Andyjr1515

Hi I realise how out of date I am with this thread! Wow - what a lot of progress in such a short time!!!! There are some very sound approaches on show here. Your neck line-up approach looks positively space-engineering class . And clearly it works - getting a perfect and lined up neck fit is no easy task. Well done. Great job.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1504213235' post='3363502'] So a lot of sanding through the grades from 400 up to 2000 grit Good things - it looks pretty good Bad things - the laquer was a far bit thinner than I thought so I've rubbed through in quite a few places - bummer it's also worn the stain off - I think the solution is a Sharpie - good thing the edge is black eh? Almost like I knew this would happen! I need to polish and buff way more but then you will all get photos [/quote] Worth trying a spot of the original stain to take the whiteness out of the rub through (as it is a rub through, it should be absorbent to a certain extent), let it fully dry and then use a permanent sharpie (I use the staedtler permanent pens we used to use for overhead transparancies...nostalgia or what!) just to darken the edges and, if necessary, go over the top. This should lessen the possibility of a 'different shade of black' from the sharpie showing through.

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1504214833' post='3363515'] Wow, now that is some fine wood. How soft is the camphor laurel? Are you going to void fill? [Edit - having read your other thread I'm guessing ebony dust?] [/quote] The only proper working on it so far I've done is true up the join line and bandsaw the outline, but it seems similar to figured walnut to me. Yes - the voids will be filled with z-poxy mixed with ebony dust (I keep a jar from all of my fretboard radius sands ). The wood so far has turned out to be significantly more stable than it looks.

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1504215712' post='3363518'] Your zen calmness is admirable. I would have thrown the neck through the nearest window! I once cut out a body only to realise I had the template on upside down so the nice wood was at the back and the knots and worm holes were at the front. Would have been fine for a lefty, but, well I'm not......Numpty [/quote] I've got so close to doing that in the past... Thankfully, the approach of checking 38 times before cutting usually gets me by . In this case, I should have checked 39 times!

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1504202602' post='3363413'] Somebody upstairs is sending you a message..... STICK TO BUILDING BASS GUITARS!! [/quote]

OK - two steps forward and one step back on this one. Having leveled and squared up the neck beam, then thicknessed it down to the 55mm width to match the fretboard width where the body meets the neck, I was able to cut the mahogany back wings. They are oversize and will be routed later, using the camphor top as the template (yes, I know - that needs the words of caution, "Children, don't try this at home!") My method of doing thru-necks varies, but is also a little unconventional. I will be routing a notch in the neck that the mahogany wings will be glued flat with and the top will sit in, flush with the top of the neck. However, this needs to be routed at an angle to give me the required neck angle. I did the calcs on paper and then simulated the real thing: There's belt and braces for you! Trouble is, then I recklessly decided where to actually rout it The observant of you will notice something a little amiss: The body sections are in the right place in relationship to the nut. Hmmmm....but the part of the top that meets the neck notch is, hmmmm, the top cutaway. And maybe it should have been the BOTTOM cutaway? There's no option but to order more wood and redo the neck. It has to be said, I don't often make really big boo-boos like this so I reckon I'm owed a few I'll keep this neck - you never know, someone might ask me to build a 3/4 scale at some stage. In the meantime, new wood has been ordered, received and glued, ready to start all over again

Looks good. Confirms what I think about a lot of the kits on the market...they can produce good instruments....

On account of my choice of fretboard wood, I've had a change of mind over the timber for the top of this one. Instead of going for the Amboyna, I'm going for the same species of wood as the Alebic-esque electric ongoing on the other thread, that is, Camphor Laurel. These are the bookmatched pieces, glued but not yet cut - you tell this is off a tree!: So the reason for the change? It's because of the fretboard I'm going for. As this is to be a bit of a showcase build (assuming I get it right! ) I've gone the whole hog and bought a ridiculously expensive piece of Snakewood from the States. UK Customs are delighted with me.... Trouble is, Snakewood is pretty close in colour to Amboyna - hence the change to get a better contrast. Here it is with the camphor dry: And here is closer to how it will look once it's had the finish applied: Should look pretty nice when it's done

Manchester Guitar Tech here https://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/product-category/colour/page/3/ Excellent products and Steve who owns it is an excellent fella

You never disappoint, Ian This is going to look fantastic

Love the patina

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1503436942' post='3358324'] When I've done other refinished I've used paint that takes ages to dry - it's chestnut's melamine lacquer this time and I'm a bit out of kilter by how quickly it dries - I could be going way faster! I've now got a completely flat surface of lacquer! with a bare minimum of tiny shiny spots - there are about 4 spots where i went through the finish to the wood so doing a quick restain and then will give it a couple more layers before the final sand back and polish....! The good thing is that the burst to black means that going though the finish at the edges looks like it was almost planned! [/quote] Can't wait to see the finished finish

Somewhere along the line, I seem to have missed the pickup covers. They are inspired! And the reasoning for doing them is just as inspired Nice fingerboard, too.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1503040274' post='3355187'] actually learning from you about not putting any 'finishing' pictures up when in progress. Sanding sealer on, tried to work out the grain filler but it didn't seem to work so don't think that was too successful. also managed to run through a couple of places - on the back thankfully. Couple of layers of laquer on now - waiting a bit then will flat down and do more layers... [/quote] That's my boy, that's my boy Hoisted by my own petard, then, I wait patiently with only a soft drumming of fingers on the table....

The engraving looks pretty neat to me...is that all freehand?

[quote name='Joebethell' timestamp='1503260966' post='3356824'] Setback 2 as you thought it looks like the bridge mounting screws will be at the point where the neck meets the body the centre two screws would be in solid neck wood but the outer two would be in the gaps you can see in the pictures. [/quote] This one should be a reasonably easy fix. If it was me, I would drill a decently sized hole (10mm dia minimum) to the screw depth with a forstner bit and glue in a hardwood dowel. There will be enough surface contact with the dowel for the gaps not to be critical. Most of the force on the bridge screws is sideways so it should be perfectly secure enough.

[quote name='winterfire666' timestamp='1503063732' post='3355453'] very nice job, love the green, thanks for all the info and pics, i think im going to bite the bullet this weekend and give it a go :^) [/quote] If you are doing the artwork over the present finish, then actually you wouldn't need to strip the present finish off - just matt it off with fine wet and dry to provide a key, paint the artwork, then spray clear over the top?

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1502312141' post='3350660'] fairly - I think the most exciting bit just happened though... So building up layers of stain starting blue grey and getting darker and adding more of the black.... so I just painted the edge black and then hopefully blended it in - the middle though lifted some of the deep black showing a more bluey black colour - if it dries as good as it looked wet I think I've managed a pretty cool burst effect! [/quote] Any pics yet?

One of the pleasing things of doing my own builds is that i am getting better at envisioning the end result of other builders projects. These two are going to be jaw-droppingly good

Excellent buy, ped I'll be watching this with GREAT interest

Hi again, winterfire666 The basschat thread has gone (it was 2014!) but I still have the photos. This was Bryan's (allighatt0r) Thunderjet: The finishing turned out to be:[list] [*]Top colour coat - easily removeable, over [*]Poly-coat - tough as old boots, over [*]Black primer [/list] I used heat gun and scraper: Here you see the poly under the top coat. It really is VERY tough stuff: However, once you break through the poly (for this, for me, heatgun is the only way. Sanding is a quick route to insanity), the black primer is easily sanded off: On Bryan's, there was a thin ply veneer over the body-wood laminations...a number of makers do this, including some Squier models: Where there are cutaways (beer-gut carve at the back, arm relief carve on the top pictured here) you are down to the base timber but you can see in the above shot the ply on the flat surfaces. Same on the back. In my case, I was veneering the flat surfaces on the top and the back, but this was how it ended up: The veneer is over the top of the ply - the cutaway is the just the underlying wood, stained and varnished Hope this helps!

I refinished allighatt0r's Westone a few years ago. I'll have a peep at the photos when I'm next on the desktop - I might be able to find the thread too...

Very clever stuff. It is rare that folks explain the relicing process as comprehensively as this. It's fascinating!

Lovely job I bet it sounds fabulous...

And with the glue dry, the top is cut out. This is it slightly dampened to show how the figuring will come out: There are some rich colours in there, probably better seen in this sunshine shot: This is going to tone and contrast with the mahogany back beautifully... Talking of sunshine, the camphor laurel is a very 'hole-y' wood. It's very stable but many of those burrs are actually gaps. Here's the sunshine shining through: These will be filled with epoxy mixed with ebony dust - I keep a jar of ebony sandings just for this kind of job. When it's done, it will look like it was always there and, indeed, further enhance the look of the burls... Next job is to finish-thickness the neck beam and cut out the two necks from it