The Lean Hen TL-1TH

Silly thread title, was going to be called the skinny chook but TLH fit better with the kit's designation.
Not having done a TL type before, went for the thinline after being inspired by the one-off White Chicken
Attachment 39770

Will end up looking more like this if all goes well,
Attachment 39771

Should mention now that actually started on this around four years ago and this is a catch-up to what has (slowly) happened. Will try to be brief and hopefully not miss out any important details.
The story so far.....
The kit
Attachment 39772

First step was a rounded neck plate which will be recessed for reasons that should be clear later.
Attachment 39773Attachment 39774

cont... (be patient, I type very slow)

Next step is reshape body to suit new neck plate
Attachment 39776
Am trying to do binding on a body for the first time, so may as well make it twice as much of a challenge by making it double bound. The rear edge had been sanded with a slight radius which needed to be squared up as much as possible. Used a sanding drum in the drill press to do this and had the benefit of removing almost all of the original binding from the front face as well.
Attachment 39777
After some mix-and-matching router bits and bearings, found a combo that would work to do the new binding channels/rebates.
Attachment 39778
Thanks to Weirdbits' build diary/tutorial for his Telebilly build, made a block to fit the neck pocket so the trim router could glide across the top evenly
Attachment 39779
Despite being careful, did have a little tear out
Attachment 39780

cont..

With the rear of the neck pocket reshaped, the neck itself will get a gentle finessing to make a better transition
Attachment 39781
Time to position and drill the holes for the string thru bridge
Attachment 39782
All straight on the front
Attachment 39783Attachment 39784

Have the luxury of a drill press which has a throat just deep enough to be able to do the hole for the rear ferrules. Wasn't able to clamp the bit of board to the drill press table without the clamps getting in the way so ended up bolting it down instead. Have used a 3mm drill bit, shank end upward, as the guide pin. Did need a drop of CA glue on the underside to help hold it in place. The board may look a bit manky bit is quite smooth, doesn't do any damage to the body.
Attachment 39785

cont..

E string holes through
Attachment 39786
Set up the forstener bit and no going back now
Attachment 39787
I'm not going to get it any better than this
Attachment 39788
Next challenge is to shape (well pre-shape) the curly maple binding. After too many YT vids, kind of mashed up most of that into something that sort of worked. Soaked the binding in ammonia, wrapped it in foil and used a hair curler as a bending iron.
Attachment 39789
First piece on the body with excessive use of tape, you can see the foil around the binding by the neck pocket
Attachment 39790

still going...

Next piece shaped, a little easier to see what's going on
Attachment 39791
Binding pieces pre-shaped
Attachment 39792
Being aware of glue issues and am planning on using stains for the colouring, went the extra step of taping up both edges of the binding channel. The soaking of the maple pieces did cause some warping which meant some sanding, well filing, was needed on the mating faces. If you don't have a Shinto saw rasp, get one, they are awesome. Did break this piece during fitting up went back together well.
Attachment 39793
And here goes
Attachment 39794Attachment 39795

Looks a little like an EVH tribute a this point
One more..

Next was the fill piece to go across the neck plate
Attachment 39796
Now its really obvious the hole for the output jack is not centered, just as well had planned to recess it so some sideways nudging is possible.
Attachment 39797
After cleaning up the sides with a spindle sander, the binding doesn't look as bad as it did.
Attachment 39798
Started sanding the sides with P180 and gave it a wipe over with gum turps to see where we stand
Attachment 39799Attachment 39800
Feeling less bad about my efforts now

Grant

Wow, that's some really nice work there!

That's real lutherie compared to my very safe and simple strat/tele builds. Good stuff!

I agree with Macca, really nice work Grant.

I've managed to completely bork my string through holes on my latest build so I can appreciate how good yours are.

Cheers
rob

Thanks McCreed, more a case of trying something I haven't done before and hoping it doesn't end up in the bin in a fit of rage.:rolleyes:
Thanks robin, do admire your use of hand tools for your builds and it's disappointing to hear your string thru hasn't gone well.

As to my last comment about feeling less bad about where the build is at, this is before the binding was cleaned up
Attachment 39801
Scary stuff,was very unhappy/underwhelmed at this point. Blunder on.

Grant

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neverwas

Thanks McCreed, more a case of trying something I haven't done before and hoping it doesn't end up in the bin in a fit of rage.:rolleyes:
Thanks robin, do admire your use of hand tools for your builds and it's disappointing to hear your string thru hasn't gone well.

As to my last comment about feeling less bad about where the build is at, this is before the binding was cleaned up
Attachment 39801
Scary stuff,was very unhappy/underwhelmed at this point. Blunder on.

Grant

---

Well, looks like you made a good recovery from there!

Lovely work on the binding, and that neck heel is sweet. I can’t wait to see the final finish.

What an amazing effort. Tough kit...and binding. Looking great.

Thanks Wayne and ozz
Here is a pic of the rear of the neck pocket cleaned up a little
Attachment 39948
Also reshaped the neck to blend into the body, may revisit this. Feels good but may be improved upon.
Attachment 39949
Trying to make the curly maple binding bend to a tight curve for the f-hole has not gone well so far using my hap-hazard methods.
Attachment 39950
Even after thinning the binding pieces from around 2mm to about 1mm thickness, it still wants to break on the figuring. Will have one more attempt and if that doesn't work, then no bound f-hole on this one.

Grant

More great work there!

I like the recessed neck plate too. A nice alternative to using individual (recessed) bushings.

Hi all, long overdue update. Did have another attempt to bind the f-hole, got the binding to curve a little better.
With that OK, glued and clamped the support piece underneath , thanks again to Weirdy for the clamp design.
Attachment 41580
Glueing in the pre-shaped pieces
Attachment 41581
Cleaned up and scraped flat, filled the gaps with maple sawdust and glue
Attachment 41582
And if this build wasn't taking long enough, decided to change the fret markers. First thought was for an ebony headplate to cut up, but none were locally available at the time. Had a look around and AusMOPsupplies have a timber section now, went with a piece of figured Gidgee, a local hardwood endemic to upper NSW and QLD apparently.
Attachment 41583
Cut a slightly over 3mm slice off the top of the Gidgee block with the bandsaw, once the blade marks were sanded flat it was still a little over 3mm thick.
Attachment 41584


cont.....

Copied hump block shapes from an Electromatic, they're not exact but close enough.
Attachment 41585
Patient is on the slab. Basic router sled using DAR pine double stick taped to a melamine shelf piece, scrap wood cut to make an interference fit between the neck and side pieces.
Attachment 41586
Made a larger base for the trim router from some 6mm clear acrylic
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The factory dots at the twelfth were a little off
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Used a spiral bit in the router to do most of the excavation and finished the shaping with chisels.
The new inlays ready to go in.
Attachment 41589

cont..

Clamping in new inlays
Attachment 41590
Not all went to plan, I went outside the lines a little on some but this at the 9th marker is the worst
Attachment 41591
Filled with maple sawdust and titebond and when wiped over with gum turps the fill is more noticeable than I would like.
Attachment 41592
And an overall view of the fretboard
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Grant

You gots skillz bro!

(and patience!)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by McCreed

You gots skillz bro!

(and patience!)

---

+1. Great stuff.

Wow! That’s really awesome

Nice work indeed.

Probably would have been better to go with dark sawdust, rather than than the maple, but until you try these things, you just don't know. An amber tinted clear might help disguise the fill a bit. It should at least reduce the contrast slightly.

Amazing work. I appreciate the effort that went into that.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

Very nice *tips hat*

Thanks very much for the feedback everyone, greatly appreciated.

As for using dark sawdust, did think about that but then thought it might look like I hadn't shaped the inlay evenly. Anyway, plan is to use satin poly all over. This will mute the figuring in the timbers a little but may also help make the repaired bits less noticeable. Time will tell.

Thanks again

Grant

Been a while. A bit of an overview of what's happened.
Wanted to make a new pickguard. To get the curve to go around the f hole evenly, the bridge pup rout needed to go back about 9mm. Made a mdf template of the new shape.
Attachment 44529Attachment 44530
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As the colouring was to be done using stains, the only way I could think to use different colours next to each other was to seal the whole lot and use an airbrush to spray them on as if you were using paint. Had some vinyl sealer which was still good so used that.
Attachment 44510

An example of the masking up.
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There were many mis-steps with the white. The stain is water based and the poly top coat oil based. Tested the two together and could make it work.......... until the white got a mark in it. It couldn't be touched up as the poly added its own colour to it even with only a couple of thin sealing coats.

cont..

After too many 'sand all the colour off' times to count, thought it was on the home stretch when the front of the guitar wanted to get to know the concrete floor of the shed a bit closer.
Attachment 44520

Instead of setting fire to it like I wanted to, decided to put it together then decide if I want to start over with the finish.
Copper taped the cavities. Made it easy to see the relief in the bottom of the control cavity for the CRL 3 way switch.
Attachment 44521

After the shielding, screwed the mounting blocks for the filtertrons.
Attachment 44522

Used full sized CTS pots, one a push-pull for the series mod. Had cut a piece of copper tape for the back the pickguard but wasn't sure if it would cause a problem with the vinyl used on the clear arylic 'guard, so left it off for now.
Attachment 44524

cont.

Assembled. Rough set up done, strings quite high. Bone nut needs to be filed down so the bridge can be set up better.
Some 'it's finally together' pics
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Grant

Looks great. The colour combo works well. Also love the logo.

Nice work, you would have been discouraged along the way, but that has finished off very nicely.