Andyjr1515

And those are just the back braces! Awe-inspiring work.

Looking good from here!

It also depends where in the world you are - the products are called different things. I might be wrong, but I think what we call 'White spirit' in the UK is what they call mineral spirits in US. In my view, that is not suitable as it has additives that will remain on the wood. Methylated spirits in UK is a pretty much pure alcohol - it generally is sold with a very light dye to stop folks drinking it (it kills you). I think ethanol can be purchased in US ? That is also a pure alcohol. These pure alcohols are fine on unfinished woods as they quickly evaporate leaving no residue. (Which is pretty much what @Bizman62 also said...again )

Sanding. Any other method is likely to leave a residue that will show in the stained surface.

...and that's usually me!

Haha! @Bizman62 and I were obviously typing at the same time! Happily, I think we are both saying the same thing

Just get a clean rag, wet it, squeeze it out and give the veneer a quick wipe over. The veneer will darken but the glue spots will show up as lighter blobs. Dampening like this will not delaminate the veneer. If you are particularly concerned about delamination, then you can do the same thing with methelated spirits. Personally, I generally use water based stains (I normally use pen inks). The main thing, as @Bizman62 says, is to not soak the veneer - and I would say exactly the same when using spirit stains as, if the veneer is soaked, it can still expand and buckle if there are any areas where the underlying glue coverage is poor.

Pretty much what @Bizman62 says above ^

Not if you are talking an in-the-fretboard access. I've done inlay on the trussrod cover in the past but that's probably not very crafty

With these Steinbergers, you tune from the back. They are replacements for the banjo tuners that used to be fitted to the Gibson Firebirds, etc, and which also tuned from the back. The Steinbergers a much cleverer design, though. The T at the front is the clamp screw and the tuners pull the cylinder, that the T is sitting on, down into the body. Easier to see here (forgive me if I've already explained this): You turn the tuning knobs to raise the cylinder and at the top of its stroke it exposes the string through-hole in the middle of the cylinder. You feed the string through, pull it tight, and clamp it with the T clamps. Then you just turn the tuner knob at the back the other way and it pulls the cylinder down, dragging the string with it. This tautens it and very quickly you reach pitch. I've used them a couple of times and, for ease of use and smoothness of tuning, they are the best tuners I've ever used. And you can have any headstock shape too

I would like to present what I feared, when I started out with this project, would be my 'Nemesis'. "Could you build me a tribute to Trini Lopez's Deluxe 335-style guitar?" Jack asked. "Yes, probably!" was my answer. "In ebony." Jack continued. "Ebony? Ebony?? EBONY???" I think you can see why I thought I may well be meeting my nemesis... In terms of my background: this is a hobby for me; first mods around 11 years ago; first build around 10 years ago; since then I've built basses, guitars, acoustics - some for me, some for fellow band members, some commissioned builds." Started this around 6 months ago. Spec is: - Trini Lopez Deluxe styling - 24.75" scale - ES335 dimensions - Ebony top; ebony fingerboard; walnut back and sides; mahogany/maple/walnut neck - Mojo Wide range humbuckers - Maestro vibrator and tonerider roller bridge - Tru-oil slurry and buff finish (back sides and neck); micro-mesh sanding and buffing then food grade mineral oil (ebony top & fretboard) - 8lbs 5oz playing weight There's a full build thread here: And here are a few photos: Thanks for looking

Still stuff to do but, externally, the visuals are pretty much complete. It's a challenge taking decent shots of this so I've gone to the two extremes - arty and outside light: And the great outdoors:

Getting to our daughter and son-in-laws is a good 8 hour drive. But they live just down the road from Brewdogs plant/bar/takeaway (yes - some Scottish roads are very long, but we're talking 5 mins) 8hours 5 minutes is worth it

It's enough for a 'clean and rewax', but not completely in my experience. I've tried staining a waxed body in the past. In the end, only sanding cleared it enough to take the stain.

Yes - I agree and I certainly use it over the top of my tru-oil slurry and buff finishes. So I will be using it on the back, sides and neck, but less sure about the oiled ebony. There seems to be no absolute consensus for ebony (among, eg, cello makers, sculptors, furniture makers) and nothing or mineral oil or wax are all used regularly - but food-grade mineral oil (not lemon oil) seems to be the most favoured. On my test sample there is no visible or feel difference between the wax and the oil but I'm wary of putting wax over the oil because once it's on, it's on...

Interestingly, I did some test with wax and also with food-grade mineral oil - and the mineral oil came out tops. Not a lot in it, though. So the top has had around 4 coats, left to soak in then wiped and let dry then finally buffed. That said, the fretboard is waxed.

Thanks, Mike!

Dreadful light today so no good doing the 'finished pics' but, cosmetically, it's done. Still got all the set up stuff to do and I need a tweak (or the OK to do it myself) from Marc at Mojo (an excellent 'boutique' pickup builder in the UK) to get the phasing right for the 'both' pickups (they are braided earth, single conductor and so not as simple as swopping the wires round...it needs one of the magnets flipping). Individually, by the way, the pickups sound GREAT!!! So we'll have to wait for a 'not having to have all the house lights on in the middle of the day' break in the cloud before the arty farty shots but here's a couple of poor light shots to be going on with

Spent some time working out how to secure the pickups and achieve decent height adjustment. I'm direct fixing them to the pocket bases with firm sponge underneath - a bit like bass guitar pickups tend to be done. For the positioning of the bridge, I have strung it up with a 'proper' set of electric strings and packed up the top of the roller bridge to get it to the correct action height. That way, I am able to position the optimum position and angle of the bridge, given the adjustment range of the saddles, giving plenty of further intonation adjustment for alternative string gauges or tunings. With a 6mm bradpoint through the two bridge adjuster holes, I have then marked the centre point for the bushes drill holes (11mm...that's meant a 24hr hour Amazon jobee for an 11mm bradpoint which should arrive later today) And while I'm waiting for the bradpoint for the bridge bushes, on to one of the other last scary bits - drilling holes in the top for the controls! It will be fiddly enough as it is...but thank goodness for that hatch at the back!

I agree - that's looking really nice @Lumberjack. Beautiful colour.

Good tip about cutting the plate on the bandsaw, @ADFinlayson. Ebony is very brittle... It's looking great

I love that bass. @Gustav. Beautiful job...great combination of colours too. And yes - another fan of oak here. The lightest double-humbucker electric guitar build I did (5.25lbs) has an oak back

And a little bit closer. With a through-neck, there is a lot that has to be basically right so that everything lines up and the string geometry is in the right place. And pretty much the only way of checking that in the end is to fit a set of strings to see if it does, indeed, line up. So back on went the tuners and on went the vibrato working bits (I'll leave the nickel cover until I've finished messing about). And, with a packer to lift the bridge temporarily to a clearance height, on went a 'sacrificial' set of strings (actually oddments of acoustic sets from my bits drawer). And it lines up pretty well. PHEW! I've also decided to put at least a gesture of protective finish onto the ebony. Polished up, it is remarkably resistant to finger prints, etc. But any water on it shows. And what with Jack dripping sweat as he shreds through the scales...well, you get the picture And so, to that end, the other thing I've done is prepare an offcut of the body ebony to the same sanding stage and tried one side with Lord Sheraton beeswax balsam and the other side with a decent food-grade mineral oil (preferred to, say, lemon oil, due to the lack of acidity and other additives). Both work fine and give the same satin hue. Both feel great. So a bit of a toss of a coin, but I'm going with the mineral oil. I'll apply it this evening and so tomorrow's photos should give a decent idea how it will turn out. The other thing I can do with some strings on is work out - given the whammy bar - the accessibility of the knobs in the planned positions. Still stuff to do - but it is looking like a guitar now

Main job over the weekend was fret ends/level/recrown/polish. For levelling I use a box section of aluminium with emery cloth double-side-taped to one side and use it as both the level gauge and leveller: For the fret ends and recrowning, I find the Chris Alsop crowning files just right...clearly designed by someone who's done the job himself... In this shot I'm just holding it for the camera - in use it fits nicely in your palm giving great control, but is short and so it much easier to use as you get to the over-body section than the longer types of files. I rough crown it using the diamond edge itself and then run through 400/800 emery and then 4000/6000/8000/12000 micro-mesh cloths using the Chris Alsop file as the former: And - you'll have to forgive the appalling winter/full cloud cover light - done: For the back and sides, I've been doing the initial Tru-oil slurry and buff stages as I've been going along, which has given me the drying time while I've been able to be do other stuff on the finish list. But on Sunday I was able to give it its final slurry with 2000 grit emery. A break in the cloud gave me a rare bit of winter sunshine: I've hand polished the fretboard and headstock ebony (again, using the micro-mesh, running progressively through the grades of 3200 to 12000) and will do a final buff later today. For the main ebony panels, they need a final Mirka sand and then the same treatment. All going well, both jobs will be able to be done by the close of play this evening. I'm pretty sure that gets me to the stage of progressively positioning and fitting some of the hardware.

I like this build a lot Proper facilities and proper engineering skills. Great combination