matttheguy

30"x4"x3".

I didn't want to do a scarf joint, just to keep it somewhat within Gibson's original specs, although I am adding the volute. It was just a matter of personal taste, I suppose.

All the scrap wood is going to create a mandolin, one way or another.

Welllll then, to get back on track!

Here's some photos that I just uploaded today. They're kind of old, but I'll get some new ones up soon!

Here's a pic with the top of the body routed. No, I am not going to chamber the body. I like carrying around something that has a weight similar to a 50lb barbell:

And here's a link to a rough cut of the neck. I'll get one up with the truss rod in it, soon:

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

I would have been but only 4 years old... which, strangely, doesn't seem that long ago... I guess I'll always be a child.

That back looks lovely!

I love the difference in colors on that piece of wood.

So, I adjusted the blade on the spokeshave. It seems to have been set to cut too deep, and it wanted to skip right over the wood. Now when I go over that maple, it's like cutting through butter.

I should have the carve shaped within the next few days.

You'll find that a well sharpened scraper will be worth it's weight in P90s whe you come to finish the carving.

There are a few tutorials on sharpening scrapers around and they are worth looking at. Oval scapers are excellent when carving maple.

Be prepared for quite a bit of sanding too . . .

Yes yes, the sanding has begun. I'm not exactly a ripped man, and let's just say my shoulder isn't accustomed to this kind of use!

I have been using my scraper, also, to smooth out the carve.

Your book and Setch's blog have helped immensely so far.

So, I adjusted the blade on the spokeshave. It seems to have been set to cut too deep, and it wanted to skip right over the wood. Now when I go over that maple, it's like cutting through butter.

I should have the carve shaped within the next few days.

It's sure going to take alot to get use to. I'm still skipping across the wood at some points, and it's hard to keep a carve smooth...

It's not that noticeable, but you had mentioned it and that was all I could see.

Aging them would bring you more towards the lighter woods' colors, but with black hardware, black covers may be the best choice.

Also, is your slip up on the pickup routes on the bridge pickup, on the right screw recess?

I'd say age those pickup covers a bit, the white contrasts too much, in my opinion. Either that, or get black covers. There are already a few different contrasting colors in your project, from the woods, and that white just doesn't sit well.

Other than that, the guitar looks nice! Are the biscuit joints from the table?

For what I was talking about (which I should have explained further, sorry), I wasn't using a template. For instance, I'm about to glue the maple top to the mahogany, and I'll have to flush route that, meaning the bearing will be riding along the mahogany during the process.

But, you did address it. I probably was pushing it too hard into the body itself, causing the bearing to leave a trail.

Thank you very much.

Now comes the spokeshave!

Okay, two questions.

To restate, does anyone know a way to stop the marring, or the slight indentation, caused by a router bearing?

Also, I just purchased a convex spokeshave. When I go against the grain (on a practice piece of maple, of course), it works beautifully, but when I go with it, it skips across and does not want to cut (or is it the other way around?). With this said, how do you use it to carve in those areas?

I thought most LPs had a scale length of 24 9/16 ?

It's simply amazing. It has something called tube-tone circuitry, which I assume is meant to mimic the sound of a tube amp, and it does it perfectly. When I first heard it in the music shop, I could have sworn it was a tube amp, certainly not a 30watt solid state. It packs alot more punch than any 30watt I've ever played. The effects are good for the small amount they give you. Plus, it just looks cool and vintage with the red leatherette. I got mine for $150, and it was well worth it. I'd say get one now before Epiphone wises up and jacks the price!

You can see on the top right corner a little bit of stain. I had stained a bit to show my mother what the grain was going to look like once finished, and how it will move.

Most of the 'maple only' grain will be covered by pickups, fingerboard, bridge and tailpiece, so the focus will undoubtedly be the figured grain. I never liked the highly figured woods, such as 4A and 5A, so I got something which showed both grains in good quantity. This piece is only a 1A from LMI, and I'm VERY pleased with it. The figuring is where it needs to be, and as a bonus it's figured in a sort of pattern. You can see near the bottom of it there it makes a sort of arrowhead shape, I love it!

I can honestly say I love the 'lesser' grade woods in comparison to the 'higher' grade.

Well, I've finally started to get going on this project.

I've glued the maple pieces together and rough cut it about 1/4" from the actual shape. I've also cut the body and shaped and sanded it down to pretty much the final shape, within 1/16".

Now for the body is to just route the cavities, glue the top on, flush route that, and carve away!

In this photo I show the back of the mahogany, as it has been sanded much nicer than the front, which still has a little bit of math and some sketches on it.

Now, I've got the body sanded to about the right shape, but I'm thinking the bearing on the router, for flush routing the top and for routing the binding channel, may mar the mahogany. This isn't THAT big of a problem, a little more sanding will not hurt, but is there any way you people avoid this? Thanks in advance!

Bah! Hendrix wouldn't have had that kind of wear in the cutaway. That wear only comes from right-handed users!

Just kidding. The cutaway looks much better now that you smoothed it out. It's looking splendid!

I was going to buy the Valve but opted on the Firefly 30DSP. It sounds so much like a tube amp that I'm quite glad I saved the money and went for this amp. When I first started tearing into it, I was convinced that it had to be a tube amp, and certainly not a 30 watt solid state! The effects work great on it, too, but they're limited. Hey, you can't have it all in one package!

How do you like the effects on the Junior, Mickguard?

It's great that you were able to use that kind of technology in 7th grade. My has technology advanced! They were teaching us slide rules in our advanced classes, not robotics!

I just graduated last year with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, but I took a couple classes on robotics (real, not just lego!), as required by my department, and the mechanical engineering classes were what built my basis for aeronautics, so the ratio probably will not be something of a trouble for me to program.

I would tell you, monkey, to learn some basic and C++ and program the lego brick using those, it's much more versatile and much more exact than using the mindstorms programming method. Everything becomes much more efficient when using exact numerical approaches instead of computer given commands (which yes, are numerical approaches, but I think you get what I mean!).

Building a pickup winder and programming it to wind a pickup flawlessly is the easy part; applying a burst finish - that's where the dragon bites me.

I took a screenshot for him!

Aye, quite odd!

In AutoCAD in the plot menu you can choose to print fullsize, and then move the center of reference around to print in a tile format, then tape it together after printing.

Without a plotter, only a regular printer, it's going to be pretty tough to print it fullsize on one sheet.

They're quite expensive, also.

I've noticed them on Ebay for awhile now, and even if they aren't from the Gibson factory, they look quite nice and would probably restore a guitar beautifully. But, it seems like he has a supply from someone who can get those from Gibson.

Who knows?

Les Paul headstocks are covered with veneers, like in the second Ebay link you have there. I'm not sure how they apply the 'Les Paul Model' logo on the guitars that carry that, but I'm willing to bet it's on the veneer itself.

LMI also sells ebonized veneers for just the same purpose, but without the Gibson logo, of course.

I'll add my two cents, but mind you I'm no authority.

A few years back, probably '98 or so, some professors at MIT teamed up with Lego to produce this big robotics kit, complete with central CPU, light sensors, touch sensors, completely programmable to the user's delight.

Well, I havn't used the thing since I was in High School, but now with an engineering degree I'm sure I'll be able to whip up anything imaginable on this thing. (Back in the day, advanced users would post their creations on lego sites and this thing has limitless possibilities).

This summer, for certain circumstances, I'm back home. First thing I saw in my old room was a robotic arm I made for physics class, complete with light and touch sensors:

(Excuse the dust, it's been 5 years since I've been home!)

Alright, so my plan, is to make a machine with one motor spinning the bobbin on an axis, and another motor controlling where the wire goes, complete with touch sensors, the computer keeping track of the number of revolutions and a light sensor to cut the motors when complete. Also, I'll have some sort of system to keep tension on the wire.

Basically, I'm going to try for a hands-free Lego approach to winding pickups.