Ken's first build - LP-1S

[kenfu]

Just got my kit in the mail. 9 days from order to here. Not bad considering it usually takes 4-5 days just to get mail from my family in Montana!

The wood is just plain awesome. Exactly what I was wanting. A little concerned about the tape marks on the top though. The veneer is super thin. Not sure how much sanding I can do to get rid of it... But, my plan is to use a chemical stain to age/grey the wood, and my fall back plan if everything goes wrong is to just go classic black lacquer anyway, not too bad. And I have been playing with different ways of doing designs in wood (other than just paint, like doing ammonia staining or wood burning and such...) so maybe I can just cover it if I can't sand it. There's always the microwave coil and baking-soda lightning...




Did a dry fit of all the parts. Had a bit of a panic when the bridge humbucker sat waaaaay to high until I realized it wasn't the bridge pup but the neck pup... Duh. Have 2 concerns maybe you folks can help me out with.

1) in the assembly video on the Pitbull site, and on other vids I've seen, the neck slides pretty easily into the slot. On mine, I have to put some very serious pressure to get it in, and when it is in it is so tight I can lift the whole thing by the neck. It is literally clamped in there. I figure that here in South Carolina, the humidity is about 4000 times what it is in Australia, so the wood has swollen a bit. There is zero room if I needed to adjust it left-right or skew the alignment from head to bridge. I figure I should sand it down till it can slide easily, but maybe not. I figure that it wouldn't take much in the way of sandpaper and elbow grease to get it to slide. Would love some input and I'm going to poke around on the site and on the net to see what info is out there. The marks on the body and neck match, so I know they are supposed to go together.

2) the 3-way switch. The cavity is routed in such a way that the shaft barely pokes out when the body is flush against the top of the cavity. The wood is too thick. It is so tight that if I try to use the round plate, I can't thread the nut on. If I ditch the plate, and just use the thin washer between the nut and body, I can get it to grab but I can't even turn it 1 full rotation. The nut is just barely hanging on like it thinks it is in some action movie and is trying to build drama. That concerns me, because nuts have a way of working themselves loose and I'm wondering if I put a few coats of lacquer on, it may not even grab. I don't have a router (I have a little dremel) so I'd appreciate some input. I was going to look and see if there are switches with a longer shaft maybe? In the gallery, folks with this kit have the plate on, so it isn't a design thing...


Thanks everyone, and if there is another spot on the forum I should be posting these questions, let me know! Complete and total noob here.

[Fretworn]

That spalted top looks incredible. Good score. I think some others have had similar issues with the switch, so I'll let them say how they dealt with it.

[crundes]

Amazing spalting on that top! This build is going to look fantastic :-)

[Brendan]

Kenfu - couple of answers:
1. Leave the neck as is - this is how they should be at their best - check out some of the Crimson Guitars Youtube vids - they went down the path of adding veneer to the neck cavity to improve the fit. I'd only touch the neck if things didn't line up.
2. Any scope to take some fat out of the cavity behind the three way? From memory the body is Mahogany and should be pretty strong. You should be able to get enough out to let the switch bite without losing integrity of the hole. The dremel with a sanding / grinding end may make short work of it...
Hope that helps...

[kenfu]

Thanks for the info Brendan. I'll wait to see about the neck till I'm ready to start working on intonation. I'm going to see what bits they might have for the dremel at the local place here. All I have works on the side, not on the top. I was also thinking reaming it out with a spade bit might work since I only have to go a milimeter or so. I was thinking about leaving the round plate off anyway, so I dont need much more room...

So before I get going on that, and while I'm waiting on my sandpaper and stuff from stewmac to get here today, I dyed the fretboard. I wanted a black one, since the whole thing is going to be grey/black. I saw on stewmac that their "fingerboard" dye is just higgin's ink. I had a bunch anyway so did that. Turned out great. Definitely raised the grain a bit. And on the site a couple reviews said, "wipes right off the inlay" which it didn't on this one. First pass it darkened the inlay a little... which was great! I didn't really care for how bright the inlay was (for this build) and I was stoked (chuffed? is that how you use it?) and put a second coat on and let it sit for a few minutes, and then lightly wiped it with a damp rag. They look a nice pearl grey now.


And I tried a couple tests with the vinegar/steel wool solution. I had read that wood high in tannins naturally (like the mahogany body) would react without the additional tea wash (see my post on the welcome forum for some more about my tests). Anyway, it was wild. As soon as I put a bit in the neck cavity (so it would be hidden if things went wrong) it immediately turned black. Kind of cool, and just what I wanted. And in my tests I tried lemon juice (which is supposed to reverse the process - worked great on one of my tests) but with the mahogany, it just made it lighter. My guess is that since the wood is so tannin rich that it really soaked in and might need a few more passes. But good to know. There is no coming back with mahogany.


Finally, maple is usually really light in tannins and isn't supposed to do well with this process. So I picked one very very tiny patch of spalt and put a bit of the solution on it. Grey'd up nicely, even without any tea. I was a little worried it might do something to the black, but does absolutely zero. Super chuffed! This is going to be great.

[wokkaboy]

Holy cow Ken that is some of the sickest spalting I've seen. Score of the century. I'll have a good read of the diary soon

[Island_Moose]

Unreal figure on that guitar!!! This is going to be great viewing.

I love how you're trying to get the lingo...I've been down here for nearly 10 years and I almost blend in...substitute "heaps" for "lots", and "beauty" for "awesome" and you're off to a good start.

[kenfu]

So I bought a plunge bit for the dremel, and the plunge kit for it. I was a little nervous, because I had to take the springs out and do some mods to get the bit to reach the depth I wanted.... And sat there routing about .05 mmm at a time. Worked great! I have just enough room so I can put the plate on and when I tighten it down with the washer it sits perfectly flush. I figure after all the lacquer, i can ditch the washer and still have it sit flush. Chuffed! (I like that expression. Am I using it right? Also, side note, can someone explain where it came from?)


Wokka- I know right? It was exactly what I was hoping for. I was totally on the fence about just going with a nice amber shellac or something to bring out the grain. Then I figured, go big or go home. So tried the chemical wash. And holy ****. Aboslutely amazing.


Even better than I was thinking.

[vh2580]

That looks stunning. I love how that grain has come out. this will look even more amazing with top coats.

[Rabbitz]

Ken,

I love your thought process and experimentation on this. The results are amazing.

As for the etymology of "chuffed", it seems that it first appears in the 15th Century meaning "fat and swollen". Keep in mind in those days being "fat and swollen" was associated with being well off and well fed - not a bad thing. (Probably less fashionable in these days of over sharing and fat shaming). Over the course of time it also morphed into other uses, mostly vulgar, but the mainstream use has evolved slightly to mean "well pleased". I guess one would not be chuffed to be fat and swollen these days

As for common usage - it is in most common use in the north of England. Here in the antipodes it is less common, but is occasionally used, especially as a piss-take of our colonial lords and masters.