Norris

That's bizarre - I managed to post two photos of the front. Here is the back...

... and that's what I was talking about re. the graining

Just rough cut for now, the back...

And the front...

The knot at the top will go when I route the inner chambers.

I'm quite liking the graining on the back - it will look good in transparent blue. It was bought as a 'plain' ash back piece, but where the plank was cut, rotated & joined it's left quite a nice, straightish grain pattern flowing through the neck line. The more patterned parts are quite sympathetic to the shape and will look even better when I round over the back edge.

Anyway in a couple of days when I can feel my arms again, I'll run the router round it, cut the chambering and get it on the sanding table to prepare for joining the top piece  .

It's half term coming up in the UK, so no Monday night classes for two weeks. Still I've got plenty of homework to do 

How about a couple of additional cam clamps that can slot into the dog holes in the bed? If you make those in more of a comma shape you could get quite a "throw" on the cam.

I think I might have to make myself one of these

I was hoping for a bit more of an update today, but had slow progress last night. I was intending to rough cut the body shape, but needed to get everything flat first.

Lesson learned: If your body blank needs thicknessing, do it before you glue the two halves together, while it still fits through the thicknesser machine.

So, 2 hours of hand planing later my back piece is about flat, but still has another 3mm of material to remove. Having removed about 1.5mm of material last night, it's about 0.5mm difference between the highest & lowest corners so I'm not doing too badly (it started at about 2mm difference)

That router thicknessing jig looks very attractive, but then I'm getting a little roughness from the grain swirls (swamp ash) using a good sharp plane. With only a couple of mm left to go, I'll stick with the plane as I don't think I can trust a router on it. I'll also get on with making a couple of sanding tables

Patience young padawan

I'm going to have to get my eyes tested again & new glasses before I start marking out frets

Couldn't you make a wooden wedge the length of your rule at say a 30° angle, and use your oil stone to grind down the steel rule to the same angle? Then carefully glue the two together?

Disaster averted, fundamentals reinforced: measure, measure, measure again!

I was preparing my neck template last night using some plans that a friend has lent me.I had traced the outline from the diagram and had sanded it back to just within 1mm of where it needs to be. Then before doing the final sanding I decided to compare it to the US Telecaster that another friend has lent me for the duration to see how it measured up. That's when I discovered that the plans are not quite to scale. All of the dimensions are correct, but the diagram has been printed ever so slightly oversize! As a consequence my neck template is 5mm too long.

Obviously not a major issue, as the shape is close enough, the template is oversize and can be further sanded to the correct dimensions. Besides, it's only 6mm MDF and I could easily make another. Still it's a valuable lesson never to trust, and to always measure

The white wash on Olympus looks fantastic, but then so does the "faded jeans" look on Under Pressure. Seriously not an easy choice to make as both guitars look stunning.

I joined the two halves of the back and top on Monday night and then scraped down the glue lines last night. It looks like I have a bit of sanding to do, as the top piece (bought as a ready cut book-matched pair) was not quite thicknessed the same on both halves. About 6" of one end runs out by about 1mm - luckily too thick rather than too thin. I should have plenty of wood to end up with my target 10mm for the top, to give me enough to play with for some subtle carving. The back piece went together nicely. At least both pieces have joined well.

No pictures in this update as not much to see.

That looks really nice. You've got that quilt to a lovely colour - although I quite liked it in the sanded back state where it looks almost silver-blue.

I've been wondering what to do with my neck pickup surround. Yours looks good, so I might steal the idea

It's going to be a sweet looking guitar

Have you tried the lower one, but with a side-mounted jack?

Edit: I think that is what is looking a little "off" to me - the unequal spacing between the lower knob and the jack socket. Side mounting the jack socket in the lower corner might give it a cleaner look

Yes, I'm looking forward to the staining. I don't think it's quite as bad as I thought. I was getting inky fingers from some dye that I applied to the back of that strip using a cotton bud i.e. it is really thick. The dye that I wiped on with a cloth has gone on a lot better, has really popped the grain, and seems to be a lot more stable.

Anyway tonight should be joining the body back & front, squaring up the neck piece and making more templates for the neck, body cavities and carving details

8 posts looks to be enough - I now have voting options. Thanks

I certainly will. It's water soluble but hopefully should be ok with poly lacquer. I'll do some testing on scraps of pine as I'm hoping to use some of the maple offcuts to veneer the headstock

I don't seem to be able to vote. Do you have a minimum post count or membership duration before I can do that?

I did a quick dye colour test last night, although the photo looks a little washed out. This is one coat of Diamine "Florida Blue" fountain pen ink applied to a scrap of pine using a microfibre cloth. The wood was relatively smooth but otherwise unfinished

It's popped the grain quite nicely, but.you certainly don't want to handle it too much before it's had a few clear coats to seal it. It should look great on the flamed maple top.

I might burst the edges of the guitar in a slightly darker blue - but using more conventional tinted laquer

So I've finally started on my first ever guitar build. "Nozcaster" = a bit of Nocaster + derivative of my nickname "Norris"

I have joined a guitar building "club" that meets for 2 hours on a Monday night, and for my weekly subscription I get access to a lot of people who have built before and a lot of machine tools that I don't have at home (and trade prices for most of the parts!). Due to a large amount of household DIY on the go, plus a wife that is keen for me to get on with that, progress on the guitar will be a little slow & steady for the time being.

For my first project I have chosen something relatively simple - my own take on a thinline telecaster. However I'm then going to complicate things a bit by doing some carving on the top, binding all round, and using fountain ink as dye (check out the lovely colours made by Diamine - I have gone for "Florida Blue"). I've spoken to a few people that have used ink as dye, and they have got some very good results and say it is colour-fast and won't fade.

Specifications are pretty much standard telecaster, but I'll be making a two piece neck with dual action truss rod that adjusts at the nut.

Unfortunately the chap that was going to lend me some plans forgot to bring them on week one, so I ended up drawing round a US telecaster that my mate (guitarist in my band) has lent me for the duration. I managed to get one template roughed out of 6mm MDF, that I then tidied up at home and used to route another 2 templates.

Week One - Some templates

And then this week I got wood

English light ash for the back of the body (apparently the same species as swamp ash) - before I squared it up

Flamed maple top piece - squared up ready to join (and showing quite nice figuring even when dry)

The gluing will have to wait until next Monday.The neck pieces were just ordered as plain maple, although the main neck shows a smattering of birds eye whorls.

I hope he won't mind me posting our conversation here...

Norris:

I'm very interested in the way you have used fountain ink for a base dye. I am due to start my first build soon and think I might give it a go. However I was wondering how colour fast the ink is and how it takes a clear top coat.

Have you seen any UV fading on your guitars? Have you had any difficulties using tru-oil, nitro or poly lacquer over the top? Does the wood grain rise and how did you flat it off?

Andy:

I've had no issue with fading and nor have people who I've done these for - including a strat that has been hanging on a south facing wall which has had full sunlight for 3-4 hours a day for the past 4-5 years. That's red, too, which is a notorious fader for many dyes. 

I like ink because - assuming the wood is sanded and clean (no glue / varnish / wax) it covers very quickly and evenly and you can progressively darken the shade with repeat coats. You can also mix colours for bursts or other effects.

It clear coats great. I've used tru-oil and poly. Not used nitro but can't think it would react at all.

It acts just like any other wood dye in terms of grain rise. As with any wood dye, you can't use the 'varnish slurry' approach because the slurrying will simply sand off the dye. I sand it down to my finish level, ink it, give it 3-4 coats of varnish, then flatten (gently) with 1000 grit wet and dry used wet, then carry on with subsequent coats of varnish. Ditto for Tru Oil. 

If I need to sanding-filler it, for Tru oil I use either their clear filler/sealer - or egg white - AFTER inking or - if I'm using a varnish, I mix the ink with some stainable timbermate, fill it, sand it back down to the wood and then ink-stain it. 

Norris:

Do you get any issues with it soaking into the end grain or does it colour evenly? 

Andy:

Again, it acts the same as standard wood dies so it will darken end grain and the end grain parts of figured grain more than the 'with the grain' parts. This is, of course, useful for popping the grain out on quilt and similar finishes like this:



If you look closely, you can see the effect on the upper waist cut-out on Bryan's (alligh8t0r) Westone:

 

The burst look on the rest of this body has been achieved by adding a tiny bit of black ink to the green for the edges, but the variations in the cutout itself are due to the grain direction...

I'm not sure if those pictures will post correctly  

I've fired off a PM to a person (on basschat.co.uk) that has used it on a few builds. His guitars look great.

I suppose one of the first things I should do is to set up a test. I'll finish some scraps of ash, then sit them on the windowsill half-masked to see what the UV stability is like. If I'm going to do that I may as well try with a variety of top finishes: tru-oil/Danish oil, nitro lacquer & poly lacquer. I'll let you know how it goes..

Hi

I'm new here and probably being a little ambitious on my first build (although I will have experienced advisers helping me). However, I'm looking to make a blue burst telecaster. I have seen build threads elsewhere, where fountain pen ink has been used as a dye under either tru-oil or a clear top coat. Some ink manufacturers have a good range of colours, such as these here: http://www.diamineinks.co.uk/listings.aspx?catid=67

I am thinking of using an ink dye on my book-matched flamed maple top, followed by a couple of clear coats and then some tinted burst coats followed by more clear top coats.

Has anybody used ink for dyeing? Any pros & cons? If ink is unsuitable, what should I consider instead?

The closest example I can find to what I'm planning to do is this Warmoth body. 

Regards,
Norris

Certainly I'll be creating some build threads, and also probably asking a lot of questions too

Regards,
Norris

Hi. I've lurked for some time and have been admiring the fantastic work in the build forum - you have made some absolutely stunning guitars! I have finally signed on as I'm due to start my first guitar building course in a couple of weeks.

I'm a bass player of too many years to mention and quite reasonable at DIY, but new to guitar building. However I have my first three guitars planned out so far  - well, one in detail (carved thinline telecaster), one a pretty good idea (5-string bass), the other a vague notion (another bass).

Anyway bye for now,
Norris

BTW it's Prostheta that directed me to this site, so I'll blame him the first time I draw blood!