psikoT

If you have a chance you could get a shot of your gouges, I'd love to see them more in detail. I mean, next time you use them.

Love specially the flat surface, excellent job.

´Love all your machinery and the stuff you make with it, perfect work.

Any special reason for why you've chambered that swamp ash body? It's already quite light wood, not sure if there will be any benefit in terms of sound either... 

Clean work, I love that V!

Thanks Scott, glad you like it... I'm very happy too with the wood choice, never used rosewood and I was not really sure while making the purchase growing the trees.  

Thanks guys, let's see if I can finish before the winter comes...

Feel too lazy to sand lately, I think I need extra motivation... so I'm making small things instead, like fitting the electronics and stupidities like that. I've tried both black and creme plastic pickup rings and they didn't convince me, so I've spent the whole weekend making a pair of matching pickup rings. 

They are three layers, just to keep the style of the top and the headstock. Since the neck has some angle, they have different height. 

Also made an alternative truss rod cover... I wanted to try something more "tech" but got a potato...   anyway... still needs some work.

I must say that the screw close to the nut gets through the hole and touch the truss rod, so I have to cut it. Not really the best system in the world, totally missed that drawback... 

Hi guys, thanks for the kind words... unfortunately I have some stupidly busy weeks and couldn't do anything. But still alive, eh?..,  

The neck is still stabilizing after the back carve from two weeks ago. I'm a little bit afraid about the glue joints against temperature and humidity changes though, the weather here is crazy,.. not sure if the naked wood will resist. Does anyone had problems before? If so, how do you handle the issue, apart from finishing before the winter comes?... If I remember well, RAD had problems with a top some time ago...

That timber pile is motivating... you lucky dog!

29 minutes ago, Rockhorst said:

I didn't mean to refer to the top rounded curve. It seems that the bottom follows the angle of the headstock, right? That's what I meant to ask

No, there's no curve... maybe is just an optical illusion. My headstock plate is made with 3 veneers.

Here's a graphic:

That's the end of the fretboard... I've rounded it before glueing.  

2 hours ago, Rockhorst said:

Ah, Fender style  I always associate that with a straight headstock, does it work nicely with an angled one too?

Yes, it works... the only thing is that you'll need a neck which is some milimeters longer.

21 minutes ago, Rockhorst said:

Picture?

11 hours ago, Rockhorst said:

Suggestions on how to fix this?

You can extend the fretboard over that joint and place the nut over it, as I do in my builds.

Thanks guys!

Ok, so here it is: 

As I said, not what I was looking for, but still can work I guess.... at least is more ergonomic than the original carving. 

It still needs some work. I have to remove all the bumps in the mahogany stripe and I wish I can remove also that dark stain in the top, I think it will disappear after some sanding... let's see.

Cheers!

I always wanted a decent mini-drill and now I have it...  

I'm really pleased with this little machine. It's robust, powerful and quiet. Also bought a flexible shaft extension and a routing base, which is super-cool compared with the prehistoric jig I made for the old one. Definitely worth the 135€ I spent. 

Yes, I'm making an inlay... just one shark teeth in the 12th fret, it helps a lot while playing... 

Wow, that V is promising... good choice in the location of the jack input.

Well, it still rocks I guess, but far away from the original idea.

I like the concept... never made a neck-through so I fear I can't help very much on this.

Welcome to the forum BTW, here all projects are forum-worthy I guess...  

Bad news, I just fucked up the top carving, so the original idea is gone. I had to modify the top so be prepared for something weird, I'll show in the next days, when it's finished.

In the meanwhile, I've rough shaped the back side of the neck...

Cheers!

I was shaping with my "dremel" tool and suddenly stop running... I think it has burned inside. That was a crappy one I bought 6 years ago. It did the job (RIP), so it's time to get a new one, a little bit more professional. Already ordered a Proxxon, I've heard good comments about it: http://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/28481.php?list

So I'm jumping from body to neck again... removing wood from the heel and preparing for the transition. Since the neck has some angle, the transition needs more material than the last build.

I'm starting to loving this small gouge, I had it for years and never used it just because it was not sharp. I thought it was a piece of junk...

Thanks guys!

15 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Now's a good time to start organising your sanding in line with the grain. Anything crossgrain is going to be heartbreaking in that top!

Not yet, there's still so much wood to put away... but I'm getting closer to that point. The mahogany stripe gives me a guidance to know when the curve is finished, and right now is a mess at some areas. Hope to end with a nice top this weekend, no hurries.

Slowly getting there...  

Still needs shit loads of sanding and detail carving, those curves must be perfect in all directions. This is just a preview of the idea I had in mind. I think that mahogany stripe will be a nice touch after nitro finish.

So I've started with the second level... this is going much quicker than the last time, now I have the shape in my mind.

I just realized that I have to make some routing to the neck before continue (damn!) so this gets in stand by for a while.

I've just flipped the body and started the top carving. This rosewood is really hard, but the gouge is doing the job very well.  

I think the problem with the new gouges is that they have a very subtle curvature, compared with the semi-circular section I'm using now... anyway, the carving is not that big, I think I can manage only with this one.

Work in progress:

And these are the stupid ones... I'm just gonna ignore them.

10 hours ago, ScottR said:

You may find you need to go to 20 degrees or less to get your razor edge.

Ahhh... interesting. I'll give it another try.