ADFinlayson

I use danish oil for necks on my builds (only the builds I make for myself because I don't think it provides as much protection as others) I personally wouldn't recommend it for finished a stained flamed maple top - reason being that it requires a lot of rubbing away of excess and that has a habit of taking the stain with it, it's also very good at turning blues into greens. I've also found the lack of protection against plectrum scratches, finger nails etc soon gets through the finish and stain. Obviously do a tester and see what results you can get, but I've never had any success with it and stain. If you want to get a vibrant finish for a stained flamed top, I would recommend sealing the colour in with a spray can sanding sealer, then use a wipe on poly or acrylic which you could then buff to a gloss. You could then sand back the sides and do your danish oil on the rest of the neck body.

Some more progress on these 2, couple of updates in the medium of youtube and some pics. I made some mahog control covers. This is prior to learning about @Prostheta's awesome method to route around and saw off a grain matching cover so the grain direction is vaguely correct but the covers are unfortunately from a different piece of mahog. Got the whole thing filled with walnut grainfiller after spending an age taping off the neck binding and body faux binding. I've sanded the body and covers back so far, still got the neck to do. I really like this colour and unfortunately the sanded back filler is nowhere near as dark so I'm currently weighing up the pros and cons of staining it brown. The cons being that I don't particularly want to mask all the binding off again.

This is Indian ebony, which in my experience is consistently much darker than African and has a much more uniform grain structure, no light streaks or flaming. It is however, marginally softer than African or Macassar, which I've only determined by how it is to saw slots in comparison. Here is a job lot of Indian fretboards and head plates I got recently. The board on the far left is what's on Imrie's neck, it's obviously lighter due to oxidisation because it went jet black again as soon as it went through the sander, same with the peg head veneers. The fretboard on Ollie's V is also Indian ebony but has remained black, so I'm assuming that keeping it well oiled will prevent it from lightening up again.

All of the above, I worked as a self employed software engineer for a while and up until I started building guitars I also used to do a lot of freelance web development as a side gig. I often used to get new clients that would haggle on the price, I used to just tell them to look for someone cheaper, they would often come back a couple of months later agreeing to the original price. Or I would get what I considered to be 'dead leads' that would come back 18 months later and agree to my price after not finding anyone better for cheaper, then they would bicker because I've increased the quote After a bit of experience with awkward customers, I soon learnt to realise which ones were going to be awkward from the off and purposefully priced myself out of a couple of jobs, as mentioned above - losing out on some income is often better in the long run for one's mental health. It hasn't happened yet, but as soon as a potential guitar build customer starts trying to beat me down, I will tell them to find another luthier as I did with IT customers.

I've seen a little bit of movement on the two pieces of tele body since I cut them last week, so still not touching that. Some more progress on the prs build though. I used my monster surfacing bit to remove a load of excess material, this was a lot quicker than I thought and I didn't even need a router sled. I just stopped when the area for the router to sit on got too small, then I used the flush trim sawn to remove what will be the control cover. Then routed the body to final dims, the method of glueing up oversized then routing to final dimensions seems to yield far better results than My previous method, the joint between body and top is by far my best yet. Though I did also put both pieces through the sander one last time and used a freshly sharpened scraper to remove sanding streaks prior to glueing which is bound to have had a positive impact. Then routed the rebate I used to carve to for my faux binding. The grain is strong on this one. Then catastrophe struck.!I was routing the last pot recess and the router bit decided to eat more than it's quoter of maple. So I did some carving to help me assess the damage, fortunately the cap is thick and getting quite a deep carve so it looks like I can carve through the problem and figure out how to redo the recess again later. I'm going to come up with a new method of doing these recesses. Got the fretboard thicknessed down to 5.5mm then cut sides off to make binding strips. Fretboard glued on and trimmed flush, I'm waiting for a new radian rebate cutter to arrive before I can cut the binding rebate. But no rush because as I was finishing this job, the motor in the new Katsu trim router decided to burn out on second use, so that's going back to amazon for a new one - Annoying, I want to get something else that isn't shite, trouble is I've now got a katsu table insert for it and I don't know what else will fit in the insert. Hoping to get some more carving on the top done this week, maybe drill tuner holes and start work on the tele neck.

Before I got the drum sander, I would make a crude router sled and thickness it that way with it masking tape and glued to a base, just be real careful peeling it off. I used to borrow the mrs' cake slice to get under it, don't tell her though

christ than neck is bloody lovely, I'm going to have to find myself a macassar neck blank

Got the body glued together on the Imrie's build, you may notice it's rather chunky at the moment, the plan is to go for a nice deep carve so the cap is currently about 20mm. The mahog blank is also very thick because I'm planning to slice a control cover off the back off it before getting it to final thickness. I also roughed out both pieces to 1/4" over size before glueing up - a few reassons: 1. I like to rough out the shape prior to glueing so my clamps can reach further in and give me more even clamping pressure. 2. I'm planning to go at the back with a saw to cut the control cover and don't want to run the risk of damaging the sides 3. I've realised that glueing up when at final dimensions usually results in glue getting into the sides of the maple and it's a pain to get it out. Sanded the back after the glue was dry. check out this mahog, it's only a cheap "B grade" piece, I guess due to the knot, but look at the figure and the chatoyance, nicest bit I've used so far.

The little filler strip actually worked really well, truss rod is in solid and not moving, so I planed it flush this evening and got the headstock and neck taper roughed out. Put the top through the sander to get bottom flat after gluing and so I could inspect the joint, the top face wasn't actually that far out so I put that through too. Then I used a cabinet scraper to get the sander marks off the underside. Bit cold out in the garage tonight so I'll leave it until it's warmer over night before I glue it to the body blank.

Lovely piece of work, my mrs would love that (the island that is, not the robot) but alas our kitchen is about the size of your island. So moving somewhere bigger is close on the agenda, something that will no doubt be increasing my build times too.

I'm documenting two builds in the one thread as it's just easier for me to do that, hopefully it won't be to awkward to follow as both builds are quite different. I knew what you meant, just wondered if you followed in my footsteps and had a Tuesday night JD

Have you been drinking Mike?

Now that I'm getting towards the end of the woodworking on the single cut and the bass build (I can't spray any finish on them as it's too cold and wet), I thought I'd make a start on a couple of others in the queue that way I can focus on finishing when the weather is up to it later in the year. David (or @Urumiko) is a fellow member and he's having a custom 24 style build - eastern european flame maple for the neck and top, african mahogany body and indian ebony fretboard and peg head, wraparound bridge 2 knobs and a toggle. I roughed the neck out a few weeks ago - it's cut from a 2" thick blank so I wanted to let it sit a good while before doing anything serious, we had a chat about carbon fibre but decided not to bother as it's pretty much quarter sawn and it hasn't moved at all. So recent progress, I've planed a 13º angle into the headstock, glued on the ebony veneer, made a flat spot for the nut to sit on and the routed the truss rod channels. Then determined to try new things, I glued in a filler strip above the truss rod - the idea is not to conceal it but just to put some pressure on the middle of the rod so there is no opportunity for it to move around. I'm pretty sure this is standard procedure for a lot of builders. I'll plane the excess off then get the neck shape roughed in then leave it for a bit. I suppose really I should have roughed out the shape and left the neck to settle before doing this job, but if there are any problems, I doubt it would be a big deal to remove the strip and truss rod again. Hopefully it wont come to that. I used my little trim router (the one I got for my mini router table) with it's fence to cut the truss rod channel this time. Actually it did the job perfectly and I'm thinking I might get another one to just leave with the 1/4" bit in so I don't have to faff around setting up every time I do this job. With the neck out of the way I got on to the top - it's from the same supplier as the neck and also pretty much quarter sawn so hopefully figure-wise it should look fairly similar. I got a few of these tops back in October and there has been a slight movement since then, so I put the underside of both piece through the drop sander to get the backs flat before jointing the edges perpendicular to the underside with the no7. That way I can have a flat glueing surface on the bottom and a good joint between them, not worried about the warpyness in the top as it's going to be carved anyway. Having the drum sander has saved me so much time at the early stages of builds, I must have got all of the above done in just a couple of hours if we're not counting drying time. On to Matt's tele - He's got a one piece flamed walnut body, a flamed maple neck (from same place as above) but with a reverse vintage strat headstock, indian ebony fretboard, a humbucker in the neck and an angled mini humbucker thing in the bridge - one of these tele style bridge where the pickup is mounted in the bridge but he specifically wanted a bridge where he can intonate each string, not just in pairs. Can you tell yet that I know sod all about teles? Anyway, the walnut body is stunning but it weighs a shed load. I suggested we chamber it and stick a flame top on it but he's very keen on having walnut on the top, which meant that this poor sod spend 3 hours skimming off the top. so it can be chambered and glued back on. Have a look at the bit of walnut, it looks quarter sawn to me, I wanted to get it fairly close to the final shape so I was hand sawing less wood, but keep as many straight sides as possible so I could go round it with my kerfing plane, and it laughed at my band saw anyway so I had to rough out the shape with a hand saw. Then came the really shit job.. Both insides are facing out and it's clamped with spacers. I've had the wood since the summer and when I pronged the outside with my moisture meter at the weekend it read 8%, but after resawing the inside measured 13% so I'm going to leave it like this for the forseable and start work on the neck, but he want's a walnut skunk stripe so I will be taking my time and doing a bit of research.

Maybe there needs to be a new PG competition to run along side GOTM - How many guitars other members build before Norris finishes the DC

I wouldn't worry about the glue joint, I couldn't really see any problem. Joe Bloggs wouldn't either. Looks stunning

Yep fretting sucks. On the bass I'm working on, I had trouble getting the stainless steel fret ends to stay down, had super glue and press each fret end down for 2 mins... 2 mins times 48 fret ends

That f-hole looks like it must have been a pita to bind, looks great though. It'll sound mean with a neck p90 too

Absolutely no expert on this but I was watching some youtube vids from PJEggle and others that do aged finishes, they mentioned freezing for 24 hours before getting them warm again.

Water down wood glue slightly and paint the edges of your Mdf templates then sand smooth, it will seal and harden the edges so the template doesn’t turn to smooth under your router

Which Crimson stains do you have? I've bought several of the water based and spirit based stains but feel they were all useless. They come far too diluted to stain maple. All I use their black stain for is grain raising and showing up the scratches I missed before sanding it all off again. The shots I expect are better, but after doing these recent testers, I'm convinced that regardless of whether or not theyre water or alcohol based - to get any vibrant the stains need to be concentrated or close to. Anything can be sanded back to reduce intensity. I found this really useful video the other day. Definitely worth a watch

Very pleased with the Angelus dyes! I think I shall be ordering a few more of them. This was a couple of coats of the Purple sanded back with 220, then a couple of light coats of the Light Rose. Left it about an hour before chucking some Lacquer over it. Depending on how I look at it. I can see pinks, purples, blues and blacks in there. But I think I probably need to sand the purple back a bit more, then just try one coat of the rose to see if I can get it to pop some more. Surprisingly the lacquer doesn't look too bad considering it's nitro out of a can sprayed in 8ºC, pissing rain and 85% humidity

Well you're on the right track with 1500+ people liking your facebook page for sure. Based on my marketing and creative backgrounds - I think for small builders, the internet is by far the best marketing route. A professional website/brand that is reflected across social media platforms and regularly updating facebook/instagram etc is key to getting brand recognition. The problem with converting that into order is that you're lucky if 1 in every 100 followers eligible to order one. Custom builders are always going to be faced with the fact that there is a very smaller number of players than can afford to spend £2000+ on a guitar; an even smaller number of those are going to want a custom/handmade guitar over the Gibson/PRS they've always wanted. So converting Likes and Follows into revenue is the real challenge. I've had a facebook page going for about 18 months so only have something around 250 Likes, but the trouble is that at least half of those Likes are members of Amateur Luthier as a result of me sharing my builds on facebook - Those people aren't going to be ordering guitars. The most successful avenue for real new customers for me so far has been down to direct referrals though. I built a guitar for the drummer in my band in 2018 (also plays guitar), and a few of his friends have been down to the studio to see it and a couple of my other builds, 2 of those have turned into orders. So it really just seams to be an exponential growth thing from referrals - The more we churn out, the more that come along.

I seem to remember their cavities are all copper taped, can you remove the tape at the same time as tugging on the pickup? might be just enough to get it angled enough to take it out. Absolute worse case, you could take a sharp chisel and remove a hair of material right by from where it's jammed, again just enough to get a bit of angle in there so you can work it loose. If you reapply some copper tape afterwards, it will never be seen. And def file the poles down before reinserting! The PRS single cut template I use regularly also have very tight routs and I have to round over the screw poles slightly (even with PRS pickups) to get them in as well.

you're not wrong, I'm also going to see what I can get with water-based concentrates while I'm waiting for the Angelus stuff to arrive. Hopefully I'll be able to show him a couple of options.

I did also try purple over that, it looked dreadful.