That looks amazing. Can't wait to see how it turns out.
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That looks amazing. Can't wait to see how it turns out.
A long weekend in the UK, and reasonable weather so interspersed with gardening I managed to make some progress.
The 14 mm drill bit (actually a Forstner bit) arrived so I was able to drill the holes for the tuners. The recommended method is after drilling a small pilot hole, is to drill from both sides to avoid tearout, which was successful. The pillar drill is excellent for this to keep it straight. (£35 off eBay a year or so ago).
Whilst I was at that end, I cut a slot for the nut and drilled out the access hole for the truss rod. It seems to work ok which is a relief (chortle chortle) though I guess there is no reason why it wouldn't.
https://i.imgur.com/kqRzU8x.jpg
Subject to some sanding (and reducing the chunk by the first fret a little) and obviously finishing, I'm calling the neck done.
The pickup also arrived and so I made a pickup template (which took a surprisingly long time for some reason to get it right) and then routed out a pickup hole. I wasn't exactly sure how deep to rout the hole and settled for 20mm (the height of the pickup) in the end. So without the foam seats they will sit flush with the body if necessary. However the last fret is 12mm above the body and allowing a couple of mm for string gap, I don't think they'll ever need to be that low. The foam seats push them up a bit - I don't know how essential they are.
I also drilled the volume and tone pot holes.
https://i.imgur.com/MNZTmMR.jpg
While I had the router out I decided to mark out and drill out a cavity in the back for access to the wiring etc. I drilled most of it out with a Forstner bit and then used the router to tidy it up (sort of, as can be seen!) It was at this point that the router gave up the ghost. Annoying!! Tried all the usual things - loose connection, switch, wiring, fuse but to no avail. It's an old Black and Decker job from the mid 1970's that my neighbour donated when he moved to a nursing home, so I'm not overly upset but it's just a pain that I'd nearly finished all the routing on the guitar!
I've tried not to buy stuff and just use what I had but I'm planning on doing a few more scratch builds (there I've said it!) so I figured it would be an investment. Off to Amazon and after a bit of research and a day or so later, I'm a proud owner of a new Bosch one. Finished the job and then made another template for the access cover plate and routed a shallow cavity for that.
https://i.imgur.com/UAc4Hzv.jpg
I then sliced a 5mm section of the original large block of iroko that was used to make the body...
https://i.imgur.com/moydsgH.jpg
... and tidied it up. Used the template to create a matching size and after a little bit of smoothing to fit...
https://i.imgur.com/fxrl3qG.jpg
A small screw on each corner will hold it in place.
The only thing left is to drill out the jack socket hole and hole for the wiring into the cavity, and the pickup wiring hole into the cavity. I've marked them out. Just need to decide if I'm going to make the pickup hole any deeper as it's a lot easier now than after it's finished.
Then it's onto more familiar Pitbull territory. I'm planning on sanding and grainfilling. I like natural wood colour guitars, and I've got a tin of decent quality yacht varnish from my original Pitbull build and plenty of white spirit, so I'll make up some batches of wipe on poly, for around 5-6 coats. Same for the neck and then for the fretboard, I'll use something like some Dunlop 65 lemon oil.
Trying to think of a suitable design for the headstock, but I might keep it simple like before with just my initials.
Lots of good progress there!
I don’t know if you planned to, but I’ve a feeling that you are going to have to take a bit off the top end of the fretboard where it sticks out beyond the nut. At the moment, it looks like the strings will catch on the front edge as they run down to the tuners. You’re going to need a reasonable string break angle.
No I hadn't planned to and it's an excellent point!Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I shall investigate further - think you may well be right.
I haven't checked this thread in a while. Looking good though. Look forward to next set of pix!
So, little bit of a gap as I've been away on holiday.
I went back and looked at the top end of the fretboard and took a bit off, as identified earlier. The nut slot needs a little bit of tidying up but I'll save that for when I set it all up. I also took a bit of the underside of the neck at the first fret to make the slope a bit shallower.
https://i.imgur.com/6xsGxDS.jpg
Having tried the pickup, I wasn't happy with the pickup hole so I went back and routed it a bit deeper. I also managed to find an auger bit (not as long as I'd have liked, but the distances are very short) and so I drilled the pickup wire channel to the control cavity, the bridge ground wire hole to the cavity and the input jack hole with channel to the cavity as well. I then attached the neck and as per a kit build, measured the bridge and drilled the bridge holes etc.
https://i.imgur.com/Q4OGOtY.jpg
And that's it for the woodwork for this build, I'm now in Pitbull kit territory.
I sanded it up to 240 and then mixed up some grainfiller with white spirit and applied that. Did two coats of that in the end. Brought the grain out a little bit, (the photo above is after the grainfiller). More sanding up to around 320 I think.
Sanded the neck - again, I think to 320.
Then it's time to mix up some wipe on poly using the can at the top of the photo and some white spirit. I went for about 60% poly, 40% thinners and applied it. I wiped off the excess for the first few coats to get it nice and level, abut after that I didn't wipe it off for the rest of the coats - just smoothed it out.
https://i.imgur.com/lAavltE.jpg
I settled for eight coats in the end. That was the end of the mix that I'd made and I didn't want to mix any more (had to thin out the last coat as it was to have enough).
It's now hanging in my study, along with the neck (and control cavity cover) for a couple of weeks....
https://i.imgur.com/111PZ4d.jpg
.... when I'll level sand it and then polish and buff it out. I'm aiming for a satin type, semi gloss finish, but I'll see what happens.
So that's it for a few weeks now. I've got some small projects to do - I'm repairing an Fender (Mexican) JB neck which was bent and had a broken truss rod, so I've taken out the fillet, removed the broken rod and I'm trying to straighten the neck with some heat and clamps (trying to do it without taking the fretboard off but we'll see). Need to make a new truss rod, so looking around for some Imperial steel rod and put some threads on it. Assuming I can get it to work, I'll make a Jazz body and fit it on that.
After that.... well it's time to think of another build. I've got some ideas, just need to size out some wood!
This build has run awfully smoothly. You sure you haven't done this before??? :p
The poly brings the grain out nicely. Good work.
Looking so good. And well done on not already having a handful of projects on the go at the same time...
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Ha ha, there have been plenty of issues, trust me!. It's just that not having a deadline or rushing it, means I can take my time, figure out the problem and fix it. People on here have been a great help and pointing out things which I'd glossed over or hadn't noticed.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
And it has to be said, YouTube is just awesome. The whole thing was built using YouTube videos - especially Crimson guitars. But also things like a radius sanding block and sanding jig - just go on YouTube and see who has made one and how. Any problems - someone has had it before and shows how to solve it.
It's not perfect by any means. The body is pretty straightforward and next time with a suitable template, I reckon the whole body could be cut, shaped, routed and sanded in a weekend.
However the neck was quite tricky to do - and I've learnt a lot for the next one.
I still have the wiring to do. Whilst I used to work for an electronics company years ago and soldered every day, I didn't really understand it! Electronics isn't my thing! Probably why I left!
I have the volume and tone pots, a suitable condenser, jack socket, a soldering iron and some solder and the wiring diagram from Seymour Duncan. However I don't have any wire - other than the pickup wire.
What would be suitable wire to use for it all? If I stripped out the wires from a mains cable for example, would that be suitable?
Well after about two and half weeks, it was time to do some level sanding and a polish. Again, familiar territory for Pitbullers so I didn't take many pics. Wet sanded with 1000, until it was level (ish) and then carried on gently with 1500, 2000 and 2500.
I've used Farecla products before on boats and found them ok, so I broke out Amazon again and purchased some Farecla G10 finishing compound, which came with a buffing pad that fitted on my sander, Started off gently then increased the speed a bit and ended up with a fairly nice finish (in my opinion). Little bit glossier than I was going for, but glass smooth to the touch.
https://i.imgur.com/oJc5ky2.jpg
Now time for the wiring. I learnt two things doing this. One - soldering is a perishable skill, secondly - two pairs of glasses means I need another eye test!
I had to go and practice soldering some joints first and eventually got to the stage where I could attach the bits together. I stripped out an old mains lead - as you can see from the colours! It's probably a little heavy duty for the tiny current but it's all I had.
I followed the Seymour Duncan diagram which wasn't too difficult. The soldering was ... ok. In hindsight the wires look a bit of mess as they are all intertwined with each other and were soldered like that. The cavity - which I thought was quite large when I did it, turned out to be quite small. The black wire is the pickup wire, yellow and green (earth in UK) is the bridge ground wire and the blue and brown - tip and ground.
https://i.imgur.com/594f7KY.jpg
Still I tested it with an amp and it all works so all good. Drilled some holes for the cavity cover and it was all hidden. Unfortunately I didn't have the right screws as two of them (or one) are different, so I'll need to replace them. Looks ok though.
https://i.imgur.com/J0zF39W.jpg
Finally it was time to put it all together. Attached the pickup with foam base and the jack socket, strap holders and then the bridge (with the bridge wire - only just remembered to strip the end of it!) and put the tuners on the neck, with a string tree, strung it up and voila.
I'm calling it finished.
https://i.imgur.com/gEf3LGY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MCJ2i11.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CtCSSza.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KxDLutV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ERrcPFX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/eoA4Yjx.png
Actually I was bit premature calling it finished. When I came to play it after doing a basic setup, it turned out that there were a few buzzy frets. I ended up having to tape up the neck and redo the frets. I had to do this on the Pitbull build as well, so I'm obviously not doing it right first time.
Anyway, after having spent yesterday doing this, adjusting the neck relief, filing down the nut slots, getting the action reasonable and doing the intonation (surprisingly close straight out the box), it now plays really nicely.
The sound is awesome - very impressed with the SD pickup. I have to say it's one of the best things about it and the sustain is excellent (of less importance on a bass but it's nice to have). A really nice growly sound for the low notes which is what I was after. Seems much louder than the other guitars I have and I don't really need to adjust the pickup height. I'm thinking of swapping out the Pitbull pickup on my P Bass which is a little weedy, to a Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder.
The hardware is all Gotoh stuff and it tunes up up perfectly and easily. I've decided it's definitely worth spending a little more on the components and I wish I had done on my Pitbull build now. (Not really news to most I imagine, but I got there in the end!)
It will settle down after a few weeks so I'll dial in the setup a little more then, though it's pretty close to how I like it as it is now.
All in all I'm very happy with it. It's not perfect by any means. I don't need a 24 fret neck and I can't reach much above the 20th anyway - though due to the guitar design, the 24 frets makes the neck pocket longer and (in my mind) more stable. I guess I could have gone for a shorter scale (It's 34") but I wanted to keep that part fairly standard.
Also the tone control isn't as effective as on other guitars. Don't know if that's down to the condenser choice, but I'll live with it for a while and see how I get on. I don't use it a huge amount anyway, I use the amp controls more, however I don't suppose it's hard to swap it out for another one.
Definitely learnt some stuff for the next one! And there will be another. The kick out of building the whole thing from scratch (and the body from an old mantlepiece) is just fantastic and I really enjoyed the whole process - pretty much from start to finish - and the fact that it's nice to play (eventually!) is great. Taking it to a couple of rehearsals this coming week so I'll test it with some Hendrix/Cream covers.
Treating myself to a Triton belt/bobbin sander as a treat for finishing it!
What an elegant beast! That thing is beautiful!!
That's come up very nicely. Well done.
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Thanks guys. I’m very pleased with it. Spent a couple of hours playing it this evening and it really is easy to play. The action needs dropping a touch - not for playing but just to get a little rasp. I’ll leave it a month or so.
Lovely work there Stuart!
Looks great Stuart. Lovely finish!
Really great first build!
Every time i see the pictures I keep getting reminded of my first bass. a mid-70s short scale Wilson (vaguely related to Burns). Apart from the colour, and a vaguely similar body shape, they are pretty different, but still it keeps reminding me of it.