3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I'd politely ask if she had secretly taken a million bucks life insurance for you (how kind!) and now trying to get the money fast (that b***h!).

Seriously, maybe you should let her try the gear with all the protection you have. Even starting the router without any bit is a bone-jarring experience for a first-timer!

I would think just the sound of that router would be enough to tell someone they shouldn't be near it without some sort of eye protection.  seriously beside myself.

2 hours ago, norm barrows said:

be sure to post a postmortem report of your results of the finishing project.

what worked,   what didn't.    what stains  you used  (manufacturer and color), in what ratios, order of application, number of coats, etc.

inquiring minds may want to make a blonde or yellow guitar someday.

norm have you looked at any of my build threads?  If anything, I put in way more info than anyone wants to see, so "I'm on it"!  hehe

so, 5 minutes ago I was out in my garage routering my neck.  Using a 3/4" x1" x1/2" whiteside bit.  I see some movement in the corner of my eye and realize that my wife is standing there.  I carefully turn off my router and stand between her and it.  I have a full face shield plus glasses on.  She's just politely waiting for me to stop. 

I damn near shit my pants.  I have tried many times to impress upon her that when she hears that thing running she absolutely cannot come into the garage... cannot even knock on the door.  that it is a dangerous machine and if I loose concentration for a minute I could loose my whole hand or even my life.  She's not stupid... (I would def think that about anyone you told me this about).  College educated, professional, and often smarter than me (isn't sayin' much).  she just isn't taking me seriously.  She gets mad at me because I yell - because when I'm terrified I tend to raise my voice and get excited!

This is about the 6th time it's happened.  I have given myself time to calm down and approached her about it calmly after the fact.  Trying to impress upon her that I could get seriously injured.  In tonights' case - she could have been seriously injured. 

I just sent an email to her with a picture of some guys hand (from the internet) - after he had an accident on a table router.  I'm not even sure that will do it.  I'm thinking I'm going to go buy a sliding lock for the door so at least she can't open it while I'm out there... but I don't want to get startled while running a router.

what would you do?

15 minutes ago, JayT said:

Wait...you "cut the join" with a router? Is this something done commonly or just your personal method? I guess it obviously works great for you, I may borrow this technique. Any tips on this for a new builder? Is this limited to thinner tops, or can this be done on like 3" body lumber? Is that a dumb question?

Thanks for posting as I'm learning so much from these, I'm loving the "Tuxedo" design most but all are awesome.

commonly - probably not.  I've not really seen other folks even do it for guitar - I learned to do it when I worked as a solid surface counter top fabricator.  People who buy solid surface sort of have an expectation of invisible joins so... this is how we did it.  I've heard of folks using it on guitar tops... but have yet to see any tutorials so thought I'd share.

I don't think I'd try this on a body because you can choke a router taking off 1/32 on 2" lumber, let alone taking that off of two sides at once.  I joined my ash for the tele's above by just using a straight edge and holding the router really steady.  I did some minor sanding after to remove any chatter. 

actually works even easier on thicker tops... but there is the issue of cutting more material... I did it on the 3/4" flamed maple for the carve top above.  I generally prep the edges of both sides by trimming against a straight edge first. This way, when I get to cutting on both sides I'm removing as little as possible.

doing that now!

24 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Yes - his aerosols are excellent, and particularly for some of the classic colours.  It is often the tinted clear coats over the base that make the difference.  Great aerosol heads too - like chalk and cheese difference to standard heads.  Worth looking through his blog - he has some cracking finishes that he demo's to the same level of detail.

I suspect, though - like me trying to get aerosols and paints from US - that he probably doesn't ship to US due to the cost and complication of dealing with the air-safety regs.  Even for overland inside the UK itself, these things are classed as 'special shipment - hazardous materials' with only specific couriers authorised and all sorts of special packaging and labelling required.

right on, have bookmarked that one as a good resource.  Bummer re getting the aerosols, but that's ok.  Still lots of good info there and I'm able to get mohawk and reranch here so... should get me to the church on time.  thank you again for sharing a great resource.

love the design.  well executed.  looking fwd to watching this go.  cudos.

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Mike

Although this guy is a UK supplier , probably the best, and is therefore using his own products, he is also one of the best at doing it.

This is his full rundown of doing a butterscotch blonde.

https://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/2011/08/05/finishing-an-ash-telecaster-in-butterscotch/

 

wow, good find.  he really goes into detail there.  that will be a great reference.  thank you for the tip!  I see he also sells aerosol - sweet.

some beauty wood there.  flaxwood... never heard of it.  certainly looks cool.

funny, he's using stew mac color tone and tru oil (I mentioned both of these in my response).  In my case, I'm going to try to relic the neck so I need some of that amber to come from the nitro clear so that when I relic it off the neck won't remain too amber.  Might have to get a preval kit and add amber to the lacquer - that'd probably be the best bet.  I have used a heavy coat of that stew mac amber on another guitar I refinished and it does nail that look w/o any lacquer.

does look great - I appreciate you sharing.  tru oil is just amazing stuff!

genius idea putting the tru oil rag in a zip lock back... tacking that with me.

he did a nice job enhancing the grain the the mahog.  some tips I can take for my les flaws there for sure.

cheers and thanks again.

thank you, would love to see that.  I've since come across a bunch of info at tdpri that I'll use... will share in case anyone ever needs it.  There are many broadcaster/nocaster afficianados that recommend to grain fill with tan die mixed in, then clear 2x, then trans white 2-3x then blonde 3x for the body - all light coats.  the neck they say originally was just lacquer so the amber color is really just aging of the laquer.  I think I'll probably use some tru oild with a dilluted stew mac amber dye on it prior, then just think clear coat of nitro and sit it near 5k light for a while - but perhaps that will change if I see the video you mention.

might as well thro my hat in the ring... have done this before using a forstner bit to make a nice hole/template in mdf... then using a router with a bowl bit to follow the hole.  the tricky part being lining up the hole.  Was thinking about this recently... might create a male part for that hole, and add a 3/8 hole in the center of it... slide a dowel thru to line it up, then remove the make insert... voilla.  Something I'll have to try next time I do this but thought I'd pass it on in case it helps.

have not had this problem on emgs myself... but have had this issue on old pedals.  Inside the emg is an smd based preamp.  I don't know this circuit all that well but I do know that the jist of it is that it uses one coil to sense the noise and this is subtracted from the other coil in a 'differential' preamp.  I would assume this uses capacitors to set thresholds and caps can def dry out over time.  as they dry out they loose capacitence... long story long - could be they have become victim to this.  In theory you could try to use an audio probe and or multi-meter with capacitence test to find them and replace... but that would require the delecate process of degouping the emgs which are encased in epoxy.  My guess would be that the effort would not be worth it.  Again, this is just a guess.  The fact that moving them changes things makes me think it is more likely an issue with an intermittent wire leading to/fro.  If they are quick connect type you could test continuety to/fro... test whether it is both pickups.  test if you are in fact sending 9v to them.  that's about the best you can do.  hope that helps.

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

Love the carve on that top!

SR

thank you sir!  I do appreciate the support.  Still has some ripples that need blending but turned out better than I thought.  Lots to learn there but not bad for a start.

57 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

You linked to studio.youtube which only you can see, you need to share the youtube link instead. Carve top looks awesome though, nice work  

doh, thank you for pointing that out!  my bad. 

thank you sir!

1 hour ago, Norris said:

Some beautifully tidy work going on there Mr Mike!

thank you Norris.  Means a lot to me.

put some tru oil on the innards of the tux...

did the neck holes for the tux

did the neck holes for the broadchaser...

then did a lil video of joining the top for my tuxedo

here is the result:

put in my f-hole in just 974 easy steps!

and switched back to carving my les flaws:

wow, much more work than I thought!  should have done more steps (next time).

bad to the bone (I know it's a white falcon on that song... but this looks like it would sound perfect playing that) - cudos.

lovely

wound yer own pickups and all?  awesome.  have always wanted to play one of these... looks like a cool build.  excited to see it progress.

some fairly crazy designs there.  thanks for doing your par to keep this place interesting!

9 hours ago, willliam_q said:

Looks great,  given me an idea for later down the road.

don't you dare steal my ideas... I legitimately stole those myself!  hehe

5 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

Crikey someone has been busy, What kind of Ash is that? I got myself some American Ash from the local timber yard the other day to go under a walnut cap. I was under the impression it was going to be heavy but I was really surprised how light it was, especially happy as it was only about £30, so I'll be using it again. But that's another build thread I'll be starting soon  

Builds are looking good, especially looking forward to seeing the les tele

well, I'm in the southwest so one would guesstimate that it's "velvet ash" aka "Arizona ash" aka "mosesto ash" aka

"Fraxinus velutina"

given that I got it local at a lumberyard I would have thought black ash... but given it's weight and grain I'm inclined to think white (northern) ash.  It was sold to me as "ash"!

thank you re builds looking good.  It has been a real challenge to keep switching back and forth on the builds but the nice thing is that as I wait for parts for one I can go do something for another!

so... for my tuxedo... I had originally planned to do an ash top.. and had one set aside... it was just big enough for a tele.  a while back I realized that once you figure in the bend over the 30" radius it was going to be too close if not too short (not wide enough). 

Have been wrestling with alternatives since.  I have a beauty blister ash top... but boy it'd be a shame to do that in black as I think I'd loose a lot of the beauty... and anyways it's 3/8" thick and I require exactly 1/4".  Would hate to waste the thicker top by planing it down.  so... I'm switching to a beautiful quilt maple top... very small quilts.  Will be working that today. 

Now I'm wrestling with whether or not I should still do black.  I don't want the black burst - not for this one.  and the ash would have been ideal as I figured a grain fill would make for good contrast.  at this point I'm going to go with the maple and see how a sand back on red looks with jet black die.

1 hour ago, komodo said:

I've been wanting to do a fully radiused body like that for years. Nice!

thank you sir.

6 hours ago, willliam_q said:

Got the Truss rod on eBay, can’t really comment on how reliable it is although I’m pretty sure I’ve another of the same without the spike wheel and it works fine.  Turns easy enough both ways so I think it will do the job.  

Spoke wheel Dual Type guitar Truss Rod 440mm 460mm and 630mm TR13

Diameter is approx 15mm

 

 

thank you sir.  I have tried a few similar (w/o wheel) from evilbay and I'm sure they are fine (have one in my delta cloud build) but they require a fair amount of tension to turn... and without the benefit of time makes me a little nervous but many seem to have used them and they seem to be fine.  Thank you for the info!  again, build looks great.

nice recovery.  those are the kind of little things that might drive you nuts... but know one else will notice.  Def don't let it get you down... chin up.

that truss rod... where did you get it?  How easy does it turn?  Can you tell me the aprox diameter of the wheel?