Arzi's MMB-4 from vision to finish...

[Fretworn]

How did you go with the elbow cut?

[Arzi]

Hi Fretworn

I simply measured the height using a 90 degree angled ruler and put dots with a pencil on th sides certain length apart. On the comforted part I had to do this just by my eyes and a fret height ruler. Then I connected the dots with masking tape to create as straight line as possible and then working one cm at a time and parts of mm depth I routed one layer at a time all around the body. When I was getting close to the wanted depth, I started to work 1-2cm at a time checking the dept wit a approx 4cm pieces of binding I had bended to a different curve.

The hard part and why the final depth got 0,5 mm too deep was that routing with a 6mm wide tip makes an uneven / not flat surface that when sanded straight got that much deeper. Now it is easier to glue on but still needs sanding to make sides look good.

Hell of a lot of work and plenty of chances to screw up. Can't recommend this approach. Next time I'll get my hands on the Siminoff or stewmac dremel routing tip.

[keloooe]

Hey Arzi awesome work so far, could you link me to the preamp you found?

[Arzi]

https://m.thomann.de/gb/artec_se2a.h...rch=1442649085

Hi Kelooe

That is the Thomann UK site link. I don't know of the shipping costs to Aussies but in Europe its 12€ = approx 16 AUS $.

Artec SE-2A. 2-band with concentric, volume and blend pots. Similar specs as the Tone Monster version. My guess is " same s**t different package"..,

[Arzi]

Hi,

so I tried to attach the binding today. I say tried cause I don´t know how it worked out yet. I know it didn´t go the way I planned it but these photos tell more than a thousand words:

First I beveled the lower edge of the binding to make it sit better on the not so steady channel:


Then I shaped the binding to the body by heating it and bending it using a hair dryer for help:


So far so good until - HOW ANNOYING IS THAT:


When I finally pulled myself together I decided to patch this with a piece of binding I had left from the routing job. I don´t have a photo of how this worked out yet but I know it´s not good for now. Might be able to sand it acceptable at least...

Glued the binding in place and I have a feeling that the whole job went sideways... After I got the last bit taped, the first 5cm I glued seemed to stick out and had come off. Had to put more glue on and found out at this point that the binding had twisted and wanted to point upwards. Could be some kind of chemical reaction from the glue - I don´t know.

I used Loctite´s product that is basically a fast superglue but with a delay of approx 5 minutes to adjust what I´m doing. It should be ok to use on basically any material and I´ve used it before to glue for example bone nuts and it´s been great for that.

Anyway - since I don´t get my hands on Tarzan grip I had to use what I could. NOT so professional looking but then again - I´m not one.


The glue should be on it´s full strength in 24 hours so tomorrow we´ll see if I have to go to plan B and shape the body again not using any binding.

Will keep my fingers crossed...

[Arzi]

Hi

So I removed the tapes and the result was... not so bad as there are some areas I need to work on but I think I know how.

So - this was how it looked under the tapes:




This one raised mu blood pressure...:


To be continued...

[Arzi]

And after preliminary sanding this is the way it looks now:






To be continued...

[Arzi]

This and couple of small cracks I´m gonna seal and smoot with a paste made of acetone and pieces of the same binding. Just melt these with each other and when the acetone evaporates the plastic hardens. Then it´s time for sanding again. Especially gonna need that with these:



I´m also gonna sand the edges more to fade them in to the top and this way fade those differences (waves) in the binding in contrast to the top. Hopefully this will work. The glue I used seems to be still "rubbery" next to the binding and difficult to sand.

Will post when I make more progress.

Looks kinda nice and exciting - looks flush even though it´s not...

[wokkaboy]

looks good Arzi, this is a difficult shape with the elbow cut and curved edges.
When you round off the edges to meet with the binding it should look excellent
keep up the good work !

[dingobass]

Now thats a different approach...
I like it