J_48_Johnson

Already posted some pix here but what the hey...

This is the second guitar I've made and I'me very happy with the results. I kind of like the Beatnik Mojocaster for the name. As you can see it's by my own creation, two huge cavities inside under the f-holes, an original neck, original body design, and an original pickguard shape. The bridge pickup is very close to the bridge itself, and several people thought that it may sound thin, tinny, and weak but it doesn't at all. The Hot Rails pick-up cuts like a knife where it's placed and the JB jb jr. is very warm and full this close to the neck. With the switch in the middle position it is well rounded with a very strong bottom end with cutting highs. Wood specs. Mahogany tone wood Quilted maple cap Bakote neck Ovangkol fretboard Hardware specs Grover locking tuners Floyd Rose string bar Bone nut Tonepros locking tune-o-matic bridge & tailpiece Hand made tortoise shell pickguard (5-ply .090) Q-Parts mini tortoise shell dome knobs Dunlop dual lok strap buttons Electronics Seymour Duncan pickups JB jb jr. (neck) Hotrails (bridge) Gibson 3-way switch and potentiometers Finish Custom mixed Minwax stain Duplicolor van/truck black paint Minwax glossy nitrocellulose lacquer

Here she is done: http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1010085.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1010086.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1010087.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1010088.jpg

I wet sanded and polished yesterday It's a lot of work but I did it the same was as I did on the first guitar: dry sanding 400 600 wet sanding (naptha as my wetting agent) 800 1000 1200 1500 2000 polish Med. compound Fine compound Swirl remover Front of body http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...fterpolish5.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...fterpolish2.jpg Back of body http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...fterpolish5.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...fterpolish3.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...fterpolish2.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...afterpolish.jpg

I just wet sanded mine yesterday, and as with my first guitar, I used naptha as my wetting agent. PROS Won't split the wood, evaperates quickly, and clears the grit in the paper very well. CONS It's flamable, (think lighter fluid), and has a smell, and would dry your skin fast. In conclusion, I don't smoke while using it, and I wear gloves. I'm making my second guitar now, used it on both, and it worked very well for me both times.

At this point, double sided tape is your friend, and imho, it will work. I used it to cut my routes and it held fine. Just don't jam your router into it too hard, just use it as a guide like it's intended.

I spray in the garage with a fan blowing in to make positive pressure so the fumes won't get to the motor and explode. I open the garage door to the height of the fan, and then block the rest of the door opening with big pieces of cardboard. Then I open the normal door and prop it open for the fumes to go out. Before spraying, I turn the fan on high to move any dust or anything else out. When I'm ready to spray, I turn it on low to keep the positive pressure in the garage but to ease spraying. As soon as I'm done spraying, I turn the fan back on high. It worked pretty well.

Keep posting, I'd like to see the progress of this one.

That is a sweet guitar. I didn't think I'd like the blue burst on it, but the more I looked at it, the more it grew on me. If you use a maple cap over the mahogany body and back, I think it will be fine. Should be warm with a high end sparkle to add clarity. To blend the colors of the wood together, maybe put a maple binding on the mahogany. It would stand out and the color difference/contrast would look nice.

Lol... I have designed a lure too, and it hasn't been done before either. I have working prototypes in my tacklebox as we speak. Working prototypes means that I have already caught fish with them. They won't look that great in a package so I won't catch many fishermen, but the fish seem to like them. I've checked on getting a patent and it's expensive. They did a story on makeing your own lures and selling them last year, (I think), in Bass Master. It isn't worth the trouble sounds to me like. Kind of burst my bubble. One thing they said to do, and it sounded odd, but I now understand why you would do it; Draw up the design with as much detail as you can, stuff in in an envelope and mail it to yourself. When you get it in the mail, DON'T OPEN IT. Keep it just the way it is, and then you can start shopping your idea around. If someone uses your idea without your permission, you have a post marked letter via the USPS showing that you had the idea first and the other person took your idea from you shopping it around. You were talking about catching big mean fish... The funnest fish I ever caught was a 37" Northern Pike. I was bass fishing and I was using a light 5'10" rod with 6 pound test. Six pound test... remember that. I tied on a Bagley's Baby Bream crankbait. It's a bluegill looking little crankbait that swims to 7'. I cast it out in 30' of water, and thought "What am I doing casting that out in that depth of water". I had aready started reeling the lure in, and I sped it up to get it in to make another cast because to shallower water.... BAM! My rod bowed, my drag started singing, line was being stripped from my reel, and the fight was on. I thought I had the drag set too loose so I cranked it down tight. That's when I noticed that my rod was bending from the but section, not just the rod tip section. I didn't have time to loosten the drag so I clicked the lever from anti reverse to free and let the reel back up. The handle was flying backwards because of all of the tension on the rod and line. When it slowed down, I jammed the palm of my hand in agaist the handle and regained control of it. I faught the fish for about 5 minutes, and started bringing it in. When it came up high enough in the water for me to see it, it saw me and sounded. I let go of the handle again and let him run and then jammed my palm into the handle to regain control. About this time, I yelled over to another boat that was close, but on the other side of an island. In the boat was a guy, (Tom) that I worked with and his brother in law. They had a net, and I didn't. The fish came up and sounded three more times before they got to me. His brother in law had the net, Tom was running the engine. The fish came up and took off right beside his net. I fought him one more time, and told him to hold the net in front of the fish. When he takes off again he'll run right into it. Luck was with me that day, and the fish did what I thought it would. It's hard to explain, but I was on one side of a man made tire breakwall, Tom, his brother in law, and the fish were on the other. Once they had the fish in the boat, Tom says; "Hey Brad, I've got my camera". "No way! I said". I threw them my rod and met them at the end of the breakwall. They handed me the rod, and the net with the fish halfway inside. It was too bif to get the entire fish in the net. I got him and my bait out of the net, strung him up and took a couple pictures. I took him into the snack bar, (it was at a private lake), where I thought they had scales. The old dude that ran it found some but they were too small and we couldn't fine a board to lay the fish on or anything. He set the scales on a deep freezer, plugged it in, and we put the fish on it. Well, the middle of my pike weighed 14.97 pounds on certified scales. Since the head was laying on the freezer on one end, and the tail of the fish was laying on the freezer at the other end, I can't tell you how much it weighed, but I do know that the middle weighed 14.97 pounds. I have the pictures we took that day here at the house in a frame. He only had a disposable camera, and he didn't get a cd when he had it developed, but I do have the pictures here to proove it! Honest. "All fishermen lie, all but me & you,... and I'm not so sure about you". That was one of my exwife's grandfathers sayings.

"Looking Nice!!! Looking through the pics I could help but think that your little finishing stick(neck pocket) has to have a two inch thick layer of laquer!LOL. I was just recently rereading through your other build at reranch and the finish and when seeing the same stick here I started laughing. I was curious do you tape off the screws on that thing or just spray then chip or clean out?" Me and that stick go WAY back! lol I just chip the heads out and bring it along. "Anyhow, the project is looking good! I think in the bright sun you can really get an accurate idea of how the actual guitar will look. In some of the other pics it can throw you off because the guitar is face up and flash or light reflects from inside those cavities too much. I would bet that once its all done and seen in person it will look totally different and way cooler." The pictures I took outside today are very good in color to what the body actually looks like. "As I said I think this a cool project, I'm all for people creating their own personal designs and I am doing the same and think I have found a final design, which is perfect because I am ready to do a quick thickness, then cut. What I like about these projects is that they are built exactly to what you want, which is how it should be. Obviously, most people won't like it but thats completely beside the point, whether or not a guitar suits their taste doesn't matter, it should still be given credit for the building process. It is actually quite a bit more difficult to design your own from the ground up than it is to copy or ever tweak a design. So, again very nice and I can't wait to see how it finishes." Thanks for the compliment. Designing your own is HARD! You're right about designing your own guitar how you want. Even the first one I did was my own, but I copied my Stratocaster and my S470 and blended them together to make what I wanted, and then added a couple things of my own. Look at the back of the horns. How many Strats have you ever seen like that? None. That's all me baby! lol I can't say this enough, but keep your design on paper, and go back and look at it for a few minutes. Maybe even try to take that design and draw up another one from it, but try to make it better than the first. Then, take that one and do it again. Sooner or later, you'll have one that's just right. For the body design of this one, I drew up about 100 bodies, narrowed it down to three, then went with those, drew other styles from those, opted for the one I finally made. The horn on the body looks kind of big, but, with the neck in place, it isn't too bad. Make your own design for you. The first one I made, many people have asked me if I would sell it to them. #1, I don't think I could sell it for what I had in it, and #2, I don't think I'll ever sell one of mine. Maybe someday, but right now, it feels like it would be selling one of the kids! I would however love to have one of my friends that was in a band play it on stage one time. Just once. I'd also like them to say; "The guitar I'm playing tonight was hand made by that guy right there, (points to me). I'd be happier than a puppy with... well, you get it. "BTW I couldn't get over how much that last finishing product cleaned up the finish. I believe it was the swirl remover, it was amazing what that stuff did." That was Stewart MacDonald Swirl Remover, and it made it like glass. You couldn't even feel grit in the stuff, but it must have been in there. I put it on with the foam pad just like the med. and fine compound, and then wiped the rest off by hand when done, and buffed it with a soft terry cloth. "Also, nice bass I have caught a few in the 7-8lbs range and hooked a couple double digit fish, but haven't put one in the boat. It tough here in San Diego, we have some of the biggest Bass in the country, but they are so heavily fished in EXTREMELY clear water that it makes it so very tough. One of the guys that is considered one of the best big bass guys here Mike Long fishes something like 80 hours per fish over 10 pounds, I think its something like that. Thats time your not catching a bunch either because your targeting the big guys and they tend to have different patterns that the schoolies. At some point I would love to fish Florida and similar places, it would be so nice to throw a jig in 3-8 feet of water on 20lb test instead of 3 inch worm drop shotted on 4lb in 35 feet or water. I can't really fish anymore, but I still enjoy watching it and talking about it. From the time I turned 16 and got my license I've spent 3-6 days a week fishing, mainly salt water, but plenty of fresh as well. Its tough not being able to fish for me, though I occasionally get in a quick trout fishing trip when I feel up to it. LOL, sorry went way off topic there, but I'm blaming you because you posted that bass, lol, nice fish. Well have a good one man, keep the pic coming, hope everything goes well. Jason Being here in N.E. Ohio, I would have never caught one that big w/o going to Florida. I caught that one on Toho. I'm not sure if I put that on the page or not, it's been a while since I posted that. There was a national magazine a few years back called Bassin'. They had this thing where you fish against people from your state for your 5 longest fish from Jan. 1 - Aug. 31. I entered it one year and came in 7th for Ohio. I caught five 5 pounders in that time, and for N.E. Ohio, those are big fish. The person who won represented his or her state in a national three day fish off. The winner took home a new tow vehicle, (Suburban), a new boat, all kinds of coolers, fishing equipment, and other assorted prizes. Oh yeah, and a check for $70,000.00. CHA-CHING! The whole thing was worth like $140,000.00 As far as Mike, I read his whole story in Bass Master. I read a lot on bass fishing from coast to coast where you guys in Cali. fish with either 10" swim baits or drop shot 4" finesse weenie worms. I fish mainly: White twin blade buzz bait, 3/8 oz. tandem white spinner bait, and the Yamamoto Senko's in sizes from 4" to the bigest ones (8" maybe?).

The back of the body in non direct sunlight:

The back of the body in direct sunlight:

Here's the front in non direct sunlight:

I sprayed for the last time today. Here are the pictures before I hang it up for a month. Front in direct sun:

Here's a picture of the front taken at the same time as the picture above of the back... After I'm done with the lacquer and it's curing for a month, I'll lay down the shielding paint in all of the cavities where the electronics will run, shield the pickguard with copper tape and make a wiring diagram, and do as much wiring as I can before final assembly.

Once it was painted all black, I started shooting sanding sealer again to give me something to work with to get it flat before shooting lacquer thinking that sanding sealer was just a high solids lacquer. Well, it isn't. I didn't know that sanding sealer was for bare/stained wood and not painted wood. I didn't know that it had surfactants in it to aid in sanding to help stop sandpaper blinding and caking. Once I had a few coats down I sprayed lacquer and it, so I thought, blushed. I shot blush remover on it and it made it worse?!? I stopped, did a bit of research, and that's when I found out about the surfactant in the sanding sealer. I sanded down to the paint on the back, stain (almost) on the front and shot the black paint again. The picture above is after I shot the black paint for the second time and started shooting lacquer. This picture is after about 1 1/2 cans of lacquer I think. You can see in the control cavity the midnight blue color the whole body was from the surfactants in the sanding sealer. About the midnight blue color... I thought it was just an optical illusion from the lighting where I hang it while between coats. My fiance one day said: "I thought you painted your guitar black, it looks blue". Well, there it was, hanging in the back room of the basement, a blue guitar. Damn. The back is black again, and I have one more day of lacquer spraying, (today), before I hang it up for a month and let it cure and shrink.

Well, I sprayed the edge of the guitar after masking off the cap to cover the glue lines of the mahogany tonewood. It was perfect but a little thin for a burst on the back. I tried to widen it a bit by using a piece of posterboard cut smaller than the body, in the same shape as the body. It was too small and the burst was too big, so I ended up painting the mahogany all black.

mikevirok: The neck has almost no angle to it at all so I wouldn't be worried about it. At the end of the neck closest to the body, (the heel?), it's about 1/32" thicker than the other end of the neck that fits into the body. It gave it enough angle to make it very playable. I have the bridge studs raised about 1/2 of a turn to get the action right on where it's low and fast but not buzzing because it's too low. Since it's my first build, I was worried that it would be wrong, but it is spot on now. After getting the frets level, the neck bow with the truss rod, (once rod was snug, it took less that a half of a turn), and the small adjustment on the bridge studs, she plays nice! I took it to my family reunion because two of my cousins are MUCH better players than I and I wanted them to try it out and both of them loved it! One of them was scrambling to get stuff together to trade me for it. I could have gotten two Jackson guitars, both players and one is REALLY played, and a small amp for it. lol I wouldn't trade for it because I made it. He does have a mahogany SG body he wants to work on and make a guitar out of but he doesn't have the tools or the woodworking knowlege to do so. I told him to ship it to me and I'd do it for him, but he hasn't done it as of yet.

I've been following your build and it is coming along quite nicely. The sound holes on the carved top is a very clean, classy look which I like a lot. The looooong tennon should give you great sustain w/o the look of a neck through which I never cared for much. Kudos on the fine work, and keep posting those pictures! B-rad in Akron

I'd say go for it, but do it in steps. First I would buy a neck for the first build since the neck work is intimidating to say the least, and has to be spot on for the guitar to play. If you want to make a body, go for it. What I would suggest is that you buy enough wood to make two. The first one you will use as a dummy body for the second, real body. Make your templates and do a step on the first one, see how it works, then use the knowledge of what you did right and wrong on the seond body. Do this step by step, and you should end up with a body you can be proud of. Godin SD said that the wood is cheap, and it is. It's the cheapest part of the guitar to buy. Maybe buy "cheap" wood, something that is readily availible to you to, use as your dummy while if you have "good" wood in mind to make one out of like mahogany, swamp ash, or whatever you like, buy both and use your first one as a sacraficial lamb so to speak. Best case; your sacraficial body turns out good enough to keep and you have a body for the neck you've always wanted to build, worst case scenario, pitch it in the fire and chalk it up to experience.

I think I would do a search for that two part resin/epoxy they coat bar tops with. It's hard as a rock, dries clear, and is very thick.

Wait at least a month. The reason is simple; The lacquer on the outside, (the last you sprayed), is dried/cured. Since the lacquer has to gas off, the inner layer may still be letting gas off and it has to go through the outer layer to do this. In theory, your lacquer finish is still shrinking onto the body. If you sand too soon, it will look great and be flat and smooth now, but wait a few weeks/month, and you'll see grain from the wood started to disrupt your surface. A surface of lacquer that is now too thin to sand anymore without running the risk of the dreaded sandthrough. I've been told that lacquer never really cures and stops shrinking. The rate at which it cures/shrinks slows to such a nominal amount that over time, it really doesn't shrink anymore at all. I've worked in the chemical field, running polymer chains. To get a change in the chemicals in the chains, we would give it two residence times before we would trust the changes we made were in and test it. The change in the levels of the chemicals would go on for hundreds of hours befroe the change was through 100% of the way. I bring this up because it's kind of how lacquer dries. It is 99.5% dried in a month. The other .5% it takes years to dry. You've waited this long, stick it out with a stiff upper lip and all will be good in da hood.

I painted the back of my guitar body black using Duplicolor Truck/Van lacquer. Once the paint had dried for about a week, I started spraying sanding sealer. I got a little blush, but after a couple days it went away. I started shooting again. As soon as the wet sanding sealer hit the body, the blush reappeared from before. I knew it was from before because I sprayed it left to right, this time I was spraying top to bottom. No problem I thought, I have DA-DA-DA-DOMMM! blush remover. After letting the SS dry overnight, I hit it with blush remover. It brought out the blush, like the SS did before, but it didn't take it away. I shot it several more times and the blush was still there. I hung the body up for a couple weeks thinking that it may go away, but I guess it didn't because last night my fiance asked me if I had painted the body dark blue. I must say it is a nice shade of midnight blue, but blue ain't black! Nice, even, non streaked... midnight blue. This morning I started sanding. As I went along, I noticed spots where the paint was turning black again meaning, (to me at least), that I was getting the blush off of the paint by sanding it away. I stopped when my dust started going from white, to grey, to black. I knew I was in paint. I actually only hit it a couple small places with no sand throughs. It kind of looks like puffy midnight blue clouds on a black sky. Now, for the question part of the post... What should I do next? Should I let it hang to see if the "clouds" go black? Should I shoot blush remover on now? Should I wait a couple days to see if it goes away by itself, and if not, shoot blush remover then? I must add that all of my dust was dry with no rolls or signs of wetness. I need some help here fellas. B-rad in Akron

To clean up the groove for the blade, I used sandpaper. I wanted to use 80 grit to start off with, but the paper was too thick to fit in the groove. I started with 120 I think. I cut a piece that was acout 3/4" wide and about 4" long and just did it by hand, pulling back and forth until it was smooth. It didn't take very long, but it had to be done. The coping saw blade I used was thin and the switch blade dragged across the groove cut in the wood. Once it stopped dragging, I stopped sanding. When it was done, this is what I had...