Bizman62

39 minutes ago, MiKro said:

I know from experience that one should use a radius on the top and some form of bracing.

What would you think about making a flat top with braces heavily radiused to the inside? Lacking the words let me draw it:

Would that be enough to keep the top from sagging or do you think the overall curvature with braces radiused against the top (and maybe bottom too) would be more rigid?

7 hours ago, sadclevelandsports said:

Guitar staining is a surprisingly deep skill set.....

Indeed it is. That's why scraps of the very same pieces are invaluable and why you should perform the exactly same procedures to them as to the actual workpiece. And you'd still be prone to surprises as the properties of wood can change within half a foot especially cross grain, sapwood v.s. heartwood that is.

I've also used just CA as it's widely available and relatively inexpensive depending on where you buy it. Bending the binding to shape with moderate heat also helps.

Canopy glue used by RC hobbyists is an alternative. I haven't personally used it but have heard good reviews about it both from RC and guitar builders - Jerry Rosa liked it much as the excess can be wiped off with a damp cloth. According to him it's like a mix of Titebond and CA glue. Pacer ZAP Formula '560' was the brand he used but there's others, just do a Google search for 'Canopy glue'. The price tag for those seems to be a fraction of BindAll.

Looks great! The big turquoise area of epoxy looks just like I thought it would as it won't take the dye but the black burst will tame that. The smaller turquoise spots blend nicely in. Well done so far!

Those short shafted large diameter bits somehow seem scarier than narrower ones. The ones where only the blades protrude from the shaft look much safer to me. Something like a 10 mm bit with an 8 mm shaft.

I've only used 2k twice for my guitars and haven't used any sanding sealer.  After a decade they still are perfectly flat even at the ends. The need for filling may depend on the wood, though. Mine were maple and alder, both of which have quite tiny pores. And I did a proper sanding after the first coat so the 2k acted as a sanding sealer.

The burl is porous but based on the pictures you spread the epoxy quite liberally so there should not be too large gaps. Again, I'd test with a scrap piece.

11 minutes ago, MiKro said:

They are missing the tail part  ( cutout ) of the extension, thus making it shorter. Why? I have no clue.

@curtisa showed the explanation:

That looks stunning! Like travelling in a space ship through the Milky Way.

I was going to say that yours looks purplier than the role model but then it occurred to me that the photos are taken under different conditions with different cameras. A google search revealed that on some photos the Majora Purple guitars look just like your scrap piece.

Did you have any of that turquoise on the test piece? If so, it hides itself well! If not, you may encounter surprises.

Another thing to test is the finish over the dye. The clearcoat will enhance the figuration somewhat similar to your last wash when wet. But it may also add some yellow/orange to the mix. Boiled linseed oil or shellac are also commonly used to highlight the patterns but they have an even more of an amber hue which may give a surprising end result. Even a clear lacquer may not be totally clear, it can be 'cold' or 'warm' which can do tricks. Or it may have a hue that vanishes. Some years ago I rebuilt our floors, new pale pine, and the lacquer looked purple in the bucket! When spread on the floor it looked just wet, emphasizing the figuration some. Years of daylight have darkened the pine but there's still no evidence of any purple hue, even the palest sections are natural golden similar to untreated light exposed wood.

Heating the sauna is always a good "Plan B".

The final stages take forever!

The nut was way too high so I filed the slots and did the 3rd fret pressing procedure to check the action. So of course the grooves unexpectedly became too deep and started grabbing. Guess which version of the files worked better! You guessed it, the €20 Temu set has the looks but the feeler gauge was both faster and smoother.

Reshaping the nut was next on the list. Started with a file but in all honesty the sanding block with some 80 grit worked much faster. For the record the nut popped out during the slot filing process and knocked a chip off where there was the tiny drop of super glue. Despite having been sold as bone the chip that broke off didn't look 'organic' so I suppose it's bone dust and epoxy. Still much better than a hollow piece of plastic!

And finally I spot leveled the ends of a couple frets. They were too easy to find, playing chromatically two adjacent frets produced the same note. Not a major issue, they were on the dusty side and only affected one string. Used the grooved cheap crowning file and finished with the nail buffing sponge. The action is now low without buzzing although the fret rocker clicks here and there, again in spots that only affect one string.

Flying by the seat of my pants can cause unpredictable issues: Originally I was going to use a hardtail but then a fellow told that he has some trapezes from guitars he had modified which led me to make the scrapwood bridge. The height is right for a good angle but the string angle is too much on the shallow side for my liking. Most likely because of that the sound is metallic like a tin can and lacks the low end. Removing the neck and re-routing the neck pocket to an angle and adding height to the bridge would be the ultimate fix but I'd rather try something else. When discussing the matter with Veijo he first suggested screwing the trapeze down against the body but that would make changing strings a bit clumsy. Then he suggested reseating the end plate, even carving the top a bit. That might work, worth giving it a try next Saturday.

1 hour ago, henrim said:

5 hours ago, peachtree said:

plan in AI

For a moment I thought you really shouldn’t go that route but, I realized you must mean Illustrator and not the AI that gets a lot of press these days

Whew, thanks for that clarification!

9 hours ago, sadclevelandsports said:

Still gonna go for purple, but should have some nice turquoise specs after I sand back. 

That may turn out to be a happy accident.

That said, also bear in mind that although the epoxy filler will not blend with any dye, optical rules still apply. Not only for the filler, also for the wood itself. Wood is basically brown, from light beige to almost black. And how do you get brown? It's red and yellow with some blue. You rarely see plain blue in nature, so red and green might be easier to figure - summer leaves and autumn leaves. Now when you add dye to that natural mix, the lighter grain may surprise you by adding yellow to the mix, dulling the purple. But it depends, there may be enough red to keep the result more majestic. Similarly the blue epoxy can enhance the royal feel.

I found this little online tool very handy for guessing what the end result might be with different proportions: https://trycolors.com/mixer. Start by mixing the purple you're going to use, then add some yellow or green for the "wood effect". You can increase the proportions by clicking the colour dots and reduce them by clicking the minus sign below them. Using scrap pieces is even better, hopefully you've used the filler on them as well.

Your build quality is as tidy as your workbench area! And using the hammered look Rust-oleum on masonite and plywood was clever as it "hides surface imperfections". Getting those materials flawless would require a ton of fillers and primers which might crack due to moisture changing the proportions of the masonite.

I've sometimes toyed with the idea of building a Dano style guitar, they have a certain vibe. Almost ghetto,,,

Speaking about midges, Google seems to want to translate the most relevant article, in this case Wikipedia:

Quote

A midge is any small fly, including species in several families of non-mosquito Nematoceran Diptera. Midges are found (seasonally or otherwise) on practically every land area outside permanently arid deserts and the frigid zones. Some midges, such asWell, the first word can't be found anywhere although Google thinks it means 'a fly'.

The first 'midge' was translated to a word that Google can't find and I've never heard. 'Fly' in the same first sentence was translated to a shape that is used in conjunction with another noun, roughly 'fly related' like in flypaper. Nematoceran was translated as 'shuttle-sausageous', again a word Google doesn't know elsewhere. 'Midges' in the second sentence wasn't translated at all, it read 'midges'. Finally, in the third sentence 'midges' was translated - drrrrrrum rrrrrrollll - 'midgets'!

8 hours ago, ScottR said:

There are several sets of bug's feet embedded in it

Isn't it funny how you don't see a single insect until you've spread the lacquer? The solvents seemingly evaporate fumes that resemble some feromones or food. Mayflies are fun, apart from feet they also have three long tail projections. Some butterflies, possibly of the Pyraloidea superfamily, also seem to like the smell of thinners. Add a pair of brownish wings to the finish... My father once painted a swing for us kids, beautiful light blue with Mayflies and moths.

Hi and welcome!

That sounds just like what I was experiencing with my first P90 build: Lots of hum that didn't go away when touching the strings. The fix was easy after I found the flaw: The jack wires were mixed, hot went to the sleeve and ground to the tip.

As you're using solderless controls it might also be that the pickup wires are the wrong way around. By the pictures it looks like the plugs can be put in both ways.

4 hours ago, Hamfist said:

there's alot to know !

Well... actually not so much but even that little seems to be too much for the Chinese Ebay vendors!

For what I've learned there's just one essential thing: The 12th fret has to be right in the middle of the scale length. No matter how many frets you have or what the scale length is, that rule can't be omitted. When building from scratch it may be easier, with prerouted/-drilled parts from here and there you'll never know.

4 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Interestingly, in the past I’ve noticed that fine wire wool does not show up marks in the same way that sandpaper does.

One reason for that is that the dust wanders deep into the wool instead of building a hard lump on the surface. Nylon abrasive felt works similarly and you can even use it wet without fear for rust colouring the surface.

2500 grit definitely requires a couple of pastes for a gloss. Or finer grits and a swirl remover compound.

12 hours ago, RVA said:

I am starting to think that a neck does not have enough surface area to provide a true sense of a quilt grain pattern.

That looks pretty but I understand what you mean. A top made of that could make you seasick... But it doesn't look bad either, there's plenty going on along the length. Looks almost like there's dozens of humps and bumps! I like it very much.

11 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Anyway, went through all the sandpaper grades and it refuses to fully gloss…

How high was the highest grade? When sanding the 2K poly of my Strat I used "papers" intended for sanding paint, got them from a car paint vendor. Up to 2000 grit wet paper works quite well, from there I used 3M foam disks 3000 and 6000 grit, also wet. At places I had to go back one or two grits to remove sanding marks that popped up from an otherwise smooth surface. Even the 6000 left a milky shade to the clearcoat. After that I used a swirl remover compound. I skimped so I only bought the finest of the three of that series which I had to pay by having to use more elbow grease.

3 hours ago, curtisa said:

Trouble is once you've done that you're nearly at the point where you probably should have bought a genuine Floyd or Schaller locking trem to begin with in terms of financial outlay.

Not to mention that the "very cheap off-brand" can be made out of some soft pot-metal with loose subpar threadings. The "real" parts may not fit directly. I've used some very cheap bridges and noticed that the bushings and studs don't quite match (a round of copper tape may stop the wobbling) as don't the socket set screws. The latter I've been able to fix by buying "real" M3 socket set screws from the local bolt store and re-tapping the holes. That's an easy and inexpensive fix. Regarding that it might be that the original threaded holes are a tad too wide and/or the bolts/screws a bit thinner than what you'd get from your local hardware store.

Just warning you that upgrading top shelf parts may tear the cheap base. I'd use the cheap one for testing if the entire guitar pleases me and if it does, upgrade the entire Floyd to a better one when budget allows.

11 hours ago, KuotaGrant said:

And, for some reason, I am unable to edit, as in delete my posts. 

So you can't see the "Edit" option behind the three dots in the upper right corner of your posts, or is it greyed out? For me it seems to work even for old posts. Agreed, there's no "delete" button but wiping the entire post can be done. If you can't use that option it might be because you haven't posted much yet. Can't actually remember how that is.

15 minutes ago, KuotaGrant said:

QUewstion, is it possiblee to reemove the truss rod, or at least [pull it out a bit from the neck in order to make the sawing easier?

By looking at the pictures that's not an option unless you take the fretboard off. The square thing at the end of the rod is locked in place so it won't rotate or slide, it's the solid anchor. Basically you could unscrew the adjusting nut at the headstock and pull the rod out but you can do that only after having sawed the neck but that doesn't make sense, does it? Very hypothethically, if you could drill a hole from inside the body to that anchor and by some means grab the anchor, you might be able to pull the rod. That would be much more hassle than just carefully sawing around the rod.

I wonder if there's thin enough blades available for an oscillating multitool. That might be handy for getting even closer to the rod.

18 minutes ago, Crusader said:

(Got to get around to buying one)

Your local metal warehouse will sell you any length of square aluminium tube, or you may even find a suitable piece at a demolition or construction site - that kind of tube is widely used for supporting board walls in toilets and such. Of course it will need some truing but the tools needed for that should already be in your box.

The craftmanship is indeed superb and the design is both modern and traditional at the same time. Actually "vintage futuristic" might be the closest, something one might see in "the Jetsons" cartoons and comics. The logo emphasizes the theme nicely.