Woltz's 3rd Scratch Build

[GregLane]

Hi Wolt

I am currently planning a scratch build with Queenland Mahogany also known as Red Mahogany.
I have a slice about 3 metres long, 600mm wide and 37mm thick. Been drying for 2 years in the garage. "Hard as the hobs........"
The web said it is a construction timber suitable for bridges etc. Suitable for guitars ????? I'm having a go.
So far I have cut a block big enough to make an SG.
Levelling with a Belt Sander and hoping to cut the shape roughly with a jigsaw. Then router on template.
That's the theory.

I haven't started a diary yet, I have been waiting to see how the jigsaw cuts. Have phots of progress so far.

I will check you other builds to get a few hints. Any early advice would be appreciated

Greg

Simon: If you read this. I have a Maton Australian of Tassie Blackwood plus other Aussie timbers. Love it.
We better not hijack Woltz's post though.

[Woltz]

Hi Wolt

I am currently planning a scratch build with Queenland Mahogany also known as Red Mahogany.
I have a slice about 3 metres long, 600mm wide and 37mm thick. Been drying for 2 years in the garage. "Hard as the hobs........"
The web said it is a construction timber suitable for bridges etc. Suitable for guitars ????? I'm having a go.
So far I have cut a block big enough to make an SG.
Levelling with a Belt Sander and hoping to cut the shape roughly with a jigsaw. Then router on template.
That's the theory.

I haven't started a diary yet, I have been waiting to see how the jigsaw cuts. Have phots of progress so far.

I will check you other builds to get a few hints. Any early advice would be appreciated

Greg

Hi Greg

Apologies in advance for the long post but here are a few of my thoughts looking back.

I'm sure you are aware that the Queensland Mahogany is not actually a mahogany at all, its a variety of Eucalyptus. It's quite heavy but for an SG it should be fine because they have quite thin bodies. My thinline tele that I made from scratch is a thinline simply because I used Eucalyptus and a solid body would've been far too heavy.

I'm not someone that believes wood has an effect on regular electric guitars. In my opinion the tonewood conversation only applies when we are talking acoustic instruments. So I'm not particularly fussy when it comes to choosing woods for electric builds. I just pick something that I think will finish nicely and is not so heavy that it will break your back.

I personally wouldn't use the belt sander to try and level out the body because I doubt I'd be happy with the end result. I would either get a No. 5 or No. 6 hand plane, calipers and some winding sticks, or conversely build a jig to be able to use the router to level the timber.

Once the timber is level you could use the jigsaw to roughly cut it out although with timber that hard you probably won't get a nice square cut line around the edge of the body. So that leaves a couple of options, either use the jigsaw but give yourself some buffer between the marked line and where you cut or find a friend or Men's Shed with a bandsaw that you could use.

Now if you do use a jigsaw then absolutely do not go to template routing straight away as it is a recipe for disaster which can result in serious injury if something goes wrong. There will be too much material to take off with the router at this point. You could look up the robosander flush trim sander as an option if you have a drill press. A note on routing, make sure you have very sharp good quality router bits, you could even look at spiral bits.

For template routing, it's much easier to use a router table (if you don't have one check out YouTube, it's relatively easy and cheap to make your own).

When I do my templates I make a master template on thin mdf (you could also purchase a set of master templates which would save you time) because it is easy to shape and sand edges of thin mdf versus thick to remove imperfections and then I use the master template to create a working template on thicker mdf. When choosing the thickness of the working template you should think about the cutting depth of your router bits and the depth of the cavities to make sure you aren't caught in a situation where you can rout what you need to.

Are you buying or making the neck?

I'm certainly no expert on this stuff and I'm still learning as well but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. There are some other experienced members on this forum doing scratch building so absolutely use them as a resource well.

Cheers,

Michael

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[impala59]

I am on record as saying I don’t really like Strats but yours is changing my opinion in a similar way that Sonics offset changed my mind about those types. I am perhaps being educated here!

[GregLane]

Thanks Woltz for the info and advice.
I have Triton Tables and equipment except a band saw so that is why I thought I would give it a go. The Mens shed is a couple of K away "in case of emergency".
I did consider the router jig trick but the timber is very flat so I bought a belt sander for Xmas. I need to sand about 3 mm off the thickness so that gives a bit of leeway. Progress so far is promising.
I think building a neck is a bit beyond me. I expect to be be contacting Adam.
I will start a Diary shortly so we can talk then.

By the way, I only found your build yesterday so I have a bit of reading to do. Looks great! Love the colour.

Greg

[Fretworn]

Shoot dude! That fretboard looks shmick!

[Woltz]

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd just add a quick comment to say that this guitar is for sale either now (with all of the parts obviously) or if there is no interest in it as an unfinished instrument then I'll finish it as time allows and then put it up for sale as a completed guitar. If anyone is interested then feel free to send me a message. Pickup is in Canberra.

Cheers,
Woltz

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[Woltz]

I've done the grain filling on the neck and body with Aquacoat. All going to plan I hopefully will spray the clear coat this weekend.

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[dozymuppet]

I reckon if I was in or around Canberra I'd be very tempted by the above offer ^, but I also have enough projects of my own for now, and I'd like to see this one finished

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[Woltz]

So I had an Ah F#$k moment on the weekend. Yet again my nemesis (guitar finishing) got me. I sprayed the guitar and neck with the new spray gun (which I have to say sprayed so much nicer than the cheap one I had previously). After spraying though I was left with a blotchy finish on the edges of the guitar and whilst the neck wasn't blotchy, the colour didn't change at all and it doesn't look like I was expecting. After reading a bit more online most people seem to recommend clear coating first and then aquacoat, then sanding and then spraying final clear. Now I'll have to sand the body and see what I can do to salvage it. With the neck I'll have a closer look at it before making any decisions.

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[Woltz]

I decided to polish the neck as the couple of small spots where the colour is different isn't obvious. The clear came off the gun nicely so I just did a tiny smooth out with some 2000 grit. But I noticed as I was polishing that I'd had a tiny little sand through on the headstock. I have no idea how because I barely did any sanding and I was using virtually zero pressure. I can only assume the finish was very very thin at that one spot. You can see it in the first picture where the gloss ends. Now I'm not sure whether to just leave it or spray it again.



Here are some other photos.














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