Norris

Thanks for the compliments chaps - very encouraging. I'm trying resist "just getting it done" and rushing things. I'm just glad that there have been no major cock-ups so far I'll check back. I'm sure I linked it somewhere. Certainly Florida Blue is out of the window now as far as I am concerned; shame as it is a very vibrant colour when fresh. I've published some results in the Inlay & Finishing forum, and will update it with tests from the three new blue colours I've ordered

I have been doing some colour fade tests on some ink dyed samples. For the tests I have used a 90W LED (Royal Horticultural Society) plant light, containing red, blue and yellow LEDs.The samples are some offcuts of flamed maple, prepared with 1200 grit sandpaper, given a thorough wipe of ink in a single coat, and then placed in a stainless steel bucket with the lamp fitted on top approx 12" from the samples. The samples are left under the constant light for a week. The inks I have tested are Diamine fountain pen inks Top left: "Florida Blue" Bottom left: "Ruby" Right: A sample of Florida Blue prepared several weeks ago, coated in nitro-cellulose lacquer . Florida Blue: Prominent fading, which was evident after just one day of testing. Although the resulting teal colour is not that bad, there are a few hints of brown "scorching" in the darker areas Ruby: Hardly any evidence of fading & seems quite stable I have ordered three more shades of blue ink and will report back in due course

Absolutely stunning!

Great job for a first build. I love the body shape

I didn't do much over Christmas - I was far too busy. I did set up another dye test of the fountain pen ink though, this time using un-lacquered samples. This has established two things: the horticultural light is a good way of testing colour-fastness, and that the Florida Blue ink I have been using is unfortunately not colour-fast. I'll post some photos tomorrow when they have had a full week under the light. The red ink that I used ("Ruby"), has virtually no sign of fading - shame I want a blue guitar and not red, but it's handy to know. I'll post the results in the thread I started in the finishing forum. As the ink is so cheap, I'll order another couple of shades of blue and give them a test too - it might just be the Florida blue that fades. At the weekend I refined & tweaked the neck heel & neck pocket template, then spent a few hours sanding the body. Then last night I did the round-over rout around the body back and roughly sanded it smooth. All of a sudden (in my mind anyway) I have a guitar rather than a plank of wood. It's made it so much more tactile. The ash back graining looks so nice I'm now toying with the idea of just using a clear coat. I might stay with my original plan of translucent blue, but I don't think I'll try to dye it - the darker grain seems to repel the water-based ink. Instead I would use a blue lacquer. I'm itching to get started on the top carve, but also to get the neck moving along. Last night's work has filled me with enthusiasm again

Fantastic

Looking back, I don't seem to have mentioned how nice this guitar is Well done for restoring it

I need to do some more samples anyway, so I think I'll do some tests on un-lacquered samples to take the nitro out of the equation. I managed to get a nice deeper blue on the ash back on one of the samples I did (I think it was a blue, sand back, red, sand back, blue attempt), but had some difficulties getting the ink right down into the more open darker grain. I need to experiment more to get a consistent finish. I'm happy with a single blue coat on the maple top as it looks gorgeous. Then I need to find a lacquer that won't yellow (or at least not as much) Edit: Tbh, it's a lot of time spent sanding, but not a lot of material removed. Sanding such a large area on a table is almost the same as using a much finer grit. And thanks for the encouragement - the aches are slowly fading

Ooh - nice detail on those fret ends

In my defence, there was about 4 hours of sanding in between

I can't see any images. Inspecting the page I can see they are PG-hosted. @Prostheta? Edit: Google Chrome browser Version 47.0.2526.80 m, through my work firewall/proxy

And an update on the ink colour fastness test. After 3 weeks in the winter daylight (I can't really say sunshine as we haven't had a lot of it!) There is definitely a slight colour change, however it appears to be a greenish tinge rather than fading. I think this is more to do with the yellowing of the nitro-cellulose lacquer than any change in the fountain pen ink. The top section has been masked off with a strip of plastic & duck-taped in place. Anyway the sample is now undergoing a slightly more intensive test under a 90W LED plant light. It's not daylight simulation - it's a mixture of red, blue and yellow LEDs. Obviously the blue won't do much, but the heavy red component should further highlight any issues. The sample is in the bottom of a stainless steel bucket with the light fitting perched on top. Anyway, the initial daylight test is encouraging. It's lost a little of it's vibrancy, but it's still quite an acceptable colour. I'll see if I can get a sample lacquered in 2k poly - maybe that won't yellow like the nitro.

Progress: Flush trimmed the body top piece, then planed the top a little I then got it on the sanding table for 3 or 4 hours (ow my shoulders - there must be an easier way!) And even with the P40 grit on the sanding table it's getting a nice sheen (blur in the background is the good Lady Norris walking through shot ) It's VERY smooth to the touch, and couldn't get much flatter. Having latex gloves on for all that time doesn't half make your hands wrinkly, but better than getting grease & grime all over it. It still needs a bit more as there are still a couple of very slightly low spots - probably another couple of hours at the rate it's going. It's amazing the difference between a flat planed surface and a flat sanded surface

But PhotoBroke-it has a handy mobile app for uploading photos. PG is not nice on my mobile at all

I'm not the only one having PhotoBucket issues at the moment then! That's smoothing up nicely. Gorgeous grain

Just to clarify what I'm trying to do, I did a quick & dirty paper mock up last night... The heel at the top there that is not covered by the paper will be trimmed off when I do the neck carve Obviously ignore that the end of the fretboard needs trimming - you can see the nut line on the neck & board. From that angle the curve doesn't look quite as steep. The end of the fretboard will be thinned behind the nut (or I'll have issues with the string break angle) and rounded over to meet the veneer. I remembered last night that we have an electric vegetable steamer sitting in the back of the cupboard that should be big enough to fit the veneer in. That should allow me to "cook" it pretty well. I'll need to experiment with the binding, but haven't got my hands on it yet. So apart from getting the fretboard on the sanding table to level off the back, there's not much more I can do on the neck for the time being.

Hopefully, fingers crossed, the binding on the fretboard should match up with the binding on the headstock. Imagine drawing a line down the sides of the neck, down the slope and around the perimeter of the headstock - that's what I'm after .I think "bad idea" is probably the answer . And it's me pushing the instructors - they raised their eyebrows rather when I suggested it The fretboard will only overhang by the depth of the veneer. I can't take the end of the fretboard back too much as it's covering the truss rod adjuster nut. With hindsight it might have been slightly easier to fit the truss rod further down the neck towards the bridge, then I could have used a shallower angle on the curve. I have it all in my head - I've just got to work out how to translate it into wood form . Anyway as a contingency I'll try dyeing some of the neck wood offcuts so at least it will be colour-matched - it will be opposite ends of the guitar, they are similar colour woods, so close would probably be good enough.

Over £250 each (here in the UK) - more than my whole Squier P-Bass cost, including the P/J pickup upgrades "That's one M-F good shake" Maybe I'll just go for a P and a MM bridge. I am liking the P tone at the moment, and generally prefer to go passive. I just wondered if anyone had used them and whether they were worth the extra expense.

Thanks for the advice chaps. Yes, I'm not sure if it's going to work. I do have enough thickness of the offcut left to do 2 or 3 more attempts if it does split. If it doesn't work out, then I'll have to put up with the bird's eye maple (such a problem! ). It's just that I'd quite like a matching headstock, and as I'm binding the body and neck it would be nice if the head was also bound. I might try the dye on an offcut of the neck to see how the colours match up. I'm going by the advice of my instructors - they think it's doable. They frequently make acoustics & mandolins with quite intricate bindings and inlays, so we'll see how it goes. The main issue is that it's a pretty tight curve to get round. Personally I think that it might be easier to apply the veneer, trim it to the headstock, dye it, then carefully cut a mini binding channel through the veneer & bind it. For now though I'll follow the advice of those more experienced than me . Anyway that's for the new year when the classes resume. For now I'll chug on with the body, where I kind of know what I'm doing & have a few more templates to prepare. Oh, and I've also finally got my hands on a decent daylight simulation lamp, so I'll get a more intense colour-fastness test set up on my test piece. It's nearly the winter solstice here in the UK, so natural sunlight is about as minimal as it gets

I'm already tarred (puntastic!) with that brush . I've probably already got a tin amongst the garage clutter.

Tbh, I think I have got this sorted now. If you look at Prostheta's picture, the whole front face of the headstock i.e. the lighter maple, will be covered in a flamed maple veneer, colour matched to the body and bound around the perimeter in white plastic binding. The fretboard will then round off at the end like in the picture, to give a smooth transition to the leading (unbound) edge of the veneer. Therefore I need to cut the veneer to the shape of the headstock, but inset by 2mm, then glue on the binding (yes, it will be cut/scraped down to the same 1.2mm height as the veneer), before carefully bending it all to match the fretboard-headstock curve. The only bit I haven't quite got sorted is at what stage to dye the veneer to match the body. It would be easier & less prone to mess to do it before the binding, but that means I wouldn't have an opportunity to do any final sanding/fettling once it's fixed. Plus it would make it very awkward rounding off the edge of the fretboard without spoiling the dyed surface. I think I'm going to just have to be very careful to dye it once it's glued on and the fretboard is in place. Any suggestions as to how to mask off the surrounding binding & fretboard while dyeing the veneer? Would the ink seep under normal masking tape? And yes, I'm quite pleased with getting the body together. I was holding back because I was toying with the idea of fitting a white LED in the top chamber to give a glow through the F hole (that won't actually be an "F"). But then I decided against, as the need to fit a battery compartment kind of put me off, and it might have been a bit too cheesey . Funnily enough the LEDs I ordered were delivered two days after glueing the top - so it's too late now anyway

Hi While I'm slowly mangling some chunks of wood in my first build, I'm also thinking about my next build which will be a 5-string bass (low B rather than high C). I usually play slightly more gritty/growly basses (Gibson Thunderbird / Ric 4003) but have recently really got into my Squier Precision (actually a 4-string P/J "P-Bass Special") that I upgraded with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders, and am loving the sound. I have been looking at possibly using Bartolini quad coil pickups such as the xxM55C-T. This seems a pretty versatile pickup that could be wired as a single, humbucker, single-P or reverse-P. However it's a pretty darned expensive item, not very common on this side of the pond, so would probably need to come from the US and therefore be subject to import duty as well! Plus, I was thinking of sticking a pair of them in, using the classic Precision & Stingray bridge positions. Has anybody used the quad coils? Does it sound like a Precision when wired in that configuration? Would it sound like my Thunderbird wired as a 'bucker? But the main question is... are they worth the money or would I be better off just sticking to standard P-style pickups? Or can you suggest a similarly versatile 5-string pickup that could give me a range of sounds that includes a good "P"? Thanks in advance, Norris

Yes, that's similar to what I'm now planning. The plans that I used had the heel a little too close to the nut to be able to get the facing veneer on without having any of the back piece showing. I can only bend the veneer through one axis, so trimming the heel down should allow me to achieve that.. I will actually take out all of the wood in that second curve when I do the neck carve - it's purely to give me a nice line where the two curves meet for the time being. Because I'm binding the veneer, I need to get that on before I can fit the fretboard, which will cover the leading edge of the veneer. I still have to work out how I'm going to dye the veneer when it's in place without dyeing anything else

That's better. I'll trim the heel a bit to the angle/pencil line. The Dremel is really handy for getting the curve going before taking over with the file. So then... ... prepare for ... ... my first ever gratuitous clamp shots! It feels like I've done something now

More time-consuming stuff that doesn't look like I've done much. I smoothed the nut to head transition curve & prepared some flamed maple veneer from an offcut of the body top piece for the head facing. I'm quite pleased with that as I've not made veneer before. I took the veneer down to about 1.2mm, which should give me the 0.6" required for the head depth. (Nice mix of metric/imperial eh?! ) Now then, a question for the PG collective. I'm intending to bind the veneer before steaming it into shape. The fretboard will then extend to just cover the top edge of it - which will not be bound. But what to do about the heel that will be left, not covered by the fretboard? Ideally I'd like to take it down to the level of the head to take off that sharp heel I suppose I could round it off with the same radius as the nut-head transition (whatever the radius of my half-round file is)) and then make the veneer follow the resulting curve. Any better suggestions? Another question (which I've probably worked out for myself) - this "naphtha" that I've seen mentioned is what we know as "White Spirit" in the UK? Finally for now, I'll admit it's a little intimidating seeing all these build updates where people seem to build an immaculate guitar over a weekend or two, when I'm faffing about taking a week to amateurishly sand some insignificant detail. But hey, I'm a novice at this and don't get a lot of free time between the day job, gigs and family. I didn't start this as a sprint, but will hopefully become more productive in the time that I have as I become more experienced. Anyway, I'm targetting GOTM May 2022