willliam_q

That’s a nice piece of quilt. It’s at that stage the i always start to get impatient! 

Couple of videos just to show some distortion and clean sounds.  Pay no attention to sloppy playing or my funny faces

https://youtu.be/awuYWO38V1U

https://youtu.be/ZHkQYJyWoW8

Immaculate as always!

Cheers thanks Mike

Here’s my entry for GOTM, cheesy name of ‘Purple Haze’ just for PG

This is my third working guitar, it’s definitely the best one so far.  I would say it’s heavily based on a Jackson dinky with some inspiration from ESP.

this build had a lot of firsts for me:

First time Maple walnut laminate neck

First time binding and my own laminate binding at that

first time doing inlays

first time adding a top

first time staining anything
certainly a learning experience but very very pleased with the results. 

specs:

flamed maple top with limba body

Flamed maple with walnut laminate neck

maple and walnut laminate bound ebony fretboard with abalone acrylic inlays

14” radius neck with jumbo frets

gotoh tuners

original Floyd rose with some upgrades such as brass trem claw(for looks not sound), fat brass block, turbo arm.

emg het set pickups

sorry but pictures have been rotated by my phone!

and a couple of video clips put together very rushed to show dirty sound and clean.  Please pass no remarks on the playing! or the weird faces I make when playing ...didn’t realise I did that till now
 

https://youtu.be/awuYWO38V1U

https://youtu.be/ZHkQYJyWoW8

Thanks for all the great replies!!

Good job on the repair Biz, that’s definitely not an easy job.  I actually think it adds a bit of a ‘feature’ and looks good,

I’d be wary of superglue and dust against the maple and walnut.  Superglue maybe could darken it too much?  I known I’ve mixed superglue and maple before but never get results I like.  Dunno but I think I might mix dust and wood glue instead to make a filler.

Personally I wouldn’t go for that option.  As a one pickup guitar it’s already limited in tones and versatility.  Removing the tone and volume control makes it a one trick pony altogether.

i have a one pickup guitar with only a volume control.  I miss the tone control and additional pickups. Even though I only use it for van halen stuff and have a few other guitars, I still miss versatility on it. 

I built a evh 5150 replica guitar a couple years ago with an new original 1984 Floyd Rose.  It came with a fat brass block but was only 37mm.  I really needed 42mm to allow spring clearance to stop them contacting the body.  Instead of replacing the block at the time I did a bodge and dug out relief tracks for the springs.

I bought a black original Floyd Rose 2nd hand on eBay for this guitar but it only had the standard thin block.  I ordered up a 42mm brass block non original and have now swapped it into the evh with the plan to put the original 37mm block into the Floyd for this guitar.  
 

the new brass block seems better finished than the Floyd, and was a tenner cheaper.  See how they’ve polished off the machining marks.  (The original is on the right)

Notice the small strip of metal is a shim for the saddles to get them to 10” radius as standard.  I’ve now removed it as my evh has 12” radius neck.

I agree with the above, a long drill bit and A will work.  Don’t stress it too much, using a long drill bit is easier than you might think.

the hardest part of any of this is getting a clean hole bored to take the jack, but even then that will be hidden behind a jack plate (depending on what you intended to use).

also be aware of where the jack is on your guitar stand, (if you use a stand that is) you don’t want it stopping you from putting the guitar on the stand.

@ShatnersBassoon I Can’t advise on clearance other than to say the standard Floyd rose route template (minus the full top recess) will give you all the clearance to the rear that you need.  The fact that you are top mounting it doesn’t make the clearance any less.

also be mindful that because you are top mounting it your block size needs to be longer.  I think the standard block length is 37mm which is fine if you are doing a full recess but for top mounting you need a 42mm block.  

3rd coat of oil on the neck and I think I’m up to 8 now on the body.  The limba pores have more or less completely filled in, with just a very small amount of textured grain, which I like very much.

love the flame on the neck, the oil just brought that out.  Probably a few more coats on the neck and I’ll be ready to assemble.
 

Looks great, I love the look of the first oil coat on anything as it seems to bring it alive.  
 

I got a random orbital and it did make things a bit quicker but when it came to final sanding from 120 grit on I did it all by hand.

also with mine I find the orbital  it’s only really any good on flat surfaces Like tops and backs.  The neck etc was all done by hand.

one of the best sanding tools I have is the Triton bobbin sander, makes sanding around guitar horns and headstock a breeze.  Those are my least favourite areas to shape by hand sanding.

Yep a cove bit  could work, or you could drill into the maple or whatever you use before you cut it and then cut down the hole in half to get the same effect 

Yes, that’s exactly how I think I would do it too

Good job on the repair, certainly much better than using filler as that should only be used to fill small dinges and even then only on solid colour guitars.

i have router issues of my own but am learning.  I like the double bearing on your bit, means less likely to dig into and track your templates but also is good in case a bearing lets go.

A skunk stripe should be the best bet.  Will you chisel out the remainder of the Cavity in order to fill it?  Could be risky trying to use a router to do it.

when putting the skunk stripe in you could round over the side going against the nut barrel concave so it almost wraps around the nut.  This might provide for a better fit and more gluing surface at the sides against the neck

Thanks @ADFinlayson

I’m actually happy with the binding now and to be honest I’d be nervous taking sandpaper to the edges.  I’d be worried about not getting a consistent sharp line.  I’m not the most accurate worker with sandpaper and tend to overdo it on painted surfaces.  

That’s why my finishing is usually the part that lets my work down.

the razor blade worked well enough on the body but I did find on certain areas of my neck headstock I would get a bit of chatter.

No further pictures but I have a 3rd coat oil on body. 

I was spraying a black burst on the headstock, looked great but when cleaning the spray gun some thinners sparked on to the paint work.

this meant tonight I had to sand it back, stain and burst again.

its amazing how familiarity of a process can really speed it up.  I’d have spent several days allowing the stain to dry previously and spraying.  Tonight, using a heat gun to dry the stain quicker, I managed to do all in an hour and a half.

22 hours ago, ScottR said:

And like its big brother it need to trim down a bit.

That looks like it would be hard work, how long did that take?  
 

im looking forward to following this one, the top is going to be very striking!

When I was cutting the relief into the fretboard, I did it off the body.  In fact I built, binded, and inlayed the fretboard before I even drew out the neck on the maple.  I then used the fretboard as my router guide to shape the neck.  Worked well for me

Used fine finishing pad to sand back the finish to pop the grain.  First coat of danish oil on body.  Some colour did lift on to the cloth but very happy with it so far.  

The faux binding came out well, the stain didn’t soak through anywhere so nice tight line.  I did leave a very fine faux line on the top, probably should have gone a bit thicker when I was masking off but am pleased all the same.

whilst wet the colours really do dance under good lighting, love it

I put what I think will be the final colour on, blue over the sanded back purple to enhance flames, then ran over then blue with my purple rag without adding additional colour.

its very hard to photograph and looks very different in different lights.

in this photo you can see the conflict between blue and purple in the flame

In this photo under bright light it photographs blue but looks purple in real life 

and in this photo I couldn’t resist setting on some of the hardware, also note how it is purple and the further down you get to look across the guitar the more purple it gets.

ill take some fine scouring pads, not steel wool as I’d be afraid of small particles rusting over time, and lighten the colour a bit which should pop the flames and bring through more purple.

Thanks all, yes very pleased with the repair. 
 

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

purple on the body looks fantastic, it will look nuts with a gloss clearcoat over it.

I agree but I think the colour is going to change, I’m going to sand it back and go over it with light blue, hopefully it will be just as class.

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

Have you had any issues with the stain soaking into the edge binding?

I’m not sure yet, still haven’t removed the tape.  I did brush lacquer the edges with 3m fine line tape as an edge guide.  Hopefully I’ll just sand / scrape off lightly around the edges to reveal a nice clean edge.  At least that’s the plan!