The overlay was glued onto the headstock and routed flush along the sides. Again, pay no mind to the stain... more experiments
I used CA glue and ebony filler dust to fit the inlay. Some of the gaps weren't as tight as I would have liked, but this being my first attempt I was ok with it. I don't really understand why, but somehow the combination of the CA glue and the ebony filler dust caused the inlay to turn really grey
Unfortunately I couldn't live with it. During this build I tried not to let myself settle if I thought I could do something better, even if it meant doing things over again... which is probably why it took 11 months to complete. So I started over and several hours later I had this (again)
Speaking of doing things multiple times, I tweaked the shape of the headstock yet again making it a little slimmer at the bottom. Anyway, here's a comparison of the old and new inlay. They both came from the same sheet of celluloid, so you can see something definitely went wrong with the first one
Rad, I'm a bit fan of clever headstock logos and metal work- Edit- whoops just saw its celluloid. Still looks great. It took me many, many goes to get the Black Cherry Headstock right so don't feel badOriginally Posted by trv
Re the amount of builds, I do have a big advantage having a workshop and tools and I also work from home...in that workshop, so if things are quiet in my day job I can wonder over and tinker on the build table.
Compared to building cars (my previous hobby) these are so much easier to work on and finish off.
(BTW Nice to see a Canuck on the forum, my Dad hails from Duncan B.C)
Build 1 - Shoegazer MK1 JMA-1
Build 2 - The Relliecaster TL-1
Build 3 - The Black Cherry SG AG-1
Build 4 - The Sonicaster TL-1ish
Build 5 - The Steampunker Bass YB-4
Build 6 - The Howling Gowing ST-1
"What I lack in talent I make up for with enthusiasm"
Using the rotary tool I routed out the old inlay and glued the new one in the cavity
This time instead of using CA glue and ebony dust, I used epoxy tinted with the ebony dust to fill the gaps
The holes for the tuners were spaced a bit further apart than I wanted so I filled them with a 7/16" dowel
Using a flush cut pull saw I cut the ends off the dowels and sanded them flat to the headstock with 180 grit
SEPTEMBER 2017
And now it was time for everyone's favourite job... sanding!
I sanded the overlay using 400 grit, then masked off the fretboard, the end of the neck and the top of the body. Next I grain filled the back of the body and neck with watered down wood filler... this probably wasn't necessary. I sanded the back and sides of the body and neck with 220 grit, dampened it to raise the grain and repeated this process a few times. Lastly, I refined of the shape of the transition where the headstock meets the neck.
Using a 25/64" bit I redrilled the tuner holes
That's great that you have the freedom to tinker at times throughout the day, I could see how that could help!Rad, I'm a bit fan of clever headstock logos and metal work- Edit- whoops just saw its celluloid. Still looks great. It took me many, many goes to get the Black Cherry Headstock right so don't feel bad
Re the amount of builds, I do have a big advantage having a workshop and tools and I also work from home...in that workshop, so if things are quiet in my day job I can wonder over and tinker on the build table.
Compared to building cars (my previous hobby) these are so much easier to work on and finish off.
(BTW Nice to see a Canuck on the forum, my Dad hails from Duncan B.C)
Cars are another story, I do as much of my own maintenance as I can, but fabrication would be well beyond my skill set at this point.
I've never been to Duncan, but if it's in B.C. I'm sure it's beautiful.
Another thing I wanted to try during this build was to screen print a wordmark on the headstock. I already had a screen (from a previous semi-successful attempt at printing t-shirts) so I got some emulsion, printed the artwork on a transparency and exposed my screen using sunlight
If you're wondering why I stepped the art six times on the screen, it's because that's how many fit on there and I just hoped one of them would work!
At the same time I treated the back of the body, neck and overlay with wood conditioner and applied 2 coats of Saman Black water based stain. Then I alternated sanding and staining starting with 220, then moving to 320 grit.
My first attempt at screen printing on a scrap piece of wood. Not quite there yet, but it's a start
I had to thin out the ink a bit and adjust my technique, but eventually it got better. It took six test prints before I felt daring enough to try printing on the actual headstock
Last shots before we introduce wood glue into this equation
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