mistermikev

53 minutes ago, Drak said:

No way, he's the perfect muse for Les. Those things don't happen by accident. Even Metallica wouldn't take Les.

Too cliche, too perfect hair metal for Les.

 

This always leaves me completely on the floor laughing.

Paul

well... kind of tru for any great player - other players make space if they are good. you couldn't put victor wooten in metallica either!  or marcus miller... or flea for that matter!

i can't help but feel larry really developed his 'primus style' to fit that band.  I haven't heard much of him outside primus... but he's really a great guitar player.  

7 minutes ago, Drak said:

That's hilarious you just said that. I was just watching him 10 minutes ago.

I was watching their version of Thela Hun Ginjeet.

yeah, that guy is something else.  he must be an incredible player to sound like that... diverts all his talent into sounding odd.  I sometimes wish he would quit primus just so I could see some other guitar player try to cover him or fill that space... I imagine it would be one hell of a train wreck.

3 minutes ago, Drak said:

You know what they say, your best ideas are always your first ideas, and everything else is just second-guessing yourself.

So thank you all for weighing in and giving some weight to my first original idea (that's already done), makes everything easier for sure.

I need to get a much better shot of it for you to really see it like I see it.

So I'm going to save the money and just go with the original 'spilled paint' guard, seems everyone likes that as well

And that obviously was my first idea and its already cut out and ready to go.

I just shot the neck today, did the black early on this morning, hit it with the white early afternoon, and have a few clearcoats on it now.

The truss is at the top so I can make a matching truss rod cover to bring the 'slurpy paint' theme up to the neck, I always like doing that.

 

Not really. I have a schizoid side to me just like both of them, so I 'get it', where I understand a lot of people wouldn't, perfectly OK.

I lived on King Crimson's Discipline (1981) with Belew and Fripp (and Banks, and Levin) at opposing extremes of guitar mayhem back in the day and still love it.

But that's just me, I love all that frantic crazy shit, (along w/ the Talking Heads period) and a lot of people don't. Totally fine w/ me.

And Paul Gilbert, that dude always has me ROTF laughing my ass off. He's a hysterically funny guy. The one G3 tour I saw was with Gilbert.

They may be idiosyncratic and each a bit crazy, but they're both completely genuine to themselves, there's not an ounce of  fakery in either one of them.

Even as they've both aged, they're still totally their real selves. And I always dig that about a person.

I think the regular old $6.00 Fruit of the Loom red sweatpants is probably more in order.

 

it's odd... I absolutely love the guitar player from primus.  NO ONE is that schizzo, so it's not that I don't like belews oddities... and on the other hand paul gilbert is just an amazing player... and I like lots of amazing guitar players... just haven't spent all that much time listening to either for some reason.  love the talking heads esp the wierdness!  (where IS my beautiful wife).

btw totally agree on the first pguard.  don't overthink that.

26 minutes ago, ScottR said:

That fretboard is really a rather unique coloration and pattern for Macassar ebony.I rather like it myself.

And thanks for the headstock comment. It's done me well.

SR

lovely and you did a nice job of bringing it out.  

2 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Nice save on the cracks Mike.

SR

thank you sir.  got lucky there me thinks but I'll take it.

random butcher block, noice.  i too have a bunch of cut offs... perhaps someday.  for now I will live thru your build.  rawk on.

um... apparently you aren't a big fan of devo? (red and yellow).  

name two guitar players I totally respect but can't listen to their (solo) stuff?  odd, I love bowie and talking heads... and I've loved some of the guitar tutorials I've seen from belew... love his crazy trem antics... but that's about as far as it has gone for me.  similarly, gilbert... one of the most exacting incredible speed players... and he's strangely versatile and also into the beatles... i guess I should give them both more of a listen.  

so far... i'm seeing more belew than gilbert... so no faux f holes?

hubba hubba on that fretboard.  really is a unique and beautiful piece.  

love the headstock... very elegant design - I know I've said that before... but it's 2x nice.

so... kind of a lot going on this weekend.  bought a portable ac unit so was able to cool the garage a bit... and had to do some testing of my cnc (don't ask)... in the meantime got to work on fixing the cracks in my first prototype body.  

I did not envision being able to hide the cracks so well.  both were probably 2-2.5" long and fairly open.  both required some odd pressure to be applied... ended up using a number of clamps and then a ratchet strap to pull fwd on the clamp handle to get it right.  not perfect but better than i'd have thought it would go.

exhibit a... just to the right of that dark mark near the bridge pickup cavity... you can just make out a faint line mirroring the darker grain line there...

can maybe see it a little better here

and another crack was here about 1/2" to the right of the neck pocket

little better shot here...

here I drew a line next to the cracks...

seeing how good this turned out... I'm fond of this one.  it won't fit the push/pulls I so like to use so will have to do a more mundane wiring or perhaps some toggle switchery... but this body is featherweight being 1/4+ thinner.  underdog is becoming my fav!  I'm guessing I'll have to do a nat finish on this as any dye is going to make those cracks stand out like a sore thumb... but that's a nice problem to have.

did some re-work on the neck.  did the frets but it went horribly wrong - first time that's happened to me.  had a number of problems in terms of not getting the neck straight and then leveling... got too deep before I woke up and realized what was going on.  so... learning experience afa fret removal.  only did it one other time but it went pretty good.  had two very small chips that I had to patch up.  will regroup, sand smooth one last time and check that it's flat. 

note-to-self... if you check for flat in doors and then toss neck in garage that is 115degrees - chances are it won't be perfectly flat when you go to level it!  lesson learned.  so there you have it... some of my mistakes on display.  only counts if you can't fix it!

disclaimer: me answering this post in no way implies that I think I'm a master builder.

I think you could prob tap that nail back in to spread it and put some glue in and take the nail out and clamp... it'd probably be fine.

that said... if I'm being honest and because I care - tell you the thing I know you don't want to hear... if it were me I'd think "well I really wasn't that far along on it and do I really want to spend the time to build it the rest of the way knowing it could show up really obvious at the finishing stage?"  

If it makes you feel better... on my first prototype tele body I have a hairline crack from bending the top - kind of a lot invested in it.  I can close up most of it but there is a spot that isn't going to close unless I do voodoo.  I still want to rescue it cause I don't like the idea of wasting wood or work.  It is maple tho... ime almost impossible to completely hide if you can't completely close it.

so with a crack like that (won't completely close) I could fill it with sawdust and wet the dust to get it to expand and stick in there.  then dye it, then apply clear ca and it would be hid pretty good... but not perfect.  still going to go fwd w it... if nothing else I'll learn something... but I won't let myself get too invested - I've been hurt before!

heres hoping no broken hearts for either of us.

really throwing tradition to the wind - alum, carbon fiber, plastic - I like it.  I imagine aluminum would make a challenge for wood glue too... you could probably heat it up just sanding it - enough to loosen the bond. 

looking fwd to seeing what sort of body you will marry to this.

jeebus gawd man skin graft - well I respect you diving back in with that in your history.  I suspect many of us have some pretty decent reminders of past pursuits of woodworking, but I hope not many that severe.  

so looks like aluminum encompassing wood... and semi hollow (a fav here).  looks like and interesting beginning, bravo.

8 hours ago, ScottR said:

That Tru-oil is making the faux binding happy!

SR

ty - pops pretty good at the right angle. 

39 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I saw that as well before I cut the board.

Now I see Jessica Rabbit's backside.

SR

not a bad trade at all!!

was seeing the virgin mary in that piece a min ago!  lovely wood.  looking great!

so... got her all taped off and learned a few things along the way... next time I'll start with a dark tape if light wood and visa versa... and 1/8" tape works best for sharp curves...

no time like the present for a little finishing so... dove in with just some light coats of tru oil.

and the other side...

I imagine eddie himself is giving you the heavenly nod... or he's thinking about suing you - either would be a compliment in the highest.  nice work.

looks great to me.  maple really popping and the darker spots really match the accent (walnut?) very well.  love it.

21 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

It goes to show that everything is possible but if one sees it once in 30 years or more the possibility for it to happen is once in a lifetime. Like winning in the lottery, 7 numbers out of 40 or whatever it is in your whereabouts... Someone always wins but there can be weeks between the big wins. Or, as happened to a friend, there were two coupons to share the second lowest prize of about 2.5 millions - and the other coupon was split into 50 shares! 24000 is a nice sum but it could have been a million...

yeah, wasn't a particularly nice guitar either... just a thick neck.  I'd take the 24k over it any day!!

this is prob anal... but when I have done normal truss rods I glued in a little piece of thin wood in the spot between the actual stabilization bar and the nut.  I don't use a lot of glue... barely any so one could break that pretty easy if they had to.  all that said... I do it fully realizing it's not really necc.  the one time I've done headstock adjust I did a lot of extra work to preserve the wood in that same little area and for that sm reason.  Not sure I gained anything.

I have seen one guitar where due to the topology of the neck any pressure from the rod and it would take it out of the 'ideal zone' and no pressure would mean the truss rod would literally slide around in there and rattle.  You could pull it right out.  was a pretty rare circumstance because it indicated that at that time of year in that environment, that guitar didn't need a truss rod.   I've seen it one time in 30 years so... idk why it stuck w me. 

I also put a few dabs of silicon in prior to gluing down the fretboard as many do for that reason (prevent rattle). 

just wanted to relate... that your question is one I also came to... and I suspect many of us have.  more than likely it is an issue that you'll never have (truss rod moving around).

2 hours ago, ScottR said:

I had some old vinyl at home so I did a quick test last night.

I wiped a spot with acetone and the left a puddle to evaporate. I did the same with lacquer thinner. and in a third spot I dipped my gloved finger into nitro and left a pretty heavy glop (technical term) on the vinyl.

After the acetone had evaporated the vinyl was somewhat softer in that area, and the same with the lacquer thinner only to a lesser degree. A couple of hours later the vinyl seemed to be back to normal.

The heavy glop of nitro took longer to dry and actually raised wrinkles in the vinyl like your fingertips get from soaking in warm water for a decent amount of time. By morning that vinyl appeared to be back to normal again as well.

The nitro was sort of a worse case scenario, way more in one spot than normal spraying would leave.....but similar to what would be there with a run. I think with normal spraying and starting with a couple of dust coats it would probably be okay.

I'll try to remember to take a scrap of fresh vinyl home and do a more reasonable test this weekend.

SR

 For some reason right now I can't like from my phone but I will go back and like and thanks that post for sure. Thank you so much very much appreciate it. Yeah I kind of knew that nature of you spread it on real thick just like with decal stock it's probably gonna bunch up and give you wrinkles but I would think like he said with a couple of light Coats I'd be great so thank you for that excellent excellent post

a knockout finish.  love it.  so I see that side adjust... you prob mentioned but assuming that's a warmoth neck?  I've always wondered why I can't buy those.  they really are a great idea by gotoh.  

2 hours ago, MiKro said:

I would have done a 30* Vcarve for the f-holes, then used a reverse vcarve inlay. Then done the actual f-hole cutout leaving some of the contrasting inlay as the border line

That's just the way I would have approached it. LOL

Looking good Mike!!!

MK

thanks for the reply mike!  that is a good call... having cut the top on the flat that would have worked well too.  storing that for later!  that said... and thinking more about it... I might end up putting gold/waterslide to do a border.  think that would look really nice... and won't be difficult.  the one issue would be wear... I'd bury it in lacquer but lacquer wears so easy... couple years and it'd be bare there... so still thinking about it.  

7 minutes ago, ScottR said:

The company I work for goes through several million $ of that each year.....we often clean ink from it with 97% alcohol and that doesn't dissolve it. I'd be happen to test some lacquer sitting on it and likewise lacquer thinner this weekend if that would help, and wouldn't be too long to wait.

SR

thanks for the reply scott!!

awesome... that is a good test 97% alcohol won't melt it I'd wager that lacquer won't either but if it's not too much trouble - yes I'd really appreciate that.  I still need to sand the back side, tape off the binding area, and finish the neck itself before I can even start dying the body so... gonna be at least two weekends b4 that happens.  

2 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I only sealed the edges of the fhole with cellulose sealer prior to glue up, I doubt you'd have any issues with that with your crazy top radius. 

Also, I haven't tried it because I haven't got any but I've heard good things about teak oil as a sealer for stain because it's soaks in well. Some acoustic builders wipe it round the edge of their soundboards prior to routing the binding channel to prevent tearout. Def going to try that on my next finish

 

ah, yes, right... could def done that for the f holes.  that said there are a lot of little sharp details there...

teak oil... interesting, did not realize there was such a thing.  My local spot (speaking of teak) has some flamed teak that is redic cool... but you have to buy the whole board and it's pretty spendy stuff - rest of the board is just plain teak. 

afa oil... my one concern is that it does soak in and I could see it leaving a fuzzy line... but I'm going to use it really just to bring out the flame at the edges and match the neck... then lacquer over.  I think the dye will still soak in with only one or two coats of tru oil. I would guess that if you use either of those to do nat binding... you have to do a LOT of coats.  def let us know how that goes for you!