Muzz

oh Beware Muzz of the cheap drillbits! My experience has taught me that cheap tools end up costing me alot more heartache than pinching a penny, anyway Goodluck!

Oh yeah and the build looks great mate!

So right, I have had a cheap masonry drill bit turn into a pretzel when I was drilling into a wall, matching the quality of the hardware with what you expect from it is an art.

I am looking forward to trying out my stains and choosing a colour, they arrived in and I should get them tomorrow

Thats a really clean route! Better than I could do, probably. Haven't used a router yet. Is it hard?

Thanks, and no, to quote Our Souls, if I can do it, anyone can (he wasn't talking about me when he said that ) I hope I have shown enough detail in the pictures to give some tips. If you take your time and make good templates and you just route out a thin layer at a time the odds will be on your side. Most of the tear outs you see are when people set the router bit too low and try and take out too much wood in one go. Your router should glide over the job like a ouija board on Halloween's day, if it is shuddering and grinding, stop and adjust the depth. And get a router that has a dust extractor, you do not want to be cleaning up after one that doesn't have one. But above all, give the router lots of respect, it spins at 22, 000 rpm be safe.

I printed out a template on clear sticky plastic to help align the template for the trem.

and routed down 5.5 mm all round. Then clamped an offcut of ash to stop the router going onto the post holder shelf and routed the rest down to 12 mm. The block hits wood before it reaches that depth so no point routing any deeper.

Tested the fit, all OK

next step make the scratch plate template

Those router bits look a bit of alright. Did you source them in Aus?

Oh, excellent looking template. I wanna see that hole in the guitar though! Chop chop. :-)

Yes, I tried the bigger one yesterday, it went well. It took ages to find a source in I thought I was going to have to send of OS, but then I found www.mcjing.com.au

I put my order in Sunday, bits arrived Tuesday happiness

I'm going to chop holes in the scratchplate first for the pickups, made a start with the design

I was feeling good about that until I realised I was dreaming, that is never going to fit on the blank

I've got a little bit of shortening to do on the tail, and I have to take a sliver off the trem template where the tuners are.

Looking great, I like the control cavity set out, how did you go with the three way switch?

Time to tool up this week, my shorter pattern following router bits arrived, so I don't have to make such thick templates

And I was sick of burning rubber going up to the hardware store every time I discovered I needed a drill bit I didn't have, I started making grunting noises like Tim the toolman when I saw this

One of the next jobs is to make the scratchplate, my blank canvas on top of one of my other projects

a Woo Sung Chorus humbucker, find one of these and find out what your tubes can do when they are serviced properly

It's supposed to be raining this weekend, good weather for a bit of Resident Evil Dead Aim with the light gun and some progress on the pointy stick.

Enjoying your thread. Just thought I'd add a +1 to the WSC pickups that were mentioned many pages ago. I had one that was louder/better than my Dimarzio SuperD, very nice for the $20 I paid for it.

Fantastic, wow you got a bargain, I like the way they get the Zack squeal thing going without using a tiny transistor, battery powered, preamp

Making the humbucker template.

Holes

Hack

Route along edges

I drilled the middle out of 10 mm dowels to serve as post holders, when the real ones go in, it's going to be a one way journey.

and strung the guitar up with fishing line to check the levels, I can not stand bridges sitting way up in the air,

I like the strings to be just off the frets in the lowest position. This allows you to easily to get to a good action, for me thats 2 mm in between the 12th fret and the string above it.

Everything looks OK

Great looking bass

Shaping the necks today. They're going to be pretty thin and with a relatively flat back.

I have determined that wenge smells like cat poop when it's being worked.

So does half of my crew !

Looking excellent .

What ? No guide fret??

fantastic wavey grain in those fretboards

Go for it, at that price how could you not.

Exactly what I was thinking! One problem, though. I've always had problems with guitars that are black and they are cheap. It's a project anyway, so who gives!?

Yep, I agree, go for it, all your bad luck with black guitars has been used up so you will be fine for now on. Black guitars are a necessity of life. If you want't to use the body for tracing out a body shape, block of wood with a hole drilled in it works for that too it's a very versatile invention.

Although, I have found, guitar building is so much more fun when you don't trace a body shape and draw your own, even if it is not hugely original.

I had a terrific day today, but only squeezed in about 20 mins of woodwork on a humbucker template, thanks http://www.flatearthguitars.com if you haven't checked out their site do yourself a favour, fantastic guitars, and helpful files like a humbucker routing diagram

Does anyone else, remember their guitar making epiphany, you know the moment when you thought, *%^& me, I think I can make a guitar mine was just after finding Jon Fisher's tutorial How to build a Les Paul the hard way

Must order my stain tomorrow, and a shorter router bit, now I am off to Avengers thread to check out his twins

For a "lazy build" as you named it in the title, you sure are working your a$$ off.

I've been working? You know what John, I have been having so much fun with it, I am happy to break the rules, especially my own. Now if building guitars reduced the amount of junk in the trunk, many of us, especially you, would be fitting into some skinny (skinnier) arsed jeans .

you gona angle the template (make it wedge shaped) with the thick side towards the posts ?. I do it for floyds on my builds, it lets you get a deeper cavity at the back of the trem, better for pulling the fooker way back. kind of a lazy lions claw route from a jem

What a great idea

ok, so as I posted on another thread, my neck join is NOT tight enough so I can lift the body up by the neck pre-gluing.

my feeling is that it will glue up just fine, but I really need some advice on this.

It might be OK just with PVA but if the joint does give way because there is not enough side support it probably won't shear along the glue line, it will pull out chunks along the neck and/or body. If it was me I would glue the bottom of the neck with PVA (nice and thin so it doesn't squeeze out) and the sides where there is space with clear araldite 2 pack epoxy. Give it a trial on some scrap. Alternatively glue up just with PVA and put some screws in, you won't have a worry in the world.

For your tear out, you cant find the chunks that came out? If not the insert technique mattharris suggested works well, or you can sandpaper smooth out the tearout, after staining and one coat of finish, make a mould with greasproof paper and tape and inject in a 2 part clear like glass coat, I have done this on repairs, it works great. You can even just blob on the glass coat and cover with grease proof paper.

That looks cool, I also like the grain showing through.

Believe me, the SG is still right here by my bedside. Will get on it as soon as I sort out numerous financial burdens. Having a girlfriend and moving into your own place can take a toll on your banking account!

Yep life is full of priorities, it doesn't matter if you get onto that SG years from now, it's good to know you have a great project in front of you.

Candy eggs , Yay !

Who ate the most, you or the kids?

I want to route out the top so the trem can 'float' on the posts and do up bends as well as bass dives. Well none of the Floyd Rose routing patterns seemed to fit my trem, but the pro template available here was a good start, I glued it to some MDF and lined up the trem

Adjusted it as needed and cut out the template

I just have to double the thickness of that template now.

That thing isn't real is it!!??!!

I also like your first design over the second one. It looks more intensional.

Yep it's real, a friend from the Gold Coast sent me that photo yesterday, it's from an artist's exhibition on there at the moment, it does look great doesn't it .

Do swans sing before they die, as a legend tells?

Of course, they can´t afterwards, can they!?

Nope, it's a myth, but I hear that folks from Puebla ask a question about swans just before they get started and refinish a beautiful Yamaha SG

Today, I wrapped dowels in paper and stuck them in the holes and then lined up the bridge

So as I could draw around it to get a feel for the top route

That's gonna be tricky, still working on a template for that, there are some non-square bits, so I got on with the spring and up trem cavity

It went OK

Those eggs with the candy yolks and whites are the best.

Neck to body join - fantastic

Nearly everything else on the guitar - also fantastic

The strange wooden cavity cover - poo , go for plastic.

Rock on

I like the first design way better than the second, the bridge placement is fine.

Suggestion for next project

I am considering the neck options, there's Our Souls suggestion of an AANJ

or the solid block with plate

or the thinned out neck heal

I made a template for the block and trem bar cavity

Whacked some MDG on it, routed through, then put it on the body and routed all the way through for the block

Then for the whammy bar cavity I moved it up and routed down to 25 ml

Next stop the spring and claw cavity route.

Gorgeous, beautiful work

Organic fantastic and highly evolved

The hardware looks great, sets off the grain

I like the collars on those puppies, hope they don't wizz on the carpet too much.

Didn't go for the AANJ??

I had to look that one up , now that I know what an AANJ is I am afraid I can't tell you at this stage, I am making the plans up as I go along, but something is going to happen in that region, I just haven't decided what yet. At the very least, that little piece at the top of the neck pocket on the treble side has to go. There is nothing permanent holding the neck in at present. One of the great things about making a guitar is that you can do what ever the &*#$ you like, when you like

Didn't go for the AANJ??

I don't believe he's 1) glued the neck in yet or 2) finished with the body shaping, which would most likely include shaping the heel.

Do you ever get tired of being right?

I'm diggin' that shape! Nice piece of work!. Can't say the same for myself. My brother decided to try his hand at building guitars and completely wrecked my project. I'll post pics of the wreckage in my thread. (sob)

P.S. The Ibanez thing is getting a GFS hardtail, EMG Select pups, and new electronics. My pot is shot. Hehe, I made a funny.

Hey, glad you like it, comiz with your big brother's efforts, but I am looking forward to seeing the wreckage posted as well as the successful project with the EMG selects.

The posts I am using are 10 mm in diametre except for the last 6 mm length which are 8.5 mm in diametre, I guess this is to seat them more securely,

so I did the last 6 mm with the thinner drill bit. I had to remember to make everything 6 mm deeper to allow for the floating route. On a 25 1/2" scale the posts go in at 25", I used a magnifying glass and pricked the centres.

Using a small dowel to check the depths

Block back on, string holders next

I am feeling relaxed from all the endorphins released by chocolate, hope everyone has a terrific Easter.

No sense in changing your plan. To reiterate what you said, to fix a sloppy neck route just get some scrap body wood, about 1/8" thick and just slightly wider and longer than the route (one for each side) and glue them in, then reroute the pocket.

*It will be virtually invisible, since there will only be a sliver left of the plug/shim after rerouting.* I admit that I'd done this more than once before upgrading my neck pocket routing technique & jig. I have some pics if you'd like to see.

with apologies for thread hijacking, how essential is it that you be able to lift the entire guitar by the neck before gluing? mine isn't there by the tiniest fraction (barely barely visible to the human eye) and I was hoping some glue expansion would somewhat fill the gap.

Hard to tell without seeing, but I would go with PVA if the surfaces touch together OK, if you have enough surface like that to hold the joint, just mix some saw dust with PVA for the bits where there is some space, if you are not sure consider a space filling glue, why not post a pic.