The FrankenWashie is dead....

[tonyw]

I put a football plate in my Baritone...

Admittedly those deep panel Jacks are a PIA to change over

[FrankenWashie]

Hmmm, so we had a slight problem when routing out to clean up the control cavity....



It was always going to be a pain in the a*** due to the rough nature of the initial cavity creation (speed bore bits, chisels and at one point a pocket knife), but the breaking through was unexpected.

So, FrankenWashie is going to get a little more Franken, I will remove all of the cover over the control cavity and fill it, with what I don't quite know yet but it shall be in keeping with the FrankenWashie theme.

[FrankenWashie]

Okey Pokey, it has been all quiet on the FrankenWashie resurrection.
I was contemplating putting a new "Face down the centre of the body, but that was likely to get fraught, especially with the tapering contour of the body edge. SO i have elected to remove the whole centre (120mm across the centre line) and start anew.

The insert is going to be a core of Victorian Ash with some contrasting Merbau bands on the edges (about 15/90/15mm to make up the 120mm). I had the timber sitting around so i thought it was a good option and would also give me some more experience in laminating to build necks etc.

Without a band saw or table saw longer rip cuts have been challenging, so once i had the two Merbau edge bands roughed, i had to do something to make them even and square. I rigged up a routing guide, based on some of the sterling work arounds Simon had demonstrated in his scratch build.





The end result of this was a blank insert that has some striking contrast in wood tone, which will in itself contrast to the tone of the outer wings.



I am also contemplating a work around for the break through on the control cavity, which is in keeping with the FrankenWashie theme, thought the jury is still out on this (conductivity issues and what not). as the rest of the hardware was going to be Chrome, i might go with something in a tarnished stainless steel. Like I say Jury is still out.



There are some templates and things that need to be sorted before I get too much further as it will be far easier to rout pup holes and Trem mounts prior to winging it. Also I don't want to do any body cuts until,
A. I figure out how to do a straight manual rip cut or,
B. I have access to a band saw/Table Saw with a good fence.

[FrankenWashie]

Okay, so I got impatient and this happened,



Some fit tidy up to do, but in dismembering the carcass of FrankenWashie I found that the original scale length had been spot on, which was nice to find, some of the other build work(Routs, wiring, Pup configuration) let the whole thing down.

[SIMpleONe89]

Looks good! How are u going to glue them together?

[FrankenWashie]

@SImon, I'm preparing some forms to fit the outsides of the wings, over which I will use large f clamps. I am also considering a dowel locator on each end to ensure that every thing lines up.
I'm still preparing routing templates for the trem and the Pickup rout, I won't be doing the gluing until after I have routed everything including the neck pocket as I feel it is easier to do while the block is still square.
If that doesn't work. I will swap the masking tape for duct tape.

[SIMpleONe89]

@SImon, I'm preparing some forms to fit the outsides of the wings, over which I will use large f clamps. I am also considering a dowel locator on each end to ensure that every thing lines up.
I'm still preparing routing templates for the trem and the Pickup rout, I won't be doing the gluing until after I have routed everything including the neck pocket as I feel it is easier to do while the block is still square.
If that doesn't work. I will swap the masking tape for duct tape.

Yes I think the dowels will definitely help line it up. When I glued my top it was extremely hard to keep it centred because the glue made it slide around.

[FrankenWashie]

Progress is made in slow steps.

all i have managed to do from the above is to begin cutting an insert to graft into the place of the input jack slot. I am going to persist with the barrel jack, but work it a little more like a traditional Ibanez version.

The gaping maw of the rout through is going to be partially filled in with an epoxy and then a copper accent piece is going to go across the top of it.

A brief moment of woodworking Zen; I started cutting down the remnant original body to make the above mentioned insert. I am still getting to grips with my Japanese pull saws, and this has been a source of frustration.

I began squaring and soothing off the jagged edge, but the first cut, it went a little wonky,

Note the intended line of cut.

The second cut went even worse,



But the third, a deep breath, a slow start to the cut...and then set breath in time with the saw...



Success!

[FrankenWashie]

Okay so the reclaiming of the original frankenwashie "wings" is underway. Upper bout, absolutely no problems.



Lower bout with control holes, bit more of a problem. I have taken a chunk out which removes the jack point, i have grafted in a chunk of the old centre section as seen below.



The joints for that i wanted to leave deliberately rough in order to push the whole "Frankenstein" build ethic, they'll get some treatment before the end.

I've a plan for filling in the breakthrough but more on the later. I've begun preparing a routing template for the mid /new section of body which i intend to rout before i attach the reworked wings. There is some subtle change to the shaping of the lower horn and both cutaways which should make playing higher easier than on the original.



At present I have only located the Bridge HB because I am still tossing up a Neck HB or an SC. I am stripping controls down to 1 tone and 1 volume, with a 3 way selector. For the moment it will be the old Alnico 2's that it originally had, but that may be subject to change.

[Muzza]

This is an intriguing build. It's got me in...