Printable View
Just checking in, so y'don't think I've lost interest. The house is sold, we're moving next weekend and I've had my last day at work here and the best part of three weeks stretch out ahead of me before I start a new job, in which I have to move our household 700 odd km. So, I'm packing packing packing, and I expect the Red Menace will resume construction in late July/early August.
Be nice to each other everyone - I'll start checking in again regularly when the unpacking duties slacken.
Good luck with the move Glenn.
All the best with the move Glenn - not fun for anyone...
Best of luck with the move Glenn! Hope to see you back here soon and ready to get Tania's Tele done!!
Best wishes with the move Glenn!
Good ole Canberra :) I spent 15 wonderful years there, a beautiful city.
Resumed work on the Red Menace this afternoon. Completed the sanding and prep for colour, and applied the deep colour coat (Carmine Gypsy). Looking very, very nice!
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...r-DSCN6720.JPG
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...7-DSCN6721.JPG
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...c-DSCN6723.JPG
Welcome back, hope the move went well.
Welcome back Glenn!!! Good luck with the rest of the build!!!
great stuff Glenn, nice Tele
Welcome back. Good to see you with us again!
Thanks guys, good to be building!
While I'm waiting for coats of Wudtone to dry on the body, I'm getting on with work on the neck. The loud and obnoxious process of shaping the headstock is not one for a weeknight with the kiddie-winks in bed, so I've removed the plastic nut tonight, using the Dingobass-approved method: hacksaw down the length, squeeze with some blunt-ended pliers, and pull it out. Worked like a charm.
Below you can see the successfully removed plastic nut, and the Dingobass-supplied bone nut, awaiting installation. I might wait till I've shaped the headstock before putting in the bone nut.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...s-DSCN6726.JPG
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...q-DSCN6727.JPG
Yay! Glenns back!
Feeling an LP coming on, DB ... seems like a natural progression.
All righty, it's headstock time. Even though I like the authentic shape of a Tele headstock, I still think they're a bit on the small side, so this time I went looking for the largest authentic template I could find. Strangely, it turned out to be pretty much identical to the one I used last time! Oh well, here we go - put the template down and trace around it ...
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...n-DSCN6728.JPG
Be sure to line up those holes with the template!
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...6-DSCN6729.JPG
... then I take out my standard "this saw cuts wood" saw and do a rough cut around, followed by trimming up with a sanding head on a dremel.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...1-DSCN6730.JPG
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...p-DSCN6731.JPG
You can see I got as close as I cared on the bottom edge there and stopped - my thing about the size, you know? I figure it'll be fine. Now I can just neaten the whole lot up with some hand-sanding and we're there.
The beefier Tele headstock looks good.
If you are going to do a few kits invest in a cheap jigsaw, it will save a bunch of time
Oh, I have a jigsaw, I used it on the Yellow Peril. Didn't spend much more time on this one than I did on that, with the added advantage this time that, when I got to the low side, I didn't put a big-arse groove in the transition up to the nut with the edge of the jig-saw foot-plate!
Here's where we finished the day. There are still some little marks I need to sand out properly, but otherwise the headstock is done.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...2-DSCN6732.JPG
In this picture you can see how far I deviated from the template. I'm pretty happy with the result.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...2-DSCN6733.JPG
Nice GGP, I like that shallow start to the headstock.
it finished up nicely, Glen
I got up to six coats of the "Base Coat" Carmine Gypsy and wasn't happy with how red it was. I only put a single coat of "Deep Colour" on the body. So I've put another two coats of "Deep Colour" on top of the "Base Coats" and then another "Base Coat" on top of that. The wood didn't complain, and I'm much happier with the result. I've got enough "Base Coat" for one more coat of that before moving to high gloss top coats, which will make a full 10 coats of colour, and for the newbs playing at home, the more coats of Wudtone you whack on and let cure (for the required 2-3 days) the better the result will be. The Yellow Peril had the bare minimum, and I can completely tell the difference now. This is going to look so sweet, and sound even better. I'm stoked. Thanks Adam!
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...2-DSCN6734.JPG
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...1-DSCN6737.JPG
Hi Glenn, Great colour. I need to put down a deep base coat, but never tried that finish before, hope it turns out as good as yours is.
Good work.
I see red I see red I see reeedddd.
Very nice Glenn
Glenn - gotta love the red guitar - red Wudtones rock!
wow Glenn, that's coming up a treat
Stan, you should see it with a couple of coats of high gloss on it!
My care package from StewMac arrived today, so it was on with setting up the neck.
Here we are ready to go with the radiused sanding block. I'd levelled the neck as closely as possible with the truss rod, and then masked around the frets, then put a texta line across the top of each fret, so that low-points could be identified as the sanding progressed.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...z-DSCN6764.JPG
This is an overhead view after a few passes with the sanding block. Not much to see, not much to tell. There were a few irregularities but nothing to get very worked up about.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...0-DSCN6765.JPG
This is a close-up at the same point as the pic above. Like I say, not much to get worried about.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...v-DSCN6766.JPG
I got one of those double-sided crowning files - fabulous piece of kit. Using the "medium" side, filing the flat tops off those frets was a breeze. Just keep filing until the sliver of flat disappears. Brilliant.
On the right, a re-crowned fret. On the left, levelled and flat-topped - yet to be re-crowned.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...8-DSCN6768.JPG
Nearly there ... seven to go! (the top fret was already done!)
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...q-DSCN6769.JPG
Once I'd re-crowned all the frets, I gave each a quick rub with 1000 grit paper, then a polish with 0000 steel wool. In this pic, the two frets on the left have been polished, the two on the right are yet to be done.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...h-DSCN6772.JPG
And here's the finished product. Nice and level, and shiny.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...2-DSCN6773.JPG
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...3-DSCN6774.JPG
Great work Glen, you make me feel lazy getting DB to do mine prior to shipping...
Nice work Glenn
Thanks Tim. It's coming up pretty well, I'm very lucky to have the luxury of time with this one, and I'm appreciating it. The difference between "building" something and "crafting" something, I'd like to think!
Great work Glenn :)
Now that the neck is sorted out it's time to get some Wudtone on it. We've gone for the original vintage yellow on the neck, so here we go!
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...4-DSCN6775.JPG
I've got the fretboard masked off, because I like it to be the natural colour. When I do the last clear top coat I'll take the masking off, use some 0000 steel wool to remove any "ridge" along the tape line, and then include the fretboard in the final top coat. That was pretty much what I did with the Yellow Peril, and I've been very happy with the finish and the feel of the fretboard under my fingers.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...f-DSCN6776.JPG
Ooh, a question for 1800-DINGOBASS - I've made sure that the bone nut will fit the slot, but haven't fitted it yet, on the basis that I haven't been able to check the height of the action. I'm proposing to drop it into the slot when I set up the guitar for the first time and work it out then, and only when I'm happy with the height will I glue it in. It's a pretty tight fit, it would probably stay exactly where it is if I didn't glue it, now that I think about it.
Any thoughts on this approach? (anyone can weigh in, not just DB!)
Today I warmed up the soldering iron to upgrade the passive electronic components for the Red Menace. As explained on page 1, this is a guitar which may actually be taken on stage by its owner, so the upgrades are:
- CRL 3-way switch
Alpha pots
Sprague Orange Drop cap
tone fidelity circuit
New components on the left, control panel with stock components on the right.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...6-DSCN6777.JPG
Earlier in this thread I had some trouble tracing the circuits on the 3-way. Today I got it worked out - well, I had to!
First things first - get the component on the panel and wire it to the pot. The screw holes for the stock part were smaller, so I had to bore them out a bit to accommodate the CRL component screws.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...9-DSCN6780.JPG
Here we have the solution to the circuit problem. Pretty sure I've seen this done elsewhere!
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...q-DSCN6781.JPG
Lastly, getting the pots on the panel. Until you see them next to one another you don't realise how much more robust those Alpha pots are!
In order to preserve my sanity, I replaced them one at a time, taking careful note of what was attached where and then putting them straight back in the same places on the new component, while it was all still fresh in my memory.
In this pic I've changed the tone pot but not the volume. Orange drop installed! As with the switch, the holes in the panel for the stock parts were too small for the new ones, so I had to bore these out a bit too.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...2-DSCN6782.JPG
And here we are all finished up. Don't look too closely at the soldering, I'm a novice in that department, but they're solid and they work.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...1-DSCN6783.JPG
great work Glenn, this one will rock!
Sounds fine to do it that way and set up once you are finished, but I would still glue it into place with some super glue at that time. It will come out of the slot again if you need to change it later.Quote:
/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from GlennGP on October 5, 2013, 13:35
Ooh, a question for 1800-DINGOBASS - I've made sure that the bone nut will fit the slot, but haven't fitted it yet, on the basis that I haven't been able to check the height of the action. I'm proposing to drop it into the slot when I set up the guitar for the first time and work it out then, and only when I'm happy with the height will I glue it in. It's a pretty tight fit, it would probably stay exactly where it is if I didn't glue it, now that I think about it.
Any thoughts on this approach? (anyone can weigh in, not just DB!)
These plastic one's are glued in with something weird which often causes damage to the fretboard, but a clean nut slot and a drop or two of superglue will do the trick. If you don't glue the nut in it might slip during the middle of your Van Halen solo and that would destroy your tuning!