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My new project.. Turn a door into a guitar


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I like the orange, it adds to the orginality of the build.

Cheers, and yeah I really like that..

 

I used to have a Fender that sort of colour years ago but sold it as I don't get on with Fender necks despite how much I do like the look of them.

 

Id love to try a burst like that but am not sure if I should even attempt that on my first build :) Bad sunbursts can look nasty.

sPicture1ssss83_zpsc6a26b3b.jpg

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Wow, I have quietly been watching this progress from the start. I am astonished at how well you have done. Taking into account your inexperience, materials - ( a door!), lack of workshop space (a toilet tent!) and tools, I am even more astonished. You are clearly a very determined gentleman. I tip my hat to you sir!! I reckon that by the time you have finished you will have a guitar that you will keep with you 'till the end of your days. Shame we don't have an annual forum awards ceremony - you would be winning something for sure....

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Wow, I have quietly been watching this progress from the start. I am astonished at how well you have done. Taking into account your inexperience, materials - ( a door!), lack of workshop space (a toilet tent!) and tools, I am even more astonished. You are clearly a very determined gentleman. I tip my hat to you sir!! I reckon that by the time you have finished you will have a guitar that you will keep with you 'till the end of your days. Shame we don't have an annual forum awards ceremony - you would be winning something for sure....

Thank you very much for the kind words :) It does help motivate me and is appreciated.

 

I am out of the tent now which I think is a good thing. Living in all that dust cant be good for you.. Im not quite in the rhythm of working in the garage yet but I hope to start doing full days soon and hope that I can get it mostly done by the end of this week.. Then the painting and the lacquering and then I have to let it sit and cure for a few weeks.. Then I can finish it..

 

So still a short way to go.. But I do have project 2 all started and ready to go when the first one is curing. :)

 

And I hope to now do many more and they sound as good as I hope to make them look.

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Very impressive indeed sir. You got some skills. Nice job, hope you make a video of you playing it so we can hear it.

Thank you very much :)

 

And yes you can be sure of that 100%.. there needs to be some pay off for everyone watching and that will be it [thumbup] :)

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Hello all...

 

Ok so today I did another fiddly job that's been scaring me lol :) THE FRET MARKERS [unsure] :)

 

So heres how I did it.. I was pretty worried about making sure they were all in line and did the best I could but I had never used this technique before so I decided to try it out on my broken fretboard blank.. I wasn't sure if I should use a drill bit or the router. So I tried both.

 

So I marked it out like my main fretbaord and went for it with the drill

DSC02575_zpsa0f90d83.jpg

 

The did one with the router

DSC02583_zps8e9f86a2.jpg

 

You can see here (drill hole on the left) that the router hole is much much cleaner.. So router it is :)

DSC02586_zpsfd9f4c14.jpg

 

You can see here that the drill hole didn't even hold the inlay very well and the router drilled one is much nicer

Drill hole

DSC02588_zps3c7ae025.jpg

Router hole

DSC02590_zpsb68c9042.jpg

 

And my first one done on the real board

DSC02591_zps75870b16.jpg

 

Nice but you can see it leaves a little nub

DSC02593_zps27d953e1.jpg

 

So I VERY carefully chiselled those out

DSC02594_zps68e26e8d.jpg

 

SWEET :)

DSC02596_zpsd152c54d.jpg

 

And all done.. BUT can anyone spot the issue with this??? (DOH!!!)

DSC02597_zps9518a5e0.jpg

 

Continued below

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Yes that's right.. I was so caught up in what I was doing I forgot to add the double 12th fret markers AHH.. So a little bit of creative thinking. And I decided to use some of the side fret markers to make it look right.. So I tried it again on my blank spare.. Thatl do

DSC02600_zps6ba2f43f.jpg

 

Marked it up

DSC02601_zpse1b0229c.jpg

 

And ready to glue

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Just used standard super glue.. What you do is flood the hole and push the marker in

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All done and glued :D (the excess will be sanded out with the radius block)

DSC02605_zps332b96ab.jpg

 

So next the side markers.. So I made a little guide hole for each one (sort of did it by eye)

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Almost made that same 12th fret mistake (concentrate man :))

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And drilled 2mm holes

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And done and glued (also will need sanding flush)

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AND DONE :) Even though super glue dries quick I decided best to leave it over night before I file them down...Next is the frets then I can glue the neck to the body :D awesome

DSC02619_zps7be8c7d3.jpg

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12th fret could/should have 2 dots?

15th a teeny bit out?

Lol yes,. you were right in the first one.. I think that they are not quite 100% lined up.. but it will do :)

 

Like in the games industry.. anything that you see that doesn't look right is a FEATURE, not a mistake ;)

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Also noticed the 12th fret thing, but very nice recovery, especially on a "custom" guitar. I'm totally impressed with this. You should take this thread to some luthiers and ask for a job!

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Lol yes,. you were right in the first one.. I think that they are not quite 100% lined up.. but it will do :)

No I think it's just that pic - the next pics it (15th) looks fine....apologies, not criticising in any way at all as this is amazing to see. Have you thought of any name for it? Le Rabs DC?

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No I think it's just that pic - the next pics it (15th) looks fine....apologies, not criticising in any way at all as this is amazing to see. Have you thought of any name for it? Le Rabs DC?

the name of my guitar is going to be Rabswood.. I even have a decal transfer for it when im ready :)

 

actually screw it.. I was going to save this till the end.. but here you go a world wide Gibson forum exclusive :)

 

looks like this

20130426_022126_zpsdeb0856d.jpg

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Also noticed the 12th fret thing, but very nice recovery, especially on a "custom" guitar. I'm totally impressed with this. You should take this thread to some luthiers and ask for a job!

Well maybe.. But why work for other people when you can work for yourself :).. We will see how it all pans out soon enough. Watch this space ;)

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No I think it's just that pic - the next pics it (15th) looks fine....apologies, not criticising in any way at all as this is amazing to see.

Lol.. and not a problem. youd have to work harder than that offend me :)

 

Its all good.

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Yes that's right.. I was so caught up in what I was doing I forgot to add the double 12th fret markers AHH.. So a little bit of creative thinking. And I decided to use some of the side fret markers to make it look right.. So I tried it again on my blank spare.. Thatl do

 

 

 

Brilliant recovery man. Love it. I think it looks great.

In fact, you should make that your RabsWood signature 12th fret markers.

 

[thumbup]

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Brilliant recovery man. Love it. I think it looks great.

In fact, you should make that your RabsWood signature 12th fret markers.

 

[thumbup]

Thanks :)

 

And yeah I quite like it too.. And I think your right.. I should do my own thing.. Ive even had some other ideas from this.. One of those sort of lucky mistakes maybe ;)

 

This weekend I should get quite a bit done.. So hopefully all of the main parts of this build will be done by then (even though I need some wider clamps for sticking the cap on so I get some good pressure in the middle.. will need to order them (g clamps) so hopefully they will come next week)..

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Lol yes,. you were right in the first one.. I think that they are not quite 100% lined up.. but it will do :)

 

Like in the games industry.. anything that you see that doesn't look right is a FEATURE, not a mistake ;)

 

An "UNDOCUMENTED" FEATURE..... [thumbup]

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Hello....

 

So today was a day of preparation and getting some details right (all part of the, errmmmm, organic design ;))...

 

I wasn't quite happy with the fretboard radius.. It really showed up when I have been working on the neck pocket... So I had another stab at that today (which really needs to be right before I attempt fretting). And now im REALLY happy with it :)

 

DSC02636_zps6b9fe102.jpg

 

Its fairly smooth but if you look at the below pic you can see the slight scratches.. I want to have a go with some really high grit sandpaper (maybe up to 1000) before I fret so most of the work will be done.

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Looking good though im happy with that

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So I also started at the nut today.. There was excess fretbaodr that I have to remove first

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The first attempt, way too high.. need to take that down

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So I wrapped some sandpaper around the nut to take it down bit by bit till I was happy with the size

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Turns out I have to sand it almost down to the neck

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NICE.. almost there

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That's gonna look sweet :)

DSC02661_zpsb81e1280.jpg

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So I decided to compare this to my DC which my build is sort of based on

 

DSC02668_zps73c3c5ba.jpg

 

Whats weird is that I thought I made a mistake doing the headstock angle.. I wanted to do 17 degrees but it ended up as 14 when I measured it.. But looking side by side my neck and head look pretty similar.. :_

DSC02665_zps8d1562c7.jpg

 

 

So.. as well as this I made sure my neck pocket was good today so tomorrow I will go at the frets.. If that goes well I will also glue the neck and body together :D then we will really be cooking ;)

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