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DIYguitarguy

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Posts posted by DIYguitarguy

  1. Number Two

    It has been quite a while since my first guitar was completed, but here is my 2nd build. I call this one “Number Two”. I know that this not a very creative sounding name, but it fits. After all, there’s really nothing creative about copying an existing design which this certainly is. I liked the retro looks of the F*nder T*ronado, so I used it as my model.

    Photo of model

    Having spared no expense on my first build, I decided to “go cheap” on Number Two. This decision meant that I had to wait until I found all the parts (at the right price) before I could start and would also add time to complete the build process. My first parts find was a new 21 fret T*le style neck found on eBay.

    Neck “before” photo

    The neck had an “S101” logo on the headstock and the clear satin finished maple didn’t appeal to me. So I began by removing the finish and logo by sanding them out. The wood grain in the headstock wasn’t very attractive, so I opted to paint the headstock black and inlay my name there with MOP.

    Black headstock

    Inlay rout

    Completed inlay

    I allowed my daughter to choose the color she liked for the guitar finish by visiting the local Guitar Center. She chose trans red as used on the shiny Gibson SG’s. So, I thought a vintage kind of amber finish on the neck would complement the red and the black.

    Amber on neck

    My next find were some mahogany turning squares in the “bargain bin” of a local wood store. This meant that the body would have to consist of 5 pieces glued together, but for $5, I didn’t really care about that.

    Body blank in the clamps

    After glue-up, planning and initial sanding, I fixed a pattern onto the blank with some spray adhesive and cut the body shape “close to the line” on the band saw. Saw marks and final shape were dressed on the oscillating spindle sander.

    Pattern applied to blank

    Holes were drilled for the controls and cavities were then routed on the back for the pots and a 3-way switch using homemade templates and a bearing guided bit in a plunge router.

    Cavity templates

    After insuring the centerline placement was correct, the neck pocket and pickup cavities were routed. Holes were bored for the neck plate, TOM bridge and tailpiece. I then attached the neck and strung it up for a test fit.

    Test fit

    I did not want to deal with a neck angle on this guitar, so I decided to recess the mounting posts into the body for the T.O.M. style bridge. I like to give credit where credit is due, so thanks again to doerringer for sharing his tips on how he recesses his bridges by first determining correct bridge placement and by drilling the larger diameter recess hole first and then the smaller diameter post holes.

    Recesses for bridge posts

    The wiring channels between the pickups and control cavity were carefully bored with a long shank ¼” drill bit. A hole was also required for the ground wire from the control cavity into the lower tailpiece mounting post hole. Drilling these holes with a hand drill requires careful and sure placement of the bit before you start to insure the bit will exit at the correct spot. A 7/8” forstener bit was used to mount the Electrosocket jack plate.

    Next came the sanding process. The body was sanded thoroughly with 100 through 220 grit sandpaper. This is probably the least fun of the build process for me, but it is one of the most important steps in the finishing process. A poor job of sanding will definitely show itself in the finish, especially transparent finishes.

    After sanding, grainfiller was applied, sanded back, re-applied and sanded back again. Once the grainfiller had properly dried, sealer coats and a thin coat of lacquer were sprayed on.

    Grain-filled, sealed and initial clear coats

    Once again, I want to give credit where credit is due, so I thank forum members johnsilver and punrockerluke for their input on how to achieve the Gibson SG (Heritage) red color that I was striving to get on this build. The information they provided was awesome and greatly appreciated!

    Red dye applied

    The red dye I used was very transparent, so many coats were applied. Once the color began to look as “deep” as I thought it should, I started the clear coat process which took several more days to complete.

    While waiting for the finish to cure, I built my 3rd “guitar” that was inspired by jehle and some others on the forum. It is a 3 string cigar box guitar fabricated with stuff I found laying around. It is kind of crude and primitive, but I think that is the point of a CBG. It did give me experience with neck building and it was fun to do.

    Cigar box guitar (#3)

    30 days later, the process of finish sand and buffing began. Once I was satisfied with that, everything was assembled, wired and strung up. I also made the pickguard by fabricating a template and routing the B/WB pickguard material to shape. Here are some shots of the finished project.

    Close-up shot of finished front near bridge

    Another shot

    A look at the back

    From another angle

    A look at the full front

    Full front view

    Guitar Specs:

    25 ½” scale

    Overall width: 13 ½”

    Overall length: 40 ½”

    Weight; 9lbs., 12ozs.

    21 fret, maple and rosewood el-cheapo ebay neck

    Mahogany body. 1 3/4” thick

    PAF style humbucker pickups from guitarfetish

    TOM bridge & tailpiece, el-cheapo ebay stuff

    LP/SG style wiring harness and pots, more el-cheapo ebay stuff

    SG style 3-way switch from Stewart-Macdonald

    Electrosocket aluminum jack plate from Stew-Mac

    M.E.K. red dye, walnut grain filler and pickguard material from Luthiers Mercantile

    Nitrocellulose lacquer and thinner from Sherwin-Williams (industrial supply)

    Final thoughts:

    This guitar set-up nicely with good action and intonation. It plays easily and has a sound of it’s own; kind of Fender-ish and kind of Gibson-ish.

    The saddles in the cheapo bridge came pre-notched. I will swap those out someday as an improvement. The tuners will also need to be replaced ASAP. The lesson learned here is that you usually get what you pay for.

    The guitar weighs in at just under 10 pounds. That could be a problem for some, but I’m a big boy and I think I can handle it. The weight could have been reduced by including a belly cut and a forearm rest, but I have not yet attempted those cuts and thought I should try that another time. The overall body shape and weight could have been reduced by removing ¼” or so from its perimeter.

    Experience gained from this build includes: recessing a TOM bridge and tailpiece, fabricating a pickguard, cutting MOP and making an inlay, and using grain filler for the first time. It was a fun project and I accomplished what I set out to do. That was to continue learning and to end up with a half-way decent looking instrument that I built myself. I hope that others may learn something from this, as I have learned from the many others who post on this forum.

  2. Lostheart,

    I would not attempt to run an already shaped body through a thicknessing planer, unles your comfortable with the possibilty of ruining the body. Unless the operator of the planer has invested a lot of effort in their machine setup, or the creation of specialty jigs to overcome the problem, it is extremely risky. To better understand what causes snipe, have a look at this image:

    http://www.woodezine.com/08_2004/08_2004_i...s/snipeCADD.JPG

    If the body you are trying to run through the planer already has the neck pocket route, I'm quite sure it would be destroyed aa worse case scenario, or as a least case scenario the depth of the neck pocket rout would be affected.

    I've never yet seen a planer that does not do this to some degree. If you want to try it to see for yourself, I would make a "sacrificial" body to run through as a test to see what happens.

    If you are making your own body blanks, you could have possibly started with thinner stock. Or, run your stock through the planer before gluing up the body.

    Good luck with it.

  3. Friend just got a ric, looked as thin as the single cut I'm building, which is 1 1/4", but that link definitely looks close to 2"

    Thanks to all for your replies. I appreciate the link to the modified Ric page. The guitar featured there sure looks to be 2" thick, can't deny that. If I were a betting man, I would have never bet that the re-issue model featured on Rickenbacker's website could be that thick because it only weighs in at 5 lbs. But then again, I've not yet worked with alder so I'm not sure how dense (or heavy) it is.

    I have an old Japanese guitar, circa 1964, that weighs in at about 5 lbs. It is also a short scale model with a mahogany neck and body. The body thickness is about 1 1/4" thick. So, depending upon how the weight of the alser compares to that, it is possible that it could weigh about 5 lbs. with a 2" thick body. I'm not sure, but it's something to further explore.

  4. No argument intended... just pointing out that things are highly variable, you need to test them, and what I like, you may not.

    Lester=Les Paul

    Gibson Walnut is a medium intensity neutral toned brown that Gibson has used for a long time. You see it on older archtop backs, flattop backs, ES series from the 70's, and currently in the "faded" brown on several current models.

    It's all good. we're all here to learn, right? I know I have.

  5. To be more specific, is an anilaline powder dye mixed with alcohol or lacquer better than an MEK based dye concentrate mixed with laquer under nitro topcoats? And why?

    Define "better". They're all different. I've used alcohol based, mek based, and proprietary based dyes... you have to try them out, see what works well on scrap or similar wood to the wood that needs dyeing. The last lester had a back and sides and neck from an metallic/alcohol leather dye. Matches the Gibson "walnut" perfectly. It is what works, so I use it.

    For purposes of this discussion as it relates to my original question, you may replace "better" with "how do the 2 types (analine powder & MEK) compare".

    Prior to purchasing the MEK based dye and doing the experiment as posted previously, I had no experience using analine or MEK based dyes. I have used the TransTint dyes, as well as many types of oil base stains, shellacs, polys, varnishes, paints, etc and I have a good idea of what to expect from each. I'm not trying to create an argument for which finish is "better" than another because all finish types have uses when one will be favored over another. Finish preferences are also very subjective and open to personal interpretations. When I asked people for their opinions of which was "better", I was specifically asking for a comparison between analine and MEK in efforts to decide which to try for my current project.

    Please comment on your terms "lester" amd Gibson walnut (my project is mahogany), as I'm not sure what that means. So, I don't know how to respond. :D

  6. Part of the key to getting the Gibson Cherry used on the SG is to dye to grain filler as well. I don't have the recipe here right now, but I know they dyed the grain filler. I can't remember if they jsut cleared over that or is they sprayed a tinted coat as well.

    Thanks to input from PG members punkrockerluke, johnsilver and other info collected from this forum, here is the finishing schedule I’m using. Hopefully this will get close to the Gibson (Heritage) red as used on some SG’s:

    Sand wood to 220 grit

    Apply coat of vinyl sealer

    Fill mahogany with walnut grain filler, oil based

    Remove excess filler (per instructions)

    Set aside to thoroughly dry for 1 week

    Lightly sand with 320 no load paper

    Apply 2nd coat of grain filler, repeat above process, then lightly sand with 320

    Spay 2 spit coats (low volume, highly thinned mist) lacquer about an hour apart

    After 3 hour dry time, sand very lightly with 320 grit

    Dry another hour, then spray coat of cherry toned lacquer

    Dry for an hour, apply second coat of cherry toner

    Repeat process until desired color is achieved

    Spray one coat of clear lacquer to protect toner

    Dry overnight

    Apply 8 -10 more coats of lacquer, allow to dry 3 hours between coats

    Allow to dry for at least a month, wet sand and buff

    This may be right, wrong, or whatever. I’m confident that it will be close enough to satisfy my expectations. Your mileage may vary based on your equipment, your finishing environment, your experience and your skill level.

  7. Thanks for the input. I've decided to give the LMI dye MEK concentrate a shot. It costs 1/3 of what the TransTint sells for, so I figured it is worth a try. After reading more about it, it is supposedly more color-fast than the aniline powder types. Who knows about that? I suppose time will tell. I'll let you know how it looks in a couple of weeks.

    My first exeriment is complete and here is the result:

    MEKred.jpg

    This sample shows a mixture of 1/2 oz of dye to 1 pint of solvent on the left side. The right side of the image was not sprayed. The color I hope to end up with is Gibson SG Red. I think this is close, but I will add more red dye and spray another sample before I do it for real.

  8. Thanks for the input. I've decided to give the LMI dye MEK concentrate a shot. It costs 1/3 of what the TransTint sells for, so I figured it is worth a try. After reading more about it, it is supposedly more color-fast than the aniline powder types. Who knows about that? I suppose time will tell. I'll let you know how it looks in a couple of weeks.

  9. To be more specific, is an anilaline powder dye mixed with alcohol or lacquer better than an MEK based dye concentrate mixed with laquer under nitro topcoats? And why?

    I visited LMI where they sell both types and it would be nice to hear your experiences and opinions before I make a choice. I have used the Trans-Tint brand in the past with excellent results, but the dyes LMI has to offer are less expensive. Maybe I should stay away from the LMI stuff and stick with what I know works. What do you think?

  10. Dont know why but every time I open a page for this site my antivirus goes crazy! THis site only, none of the other sites are doing it, its putting a worm virus in my temp. Internet files folder.

    Same thing is happening here. Norton detcted a trojan and put it into quaranteen. It locked my computer. Only came back to see if problem may be resolved and it hasn't been yet. If the administrator could send me an email to let me know when the problem has been corrected, that would be a good thing. As for now I think I'll stay away until things are safer.

  11. I recently purchased a "slightly used" Samick Malibu MB2 Greg Bennett design series guitar. It is configured like a fat Strat with a tremolo. It seems to be setup well; the strings don't buzz, the intonation is good, it plays well and stays in tune UNTIL you use the tremolo bar. Then it goes badly out of tune. It is not critical that I have or ever use the trem bar, but something doesn't seem right the way it is.

    Since I have never played, owned, (nor built) a guitar with a tremolo until now, I'm not sure where to start in attempting to correct this problem. Can any of you trem experts suggest a solution?

  12. DIY, I recently finished an SG in cherry red and basically used the modern finish from the Stewmac book. However, I tested the process on scrap mahogany before attempting the guitar. On one piece of scrap, I followed the Stewmac recipe. On the other piece, I sprayed a coat of sealer before applying the dark walnut pore filler, with all other steps the same. What I found was that I preferred the piece where I applied the sealer first. It wasn't as dark and the color more uniform that applying the filler directly to the wood. Your mileage may vary, so I suggest you test.

    johnsilver, Thanx for the heads up. I will definately be doing test pieces. I didn't think about how the sealer application could affect the color shade. Good tip!

  13. Hey all you Gibson Gurus,

    I've searched the forum for details on how to acheive Heritage Red on mahogany, but nothing specific was returned. I've also read the information on Guitar ReRanch's site and I'm not interested in purchasing their aerosols because I have spray equipment. I also know that Stew-Mac offers a book on the subject of finishing that would tell me what I need, but I prefer to ask you experts with experience.

    I'm specifically looking for what type of grain filler and dye you think works best along with product sources. Any application tips you want to share would also be helpful!

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