Saturday, April 10, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Diablo sealer
First coats of sanding sealer. I am using Target Coats Sanding Sealer and a new HVLP gun. I like the ease of the water-based clear but am not a fan of the way it sprays. I grew up spraying and thought I was pretty good but the new gun and water based paint are rough to get smooth. I hope to learn this new stuff...
I put the second coat of sanding sealer on to heavy and now it looks a little milky in spots. Good news is that it will be sanded off in the process of leveling this thing. We will see how it goes from here.
Had to build a roller stand to paint on. I like the guitar to lay flat while shooting clear.
I put the second coat of sanding sealer on to heavy and now it looks a little milky in spots. Good news is that it will be sanded off in the process of leveling this thing. We will see how it goes from here.
Had to build a roller stand to paint on. I like the guitar to lay flat while shooting clear.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
V Neck
Putting the headstock together. This is going to be a headstock scarf with a front and back plate.
Not rocket science to getting clean joints but I tell you wenge glues up nice and clean. I use the tape to stop the creap when I glue the pieces together. I always leave the headstock too thick so this time I am making it thin (really the exact thickness it needs to be) After I glue the wings on it will get a headstock plate.
So it looks overly long but I will trim the headstock and use the excess for the wings of the headstock.
Trimmed up the body. Still have a few ideas on the top.
Not rocket science to getting clean joints but I tell you wenge glues up nice and clean. I use the tape to stop the creap when I glue the pieces together. I always leave the headstock too thick so this time I am making it thin (really the exact thickness it needs to be) After I glue the wings on it will get a headstock plate.
So it looks overly long but I will trim the headstock and use the excess for the wings of the headstock.
Trimmed up the body. Still have a few ideas on the top.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Secret plans...
Wenge Classic V
Wenge and Flamed Maple Gibson
Neck through 9 piece Wenge/Maple neck. Current plan for the body is 1/4" Wenge top and 1/4" Wenge Back, Wenge center w/Maple Accent lines.
Neck : Wenge/Flame Maple
Fretboard : Wenge/Flame Maple Binding.
Scale : 25
Frets : 24
Trussrod : Warmoth
Body : Wenge/Maple/Wenge
Tuners : Hipshot
Pickups : Undecided..
Bridge : Tone Pros TOM/Stop Tailpiece.
Electronics : 2 Volume Push/Pull switch and a Kill switch (for now)
Not sure where this is going as it may be my last hand built guitar for a while. I bought some 2nd grade flamed acoustic back and sides and decided to use them as accent strips. The decision to use Wenge is an interesting one as I am not sure how much I like it. I like the looks, weight, and resonance. I don't like the dust as it is toxic and the splinters go septic in a matter of hours. I ended up with a 9 piece neck blank. More pictures than are needed for the prepped neck blank.
The body blank is a little more complicated. Originally this was supposed to be a neck through but I am not fond of working on neck through guitars. Also I have yet to build a neck through that I like. So the body blank remains undecided. But at least I will get started on the wings. The idea here was to bookmatch both sides of the guitar so instead of the usual random grain pattern I get something visually appealing. While it is more work it gives me a chance to throw in maple accent lines and pay homage to the Gibson V2 while retaining the classic shape. Sides bookmatched and veneer in place.
I have since purchased more clamps so every clamp in the shop is not needed to do the job... however it was bad weather so all this got a trip inside when it was done.
And what remains... The top of the blank pose an issue as I originally intended to have the neck run right through to the tail. However looking at what I have to cut off I may engineer another solution that allows me to keep a significantly large portion of the top. I probably should have planned this better but I felt like I needed to see the wood to get an idea of were I am going.
Wenge and Flamed Maple Gibson
Neck through 9 piece Wenge/Maple neck. Current plan for the body is 1/4" Wenge top and 1/4" Wenge Back, Wenge center w/Maple Accent lines.
Neck : Wenge/Flame Maple
Fretboard : Wenge/Flame Maple Binding.
Scale : 25
Frets : 24
Trussrod : Warmoth
Body : Wenge/Maple/Wenge
Tuners : Hipshot
Pickups : Undecided..
Bridge : Tone Pros TOM/Stop Tailpiece.
Electronics : 2 Volume Push/Pull switch and a Kill switch (for now)
Not sure where this is going as it may be my last hand built guitar for a while. I bought some 2nd grade flamed acoustic back and sides and decided to use them as accent strips. The decision to use Wenge is an interesting one as I am not sure how much I like it. I like the looks, weight, and resonance. I don't like the dust as it is toxic and the splinters go septic in a matter of hours. I ended up with a 9 piece neck blank. More pictures than are needed for the prepped neck blank.
The body blank is a little more complicated. Originally this was supposed to be a neck through but I am not fond of working on neck through guitars. Also I have yet to build a neck through that I like. So the body blank remains undecided. But at least I will get started on the wings. The idea here was to bookmatch both sides of the guitar so instead of the usual random grain pattern I get something visually appealing. While it is more work it gives me a chance to throw in maple accent lines and pay homage to the Gibson V2 while retaining the classic shape. Sides bookmatched and veneer in place.
I have since purchased more clamps so every clamp in the shop is not needed to do the job... however it was bad weather so all this got a trip inside when it was done.
And what remains... The top of the blank pose an issue as I originally intended to have the neck run right through to the tail. However looking at what I have to cut off I may engineer another solution that allows me to keep a significantly large portion of the top. I probably should have planned this better but I felt like I needed to see the wood to get an idea of were I am going.
Wenge Multiscales
Well they start out pretty ugly... then they get a little better. Using Wenge is no fun as it splinters and cracks really easily when the pieces are so small. I much prefer a nice rosewood variant instead. Results are little taller bobbin than a stock one because the core has to be larger on a wood bobbin than a plastic one. I changed over to Titebond to assemble the bobbins as I worry about the longevity of CA.
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