shad peters

Got the binding all finished up and did my inlay work Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

I just finished this one up a couple of weeks ago so I figured I go ahead and enter this month. This is my Avenger body style, sort of my take on the modern double cut. It has a carved curly maple top, curly maple neck, eastern black walnut back, EIR fret board, and black wood for the binding, bridge base, tailpiece, truss rod cover, pickup rings, and knob tops. The pickups are p-rails, and its got a mini switch to control each on in addition to a master volume, master tone, and three way pickup selector. more photos on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/with/8442391389/#photo_8442391389 avenger 1 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr avenger 1 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr avenger 1 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr avenger 1 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

I got the fretboard glued on and started binding the it this afternoon, i only had enough binding for one side I'm still waiting for another strip to come in the mail, but I got my channels routed though. I got a new old fixture to use with my trim router for doing binding, and this afternoon i made a jig to use with it for binding my necks (it will also work with my over arm router for roughing the carve out with a 3/4" roundover) that works a lot nicer than just running it on the router table. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

im not sure my way is the best way of doing but it works though. cut y finger open with a utility knife yesterday, so to keep the typing to a minimum I'll just say that I decided to go with a 3 ply binding instead of the single ply I already had installed. This is what insued.. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

alright, time for a quick update, I havent worked a lot on it lately, but I have made some progress on the neck. I'm expecting my first baby girl any day now so this may be my last post for a while. here is the neck sitting in the middle of the pack. Five necks rough cut. by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Here's my little neck tapering jig, simple but very effective. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Unfortunately I havent been great about keeping up with photos, but I'll try and stay a little more on top of things

Yeah I really have no idea where you would find it in finland lol.

I honestly think I just got it at walmart in their packaging section (also the 3m stuff) it's primary use is packaging so if you look it likely won't be in the same area as duct tape, masking/ painter tape and all that (I know that where I got it it was not). I'll bet you could also pick it up at a ups store or somewhere similar.

I completely agree Chris, a year or so ago a friend of mine who was at the time an art student was working on a hexagonal wooden mug. When I asked if was going clamp it with ratchet straps or something he said that he would just use strapping tape and proceeded to introduce me to the wonder. It makes binding SO much easier. Honestly while I still use chord to tighten things up when I am using wood binding, for plastic binding like this the tape alone is more than adequate to pull everything tightly into position. It really makes life easier.

Thanks Anthony, I was lucky to find a piece like that, but I have been keeping my eyes open for quite a while waiting for the right piece to come up. I've been able to get a few hours in over the last few days and made some pretty good progress. I finished cutting out the electronics cover and then made an insert so that I can fasten back in. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr cut out the sound hole with the coping saw. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr and then start the binding Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Little wood burning under the sound port Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr gluein the top on. (never mind my finger please) Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr This is my little homemade overarm router. It is not a "precision" piece of equipment by any means but it does get the job done though. It doubles as a pin router and makes cutting binding channels and the like a breeze. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Got the binding all taped up Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr here is a shot after taking the tape off and wetting it with some lacquer thinner to show the figure a little Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Thats all for now, I've got finals coming up before long so I may not have to much new stuff to post for a couple weeks, but with any luck i'll be able to get out in the shop some.

I was out in the shop today and took a couple more photos of progress made. Here are the body chambers all routed out. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Haven't done much with the neck blank yet, but here it is. Its got some nice black streaking running the lenghth and was cut from the same board as the body. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr I've got the back side of the top rough carved and ready to be sanded Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr I use a depth stop and forstner bit on the drill press to get the aproximate depth on the back side. it looks like this before I go in with the finger planes and gouges Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr I noramlly do a wooden control plate from the same type of wood as the body, but as I was getting ready to route out the back for the control plate I realized I would be getting rid of some of the most beautiful color on the back so I opted for a different aproach. I routed the chamber so that it was thinner (about 3/16) so that I could cut the control plate out with a zacto knife and use the original wood. I don't normally do this, its really time consuming but I think it will look a lot nicer this way. on wood with so much charecter I think it would really stick out if the control plate didnt match well. Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

one more pic for the day, the top rough carved and ready to the sound hole to be cut Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

I was in the same boat, non of the lumber yards close to me carry it. I had to order this from a place in california so it had to travel a couple thoasand miles to get to me, totally worth it though.

Some of the photos were taken using instagram simply for convienience of being able to take the photo, and upload it to flickr, facebook, and still have a copy on my phone at the same time, but rest asured that wood is no less beautiful than the picture suggests, the colors and contrast are unreal.

So, several people have said they would like to see a build thread on how I do some of my guitars, I was initially somewhat hesitant to do so becuase I did not really see what more I have to bring to the discussion that isn't already here, but several of you convinced me of the merits of doing so.. so here I am. I have been meaning to start one on here for probably the last 3 or 4 months, but school has been rather brutal this semester so I have not gotten around to it. Here is the build that I will be covering: semi hollow single cut in my florentine vixen style. carved quilted redwood top curly black limba back and neck gun-blue finished hardware single sound hole in the upper bout Tailpiece: its a surprise (hopefully it works) lollar pups black binding macasser ebony fretboard and appointments. Not sure on inlays just yet, but I may just stick with the diamonds I have done on several others. Also looking into some of the inlays available at luthier supply. I have not been really great about taking photos so far, but there isnt a ton to document though. I'll try to be better about it as the build progresses. Here is the billet the redwood came from, Its been drying for a couple years now. CIMG3212 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr I can't get over how beautiful this black limbe is. I can't wait to see what it looks like when its finished. Working with some stinking gorgeous black limba today by Peters Instruments, on Flickr This is just sorta a jumble of stuff. you can see in this photo that I have rough carved the redwood with the duplicater, but I don't have any recent photos since I cleaned it up. A rewarding end to a long day. Two duplicater carved top templates, one Venetian spruce carved top, one florentine quilted redwood top, and two bodies chambered one from African mahogany and the other from curly black limba by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Scott thanks for the kind words, I don't think I belong in the same category as david myka, but I'll take the compliment though . I have plans for some future build threads I would like to include here on project guitar. Right now I don't have much of anything that isn't already half completed and I really like to start build threads from the beggining rather than pick up half way through. I'm fairly active on several forums, and I try not to post up duplicate build threads either on different cites which makes it kinda tricky at times. I'm honored that you would like to see some of my process though, and hopefully I don't let you down when the time comes to start some new threads. I think you are probably right about that top being somewhat polarizing(and the hardware choice for that matter), but that is ok. Guitars like this seem to be that way and I really wasn't expecting to win this month (if I were I would not have voted for yours lol ), I mostly just entered to get some feedback, the guys on here are always great about that and never let me get away with anything.

Tough month for me to pick, I like both Scottr's build and demonyx very much. I'm not a huge fan of the color on either of them but that is just a matter of personal taste, they were both executed very well. I'm not a huge fan of the through f-hole but I do like the body shape and the carve on Scott's a little better. For me the clincher was the back, the backside of Scott's is beautiful. For this reason it got my vote

if you can find some pretty easy then I'd do that, but no harder than wooden rings are to make I would think it be quicker (at least for me) to just make a pair than to scrounge the internet trying to find the right part. Thats not so much a function of me being very quick at making pickups rings as it is being pretty slow finding stuff on the internet.

I really don't have a clue, but if I were guessing I would say some type of nitro if it is supposed to be a reissue. I could be 100% wrong though.

welcome from a young'n! Looking forward to learning from your years of experience.

Buckeye Carved top Vixen Top: 1 piece buckeye burl Back: two peice black walnut, chambered Neck: Curly claro walnut Binding: curly maple Fretboard: EIR Knobs & pup rings: EIR Logo: copper Inlays: abalone Nut: bone Bridge and tailpiece: antiqued bronze finish Tuners: Grover antiqued bronze finish Pickups: Wolfetone DR. Vintage Electronics: Master volume: Series-Parrallel Push-Pull Master tone: Bridge phase reverse Push-Pull Mini Toggles: Series/single/parallel for each pickup Pickup selector: 3-way toggle I had someone contact me a little over a year ago who was interested in having a guitar like this made, but never went through with it. By the time I found out he backed out it was to late, the seed had already been planted and the wheels were turning and I had a lot of ideas, so earlier this year in the spring I got my but in gear and started building. When I play this guitar I almost feel like its hugging me, I love the feel of it, its a guitar I would play regularly. The neck carve is perfect(for me at least ), its beefy but not a chunker though, just nice and comfortable in your hand. I love the looks and the feel on this one, and the wiring scheme gives you a plethora of tones. Its the deepest carve and recurve I have done to date and was over all just a fun experiment. vixen 5 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr vixen 5 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr vixen 5 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr vixen 5 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

this has just been my experience but from the wood that I have handled sugar maple has a slightly more amber hue to i than silver maple (those are the hard and soft varieties we have around here, not sure about other places), but thats not allways the case and not really much to go on. the main thing is density as Chris pointed out. You might also look at growth rings and rays, growth ring will likely be tighter for a hard maple since they usually grow a lot slower (at least sugar maple does) and I have never seen soft maple with very prominent rays on the quartered side. If you see really strong rays that could be a give away.

Ok so I have been trying to figure the way that works for me to make wooden knobs for a while. I love the look of wood knobs but I have never liked making them and always struggled trying to get them to look the way I want. I have seen people cut them with plug cutters, as well as turn them on a lathe and really neither method worked well for me. My main issue with both of these methods has not been turning a dowl, or cutting a plug but rather getting everything centered properly to drill for the pot shaft, and then countersinking it for the threads, nut, and washer of the pot. Chris v has a nice and elegent solution to this problem, which many people have probably seen, where you simply get a forstner bit of the same diameter as your knob, drill a hole in a board clamped to the drill press and then insert the knob in the centered hole, where you can drill for the shaft and counter sink for the nut. If you have nice equipment this works really well, however most of my power tools are older than me and the drill press is no exeption. Because its so old the bearing are worn and its about like lighting striking the same place twice trying to do it this way. I also had issues trying to get the knob to seat down firmly and not spin once in contact with the bit. While I successfully made some nice knobs in this way I always ruined more than I made, and it was a frustrating time consuming process. This cuased me to look for a different method, and I settled on a variation of the plug cutter method that uses a hole saw. I wanted to be able to cut my plug, drill the shaft hole, and countersink for the nut all in one motion. This requires a hole saw with a pilot bit that is removable( I used a one inch whole saw which cuts a plug just under 7/8). Other size saws will work as well and the beauty is that you can easily change between sizes offering you multiple knob diameters. I replaced the pilot bit with a 9/16 spade bit that I ground to look like this. the spade bit can easily be shaped with a belt grinder to get the correct shoulder and shank depths. The nice thing about this method is that not only does it solve the problem of getting things properly centered (which is probably only a problem for me) but it also makes cutting knobs a lot faster. You don' have to set up anything special for a multi step process, and you don't have to change out through several bits and cutters for each knob. The hole saw also creates far less waste than a plug cutter does, which can make a big difference when you are talking about expensive exotic woods. The hole saw still works just fine as a whole saw, simply swap the original pilot bit back in. this mehtod has worked really nicely for me so far, although I think I will make a new center bit from a 5/8 spade bit rather than the 9/16 which should give slightly better clearance around the larger nuts found on cts and some other pots. this little tool only took maybe an hour or two make, and it really speeds up the knob making process. Its already saved me a lot of time, hopefully some of you will find it as useful as I have. here you can see it all put together with the bit recessed in the saw. I set it so that it leaves about an eighth of an inch between the teeth and tip of the spade bit.

Obviously the ultimate goal is just to avoid runs which I do.... most of the time, but I can definately think of some times when I wish I would have known this trick, I can think of more than one occasion where I caused more damage than I cured with a razor. Thanks for sharing!

I posted some new photos up on flickr if anyone is intersted in seeing some more shots of the blue vixen!http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/

if you really work it you might be able to do it with a half inch blade, I have made some pretty tight cuts with one before. If you have access to something more like a quarter inch you'll be able to cut that puppy no sweat.