KnightroExpress

Now that the paint has had a few days to chill out, it's time to sand and buff.

Orbital sander+P800 disc= go time.

Had a minor sand-through. This is my first painted guitar, so I'm not too upset.

Post-orbital: Just have to hand sand the radii and carve lines.

All sanded, this is ready for a round of P1200.

Here's the buffer.

After my first round of buffing. This was with medium compound.

Time to make the control cover. Yes, that is a chunk of paint missing by one of the string holes. Stupid buffer.

Yeah pearloid!

Some copper shielding.

Everything so far.

So that's where I'm at. I'm hoping to get into assembly and wiring tomorrow!

I wish I had the opportunity to wind them myself, but that task is done by our head instructor. As far as balance goes, I'll have fun messing around with it

Small update today: I assembled and potted my pickups!

The single coil is A2 and measured at 6.9k

The blade HB has a pair of ceramic magnets and measured 20k

I know I'll like the single, but I'm interested to try the blade, as I've never played anything like it.

Thanks very much, guys!

Scott- I know, and I agree. In the future, I'll have much more flexibility in choosing my finishes.

Pukko- That's awesome! It's also very similar to my attempts so far. I don't mind at all, I come here to share and learn with everyone

Get out your respirators, because it's time for paint!

The sealer is nice and hard, time to sand.

Sanded nice and smooth with 400, then stuck on the sticks again. The headstock is going to be painted seafoam to match, hence the abundance of masking on the neck.

Paint is on and I'm super happy with the result. The lighting was messing with my phone, so the color looks a little funny in the pics. Rest assured though, it's a good color in person. Now I have to let it sit 'til Monday, then it's buffing time!

Yeah! Welcome to the cool club

Seriously though, I've always liked the Ric 4001, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it sort of expressed itself as I drew.

Hey forum friends, it's time for some new pics!

Almost done sanding!

Preparing to grain-fill.

And done! Now it's gotta sit overnight.

Thanks to internet magic, overnight is done. Here's my body and neck on sticks!

This paint booth is way less ominous in person, I swear.

All sealed up!

So there we have it. This'll sit over the weekend, then I can sand it on Monday. I may be able to get some color on the same day, but I'm aiming for Wednesday. Thanks for checking in!

I love the color! Great work.

Yep! I was a big fan of that build, it was my vote for GOTY.

Thank you! However, the problem isn't the carve, it's coming up with a design that is reminiscent of a Tele while still feeling like it relates to my own style.

I've been trying to come up with a Tele-esque variant of this design, but no luck so far. As Prostheta says, it just becomes a single cut. Back to the sketchbook!

Thanks! I feel the same way, Scott.

That is so cool! I can't wait to see it done.

Hey guys! At this point, pictures don't really show what I'm doing (a lot of sanding!), but I figured I'd put a few up anyway.

This counterbore is used for the neck ferrules.

Recesses recessed.

Oh yeah, I drilled my control holes.

So at this point, the whole thing has been sanded to 220. I'm gonna try to get up through 400 and grain fill tomorrow. Thanks for looking!

Thank you again! You guys are right- the more I work on this, the more I agree. I will probably make a solid try of the aerofoil thing later this year just for kicks.

Thanks guys! At this point, blending is the name of the game. I'm hoping to get this all smoothed out today, but I suppose we'll see what happens.

Thank you very much! I'm definitely going to incorporate your suggestions next time I build this shape. Unfortunately, due to classroom time constraints, I'm gonna have to leave the overall carve as it is.

Speaking of which, here's a few pics from the last couple days.

Got my jack hole drilled.

This area was lightly blended from the line to about 1/4" over the edge.

Trying to show the shape a bit better.

Still needs a lot of blending, but it feels nice.

Parts came in! I was pretty excited to open my order.

Yep, more scraping and sanding.

So this is where I'm at now.

As I said above, I'll have to leave the carve and sides in their current overall state and get going on sanding. I'm not falling behind by any means, but I'd like to get into paint before the rest of the class to avoid waiting.

You're exactly right, it still feels a bit thick to me. I know you build some killer JS-style guitars, so I've been meaning to ask you: how do you get that nice slim point on the bass edge? Is it just a matter of sanding and scraping 'til it's right, or do you have any tricks you might want to share?

I had a very productive Monday! Check it out:

I made myself some sanding blocks to shape the edge profiles. Hopefully, they'll work.

From here, I just did a bunch of rasping and scraping.








My process here is basically "remove the bits that aren't a guitar".

Work time was over, so I switched to taking photos.

This shows how thin the bass side is. It feels very comfortable, even at this rough stage.

And that's it! My goal for tomorrow is to get the edges shaped, so we'll see how that goes. Thanks for looking!

Scott- yep, that's pretty much what I'm going for. My original inspiration for the carve was the 1980s Ibanez Radius series/ current Ibanez Satriani models.

Prostheta- Thank you very much! I have to make a conscious effort to clean up as I go, but I'm hoping it'll just become more of a habit as I keep doing it.

Thanks all!

Scott- what principle is that? I'm always interested in learning new techniques.

A big finish to the week! Check it out:



String-through holes and 1/2" radius cut around the control cavity.



Marking depths for the carve.


The time has come!











I've still got a long way to go, but I feel like I got a decent amount done today. Thanks for checking in!

More pics!

Thank you very much! This is indeed a bolt-on. That little extra bit on the treble side was left at the request of my instructor, to avoid a common issue they've had with other students and their pin router. Now that my neck pocket has been successfully cut, I'll remove the excess as part of my carving/contouring process.