imalone, red and gold

imalone

From this angle...
Doing the front first with a new method is always a bit of a risk, but I needed to work out what I was going to do with the back. I've just gone with the top side of the fabric all-over in the end. There are some tiny bubbles on the top you can see in raking light, but overall it's going okay so far. The back is perfectly flat: rather than trying to smooth it on the surface with a credit card (well, old photocopier card), I did what I'd do for sticky plastic, which is lay it under tension and smooth it down onto the surface.
Spent nearly an hour last night cutting the edges to try and get the overlap at the sides right, not glued yet. The radius on the SG horns is so tight that it's probably not possible to avoid gaps, fortunately I've got plenty left over for filler pieces. Thinking about just doing a strip all the way around. Then needs varnished, so probably not ready to do anything else to the body for the rest of the week till that's cured. Have some rustins quick-dry for that as no-one round here seems to have ronseal.

imalone

Things we learned today.
1. Make sure to use a dry brush when applying the mod podge. Made this mistake when doing the sides which led to some dripping. Didn't get all the drips, which has led to discovery number:
2. PVA doesn't sand well.

I managed to mark an edge while sanding with 1000 grit. Not sure whether the abrasive embedded or it was just tearing or something. I scraped it back and recoated, not perfect, but looks better than the above now (picture taken just after I started scraping).
3. 8oz of mod podge is *just* enough to do a guitar. I'm probably less efficient on my first attempt than Jooky was, and applied all coats a bit thick and used a card to scrape excess off. Had just enough left to touch up the mistake above.
First coat of varnish has gone on the front now.

WezV

I don't think you can be disapointed with that

imalone

I'm not terribly disappointed. Partly it's my inner perfectionist, partly that the camera and lighting flatters it a bit. Apart from the marking this bit of the edge is quite good, others are a bit less even. As a first attempt it's not too bad. The front and back are okay, and with the first coat of varnish the finish feels decent. It'll never be possible to completely smooth the sides though, due to bunching in some places.
One other small success is that on the convex curve of the upper bout I hadn't made enough relief cuts before starting on the mod podge and it was pulling flat (smaller tight spots were fixed by pressing into shape between coats), I used a craft knife to cut in the relief cut to about halfway and a cut across at the end, was then able to glue underneath and cover with the last couple of coats. Seems to have fixed it neatly. The PVA-ed fabric cuts similarly to vinyl once set.
Plan is two coats of varnish, so that should be done today. Wont be able to do any work on it this weekend though.

Andyjr1515

Hi @imalone

This is stunningly impressive, camera or lighting regardless.  No more to be said really 

Andy

imalone

Thanks! Think I'll just stop while I'm ahead then.
Not really - varnish has gone on and I'm busy all weekend, should be safely cured by the time I can start back on it. Might be able to get a picture of the finished body on Monday.

imalone

Well, just back from a weekend in Copenhagen, partly work, partly sightseeing, managed to catch the end of the Jazz festival. Lots of jazz standards on open air stages in squares (saw three different bands finish with "What a Wonderful World"), but also some news stuff, including these guys: http://bergurnielsen.com/
Anyway, this means things are still where I left them last week:

My brother, on seeing a picture and not knowing what I was doing asked, "Is that a guitar cosy?" Which is a fair comment. Anyway, a little sanding to be done (as you can see) then onto initial assembly.

imalone

Day 24 of the build. It's hot and the heat has been building for the past week. Early hopes for progress were quashed. I started off in high spirits. With the finishing done all that remained on the body was to cut off the fabric from the various routes and holes. For good measure I touched the edges up with varnish to stop the separating later.

And pick up loose wire wool, with the aid of blu-tack on a stick I was able to get to the bottom of the insert holes.

It was at this stage I came unstuck. Flushed with success I thought I could improve the finish and remove the last traces of brush marks on the top (having managed to get a three-strokes technique working on the back, which looks messier while drying, but sanded out more easily). I wet-sanded from 1200 up to 2000 grit and wiped down with micro-fibre. Everything looked fine at first, then gradually scale of my mistake became apparent.

White streaks appeared everywhere and could not be rubbed off. By this point I had already fitted the inserts, using a hammer and (as suggested by the great Eric) an old sock. My options were limited. Whipping out the wire wool I was able to remove most of the streaks, however there were still a few stubborn spots, including one largish one over a small bubble. Clearly I had gone too far through the varnish. In one last effort I carefully ragged on another thin coat of varnish, this worked and the top and back (on which I had also foolishly made another assault with sandpaper) were now mark free.
Relieved I fitted the hardware to the body.


One final challenge remains, looming over everything that has been achieved so far, the tombstone-shaped headstock...

Wiring-wise, I was surprised to realise a small length of solder was used as part of the packaging to tie up the loom. I used this to do the soldering and it seemed fine. Forgot to measure the pots before soldering everything up, but the tone ones are about 500k. The only problem I ran into was that the instructions call for a black wire to be attached to the saddle insert and I couldn't identify a wire in the loom that could be used to do this. This wasn't a problem as I have some spare.
The thickness of the fabric, PVA, varnish is such that the switch couldn't be fitted with its washer, the pots and jack are also quite short coming through.
I'm thinking of starting oiling the neck today (going to try the liberon finishing oil, which some people seem to quite like, should be somewhat similar to tru-oil). Not joking above though, I have no idea what to do with this headstock, not even sure whether I want to try lacquering or painting it black.

imalone

Terrible thunderstorms struck on Thursday night, the weather continues to worsen as the project nears completion. Some supernatural force is at work here.
Undaunted I sought out a cabinet rasp.

Marking the shape off, drawn, transferred to a sheet of paper (card would be better) then half the template traced on as a guide and flipped to ensure it's symmetrical (inevitably it is not). To take the weight and balance down I'm shortening the headstock quite a bit.

Off with its head.

Roughed-out shape before assault with cabinet rasp. Having not used one before I made fairly close cuts with the saw first. It turns out a sharp cabinet rasp is a formidable tool, I'm now looking out for more wood that needs shaping.

Prior to some last evening-up with the rasp and sanding. Somewhat unintentionally I've achieved what I think is a slightly Indian look, which is fairly appropriate given the fabric is from Delhi. I had spent some time looking through the V&A online collection to see if I could get ideas for Indian influenced instrument shapes, but didn't find any that would work, so this is a bit serendipitous.

And then we get out the oil. I had considered painting or staining the headstock, or attempting inlays, but decided I didn't really have the tools to make a good job of the latter (and wasn't convinced about my idea anyway). Painting, I'm still not sure, but want to see how it looks with oil all over first. Following Wez's suggestion I also did the board (wire wool, oil, wipe off immediately, continued wiping off for a while afterwards as oil seeped back out - liberon is apparently somewhat similar to tru-oil). Aiming for about five coats on the back and headstock, should be done tomorrow.

My improvised drying frame. Now we wait and see what else fate has in store for us.
Edit: for anyone wondering, this is how chip shops achieve that peculiar smell.

WezV

who is saying liberon oil is similar to tru-oil?   Just wondering, I have not tried it but it looks darker than tru-oil and the comment about oil seeping back out makes me think it may behave a bit differently too.

doesn't matter too much as you can get a decent finish out  of most oils sold for finishing, some just take more work. As an example, You could say Danish oil and tru oil are similar because you can get similar results with both, but tru-oil takes less work and can do extra stuff the danish oil can't

imalone

Random people on the internet http://acousticsoundboard.co.uk/thread/1066/tru-oil but I've been wanting to try it for a while anyway. I don't expect them to be exactly the same, but broadly similar, so thought I'd risk it on the fretboard too. The liberon is supposed to be 5 hours between coats, while the tru-oil is 12. If I understand correctly both are polymerising blends, while Danish oil contains varnish.
I had been tempted to try shellac, but from what I've read I probably wouldn't be done until September.
Edit: oh and this, which probably first put it in my head http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-211935.html when I did my first partscaster (but used wudtone instead, which produced a very nice result).

Jalapeno

Looking bloody lovely - good job !

imalone

Jalapeno said:

Looking bloody lovely - good job !

Thanks!

Andyjr1515

Yup - it looks fabulous!  I like the shape of your headstock, too - different without being quirky.

Andy 

imalone

It remains hot. This is becoming relevant, because on Saturday I picked up some of this:

Note: "Remove lid carefully in hot weather as contents may be liquid."
There was only one option.

Ice-cream break over I got on with the guitar. Tried Wez's wet-oil-sanding thing. I can see why it's a good idea, though it's a bit dispiriting to be removing (a little of) the coats you already painstakingly applied. Think I'd probably only do the last coat sanding as a result. Then waxed (as the picture above suggests). Hmm, touluene. I let it sit for most of the day, and still a tiny bit tacky, but was happy that it was ready to be attached.



So stage 1 is complete. Haven't done anything yet about truss rod, nut, intonation etc., but had a quick go with it. Pots are a little crackly, I may replace the whole wiring loom, tuners as expected have a bit of travel and string is catching a bit at the nut. Intonation just dropping the bridge in was in the right ballpark (someone has pre-staggered the saddles), but I don't think anyone would expect not to have to set it. A project like this tends to take up my playing time, so I'll have to re-learn how to actually play a guitar and then give it a bit more thought what else I want to change. Will be ordering some nut files, because that needs work. Haven't really noticed any problems with the frets yet, but they may become apparent once other things are in place (out of the box I've got a little too much bow, which will probably increase as it settles, so problem spots may be hiding).
Cosmetically cream pickup rings and selector rings might be nicer than the black.

imalone

Ordered new tuners (just Axetec's sperzel-style, looks similar to the Axesrus 'luthiers love' ones) and the replacement plastic last night. Obviously not here yet. Also cheap nut files, but missed that they were coming from China (express delivery would have been £60, should have been a clue).
First impressions, terrible saddle rattle. Not entirely certain where from, doesn't seem to entirely be the screws, though there are one or two that pressing stops some of the rattle. Will need to read up on TOM set up, but will probably need a new bridge, also because there's not enough travel on the G to intonate properly, but that could be these strings and a quite high action.
Bit neck heavy, but manageable.
Sound, neck pickup I quite like, not subtle, but has some punch. The bridge is unfortunately a thinner version of it, and in mid position the neck swamps it. Can be balanced by fiddling with the volume, but since they're so similar, and the bridge is quieter anyway, this doesn't gain you much. Both are quite quiet actually, they're coincidentally about the same impedance as neck and bridge in my pacifica, but the pacifica is effortlessly louder. That said, the pickups are effectively free and while the neck doesn't have the full sound the rails in the pacifica get it does have a the kind of thick tone that encourages double stopped riffs. Not sure about replacing them, will have to see if I can get the rest of it playable first.
Neck feels quite nice, relatively thick, but manageable and wax finish is unnoticeable in feel. It's still shedding crystalline wax, guitar dandruff, but that should settle down.
For anyone spotting the not-quite-trimmed strings in the last post, I'm normally much neater, but thought I'd best leave some extra as I might be taking the strings off for adjustments. Pinged the high E off while adjusting intonation today, not often that happens, break was quite low down, so while the strings weren't great I'm suspicious of the saddle or bridge for that too. Fortunately quite a few old sets lying around that I was saving for a rainy day.

imalone

Axetec wheel-locking tuners arrived on Tuesday, fitted them yesterday. 19:1 and much more solid construction (no play or wobble).

This is probably obvious, but fitting them became much easier once I remembered you can remove the wheel altogether. Otherwise your screwdriver snags on it. The right size to tighten the nuts using a socket rather than a spanner.

Also arrived, ivory plastics. Think this looks a bit better, will change the knobs when I do the electrics. As for the rattle, seems to be cured for the minute, I dabbed some oil (no 3-in-1 handy, so light synthetic cycle chain oil instead) on the screw ends at the back of the bridge and under the heads, as well as screwing the saddle down a bit more. Seems happier now.
I like the wheel-locks, haven't used this type before. Did the humbucker ring change after I'd restrung it, so tried the trick from Drew's recent thread, capo on 2nd and loosen enough to remove saddle, the locks made this quite easy. They are a bit heavier than the old ones.
Playing, height at nut currently means intonation is shocking on frets 1-3, but evens out further down. Capoed at 1 it goes up a semitone and a half. Even to my ears that sounds wrong. Tuned with a capo at one it evens out, and even the G intonation seems better. So, waiting on China post. Could be a while.

Andyjr1515

Looks superb! Worth a 'wow', duly awarded

imalone

Thanks!

TTony

Headstock looks really good to me.