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My new project.. Turn a door into a guitar


Rabs

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Looking good. Take your time and keep going . It's worth it

cheers man.. I am starting to get a tiny bit impatient.. I just wanna get those pups in and get playing.. I will finish it though you can be sure of that :) I always knew doing a neck from scratch without the proper tools would be tricky. But im sure as you say it will be well worth the effort in the end.. After all, the more you put in, the more you get out :) (usually)

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The current build will be very Gibson ish 3 each side... The next one for the tele build.. Hmm, well I guess id go for in line... Donno, that's all part of the fun.. But I think that having a Tele body with a 3 a side head would look a bit weird, even for me :)

 

Or you could always go for the less used 4/2 setup...

 

-Ryan

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Looking really good, now.

 

[thumbup]

 

I'm very curious to see how the Amber will look on top of the thixotropic treatment...

 

P.

Lol.. oh yeah I almost forgot about that..

 

Well I just went and did it... And my initial thoughts were wow..

 

Am letting it dry for an hour or so and will post pics a bit later. :)

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Ok so here we go.. As promised I have done some more colour testing and sanded that filler test down and sprayed over it again.. And the results are pretty good..

 

But just before that heres the neck after the shim has been glued... Needs to be planed down but im happy with it.. I shook the neck around and it didn't make a sound.. So job done on the Trussrod :D Now the fretboard [unsure] :)

 

DSC02198_zps06ace775.jpg

 

Pretty tight.. a few holes need filling (that always seems to happen).. But in the case of the shim its better to use less glue cos you don't want it seeping down into the rod and gluing that together lol.. But its solid and wont be going anywhere.

DSC02201_zpsbcc3533d.jpg

 

 

So now the Thixotropic filler... So I sanded that down and the first side I went too far and think I used a paper that was too course (80 grit).. So I used some lighter paper on the other side (120).. But I think I need to use lighter still as you can see it went too far is some spots.. So next time I do it I will sand it back down with 240 grit. (but this is why we test first :)) Even still I really like what im seeing.. See what you reckon.

 

So here you can see... went to far.. woops :)

DSC02203_zpsa90e86c9.jpg

 

other side... went a bit lighter

DSC02204_zps2796105a.jpg

 

AND this is what it looks like with half walnut and half amber.. And remember when I have the correct colour it will also get several gloss clear coats and a buff up.. So should really pop by the end.

DSC02205_zps10154981.jpg

 

Close up

DSC02208_zps6989912d.jpg

DSC02209_zps3f8de38e.jpg

 

And this is the other side where I went too far

DSC02206_zps92c64467.jpg

 

Sooo.. Pretty good... Will need to experiment a bit more before I do the guitar though.. but each step brings me closer :)

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Truly inspiring project Rabs!! I've been keeping tabs on your door, thanks so much for posting your progress in the detail that you have. I'm really liking the amber over the filler.

I'll be patiently waiting for the next instalment, and now apparently your going to get me hooked watching your other build as well.

 

Keep up the great work!

 

 

Johnny

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Truly inspiring project Rabs!! I've been keeping tabs on your door, thanks so much for posting your progress in the detail that you have. I'm really liking the amber over the filler.

I'll be patiently waiting for the next instalment, and now apparently your going to get me hooked watching your other build as well.

 

Keep up the great work!

 

 

Johnny

Wow.. such kind words.. thank you.. Its appreciated and helps motivate me along :)

 

The neck part had been dragging longer than id have liked as ive been waiting for tools and stuff (that I have to sometimes wait longer for as I don always have any spare cash).. But I reckon that once I get the neck done it should all move pretty quickly to the end... Im quite confident in spraying as ive done that before (and yeah I like that filler effect too :))... and I have everything else planned like the electronics..

 

Also hopefully all the stuff ive learned will mean the second one goes that much quicker. We will see.

 

Thanks for watching and I hope I can make it worth while at the end ;)

 

Cheers.

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Man you are getting close now.

 

I vote for the amber. [thumbup]

Cheers :) And yeah its getting exciting.. Just gotta get that fretboard done now..

 

And I think ive setteled on Amber on the front and headstock and all walnut on the back, neck and back of headstock.. And on the side I will make it amber up to the edge of the cap then brown for under the cap (if you see what I mean) :)

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Hello fellow Giutarites.. Been a bit of a slow week.. If im honest this neck/fretboard part of the build has got be a bit stumped.. BUT I moved forward today and just went for it.. AND I have a back up plan which I will talk about a but later..

 

Also for anyone still watching thanks for your patience.. Ive said it a few times now but once I get past this neck bit it should all go pretty quick after that and it wont be long till I have done two. I always knew this neck bit would be hard.

 

Sooo

 

The truss rod hole and shim now looks like this.. Not great, could be a bit neater.. but not bad.. It will have some kind of veneer on the headstock and the fretboard will cover the rest so you wont even see it at the end.

DSC02272_zps918f4ceb.jpg

DSC02274_zps74016269.jpg

 

Does the job

DSC02275_zpsbcf247f2.jpg

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So.. to the fretboard..

 

So I have been having trouble measuring this but I think ive now done it ok.. I literally measured it up like this

DSC02252_zps7f969948.jpg

DSC02256_zps418ff8bc.jpg

 

So you can see here (just) I got marks each side that I will use a ruler to join up

DSC02258_zps268c6ceb.jpg

 

like so

DSC02259_zps9b13bff3.jpg

 

I then went at it with this little hacksaw

DSC02263_zps8cfa4650.jpg

 

Not gonna go too deep yet

DSC02264_zpsb7061195.jpg

 

And all 22 frets done

DSC02266_zpsa1dd129d.jpg

 

Needs to be tapered off so will look something like this at the end

DSC02268b_zps734163c1.jpg

 

Now what ive done is to give myself two shots at this.. I only went like one mm or so down in the cut.. The board is 9mm and the final thickness will be about 3-4 mm.. So in theory if these measurements turn out wrong I can sand down 2mm and cut again.. I think it looks ok from the top, anywhere where I have made any messy cuts will be sanded down so that's not an issue either...

DSC02270_zps82d1b342.jpg

 

So my cunning plan.. Well what I decided to do was order a pre slotted fretboard that should arrive on Monday.. When it comes I will compare mine to it (as it will be flat so easy to do).. And see where we go from there.. At the worst I will have a fretboard to work on one way or another on Monday if I have to re do the one on top, or just say sod it and use the pre slotted one...

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Sooo... not s much been going on with the project this week.. Been waiting on the new fretboard that arrived today...

 

So this is the first one I tried using.. Ive sanded most of it back down (still more to go) as I want to learn how to do this properly so I will use my new board as a template which should work.

DSC02303_zps9ba42ed8.jpg

 

This is my new pre-slotted board.. So tomorrow I will go at this.. I will have to radius it first then cut it to the correct size and taper... [unsure] lol..

DSC02306_zps60495b78.jpg

 

 

Im getting way more accurate now with my cutting.. So hopefully tomorrow I will have a good report for you :)

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Good work, Rabs! Every time I think this thing is about to fly off the rails you manage to pull it out. It's like reality TV! [thumbup] Only better of course, since it's... um real... and has guitars involved! [biggrin]

Cheers man.. And yeah this has been close as its been stumping me to a point where its irritating.. But I wont let it beat me.. As long as I don't do something totally stupid then I should be able to finish this I reckon :)

 

As I say if I can get this board cut right it gets stuck to the neck, which means I can do the neck profile which then will mean I can glue it to the body.. Then we will be really cooking..

 

[thumbup]

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Kinda makes you understand why a good guitar costs so much, eh? :rolleyes:

Well indeed.. In saying that though if I had a big workshop with all the fancy tools id have 50 made by now :P :)

 

If you check my other build I stuck a time lapse video of me cutting the body for the second project.. That actually took me about 40mins to do and it still has to be finished more.. At Gibson they do that in like 5 minutes with a C&C machine... But then id miss out on all this fun and learning <_< ;)

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Well indeed.. In saying that though if I had a big workshop with all the fancy tools id have 50 made by now :P :)

 

 

Well said, Rabs...but those costum shop babies...hmmm.

 

Keep at it Rabs, we're all waiting to hear the sound clip.

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