Charlie H 72

5 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Speaking about Suhr, their Reb Beach Standard really "looks like a coffee table" as Dee Snyder said (quoted from the link). It also shows how the grain changes with just a subtle forearm slope:

Yup-definitely trying to avoid the coffee table look! Maybe a tinted lacquer would help me out. Dark amber or even some of the sunburst colors stewmac sells (tobacco or mahogany color could be good)

I tried a Mohawk “dark walnut” aerosol toner on some scrap today and it simply was not up to the task. Didn’t seem to make much of a difference. What’s a toner anyway?

Id be really happy with something like this: 

17 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I understand, mahogany has never been my favourite in guitars. It just looks like a piece of "better" furniture! And on a cabinet or such it really looks classy...

That said, since mahogany cabinets and such usually have flat faces, carving the body might break the stripes just enough - forearm bevel, belly carve, roundover, sloped cutaway... Even a bell carve. The  Cort M200  or Suhr Standard Mahogany Carve Top are perfect examples of what some carving can do to a less interesting piece of wood:

 

Good thought, and nice examples! I should carve some offcuts and see how the grain behaves. I like “toyish” and cheap-looking guitars so the plain mahogany appeals to me in that sense, calling back to gibson melody makers and lp jrs — but they generally had such plain grain that it was more “keep moving, nothing to see here” than “oh wow mahogany!”

Could you use a 4 (or 5) way switch to turn the power on, freeing up both pots for effects (overdrive & verb?) not sure how the wiring would work out, but worth a try 

or

use two push pull or push push pots to select pickups (which gives you an option to combine in series/parallel as well) and then the switch is free to operate amp settings

This is awesome— what a cool shape. 
And a huge cavity holy cow

im impressed at all the fretboards in one day too. I keep buying my fretboards pre-slotted from stewmac but the quality has been off lately so maybe it’s time. What’s your process like?

Now for question 1

I started in on mine yesterday - The sapele was free (thanks to my own mistake at work ) and I’m not into the ribbon figure. How would you go about finishing it to reduce the figure as much as possible? I still want a clear finish. Maybe stewmac’s mahogany tinted lacquer? Or a dark amber lacquer? Or should I just go and buy a different species of mahogany? 

Hi everyone 

I’m doing a run of four offsets - they are a little smaller than a mustang, with some Ricky and hi-flier inspired details 

mine is gonna look like this

and the others will look something like these. I’m not totally set on the German carve but we’ll see.

Looks like a great build coming up! The knobs are quite close together which could cause some difficulty. They are also far from where your hands will fall while playing, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how often you like to access the controls. 

Totally bonkers!! I love the gradient from pink to blu on the back-wish there was a little more of that on the front. 

Wow awesome! A very mid century modern look. Scalloping is a great idea for vibrato too. Love it. 

Now to the one in-progress, the ocean turquoise metallic. This is going to be the most vintage/classic of them all and I’m pretty excited about the look but I do have a finishing question.

QUESTION-

This guitar is clear-coated with Gracey’s nitro, and topped with a single coat of stewmac satin. I did the last coats the heaviest, kept em as wet as I dared in attempt to avoid orange peel. Still obviously got orange peel. Im not sure I can level sand, as the wood grain seems to have popped a bit throughout the finishing process. Are my options here to either start over or live with it? To what extent can I level when the grain is this visible? I’m pretty happy with it, and considering leaving it as-is but if there’s a way I can knock down the orange peel I’d love to hear it, thanks!

Ok so I finished one guitar-which I’m stoked about, and the last of this run is still in process. 
 

so the complete one - painted with road-sign paint which is highly reflective in direct light. Octave d, g, strings, double b string, tuned with zither pins. ebony/aluminum bridge, holographic acrylic PG, fret markers, (backed with copper) and knobs (handmade)

With the new owner-and taken w a flash so you can see the road-sign paint doing its thing! 

On 8/11/2022 at 7:39 AM, henrim said:

My first iteration was set in a tube. I spun a recess inside the tube in lathe though. The final ones for that guitar are machined from solid stock. In the end I used ebony instead of padouk. Or at least they are ebony now We'll see when I get to finish that guitar. Which I assume will be some time coming fall.

Awesome-they look excellent, thanks for the tips! Haven’t gotten around to the knobs yet but I will.. one day. Custom hardware just makes a build next-level. 
 

On 8/8/2022 at 1:17 PM, Bizman62 said:

Where there's a ding caused by a hit I'd try the damp cloth and soldering iron method to swell that dip back up even after priming.

WIth my latest build I found poplar to be very fibrous and almost impossible to level. If damped for raising grain it seemed to stay wet long and if I tried to sand it too early the moist wood literally disintegrated to fibres and slush. Sanding became much easier after a coat of something that hardened.

I ended up just using bondo, which worked well enough. I had a hard time leveling too, as you will see. Maybe my last time using poplar .. hm

Ok got a question here -first coat of (nitro) primer is on (poplar body), and it has revealed a few dings and areas w/ a little grain showing thru such as these photos. What would you do here? Keep priming and leveling, a little bondo, sand way back down? 
 

Hey y’all who was it that did the knobs with (padauk? Rosewood?) set into an aluminum tube? I’m thinking something similar would look great with the teal guitar

ah these by @henrim

so cool. I’ll probably be doing something much more diy as I don’t have a metal lathe. Just tube + plug basically

No need! Many satin finishes explicitly say not to polish or buff

make sure to post pics when the time comes 

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Your workshop looks almost like a factory with an assembly line! Seeing the two guitars side by side shows how clean and repeatable your routings are. A well made/designed template really shows its value when you make another guitar of the same style.

Thanks! Yes it only took 3 or 4 throwaway bodies to get to this point - learning the importance of using the right router bit!

here’s the shop-it’s where I work too. Nice to be able to do personal stuff here too (not pictured-jointer, bandsaw) 

here are some process pics

templates align and screw down with pickguard screws. I ordered them from an online laser cutting service-for a great price, shipped quickly, and they are quite accurate. Would recommend this route for people who like to avoid digital fab

and the back aligns with string thru holes

and a quick mock-up of the rosewood fretboard one (using a bit of weather-stripping to simulate a w/b/w pickguard and washers for chrome knobs) going w ocean turquoise metallic on this one.

8 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Wow! At the workshop we have Elus similar to the picture, plus a DeWalt and a small Hitachi. They all have that. Not to mention that my sub €50 router branded to a Swedish chain has one as well. My Makita circular hand saw has one and my cheap handheld electric planer and my cheapest possible scroll saw.

Huh-maybe it’s less common in the us? I do lots of woodworking for my day job but I rarely see this kind of fence. Have even used a few dewalt routers that didn’t come with one. 

anyway I made a thicker template and it made a world of difference-both necks are glued up with nice TR channels. I swear I’ll post pics of those templates tomorrow! Pretty happy w how these are going. 

Interesting! I don’t think I’ve seen that sort of router guide. I would have to use the beam method as I am cutting the necks out of the minimum width board which requires that they are cut on an angle. I am going to try the thicker template method today but if that doesn’t work I’ll be going with the base & beam 

Thanks biz! Yes I enjoy doing multiples-setting something up just right and then doing it a few times in a row is really satisfying to me-as is finding my way to that setup, which this project has mostly been, oops! 

I finally got the body templates going pretty smoothly though-I’ll post pictures soon but basically there are 2 templates that register on the pickguard screws for the body profile and pickup/bridge routs, and the back template for the control cavity registers on the string-thru holes. I drill the pot mounting holes first as a gut-check that the control cavity is at the right angle. 

I’m having some difficulty with the truss rod though, as I had the bit jump out and cut thru the template today  . I think I need to take shallower passes which will require shimming the template/making a thicker template. Debating whether to epoxy/bondo this error or to just start over. It’s pretty big, and I don’t have much time in the neck yet. It will probably take just as long to fix it as it will to start fresh… so that’s likely what I’ll do. Does anybody have experience cutting TR channels with a template-bearing bit, or is the typical approach to use the base of the router on an offset template?

Cool! love to see some different stuff around here, and I have a real soft spot for cellos, what a beautiful instrument. I’m Interested to hear how this sounds - will it be with steel strings and a magnetic pickup, just acoustic, or something else?

Exciting build and nice bits! I agree with you about using em on a handheld router it makes me nervous! I recently made a curvy 2” dia handrail for work (these are a pics of the mock-up) using a 2” roundover bit in a table.
 

I raised the bit up  1/64 at most per pass so the final thing came out quite smooth. It might be worth your time to see if you can modify the table to accept those bits. A collet extender can come in handy as well, especially if you need to clear the headstock angle

Hi everyone 

it’s been a minute! I finished the first one of these a bit ago-didn’t get great pics but here’s a little progress report. I have time since I’m stuck at home I finally got the ole virus

finished it while dog sitting for my sister and brother in law. Here it is w it’s new owner (also a new guitar player!) was very excited to hand it off. Finish is general finishes basil milk paint and high performance matte clear. It was ok to put on but definitely some brush strokes. Kind of ok w it on this design though  

Love these specs. What a weird axe! Looking forward to seeing you carry it out

Sorry bout your fretboard! This has been a fun watch so far. Loving all the acoustic instruments on here lately. 
 

as luck would have it fine woodworking sent this article on blade drift & bandsaw setup to my email a few days ago

https://www.finewoodworking.com/project-guides/shop-machines/five-tips-for-better-bandsawing

Wow, this tailpiece is really expanding my idea of what parts can be homemade. exciting stuff - I’ve already gone over the post a few times to soak in the details. The string anchors- how do they interface w the strings? I’d imagine the way you have shown the tailpiece that they would want to pop out so I must be missing something.