matttheguy

Alright, I've begun to put finish on the back, and I've got about 6 coats on and I'm about to scuff sand and try to level off the brush marks a bit.

Question! On the sides of the guitar, in a couple places some finish ran off down the side without my knowing and I then put another coat on top of those runs. Obviously, this creates a problem as they're extremely visible, being a bit darker than the surrounding areas. When I level sand, do you think these will dissapear?

Your wish is my command!

Here's a picture of the maple with the yellow-amber for the top with a couple of clear coats brushed on (no leveling yet).

Beneath that is a piece of mahogany with two different concentrations of red put on, no grain filler, and two coats of clear brushed on (again, obviously no leveling).

I'm going to test out both concentrations of dye with the grain filler, too, but I like how it turned out without it, to be honest.

The lighting in this picture doesn't do the amber justice. In better lighting, it's much more vibrant.

It is indeed a very good cover. Nice job cutting that precisely.

Question: How do real Supreme's do it? How are the electronics installed, and more importantly, if something like the switch or a pot fails, how are they repaired?

This, in my opinion, is a much better solution.

Ah, it worked beautifully when it was still liquid-esque. When it began to coagulate, it was harder to work with, but more acetone fixed that.

Worked like a charm!

Thanks, Prostheta!

Oh, and I wont smoke near anything that's the main ingredient in nail polish remover!

Prothesta, that sounds like a grand idea!

I'll go pick up some acetone right now and try it out. I knew you wise lads would have a remedy for it!

yahilltrade, let me go take a few and I'll get them right up!

Edit:

That looks like sawdust in there, I know, but it's actually chunks of CA glue. That's the most evident gap in the binding.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/mat...ndingGapTop.jpg

There you can see a few gaps, such as around the horn, or near the treble waist, both on top.

I just got back from the hardware store with a can of acetone, and I'll let you know how it works!

Thanks!

Alright, so, I installed the binding (cream plastic) and I've got a slight problem.

Whether the channel wasn't cut correctly, the top wasn't exactly flat when it was cut, the binding wasn't manufactured correctly, or I bent it during installation, whatever, there are slight gaps. Some of them are seen from the top, pulling away from the body. Some of them are seen from the sides, pulling up from the body. They aren't big enough for me to cut small pieces of the plastic and fit them in, but they're big enough to create a problem.

What I was wondering is how this could be remedied and if any of you have had this problem before. Could wood putty work? If putty doesn't take stain at all, I could match it to the color of the binding and it wouldn't be as blatant as it is now.

Any thoughts?

Buy a bit with a top mounted bearing, and put the template on the top, and route like that, with the bearing along the template. Then drop the bit progressively lower until it gets too close where it might cut into the surface beneath. Then use a router table or something similar (not hard to make, if you don't have one) and run the body through that. I used one bit, with a cutting distance of 1.25", I believe, to route my entire LP.

Good luck!

To do list:

Drill control/stopbar holes

Binding

Sand

Finish

All while working on freboard

I shaped the neck today, all of it done rougly within an hour, and let me say, this was the fastest and most enjoyable process of the entire guitar so far. To all of those who don't make necks because they fear they wont be nice, or whatever reason, just try it! It's fun.

Pictures of the full neck and heel here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v295/mat...guy/Les%20Paul/

The volute is unobtrusive, and it won't get in the way of the first fret, which makes me wonder why they aren't put on alot more guitars with headstock problems.

Do any of you actually get that feeling that you can hear the guitar as it's really starting to come together? All I can say is that what I'm hearing sounds reaaaaal nice.

Ok, you can do that, but underneath that finish, there might not be nice wood like on that fender, there might be wood that your dad used to build a shed in the backyard, for instance. You could end up horribly dissapointed with it, as ply wood wont look like that fender.

But to make it look like that, do what you said. Drop it, stomp on it, drag it behind your car at low speeds. Relic that guitar up. Whatever you do, don't use sandpaper, that's not going to give you true relic looks. Beat the hell out of that guitar (take all the hardware off first, of course).

Nah, it would still make an ellipse. The only degrees that WONT make an ellipse are 0 and 90, with 45 being the greatest divergence, everything angle inside of that will just change the foci and effectively the 'radius' of the curve.

Oh the good old days of Trig! Calculus and becoming an engineer pretty much killed my shot at using the math I consider to be the most fun, although Calculus is close behind.

35mm radius it is!

Oz, the divergence from a circle in such a small area (especially in relation to what is being made) is going to be so miniscule that you'll laugh!

If you could, oz tradie, give me the radius of the whole disk itself, from the center to the outer edge of the cutter when extended, that would be great. Please be as exact as possible, metric or imperial is fine, and mm would be great, as it's a closer tolerance than most imperial rulers.

If I have that radius, I can whip up some hyberbolic functions and find the angle needed to produce a cuve that would fit onto a circle with given those given radii (7, 12, 14, et cetera). I can then also give the margain of error, as it cannot be perfect due to the elliptical shape that will be produced from an angled circle.

Please excuse any bad grammar or spelling mistakes, I just woke up!

Thanks!

sexybeast, you probably exceeded your bandwith limit, as I'm sure too many people were visiting it. To rectify this, you'll have to find a better host that allows more bandwith, be it a free site, a friend or a pay host. Also, I hope you had copies of your pictures backed up!

Best of luck.

I would probably still buy a pre-slotted fingerboard, unless you are dead sure of your accuracy.

Algee, perhaps a trapeze style tailpiece, similar to the original LPs, but used as a stopbar instead of the bridge? I think they look wonderful.

Yes, there is a slight gap, probably around 1/64th of an inch, due to careless sanding, but it has since been removed after that picture was taken, following pretty much the same process that you described.

I'm not a big fan of the shape, to be honest, but it's still wonderful craftmenship. That top is stunning, also.

I angled the heel today, which proved to be a bit difficult, as the top of my body was not exactly perpendicular to the mortice, and alot of chiseling and sanding followed.

Well, I guess that's probably just as good an alternative as anything else.

Maybe on the next guitar (or bass) I'll use Rustin's.

Just wanted to post that. It looks better from the back right now, as I havn't chopped the angle into the heel yet, and there's, obviously, a big gap from the front, plus my mortice is a tad shallow, so it's still sitting proud.

At least it's in.

That's what I've heard, about the brush on. I'm thinking about brushing it on my LP, as I don't have much spray experience.

It sounds really good. Maybe I can get a deal with someone on the forums here to send it to the US.

Sorry to go off topic a bit, but, excluding epoxy, what do you all recommend for grain filling mahogany, such as on Les Pauls?

I've just heard very good things about it. You can't ignore many positive aspects.

If not Rustin's, what would you suggest?

Well, I've decided that I would like to finish my guitar off with this, or something similar, but there's one small problem: I can't find any company that's willing to ship to the US.

This leads me to my first question: Does anyone know of any companies that ship this product to the US? If so, please tell!

If not, what are some similar products that would work fine in finishing off a guitar with aniline dye on it?

Thanks!