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DaLefty's 2015 Harley Benton Guitar Challenge - It is photo intensive
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I'll get some new scratch plates made or make some myself before I start applying the finish to the body to make sure I have everything lined up correctly, and I'll basically make exact copies of the plate that the kit came with except for the pickup configuration, I'm thinking about getting at least two different pickup configurations made, plus a plate with no pickup cut outs.
DaLefty
Plans for the headstock shape and first two cuts made:
As you can see I decided to rip off the design of the Fender headstock, but unfortunately the half padde blank on the Harley Benton kit guitars neck was just a little bit on the small size, so none of my Fender headstock templates would fit, they would all over hang by at least 5mm if not more, interestingly the older the model of headstock template I used the more of an over hang there was, in other words Fenders from the 50's and 60's have larger headstocks than headstocks from the 80's and 90's. So I had to take liberties with scale and sizing and drew this extremly Fender like headstock design on by hand, this is taken after making two cuts with a jigsaw, I'm not trying to cut right up to the line, but just close enough so that I can sand away the excess with some 40 grit sandpaper.
Three cuts later and some sanding with some 40 grit sandpaper:
As you can see it's got the right sort of shape, but it's not quite right, I guess I could fix it by removing more wood especially from the edge opposite from where the machine head for the sixth string will go, but to be honest I'm quite happy with it like this, it has the Fender shape to it, with out looking too much like a Fender headstock, anyone who knows what a real Fender looks like will be able to tell you from miles away that this is not a Fender headstock there is that big a difference in proportions. So here like I mentioned is after five cuts with a jigsaw relatively close to my pattern, then sanding away the final few mm with 40 grit sandpaper, then working my way up through the various grits up to 600 grit for a nice smooth finish on the sides.
Then I decided to actually get started on what I hoped to get finished within the next few weeks, namely filling in the almost 12mm hook hole inbetween the neck screw holes with a 15mm diameter piece of dowel.
Enlarging the hook hole:
Because the guitar body is made from basswood and it is a soft wood this was relatively easy to do, a little on the fiddly side, but easy enough and quite fast to do, all I basically did was take different diameter round objects, like pencils, pens, and pieces of dowel and wrap them in 40 grit sandpaper to enlarge the hook hole up to almost 15mm, 14.4mm to be exact, before coating both the inside of the hook hole and the 15mm diameter dowel I had to fill it in with white wood glue and gently tapping it into position with a rubber mallet before trimming off the excess dowel with a leveling saw, and then finally sandind it flush with the rest of the body, first starting with 40 grit sandpaper then working my way up to 240 grit sandpaper, I will eventually sand the entire body with at least 1200 grit sandpaper, but for now 240 grit is fine especially since there is still one or two changes I want to make to the body before I start to get busy sanding the sealer off of it and applying the finish to the body.
The hook hole filled from the front of the body:
Here is what the hook hole filled looks like from the front of the body, this won't matter so much as the neck will cover it, but it is really stuck in there, cut, and sanded flush with the rest of the neck pocket.
The hook hole filled from the back of the body:
Here is what it looks like from the back of the body, I tried my best to keep the grain flowing in the same direction as the grain in the body, but it's impossiblr to perfectly match an off cut of pine dowel that a joiner gave me with a basswood body, hopefully my choice of finish will hide this quite a bit and not make it so noticeable, I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to be using a neck plate, neck ferrules or some other method to attach the guitar neck to the body yet, but at least with the hook hole now filled I've given myself the ability to consider many options for attaching the neck to the body.
DaLefty
The depth I need to take things down to:
If you look closely at the cavity above, you can see that where the five way selector switch will go has been routed out deeper than the surrounding area, to accommodate one of the mods I plan to instal into this guitar I will need to deepen most of the cavity to the same depth as the depth it is where the five way selector switch will go.
The area to be deepened:
Sorry for the use of a valium box in the photo, but my smallest ruler was to long to fit inside the cavity, basically evetything above the box of valium has to made to the same depth as it is where the five way selector switch will go, that's my next goal, for this I'll probably go through the effort of actually setting up my router or at the very least my dremel to do, well that's my thoughts right now, I may just stick to using a chisel since it is such a soft wood to work with.
Some quick mock up photos to show and for me to see what the guitar will potentially look like:
Variation one, with a maple neck.
Variation two, using the neck that I have just shaped the headstock on that came with the guitar kit.
So my goals for this week at least, I was at work from seven in the morning until after ten at night today and tomorrow looks like I'm going to be just as busy going through people's C.V's and arranging interviews on top of my regular work, will be to deepen the area of the cavity I highlighted to the depth I highlighted, decide on whether I'm going to make the new scratch plates or not, if I am, then I'll order in the materials, if I'm not I'll have to find a place that is able to make custom scratch plates with my pickup hole specifications and so forth, decide what pickups I plan to use, as well as all the other hardware start getting that sorted out and ordered, decide on whether I'm going to be using a bone or ivory nut and start getting that sorted out, not to mention sanding off the sealer and starting to apply my own finish to the guitars body.
Tools Used;
Pencil
Pens
Dowel 10mm and 15mm
White wood glue
Jigsaw
Leveling saw
Sandpaper 40 grit up to 600 grit
Valium box
Rubber mallet
Henry the vacuum - for clean up
Total Cost So Far;
£0.00
Number Of Fingers Lost; 0
DaLefty
I do have about 80% use of my left had, so it's not that bad anymore, as for the tattoo ink, it's basically indian ink in a cooler bottle with the price jacked right up to reflect how cool a bottle the stuff comes in, this is the stuff I'm actually planning on using:
http://www.killerinktattoo.co.uk/intenze-360ml-12oz-suluape-black-tattoo-ink
I bought a few bottles of the stuff just before I was hospitalised with MRSA for the tattoo I got done on my back the day before I was hospitalised, I over estimated how much ink I would need so I bought too much, so I figured this would be an interesting way to make use of some of it while I decide on what tattoo to get done next, plus I figured it would be kind of cool to have a guitar with the same sort of finish as was used on my back piece.
Glad you guys are enjoying the thread, I might actually do something with both necks, as in use them both for this guitar, not at the same time, though I would love to have a double neck guitar like Michael Angelo Batio's, just as long as I didn't have to wear his gimp costumes.
DaLefty
The plan:
My next goal was to deepen everything below the lowest line to the same depth as the deepest part of this cavity to accommodate some upgrades as well as a larger and better quality five way selector switch which is quite a bit larger than the one that came with this kit, so it will need more room than what the little deep end provides.
The area to be deepened:
Everything shaded is going to be made deeper, this time I'm going to use my Dremel instead of a chisel as I want to collect as much saw dust as possible so I can make more of my home made wood filler for a few other things that I have planned to do to the project, I'm doing this all free hand, I've not set up a jig, or even bothered to get out the plunge router attachment for the Dremel, the area is hidden behind the scratch plate, it will eventually be given a coat or two primer before being painted with a graphite based conductive shielding paint, and then finally copper shielding tape, so it doesn't really need to be 100% perfect, but I will still try to be neat and tidy to leave myself as little clean up and polishing as possible.
Money shot:
I'm a little over 50% finished deepening the cavity here and collecting a nice amount of saw dust at the same time, it would of been a lot quicker doing it with a chisel due to the fact that every few minutes I have to empty the cavity of the saw dust that I have created, I'm using the Dremel and creating the saw dust and collecting it on purpose so I can use it for issues that I have noticed with the guitars body, plus to keep incase I need to refill thre screw holes I filled in the other night either because of shrinkage of the wood filler drying in them, or because when I sand off the sealer I sand further down than I managed to get the wood filler into the holes.
Finished deepening the cavity:
Ands that's the cavity deepened to as deep as where the 'deep end' was for the five way selector switch, and I even got a decent amound of saw dust out of this to deal with some issues I've noticed with the body.
Here's all the saw dust I managed to create and collect:
I reckon I've managed to create and colect a little over half a pint of saw dust to make wood filler with, which should hopefully be enough for what I have planned.
So surprisingly I managed to accomplish my weeks target again in a an hour or so, and on date night too, this project is moving forward a lot faster than I ever thought I would be able to, I think I have put about five hours worth of effort if not less into it so far, it hasn't cost me any money yet, though that is set to change as I'm about to order in some pickups for it, but so far so good, I'm a lot further along than I thought I would be, especially given my sudden increase in work load at work.
Next goals and plans:
This is the issue I've notticed, inside the area that I have roughly circled in red you can see a dark line of wood, I don't know what the correct term for it is, but it is a week point, it is where the wood would split naturally, or if you wanted to split the wood, this is where you would strike it, it's not where the two pieces of wood have been joined together, it's actually about two inches below that seam, it's not an issue where I've circled green as the wood is at it thickest there, and it isn't so much of an issue where I've circled in blue, but inside the cavity, where the body is at it's thinnest it's a bit of a worry as it is less than 10mm thick here. This is why I've been collecting all that saw dust, to cover this weak spot on both sides and hopefully strengthen it and prevent it from breaking, it won't matter too much what it looks like as all the cavities will be given a coat or two of some primer, graphite conductive shielding paint and copper shielding tape, all that matters is it's structural integrity. There is also a hole on the back of the body about 10mm in diameter and about 15mm deep that I want to fill with my home made wood filler, and there is one final cavity for another modification that I'm installing that needs to be carved out, plus I need to decide where I am going to drill the hole for the battery wires once I have made the final cavity, that's the next goals and plans for this project, which I hope to have finished before the weekend.
Tools Used;
Pencil
Dremel
Plastic pint tumbler - for collecting saw dust
Henry the vacuum - for clean up
Total Cost So Far;
£0.00
Number Of Fingers Lost; 0
DaLefty
Cavity pattern and sizing:
The shaded area is the new cavity I need to carve out, since it's a simple shape, a 4.5cm by 7.5cm retangle it was easy enough to mark out with out having to go through the hassle of making a template for it, in fact the hardest part about this was placement, finding somewhere under the scratch plate, that won't cause issues with the scratch plates mounting holes, has enough deepth so that it can fit the part, where I won't have to worry about breaking through into other cavities and so forth, the only place I could find under the scratch plate that would fit it and not disturb the scratch plates mounting holes required that I also carve out a path for the wiring. I really wish I had weighed this body before I started butchering it, I think with all the cavities I have added to it, and the cavity that I have deepened, that I might have halved the bodies original weight. For this I decided to go back to using a chisel, after collecting more than enough saw dust for my wood filler needs, I decided to do this the quick way with my 12mm chisel, especially since it was not just a simple shape, but also because I had to be very careful about not breaking through to the battery box cavity that is almost directly behind the area I planed to carve out to a depth of around 35mm.
Final cavity completed:
Around thirty minutes later I had the cavity carved and managed to only pierce thought to the battery cavity in one tiny spot, I was actually rather pleased with myself considering how fast I was working and how aggressive I was being with the chisel, and the fact that I have planned on making up a large batch of wood filler today anyway to resolve some body issues meant that this small hole, it's less than 3mm, it's nothing to worry about, I will fill it with my home made wood filler while I fill the floor of the pickup cavity, the hole in the spring cavity, and the floor in the spring cavity. The only thing left to do now was to make sure that the cavity was big enough to hold the insulation material as well as the modification I plan to put inside it.
Test fitting the modification and insulating material:
As you can see everything fits.
The next things on my to do list for today was the floor of the pickup cavity - covering the dark line of wood that you can see in the above photo of the test fitting with wood filler, the floor of the spring cavity and the hole in the spring cavity, this I planned to filled the same way as I did the eight misaligned scratch plate mounting screw holes, with white wood glue mixed with saw dust that I had collected yesterday from deepening the cavity where the five way selector switch, volume and two tome controls go.
The hole in the spring cavity to be filled:
The hole furthest to the right before the hole for the bridge is the hole that I plan on filling with my home made wood filler, the other hole I need to keep for the grounding wire to attach to the spring harness. I also plan on giving the floor ov this cavity a coat of wood filler to strengthen it due to it being so this as well as having a very weak spont along it's entire length. This was doe by mixing some of the saw dust I made and collected yesterday with white wood glues and applying it with a metal scraper and stanley knife.
The spring cavity filled:
Here is the spring cavity after filling in the hole and giving the floor a quick thin coat of wood filler, I also patched up the tiny breakthrough I had made into the battery box when I carved out the new cavity. I'll give the spring cavity a second coat of wood filler after twenty four hours just to give it a bit extra width.
The pickup cavity wood filled:
Here is the pickup cavity after giving the floor a quik thin coat of wood filler, you can still see the dark line, maybe not so much in the photo, so I will also give this a second coat of wood filler after twenty four hours, just to give it as much extra support as I can with out sacrificing too much depth. The other alternative is to completely remove the divider between the pickup cavity and spring cavity, I've seen this done to a few guitars, but you run the risk of getting your wiring caught up in your tremolo springs especially if you use the tremolo a lot. I've decided to keep the bridge style, so I'll be buying either an original fender bridge for this or some variation of it.
That's all the body modifications done now, it's just the finish and assembly I need to start on, so now I need to measure string spacing so I know what size of bridge to order, I can either do this the lazy way, by measuring the distance between the middle of the low E saddle to the middle of the high E saddle, or do it the proper way, by putting the neck and bridge on and putting the low and high E strings on and measuring the distance between the strings properly. I also need to sand off the sealer that was applied to the body at some point during the manufacturing process. Then there is the single coil pickups to sort out, I have already ordered the humbucker I plan on using, but I'm still undecided on the single coils, once the humbucker arrives I can make up a template of the scratch plate and send that off to be made, so I'm not really being held back by that. As for the necks, I'm still undecided on which one I will use, I might use both, and do something drastic to one of them to make the guitar stand out or something. So for now the plan is to concentrate on applying the finish on to the body, which means starting to sand off the sealer, and to apply second coats of wood filler to the floor of the pickup and spring cavity.
Tools Used;
Pencil
Chisel
Wood glue
Saw Dust
Scraper
Stanley knife
Henry the vacuum
Total Cost So Far;
£0.00
Number Of Fingers Lost; 0
DaLefty
I finally got round to measuring the string spacing on the kit, which turned out to be 54mm, so it's a standard Strat sized bridge and really easy to get hold of, so I'll have no problems ordering a better bridge for the kit, this was easy to do, just a pain in the arse when at this stage - I didn't take any photos of the process as I did it in a rush, all I had to to was assemble the guitar, put strings on it, and measure the distance from the middle of the low E string to the middle of the hight E string using digital calipers, just to confirm my measurement when I disassembled the guitar I also measured the distance from the center of the low E saddle to the center of the high E saddle, as well as the distance from the center of the low E to high E saddle screws - the screws that allow you to adjust how far from the nut the saddes are, all three measurements gave the same 54mm distance. I actually put all six strings on the guitar to also measure the distance between each string - again from center of one string to the center of the next, as well as from the center of one saddle to the center of the next, and again with the center of the saddle screws, which turned out to be a uniform 10.8mm. I then had to disassemble the guitar so I could get back to finishing up on the body work.
I finally made my mind up on how I'm going to attach the neck to the body, I figured that since I went through the effort of filling in the hook hole in between the screw holes for the neck, that I might as well use neck ferrules to attach the necks to the body, so this meant I had to alter the neck holes slightly.
Altering the neck screw holes:
This was relatively simple to do, all I needed to do was enlarge the the neck screw hole to 14mm diameter to a dept of 5mm to accommodate the new neck ferrules, all I needed to use was a 14mm spade drill bit, nice and easy, it even centers itself over the hole you want to enlarge.
All four neck screw holes enlarged:
Heres all four neck holes enlarged to a diameter of 14mm to a depth of 5mm, just need to test fit the neck ferrules.
Test fitting all neck ferrules:
All four neck ferrules where centered and fit perfectly.
The last thing that needed done to the body before I start to apply the finish to it was to sand off the sealer, this meant starting sanding the body down, first with 40 grit sandpaper, then 80 grit, 120 grit, 240 grit, 400 grit, then to wet sand the body with 400 grit sandpaper and finally 600 grit sandpaper, I just did this by hand, for all the sanding that was needed it wasn't worth the effort of setting up the fancy attachment for the Henry vacuum or getting out a power sander, so I just used a cork sanding block to sand off the sealer and worked my way up through the various grits until I had wet sanded the body with 600 grit sandpaper.
Body after sanding with 40 grit sandpaper:
Here is the body after being sanded down with 40 grit sandpaper, then given the once over with Henry the cacuum.
Body after sanding with 80 grit sandpaper:
After 80 grit sandpaper.
Body after sanding with 120 grit sandpaper:
After 120 grit sandpaper.
Body after sanding with 240 grit sandpaper:
Body after 240 grit sandpaper.
Body after first sanding with 400 grit sand paper:
Here is the guitar body after sanding it with 400 grit sandpaper, this is the last of the dry sanding, the sanding from here on will be 'wet'.
My wet sanding technique:
For wet sanding wood, I don't like to use water, water can cause damage to unfinished wood, takes a long time to dry, you have to worry about it getting trapped in screw holes and other tight places and crevices, so I use acetone instead, it evaporates very fast so you don't need to worry about it getting into screw holes, tight spots or crevices, not to mention it's more fun to huff than glue while in an enclosed space.
After wet sanding with 400 grit sandpaper:
The body after wet sanding with acetone and 400 grit sandpaper.
After wet sanding with 600 grit sandpaper:
The body after the final wet sanding with 600 grit sandpaper, this is the last of the sanding before I start applying tattoo ink to the body and begin the slow and what I consider the most boring part of this process applying several coats nitrocellulose lacquer, before sanding with 1000 grit sandpaper, 1200 grit and finally 1500 grit.
I also decided to cut my own scratch plate after seeing how much getting a plate cut for me would cost, so I ordered the material for that today.
Tools Used;
14mm spade drill bit
Drill
Sandpaper 40 grit, 80 grit, 120 grit, 240 grit, 320 grit, 400 grit and 600 grit
Stanley knife
Acetone
Paint Brush
Digital calipers
Henry the vacuum - for clean up
Total Cost So Far;
£0.00
Number Of Fingers Lost; 0
DaLefty
Switch One:
This is a 12mm diameter on/off toggle switch that has a water proof condom.
Switch Two:
This is an 8mm diameter on/off/on toggle switch.
Switch three:
This is a 12mm diameter on/off/on toggle switch with an on/off/on metal shield position label, plus it also has a black water proof condom like switch one.
Right now I'm leaning towards using either switch two or three - using the cool black waterproof condom with it like on switch one, if switch three turns out to be too big, I'm going to try and see if I can at least use the metal shield position label with switch two, even if it means finding a wide washer to hold it into place.
So tomorrow I will hopefully begin the process of applying primer, the tattoo ink and if I'm lucky the graphite conductive shielding paint. The primer, graphite conductive shielding paint and conductive copper shielding tape will be used in the cavities that I have created and modified, in other words the parts of the body that will be hidden from view, the tattoo ink will be used on all the parts of the body that are visible.
DaLefty
DaLefty
This is a great thread buddy. The most intense we've had. It's great to see all the minute deals
Can't wait to see the finished article with all the toys added.
Band Stuff: https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep