I'll look into if there are any designs that aren't too complicated that speak to me over the next week.
Maybe a V-cut into the top? Hmm.
Everything's a learning experience on this. Maybe not worth shying away from doing something different
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Regarding grain filler for the back, sides and neck:
Once the top's done should I glue the neck before starting the grain filling, or should I do them both separately?
I've seen a video (namely this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSNi-6ytO5A) where he uses the grain filler to 'join' the two, is this what I should be doing?
Good question Cazaron. I'd like to read the answers as well since I have been wondering about the same question; glue or not to glue the neck before the grainfiller.
I'd grain-fill first, as it's so much easier to sand them back when they are separate. Once you've glued the neck on, it's a lot harder to do.
My own choice is to wait until all the colour coats are done, then glue the neck on. Then any neck join gaps can be filled and coloured, then the clear coats can go on the whole guitar. But a lot of people do the clear coats before gluing the neck on, and then make good any join gaps afterwards. It's whatever makes you feel good.
I've been a little too excited to work on this thing, but I now have the back, sides and neck done, as well as a shaped headstock, which is pretty good for someone with no woodwork skills and a five dollar coping saw that can barely hold a blade.
Made a little bit of a screw up with the tape I used when finishing everything, masking tape wasn't cutting it, so I used some outdoor tape, didn't really think about how difficult it'd be to remove, but it was only on the binding and did no damage to the finish. I've got some blisters from rubbing/peeling it all off with my thumb but I don't really mind. I'm just glad there's no damage to the finish.
I have a lot of binding polishing to do this week because of it.
I'm so happy with the progress and it's finally starting to look like a proper guitar. That's so great.
Did anyone do anything really cool over easter? Spend time with family, go anywhere?
Had some of the wife's relatives visiting Saturday/Sunday. But it meant I had to tidy up in the house and put all my tools away, so no guitar work got done. Weather not as good as last weekend, - cloudier cooler and with occasional showers (mainly overnight).
But I spotted an amp on eBay for a friend of mine that needs one - a H&K Tubemeister 18 combo. A couple of weekends ago I persuaded him to buy a really nice Fender Clapton Strat, but his best amp is a small Roland Cube combo, which is OK, but doesn't get the best from the guitar, so he knew he needed to get a better amp (but without spending too much money as he had gone rather over-budget on the guitar). I spotted this one on eBay with only 2 minutes to go and no bids. It was collect only from a Devon seaside resort called Paignton about 290km away, but which only happened to be about 5km from where a friend of mine lives (in a fishing village called Brixham). So I bid for it and won. Paid via PayPal, and it turned out that the chap was gigging in a pub in Brixham that night about 200m away from my friend's place. So he took it with him to the gig and my mate picked it up from there. It's in perfect condition, and came with cover and the optional footswitch.
So I'll pick it up from him in a couple of weeks when we travel down for a long weekend in Falmouth with friends and make a detour to see him. I have two of his guitars that I've fettled/repaired, so I needed to drop them off anyway.
Not quite the fastest eBay delivery I've ever had. I once bought a selection of used parts to make up a P-bass from a chap, whom no sooner had I won and paid, rang me up and said that he'd pop down and deliver them instead of posting (and he lived in Birmingham, about 100 miles/160km away). Within a couple of hours he was at my door with the parts! he turned out to be the bass player with the UK's leading Shadows tribute band (The Bootleg Shadows) and had bought the parts over time to make a Fiesta Red P-bass,. He'd never got round to assembling it, and then found a complete P-bass in the right colour, so the parts were now not wanted. He also gave me a DVD of his band playing live. He didn't even want a cup of tea or coffee, but got back in his car after only 5 minutes and drove home.
It took me a while to put it all together as well, as the neck pocket was a bit wide and I always planned to narrow it down and re-spray the body (it was a very pink 'Fiesta Red') but in the end I just put it all together and it made a great bass.
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