This is looking great Grant, you have overcome some decent obstacles , well done
Printable View
This is looking great Grant, you have overcome some decent obstacles , well done
Thanks Stan. The replacement piece of veneer for the first side is still drying after being softened and flattened, maybe in a week will try again. Fingers crossed.
Hope it goes well
Well done Grant, that's going to look awesome. Having had issues with applying veneer myself i know just how frustrating it can be. But it looks like you have found a way that works for you, so it should be plain sailing from here on.
Let's hope so Stan.
Cheers Robin, will have to remind myself to be patient and wait for the veneer to dry enough before trying to glue it on. My method may not be elegant, but has worked this time. Again, fingers crossed for the next attempt.
Good news to report. The veneers are on and no dramas with bubbles or cracking this time.
Next step was to sand the sides of the body to remove the excess glue and make the join between the body and veneer as neat as possible. Was going well until I sanded through the outer piece/plank of the body on the left side. It's only cosmetic, with any luck between grain filling and staining it won't be too noticeable.
Attachment 10498
And a shot showing the front.
Attachment 10499
Body is sanded to 180 grit and gave the veneer a light sand with 400 grit.
Really don't want to mess up the veneer by getting Timbermate or stain on it so gave it a coat of vinyl sealer, light scuff with 400 and brushed on one coat of poly to seal it and hopefully prevent any mishaps. Will still mask it up when dry enough as an extra precaution (can you tell I'm a bit paranoid about it?) Before
Attachment 10500
After
Attachment 10501
As you can see, the Behlen poly isn't clear. It has an amber tone to it which should colour up the body quite nicely.
Grant
That is seriously FUNKY, love it! This is going to be another epic result.
looks totally awesome Grant, love the look of the burl. This will be another stock standard stunning Neverwas build !
Schweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Bingo! This is going to look great.
Looking seriously epic already Grant. This is going to be yet another sensational build. Cant wait to see the final product!
Cheers,
Gav.
Thanks for the positivity guys.
While I was waiting for the body to be ready to sand, had the bright idea of replacing the fretboard inlays and dots with black MOP.
Ordered a set of crown inlays and side dots from Aus. MOP Supplies.
Attachment 10788
Side dots were easy enough to drill out and replace, although one or two I drilled slightly off perpendicular and there are small gaps but I think they will fill up by the time the finish is on. Removed the plastic inlays partly by drilling a hole and digging them out and then saw Tweaky's trick of using a soldering iron to soften the glue underneath to get them out. Couldn't get them out in one piece but had pieces big enough to measure the thickness. They ranged from around 2.4mm to 2.75mm, quite a bit thicker than the pearl replacements. The top three were about the same size, 12 and 15 were smaller than the stock ones and the lower ones were slightly longer than the cavities. Carefully made the cavities larger and cleaned up the glue residue.
Attachment 10789
After some head scratching I figured the simplest way to make sure the new inlays were at the right height in the middle of the fingerboard was to glue some veneer pieces to the back of the inlays with CA glue. In this case, two pieces were pretty much spot on.
Attachment 10790
Then mixed up some epoxy to glue them in. Filed and sanded them to match the radius of the fingerboard.
I read a way to fill the gaps is to mix wood dust with white glue and apply that. I had a broken rosewood bridge base that I could sacrifice for the cause and that met the business end of the belt sander to give me the dust I needed. Mixed up small batches of titebond and wood dust and started filling the gaps. Need to wait for that to dry, sand and refill the bits I've missed and where it shrinks in the larger gaps.
Attachment 10791
The body has been grain filled with Jarrah timbermate and sanded with 320 grit. Mixed up a colour with colortone stains and applied that to the body. Ended up darker than intended but it's on there now. The colour itself is quite good - vintage amber, cherry red and medium brown - but not sure if it's too dark for the veneers. Pics are with one coat of poly on all.
Attachment 10792Attachment 10793
Good thing about it being dark is that it makes the area on the side I sanded through and the neck hole plugs hard to notice.
Attachment 10794
In the pics the veneer looks lighter than it really is, so the contrast between the stain and veneer is a bit exaggerated. Telling myself it should look fine once the hardware is on and all together.
Grant
Looks awesome Grant. I like the colour - the dark contrast really pops the burl veneer. Sweet!!
cheers,
Gav.
Looking grrrreat. Now I want to build an FB!
Thanks Gav and Andy.
Have finished putting the poly coats on, seven in total all told. Initially thought I could get away with three but must have pulled a lot of the grain fill out when rubbing on the stain, so needed to apply extra coats and sand back to fill the pores. There are still some pores here and there but they can stay.
Attachment 11607Attachment 11608
Went to install the bushes for bridge and tailpiece and they dropped in the holes with no effort at all, not good. I bought Gotoh pieces and only checked they fit by using pvc tubing in place of the bushes, but didn't think to try the actual bushes in the drilled holes. With all the finish coats on it was a bit late to plug up and redrill holes but managed to dodge a bullet by using unused bushes from previous builds. Sanded the chrome and painted the shoulder with some charcoal left over from the esp build. New hardware is cosmo black and the charcoal doesn't quite match but is close. Threaded a M8 bolt into the bushes when knocking them in to avoid chipping the paint off.
Attachment 11609Attachment 11610
Also have the wiring started. Thanks to Fretty for posting a link to Gib wiring schemes a while ago, followed the Firebird V scheme. I'm using P90s and have read to use 300K pots with them, after some more reading have found you can make your own from a 500k pot with a 1M resistor soldered across the outside lugs. Works out to about 330K, and added treble bleed circuits as well.
Anyone using Bourns pots, as I am, if you need extra nuts and washers you can get them from Jaycar, their duratec brand in a pack of 12, fit perfectly.
Attachment 11611Attachment 11612
Decided to use braided wire for the run to the switch which meant I needed to chisel out a small channel for the thicker wires to fit in the neck pup cavity under the pup itself. Will try to make wood spacers for the height setting of the pups, that may take a bit of fiddling to get right.
Attachment 11613
Little unsure what to do with covering the switch cavity that doesn't hide the veneer. Clear pickguard with a blackout around the switch is the current thought.
Attachment 11614
Grant
That's come up a treat mate! The clear pick guard sounds like a great idea, maybe use a thin vinyl under it to hide the switch cavity?
Looking very nice. How about just a black disc a little bigger than the hole as a switch cover, forget the rest of the pickguard.
This looks amazing.
Similar to Pabs a timber disc stained the same as your body colour.
really nice job, this is a great build
this is an epic build Grant, well done
If you've got some left over veneer that will match the switch area, I'd try that first. Cut it so it just fits into the switch hole, drill for the switch, then finish it the same as the top (with maybe some CA glue on its edge and underside to toughen it up). Put some copper tape on its underside to shield it and use it like a big washer on the switch. Then you can have either a clear plastic ring 'switch cover' or a full clear pickguard with the switch holding the veneer ring in place. You'll probably still have a small gap around it, but I think it would look better that a solid cover.
I think I might cry when I finally see this guitar finished. It's looking so pretty right now.
Thanks for the replies guys.
You've all given me a bit to think about for the switch surround. Had it in my head to use a pickguard of some sort and didn't really plan ahead for anything else. I do have some left over veneer to play around with, just need to decide on a small surround or stick with the full guard, which when you think about it, with the raised centre section on the body, is really an oversized switch surround on this model.
Fretty, that will be two builds in a row :p
Installed the tuners, Grover upgrade in nickel black. Placed a graphite nut on there to trim the veneer edge, the bone nut I have for it is hiding on me. Made a trc to mimic the HS shape.
Attachment 11651Attachment 11652
Grant
nice one Grant, that headstock is looking unreal
Man this looks like custom build on a luthiers website. Headstock looks a great design and love the way the logo is done
For the switch surround I'd go with a piece of veneer with a slightly larger bit of black pickguard under it so it kinda frames the veneer, it would also echo the effect on the headstock. Just my 2 bobs worth ;)
That headstock is awesome, just fantastic.
Looks great Grant, Firebirds would have to be one of my favorite guitars and this build is awesome. I actually like the look of the graphite nut with your grovers and your trc.
Trc looks great with a 3 layer headstock effect
Headstock looks superb Grant. Amazing work as always. Can't wait to see this one complete.
cheers,
Gav.
Thanks for the comments/ideas everyone.
I think I've combined all suggestions into one and made a switch ring/cavity cover. With the braided wire, the switch doesn't sit central in the cavity but the cavity isn't round either so don't see it as a big deal. Made a paper template, used that to cut a piece of acrylic plastic to size. Had to sand the edges of the cavity smooth to make it look a bit neater. Then used Tarzans grip to glue on a piece of veneer, it doesn't really match the surrounding area but I took the opportunity to add a few more burls.
To mount it, shaped some quad I had lying around to make the recess for it to sit on. Had to file one piece to allow for the wiring then glued in with titebond. Tried to line up the mounting screws with the switch positions.
Attachment 12211Attachment 12212
Attachment 12213Attachment 12214
cont...
The pup routs were a bit deep for the P90s so made a couple of spacers to bring them up a bit. Still a little low, will try to find some foam rubber to use as fine height adjustment. Had to cut a few reliefs for the wires to pass through.
Attachment 12215
Neck is on and strung up and makes noise. Still need to do the setup but it's almost there.
Attachment 12216
Grant
That is seriously kool! great work mate.
seriously cool build Granthttp://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items...rrow-10x10.png, fantastic example how much you can customise an axe so well
have you replaced the fret markers with MOP ?
Seriously cool build Grant. She looks amazing.
cheers,
Gav.
Cheers Dedman, Wokks and Gav.
The fret inlays are black MOP. By the time they were filed and sanded to match the fretboard radius the black gave way to lighter shades, but that's part of the fun with natural products. A little random shading wise, but still works I think.
Grant
I could say this job is awesome, but I can't , it's better than that
Thanks Stan.
Finally got around to doing the intonation, filed the bone nut down, used the pup pole screws to match the fretboard radius and get closer to the strings. Plugged it in to my little practice amp and had very little volume. After a mild bout of tourettes, realised the switch connections were touching the shielding paint at the bottom of its cavity, small adjustment and problem solved.
The Kent Armstrong noiseless P90s seem to live up to their name, barely a hum or buzz when used in the shed under flouros.
Sounds great, my first guitar with P90s and already changing plans on the next one to include a P90 (there's always a next one:rolleyes:)
As for a sound demo, still haven't pulled my finger out and had one done for my last build, let alone this one. Will get one done, just don't hold your breath.
I think the only things I haven't mentioned already are the belly carve, could be deeper but tried to not get too carried away, and made a control cover from some meranti and stained to match the body.
Pics
Attachment 12613
Attachment 12614Attachment 12615
Attachment 12616Attachment 12617
cont...
Attachment 12618Attachment 12619
Attachment 12620
Attachment 12621Attachment 12622
Oh yeah,also greyed out the tops of the knobs to try to make them match in a bit better.
Grant