Jester

Some progress on the from-scratch. ::Warning:: Huge pics ahead. One piece quartersawn mahogany body. What do people mean when they say 'ribbon grained'? The grain looks somewhat similar to Setch's DC custom. -Click- Anyway... Roughed out with a bandsaw, routed flush with a template. Sides sanded to 150. Next, I layed out the cavities and hogged out most of the wood on the drill press. At this point the weight was about 2.4 kg. On comes another template: With the router guided by the template and about an hour of my time: 1.54 kg. Not bad. And here's the back: Next up is glueing the top and routing it flush with the body. Didn't have time for that though. Lightly flamed birch damped with water. I glued up some low-grade pine to use as a practice piece for the carving. Routed the body shape using the same template and whopped out the good ol' angle grinder. This is straight from the grinder. It's a bit uneven and I'm not all that sure about the cut away area. I might have another go just to get some more practice. From back Lower bout, side shot Lower horn, side shot Another shot

At first glance I thought I saw a maple fingerboard with some seriously messed up slots and shoddy ebony inlays! Keep up the good work!

Thank you, sir! Looks real nice! Purple is a strong competitor. Could you please do other colors too? Something like orange, blue, black etc.?

Nice? Maybe, but it sure was a bore to look at. Not really inspiring in any way. I want my guitars to look interesting, begging me to pick them up every time I take a glance at them. It had been hanging on my wall just gathering dust for more than a year, so I thought "Let's make it a little more interesting!" And I hope to succeed in that! Besides, it was a veneer. Purple, eh? I kinda like that. Anyone with some photoshop skills?

Ibanez Rg 320 FM AM I've been working on this one on and off for a month now and I just can't make up my mind. -Click- First, I hated the orange sides. They just didn't fit well together in my eyes, but it's starting to grow on me. So I'd like some suggestions for the sides and the burst. Of course I could go with the obvious blue or black, but that'd be, like I said, obvious. The fabric have been sealed and after a few thin coats of nitro with a brush, sanded smooth to 320. And yes, I tested and tested again. The lacquers didn't react in any way with each other so I figured nitro would work. And it did. Before: -Front- -Back- -Headstock- After: -Back- -Another side shot- -Headstock- I'm also planning on tinting the lacquer for the back of the neck with a tad o' blue. Should look nice. As some of you may notice, there are some bumbs here and there (the shiny spots), but after I'm done with those it's time for some paint. ---------- The "other projects" in the title refers to my from-scratch number 2! (don't ask about the first one...) A PRS style carved top with a chambered mahogany body and flamed birch top. A flamed black limba neck (from soundat11). Ebony FB with gold MOP japanese maple leaf inlays, curly maple binding and jumbo frets. The top will be stained (not sure of the color) and finish will be nitro. Not sure about the hardware either. Color nor kind, but I'm thinking about a TOM or a PRS style wrap around (if I can find one). No pics of that yet. Been making templates and jigs, joining the wood and whatnot. Pics with progress.

That's what I wanted to hear... yesterday! I already sanded it down to bare wood (except the sides). Thanks anyway!

I've read that like 5 times and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't say anywhere to have the body completely stripped. Meh... since it was stripped in the tutorial I might as well do so too (and stop being lazy).

I have this mid-range Rg (stain and clear) sitting here just begging me to refinish it. So I whopped out the paint stripper, but it didn't do a thing to the finish. So tomorrow I'm gonna start sanding the finish down , so do I -have- to sand it down to bare wood in order to get the fabric glued smoothly? All help appreciated!

Thanks! A month ago, when I was waiting for my woods to arrive, I also turned a wooden mallet. You know, like the ones judges use, only funkyer! I can post pics of that too if anyone wants to see.

Yes. I'm hoping that I made the slots deep enough... Anyway... While waiting for the lacquer to dry, I made this: -Another pic- Groovy!

Today I started fretting the neck. Two frets in and I already realised that I was doing something wrong. No matter how hard I hammered, the frets just wouldn't go in all the way. And I learned that the part that goes on top of the fretboard binding has to have a perfectly flat surface. Yes, the slots are deep enough and yes, the slots are wide enough since it was pre-slotted. And the fact that I 'radiused' the fretwire by hand might have somehing to do with that too... At this point I was pretty pissed off (still am), so I decided to take the frets off. And just to frustrate me even more, the fretboard teared around the slots when pulling out the frets... Conclusion: I Failed.

It's a shitty Canon PowerShot A70, but it gets the job done, for now. I'll be getting this in the summer. Jeah, the filler looks HUGE in that pic! You know anything about fillers?

Thanks! Photographing is a hobby of mine. The guitar is now sanded to 240 grit (it's enough) and it'll get a nitrocellulose lacquer finish on monday. But before that, I'll have to figure out how to use this: I had always thought that grain filler is applied before lacquer, but when I asked about this from my teacher, he said it should be applied after lacquer. Any kind spirit wanna sort this out before I mess up my guitar? And here are more pics of the guitar: Front: -Click- -Click- Back: -Click- Bridge recess: -Click- Jack hole: -Click- Pickup rings (not finished): -Click- Control cavity plate: -Click- And when I was blowing the dust off, I found this: -Click- I'm pretty sure the filler will fix that (if I ever figure out how to use it...).

Thanks! After those words, I think I'll save it and use it as an experimentation piece. I'm pretty much done with all the woodworking for this project now. Only the truss rod cover plate still needs to be done. Some more sanding all the way to about 400 grit and then, I'll put on some grain filler, smooth it out and spray a clear/tinted laquer.

Progress, progress and progress. Here's the thing at this point: Too tired to explain what I've done so far, so I'll just show the pics. Here's the fretboard standing proud of the body about 5mm. -Click- -Click- The neck: -Click- -Click- Heel: -Click- -Click- -Click- Volute: -Click- -Click- I'm kinda proud of it. Side dots (only these two at the 12th fret): -Click- Control cavity (yeah, I know. It'll get fixed): -Click- Head: -Click- -Click- -Click- Everything is sanded 100 grit, so it's still a bit rough. Tomorrow, I'll drill holes for the bridge posts, route the second pickup cavity, drill a hole for the jack (you know... what's it called?) and a few other things need to be done too, like holes for the strings to go thru the body. After those, it's pretty much ready for complete and troughout sanding. Cheers!

How much deeper exactly (the string slots) ? Are we talking about somehing like 0.05 mm ? Some progress today. I did the binding for the fretboard. -Click- I trimmed the excess off with a really sharp small knife so it's still a little rough. As you can see, I used a miter joint to join the laminates in the back of the board. Looking quite nice. -Click- Not... -Click- Well, for a very first binding job (at anything), I'm not overly disappointed. I'll be filling the gap with something. I also did some routing to make the fretboard stand proud of the rest of the body about 5 mm (+ the fretboard). I don't know how to explain it better (me sucko in englishh) so I'll get back to that when I have pics. But it's supposed to help with string height since there is no neck angle. And maybe, just maybe, I don't have to recess the bridge. And thanks for the answers, guys!

A quick question!! I've bought one of these and it says that it has a 12" radius. So, if my fingerboard has a radius of 15.75", is this going to cause any problems ? EDIT: Lets just break it down... If I don't have any neck angle with a bridge like that, would it work properly? If not, how can I make a neck angle on a neckthrough? Tutorials? Is it possible to angle the bridge itself instead of the neck? And if I don't do any neck angle, do I have to recess the bridge? And again, would it work properly? Any answers will be greatly appreciated!

Yeah! Multi-plying is a cool trick that I learned a few years ago. Adds those cool little details. Today, I did the control cover plate from a laminate of birch, mahogany, birch, mahogany, birch and some red unknown wood (0.6 mm veneers). Also made this: http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/tips/radblock.htm with a 400 mm radius. Then I sandwitched birch, birch and mahogany (veneers again) for the fretboard bindings. I'll be slicing the laminate and glueing them to the fretboard tomorrow. Sorry, no pics.

Progress. I glued a laminate of mahogany, birch and mahogany (0.6 mm veneers) to the head, cutted out the shape with a coping saw and cleaned out with various files and a small drum sander bit on a hand drill. Then I rounded the edge just enough to expose the birch veneer. Now I don't have to bind the headstock as I originally planned to do. Here's the result -Click- The black dots are where the tuning machines will go. Hmm... Still got some cleaning to do. I sawed the neck profile (roughly) with a bandsaw and started working on the volute. -Click- Very rough as you can see, but I'll finish it off when I have the fretboard glued in place. -Click- Then I made a template for the control cavity. No pics of the template, but here's the end result. -Click- I made a template for the cover plate too (no pics of that either), but didn't have the time to use it yet. I routed a channel to the side of the neck for the wiring a while ago, so here's a pic of it. -Click- Somewhat cleaner than on the 'test piece', eh? And here's a full shot. -Click- Comments? Critics? Flames? Gimme!

Nope, never did. But I'm PRETTY sure that they have nothing to do with the actual ferrules.

Me too! Plain natural wood look's pretty boring to me. I'll be considering that color for this project.

That's more like it! I love the color on that second pic! Thanks!

Some progress today. Routed the slot for the truss rod. Click and here is another shot with truss rod in place (not glued). Click Here is a full shot Click The wings are VERY rough at this point. Only the edges have been sanded smooth. I think I have to cut a few frets off of the fingerboard or otherwise the pickups would end up being really close to eachother. Here is the profile drawn on the neck. Click I'm thinking of making a big volute like seen on "The Vine" by Ormsby guitars. Tomorrow, I'll route a slot for the wiring on the side of the neck blank and probably start bandsawing the neck to shape. And a question... (dunno why I ask anything in this thread since nobody reads it... anyway) Has anyone ever stained mahogany? Got pics? I'm still not liking the natural look of the woods I'm using...

Today I got the rest of my parts, except the nut. Here's a pic. Click I'll sort that out later. A little noobish question here... Click These are the string ferrules, but what the heck are those screws for? I mean, you just hammer them into place after finishing the guitar, right? Anyway... Today I started the project (again) with new, 'better', woods. First, I glued the neck blank from maple, mahogany, maple, mahogany, maple. Should be dry enough tomrrow.. Then I started working on the wings. I planed the blank of mahogany and cutted out the sides roughly with a bandsaw. Then I pulled out my wing templates and routed the wings to the correct shape. I got some sanding to do tomorrow. Pics tomorrow.

Okay then. Just let me know! Viilukeskus is in Turku, right ? When/if you get the prices on those, can you let me know too? Gotta buy some mahogany and maple. Or walnut and maple. Or... or.... And good luck with that wenge neck! It's gonna be hell working with it. About the guitar... Is there gonna be a problem with using a tune-o-matic (stringthrough) on a neckthrough? I think I read somewhere that it is too tall. If so, can I just simply do a recess for the bridge?