JayT

44 minutes ago, Wildman Guitarist said:

Any chance you have a pic of yours?

The whole build is documented here...still ongoing but I’ve just began painting so wrapping up my first build(s) soon

I’m not sure what you’d call this place, but it’s right down the street from my house 

https://www.exoticlumber.com

Poplar was my choice for first build, I paid $28 USD and got enough for 2 guitars so only $14...but I’m painting mine so if you want something prettier worth showing grain maybe not for yours.

Happy building!

First coat of paint on. I ended up using Rustoleum semi gloss and so far looks ok. Black and Ivory Bisque (which is pretty close to vintage white) 

I plan to do min 3 coats, wet sanding in between. Then probably use Minwax rattlecan polycrylic....thoughts? No going back on the color but I’ve not bought poly yet. I have Truoil for the necks, planning on doing entire necks even painted headstock with trueoil 

Both are very cool, but like Bizman the Pennant guitar gets my vote. Funny, unlike Bizman, I prefer custom body styles

Stellar work! ... that what my kids call "a dad joke" but I proudly own it

Wish I owned this guitar too

Awesome work, is that scratch plate shape your design? Pick guards that don't closely follow the body shape really add extra visual interest IMO.

4 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Dude, is your shop in your living room, or is your living room in your shop?

Ha, my family does say I live down here but my "shop" is actually the laundry room in our basement. I've stored the old couch here (translation: I'm too lazy to take it to dump) that comes in handy as a 2nd soft, anti-dent surface for in-progress projects. Plus it has sentimental value as my daughter was practically birthed on it 14 years ago...I leave the details of that delightful experience to your imagination (you're welcome) 

2 hours ago, willliam_q said:

It will particularly reveal where you have sanded different grits of paper if you aren’t thorough enough.

Yep, I've got a bit of sanding ahead of me yet.

2 hours ago, willliam_q said:

...that to finish a guitar properly takes the same amount of time as it took to actually build it...

I hope not, it seems like the "simple things" are taking me the longest. I've omitted my 3 attempts at carving/sanding a well fitting nut. Also, nobody gave me a heads up on how much bone stinks when sanding!

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

The neck on the blonde one seems to be upside down...

But the extension tube is genious as it allows for turning the guitar around!

 One of the many failed neck carves...and on good wood that one. At least it found a purpose.

I can't take credit for the tube-in-clamp idea, I saw it in a few YT videos...but it is way helpful to be able to spin/turn it while spraying. Especially since I was spraying towards an exhaust fan pointing to an open door (not visible as I'm standing in that spot for the pics)

First coat of primer...really shows the imperfections & grain that I guess I didn’t fill quite enough. Going to fill again & sand back a bit before next primer coat 

not too terrible I can work with these

Amazing fantastic work!

On 12/17/2019 at 4:22 PM, Dmitry Sushkov said:

On 12/17/2019 at 11:45 AM, Splintazert said:

Wow, that's a great spray booth! Do you spray one guitar at a time?

So far yes. I don't have separate spray booth yet.

Looks like a Dexter kill room  

On 3/6/2020 at 4:36 PM, n8caster said:

...I'm about to embark on my first build...

Good luck! Since I'm not yet finished even one I have limited advice -- but the members here are full of wisdom and are super helpful. Looking forward to seeing your build!

On 3/5/2020 at 2:53 PM, willliam_q said:

how did you make the contour?

I suck with planes...used my rasp-saw and rasp-file mostly...also used cabinet scraper a little. The 2nd one went faster and with better results (of course) but I also reworked the first one too

9 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

...whether you'd like that edge on the top  or would it look even better if the contour was blended in...

At the moment it's sort of in-between a hard edge and a blended one...the lighting in that other pic makes it look harder than it is.

I think I'm going to shoot for a harder line/edge, and I have to flatten out the contour as it has a bit of a hump that I think is visible in this picture. I viewed a video of someone achieving a flat angle by sanding with a whole sheet of sandpaper glued to a piece of plywood or mdf.

9 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

If you still have the offcut right beside the contour, you can make the blended carve on it to see how the grain behaves visually as it's continuous to the top and thus the pores are in the same angle, shifting the light in a similar manner. Did that make sense or was it gibberish?

I'm sure I have the offcut in my scrap box...but I confess I not sure what you mean exactly as I'm still a novice at all this. 

9 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Useful reference would be the Jackson Kelly. Can't recall if they have arm contours or not. Looks good man. 

Thanks! I couldn't find any images online with one that has an arm contour.  Don't most/many bodies in the Explorer style have that "back fin" a chamber? 

Anyway, I've been looking at the The Fender Meteora for inspiration and think I may take the contour further down the tail side, almost to the centerline. Will have to overthink this as usual

One arm contour 

15 hours ago, mistermikev said:

I like to get all my holes drilled prior to finish because I like to put some true oil into the holes to seal them a bit and I also figure it will keep me from potentially scratching the finish at the home stretch.

Good tips! I'll be doing this.

7 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

But if it is, a soft convex curve behind  the bridge would certainly do the job and complement the vibe of the total guitar. 

It is, but just the slightest bit...so a soft contour it'll be...at least on one of the two

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

the thinnest spot at the belly carve should continue down the length of the arm contour as an S shape without getting thicker until at the bottom where it blends in to the actual thickness.

This is pretty much the same as the P-bass I have, and will be the example I work from. Again, on at least one. I have two after all and the whole point of the 2 was to learn and experiment.

Now that I'm at this stage it fun to think about colors/finish. I've pretty much decided on one white and one black as that was the plan (and I love it when a plan comes together) but photoshop make it easy to explore other possibilities...

I ended up drilling a bunch of in line holes and filing the switch slot....other practiced methods all had terrible results. A bit rough but best I could do.

the switch in bridge position is way close to volume knob...but the switch top is gigantic. Might swap it later.

made some truss access covers, maybe need some shaping as they’re pretty big

put one all together minus wiring and strings, feels ok! I’m wavering on the arm contour...afraid it’ll ruin the body...undecided

I've always preferred painted guitars over stained, maybe because I grew up watching at all those 80's metal bands and all the crazy paint jobs. But the longer I spend looking at the materials used by most builders here I think my tastes might be changing. This is some incredible looking stuff! 

I’ve started the pick guards, just need to drill screw and controls holes...not sure how I’m going to do the switch slot...maybe dremel

after sitting with these together I’m sure they need an arm contour...coming soon!

also I super glued my ring finger and middle finger together solid in a freak (careless) cap accident. That was not fun,

16 hours ago, mistermikev said:

page had some cool flat potentiometers under his lp pickguard on a guitar.

is there a link to this? sounds interesting

Not sure if is the correct forum, but how simple would the electronics be without volume or tone controls? Not even sure its practical at all...

I ask because (1) I've no experience in electronics and am about to do it first time and (2) I like simplicity.

This occurred to me because my friend's band has a new album coming out and watching the new song video today I noticed the lead guitarist's guitar has zero knobs. Here's a screen-shot from video:

not the greatest pic and the video moves so fast hard to really tell what's going on, so I found this pic online:

I did research on this and found an interview that answers why:

Quote

 

You don’t have tone and volume knobs on your custom guitar, right?

EC: You know about that?

Yes.

EC: No, I don’t. I got rid of all that stuff. I don’t have knobs, because when I use to play I’d hit the knobs and then wonder why the tone sounded so bad [laughs]. And, I’d hit the volume and it’d go down and I’d have to turn it back up. The first time I could finally get my own guitars made, I didn’t want the knobs. That’s really what rock n roll is anyway – on and off – there’s no in-between [laughs].

I love that!

EC: That’s the way our music is, it’s on and off! There’s a song we’re playing loud, then there’s a brief space and then other song we’re playing loud. That’s what rock n roll is, I don’t know where people got all these different pickups—there’s just loud, with a little taste to it when you hear the notes.

 

It does a switch, but only one pick-up...I guess it's an ON/OFF switch? Does it make any sense to want to build a guitar like this?

Either way, interesting I thought

10 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

...the design! It's unique and traditional at the same time...

Thanks for saying so! This is exactly what I was shooting for -- and in my mind I think I succeeded at least somewhat. I played this game with myself where I thought about a design which I could photoshop into 60's/70's iconic rock band pictures and have it look era appropriate but unfamiliar ... dumb I know, but this sort of time-wasting is what I consider as fun.

10 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I'm eagerly waiting for you to tell how the ergonomics suit your body! The only thing I'm slightly worried about is the upper corner: Does it dig into your armpit when playing in a sitting position...

Me too. In holding it as-is I don't think it'll dig into my armpit -- but I play (if you can call it that) sitting in the casual position rather than the classical so that helps. More likely that upper back corner is going to be an elbow-banging hazard.

I'm considering adding an arm contour (like a Strat) but that might make the corner sharper...

I decided to screw in (almost) everything before painting and glad I did, it seems like the end of this project is fast approaching...surprisingly both necks are dead-on straight which I was worried about...probably thanks to the laser my mother-in-law got me 10 years ago for hanging pictures level - first time I ever used it was for this project  I did have to clean off all the leaked battery corrosion but fired up no problem after that. Now I want to play these guitars!

Once I put the pick guard template on it pretty much looks like my mockups...that's pretty satisfying I confess

Impressive! You’ve inspired me to get some chisels for shaping carving