Finished Pics! Andyjr1515's Piccolo gains a couple of strings

Andyjr1515

2nd coat of the Osmo Gloss looking good:

paulnb57

Looks proper glossy, with so few coats.....

I've been racking my old head for a word to describle your builds.

Elegant, that the word, so damned elegant!......they look just, so, right.....

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Looks proper glossy, with so few coats.....

I've been racking my old head for a word to describle your builds.

Elegant, that the word, so damned elegant!......they look just, so, right.....

And you, @paulnb57 , are a gentleman 

Andy

Andyjr1515

Next job has been to fit the bridge. 

I will be doing a final gloss coat (probably) after I've let it harden enough to do the final de-nibbing, etc, but so far so good with the Osmo. 

I still have to put the ferrules in (it's a thru-body) before I can string it up to position the pickups properly, but couldn't resist a quick mock-up:



I still have quite a bit to do and, in the meantime, will decide whether to go gold pickup rings with black screws, or a more muted (but probably more classy) black pickup rings with gold screws.  For the picup positioning and fixing, I'll try it that way round and see which looks best.

paulnb57

I think black with gold screw would fit best with the bridge....

Andyjr1515

By the way - I think it's possible to see the family resemblance with @impmann 's Alembic-esque?

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

I think black with gold screw would fit best with the bridge....

Yes - me too.  I'll try it that way round when I position them for real.

Andyjr1515

Other than they look a bit skewiff (will double check the measurements but think that is camera lens skew), the black with gold screws are better - and my growing OCD will lead me to add gold pickup screws too    :

Andyjr1515

Very nearly done.

The gloss needs some proper drying time before I can polish it but, other than that, there is only half a day or so's worth of build tasks before it can be assembled ready for set-up

I'll be interested how the Osmo polishes up.  At the moment, the gloss is OK...but undoubtedly closer to an acrylic varnish than it is to a polyurethane varnish finish.  It is, on the other hand, MUCH easier to apply...

It also seems to be working better on the sapele than the laurel.   This looks reasonably OK.  The neck has been slurry-and-buffed with the Satin Osmo, using the rounded ridge at the heel as the demarcation between the satin and the gloss :


And I'm sure I used to be closer to 'it'll do' than OCD before I started this caper...but the back is curved....and so the hatch ought to be too, really...


This should be enough.  I've sprayed the back with water, which will make the back expand, then clamped it firmly onto a 10" fretboard radius block which I will leave overnight.

Other than that:

• Frets are levelled and polished
• Back of headstock is flat to the correct thickness and tuners are ready to fit
• Hole has been drilled to fit the barrel jack
• Fretboard side dots fitted

That just leaves:

• Magnets on the control chamber hatch and trussrod cover
• Copper lining of control chamber
• Strap buttons

Even got a case for it.....

BigMonka

Looking fantastic Andy. I’ve said it about quite a few of your builds, but the way that even the back of them looks amazing says a lot about your design skills and attention to detail :-) 

Andyjr1515

BigMonka said:

Looking fantastic Andy. I’ve said it about quite a few of your builds, but the way that even the back of them looks amazing says a lot about your design skills and attention to detail :-) 

Thanks, @BigMonka .   Very much appreciated

Andyjr1515

OK - I'll do the finished pics once I've done a full polish and got a proper tone knob - and straightened up and glued the loose ferrules!

And it still has to be set up, etc..

But, visually, it's pretty much done.









Where did that pesky heel go????


Not set up at all, but I have to say it plays pretty well straight off the bench.  The neck feels nice, but it is more Fender 'C' than my preferred soft 'V' - I will fettle this over the weekend to suit my playing style (I always do the last shaping once the strings are on and I can really feel how it plays.

It balances nicely on the strap - but is a little heavier than I was aiming for.  Pre the extra fettling and using heavy solid brass knobs (I'm on the lookout for some nice wooden ones), I'm coming in at over 5 3/4lbs, which is 3-4oz heavier than planned.  Not bad, though...

paulnb57

I've rin out of superlatives!

Bloody lovely!

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

I've rin out of superlatives!

Bloody lovely!

Thanks, Paul

webrthomson

Very nice, looks amazing!

Ross

boogieman

Lovely work, well done that man

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks .  Very much appreciated.

Andyjr1515

Today - being drizzly and miserable - is tweaking and set up day

The first and most important is getting the neck profile to just how I like it.  Many other builders think I am completely bonkers, but I do this 'live' with the guitar fully strung up, ready to play.

It's simple and it's quick - in fact I've done this in the past while the new owner of one of my builds has been sitting there having a cup of coffee!

Basically, I : 

• Put a large plastic bag around the guitar body
• Hold it cello style, but back to front - ie with the back of the guitar facing the audience and the headstock digging into my chest
  
• Take my trusted and humble cabinet scraper
• Scrape it gently to shape, using full sweeps heel to volute, feeling for any facets left by uneven cuts
• Check progress frequently by popping it back to playing position and playing a few of my regular riffs
• Once happy, double check for lumps or facets
• Sand
• Slurry-and-buff with Tru-oil or Osmo

Here it is at the early scraper stage:

Whole process takes less than an hour - plus a bit of resting period (for Osmo) for the slurry and buffed finish to harden.

And so I now have a neck I'm REALLY happy with and can play comfortably - even with my arthritic hands

Next is tidying up some of the squiffy ferrules, put some slightly longer pickup screws (gold ones) in, sort the nut height and do a basic set up of relief, action and intonation.

Andyjr1515

For those who like such things, some short comparative soundclips can be found here, including the effect of splitting the neck coil only and splitting the bridge coil only:








I'll do the fancy shots and post the final pics when I've got the missing tone knob early next week

Andyjr1515

Hmmm...I get Soundcloud wrong every time.  Meant to post the playlist, not the individual clips.  Nevermind....