Rabs

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.

Hello all.. So we are here.. Getting started on this new build which most of you know will be based off this guitar that I saw online but when I went to see it, he was asking way too much so I decided to build one myself.. One of the main things I like is the colour scheme. I know a guy here in the UK who has been making Nitro spray cans for years.. He is going to sort me out a custom colour and is gonna get me as close as I can... One thing I will say (as I do think its important). This is a personal project. It wont be for sale and it wont be a fake as I wont be putting Gibson on the headstock as this guitar will absolutely be a RabsWood 🙂 . It wont even really be a copy either as I am gonna do some stuff slightly different like im not gonna do a coil split switch, but the usual 2 tones and 2 volumes so lets call it a guitar heavily influenced by this. A 1988 LP Custom Lite. So this build will have. Metallic Pink/Red Nitro 7 ply body binding 5 ply headstock binding White MOP block neck inlays Gold MOP headstock logo and split diamond Gold hardware Ebony fretboard Oh yes.. And for the first time ever on a RW guitar, neck binding and NIBS 😄 (its a must for the tone as is well known) Also for those that dont know, a LP Lite is a LP with a thinner back and a belly cut.. Also known these days as the Les Paul Less Plus. THE WOODS We have a Sapele back and neck and some English field Maple. So, the next post. Which I will be doing straight after will show my first day. Remember this is my first time in a while building and well.. It didnt go badly but it didnt go great either mostly due to not having a few things I needed which I thought I had with me but didnt and not having my block inlays yet also slowed me down. But more on that coming up. (Its been a long day, I need to eat now, back in an a bit). I thought I would at least get an intro up for the first post for people who havent seen that other thread.

Ok.. This starts tomorrow. Not looking forward to getting up early (well, early for me) but am really looking forward to getting this build going.. The inlay stuff hasnt arrived yet but we have just had two days off over Easter so it may be that. But even if it turns up tomorrow I wont be in so.. I will get a good start on the body. Hopefully by the end of the day I will have the top and back glued and the neck roughly shaped.. I also have a few old builds to work on while I say, wait for the two piece body to glue etc... So yeah. Tomorrow night I will do a new thread and we will see what happens 😄

Yeah it is annoying.. As it goes, I have never had a return or a single complaint about the guitars I sold.. Pretty much everyone who saw them liked them.. But yet, that still seems to mean nothing unless you have a Twitter, FB, Instagram etc etc etc account and as you say are willing to play "that" game.. Which I am so not and never will be. I even got an email from that guy who bought my first guitar a month or so ago with a clip of him playing it telling me it was getting a lot of attention... And he bought it like 5-6 years ago now... Anyway.. Enough of that... It is what it is...

Lol.. Tell me about it... I had to constantly explain my prices and what hardware I choose to use... It became so frustrating. I was trying to offer reasonable prices and not pretend that everything was top end and my wood was made from magical unicorn s**t.... I thought people would want that.. Honest pricing and honest guitars made with decent hardware and woods. But as it goes, people seem to want the myth and the legend... Its why, while there is a market for hand made goods, its tiny compared to the people who really just want Gibson and Fenders cos thats what their heroes played... And one of the reasons I stopped... I just hate the way the market is led by that nonsense and when you add that you can actually buy a pretty decent guitar at a pretty decent price these days, it leaves little room for people like me. But hey.. No one can say I didnt try huh 🙂

I do as well. When I make guitars I say exactly what they are.. BUT also I realised from my time trying to sell them that its much easier to say Mahogany or you end up having to explain the difference which just gets really boring.. So you just say Mahogany or African Mahogany and if someone asks what type, you can tell them.. If they dont, they probably dont care or even want to know 😄 I will never forget the first guitar I ever sold. The guy was so besotted with the way it looked, played and sounded. He handed me £700 and didnt ask me a single question about the pickups or what the wood was or even the scale length.. He just liked it and bought it.. For a lot of people its as simple as that.. And yes. I know you understand 😄

Im not sure they have a choice.. South American Mahoganies I think are either illegal to use or heavily controlled like Brazilian Rosewood.. Im not sure anyone uses Genuine Mahogany any more. There may be some old stock out there floating about but for big companies like Gibson they probably cant use it any more apart from maybe on the odd special run. You do know that most people really dont even care about this sort of detail though.. Its only guitar nerds like us who even care about this sort of stuff at all 😄

Only if they were calling it Genuine Mahogany which is the south American stuff.. Im pretty sure they used to state Genuine several years back but havent for ages. For me Sapele is close enough.. In some ways its better as its harder than Genuine Mahogany and so makes for a stronger neck. You also get Lauan which is Asian Mahogany aka Meranti which also can look quite nice. Theres so many different types of it from dark to light, soft to hard. Like the wood I have for my up coming build.. Thats Sapele.. Looks good enough for me..

Yes it is odd.. The faded and specials seems to be just solid mahogany and the Standards have veneers?? Maybe some people like it..

I was just looking at this one on the Epi site.. You can see the bevels on the last picture.. Looks like it is actually a proper Mahogany body.. Or some kind of Mahogany anyway. https://www.epiphone.com/en-US/Electric-Guitar/EPIQGY439/Vintage-Cherry-Satin

Would probably go for this if we went for and SG... £399.. Its probably at the high end for what I have in mind but if she likes it im sure I can stretch to that, https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/epiphone-sg-standard-cherry

Yes, That is on the list.. She liked the SG shape. But I do want 2 pickups at least on her first guitar... So I would go for the SG Faded or whatever the Epi one is called

Id get her a Red Special but I think I said before.. Probably a bit too far for someone who is still in the first year of playing, When we go and try some out I will be interested to see how much she has learned so far.

I am asking myself the same questions.. I think theres nothing quite like a brand new guitar is there.. I have many guitars and she will be welcome to have them all one day if she enjoys it and keeps playing, So maybe I should just leave that for another day? Hard to know what to do in these situations isnt it. Its a balance of wanting to help her but also knowing that really its best for her to make these decisions herself. Im quite glad I am not a parent and dont have to make these sorts of decisions on a daily basis...

How about a Kramer? £299.. Its red 🙂