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ShatnersBassoon

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Everything posted by ShatnersBassoon

  1. Thanks for the replies guys. I really appreciate it as always! I’ve figured out that part of the issue is simply because I wasn’t getting rid of some of the scratches from previous grits. I also hadn’t properly got rid of a few imperfections in the epoxy. Back to 600 grit and working my way up! Using only wet sanding now, as I have a feeling I was pushing material around that had been in bedded in to the sandpaper and causing the more undesirable type of scratches. Maybe I was using too much pressure, so working on close to zero now. Also, I’m going to do a different sanding direction on each grit now, so I can gauge my progress a lot better.
  2. So…I seem to be getting a gloss now. But I think I might need to get some higher grits than 2500. Maybe I should get something like this? https://www.axminstertools.com/micro-mesh-soft-touch-pad-abrasives-211364?queryID=797b7e222982afa92a144bedc48ebc65 There’s some tiny scratches in there. Will try some machine buffing instead of just doing it by hand like I have been doing, and see how that goes, maybe that might get rid of the micro scratches. Failing that I will try getting the higher grit papers.
  3. Thanks I went up to 2500 grit. I may work on it more to get that shine. Or I may keep it a satin. I seem to have a huge problem getting rid of scratches though, still lots of tiny little marks if you look really closely…it’s the bane of my life Interestingly, in the past I’ve noticed that fine wire wool does not show up marks in the same way that sandpaper does.
  4. Turns out that I did indeed need to level etc, and a few anomalies did occur. Probably the environment I was working in. Anyway, went through all the sandpaper grades and it refuses to fully gloss…maybe the powers that be are telling me to keep it that way. Or maybe I need to work on my buffing I think this requires a scratchplate. It’s a bit bare without I think. Mocked up a quick idea with some paper.
  5. Yeah, it’s shaping up nicely. As is often the case with epoxy, it looks great when you first put it on, but when it’s fully cured the result can look sub optimal. I had to do some heating with the gun during the curing process to get rid of certain anomalies in the epoxy. Hopefully it will look good when it fully cures…otherwise lots of sanding will be needed to get it looking right. Won’t be the end of the world though. Fingers crossed!
  6. Took off the black feathering/paint today, and put another layer of epoxy on there…with a more suitable brand. I suppose you could say it’s evolving
  7. I’m quite a fan of the whole “flying by the seat of your pants” approach. It’s exciting
  8. This bloody guitar has went through more changes than David Bowie I’m sure there’s a few facepalms going around from people that are following this. I made the decision to actually go for a neck pocket, it’s not very deep…but makes everything look more streamlined. Put some fabric on the top…Made a mistake though, I stupidly used some Zap 30 minute epoxy. Whilst it’s a superb product, it definitely wasn’t ideal for the purpose. It was very thick and as a result hard to get level. Ah well, learnt some new tricks along the way, mainly how to get a nice 1k clear coat on there. Got some craft epoxy today that is much more suited to this kind of thing. Going for the fabric look on the headstock next, and maybe the back of the guitar. Maybe I should call this guitar ‘Ch Ch Ch Changes’
  9. So…after lots of finagling, I felt a change of plan was in order. I wasn’t quite satisfied on an aesthetic level. I got a sheet of stainless steel and did some heat treating on it with the blowtorch. You get all these cool colours when you do that, as I’m sure most of you guys already know. The bottom section is going to be covered by a panel…thinking of cutting some artwork in to that section so that atleast some of the tinfoil/epoxy is visible. So far so good! More shaping still to come obviously. I might do a bit of chambering underneath the new top, as the stainless steel has added another 1.7 lbs on to the weight. Still not sure what to do about fretboard inlays. The board is already scalloped, which complicates matters.
  10. It was a bit of a pig to work with! Another thing about the titanium I have is that it smells like horse dung….maybe that’s just my imagination though
  11. Pretty sure it isn't. I have quite a bit of titanium in the house and it changes colour when i work on it (the whole heat reaction thing). Also it 'work hardens'. Not getting that from this particular metal. However, interestingly its heavier than other aluminium I have used.
  12. Definitely ideal for Metal Great work!
  13. Did a bit more shaping today, added some contours in to the top and got rid of most of the extraneous metal from the sides. Incidentally, this aluminium is insanely hard…it must be some sort of space age alloy. Still need to shape it where it meets the end of the neck.
  14. Just a thought at the moment . I pretty much never use the tone personally, if I was to be totally honest I would wager that’s the same for most players…could be wrong ofcourse.
  15. Cool. I suppose I could do it and see how it goes. If it’s not to my liking then the resistor idea would be on the cards…or I could just add a pot . Clearance is an issue on this build, because the body is so thin. Another issue is the volume jump I keep hearing about. It’s already quite a hot pickup I believe, and would like to get a few nice clean sounds out of it along with the usual overdriven/distorted stuff. We will see.
  16. Wondering how many on here have done this, and what the experience was? Slightly tempted to do it on the current build, it features an Artec Hotrails in the bridge position. I’ve heard it adds treble, but how much? Is it a piercing amount, or does it depend on the pickup? Cheers all.
  17. Routed out a section on the top of the body and filled it with crumpled tin foil, put a layer of epoxy on the top. My design now has evolved in to a guitar with no neck pocket (taking inspiration from Ken Parker). I bolted it on to the body today. The bridge hasn’t been bolted on yet, but it’s going to go on top of a corian riser so that it is at the right height for the strings. So far so good! Exciting times! As you can see, I need to titivate the shape slightly…parts of the aluminum are not yet plush with the carbon fiber. I’m also going to make it blend in to the neck section properly.
  18. Maybe you could save the body section?
  19. Ive sometimes thought about how cool it is that Ola kind of cut his teeth on this forum, and that him winning Guitar of the Month inspired him to take things further. Ofcourse, the rest is history. You can still see some of his posts on here. I wonder if he still checks out this forum from time to time? Its really interesting seeing how his ideas developed on here! A genuinely innovative builder by the looks of it. Both Strandberg and Ken Parker fascinate me.
  20. Oh man!! Such an exciting build too. Love it when people work with unusual materials. Have you got any plywood left?
  21. I will have to ‘shim’ the bridge anyway, because as my plans stand the neck will be a little bit higher off the body than usual, so if I did a similar thing in the humbucker area like you suggested then I could make it so that it doesn’t look out of place, maybe make that area kind of ‘at one’ with the bridge.
  22. I think that maybe the difficulty when it comes to that mounting strategy possibly is related to if the pickup is adjustable or not. Don’t think it will be in this case, the body is just too thin to allow for that….but we will see. I came across the inverted Strat jack thing on another forum, but I didn’t hear about anyone doing it for clearance.
  23. Firstly, an apology of sorts. I’ve realised that I tend to go from one project to the next, even when the previous build could have been titivated in to something approaching true completion. Such is my personality though, I just get way too excited about new ideas. I feel a bit sheepish about that, because I feel I peak peoples interest and they don't get to see where it ends up. Anyway, for this build I have salvaged the fretboard off a carbon fiber neck I built over a year ago, that proved to not be viable because I hadn’t calculated properly how much it flexed. As you can see, the fretboard is corian...I made the mistake of using too much corian and too little CF. Anyway...Luckily the board came off reasonably easily. Calculations confirmed that with a shorter scale length, and with the addition of a heel, I could incorporate this fretboard in to a CF panel neck that was ridiculously thin (15.2mm). I went ahead and did just that, making sure to test how much it flexed, almost a negligible amount...but to me about the right amount allowing for around 100lbs of string tension. Luckily my father is a structural engineer, so he helped me out with calculations. This lead me to want to do a similar thing with the body, why not make use of the rest of my carbon fiber, and make that really thin too? Ofcourse, this has posed a bit of a dilemma with regards to electronics and clearance for the output jack. So I went with the option of a Stratocaster jack turned upside down. The humbucker is going to go all the way through the body and will be screwed in from the back. So anyway, in its current incarnation its short scale (23 inch) guitar, zero radius scalloped corian fretboard, 15.2 mm neck (apart from the heel), with a 12mm thick carbon fiber body that has an aluminium back. Im working on semi hemispherical fret ends to incorporate in to it. Obviously the neck is going to be recessed, I just placed it on the body so I could get a rough idea of things. As you can see, its far from there yet on a aesthetic level, but I think I have it worked out. Should hopefully look pretty bangin' when its done. I might even contour it a bit to make some of the areas even thinner...if Im feeling brave enough! Another thing Im going to do is route a quasi scratchlpate section in to the top, which will be filled with coloured epoxy.
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