henrim

Just to recap the last five months or so.... First, thanks everybody! Bukoffsky, congrats for the GOTM! I'l have yet to see the build, but will check it out as soon as I'm done with this post. Anyways good to hear there are other people with the same background One of my teachers builds guitars: http://versoul.com/ . He was teaching me back in -94-95. I reckon we had a brief discussion about the subject back then... What has happened in last five months. First off all I did finish building my paint booth. Other that that, this pic pretty much summarizes it: 1. The build number one (one that will get it's own thread once it is compleately ready) has been re-finished. Nice white water-bourne paint job is done. Still waiting for few coats of clear (KTM-9). 2. The build number two has gotten numerous goats of shellac been applied and scraped. So the top and the headstock are grain filled and it is almost ready to be clear coated. It has new pups too... 3. The build number three has it's fingerboard fretted (oh, I'll show you the details. It is nicely done!) and the headstock is painted, once again waiting for the clear... Oh and the baby is fine

Jep, the bridge is looking good! Bridgeport... wish I had such a beast of a machine

Juntunen, not too long ago I was a bit confused too. I was reading a thread here and saw that I had replied to it. First thought was I cannot remember when I did that and after reading the reply I was happy that I had said such nice words. Only then I realized it was not me but "HenryM"... Carl, I dont wipe my planes with oil (except some of the wooden ones). The cast iron plane bodies are good as long as they don't go outside the shop. And my planes they are supposed to stay in the shop and not to go out to do any nasty jobs. Sometimes they just do... "Hän" would not cut in this context as personal pronouns are only used for, eh, persons in Finnish language (would be understandable though...). The easy part of the language is the same pronoun is used for Female and Male! That is why it is hard to remember how you use she/he for objects in English. If I was talking about a plane (an aircraft) I would have known I was supposed to say "she" To make it easier for my self I Should should just call that block plane "My darling" Way to go (No matter the destination)!

Thanks everyone. The kid is now at home! I try sneak to the workshop every now and then... Carl, the Veritas block plane is propably the single most used tool in my shop. Last summer I was fixing garage doors and had the plane outside with me. Went for three days to Tuska - festival, and when I came back I found the plane sitting outside Needless to say the cast iron body had beautiful new color. Took some time to clean all the rust away.

There might be a cultural difference like Carl pointed out Finns are direct-to-the-point... I have a university degree in industrial design and over 13 years working experience in product, service and user interface design. While all that alone does not make anyone a good designer it gives some understanding of form and shape. But it also it makes me understand you don't need all that to make great design. That should also make me to think what to write and not to write what I think... Oh, and I know I can be wrong too and given good arguments I am happy to admit it. We come from different worlds, I guess. In the design world if you get that barely noticeable nod from your colleague you know you have done a good job. Sometimes you don't get even that but it doesn't mean you have done a bad job. Because if you have you will always hear about that. And it's not "I don't like this or that". There is always argumentation too. Critique can sometimes be very harsh and we can long argument about some tiny small detail that no one would ever even notice. It is not easy to remember that not everyone can take it. I try to be more constructive with my critique and be more exact and clarify what I mean. My design thinking is very much Scandinavian and I know very well that is not universal thinking. Anyhow the international design world shares some principles and rules that are good to know. When you know you should try the limits are break them. It is very much an advisable thing to try the limits and go away from usual patterns, i.e. the LP/PRS shape here. It is not an easy task. LP shape is designed very close to "golden ratio" which makes the shape pleasing and easy, but when you break something you easily ruin the whole thing. Like I said before you have done some very good thinking here. This should be it for now, keep up with the good work. /henri

I apologize the harsh words. I could have said it more nicely. I really think these will be fine instruments. I have absolutely no doubt about that. The upper bout is not wrong. It could be better balanced though, and the un-continuous curves do look unintentional. But like said you have every right to do it the way you want. And I should shut up. Sorry about this.

I sent that pic to you to get an idea what I was talking about. I asked if I can post something in to your thread, you did not approve and I sent it to you in a PM! It is a quickly butchered sketch in photoshop to show where I think you were wrong. It was not how I think it should have been done, anyhow it shows the areas you should work on with... The headstock, if you want it to look like donald duck, that is your choice... It is a matter of opinion. But the bass side of the body. It is not just mater of opinion. It is out of shape. If you cannot figure out why please ask and I'll analyze it for you... EDIT: changed Anyhow to anyhow,

Study the curves, nothing more than that. Study, think and learn. You are a luthier, and I'm not. You can build guitars that are beautifully made and the play well (I guess). Something I may not ever be able to do. With some attention to the detail you can make beautiful design too.

Thanks Juntunen (you have roots in Finland?). Here is my excuse to go slow with my builds once again... That is me and the Wonder Boy (he was born Friday the 13th @ 06:09 AM). The midwife was not familiar with the concept of manual focus camera. Can't blame her and I love the pic anyways

To me these guitars look like a "Donald Duck Overdriven by a Bulldozer". May they are better but photos make them look that awful.

Nope, that is not the case, anymore. Thanks for your tip (that has now disappeared after the db issues). I've installed six or so frets and it seems to go nice and smooth. I'll try to find some time to continue with fretting soon.

Thk you for the kind words! It does serm that quite a few posts are gone indeed. Could I have chosen it would have been the miserable fret press tryout post that should have gone. Never mind it has been gone in the real world and I'm hammering the frets.

I've only done one fret job and that was quite painful job. Bended the frets by hand and hammered in. The end result was not too good either. When I started my current builds I built a fret bending machine, so now I can at least bend the frets easily and accurately. Hammering properly bent frets should not be problem, but I've researched for alternative ways for fretting and there seems to be quite many tools for that. Both commercial and DIY projects. I have an angle grinder stand I thought I could use for the purpose. I cut a slice of my fingerboard sanding block and sawed a fret slot on it, bent a piece of stainless fret wire the "wrong way" and installed it on the piece. Bolted the result to the stand. Contact area here is of course minimal so the neck has to be perfectly in line with the press. Im going to make a radiused piece and slot it, so we'll see how the thing behaves. If it doesn't it's not a big deal as it took less than an hour to make it.

Ghostbusters! No really, I think this will be a nice guitar Personally I would re-check the headstock design. That is maybe too much with the strongly curved body. But then again I don't like much of them PRS guitars... Good luck with the bandsaw. One of the most versatile tools! /henri

An update here too. Not sure anymore which is the second and which is the third build but anyways here we go: An aluminium frame for the pots. The frame inside the body From the top. Marking the "inner edges" of the pot holes with a surface gauge. The idea is to recess the holes from the inner side to have them level with the edge. This is needed for the knobs to be "in line" with the curved body. Gluing together some birch to make the knobs.

Good point! And they are good for shaping modelling clay too, if you ever need that

Thank you! The tool is called profile gauge or contour gauge. Quite possibly there are other names for it, but those should help you to find one.

Checked from their website and they do mail order. Also quickly googled (keywords: titebond hinta) and there seem to be couple of other places in Finland selling the stuff as well. Prices are quite the same although (surprisingly) the before mentioned company had the cheapest price. Postage may vary so you may want to check that... unfortunately there is a good chance that the price of the bottle will be doubled.

Yes, having your own house is good for building... supposing that fixing the house doesn't take all your time. Haven't seen Titebond in many places either. I have bought it from Plektratrading in Helsinki. Reckon they use stronger adhesives there to rebuild the forests.

Thanks everybody! the shape of the guitar is getting pretty close to what I want. There are a couple of things I need to decide before I start to prepare to finishing. One thing is the knobs and an other thing is to find out a solution for installing the output jack. I'm going to try a type that is used on acoustic guitars (e.g. Allparts Switchcraft jack) or a stratocaster type jack plate. The original plan was to install the jack to the cavity cover and that is what I will do unless I can figure out an other solution. Then I'm still uncertain whether I'm going to cover the pups or not. But that can be decided later... /henri

Scott, thanks for your reply. I'll continue with the builds and post here soon. I hope. Thanks again

There has been so much other stuff to do so this is not yet finished. Going back to the shop in one of these days... Visually I'd like the controls to be flush with the body. But i guess they would need to be somewhat usable... So they will either pop up a little or they will have some kind of groove or recess on them.

I like that blue burst! What I don't like is that Bigsby. Too much for a guitar that already has too much on it... Also is I don't think it is appropriate to put that "Les Paul" tag on your builds.

Took me a while to understand how this all happened but I suppose the cut was done by routing freehand? First thing to do is to get a template bit, make a template and clean up the route. Then glue in fillets and re-route if necessary. Or forget the router and use use a chisel. Just make sure the the walls are dead flat before gluing the fillets in.