7_B

B 7 String

Zebra and wenge neck attached to a super thin Sapele/Zebra topped body with hipshot parts and custom pickups.
Aiming for a dark sounding 7 string light enough to enjoy.

Neck : Zebra/Wenge
Fretboard : Wenge
Scale : 25.5
Frets : 24
Trussrod : ALLPARTS

Body : Sapele/Zebra (33mm)
Tuners : Hipshot
Pickups : Diablo 7 Strings
Bridge : Hipshot
Electronics : 1 Vol/Push-Pull

Neck Blank finished up. The experiment here is to not waste any wood. I am trying a super thin 1" neck blank for construction. Normally I use 1.5 in and cut the headstock scarf from the scrap on the back leaving almost no waste. This time I made the blank 3' long and planned to get the scarf from the same piece. However since this is a seven string I changed my mind of the headstock design and used a solid piece of zebra for the headstock.


Scarfing the headstock was different on this one as I only used one accent line and the headstock is a solid piece. It tried to move on my several times but I was able to get it to tak up and then clamped.


Out of the clamps, through the bandsaw, and onto the planar. I really dislike neck scarfs because I don't have a large belt sander it always takes more work to clean them up.


Trussrod route needed a spacer on the edge so I could use the router table. Since the headstock is one piece...


On to the bandsaw for a rough profile. I will start using the rigid spindle sander soon to clean this up.


Sapele body blank glued up. Since this is an experiment I was not wasting my limba or african mahogany on it. I am trying to get a certain sound and hope to reproduce my personal zebra/mahogany strat that I built 20 years ago. Since the SG came out very close in sound and it was Sapele I think that this is a decent substitute for african mahogany. Also this body is going to be rail thin... 33mm at best. I am trying to keep the weight low without chambering it.

V work

Starting on the trussrod groove. Got it cut. Then added headstock wings. I really like how invisible the glue lines are on wenge.



Next up is profiling the neck. Since this is a neck through I have to take extra steps to make sure I get it right... Always have the body template around.



So this is a test mock up. I think I am not going this route. Instead the wings will be flipped and this will be the back. I am going to leverage wenge's ability to hide glue lines and have the neck on top.


I think this will be a better fit


I bought the Rigid Spindle/Belt Sander. It is nice enough and I think it will do what I need it to. I looks like it is going to make nice volutes and speed shaping the neck. I wanted something to help flatten the backs of headstocks when they are rough. I think it will work for that as well.

Tres Teles

Tres Telecasters

Neck : Maple
Fretboard : Maple
Scale : 25.5
Frets : 22
Trussrod : Double Expanding Truss Rod

Body : Ash
Tuners : Tone-Pros
Pickups : Custom Hand Wound Vintage Telecasters
Bridge : Gotoh Telecaster
Electronics : Vol/Tone/3-way

Getting started on 3 identical telecasters. These are just laying the groundwork for future telecasters. I am building up all the templates I need for telecasters. These have a more modern neck than a real telecaster. Instead of one piece I an building a 2 piece with the adjustment at the heal. I will work on my one piece necks soon. The bodies are from a deal with a friend and will end up butterscotch.

I started with a centerline and my new telecaster headstock template. I then routed the trussrod channel. On the first one I cut all the way through the end. I didn't like the look so on the next 2 I stopped short. And drilled a 3/16" hole in from the end.




Of course after finishing the first neck profile and making it perfect... I decided to use it as a template. This went bad thanks to my favorite router bit. The triblade template bit was humming along making the greatest clean cuts. When WAM... tear out right on the headstock. Got the template and the blank. I hate routers.




I am going to think about how to proceed. I might just start over since maple is relatively cheap and Any attempt to patch this will look bad. I have my templates made now so I will not lose much time starting over. We will see... I may use these for another project.

Watching paint dry

Pictures of clear drying are boring. So lets talk about target coatings. The stuff takes some getting used to. I had to sand all the finish off the neck on this one because it turned milky were it was building up. It was my fault... I was not doing a good job of spraying and passed over the neck to many times on my way around. I have changed my spraying technique and I should be ok from here on out. I am finally getting the hang of the HVLP gun with a water based paint. I am still not getting good atomization need to work on it more.



I also spent some time fixing up my compressor with a dryer and a filter to help keep moisture from messing up the water based paint.

Another lesson. Do not touch the stuff with water for 150 Hours or more. I made the mistake of wet sanding the guitar after a few days of hanging and it turned to a mess.

Another note. The can says to clean the surface with denatured alcohol. Do not use Denatured Alcohol on this finish as it will melt. They meant use denatured alcohol BEFORE putting any coats of clear on it.

Dry sanding has been a pain but it is the only safe way to scuff and level between days of spraying.

Here is the process so far.
1 coat of sanding sealer and let sit for hour.
1 more coat of sanding sealer and leave for a few days.
Sand out all the nibs with 400 then 600
4 coats and hour apart a day then let sit.
The next day scuff and leveled any runs with 600.
repeat.

Evil I tell you...

Sanding all the finish off... The sanding sealer went milky and needs to come off. Of course it is under 3 coats of lacquer. I guess this thing really is evil.



This thing really doesn't want to be finished. Maybe I need to sacrifice a spray gun or something...

More sealer

First coats of sanding sealer go on...

Sealer

More sanding sealer...

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.