Next Project ... opinions? ... & updates!

cacophony

your local branch of "clamps `r` us" must do steady business!...

WezV

1st rule of guitar building club.... Buy more clamps!

Shark_Eyes

Glad you went with a centred join, it's going to look great.

Andyjr1515

I like the look of this @TTony. It's going to be a corker! Andy

monquixote

Brilliant work Tony 

Can't wait to see what it looks like.

I think I'm going to have to drop your box of bits round so I can see your new toys

TTony

monquixote said:

I think I'm going to have to drop your box of bits round so I can see your new toys

And give them a test drive!

TTony

Only had a couple of hours today  

Clamps off and shape the top to match the body with a bearing guided cutter

This little pattern/template is going to help me cheat, and save a chunk of carving time

Now I have a consistent thickness ledge / edge round the top of the guitar - taking about 7mm off the thick part and 0mm of the thin end of the wedge;

Flip the pattern over and do the other side, and this is as far as I got today.

Still plenty to do, but the heavy power-tool woodworking is just about done.  I'll do the roundover and the cavities (p'up and control) next, and then carve, carve, carve the top, followed by about 3 weeks of sanding it all!

But it's looking like its coming together ok.

guitargeek62

TTony said:

But it's looking like its coming together ok.

Andyjr1515

Looking good  from here, @TTony

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

awesome stuff  - seems to be working out quite well so far

whenever I have done similar neck slots in caps i have routed it with rounded corners and squared up the corners by hand - usually means I can use a neck pocket template to do most of the work.   

normally i am doing it to attach full frontal a cap to a through neck guitar, rather than trying to save an incorrect neck angle.  its mostly what i did on this one, but it needed a bit more shaping by hand because of the angles

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/complete guitars/IMG_0673.jpg

By the way, @WezV, that carve is aspirational 

TTony

Feck, feck, feck, feck, feck.

Twice.

Spent a good few hours yesterday carving the top, and sanding and carving and sanding and carving and sanding.  It was (note, "was") looking good.

This is before final final sanding

And here it is done to 120grit.  Looking nicely rounded and smooth.

I was quite happy.

Today, I'm a little tired, but I've got a couple of hours, so I thought I'd do the last of the power tool work and prep it for finishing.

The top is still quite thick over the control cavity, and I'd need pots with 20mm shafts, so I'll just take rout out the cavity a bit so that normal pots will fit.  Simples.

Feck #1.  That's the end of the control cavity poking through under the carve.  Feck.

I'll have to think about that one.  But I'll carry on and get the pickup cavity routed out.  

Now, that's a bit odd.  I wasn't necessarily expecting to get the new cavity bang-on the old one, but that's a bit too much of a difference for me not to have a little worry ....

.... and Feck #2, I've put it in the wrong place.  

Measured the scale length to the 12th fret (12.25") and doubled it to get the line for the bridge (at 25.5") and work back a bit to place the cavity ... except 2 x 12.25" isn't quite 25.5".

I've now shut up the workshop and will do something else today.

Initial thoughts are to use a piece of the offcut maple to make a piece to fit in the wrongly placed cavity - make it really, really, accurately so that it's a very tight push-fit - and glue it in place.  And then I'll either have to veneer it to hide the feck-up (veneer would also handlily deal with the extra ventilation hole for the cavity cover) or work out how to fill that hole as well and then use a more opaque finish than I was planning to hide both of the feck-ups.

After the hours I spent carving and sanding the top yesterday, I'm really not very happy.

TTony

Having looked at it again, and given it some more thought ... 

It's just another opportunity to solve some problems and develop some skills.

I'm going to cut out a larger area than the pickup cavity.  Firstly, it's an awkward shape to cut accurately, secondly the corners of the (wrongly placed) cavity are close to where the bridge posts will go, and I don't want those to go into a weakened area.

So, my thinking is to cut out a larger area with straight lines, and drop in a replacement piece cut from the offcuts, making sure that it's a real tight fit.  Much of the replacement piece will still be hidden by the bridge and pickup, and looking at it, the grain pattern is a reasonable match.

Still got to think about the extra cavity ventilation hole though.  I'm thinking that I'll glue another offcuts piece underneath the hole in the cavity, and then fill the last bit with a bit of sawdust & glue.  Unless someone tells me better.

?

Sarge

A top mounted jack socket to cover the hole? or is that too far out?

TTony

Sarge said:

A top mounted jack socket to cover the hole? or is that too far out?

Think it'd look too odd.

steamabacus

So, solid colour finish now? The edge hole could be bursted over but the repair around the pickup/bridge seems more problematic. Goldtop would look good.

WezV

Glue a new bit on the inside of the cavity

What was the scale length then, if I made this Gibson scale length its likely to be 24 5/8" or 24 9/16".... But I could have placed bets on making this 25" it was a few years ago now

TTony

steamabacus said:

So, solid colour finish now? The edge hole could be bursted over but the repair around the pickup/bridge seems more problematic. Goldtop would look good.

This is fast becoming an opportunity to learn new skills, so perhaps it's time to get a spray can or two and learn to DiY spray, rather than the Wudtone that I'd planned.  Or maybe it's an opportunity for some sort of weird scratchplate.  I'll think on that some more.

WezV said:

What was the scale length then, if I made this Gibson scale length its likely to be 24 5/8" or 24 9/16".... But I could have placed bets on making this 25" it was a few years ago now

I'll triple-check before I drill/cut anything else, but I'm pretty sure it's 24.5" scale length, although very possibly 24 9/16".  Certainly not 25" though.

Having measured, I've got an offcut that's just about big and thick enough to fit in, once I've straightened the edges up.  I'll rout out a hole that's a bit bigger than the p'up cavity to make sure that it's got a firm base, and that any joints are far enough away from the holes for the bridge posts.

But that's a job for another weekend.

steamabacus

TTony said:

steamabacus said:

So, solid colour finish now? The edge hole could be bursted over but the repair around the pickup/bridge seems more problematic. Goldtop would look good.

This is fast becoming an opportunity to learn new skills, so perhaps it's time to get a spray can or two and learn to DiY spray, rather than the Wudtone that I'd planned.  Or maybe it's an opportunity for some sort of weird scratchplate.  I'll think on that some more.

A Zemaitis style oval plate around the area did briefly come to mind - not sure how that would work with the carve, though?

guitargeek62

WezV said:

What was the scale length then, if I made this Gibson scale length its likely to be 24 5/8" or 24 9/16".... But I could have placed bets on making this 25" it was a few years ago now

I don't remember to be honest - the intention at the time was to build something with a similar feel to my (then) '63 SG Jr, so I imagine we'd have gone with a Gibson scale of some sorts.

Jalapeno

WezV said:

Glue a new bit on the inside of the cavity

And possibly some french polish skills to join the grain line up.