TTony’s Q1’20 challenge ... *ALL 3* done

PeteC

Beautiful job Tony!   my wallet is creaking just looking at that Rosewood neck.... must....not....give....in.....
What tuners are you going to use on the DC ? 

Andyjr1515

That fretboard on the single cut is divine...

TTony

Only a quick session in the workshop today - most of the morning spent chopping up a (large) tree that Ciara blew over.


Made the template for the scratchplate.  Based on a LP Jr, but amended to fit the shape of this guitar.  And then I went looking for some scratchplate material.

(I really don't like cutting scratchplates because I always seem to be picking up tiny bits of plastic from all corners of the workshop for months afterwards).

Whilst looking, I came across some sheets of veneer tucked away, and wondered "why not?". 

This piece is only roughly cut, and has a coat of oil on it.  I'd probably look for something that better matched the neck/body (I think this is RW, but the oil has really enhanced the colour, so it doesn't match the (RW) neck so well.

I guess that could either be glued direct to the body, or perhaps to a piece of very thin scratchplate material so that at least it didn't look like a cheap piece of plastic?

Thoughts??

normula1

Looks great and way better than plastic

TTony

Looking again at the veneer option, and thinking again about it, I wasn't happy.

So, dug out the offcut from the original Korina body blank (see comment above re never throwing any bits away!!) and with a fresh bandsaw blade in the bandsaw ...



There's a couple of 5mm slices of Korina.

Naturally, a single slice isn't big enough for the scratchplate, so...




The rest of the hardware on the guitar will be black, so I'll probably stain the scratchplate black too, assuming that it all comes out of the clamps OK tomorrow ...

PeteC

Great - what a good idea ! 

TTony

At the start of the week, we had a burn pile of approximately 6,000 cu ft.

Primarily garden waste (the most used tool in our garden is a chainsaw).

By end of today, we’ve shifted about half of it, via a 10 ft diameter fire pit that’s been burning permanently.

Hence not a lot of workshop time, hence not a lot of progress.

And I ache.

TTony

It's taken a ridiculous amount of time to get this one finished off given where it was about 10 days ago, but the soldering is now done, the frets are levelled and polished, the nut is first cut (I could probably lower the slots another mm or so) and it's tuned and intonated.










Since the day that I'd glued the neck in, I'd been worried about the angle and hence the bridge height.

Needn't have worried really - the bridge is a good 2-3mm above the body, so there's plenty of adjustment room should I need it in future.



I down, 2 to go ...

TTony

PS

Simple headstock design (which I've used on most of my own builds) is compact and just about achieves straight-through strings ...



I'll take the excess off the top of the nut once I've finished cutting the slots - as said above, the strings can go another 1mm/1.5mm lower yet.

normula1

That looks great Tony

paulnb57

Thats fantastic Tony.....are you happy with it now?

TheOtherDennis

That's fantastic work all round, Tony. 

Andyjr1515

Great stuff

TTony

Thanks guys @normula1 @paulnb57 @theotherdennis (good to see you again!) @Andyjr1515 ;

TTony

I'm claiming #2, although it's very slightly premature because I need an appropriate jack socket plate (normal one is too big because of the carving/roundovers on the body) and some felt washers for the strap pins.

So, 10mins more work to be done when those bits arrive next week, but it's essentially done.


The all important back view







The scratchplate is made from offcuts of the body wood - thicknessed down to 5mm, stained, edges bevelled, and then oiled.

I'm not sure whether it looks more "homemade" than a more-normal piece of plastic material would look, but it's staying for now.  (I didn't have an offcut piece big enough for the whole scratchplate, so I had to joint two pieces - hence the join line that you can see).  The rear cavity cover is similarly rescued from offcut, stained and oiled Korina.

View of the roundover on the top ...





2 down, 1 to go.

paulnb57

Another proper job Tony! 

MattNovak

• Looks great, congrats! Were you tempted to finish the top in a different colour? IE maybe stain the back and sides up to the top of the roundover?  
  

Andyjr1515

I like that one a lot @TTony ;

Roland

That’s the first time that I’ve liked the look of a scratch plate

TTony

paulnb57 said:

Another proper job Tony! 

Andyjr1515 said:

I like that one a lot @TTony ;

Cheers gents - it was worth waiting to get this one done right!

MattNovak said:

• Looks great, congrats! Were you tempted to finish the top in a different colour? IE maybe stain the back and sides up to the top of the roundover?  
  

Actually, the top is a *very* slightly different finish.  I treated it with Osmo raw first which protects the original colour of the wood from changing when oil is applied.  I could probably have made it more white (as one of Andy's builds), but I'm quite happy with the lovely Korina grain showing through.

Roland said:

That’s the first time that I’ve liked the look of a scratch plate

It's the first time that I've tried making one!  I don't generally like bits of cheap featureless plastic on top of beautiful pieces of wood, hence I don't normally bother with scratchplates ... but this one *needed* something to hide the neck tenon.