pukko

Persimmon?

Nitro spraying is all done, now a month or so of patience while the nitro dries completely. The pic is taken with a flash so it looks a bit brighter than in real life: And here's the TR cover on the headstock:

Article number 1169. http://www.slojd-detaljer.fi/kategorier/puu-metallityot/pintakasittely-liima/maalit/spraylack-pid1169 I have been toying with the idea to set up some kind of spray booth at the summer house where I start my builds, can't really justify the cost though when I build as sporadically as I do. Theoretically I'm never sure there will be another build but since this seems to be more addictive than heroin maybe I should just realize there will be more builds and pay up for some spray equipment... No, I will probably glue the soundhole cover on. I'll stick it on to see how much difference there is with and without it first. Edit: Ha ha, hot dog glue! I'll ask for that the next time I'm buying supplies.

I don't know, at slojd-detaljer one can is 72 kronor and GMF:s can costs 129 kronor. I guess it also depends on how many cans you're buying, if I remember correctly there might be some lower price limit for buying, maybe like minimum 200 kronor or something like that. Is it possible for you to buy stuff through your school? Maybe you could buy directly from ernstp.se, they have all sorts of furniture supplies like nitro, fish glue, bone glue (translated from Swedish, is that the same as hide glue maybe?) and more. They seem to have a dealer in Suomi as well, have you checked http://www.rakennusapteekki.fi ? Obviously the soundhole cap won't have a ivoroid back plate but otherwise it's the same cherry colour with binding. The jack plate and pickup covers got the same treatment as well.

Aerosol cans. I think I got these at a store called Kreatima (kreatima.se) in Stockholm but they are available at gitarrdelar.se, gmf.se, slojd-detaljer.se too if online purchase is preferred.

Sprayed the first coat of nitro and then the rain came... Hopefully I can continue tomorrow. I also completed the maple truss rod cover. I was going to use mahogany for the bottom but that didn't give enough contrast to the red so I glued some binding strips together and used that instead. Like this:

Aaaah, my eyes! Where did you find that? Of course I was joking, I figured HCRoadie was as well. Green burst on red with inlayed seeds would be tasteless, not tasty.

Domo arigato Prostheta-san! Thanks! Glad you like it! Yep, my daughters want it to stay that way... Green burst it is then, and then I'll hand carve little melon seeds out of ebony and inlay them into the maple. Tasty!

Well, it's so much fun to do little things like that! Thanks! I wish that was why I chose my nickname... Pucko in Swedish means "stupid". I was trying to register on some forum and everything I tried was already taken. I then tried pucko because I got angry, didn't work either so I spelled it with two k:s instead. Yep, it has the same color as the top. Back to some progress pics: I glued the top on and put the binding on. No pics though... The back is oiled with Danish oil. It feels really nice, lots of "bare wood" feeling left: Time for some color. I've had troble deciding what color it should have, but i decided to go with my first gut feeling that usually comes when I start thinking about building a guitar. Before: First dye coat, some extra diluted "mahogany" dye. This is just to pop the grain a bit more: ...and then a coat of red dye with some of the mahogany dye mixed into it to make it a little darker: And here's how it looks when dry and in daylight. It has this watermelony pink shade now (which I actually think is pretty cool) but will darken considerably when clearcoated. Some kind of cherry red is the goal:

Glued the neck in: But what's this suppose to be for? Well, I figured a soundhole on the side of the body would be cool. You know when you're trying to tune while unplugged and there's noise in the background so you have to put your ear to the body? Now you have a soundhole to listen through... Carving with the knife like I did with the back plates: Made a hole with a drill and a Dremel: And with the maple cover on:

That looks great! I think it's possible to get good results by dyeing too but it's definitely a risk that it will look blotchy. Raising the grain, sanding, repeating... and wetting the wood before applying the dye as well. that helps.

I guess something like that, yes. Here's a couple of pics to show what I mean: http://platinum.guitarcenter.com/platinum_images/products/large/17_11177092_b_lg.jpg http://willcuttguitars.com/product%20images/122912/196611-1.jpg http://www.buguitars.com/csgtr/ME_abalone3/IMG_0221.jpg Looks good! A little brighter than the Abalone though I think. Or maybe just an effect of the flash? Did you dye the wood or is it a colored clearcoat?

I don't think I'll do it orange either. I have been thinking about something tealish though. PRS has two colors called Abalone and Slate that are in the not-quite-green-and-not-quite-blue category. I kind of like those. We'll see...

I did some recesses for the controls with Dremel and sandpaper:

Thanks! Can't seem to find any info about them on his website. Sounds cool though! Veijo Rautia of Rautia pickups does something similar but he has exposed rods for the "strat" coil as well. I like your thinking but i don't like purple... Thanks! I don't know if grey would work well since the bnding is this aged ivoroid color. White binding would look great with the grey burst!

Thanks to all for sharing your opinion! We'll see what color I choose... As I wrote before, I bought some Duncan P-rails to use in this guitar. I'm not really liking the look of them so I figured I would camouflage them a bit... They look like this in case someone hasn't seen them: I saved the pieces that I sawed out when I did the pickup holes in the top. I thinned them down, shaped them, drilled holes for the polepieces and bound them in ivoroid: On the pickup: ...and with pickup ring. Bookmatched, grainmatched, bound bobbin toppers... Whatever color the top will have, these will have too I think :

>>psikoT, Wretched, sdshirtman Thank you all very much! Glad you like it! I played around in Photoshop to see it with some color. All the colors look too bright but you get an idea at least... Some colors I'm actually considering, some are just for fun. What do you think? Suggestions?

What the...? That has never happened before. Fixed it.

I sawed out the pickup holes with my trusty coping saw and drilled for vol/tone pots and pickup switch: A couple of pics with bridge and pickup rings to see how it will look:

Thanks! I think ebony would work. I made the pickguard out of ebony and it was pretty easy to saw it out. It might be hard to work with considering that it can be brittle. I think I would have done the outside shape first, put the binding on and then sawed the pickup hole out last. That way the binding might add stability and keep the thin parts of the ring from cracking/breaking. Thanks Eddie! Can't believe it was way back in ´06... Time flies.

I was planning on screwing the pickups directly into the body but to have another option I made some pickup rings in case I want to use that kind of mounting. The pickguard will be ivoroid bound ebony and why not match the rings to that? I had no ebony left and I didn't feel like ordering just a small piece. So, I took some leftover mahogany from the body and started drawing. The little bulges kind of echoes the headstock shape (if it wasn't offset). I drilled holes in the corners of the pickup hole, sawed out the hole and the shape with a coping saw and used files and sandpaper to get the shape done. I wound up with this: Since the pickguard will have ivoroid binding, why not put some on here too... I then dyed the mahogany with black dye and scraped the binding clean:

>>ScottR Thanks! Made a switch tip out of flame maple: It's a hollowbody and hollowbodies usually have a little sticker inside the body. I decided to try to design one. Here are a few versions: I also routed the body a bit more and blacked it out using ordinary water based dye to give more contrast to the soundholes: Here's one of the stickers inside the body: ...and a peek through the soundhole:

Cut out the soundholes: ...and made a jack plate out of flame maple and ivoroid binding. Will be the same color as the maple top, whatever color it might get...

Sorry Eddie, I have little to no experience in gluing wood with epoxy so I'm of no help to you. But dang, you build some fine guitars! I don´t think I've seen what you've built before. What are you planning to build now?

Cool, thanks! I am more worried of a heavy right hand strumming away, banging on the soundhole area, maybe with a wristwatch or something getting snagged in there... Yeah, 6-7 mm is kind of thick and I am thinking about doing exactly what you suggest and thin it more around the soundholes. IF I choose to bind the holes the ivoroid binding is 6 mm high so the top has to be thinned down accordingly. Some thickness might disappear in the final sanding of the top as well.