emoney's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

[emoney]

@Olav....that's hilarious!

...but don't make me break out the doohickey!

[emoney]

Originally Posted by RogerC

Good looking rod, E!... I swear i've never said that to another guy before

Nor have I had a guy say that to me.......at least that I can remember.
I do, however, feel honored to be your "1st"

[Olav]

Originally Posted by emoney

@Olav....that's hilarious!

...but don't make me break out the doohickey!

Seriously, this isn't the first time a guy has threatened to whip out his doohickey
to shut me up. The first time it has worked though...

[emoney]

I shoulda known I wouldn't get much accomplished on a Monday night. Sheesh.
(for all you scoring at home, that's another technical term meaning "I'm frustrated").
And, like Grandma SHOULD have said, "Sometimes women talk too much". (wait...did I
really just type that out loud? No honey....I didn't mean YOU....duh). You see, the
wife likes to drone on endlessly, AHEM, I MEAN, talk lovingly about her day (never asks
about mine though???) So it was practically 8:30p before I got into the shop and away,
I mean, "excused myself", from her. But, I did do something, so let's get on with it.

Now, you didn't expect me to leave the inside of the top in that shape did you? I mean,
come on, I know I'm lazy, but "sheesh" (there it is again);

To the untrained eye, it probably doesn't look a lot different, but I'm sure all you true
artists and craftsmen/women can see the biggest of the ridges and bumps are gone;

And now, I'm tired of messing with that side, so as far as I'm concerned, that part is
getting checked off the list and moved into the "complete" column.

So, one side down, and technically, 3 to go. I'm sure a few updates ago, some of you
were wondering why I left the chambering routes so thin. Hmmmm, let's see, was it
because a) he had planned to come back and finish it at a later date, or b) does he
have something else up his sleeve?

Well, both answers are correct. As you can see, I've started carving the back or outside
of the body, so in the interest of not sanding through the back, I've left some routing
to do still on the inside. As for the outside, bear with me because it was REALLY difficult
to capture in the very dark garage of mine with very, very poor lighting, but maybe you
can see where I'm going with this;


The very outside edge will be left the same height as the absolute center section, because
I'm aiming for a "bowl-type" carve on the back. Once I get this all sanded, then I'll be
able to flip it over and finish gutting it like a dead fish.

See...that's all there is. Pretty disappointing to you, I'm sure, and believe me, I'm disappointed
in myself. Well, technically it was my wife's fault, but let's not go naming names and pointing
fingers, ok? (at least, that's in the best interest of my HEALTH).
Like Grandma WOULD have said, had she been involved in this build challenge
along with, "Women, while things of beauty and awe, need to keep their
conversations to theirselves while my grandson gets on with his build".
You know how those Grandmas can be.

[tvvoodoo]

Oooooh.... Ahhhh - very clever. Getting interestinger and interestinger. Cheering you on!

[RogerC]

That's a cool carve. different for sure. And your wife doesn't ever read through this forum does she?!

[adirondak5]

Yes , this is getting very interesting , and pretty cool
:)

[emoney]

Originally Posted by tvvoodoo

Oooooh.... Ahhhh - very clever. Getting interestinger and interestinger. Cheering you on!

Thank you sir, I need cheering on!

Originally Posted by RogerC

That's a cool carve. different for sure. And your wife doesn't ever read through this forum does she?!

It sure don't look like much now, but it will eventually.....knock on wood

Originally Posted by adirondak5

Yes , this is getting very interesting , and pretty cool
:)

I'm constantly questioning my sanity as to why I get myself into this stuff,, but
thanks very much.

[junk mutt]

Great thread emoney, that carves looking great.
Your Grandma reminds me of my old Gran, one of her favourites was - "If wishes were fishes we'd never go hungry"

[czook]

Thanks for the help and advice on my neck. I have made a lot of progress because of you and many others here.

The contoured back and front of the top is really interesting to watch progress. How are you keeping the router steady when you clean out the elevations? It looks like you are freehanding it on one side without support? Or are you using the next step and routing at a slight angle?

The planning and degree of difficulty are amazing.

[nialldabass]

He!He! You can take the boy out from MLP but you can't take the MLP out from the boy.
Looks great, I'm sure the angled headstock will work just fine, I'm sure there is a company doing just that, sorry can't remember who, I'll be keeping my beady eye on this thread, and so many others

[emoney]

Originally Posted by junk mutt

Great thread emoney, that carves looking great.
Your Grandma reminds me of my old Gran, one of her favourites was - "If wishes were fishes we'd never go hungry"

I'm kinda lookin' forward to becoming a "Grandpa" one of these days. Oh boy,
I feel sooooo sorry for their parents. Payback time!!!

Originally Posted by czook

Thanks for the help and advice on my neck. I have made a lot of progress because of you and many others here.

The contoured back and front of the top is really interesting to watch progress. How are you keeping the router steady when you clean out the elevations? It looks like you are freehanding it on one side without support? Or are you using the next step and routing at a slight angle?

The planning and degree of difficulty are amazing.

Thanks, czook. It's all freehand. I'm using a tiny little router, and I support
my "cutting arm" with my other arm so that the base isn't taking all the weight.
I'm letting the body shape itself, basically, because even though I drew
contour lines, I've decided at each step I don't really like them, so I'm just
trying to "go with the flow". Cross your fingers.

Originally Posted by nialldabass

He!He! You can take the boy out from MLP but you can't take the MLP out from the boy.
Looks great, I'm sure the angled headstock will work just fine, I'm sure there is a company doing just that, sorry can't remember who, I'll be keeping my beady eye on this thread, and so many others

Haha! You know what they say, "Go with what you know", lol. Although, with
all this work I've gotten myself into, I'm starting to think I would've been
much smarter to just go the traditional Tele route. Heck, I might even be
almost ready for finish by now, lol.

There are so many awesome threads in this challenge, that it really is difficult
to keep up. I've found new, interesting threads everytime I've logged on and
that's been quite frequently (world's most boring job). Thanks for looking
and you're welcome back anytime

[emoney]

OK, I need to preface this update with this bit of information. What you're about to see
actually took me 3 hours to accomplish. No...really! My wife had to go out of town for
the day, and she still isn't home, so after a quick stop off at Harbor Freight (had to get
a new belt sander because they were on sale....I mean I just HAD too) it was "change
clothes and straight to the shop". Didn't even have dinner until just now (which, was
rather crappy since the love of my life normally feeds me daily. Where is that woman?)

Anyway, on to what little bit of update there is......

Tonight, it was more carving on the top;

As you can see, I'm going down in gradient steps, slowly but surely. WIthout having ever
carved a Tele, I have nothing to go by, so I want to keep check to make sure I don't
have a sand through. It wouldn't bother me one bit to end up with 1/4" of material all
the way around and across the top, but that's a tad bit spooky when you're freehand
carving.

Now that I've come up with a definite plan for the body, I was able to put it back into the
"weight loss" stage;


I still think I may apply a "round" type bit to the inside to smooth it out nice and pretty
like as the plan as of this moment is to cut "E-holes"
They'll look a lot like this;

That's my first ES build that I've actually shelved for this Challenge, so now you know that
I'm more committed to finishing the Tele than I am some old, out-dated Gibby model...(brownie points please).

The way I see it, since this "guitar building" is still brand new to me, I started about this
time last year but had a 4 month "sabbatical" due to some itsy, bitsy little medical issues
but I digress, anyway....the way I see it, it's better to go ahead and try your hand at
as much of it as possible, i.e. carving the inside and out, setting necks, etc. Because,
at this juncture, I've still got the "Rookie Mistake" excuse card I can play. Right?

Have a great night and thanks oodles for stopping by my little slice of "Guitar Building Nirvana".
I know you have a lot of threads to choose from, and I appreciate you flying "Emoney".

[Bowensby23]

E, will this guitar be receiving your patented "E-holes"?

nevermind, i just saw your post about them. next time I'll read before I post.

[emoney]

Wow....how rude of me. I just about left off without parting words of wisdom from the
Grandma file. While this particular one isn't as "cutesy" as say the one about "Cows pooping
butter", it turned out to be very prophetic relationship advice. The topic at hand was
should I, at that time, get back with the "ex". Grandma's response, and this was the
only thing she said;
"Emoney (well, technically she said, 'Eric'), if you opened that refrigerator to get yourself
a glass of milk (we were in the kitchen at the time), and took the lid off the bottle,
smelled it, and found out it was curdled, would you put it back in expecting it to get
better for the next glass?".

I knew at that moment the "right thing" to do and it has turned out perfectly.

[Greg M]

Originally Posted by emoney

And lastly, we....well, truthfully, it was me since I did all the work and you just watched,

Hey, don't be so condescending. I didn't just watch, I also ate popcorn!

[emoney]

Originally Posted by Bowensby23

E, will this guitar be receiving your patented "E-holes"?

nevermind, i just saw your post about them. next time I'll read before I post.

Buwahaha! I do the same thing almost daily. I got a good laugh from this
so thanks. How's things?

[Bowensby23]

going pretty good, I'm getting caught up with everyone else on my build, I even made my own special "F hole" for my build. Check it out when you get a chance. I'll be rooting for you buddy, us MLP'ers have to stick together.

[nosmo]

Hey - That's my "Rookie Mistake" excuse card. Give it back!

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by emoney

"Emoney (well, technically she said, 'Eric'), if you opened that refrigerator to get yourself
a glass of milk (we were in the kitchen at the time), and took the lid off the bottle,
smelled it, and found out it was curdled, would you put it back in expecting it to get
better for the next glass?".

Wise woman