Rabs

No update on the build as such. But the guy making my paint sent me a pic today so thats ready AND I got my headstock veneer with its inlays and the block inlays. NICE !!!

Ok.. So we have a win here I think. We went to two different shops today.. The first one we tried out an Epi Sg.. But as it was an inspired by Gibson one it was almost £500 😮 In that shop the had the Schecter that she liked and a few other super strat types but I just wasnt happy. There was an Ibanez we tried, It was ok but nothing special.. They did have some really nice semi hollows at a decent price, some I really liked but Betssie didnt like the shape at all (probably looks like an old mans guitar to her). So we went to the second shop, Instantly there was another Ibanez which was B stock so a great price but it had a locking nut and proper floyd system with micro tuners on the back.. So I just didnt think it was right for a first timer, it will just confuse her. We also looked at a BEAUTIFUL Squire Tele that was sparkly red and had two humbuckers and a matching coloured headstock. But in the end this is what we wend for. (and man how she has changed in a year huh). And I am REALLY happy with that choice. If only I had such a nice guitar when I started out. Also got a nice hybrid soft/hard case.. And when it came to the amp. I was gonna go with a Marshall MG15fx which is what I had for many years BUT, in all honesty I thought it sounded awful. So we ended up with a Fender Champion 20 I think.. Man that thing sounds great. So all done.. Next up if she carries on playing I will make her any guitar she wants.

I saw this on Youtube and thought it was pretty interesting.. Hes like a guitaist/singer/rapper/spoken wordist? I thought it was interesting anyway.. Fair warning of swearing if you are offended by that sort of thing.

Cheers.. I have done several on here.. Originally I think in 2012 when I started turning a door in to a guitar.. The thread is still there but useless as the pictures are gone. I also have videos up on youtube of other builds.. But they are just slideshows and have very little text. So yeah I started on here.. And this may be my last lot of guitars so I will finish on here too I guess...

So, a couple more things done today.. One went a bit wrong, the other didnt... Back to my old ridiculously messy workshop. I do intend to actually clean all this up one day 😄 I found my top bearing bit and finished the job I started the other day but I had a couple of slip ups.. Its amazing how quickly you forget the little things you learn about how to handle a router.. Basically when you do this you are hanging half of the routers base over the edge of the guitar. So you have to put pressure on the side the guitar body is on to stop it slipping over. Its especially hard on the horn and going over the control cavity as the router really wants to tip. The first one I have no idea what happened, there was a small bang as I went past the centre of the back of the body like I hit the edge of the workbench or something. The other was a tiny slip on the side of the control cavity. This one isnt too bad really But the second one on the back, it must have been about 10mm deep.. I didnt take a picture of it at first as I was annoyed so my instant reaction was to grab my angle grinder and sand the back down. This was what was left And after I had done it.. You may be able to see the back of the body is a bit flat. Annoying.. Such a small thing.. But I will always know.. I am tempted to do it again and just keep this for another build.... I know its so silly but I just want it right damn it!!!!! 😄 Also been looking at carving the top in a more traditional way and I do think I can do it and the maple cap is thick enough. So maybe... Im still thinking on that. Also decided to do the truss rod. Very non Gibson.. I do this in a very simple way.. I clamp the neck in to the bench and get a straight bit of wood which I camp to the bench for the router to run along as it has a flat side at the back for that purpose. Then you just line up your centre line.. And drill down 9mm for which I have a depth stop and go across from side to side and thats it. I would have also drilled for the trussrod access hole but of course my drill was at my flat from when I was fitting a new curtain rail So yeah.. I think I am gonna book again for Tuesday. Do another back and then I can glue the top and back together.. Also that inlay stuff has arrived so Tuesday I should (underline that word) get a fair bit done this time.

Ha yeah.. Always with the stinging cuts... Talk about suffering for your art 🙂 But yeah its good to be back.. I did feel it today though.. And my hands thankfully do seem to be holding up which is really good news. So I will just make sure to keep being careful and not over do it.. Depending on how my day goes tomorrow. I hope to get an hour or so to finish the routing with the proper bit this time, and then maybe glue the top on.. That will be a nice step forward.

Thats my 60s Tribute Goldtop.. Awesome guitar. I love the thinner finish especially on the necks.

So I checked that template and it was ok. Its not quite exactly the same but more than good enough... So thats good and I got an email saying the inlay stuff is coming Friday

Nice.. I just hold a razor blade and sort of squeeze the corner of it with my finger nails.. Worked for me 🙂 But yeah, a proper tool would probably be easier.

Well one thing that makes you really need the neck angle is the type of bridge is higher than like a Strat bridge for which you need the fretboard about 2mm off the body and zero degrees on the neck angle. Also I do it differently to the guy in the video. I find it easier to angle the neck tenon rather than the neck pocket..

Yeah... I will have a think about it....

Interesting.. Cheers.. It may be one thing my version lacks.. I have done a couple of carved tops before but they were never quite LP like (or really meant to be)... I have seen those templates but am not sure if I want to quite go that far.. I have 20mm to carve which is more than I have used before. Not sure thats enough for a proper LP type anyway.

I need to look at that tonight actually.. All the people there were telling me how busy it is these days so you have to book at least a week in advance.. Its a cool place that does a lot of community work and does like DIY building lessons and teaches school kids etc etc it was a great find for sure. As it goes I am kinda busy the rest of this week even though one of those days will be going to a guitar shop to but my niece a brand new electric guitar.. So probably next Tuesday if its not booked already. Mind you, in saying that. If that template is correct and all I need to do is clean up the sides. I can actually do the rest of it in my old workshop (mums garage 😄)... I dont really need to go there for anything other than making wood flat and square which is much harder without those machines.. Ohh, the time I used to have to spend to get something flat ....

Which is one of the great things about working in a shared workshop. Its only £30 a day and they have to maintain the machines.. All the good without the bother

This is the thicknesser.. Its a has a spiral barrel and is awesome.. The easiest machine in the workshop to use I put the already shaped bodies through it kind of expecting it to chip out on the edges.. Nope, not even on the spalted Plane.. Those shots were directly out of the thicknesser too with no additional sanding. And we have the big planer/jointer thing for the edges. This machine I think is older than I am 😄 But its awesome, if not a little scary.

Lol.. Well spotted there... Indeed that chisel was blunt.. And actually while I was looking for a router bit I bought a fresh one which was needed.. I am really bad a sharpening.. As for the template.. Im not thinking about it more this evening. I will first check if its actually in the right position. Then yeah, maybe do a new one. I think I have some MDF laying about somewhere. WHATEVER !!! 😄 Ohh, also I have decided that Walnut DC will get the Gibson mini hummers I have had for a while. That should be a pretty cracking guitar too by the time I am done.

No. It was about 230 mm wide (about 9") and a LP is about 14".

I try.. Having worked in that wood shop for almost two years. You just kinda get used to stuff going wrong at least 20% of the time.. No matter how good you are, its just that kind of job where unexpected stuff just seems to happen all the time.. Let alone the fact that I cant walk in to that workshop without getting some kind of cut or bruise or multiple of both... And no matter who you talk to there everyone says the same thing. Just kinda part of the job really. Its easy to get annoyed though.. You should have heard me today when I realised the template was fully stuck down and I was about to ruin it.

Something else I would like to add about this workshop I go to and used to work at full time. Theres many many makers that use the place.. Pretty much every decent sized offcut gets used by other people and as little goes to waste as possible. They have an offcuts bin where you can just go and take out what ever is in there for free. Even the wood shavings from the extraction machine go to some use. Which I always thought was really cool about that place. Theres a woman who works there called Anna, she got most of my Sapele offcuts today and was really happy about it. With it she will make stuff like coasters, keyrings, small boxes etc

Hmm, not sure really. I will also be doing grain filling and sanding sealer for the first time too.. Hopefully that will seal it off enough. Im not even sure if they go all the way through you know.. Probably should have checked that before cutting it to shape

Here you go 🙂 Dont get too excited..

Other stuff I did... I have these new inlays I have been wanting to use and I have decided that I am gonna put them on an all Walnut DC that I started.. So I did a quick test to see how easy it will be or not to do them and it was actually pretty easy. Said inlay Draw an outline around it.. Drill a centre hole (6.5mm) and then use a chisel to do the edges. And nice.. It fit straight away.. Also. I thinned the body for that build out as it was a bit too thick. Same for a mahogany one I was doing and a spalted London Plane build (this is just wood porn now 😄 ) All in all.. As said.. Not exactly a disaster or anything but some annoyances.. But that is how it just goes some days no matter what you do for a living huh? If the template is out, not the end of the world. I have another piece of Sapele exactly like the last and it wont take me long to do another one (assuming I remember the right router bit next time 😄 ). And obviously the person I bought it from will get a fun email from me. But we will see.

So this is where things started going not so much to plan. I usually use normal double sided tape to stick my templates down but had brought a different type as its all they had when I was looking.. And well it did the job a little too well. Also this is when I found out that I didnt have the right router bit with me (a top bearing template bit).. I literally had every other typo router bit you can imagine but that one. I asked the workshop who couldnt find their one. I went to two local DIY shops and neither of them had what I wanted either. In the end I asked one of the regular workshop members who I know and she did have one but it wasnt long enough.. So I decided to use it anyway as it was a start and I can finish it easy with the top bearing bit. So you will see a ledge around the side of the body which was as deep as it would go. Now this is one of my major issues with today.. Not that I didnt have the right bit, but when I look at that picture the control cavity looks too far forward. If you imagine a knob say where the bridge volume pot would be it doesnt look right... Now maybe its me and its the angle of the picture or something but its really bugging me.. I mean these templates were bought and meant t be laser cut AND when I first got them I did some measurements and it all looked ok. BUT as said, its bugging me and I will check it tomorrow as im too knackered at the moment (my poor back). And on that note.. At the moment my hands seem to be holding up, so thats good news. So yeah. That bloody double sided tape.. I coulndt get the sodding thing off. I ended up shoving a chisel in there and pried it off eventually but all apart from one spot remained stuck to the template and ripped it up. So I wont be using that again. We live and learn 🙂 So. On to the neck.. Couldnt really do too much as the order that has to go is. Do the inlays, radius, fret, glue binding and then you can glue it to the neck.. Without the inlays all I could do was get the neck roughed out And really thats all for this build today.. As said I spent a fair amount of time going to the DIY shops and asking around for that router bit.. But I did get some other stuff done too which I will post below. Ohh and that is one negative about a shared workshop.. You can spend time waiting for machines to be free which can also be frustrating when you want to get on with it.

OK here we go.. One of the reasons I take pictures as well as to share them is so I can look at my work and make sure that it all looks ok visually. And actually in looking back at what I have done I think I know why im not so happy with it at the moment but we will get to that soon. So heres my bench. I brought everything 😄 As I wasnt sure exactly what I would be doing in the gluing sections and I have a few other builds going on. So first thing, I thinned out the sapele to 30mm. Cut it in half and glued it. Then I squared and flattened the maple top.. Its a bit wonky but thats ok as its 50mm thick and I only want 26 (20mm for the carve and 6mm for the tops lowest areas) around the edge of the body. And all done This particular type of Maple is known as Field maple.. Not the prettiest but it doesnt have to be as I am painting over it anyway. Still has some nice flame going on though I did cut it roughly to shape but didnt get a picture of that.. Then the Sapele And on that I will end this post as it is already long and continue below.

Hmm.. Well I would not be happy with that.. As it is you can see an orangey colour even through the black pre stain... As the stain is translucent to show the wood grain, you are going to be mixing blue and that colour.. And blue and orange will give you a browny colour. So you will be able to see some of it even with the black around the edge as it goes from the front to the back of the body.. So yeah.. Its all down to you really.. I dont think its gonna look that good with blue on top.. I guess it depends on how dark the blue is.. Oddly, just with the black pre stain I think it looks pretty good as is... But there is no wrong or right here.. Just what you like and dont like.