Finished Shots - Trini Lopez 335 ish Tribute

Andyjr1515

Headstock

The original Trini Deluxe's seem to have had a variety of headstocks, but all in the Firebird/Reverse Firebird ilk.

This is an original fake Firebird (genuine 1964 but absolutely not a Gibson) with Steinbergers fitted:


  @meltedbuzzbox and I have had a number of pm discussions trying different templates aiming for a nod to a Firebird but with proportions better suited to the size of the 335 body.

This is what we have arrived at below*



I have an ebony plate on order and, in the meantime, will look at the options for the semi-plate look with the plate exposing the mahogany below like the above.  As long as the straight-through arrangement of the tuners isn't affected (we're fitting the chrome versions of the same tuners), then we can fine tune it as we go along if we think it needs that.

Next job is carving the neck!

Present weight of the above is 6lbs - which is pleasing - but remember there's a lot of metalwork going to be fitted before long 

*changed the photo.  The light today is dreadful and there were unhelpful shadows.

Andyjr1515

And to the neck

@meltedbuzzbox sent me some profile drawings of his favourite playing neck and from that I cut some templates to try to at least achieve a familiarity of feel.

There are many ways of carving necks - most, I am sure, are better than mine.  But for what it's worth:

The spine is already thicknessed to finished thickness...again, close to @meltedbuzzbox 's favourite

Having looked at the profile to see the basic shape, I start with a spokeshave to take the bulk off the corners, avoiding the spine:


I then use school chalk to mark the spine so that as I start carving closer to it, I know I'm not taking anything off it:


Then move onto a micro-plane blade which I use - without the handle - two handed like a pull-shave:


And finally the humble card scraper - I will be using this alone pretty much for the rest of the carve:


Now the shape is starting to get there, frequent checks with the templates:


That's enough for today - starting to look like a neck.




Tomorrow, to finish off the carve I will hold the guitar a bit like a back-to-front cello and will draw the card scraper from heel to nut, checking with the templates, feeling round the curve for any facets and playing loads of air guitar with it, gradually bringing the shape to final sanding level. 




 

darius

This is awesome. 

If I ever actually tried to make a guitar…Of all the steps in the process this is the bit I would worry about the most. It’s the neck carve that must surely be the easiest to get wrong, the bit that really does need skill and experience. 

WezV

darius said:

This is awesome. 

If I ever actually tried to make a guitar…Of all the steps in the process this is the bit I would worry about the most. It’s the neck carve that must surely be the easiest to get wrong, the bit that really does need skill and experience. 

It's one of the best bits.    I spent ages thinking about it before doing my first to the point I was having dreams where I accidently carved an actual baseball bat instead of a guitar neck.

It worked fine, as did the second.   Then I carved through to the rod on the 3rd one, as if it wanted to teach me not to get too cocky

darius

WezV said:

darius said:

This is awesome. 

If I ever actually tried to make a guitar…Of all the steps in the process this is the bit I would worry about the most. It’s the neck carve that must surely be the easiest to get wrong, the bit that really does need skill and experience. 

It's one of the best bits.    I spent ages thinking about it before doing my first to the point I was having dreams where I accidently carved an actual baseball bat instead of a guitar neck.

It worked fine, as did the second.   Then I carved through to the rod on the 3rd one, as if it wanted to teach me not to get too cocky

Nice. But also
Bolt on neck - bin it and try again
Thru neck - start the WHOLE guitar again…!?

WezV

The one I carved through was my second through neck.   I chopped it off and it became my first set neck

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

darius said:

This is awesome. 

If I ever actually tried to make a guitar…Of all the steps in the process this is the bit I would worry about the most. It’s the neck carve that must surely be the easiest to get wrong, the bit that really does need skill and experience. 

It's one of the best bits.    

I agree with @WezV ;; - and I think many other builders share the view. 

For me, it's particularly the bit tomorrow - often I do this step with the guitar or bass fully strung up - where I scrape the final curve more by feel than measurement.  With plenty of 'stop and try it' pauses and scrape by scrape you actually feel the guitar coming to life.  The only trouble is that it is over so quick!

DartmoorHedgehog

Andyjr1515 said:

And to the neck

 

TRUNK!

JayGee

Andyjr1515 said:

WezV said:

darius said:

This is awesome. 

If I ever actually tried to make a guitar…Of all the steps in the process this is the bit I would worry about the most. It’s the neck carve that must surely be the easiest to get wrong, the bit that really does need skill and experience. 

It's one of the best bits.    

I agree with @WezV ;; - and I think many other builders share the view. 

I can easily imagine it being one of the most satisfying parts of the process with potential for tiny inputs with simple hand tools to have a huge impact on the whole character and feel of an instrument (and the customers satisfaction or otherwise).

Andyjr1515

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Andyjr1515 said:

And to the neck

 

TRUNK!

Sorry - silly me...trunk!  What must Nellie think of me!!!


And so, now using pretty much only the micro-plane blade and card scraper, I got a great big dust sheet out, sat on a chair and started working on Nellie's trunk as a cellist would play a Tapir cello.



I use a joiner's profile gauge to compare @meltedbuzzbox 's favourite guitar profile with the progress on this one:


Still a lot to come off the haunches.  Even more so at the 12th!


Ah...getting there:


Still a bit too much on the haunches but close - so strictly card scraper now. I take full length strokes of the scraper from heel to nut and then round to remove the facet and blend in the curve...and each stroke is only taking a fraction of a mm off each time:
 

And so @darius , remembering that I'm not touching the spine and I'm not digging into the fretboard, I am able to creep up on the shape...it takes a lot of the scary stuff away from it all 

Still have to tidy up the volute and heel transitions, but an hour later, this is getting pretty close:


And, playing air guitar with it (some of my best guitar playing is done this way ) it feels great.  I can see why the original is @meltedbuzzbox 's favourite neck!

 

DartmoorHedgehog

That's looking very nice

Andyjr1515

DartmoorHedgehog said:

That's looking very nice

Thanks!


And on to the preparation for the final sanding and start of the finishing process.  As @meltedbuzzbox and I are still fine-tuning the headstock (it will have a partial ebony plate), the body can continue to be worked on to get it ready for the finishing steps.

One of those is to decide what to do with the ebony top - I have some decent offcuts to do some trials with - and the other is to finish sand the back and sides.

The back is fairly close to finish-sanded but nowadays, pretty much whatever finish it will eventually be, I do a multi-purpose variation of @WezV 's excellent slurry and buff technique with Tru-oil.  Specifically, I use this method to:

- grain fill and sanding seal in one go

- to act as a 'reveal coat'.  It allows me to spot glue residue, sanding marks, cracks and gaps.

I use pretty brutal 120 grit emery cloth and basically give it a wet and dry sand with the Tru oil acting as the wet bit.  This creates a wood dust slurry which is wiped off and then it is allowed to dry.  I will eventually move onto the more conventional slurry and buff method on the back, sides and neck when all the revealed aberrations have been sorted.

But even at this early 'reveal' stage, it promises good things ahead!

davros

Wawaweewa, knew it would come to life with some oil!! Gorgeous!

roberty

davros said:

Wawaweewa, knew it would come to life with some oil!! Gorgeous!

++++

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks - you're all very kind and it's much appreciated

Andyjr1515

Again, this is just a reveal coat but gives some idea of the sides with the back:

davros

Isn't there a forum rule about pornography?

DartmoorHedgehog

davros said:

Isn't there a forum rule about pornography?

Phwoar, look at the tusks on that!

roberty

**splurf**

Andyjr1515

OK - I think we are on the final furlong 

With grandparenting duties done for a few weeks I have a fairly uninterrupted run to finish this off.

Offline, @meltedbuzzbox and I have been doing some work on the headstock arrangement and he has come up with a shape that I think works beautifully.  It gives a respectful nod to the original but is its very own.  This is a mockup, but later today I will be cutting and gluing on the actual ebony plate.

At the same time, I've been experimenting with some ebony offcuts from the top wood to see how well a 'no finish, just sanding & buffing' approach (think violin fretboard) works.  The trials went well and so I did a quick and nasty to see how it works on the whole top.  I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but...I reckon it works