mistermikev

sharp.  nice job.

the only real down side to rainbow poplar imo is that any guitars built with it will only play old dio songs (lol, rainbow in the dark!).  anyone ever build a guitar with it... no not myself... but only because you are kind of locked in to a natural finish.  reg poplar soaks up stain fast but color is changed by the green.  perfectly good wood for guitars.

a lovely piece of wood and the shape is coming together nicely.  keep doing what cher doing lol!

lovely stuff brother.  seeing that bandsaw work... like butta - I have bandsaw envy.  I have refused to change blades on mine because it finally does resaw and I know swapping out the blade would result in 3 hours of having to adjust everything to get back to being able to resaw and still waste 3/16" of material!  that said I only paid $130 so... it def does a $130 job!!

nice work.

21 minutes ago, henrim said:

Decorative designs are out of my comfort zone. I mean I cannot do them myself (nor do I feel urge to attempt) but I can appreciate when some one does them well. Like I said before I feel you have an extraordinary skill to make all those shapes go together. To me the bridge looks like a perfect fit. 

well thank you.  I'm going to keep my first design hidden!  it was very plain and just did not look good... so I basically took the shape of the upper horn and shrank it and then mirrored it.

thank you for taking the time Henrim.... very much appreciate it.

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

You do know that Movember is over, don't you? Then again, the matter is always topical.

that's a very moving argument... I'm moved.  hehe.

so... would love some first impressions on this next part... "TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE"!

this is revision 1.9... this is the 3rd one I've built and for better or worse I think I'm sticking w it.  first one was horribly mismatched to the rest of the design... completely started over.  then second one was just too thick and clunky.  Still feels awful thick but I need 1/4" thickness for some square nuts/grub screws to be able to adjust/lock fwd/rev motion... and 1/4" to bury the studs... so 1/2" it is.  According to my measurements this should be just a hair low with the studs burried.  anywho... 

I've bought an artec piezo and a big fat bone saddle blank that should fit in here... going to be a challenge to retrofit a channel for that!  

have been working hard against the clock in my head... thinking I'd like to move on to new projects in the new year... but alas... I don't think I'll make it.  spent most of my day today jacking around with boiling water and 1/8" strips of veneer.  needs a lot of clean up yet but baby steps.

did not anticipate it being this hard to get veneer to conform to those tight turns!  

congrats on gotm biz!!

30 minutes ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Pure sex Mike! I need a cold shower

thank you mr shatner, hehe,

"I'm dead sexy"...

11 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Amazing

Thank you sir!!

some minor updates... lot of finish work still to do but got my necks made and inlays done.  still have to do some work bending veneer into those detail channels on the neck/headstock.  think I'll work on my bridge piece next.

Some really cool stuff in this thread henrim.  your pickup winder is impressive.  the fit of the dulcimer - very nice. 

cool beans.

that deep red is very lovely... so inspiring.  keep up the excellent work.

some lovely shapes, and like the idea of led lit knobs.  that black guitar with the big knobs is very eye catching.  some very nice work.

34 minutes ago, henrim said:

Beautiful work! I’m amazed how balanced it looks for such a complex shape. 

well thank you sir.  I guess we'll see about actual weight balance here shortly.  might try to relieve some weight from the body yet as it seems a bit heavy... but i guess we'll see.  thank you again for the kind words.

1 hour ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Oh man...your builds never fail to impress. If you aren’t taking loads of commissions then you should be!

he said "taking loads" hehe sorry, I can't help myself! 

honestly flattered, but it is an idea i have dreaded (commissioned build) as once you put that sort of pressure on a build... it is much harder to do well, or at least that's how I envision it would be if I did that! 

that said...  a man can only afford to build so many guitars before his wife starts giving him the eye... so it may be an inevitable eventuality.

thank you for the kind words mr shat

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

Just yanking your chain a little. Your wood has seasoned two and a half years since you started this project...."eons ago" as you said. You are getting into @mattharris75 territory. Of course his stuff is all beautiful, so that's a great place to be.

SR

ahh yes... this wood is most def extra seasoned!  it was probably 1.5 years seasoned to start with and a couple arizona 120 deg summers so... should be some stable stuff!

as learning experiences go... man this one has taken me to the cleaners so many times.  I'm thankful I made it this far but there is still a lot to NOT screw up!!

5 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Are testing a new season your wood as you use it process?

This is a visual masterpiece Mike, absolutely gorgeous and yet tasteful.

Finish it already.

SR

Are testing a new season your wood as you use it process?  not sure what you mean?

This is a visual masterpiece Mike thank you scott, that means a lot to me!  

Finish it already - hehe, this has been one of those projects that has been fraught with delays, mistakes... got delay by the teles, had issues with my carve and having a LOT of hand work to do on it, my cnc stepper driver motor went to shit while cutting the neck pocket... and more recently... after getting most of the purpleheart neck cut... I realize the headstock is approx 3/16 short of wide enough for my design... so last night was working on trimming the sides of the headstock square so I can graft on some purpleheart and make it wider.  in short... it's not for lack of effort that it's taking me forever! 

my still to do list (this is just for me to help organize):

finish purpleheart version headstock

cut some inlay logo and "fish on" letters for both headstocks

install veneer for fretmarkers and edge details on neck/headstocks

work out the bridge piece...

redrill my stud holes...

figure out wire channels for piezo pickup...

do cavity covers

a truss cover

wireup 

finishing

never saw a dbl bound tele I didn't like.  nice work.

how ironic that the better I get at building the more the tiniest little flaw sticks out to me.  things that mere mortals probably wouldn't even consider a flaw... but it's painful and obvious to me now.  for that reason I think perfect is impossible... the best I think I can hope for is a larger window on a smaller flaw.

welp... if I was a betting man I'd put my money on the high e string saddle.  is a common issue.  I have a lovely tele that is string through and I even put tens on it... but that gawd fersaken' high e saddle rattles.  You don't hear it on a recording... but it can't be good for sustain and annoys me to no end.  

my advice would be to get it rattling and then put your ear close to the string and move north/south to try and zero in on it.  or... get it rattling then put your finger on the high e saddle... does it stop?

about the only thing I can think of to cure such a thing is raise the action higher and angle the neck (for a bolt on, but looks like you are set neck)... could change to heavier gauge strings.  in that trem... maybe drill and tap a hole from either side of the saddles and put a set screw in.  switch to graph tech saddles?  maybe those benford saddles would not rattle on account of the extra weight from all that brass?  

hope something there helps.

On 11/13/2022 at 5:00 AM, Bizman62 said:

Oh well, somehow I forgot to take pictures....

Anyhow, as the boards were a bit warped so the centre seam wasn't level I decided to plane the body board. As the boards were also cupped the edge is still a bit grey but there won't be much of the original surface left. But there's some pretty cracks and colouring so I guess it will still show the age and abuse of the wood. I also have plans to re-weather the wood:

just in time for xmas... "oh tanin bow" or something.  should be a really cool finish.  looking fwd to seeing how that goes.

so... just wanted to take a moment to appreciate this tool:

leftover from my days working with laminate.  have had it for 20+ years now.  I don't do laminate anymore, but for applying any tape... man this makes it stick soo much better!

doh, so this is how I will process my headstock.  learned a lot on this build.  started this eons ago - before the two teles and first time doing an angled headstock on my machine.  also my machine is only 23.5" of workspace and this is a 35" scale neck... so challenges upon challenges.

I learned that, for this style of neck - a scarf joint - it doesn't make any sense to try to do your design including the angle.  my original design did... and ended up breaking it down into 3 pieces... and treating them as two .9" thick pieces and one .625" thick headstock.  different zero points on each.  anywho... hold my beer I'm going to go try something!