IB - Freebie

This one has been bubbling away in the background of the Franken Lab for a wee bit. It comes with a bit of a Back story.

It was a freebie kit that vh2580 was giving away. His brief was that it had some neck issues, some potential scale length issues and it was missing routs for covers and covers. He sent it down with a ton of kit PUPs and some other bits of electrickery.

I've had to make a new board for it, rout some additional channels for the cavity cover (I made this magnetically attached) and re rout to get a land to secure the locking nut for the output deep panel jack.
Attachment 19997 Fretty, fretty, SLotty Slotty
Attachment 19993 New fretboard in place, slotted and radiused, Scale length issue sorted.
Attachment 19998 Cover rout, with carved Ply cover (I Might just make paint that black)
Attachment 20000 First coat of DT Clear going on the spalt
Attachment 19999 Magnetically attached cover for that no screw look.

I'm now just playing around with the old board to work out if I can attempt some inlay.
This one is getting some Entwistle X3s in it, I may yet Direct mount them, but at present it will just be a pair of pup rings going on it. '

The lever switch has been deleted in favour of a DPDT ON ON ON mini switch as there was never room enough to mount the normal lever switch any how, and after my cover rout, there is definitely no room now.
The slots has been filled with a rose wood insert, crafted from the offcut from the locking nut position at the top of the fret board.

So we are into the DT and hopefully we should be getting somewhere with this one soon.

Attachment 20001 It also has some lovely grain patter on the rear, I have elected not to put a cover over the trem cavity to help keep the nice clean lines to it, though i think I will probably spray this black. Earth will be to the trem post via the post hole.

these are busy days down in the lab Frankie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MPvc7R04xk

Yeah I know Dedman, I really need to tackle one project at a time... or hire an Igor.

Thanks franken and your telling me to get 2 kits

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Originally Posted by Adam Barnes

Thanks franken and your telling me to get 2 kits

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Yeah, only two though. I think I'm working on 6. Two is one drying while you sand the other! 😋

A question for the DT afficianados, do you use the boy stain on the neck for a natural finish, or do you go to the neck specific kit?
Or do we not bother?

Advice please

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Originally Posted by Adam Barnes

Thanks franken and your telling me to get 2 kits

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SO have you bought both the other kits yet? :D

Hey Frankie I missed this thread. Nice looking IB ! So whats the background was this a kit or a scratchie ? Nice spalt on the body and what is the fingerboard timber ?
DB says the neck DT kits cure a bit harder so it might be worth getting a DT neck kit. The body kit may not be as durable for the abuse a neck will get

IT was a failed kit that vh2580 had inherited from some one but didn't have the time to fix. He popped it up on the swap page a while back and I grabbed it.
It had a short scale 24 fret board, but somebody had tried to adapt this into a 24 fret long scale guitar. It just wasn't going to work. they'd trimmed the neck heel and left a 2 fret overhang to try and get it all to fit to scale, but that just made things worse.

I've stripped the board cleaned up the end of the Neck heel and got it fitting right. the new board is a dark rosewood (a PBG Blank i got from Adam) and it has had to be reconfigured to 22 frets.
I'm happy to say that I've slotted it, attached it, radiused it and created the locking nut seat at the top and the thing measures dead on for a 648mm scale length now, exactly 324mm at the 12th and ditto to the bridge.

The DT clear is going on lovely, and I will likely get a neck kit as given the amount of work its taken to get the neck up to par I don't want to have to re-finish it any time soon!

sounds good Franky. Good work on all the mods you have had to do

Thanks Wokka, its been challenging but very enjoyable. Still need to try an inlay and then fret it, but i need to tool up properly for both those jobs, I've done some jerry rigged testing on the dud board and some scrap and it hasn't gone that well. I need some proper fret files as well so that i can do a proper job on the fret ends and the crowning.

So I started fooling around with ideas on inlay.

I thought it would be interesting to see how the ideas i have been sketching up would work out in practice. the below are the results, which aren't great for either the shapes i had in mind or in the execution. This was just some messing around with a dremel clone and some chisels. At one stage i nearly managed to super glue an inlay piece to my finger nail, hazards for young players to watch out for.

Attachment 20083 Attachment 20084 Attachment 20085

The shape is derived from the Logo I designed (that might eventually get attached to a finished guitar of some description) and the inlay is just maple to contrast the Rosewood.
This is the old board that stripped off the IB kit to begin with so i'm not sacrificing re-usable parts in doing this.

Over all, given that the inlay channels are mostly chisel cut I'm not too dissatisfied, though i think the inlay idea and shape probably needs some work.

Attachment 20086 Attachment 20087

Opinions/Thoughts/Guidance?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...639f958f5a.jpg

2 stain coats, 2 intensifier, first final coat.

I'm a DT-ing powerhouse tonight!!
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4710ebd663.jpg

The more I look at the back, the less I want to pop a cover on the trem cavity. I may still satin black it, but I really like it the way it is.


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Control cover definitely needs to be black though.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a2c42148fb.jpg


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Another nice nude finish Frankie. If your wiring skills are pretty tidy you could consider a clear acrylic control cover and same for the trem cover too? Just something different, and hey, it will mostly be you looking at the back as everyone will be gobsmacked by the spalted front.

Edit: On second thoughts there will mostly be lots of copper tape on show so maybe 3mm pine three plywood would work in better with the Basswood on the rear.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...68e720eed6.jpg

After deliberating ad nauseam for what to do about inlay I had a "Forget it" moment and elected to stay with the simple and clean mantra that seems to have pervaded these natural builds.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...189e7f3cfc.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0bcd758c34.jpg

These channels are 1/8" deep and will be filled with strips of maple to form the side marker as well as the feet marker.

We will see how it goes.


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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...066a6947eb.jpg

This thing is well worth the expenditure. Really impressed with the solid feel and the control that it imparts. Depths adjustment is precise and simple.

But remember to plan your inlays and cut them while the board is still flat!

I had to do some adaptive set up to compensate for the fact that I'd already put a radius on the board and attached it to the neck.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8f83391502.jpg


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

... as the feet marker.

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Must be a long neck ;)

Looks great.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...478c54f8f4.jpg

Good pickup Weirdy! Though to be fair the 12th fret isn't far off that.

All the inlay inserts are done and shaped slightly over sized so that I don't get covered in super goo. We shall get them in tonight and let them settle and bond prior to trimming them down.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...36fb9728b9.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4f07367858.jpg


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great work franky. And yes, the Stewmac base is money well spent. Its 100 times better than the plastic Dremel one

Really nice simple idea, Franky, that really works well. Bravo that man!

@Dedman, yes and decent downcut carbide bits. It's a fasntastic step up.
@Simon, thanks mate, hopefully when they are trimmed down and polished the grain lines will come up. They all angle same way on the top and the opposite way on the bottom.

Yeah, I'm ok with it....https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...646c331b68.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e7a37fba89.jpg


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Looking fantastic fw

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Originally Posted by vh2580

Looking fantastic fw

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Cheers Tony, it's been a great project to work through. Hopefully the end result does justice to that spalt!

So then this...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...14cc0a823a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fdefd121f4.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7db767cb4a.jpg


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Super cool.

nice work Franky the fret markers are cool and original ! What sort of timber are the markers ?

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

nice work Franky the fret markers are cool and original ! What sort of timber are the markers ?

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They are just some maple off cut from the test neck I made Wokka.


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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

Super cool.

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Thanks man!


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Looking great FW.

What an inspirational piece of work FW. just wonderful.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Looking great FW.

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Thanks Simon.

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Originally Posted by OliSam

What an inspirational piece of work FW. just wonderful.


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Aw shucks, you are too kind!

Some really cool things happened when the neck got its first coat of final
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2cc71286ce.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f2650bdc94.jpg



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It's.... ALIVE!!!!!!

Flamey goodness! Looks like you have one of those pieces of maple that was somehow redirected from the 'custom shop' (in this case to the lab)!


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@Simon, there's a few things slowly rising from the slab in the FrankenLab at the moment.

@Andrew, I got lucky with this, I think it will be a nice combo with the spalt front.

I didn't use the stain coat and went straight on with the neck finish and it seems to have gone a lot less straw coloured than the TL neck. it shold be a good contrast against the golden tone that's come up on the Basswood body and spalt front.

Looking good Frankie.