@andrew - thanks! Look forward to it! Definitely source wood from the bgs!
Thanks Pablo!
Printable View
@andrew - thanks! Look forward to it! Definitely source wood from the bgs!
Thanks Pablo!
nice one Simon, I agree ebony fingerboards are the biz. One of the rare PBG kits the ICA-7 I've almost finished has an ebony fingerboard and I love the deep colour of it
@ Ponch can't wait to see the Bunnings Caster, that should get you 5 x life in the Warehouse !
Woks, I sense danger around the corner and will no doubt involve a router. I paper cut my thumb last night cutting out the tele plan for the template lol
Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk
haha all good Ponch, if you follow some simple rules routers aren't too scary. Also best get some steel caps fitted to your 3 plugger thongs !
That would make two of us, three including my other half! After seeing your two scratchies, I am very tempted do defer the FrankenWashie while I try my hand at inlay work....Quote:
Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89
Yes more scratch builds!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89
I spent a half hour tonight and scratch built a dust collector like yours from a $5 bucket and some assorted 40mm PVC fittings. Does that one count? :cool:
Nice work Simon 👍
Glad you nipped the ends off the tangs, it really does make the neck look and feel a lot better.
Also if the neck or finger board shrinks and the fret ends start to protrude it makes it a lot easier to file them back flush.
@Frankie, I will try and remember to do some measurements on the router box but you can make it any size you want... I will be making another one that is wider as I find this one can be a tad narrow for some jobs...
Ponch, I dare you to............
Its all cool DB, I took stock of what projects I have and intend to build and hashed out some dimensions that suit those. I then disappeared into an alternate reality looking at ways of making the blocks adjustable via thumbwheels and threaded rod and it all got a bit silly.Quote:
Originally Posted by dingobass
Hahahahaha!
Keep it simple Frankie.... no need for flux capacitors or inter planetary space modulators :)
I think some things upstairs got scrambled when they beamed me up.....:pQuote:
Originally Posted by dingobass
Hope there wasn't any probing involved....Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Haha while you guys were discussing weird alien procedures I also did some procedures on the guitar.
I rounded over the entire backside (see what I did there? ;) including the neck pocket, because I'm going for an all-access neck joint. The round over makes it more comfortable and gives easy access to the higher frets. And I also drilled out the holes for the neck ferrules.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psy48eq2ji.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps2uoszii2.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psu3sklmow.jpg
Then I started to route the neck pocket, pickup and tremolo cavities. But before that I drilled a bunch of relief holes. If you have trypophobia, now's a good time to look away.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pswcpme0kn.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psghb2etum.jpg
Then routed the neck pocket to a depth of 18mm, bearing in mind my neck is slightly thicker by 2mm.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psbcmzdapm.jpg
This time, the pocket was really tight so I had to sand off some meat from the neck itself. I may have to widen the neck pocket slightly later on because from preliminary measurements the neck may be slightly off towards the bass side by 1mm at the bridge, and that makes a significant difference in terms of string alignment.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psr17mvnvu.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps8sqwstko.jpg
Then with the neck in place, I drew out the position for the neck humbucker. In hindsight, I could've gotten 2mm closer towards the neck but I didn't want to take chances of the humbucker not fitting properly. I guess it won't make a significant difference in terms of tone. I'm hoping to get the bright, neck humbucker tone you hear on players like John Petrucci, Steve Vai etc.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps365s4jwn.jpg
Then I finished up routing the tremolo cavity. Again this was quite scary because I had to use the long pattern bit and the last time I accidentally routed into the top while plunging back up. Luckily no mistakes this time round!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psppobf3px.jpg
And I did a test fit with some hardware lying around. I'll probably get Zebra humbuckers again. They look nice.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps74th7z4r.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pswzlvvcgy.jpg
A picture of the neck joint. It feels really comfortable at the moment with the thumb behind, but I still have trouble reaching the 24th fret. I might do a scoop on the lower horn.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psu5sqmg70.jpg
Whew! Hard part's over! Routing the neck pocket always makes me nervous!
BOOM!
Noice werk :)
Thanks DB!
Spring and control cavities routed.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pswumwpfsw.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psoha8r4pn.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pslihspy51.jpg
The pickup channel wire routes came out nicely.
Also drilled the knob recess on the top.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psxjzvopzv.jpg
Thats looking fantastic.
that looks freaking fantastic Simon, you are really motoring along. Another stunner well done
Wow Simon, that is already looking awesome, can't wait to see it finished. You have certainly master the art of guitar building.
You build a scratchy in the time it takes most of us to build a kit ;) Great work!
Thanks guys. I have a lot of spare time now before I start work hence I'm really pushing out as many builds as I can!
The finishing process has begun! I've officially finished all the building so now it's sanding, staining and finishing. Exciting stuff!
I sanded the neck up to 240 grit and stained with UBeat brown and yellow dye. I first dyed it a dark brown and sanded back to try and pop the figure. Sadly, the flames on this piece weren't very good at all and I'm very disappointed. It was also a pain in the butt sanding back the brown dye because the sandpaper clogs easily and my arm was already tired from sanding it before dyeing.
Anyway, I attempted a bengal burst/tiger burst/tobacco burst, whatever the technical name is. I've not done a hand-rubbed burst for a long time but it was quite fun. I'll probably make some more adjustments tomorrow.
I initially wanted a lighter brown but as I applied more (By accident actually! I spilled my jar of stain all over my table so I had to mop up the excess with my rag.) I grew to like the darker brown burst.
Here's the headstock, without flash.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psrsqmauqv.jpg
With flash:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psksbbqv5b.jpg
The back of the headstock:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps98zof4xz.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psu3wjcvc1.jpg
I'll probably stain the entire back of the headstock a uniform brown because I think I want the burst to only be in front.
The neck.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psc6ujbxva.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pstjqcbeso.jpg
Again I was rather disappointed with the lack of flames on this flamed maple piece. The top has stunning flames, but a pity this doesn't.
You may notice that I also added some dark brown to the volute and the heel. I was trying to go for the vintage Les Paul jr type sunburst and it turned out quite well. Actually the real reason was because I forgot to sand the end grain to a higher grit so these were the parts which soaked in a lot of brown stain. I was tired of sanding back the brown so I decided to use it to my advantage. Turned out pretty okay!
I like it , it has that lived in look already
neck looking sweet Simon
Yep, great looking neck.
Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk
I really like the burst on the back of the headstock. It's different, which in my world is a good thing.
If it was mine, I'd extend the dark brown onto the neck like you've done at the heel end. It would make the burst look less out-of-place.
It does extend to the neck just below the first fret. The more I look at it the more I feel like just making it entirely brown behind. Maybe I'll test fit some hardware first.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muzza
Looks great mate. The UBeaut dyes are some of my favourite products to work with.
I meant extend it slightly further up the neck. Another inch or so to match the heel end.Quote:
Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89
Finally gotten down to dyeing the body. I first sprayed 2 coats of lacquer to seal the faux binding, then grain filled, then sprayed another 2 sealer coats over the faux binding. I'm not sure if the first 2 sealer coats were necessary in hindsight because when sanding off the timbermate grain filler I took off a bit of the sealer. But then again I didn't want the faux binding to be stained by the grain filler so I didn't take any chances. Sealing the faux binding, however, was necessary to prevent any dye from colouring it.
I decided to pop the amazing figure with some brown dye.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psqezctvcr.jpg
Then sanded back till my arms and thumbs were sore.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psuvvzcnaq.jpg
And also dyed the mahogany brown.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pst5scowe9.jpg
Then I put some yellow over the top and did a brown burst. I filmed the entire process and I'll post the video once it's done. However the top horns didn't receive the dye as well as the others so I couldn't get it very dark. I ended up sanding back the whole thing the next day after drying and tried again.
Picture without flash:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psroqsqxah.jpg
With flash:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pswtjgdx87.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psqymquesi.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pskp9nwlwb.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psxnuwqa6c.jpg
To do the faux binding, I sanded and scraped the edges to get it round over. The sealer coats helped prevent any dye from getting on to it.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psb9bl9qwp.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psr17batd0.jpg
The headstock burst looks a bit darker compared to the body, but I can't get the body to get any darker so i may have to lightly sand the headstock.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psn4e70unb.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pseridtudd.jpg
The colour on the back of the body and neck seem to match pretty well so I'll leave them alone.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psngza3iru.jpg
Excelling yourself again Si. Are you sure its just not an illusion of the headstock being darker as it's right next to that ebony fretboard? I look at the burst around the upper bout and the upper cutaway and it looks very close?
It may actually be the flames causing the illusions in different lighting. Maybe after spraying some clear coats they will look normal. The lighting in the garage isn't great and it's gloomy outside now.Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Yeah bro, it all depends on the strength and angle of light in the shots i guess. Great work though man, that is going to come up a treat with a high gloss finish on it. Totally jealous here.