yeah, its soldered onto the tag and providing the reference for one of the biasing ports. One port for each tube, overkill maybe considering there's only one pot for the quad. this amp does sound nice. There's a lot of voodoo bandied about regarding overdrive specials, but I do like the cleans and overdrive, less so much the higher gain tones but you can't have it all.

cheers Scott. That's what building amps does to you. See exhibit a) the angles in the bends on the 1.5k resistors drove me round the bend until someone reminded me no one would ever see them. Madness. Absolute madness.

It certainly is, and about time too. So I strung this thing up this morning. and set about cutting the nut. A couple of things 1) very impressed with the tuners and not even too fussed about changing the buttons 2) how'd a nitwit like me manage to get the tuners place for a near enough straight string pull? I need to take the slots abit deeper, but I'm leaving that for later together with rounding sharp edges. I also broke out the soldering iron, but first I had to sift through this lot for something useable. Went for a 0.02uf - shame to use one of my ero's in this, but I'll be damned if I'm spending an hour sifting through. Roughly tacked pickups in place - bit of a mess, but I'll tidy up later. The shrink wrap fiend in me is crying out right now This is pretty much it. Gingerly brought up to pitch without issue. Action currently at around 1.7mm @ 24th with a hint of relief - no massive issues. PIckups not what I was expecting, but then my main amp is currently set up for strats and I didn't fiddle too much. Further investigation needed. Couple of slightly high frets, but that can be taken care of. I'm leaving in a corner and will be listening for creaking noises.......

when things move they seem to move quite quickly huh? This thing is almost starting to look guitar like. First job of the morning was to level out the clear. Started with what I guess was about 600 grit and worked through to an auto scratch remover I bought for doing my cars bonnet. Nope I haven't done the bonnet yet. Once that was done and a long mug of tea downed the frets were leveled and crowned after getting the neck dead straight. 400 grit on a beam to level, file for the crowning (I think i need to try one of those fancy crowning files) and back to working through the grits to wire wool to remove the file marks. Another break for tea and conductive paint for the cavity liberally brushed on and sone hardware fitted. To do- nut (dreading) and soldering (looking forward).

Matt's, where no one knows your name Well I'm putting the new wood in town aside for a moment as joy of joys, tuners have arrived - although any advantage of buying from the us has been wiped out by exchange rates and customs. It always amuses that the postie only ever comes before 14:00 when they want me to give then money. Todays job then was to gingerly drill some holes, and get the stain out again. Also got a couple of coats of oil on.

less mojo, more Mo Szyslak I fear....

While the lacquer on this one is drying I've been making a bit of dust in preparation for the next build. Limba body, flame ash top, non wonky 7. The limba didn't look too promising raw, but after planning and initial thicknessing looks quite nice - we seem to have a bit of curl in there. Id appreciate opinions on what side should show to the world. I'm thinking number 1, but number 2 has more symmetry.

back in the room..... having thought about the finish on the neck I'm going to stop at an oiled finish. All my favourite guitars have oiled finishes and for me, the flame stands out enough as is. With that decision made, I masked up, masked up, set the dehumidifier to stun and emptied a couple of rattle cans of satin nitro lacquer on it. Couple of runs along the way, but nothing catastrophic. Halfway through I Noticed a couple of facets on a couple of the curves. I booked in more care and attention for the next one, but overall I'm quite pleased with the overall shape.

thanks Andy. had a cleanup in the dust hole before leaving. And did a quick bit of sharpening. All planes now actually plane..... This is something I really want to get down as its so satisfying taking a blunt chisel and polishing up. I know sad. By the tine I get back I should have tuners in hand unless customs have the week off. Went with non locking open gear hipshots, so of course as mostly seems to be the case, quite hard to find in the uk. Looking forward to it already.

Well, I'm going to be away from the ranch for the next week with work so I'm trying to get a bit of touch up work done before I leave so that when I get back returning to this isn't too crushing. Having got a coat of oil onto the neck, I'm wondering about leaving the neck oiled. If doing this how many coats is recommended? I'm guessing that you want quite a thick application to give as much protection as possible. I've no experience of flamed maple before, but hells donkeys this stuff dances in the light. Cheers as always. Matt

Dunno what happened there. I hate photobucket, any excuse not to use is a good one.

I've slept on it and oil it is for the neck. You're right about the different blues - looking at the two bit of maple, they are significantly differently coloured. Not much to report today. Put a coat of oil on the top. wasn't prepared by how much of a difference it makes. Theres a bit of bleed on the bass side which Ill tackle when the oils dry.