Davecam48's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

Once more into the breach dear friends Once more!

Good luck all!

Welcome back my friend, and good luck! :grin:

Dave

Good luck all! Let's all have some fun.






You will note the absence of big lumps of wood in my pix, being a cheapskate and believing I can make a decent guitar out of little bits cheaply as well as not too badly. You will also note a black plate in the photo. Not having laser beams and crocodile skins, I have to use that as my secret weapon.

Gidday Dave. Take it easy on the old bloke hey!

A fork is useless without a plate...

Well oil bee forked!!!! It's Professor Oigun!

Nice to see you on the train too , Dave!! Good luck!

Aussie,aussie, aussie, Oi Oi Oi.....

good building Davecam.... give 'em hell in a tele shape brother... \m/...

Aussie,aussie, aussie, Oi Oi Oi.....



http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/thumb/7/73/JeanLucPicardFacepalm.jpg/618px-JeanLucPicardFacepalm.jpg

Sorry. My patriotic duty as a Kiwi. :wink:

what's that? sleeping at the wheel, Kwerk?... zzzzzzzz...

gotta give our man support... ;)

Aussie,aussie, aussie, Oi Oi Oi.....

good building Davecam.... give 'em hell in a tele shape brother... \m/...

Are you in Trev?

not this time.. I've already build a scratch tele body/sans neck... so I can't be in the beginners...
and having never built a neck before... I didn't think this was the time to fully build one..and accumulate another tele right now....

I've got bare bodies and some necks here to build up before I NEED to build another one from scratch.... sigh......

I'm impressed by the number of starts this year.... going orff!!....

..

not this time.. I've already build a scratch tele body/sans neck... so I can't be in the beginners...
and having never built a neck before... I didn't think this was the time to fully build one..and accumulate another tele right now....

I've got bare bodies and some necks here to build up before I NEED to build another one from scratch.... sigh......

I'm impressed by the number of starts this year.... going orff!!....

C'mon mate necks are not hard at all I'm a boofhead when it comes to precision woodwork and I can make a reasonable neck in a day. My drawback is the damn finishing. I always manage to stuff that up.

+1
I almost didn't enter last year because the thought of making a neck with all measurements correct and getting the frets placed without a gazillion dollar special gadget and you know what I'm talking about.
Turns out I had to do three neck blanks because birch tears as easily as silk in the router but that's the worst problem I had with a compound radius, double profiled, custom headed neck with a slanted wenge 23-fret fretboard with birch racing stripes.

A few words of advice:
-Do not make the headstock too thin, the mechanisms will rattle...
-GET A PROPER FRETSAW, gallons of CA is NOT the best way to do set your frets!
-Use a padded surface when banging your head in frustration.
-You don't need a fretting jig, print the scale and glue it on your fretboard and saw after the lines, no one will ever hear the difference. A square block of wood is a very helful tool here.
-Measure once cut twice, curse, buy more wood, measure trice, cut once, discover that you've written down the wrong measurement, double course, buy more wood and get laughed at in the process... OR make a try run in deal or similar before you put the saw into your flaming birdass fiddleback toasted sugar maple with quilts.

These lessons came dearly so heed my advice young feller!
Besides that, there's nothing to it

I was looking at your picture and like, WTF!? is that a frying pan o_O
Then I read the post and was bitterly dissapointed.
Next year I expect a Dobrocaster with a teflon coated resonator!:mrgreen:

Good luck Dave!

Alright Dave, nice to see you in. Hmm plates, spoons. Surely a beer stein will be in someone's build this year.

Good luck, Dave! This should be good...:grin:

Starting small! Last night down in the sawdust factory, using a bought PU cover I quickly made a little template to use on the pin router.
Cut up my black melamine plate (99C at Sollys) got out the flat bit on the bottom and cut out a PU cover. The first one was quite too narrow for holding screws so I screwed 4 little posts (old knitting needle) to it and gave it 4 mounting lugs. Ugly but funky enough to work. So now I have to make another one, two covers for $1.00, is that ok? Told you I was cheap!
Love that pin router!!!!!

Now I'm going fishing!

Annnd.. he's away!

Looking good (and thrifty), Dave.

:grin:

Yeay, glad you are in. I look forward to it.

In for a penny in for a pound. Welcome.

Well, he's only in for c99 so far so hold your horses

Well, he's only in for c99 so far so hold your horses

I told you I was cheap. Went fishing this morning, got sunburnt, only caught 3 fish, busted up a lot of tackle on the snags, and thought I'd rather be making sawdust (after I'd already caught the fish) So I went home and got about 2 hrs in after I cleaned the boat.


Anyway cut out the 2nd PU cover as that was only a matter of taping the dead plate onto the template and rubbing it on to a spinning router blade.

Easy! Next I cut off two pieces of Tasmanian oak just longer than a Tele body and resawed them into 3 bits each, now I have 6 pieces 5mm thick.
I thicknessed 3 on the ROSS and edged them on the router table (bearing guided) and dug out my primative home-made gluing clamp which works a treat. So day one ends with wood in the clamp, fish in the oven, and making plans for tomorrow.

I haven't really planned anything too radical for this unit, it's really a Tele with a pointy bottom horn and maybe a decorative feature here and there which I have been practising for a couple of days. If I get it right I might include it in this build ........if not, more R&D

Well this morning I removed the 3 piece plate ( not sure yet if top or bottom) and edged and glued the other 3 pieces in the funky clamp thingy.

I then changed the blade in my bandsaw and did a full set up on it and now I can dial up a 2mm cut and get it. Thats a good thing because then I cut an 800mm piece of Tasmanian Oak 110 x 19mm and sliced it into 3 lengths of 35mm wide. I then cut one of those lengths into 4 pieces, 2 X 2.5mm and 2 x 5.5mm and thicknessed them on the ROSS using my magnet fence. the 2.5mm pieces are now 2mm and the 5.5 are now 5.

Put the 2mm bits aside and got out the super secret Kerfing Guide Slider and set her up to give cuts @4mm spacing and to within 1mm of the back edge and proceded to make "wobbly wood."

Two pieces of wobbly wood and 20 mins later, come inside put some fish in an oven bag and soak in funny sauce stuff and lime slices and put this down on the challenge site!

See Ya tomorrow perhaps

I ran out of photo download space on the previous post so here's a follow up on the kerfing set-up I made in pictures. This is a very good device if you want to make your own kerfing occasionally, and is great fun, and the whole device is powered by a single rubber band!

It's pretty well self explanitory and it does a good job. Both pieces I kerfed will form the interior "wall of my build's sides making the total thickness around 7mm, give or take .5 to 1mm. These are 800mm long and both bits were done in 20mins, so doesn't take too long at all. The new bandsaw blade helped as well.

Pure genious!

fantastic work.

Today I attacked the top plate, sanding and levelling and sanding and sanding etc.etc.

Poor old Tasmanian Oak is a bit plain looking like my old girl-friend "Jane" who's real name was Amanda, but we all called her Jane for obvious reasons:lol:

So I mixed up some shellac and smothered the board in the bright red shellac and let her dry for 5 minutes or so (32C here today) and then sanded it back leaving the red grain only, not spectacular but a bit more interesting than before or befive.

Here's a close-up of red highlighted Tassie oak grain after sanding back.

I then aligned the template to the top of the board using the F-hole registration holes and banged those indexing pins right through to the other side. flipped the whole thing over and taped down the template on the back of the plate making sure I had it the right way around. Don't ask why I always check that alignment about ten times........Don't ask!!!!

Over to the manual CNC and chopped her out!

The process of cutting out the top once the template was onboard took about 5 mins and when you are finished apart from a quick rub to remove any furry edges, she's done! This is where good template manufacture is a must because any imperfections in the template automatically appear in the finished article. In this case the top will be bound so a wobble here and there if they happen would probably not be a problem.

Looking very nice, Dave. That Tassie Oak is gonna be gorgeous.

Using the F-hole indexing holes I made in the plate before, I mounted the F-hole template and cut two of the little boogers out.

I completely forgot to photograph that process but if anyone's interested I can demo it tomorrow for you.

Once I had the f-holes cut out, I didn't really like them that much so using a scrap practice fret board (Aussie Red Gum) and my trusty pocket knife I whittled out some plugs and plugged 'em up again.

Yeah that looks better!!!


Might see you tomorrow but I'll probably be going fishing!!! Well somebody has to do it!! :smile:

Looking very nice, Dave. That Tassie Oak is gonna be gorgeous.

Gidday Phil! Tassie oak is actually quite a good timber to work with but it is just so damned plain so you have to dress it up a bit. I'll probably find out tomorrow if it will bend with the hot pipe. The sides are only 2mm thick and the bends are easy as, with the horn sharpened like it is there's no hard curve like the regular Tele horn which is quite do-able with the right bit of wood but I have lost a few on that bend as well.

I was thinking of doing the neck from TO as well but think I'll go with the Meranti, or Philipine mahogany or whatever it is this week.

Good building mate! Got enough lizard skins?

The plugged up f holes (that sounds painful :shock:) look pretty cool. This is going to be an interesting build.

I was looking at the top plate with the plugged up F-holes and decided I really liked them better before they were plugged.

So out with the pocket knife and sandpaper again and unplugged them a bit:lol:

I suppose now they are open again the sound will escape more easily and the interior will breath. :twisted:

I only entered this challenge because I think it's easier to keep up with threads just like
this one.
Really looking forward to watching this one finish. Those kerfed sides are awesome.

So out with the pocket knife and sandpaper again and unplugged them a bit:lol:


So it was an out patient procedure :lol:

Things are never quite what they seem with you, are they? :grin:

Things are never quite what they seem with you, are they? :grin:[/QUOTE]





Hope not! :twisted:

The weather here has been miserable all day with light rain and wind and as I work in the open roller door of my sawdust factory because I have trouble under fluoros having done it for 40+ years (and now it just gives me eyestrain) I didn't achieve much today.

This afternoon only really made a centre reinforcing assembly out of the two remaining 35 x 19 x 800mm sticks I cut before, well didn't actually use all of the second one.


Hope I've got the lumps and gaps in the right places.

Nice looking work Dave and loved seeing the kerfing jig. It did my head in trying to work out how it worked but I think I have it sussed out now :-) Kudos to the person who thought it up in the first place - was it you?

The top looks beautiful and the way you dressed up the Tassie Oak grain was also ingenious. The red gum detailing around the f hole also sets it off nicely. Did you say you are going to use Meranti - probably my least favourite wood - but whatever you do with it I'm sure it will be amazing.

Tassie oak is actually quite a good timber to work with but it is just so damned plain so you have to dress it up a bit.

I've always thought it was a good timber/grain pattern to try a Epiphone style "fox" finish like on this Coronet finished in"silver fox" - you're half there it seems.

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/coronet.html (just scroll down a bit)

Really nice and original build. Cheers.

Nice looking work Dave and loved seeing the kerfing jig. It did my head in trying to work out how it worked but I think I have it sussed out now :-) Kudos to the person who thought it up in the first place - was it you?

The top looks beautiful and the way you dressed up the Tassie Oak grain was also ingenious. The red gum detailing around the f hole also sets it off nicely. Did you say you are going to use Meranti - probably my least favourite wood - but whatever you do with it I'm sure it will be amazing.

I used to do kerfing on the table saw but the cuts tended to be too wide and you couldn't get to see the depth of the cut while you were doing it, so designed the other gadget for the bandsaw and you can get up close to each cut. Usually don't have a problem unless sawdust gets in between the slide on the mitre square and the stop block in the track that controls the depth of cut. Actually I did a "Skelecaster" tele out of Meranti and I loved it, came up better than I thought it would. Think there is a thread on it. The thing with "meranti" is I think it comes in as about 5 different species. The stuff I have is pink and tight grained, and I've used it before ok.
If you want a better look at the kerf thing let me know and I'll post some close-ups.

DC

I've always thought it was a good timber/grain pattern to try a Epiphone style "fox" finish like on this Coronet finished in"silver fox" - you're half there it seems.

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/coronet.html (just scroll down a bit)

Really nice and original build. Cheers.

The grain on that Coronet is really busy isn't it? Tassie Oak is about all Bunnings sells here, no decent timber supplies anywhere close, so Tas Oak it is. It's strong and straight with a close grain and some pieces are beautiful and pink, and it's cheap. :wink:

This is really cool Dave.

This is really cool Dave.

Hasn't got to the interesting bits yet John. Wish I could do them like you!

Dave

Hi all Well it's down to the body building part. Originally planned on using the everpopular Tassie Oak so cut and thicknessed some TO to 36mmX2mm and took to the hot pipe bender thing.
Let me tell you Tassie Oak bends like spring steel and tighter bends dont break but they sort of flake off the top surface.

So out with the Sassafrass block and cut and thicknessed to 36mmx 1.5mm.
With the sassafrass you just have to wave it over the mould and it just jumps into shape.

Clamped and leave alone overnight.

I bent the sides on my executive model wood bender thingy (photos attached) Didn't really get any pix of the process but when you are bending there's not much time for snaps.

This device changes each time it gets used and this version runs on a single rubber band!

Got out the big piece of meranti and cut a neck sized length and marked the shape and cut to 1.25" thickness. Marked out the neck shape and cut close to the line and level on the bearing guided bit on the router table.

This is a trial approach to how I build a neck usually by cutting off the "ears" around the headstock section you end up with a pointy bit of wood which hopefully will get better as we go along.

Anyway, mounted the blank on the multi jig and flattened both sides with the router level planer and cut the truss rod slot in the same operation.

Now off to get a hair cut!

Bending tassie oak is like bending mahogany - bloody tricky.

I find it's best to soak it for 10 minutes.

Did that but I got the feeling if I soaked it overnight it still wouldn't have bent. An overnight soak would have left it pure white I think by the amount of brown in the water after 30mins.

I'm really enjoying seeing how things are coming along - very impressive. I also like how you take advantage of all those rubber bands on your jigs :lol:

:lol: Didn't you know the world is held together by rubber bands.

:lol: Didn't you know the world is held together by rubber bands.

That gives me an idea for next year's challenge - a rubber band tele: :mrgreen: Now that would be really twangy :mrgreen:

Nice Dave.

2mm seems pretty thick to be bending. If you want sides that thick, I'd suggest doing a few thinner pieces and then laminating them.

The weather has been miserable again! Hard to work in the rain but did manage to get the neck mounted to a straight edge guide board and got out the old 13 degree scarf cutting device/jig/thingy and chop off his nose!

Usual stuff, stuck down that cut off piece to the top, and grind away on the belt sander and sort of flatten it out a bit. Boring old photos to follow, hopefully things wil be a bit more exciting in days to come.

Due to an extensive R & D program I have been undertaking for some time and at great expense to the management, I am now able to share some vital information regarding my patented " Harmonic Resonator Cavity" system.

The system of cavities consists of 6 precision milled mini containers not unlike little wooden buckets with a hole in the bottom. These are located beneath the bridge and there is one cavity allocated to each string, and of course the are the answer to all your resonance and harmonic distortion questions.
Carefully calibrated to the individual strings, they will prolong sustain to extremely long time periods, eliminate feedback and protect your guitar from harmonic distortion virus.

These HRC's of course have to be "forked" a process pioneered by Prof. Oigun of the Netherlands. Thank you Prof. Oigun.

Even though the weather is still cr@p, managed to get a start on gluing up the sides to the base, nothing really exciting. Spent most of the time making some little wooden clamping aids to hold it all in place while the Titebond does it's magic.

I see you have the cheap corn-forks. They can be out by as much as a semitone.

These ones are better.

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/photolib/household/Corn%20Fork.jpg

But seriously - what are those little cups for?

DaveCam

Years ago you started out with nothing. Looks like you've still got fork all.

I see you have the cheap corn-forks. They can be out by as much as a semitone.

These ones are better.

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/photolib/household/Corn%20Fork.jpg

But seriously - what are those little cups for?

All will be revealed in due course! And it may not work, possability No. 2 !!

:twisted:

DaveCam

Years ago you started out with nothing. Looks like you've still got fork all.

You can say that again NT!

Must be my German heritage, my wealth is getting Fuhrer and Fuhrer!

LOL. Can't wait to be blown away by your sonic revolution! Sign me UP!:lol:

I'm really enjoying watching your build Dave. Hopefully there will be some more progress to watch this weekend :mrgreen:

I'm really enjoying watching your build Dave. Hopefully there will be some more progress to watch this weekend :mrgreen:

Probably not a lot! Just came inside and bandaged up my right hand. I took a lump of skin about the size of a 50c piece off clamping up the centre block after gluing it down.

Geez I hate getting old, I only have to walk close to something and I bark myself. Dark now, might get some exciting photos of clamps in the morning!:lol:

Probably not a lot! Just came inside and bandaged up my right hand. I took a lump of skin about the size of a 50c piece off clamping up the centre block after gluing it down.

Geez I hate getting old, I only have to walk close to something and I bark myself. Dark now, might get some exciting photos of clamps in the morning!:lol:

Sorry to hear that Dave - physically I'm a bit of a mess too after a shoulder op about a year ago after a motorcycle accident. I didn't heal quite as well as a 20 year old - age is cruel...

I got a bit jealous of all the guitar building going on and started my own build today. I missed the challenge though :-( There is a thread in the home depot forum you can check out.

Will do DS!

Nothing much to report from today's feeble efforts. First I polished the insides of my Harmonic Resonator Cavities as it's important to have smooth walled cavities so as not to impede the harmonics trapped in there.

I then removed 16 gazillion clamps from the cooker and revealed the wall + kerfed strengther all stuck together as intended, then proceded to do the other side. No pix (dead camera battery) but it looked just the same as the first one but not as pointy and then glued in the centre block, ripped up my hand and gave up in disgust!

The wood bending and the clamps are extremely cool. Very professional looking.

Did you just skin yourself or is it deep? Hopefully only superficial - you are a duffer for doing that...

I don't really understand theory behind the resonator cups - so I've been keeping my mouth shut about them hoping I'll have an epiphany about them :mrgreen: My best guess is you are trying to transfer some harmonics from the wood/body and transfer the overtones into bridge and the strings and therefore eventually the pickups?

The wood bending and the clamps are extremely cool. Very professional looking.

Did you just skin yourself or is it deep? Hopefully only superficial - you are a duffer for doing that...

I don't really understand theory behind the resonator cups - so I've been keeping my mouth shut about them hoping I'll have an epiphany about them :mrgreen: My best guess is you are trying to transfer some harmonics from the wood/body and transfer the overtones into bridge and the strings and therefore eventually the pickups?

You'll just have to wait the same as me. I'm just making this up as I go along and revealing a "you beaut" revelation before it has been field tested, approved by the climate change commission and ASIO would be downright embarassing if the damned thing didn't work!

There is also the automatic provision for a secondary use if the original porpoise turns out to be a croc "o shyte! :twisted:

P.S. It was deep!

Not a lot of progress the weather has been bloody awful, couldn't even go fishing, too much fresh in the river. However I did manage to glue in the centre block and the rest of the sides and the kerfed interior walls, no pix, we've all seen clamps before, took her out of the adjustable mould and fitted the HRC's. Hand sanded for a while, got the willys with that and made a flapsander for the router table. It's a tad fast even with the router on it's slowest speed, makes a hell of a noise but does the job really well and really fast which suits my patience levels 100% I put a felt pad under the body and moved it around against the rotation of the sand paper. A pencil line on the side dissapears in a flash so it's working well across the full width so think it is a keeper and will save heaps of time in the future. Started with 150grit and down to 240 at the moment now have to go and get some fine stuff.

Something in the nature of a problem, I've noticed that everywhere I had some glue on the wood it has suddenly developed black mould spots, very small but definately looks like mould. Not surprised with the amount of rain we've had now for weeks. I hit it with some raw bleach, hopefully that will kill the spores to prevent it growing but it appears to have gone through the wood and appears on the back surface. Only a small patch, but hope it doesn't grow under the finish.
Do you think the bleach is enough?

Those pots for pots are very cool, Dave.

So how did you stuff the hand? Not a router mishap, was it?

I'd guess even diluted bleach would kill the mould. Probably even make it disappear completely. I'd be a little worried about the finish with that amount of straight bleach in the wood, though.

Looking great Dave!

Those pots for pots are very cool, Dave.

So how did you stuff the hand? Not a router mishap, was it?

Ahhhh Phil! You twigged! HRC could mean "Hidden Recessed Controls"?





Nah Tightening up a clamp that was too close to something else! Just ripped off a great lump of bark! I do it all the time, sadly.

Looking great Dave!

Thanks Paul! Very ordinary actually!

Hi Dave.

Love the workmanship. Like how you have done the sides. Keen to see how it finishes it up.

Cheers

Hi Dave.

Love the workmanship. Like how you have done the sides. Keen to see how it finishes it up.

Cheers

Me too:confused:

I love it when everything starts to take shape. It's really looking great now.

I believe you can remove mould with tea tree oil - it might be worth looking that up. Maybe you could make a weak tea tree oil solution and wipe the area with that. Probably safer than bleach.

Love the innovations, Dave.

Very nice! Enjoying the thread immensely....Thanks, Dave

Haven't been able to get to the build for a few days, but today I managed to wire up the internals and mount in the hidden recessed cavities.

I'm using two mini humbuckers and splitting each, Humbucker/Single Coil/Parallel, and they are switched to either or both, and straight to the socket. No mucking about in Mojoland with tone/volume controlls or capacitors to detract from the raw gutsy, distorted overloaded too loud pair of humbuckers being played badly and out of tune!!

Yeah!!!! That's how we like it!:lol:

Well a bit of the break in the traffic this afternoon and I got out the neck shaping/contouring thingamajig and proceded to make lots of sawdust. This is about the sixth incarnation of this jig in about four years and works ok but I'm havind a bit of a problem with it 's sliding ability, it seems to bind up half way through it's travel. I'll have to change the bolts I have it running on to one long slider I think. It all works on the inset tracks on the router table so shouldn't be too hard to modify.

This jig really only makes the initial shape and the taper all the other stuff is done the old fashioned way. I find it excellent to have 3/4 of the cutting done before the real shaping. Basically lazy I guess!
The taper can be changed by the changing the perspex plate the heel puck runs on, at the moment the taper is at 3mm the thickness on the perspex.
If you look closely you can see it is held in position with two small brads, so it can be swapped quickly.

So that's what the cups were for eh :lol:... They are very clever and look good too! Gives the guitar a completely clean look from the front and conceals all the switching and jacks - cool! I also like the contrasting body and top.

Also like the neck shaping jig. There's a lot to think about on a guitar build that's for sure. Plenty of fun.:mrgreen:

That is so cool! :cool:

great bit of innovation with those cups, Dave. I like that a lot.

It's getting late in the comp, better pull the finger out! Today is neck day.

Removed the neck from the contouring jig and took to the red gum slab and cut off a fretboard sized chunk and stuck him on the multi-jig and flattened one face. Flipped him over and throw on the 12" radius jig and spend 20mins looking for the router guides which were under my nose the whole time and chopped a 12" radius onto him. Usually when I do this I go lickety split and then have to sand out lots of tooling marks, this time I was very restrained and tried to keep a slow and even flow rate, result, hardly a mark on it, so much so I won't sand it at all until I'm ready to bang in the frets, and then not much. Also glued up the scarf to the headstock using two very small brads as guides and because I have already tapered the neck sides it only requires 3 clamps to get a good fit.
That's about it until the glue dries, then I will level the headstock on the overhead router, glue in the truss bar and fretboard and glue some ears on the headstock.

Don't you know that serial ports are way outdated?USB is the way to go nowadays :)

[QUOTE=Ryden;4048458]Don't you know that serial ports are way outdated?USB is the way to go nowadays :)[/QUOTE


:shock: Why wasn't I told????

Yeah but serial ports are much better at connecting 9 wires, I'd need 2 USB's.

Everything checked OK on the multimeter but after I glue on the top plate there will be zero access to the wiring short of cutting a great hole in the back, so today I hooked up both H/buckers to the much maligned serial port plug and had a real listen for any problems. All's swell that ends well! :lol:

Just plug a USB-hub in there and you're good to go!

Still playing with the neck! Today cut out the headstock shape and gave it a rough sanding, and made a rather thick template which I will use to form my volute. Glued the headstock face to a sheet of MDF and stuck a 5lb weight on the other end of the sheet so we don't have any nasty tip ups whilst under the router, don't ask why I do this now! Slpped the entire shebang under the overhead router and shaved it down a bit at a time, until the thickness of the side wings comes down to about 7/16ths of an inch.

We shall see the fruits of my labour tomorrow with luck

How did I miss this thread up till now? Very cool stuff Dave!

How did I miss this thread up till now? Very cool stuff Dave!

Thank you Sir, coming from you that is a real compliment. One day I hope to make a half decent guitar. Love what you're doing, it looks beautiful, functional, and well balanced to the eye.

DC

Very cool and innovative , those cups are neat :smile:

After thicknessing the headstock down yesterday to just slightly less than 1/2an inch, you are left with an ugly triangular shaped block in the middle( forgot to get a pix of it! ) so you sand and shape it down to something a bit more attractive, I hope.

that transition is really sharp. this build is great. very innovative.

I like that volute.

Do your tuning pegs fit on such a thin headstock?

Thanks Nick! At the moment I'm leaning towards a veneer on the top.

I think you definitely hit the "attractive mark". Very unique and even more cool.

Wow - more coolness! The neck joint is almost like the tail of an aircraft - very creative!

good going, Dave... thumbs up...

my internet was down all last week...grrrr....
I have a few build threads to catch up on.....looks like it's been busy all round...

Hi All this post is not related to the build at all, but I would like to give Stewart McDonald a huge wrap for their service and integrity in their chosen field.

About the middle of February I ordered some gear from them aimed at this challenge and 5 weeks later it had not arrived. I had all the usual emails from SM and I had a postal date etc but did not order express post having had orders from them previously in about 2 weeks.

The great customer service people at SM instantly offered to replace it and send express, which they did and it arrived here today, 4.5 days after postage.

What a good organisation to deal with! I don't buy a lot of stuff but what I buy from now on will be from them.

Today's efforts were all about the neck, so I cut my steel bar and rounded the ends and made it a perfect fit into the previously cut slot. Too perfect as it turned out! Tapped in two indexing pins and marked the fret board on them, got out the epoxy glue and a gazillion clamps and some old sanding radius blocks and proceded to mix the epoxy.

A fairly good amount went into the slot as usual and a very good coverage over the rest of the board. Banged in the steel bar and slapped on the fret board and located the front index pin, couldn't find the back one! :mad:

Lift up the FB and the damn steel bar had lifted out of it's slot by about 1/16" and refused to go down. Wipe furiously with rag, removed as much as I could, tried to get the bar out.....too tight.....said stuff it ....back to Plan A .....500 clamps and clamped it up! Two cups of coffee and a trip to town later tried to undo the clamps to inspect the stuff up.

Must have been feeling good when I clamped her up because I could not undo the little sods. Pair of multi-grips, the book of 10,000 swear words, and a lot of grunting later had her undone.

Didn't look too bad perhaps saveable anyway so proceded to glue on the H/S veneer. No pix of panic stations but two exciting shots of clamping up the veneer. Hell I can't wait to see this post myself!

Glad it worked out in the end. You'll have a handshake like a steel vice (or vise if you are an American :grin:) after all that clamp tightening and undoing.

Looking forward to seeing it all out of the clamps.

It's been a couple of days so I thought I'd better submit a bit of "stuff"

Not happy with this neck, far too many mistakes and botch ups but don't have the heart to start a new one. If it falls to bits down the track I'd make a new one but for now have to see if it goes.

So today sort of half finish shaping the back of the neck, sorry no exciting pix of sandpaper etc. then proceeded to sand down the headstock insert a bit and smooth off to about 320 grit the fret board and the back of the neck.
Probably forgot to mention that I slotted the FB late yesterday as well.
As is my wont, I like to Tru-Oil the fret board (rest of the neck as well) but the fret slots always get full of cr@p especially I suppose because I like to put the first 2 coats of TU on with a scrap of 320/400 paper so an idea I've been thinking about for the next time which is this time now??? I thought to myself, myself I said " Let's put something in the slots to stop all the cr@p getting stuck in there! " Myself said " what should I use? " and I said to me what have we got that's long and skinny.

At this point I pause because I just had a mental picture of Kwerk smiling, licking his lips and fingers poised over the keyboard to write a scathingly brilliant reply, especially after he saw pix no. 2 where it says 15lb extra limp
I hereby warn the afore-mentioned Kwerk, that my story about him, the sheep and the midget shall remain our secret ........unless!!:twisted:

So I wrapped the fishing line through the slots and wacked on 2 coats of TO waited 5 minutes and wiped it off. Tomorrow we'll see if the fishing line worked or not!

Forgot to mention that it is having a zero fret as well as a kangaroo!

Good tip with the fishing line. I don't see a reason why it won't work.

I love the kangaroo. Nice personal touch.

I really don't see how the fishing line is going to catch the Kangaroo :mrgreen:

Are you carving the nut out of roo bone?

Hydraulics is a bitc* ain't it? :razz:

FWIW, I keep the cut-offs of my rod/bars for just this reason. I put the natural up-bow of the rod in the middle (all steel bars have one :wink:), lay one of the cut-offs in the middle, then clamp it. Over the next couple of hours, the excess glue will force it's way to the top and set. Then, when you glue the fretboard it will be against something solid, not a floating steel monster. The excess glue in this case, forces the rod UP. Ask me how I learned this :lol:


Dave

Cool kangaroo .

Looking good Davecam48, can't wait to see the finished guitar.

Hydraulics is a bitc* ain't it? :razz:

FWIW, I keep the cut-offs of my rod/bars for just this reason. I put the natural up-bow of the rod in the middle (all steel bars have one :wink:), lay one of the cut-offs in the middle, then clamp it. Over the next couple of hours, the excess glue will force it's way to the top and set. Then, when you glue the fretboard it will be against something solid, not a floating steel monster. The excess glue in this case, forces the rod UP. Ask me how I learned this :lol:


Dave

Probably the same way as I did. Dave how's things going mate!

DC

Dave.

Outstanding work. Great to see a fellow Aussie at full speed. Going to take me awhile to study some of these jigs. Can't wait till this is finished.

Cheers

Haven't posted anything for a few days, life gets in the way ocassionally.

Had a lot of problems with the neck and nearly gave up but need something to do so the insanity doesn't get too big a hold. Managed to wack is some frets and sort of shape the ends so they don't rip off the ends of the fingers too much, and drilled some tuner holes and final shape the back of the neck.
Normally this would all be done in one day or less but the motivation levels are really down at the moment. Put in the fret markers and side dots and put on the first coat of Tru-Oil on the back of the neck.

I think I've stuffed up the finish on the fret board, this is the first time I've done a fingerboard without Armorall and it looks way too soft and unmanagable for my liking.

Among you learned gentlemen and ladies which is the best method to refinish the fretboard with the frets in? By the way the fishing line trick was good and removed most of the waste but a higher breaking strain which better filled the slots would have been a lot better.

Oh no, why did you make it a Qantas guitar? Now all it's parts will fall off when you least expect it!

:wink:

BTW, shut up about the midget and the sheep. I told you I was drunk.

:lol::lol::lol:

That's not what the midget said!

I think I've stuffed up the finish on the fret board, this is the first time I've done a fingerboard without Armorall and it looks way too soft and unmanagable for my liking.

Among you learned gentlemen and ladies which is the best method to refinish the fretboard with the frets in?

Armorall*? I detest that stuff with a passion, I hate how it looks, I hate how it feels, and don't get it anywhere near anything that you want to finish at a later date.

There are quite a few different fingerboard treatments out there that are meant to go on a fretted neck. I use, um, well, I've already forgotten what it is. Some sort of lemon oil mixture. On one piece maple necks the finish is typically sprayed on after fretting. However if you ever had Armorall anywhere near the neck then any type of lacquer finish is no longer an option.

*This assumes Armorall is the same in the US as it is in OZ... it's bad enough here that back in my car days I wouldn't buy a car that it had been used on. The feel of it is disgusting IMHO... but maybe that's just me. :mrgreen:

Armorall*? I detest that stuff with a passion, I hate how it looks, I hate how it feels, and don't get it anywhere near anything that you want to finish at a later date.

There are quite a few different fingerboard treatments out there that are meant to go on a fretted neck. I use, um, well, I've already forgotten what it is. Some sort of lemon oil mixture. On one piece maple necks the finish is typically sprayed on after fretting. However if you ever had Armorall anywhere near the neck then any type of lacquer finish is no longer an option.

*This assumes Armorall is the same in the US as it is in OZ... it's bad enough here that back in my car days I wouldn't buy a car that it had been used on. The feel of it is disgusting IMHO... but maybe that's just me. :mrgreen:

I agree about Armorall not being good for fretboards but it's not helping Dave out much I'm afraid.

I had a bit of trouble interpreting what the problem with the neck is exactly. Is the Tru-oil finish too soft and hasn't hardened up?

I'm not sure what I'd do about that - I can only offer some general comments but I've never used Tru-oil so take my suggestions with a large grain of salt.

Can you use 000 or 0000 steel wool maybe with in conjunction with some carnauba wax or cabinet makers wax to matte the finish down and maybe take some of the softer stuff off the top. I use that approach with shellac finishes on furniture - but I understand Tru-oil is a different beast entirely.

The only other approach you could take potentially is stripping the finish with some acetone on a rag by all accounts. I'm not sure how that would go with oil you presumably have under the frets. Was the Tru-oil brand new? I'm wondering if it was old or had already been opened?

Here's hoping you can sort it out.

Best of luck

DS...

This is the first neck I've done for a long time without the Armorall, and it just isn't going well for me. I usually do the neck and FB with the TU + Armorall and had good results, and I thought it improves the feel of the TO, it seems to make it harder and smoother and you can get a better result in a shorter time without the sticky feeling.

I have done the complete finish on a neck with TO + Armorall in a day and it came out really well.
Horses for courses I guess.

For what it's worth, I've got a one year old Fender Tele with a lacquer neck that feels a bit soft and sticky. I just keep wiping it with micro fibre cloths and it tends to get better for a while until I play for another hour or two.

The recommendation from most people on this board was to scuff it up with some 0000 steel wool which some people swore reduced the stickiness. Others thought carnauba wax helped.

The steel wool may make it slightly matte which may or may not worry you. The carnauba wax wouldn't hurt at all - maybe try that first. You can get that from somewhere like Supercheap Auto. I have some Meguiars brand Carnauba if that helps you source it.

I believe that he is mixing the Armorall with the TruOil then applying it to the neck. i am sure that he can explain.

Can you finish the board with a fruit oil like used on Rosewood? Just a thought, as that
can just be "wiped on...wiped off" (plus, you'll be learning Karate from Mr. Miagi, ala Karate Kid II)

Yeh, whata you mean by Armor-all!! :lol:

Fine as frog hair old sod, just a day at a time :wink:

Dave I've been thinking about this and have one more idea out of left field for you.

I believe Tru-oil is a bit like Tung oil...

I have a Tung oil floor and it wears fairly quickly unless you put a good metalised polish on it. Peerless JAL make a polish called 'Gemini' it seals the tung oil, leaves you with a wet look floor and protects the floor from scratching and wear from traffic.

I wonder if it would harden up your Tru-oil...

Just also thinking about the wax idea - what about something like kitten no.1 and a lambs wool buff...

Oh and that Gemini can also be optionally used with a mechanical floor polisher - and we all know how slippery a wooden floor is after floor polish. Just ask Tom Cruise in Risky Business (years before he started couch jumping :mrgreen:)

Here is a link to the Armorall thing and a subsequent link to a gun site where it all started.
I usually spray the Armorall then rub in the TO immediately. Using this method I have finished a neck in a day to the level of sheen that I like. I don't really like a glassy finish on necks, as long as it's smooth and hard.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/308230-using-armor-all-speed-up-drying-time-tru-oil.html#post3845910

Don't worry about what anyone or what I said about Armorall. I was mostly talking about using it as a fretboard conditioner - not as as catalyst to help harden up an oil finish (as I said I don't have any experience with Tru-oil). Doesn't matter what anyone thinks - the internet is full of bloody experts if you know what I mean - me included :mrgreen: The trick is of course to wade through the crap and pick out the gems.

All I'm worried about is making sure you retrieve your neck - hopefully without stripping it.

The wet look of gemini is an aside to what I was trying to help you out with.

I was trying to think of a way to harden up your finish - my take on your problem was that somehow the hardeners in the Tru-oil were old or something and the finish wasn't going off properly. Ideally I was trying to think of a way either adding those hardeners after the event or buffing the soft finish off and replacing with a waxy polish like with some shellac finishes.

Anyway not saying my ideas are the gems in the crap so to speak - they could well be just plain crap too. As they say it's the thought that counts...

Hope it all goes well today.

Here is a link to the Armorall thing and a subsequent link to a gun site where it all started.
I usually spray the Armorall then rub in the TO immediately. Using this method I have finished a neck in a day to the level of sheen that I like. I don't really like a glassy finish on necks, as long as it's smooth and hard.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/308230-using-armor-all-speed-up-drying-time-tru-oil.html#post3845910
Cool I may try that. BTW that thread refers to your thread http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/306486-maton-g240-inspired-tele-rip-off.html which is an amazing thread - I've always wanted to copy an awful lot you did on that build. I'm going to build something similar to that "multi jig" for fretboard radiusing... here soon. Thanks for the notes.

Don't worry about what anyone or what I said about Armorall. I was mostly talking about using it as a fretboard conditioner - not as as catalyst to help harden up an oil finish (as I said I don't have any experience with Tru-oil). Doesn't matter what anyone thinks - the internet is full of bloody experts if you know what I mean - me included :mrgreen: The trick is of course to wade through the crap and pick out the gems.

All I'm worried about is making sure you retrieve your neck - hopefully without stripping it.

The wet look of gemini is an aside to what I was trying to help you out with.

I was trying to think of a way to harden up your finish - my take on your problem was that somehow the hardeners in the Tru-oil were old or something and the finish wasn't going off properly. Ideally I was trying to think of a way either adding those hardeners after the event or buffing the soft finish off and replacing with a waxy polish like with some shellac finishes.

Anyway not saying my ideas are the gems in the crap so to speak - they could well be just plain crap too. As they say it's the thought that counts...

Hope it all goes well today.

Thanks DS I really appreciate any info that may help. I am one of those people who starts something and then want it finished instantly, and I usually go to bed with a problem in my head and work on it while I'm asleep.
Years ago when I was fixing TVs for a living on several occasions I'd have a monster on the bench and solve it in my sleep. Sometimes I even amazed myself on two occasions the next morning I went to the exact component causing the problem.

I really like your build by the way, you should have entered the Challenge, I think you'd have made the time limit.

Mojo, thanks for the kind words, once you get set up with a radius jig you can use it for a multitude of purposes apart from doing a FB radius. Any shape template you can build the router will follow and the slotting attachment I find is so easy and versatile. It will do a fanned fretboard but I've not had the courage to try one yet. It's like the overhead pin router, almost every day I find a new use for it. The volute I did on this build took all of 10 mins to shape and thickness the headstock in one operation. The only bummer was the 10 mins it took to make the triangular template.

Happy Easter to all. It's Easter Monday in Aus today.
DC

The guitar build has had to be put aside for a little while to deal with other issues, but going through my little Pentax camera to find a pix and came across my daughter's holiday pix. I loaned her my camera when they went on holiday to Hervey Bay recently and did the whale watching thing.

It occured to me a lot of you blokes would never have seen a whale before so here ya go.

Hope everything is ok, Dave.

thanks for posting the whale pic. I don't usually see those in Oklahoma :razz:

Hi All I've not been into the build so much lately, other things seem to take precedence. Anyway this morning, stuggled down to the sawdust factory, looked at the mess (it always gets that way when I build ) and almost walked away again but thought "got to get the finger out and keep it going", So, got out eleventeen gazzillion clamps and chopped up some old feltex and carpet (ex dumpster ) and glued the bugger down. Sat it on top off a small plastic bucket I keep stuff in, and in the middle on top have 2 x 5lb hand weights and a bucket of sand. I'll check it in an hour or so that'll be about 2 hrs, should be enough.

See you next time!

I think there must be some kind of blue funk over the southern hemisphere. Seems to be so hard to get going at the moment!

Yeah you're right but have some fairly serious other issues as well, nothing we can't get through.

Don't know if you're a praying man, Dave, but I am and just offered one up for you. Hang in there, brother.

Trying to remove the digit and keep this going, and decided to make the binding. It occurred to me that some may not have cut their own binding before, I know Nick does and it is a lot cheaper, more fun, and enables you to get whatevere height you want. Got out a sheet of black mottled PVA about 1.5mm thick, and looked for my elaborate "binding cutter" I actually found two but they were real crappy looking and a bit small so I made another from stuff out of the bin, an old bit from a practise neck contour test, and a square of old ply wood that had been shellaced at some stage , think it belongs to something else but can't for the life of me think what!

I banged in three nails to hold the ply at roughly 90 degrees against the straight edge, and made a small cut in the left hand side ply overhang with my lovely Japanese pull saw 9mm from the straight edge from the top and sloping back toward you as you cut.

Tapped in a rusty box cutter blade, stuck it through one poofteenth exactly and ready to go. My sheet is about 4 of your feet long, 2 of Kwerk's and only 1 of Crazy Dave's, so I hold it down close to and just overlapping the edge and stratch toward me holding the pressure against the edge. I do that a couple of times then move the sheet up, clamp and repeat on the bottom half of the sheet. When you have a nice even score mark just bend it over with the fingers or a shifting spanner etc. there happened to be one on the little bench.

Repeat operation twice = 8 feet of 9mm binding.

Trying to remove the digit and keep this going, and decided to make the binding. It occurred to me that some may not have cut their own binding before, I know Nick does and it is a lot cheaper, more fun, and enables you to get whatevere height you want. Got out a sheet of black mottled PVA about 1.5mm thick, and looked for my elaborate "binding cutter" I actually found two but they were real crappy looking and a bit small so I made another from stuff out of the bin, an old bit from a practise neck contour test, and a square of old ply wood that had been shellaced at some stage , think it belongs to something else but can't for the life of me think what!

I banged in three nails to hold the ply at roughly 90 degrees against the straight edge, and made a small cut in the left hand side ply overhang with my lovely Japanese pull saw 9mm from the straight edge from the top and sloping back toward you as you cut.

Tapped in a rusty box cutter blade, stuck it through one poofteenth exactly and ready to go. My sheet is about 4 of your feet long, 2 of Kwerk's and only 1 of Crazy Dave's, so I hold it down close to and just overlapping the edge and stratch toward me holding the pressure against the edge. I do that a couple of times then move the sheet up, clamp and repeat on the bottom half of the sheet. When you have a nice even score mark just bend it over with the fingers or a shifting spanner etc. there happened to be one on the little bench.

Repeat operation twice = 8 feet of 9mm binding.

That looks like it works really well - I'm going to have to try that. Don't know about a poofteenth though - looked more like 3/5ths of FA to me :mrgreen:

Thanks a ton for the tutorial, and no, I've never cut my own binding so now I can.

This is the part I detest most, cutting the binding channel and doing the binding. I probably make it hard on myself as I have some PVA ( plastic of some sort!) sheets that are around 1mm thick and I cut my own binding from those, black and white. An idea I've been tossing around after the Maton G240 build where the thin black binding is a bit sharp on the forearm is to extend the binding a bit to give me some extra material to round over.

I made a small razor blade scraper to shave down some small left over binding which I cut too small and made it smaller. The scraper is simply a scrap of wood with a small ledge cut into the top with a slot at 90degrees to the ledge, a small block clamped against the side of the binding, and a tap from a bit of wood on the razor to precisely:lol: set the blade height, grab the end of the binding with pliers and pull through. Turn the piece around and repeat and you get a nice double angled bevel on the edge.
Keep doing until the correct height is achieved, in this case 3.4mm wide x 1,25mm thick.

This was then glued to the guitar top inside the edge binding and it gives the impression of B/W binding about 5 mm thick, not really, but it'll look like something I hope, perhaps different!

Looks great, Dave!

I think it looks great , nice job on the binding .

The guitar is looking like a million bucks and the binding is extremely clever! Nice work Dave.

So many great guitars this year. That textured binding is really cool, Dave.

The guitar build has had to be put aside for a little while to deal with other issues, but going through my little Pentax camera to find a pix and came across my daughter's holiday pix. I loaned her my camera when they went on holiday to Hervey Bay recently and did the whale watching thing.

It occured to me a lot of you blokes would never have seen a whale before so here ya go.

That's a whale? Interesting, doesn't look like the ones in my childhood school books. I wonder what else they misrepresented :grin:

I like the way you made your own binding. If the shifting spanner isn't available, you could always try the chicken legs! :wink:

About the first day of the challenge I made some melamine PU covers but they were too corny to use, but were a good exercise for the pin router.
Now I need to make some hardware so took some of my ancient red gum and made a template for a rectangular pick up cover nd stuck the reg gum on and cut 'er out!
Once the outer and inner cuts were made I wacked it on the bandsaw and cut two fromit about 4mm thick. Thickness them down on the spindle sander and sand down to about 400 and rubbed a bit of TruOil on them and drilled some mounting holes. Actually I drilled the holes while it was still one piece.

While I'm making PU covers etc, thought I better make some other hardware as well, so out with more redgum and machined a bridge. A funny looking thing, hope it works!

Trying to keep the simple wooden theme going here with as little chrome as possible, sort of minimalistic ( if an electric guitar can be! )

That bridge is looking classy.

That bridge is looking classy.

Danke!

That bridge is looking classy.

+1

I hate doing binding probably more than you do, lol. I really, really like all the "personal touches"
you're incorporating in this build. The more stuff you can make, the better and more
"artistic" the final product, IMHO.

Very creative and ingenious and red gum is a nice choice - I love red gum.

I wonder how the guitar will sound with fixed metal bridge - sometimes less is more if you know what I mean. Hope you are going to do some sound samples or a video at the end. I'm intrigued now.

Cheers

DS

Very creative and ingenious and red gum is a nice choice - I love red gum.

I wonder how the guitar will sound with fixed metal bridge - sometimes less is more if you know what I mean. Hope you are going to do some sound samples or a video at the end. I'm intrigued now.

Cheers

DS

When you think about it guitars have had fixed bridges for 100's of years, and an electric guitar is just an acoustic guitar with pickups is it not? So I hope it'll go ok. I've done them before and they work well and even the intonation is usually quite close. I use a bridge angle of 5 degrees which seems close

The video thing at the end is the big worry for me trying to work it all out and post it, but Kwerk the gentleman that he is has given me some long distance tuition but may need further instruction soon.

I'm not one to post on facebook and the like so all this cr@p has gotten beyond me.


Not a lot of progress today but I did manage to mount and align the neck to the body and marked the string guide -zero fret and mount the machine heads.

I went to a local metal supply depot to get some 10x10mm brass bar today, only had round so asked if they had it in aluminium, so bought half a metre.
When the bloke came back with it it was high grade stainless steel. Didn't have the heart to ask him to change it so today I made a stainless tone bar.
Man that stuff is tough on the tools and the polishing arm, but she's done and I probably needed a bit more weight at the back:smile:

I've completely flattened the cutting edges on several drills working on stainless plate :lol: I love stuff made from it but hate working with it.

Well today I made some progress with the router I managed to make some templates for routing the tone bar and pick up cavities and with a lot of checking and double and triple checking made some marks on the top and the back and made some wood chips.

Apart from a small chip out on the tone cavity route out edge it all went remarkably well. Something disasterous is sure to happen tomorrow for sure.

Because this is essentially a hollow shell, the tone bar and pickup cavities are open at each side giving lots of room for running wires etc without the bother of drilling a tunnel through the wood. Getting close to the parts of the build which I hate the most i.e. the finish and the video. Still haven't decided on the finish but am leaning toward hard shellac which has polimers which is supposed to give a lot beefier finish. The whole thing has been sealed and filled with shellac so ................?

Hi Dave

Love the detail. Just so many touches that make the guitar look great.

I'll be coming back to this thread once I have a bit more experience under my belt.

Cheers

Davecam48, I have just read your build thread from start to finish, and have to say I've been enthralled and captivated all the way through....:cool:

Your build has been imaginative, innovative and informative, as well as truly inspirational. I can't wait to see the finished article!

You should be congratulated on your careful choice and considered use of materials, your ingenious use of jigs and tools, and your fantastic workmanship. On top of that, I have been particularly impressed by your ability to identify a problem, step back from it, not let it p*ss you off, then come up with a well thought-out solution.

Thank you Dave - for sharing this build project with us. Absolutely fascinating.

Excellent job!....:cool::cool::cool:

Thanks for the vote of confidence Fat Man, but I think you read much more into my blunderings than there is. The truth is I'm just another schmuck blundering along making all this up as we go along!

Thanks for the vote of confidence Fat Man, but I think you read much more into my blunderings than there is. The truth is I'm just another schmuck blundering along making all this up as we go along!

Well if that's true Dave, you're a vary talented schmuck! ;-) This is a beautiful build man. Can't wait to hear it.

Barncaster

Well if that's true Dave, you're a vary talented schmuck! ;-) This is a beautiful build man. Can't wait to hear it.

Barncaster

What Barncaster said :smile:

Well folks, it's getting to the time when there will be no more time, so finger out and let's try and get this finished.

Today I sanded the body a bit and prepared it for squirting, still haven't made up my mind but I lean towards hard shellac as I know I can clean it up easily WHEN I stuff it up. I stuffed all the cavities with old newspaper and the string through holes with cotton buds because they were there and looked about the right size. I know I have some baloons somewhere in the house but couldn't find them. Perhaps my Grandies did last visit???

The last bit of the day was spent converting an old commercial printer carton into a spray booth, or at least I hope it will work as a booth. My expertise in painting is comparable to a dead monkey flying the space shuttle, so I am not expecting any great results. Now you know why I bought Tru Oil in bulk. At least with TO I stop when I get sick of rubbing it on.

So anyway the carton is quite large about 2 x2 of your feet by about 3 of Kwerk's feet long. It has a nice substantial base that inserts and is held in by four very clever clip in brackets and make a very strong/rigid box.

I stapled (from the inside) some scrap pine down each side about 2 feet long
and half way up the sides, then cut the cardboard along the top length of each and cut the ends of those cuts at right angles to the rails up by about 1.5" making a small flap which will allow the PVC pipe supports through each side to run on the rails outside the box but keep some pressure on each pipe, so it will stay where you turn it to.
The idea is to be able to slide the front and rear parts of the body either way to give the gun access to the total piece. A trial run seemed to be ok but we'll see tomorrow when the fun begins.
I might add that this is the part of this game I detest the absolute most, it's not at all as much fun as makin' sawdust.

Nearly there Dave - looking good! Funnily enough schmuck in German means Jewelry - so the guitar is looking good enough to be schmuck! Completely different meaning to the Yiddish version :mrgreen:

Looking good , the spray booth is cool too .

Nearly there Dave - looking good! Funnily enough schmuck in German means Jewelry - so the guitar is looking good enough to be schmuck! Completely different meaning to the Yiddish version :mrgreen:

Ja Ich ein Kliene Deutsche sprechen, aber zehr schlecht!

Wow that's a long time ago. Probably got it all wrong as usual.:sad:

Ja Ich ein Kliene Deutsche sprechen, aber zehr schlecht!

Wow that's a long time ago. Probably got it all wrong as usual.:sad:

My wife is German - so I've picked up enough to read basic stuff and conversational letters from her relatives - but if it gets technical I'm a bit lost. All of her relatives are about an hour south of Munich - and a beautiful part of the world it is down there too! The beer is also to die for - not to mention the schweinebraten :mrgreen: Oh boy that has made me hungry thinking about it :mrgreen: I guess I've had 20 years to learn but having learnt as an adult I don't pick it up as quick as a kid. Being musical helps with the accent though I think.

Yes I a small amount of German speak but very badly (direct translation there...)

Well if that's true Dave, you're a vary talented schmuck! ;-) This is a beautiful build man
True and true, as individual as the man. Not something you see often, in anything :wink:

Great job Dave :smile:

Yes I a small amount of German speak but very badly (direct translation there...)



I knew that!! :lol:

Love the spray booth :grin:

Love the spray booth :grin:

Yes - Quite cool!! I can't count how many times I've run into problems either with the spray or with spraying due to dust - I have to try that some time - that's a great idea!

Hi All,
I'm supposed to be squirting shellac today but as Mother Nature would have it of course it's raining today first time in weeks, so I have turned to checking out the video side of things which indicates I might just get this finished eventually, still a lot to do.

My question, not knowing about posting videos etc, is, I've played with the camera and found a mic which will record reasonably directly into the camera, so the audio side of things looks ok, but with the video thing, I have some ?'s.
A 3.5min trial video comes in at 600mb with my Canon set to the lowest movie resolution of 640 x 480, is 600mb going to be too large to down load to U Tube?

I await your learned replies with baited breath and moistened lips! ( I always put that in if I can, it gets Kwerk all excited!! :lol:)

Hi All,
I'm supposed to be squirting shellac today but as Mother Nature would have it of course it's raining today first time in weeks, so I have turned to checking out the video side of things which indicates I might just get this finished eventually, still a lot to do.

My question, not knowing about posting videos etc, is, I've played with the camera and found a mic which will record reasonably directly into the camera, so the audio side of things looks ok, but with the video thing, I have some ?'s.
A 3.5min trial video comes in at 600mb with my Canon set to the lowest movie resolution of 640 x 480, is 600mb going to be too large to down load to U Tube?

I await your learned replies with baited breath and moistened lips! ( I always put that in if I can, it gets Kwerk all excited!! :lol:)

Hey Davy,

If you are squirting shellac you should go see a doctor....... ;-)

Barncaster

Very nice Dave!

Hey Davy,

If you are squirting shellac you should go see a doctor....... ;-)

Barncaster

If I could just squirt it into the bottle, I might be able to sell it! :twisted:



Thanks Glen, but it looks a lot rougher in real life!

Hey, that's a spray booth I could have too! Great ideas here.

<snicker>

Hi All,
I'm supposed to be squirting shellac today but as Mother Nature would have it of course it's raining today first time in weeks, so I have turned to checking out the video side of things which indicates I might just get this finished eventually, still a lot to do.

My question, not knowing about posting videos etc, is, I've played with the camera and found a mic which will record reasonably directly into the camera, so the audio side of things looks ok, but with the video thing, I have some ?'s.
A 3.5min trial video comes in at 600mb with my Canon set to the lowest movie resolution of 640 x 480, is 600mb going to be too large to down load to U Tube?

I await your learned replies with baited breath and moistened lips! ( I always put that in if I can, it gets Kwerk all excited!! :lol:)

Do you have any editing software?

EDIT: You're a weird, weird man Dave. :mrgreen:

Do you have any editing software?

EDIT: You're a weird, weird man Dave. :mrgreen:



I have the full Canon edit/ touch up stuff but I've never had the patience or the time to sit down with and try to learn how to stuff around with it.

If I do something about 600mb will it download to YouTube or too big?

The canon resolution won't go any smaller on movie.

Do I have to edit it or can I reduce it in size somehow to make it acceptable?

I can do the shoot in one take but I found out today my camera remote doesn't work in movie mode just single shot, so an edit on the start and finish would be in order, if I can figure it out.

What do the other blokes use? I can use my little Pentax camera but the audio is just the on-board camera where as the Canon has a direct mic in, which is much more satisfactory. Funny thing is I used to have a corporate video business employing 2-3 stringers and 4 camera set ups, and a full edit suite in the days of tape, but sold all that and never bothered with video for 20 years, so never kept up with all this zero's and one's stuff, even though I repaired it all for years.


Might have to find a 10 year old kid to do it for me:razz:

Basically you need to find out how to compress the movie. It's in it's raw state (probably an .avi) directly off the camera, which is good if you want to do editing work, but if you wanna get the size down you need to save it as an MPEG or an FLV. You can upload it to YT as is, but it will take a long time to upload. YT will compress it for you, but if you use a raw video it will typically take a longer time to display/play in YT, as they give it only a small amount of compression. Last year a friend recorded my vid on an iPhone. The quality was pretty good for what it was. The filesize was about 70mb as I remember. It was MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, i don't recall. IIRC the vid was about 3 min long too.

Your editing software should let you open it and save it or export it as a bunch of different formats. If you can do that, let us know the options it gives you and we can recommend one for ya.

Davecam48- That neck volute is what some guitar companies should consider- it gives structural strenghth to a fixed neck. Also, love the idea of a zero fret- why don't major companies include them rather than 22+ frets? You can get such good intonation and action by having one. Had an Epiphone (original) acoustic with one- NEVER had a problem. I believe Gretsch still use them on some models (????).Great guitar so far, looking forward to the end result. Love an F-Hole. T.J.

Thanks TT

I like that little volute as well, adds a bit more beef to the join I feel. To me the zero fret is just a natural way to do it, and "F" holes just pays a bit of homage to the ancient masters. On these instruments they are pure decoration but we like 'em don't we ? :razz:

Hmmm - don't know about the video I never take the time to learn how to do that stuff well - but I've done a number of things that were about 2-4 minutes long and just posted them - I'm sure they were all quite big and they worked fine. I would just do a practice upload to youtube - it will most likely just work without any manipulation. I've watched my kids do a lot on FB/YT just by blindly doing stuff - never concerning themselves with whether it would work or not. I bet the compression that they use on the outgoing videos likely is good enough.

BTW - Love the stainless tone block - it's interesting that as hard as that stuff is, it's rather soft compared to other steels.

I've done a number of things that were about 2-4 minutes long and just posted them -- it will most likely just work without any manipulation.

You know, a person could just twist words like these into something entirely
different.

...sorry, Dave, I'm just bored at work:twisted:

Please figure this video thing out, though, because I'm one that really needs to
learn how to do it too. Assuming I get done in time, of course.
I know I've said it a bunch, but love this build, btw.

Dave -- just had my first look at your build, and man I like it! I'm a huge fan of the f-holes and yours are aces; heck, the whole guitar looks beautiful.

I really like the tone bar. Love the idea.

Good luck with the spraying!

Hmmm - don't know about the video I never take the time to learn how to do that stuff well - but I've done a number of things that were about 2-4 minutes long and just posted them - I'm sure they were all quite big and they worked fine. I would just do a practice upload to youtube - it will most likely just work without any manipulation. I've watched my kids do a lot on FB/YT just by blindly doing stuff - never concerning themselves with whether it would work or not. I bet the compression that they use on the outgoing videos likely is good enough.

BTW - Love the stainless tone block - it's interesting that as hard as that stuff is, it's rather soft compared to other steels.

Geez Mojo man I thought you'd do everything well. I think the stainless I got must be super duper high tensile stuff, the drill bits didn't like it one bit!

Sorry for the pun, it really was an accident!:oops:

Geez Mojo man I thought you'd do everything well. I think the stainless I got must be super duper high tensile stuff, the drill bits didn't like it one bit!

Sorry for the pun, it really was an accident!:oops:

Hey Dave I just checked and all of the videos that I've posted to youtube as AVIs were around 300M to 700M and they worked fine.

On steel, I've always run into problems working with any metal with Iron in it, it's just plain tough to work with. Making truss rods is not too tough on tools for that, but I did make a steel bridge base plate once - totally wore me, and the tools, out.

Loving the build Dave, great idea with the spray booth too. With my video, my wife filmed it on her iphone and uploaded it straight from the phone, took about 5 minutes tops.

Loving the build Dave, great idea with the spray booth too. With my video, my wife filmed it on her iphone and uploaded it straight from the phone, took about 5 minutes tops.

iphone? iphone? Vas ist dis iphone I am hearing ov? Ist it like the gramaphone?????


( To be read aloud in an angry German accent)

10,000 apologies for the language folks but as usual I've hit the crappy part of the build for me anyway, the finish. It seems no matter how well I follow the instructions etc. I just cannot manage to get a finish even approaching the usual standard displayed on this forum. I have been squirting clear poly at this monstrosity for a couple of weeks and rubbing back and squirting again etc. etc. and it all just goes to blah!

I had to take the entire back off and redo when the highly polished finish on that (which I was extremely pleased with ) overnight just broke out in boils for some reason and had about 8-9 small explosions of clear over it. I took it right back and invested in a can of Minwax Wipe-on Poly which looks like a good product and no spray gun involved and it gives reasonable results but running out of time so have to stop adding layers and finish this thing. The front which had a few more coats of clear acrylic than the back came out pretty good but super glossy in places and more of a satin finish in others. Today I discover that it also has hairline cracks just under the top coat but will have to stay that way because I have to go fishing or something sensible very soon.
I understand that paint hates me, so from now on, if I ever build another guitar I'll stick to Tru-Oil or the Minwax and allow abour 3 months to finish.


Here's some pix.

Gawd I don't know much about much and know far less than you when it comes to finish and paint, but I know that's an absolutely gorgeous guitar.

Nicely done Dave!

Awesome looking guitar!

+1 on the Wipe-on....Used it for years on 1000's of square feet of cabinetry....and also on my one-and-only (so far) Tele style build.....have always been pleased with the look and the durability of the finish....the ease of application is a decided plus, also.

As a note, to make the wipe-on, I usually purchase the Min-wax high-gloss poly in the can, and thin it down with mineral spirits to the viscosity I want....it's a lot cheaper than buying the can labeled "Wipe-ON"....I always use the high gloss...then use steel wool, for example, if I want a satin finish....

Don't let it get you down, Dave. You've build a truely beautiful guitar. Definitely something to be proud of!

Not much I can add to what everyone else has said except the old 'if at first you don't succeed...' adage. Finishes can be frustrating that's for sure - if they don't bloom on you they don't cure or they soak in unevenly.

Give it a break for a day or two and come back to it. Think of the sanding as a zen exercise - wax on wax off :wink:

Actually just had a thought - do you have a water trap on the line from the compressor - sometimes water out of the gun can make poly erupt in spots .

Yesterday I was mildly crapped off, today ( well yesterday!) I am Really P'd OFF big time! I was happy with the top as I'd shot 50 gazillion coats of acrylic at it and had polished it up a treat. Feeling really good about the front, then Dulux, the Paint God said "That boy is too bloody smug about the finish on that geetar so let's stuff up his day! Ha Ha Ha !!! " (Must be read aloud in a very deep voice.)

So the smug mug was pulling out the old newspaper and stuff from the interior of the beast which protected it from the spray gun, and the mug noticed some minute (very small Kwerk!) fine sort of little cracks in the finish on one of the F hole edges from whence the aforementioned newspaper had just been removed!
Having removed the stuffing Smug Mug then proceeded tp blow the dust from the inside of the body..........................and................. ............CRAP!
All of a sudden S.M. had a shipload of acrylic snow in the air. Just like Christmas in Beijing!
So what's a bloke to do? Keep on blowing the air baby! Now the top is naked of all but it's original shellac grain filler and sealer but I'm not telling anyone!:rolleyes:
"Per Adura ad Astra" ( that means pull the finger out Kwerk! )

So today I went fishing. That was a bloody disaster from the start as well!
Not one bite! My anchor jammed itself under some immovable object so had to "cut 'er loose" there goes $50.00 and never even got a single crab!!!

No comments (You know who!) But I did manage to fit a E and e to the beast and the action is just so low.....Chubby Checker would be impressed, just one fret to attend to, but considering I haven't done a level or crown on it yet pretty good, may need a thin shim at the front of the join to raise it about a fifth of a poofteenth but I think we'll be ok. If not I just won't play that note! Head hurts now so going to take a Bundy purely medicinal of course!

Wow it really didn't bond to the surface did it... Sorry to see that it didn't work. Glad to hear she plays well anyway.

I really don't understand why, I followed all the rules! I am sure that Dulux just hates me!

That's a bummer, Dave. Wipe it down with some Tru Oil and call it a day!

Shellac is a finish, right? So technically, it's still finished, right? ;-)

Shellac is a finish, right? So technically, it's still finished, right? ;-)

Actually it doesn't look that terrible it's just that I'd planned on doing a shiny one so I could learn the art of making that high gloss look. but it's OK as it is so finger out, running out of time (and patience)

DC

Nooooo! Dave, it was going so great, and I really love the design of this one. Finishing can be such a pain.

Wow, that stuff just flaked right off there, didn't it? On the bright side, at least it
happened now and not in the middle of an sold-out arena concert, right? (Hey, what
can I say, I'm an optimist)

I really don't understand why, I followed all the rules! I am sure that Dulux just hates me!

I wonder if the Shellac had not off gassed enough and that caused the bonding issue. Who knows, it stinks, but Tru Oil is easy and pretty fast. You can lacquer over it later if you want to.

Wow, so sorry for you. Very irritating I am sure. You have a great guitar there and I would imagine that after this experience you will like the poly just fine! Poly does make a good looking finish, and after watching Crazydave, I think it is fine on a guitar.

Nooooo! Dave, it was going so great, and I really love the design of this one. Finishing can be such a pain.

You're right about that Joe! Hope things are getting a bit better for you my friend!

DC

That's got your attention hasn't it?

Today I did get crabs.............well one crab and I invited him for dinner, and I must say one of us really enjoy tonight's meal. Freshly cooked crab meat on fresh bread sandwiches, with white vinegar and salt and pepper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't be dead for quids would you?

Bye the way those teeth can take off a finger if it gets in between them!

Apart from that bought a 6 pack of retractable biros from the dollar shop and robbed the little springs out of two of them. Cut in halves and they make perfect little springs for the pickups, still got enough for 4 more pickups, total cost $2.50 and I get 6 biro refills as well! This must be my lucky day even though I just missed the $70M lotto by a whisker, only 6 numbers short of a first division win! Can't believe how lucky I am!!!

Soldered the pickup wiring harness and fenagled it into the serial port socket
AND IT WORKED FIRST TIME! Will do some set up and photos tomorrow.

Dave, sorry to see the finishing problems. I was looking over
your thread to understand exactly what you'd put on the
body before the lacquer.

You used shellac, then wipe-on poly, then lacquer? Or
shellac, then poly, then removed the poly, then lacquer?

Some guesses as to the cause of your problem:

use of waxed rather than de-waxed shellac?
residue from the poly on the shellac?
shellac applied too thickly?
no sanding of the shellac?


The last two items are from bits I found on the web
about applying lacquer over shellac. I can imagine
that lacquer might not adhere well to shellac, since
they use different solvents.

Hang in there; the guitar is beautiful.

Hi All,
Today I have sort of finished this unit to a point where I can play it.

Supprisingly it has great tone and sustain and I'm only using el-cheapo twin rail h/buckers bought on e-bay from HongKong about $7.00Aud each. I used them on the Maton G240 replica as well and they work well there too.
They are wired for h/bucker- single coil- and parallel coils and there is a switch which gives either or both so there are quite a large number of tone options. No vol or tone pots as I believe they always rob you of gain and tone when they are in circuit and I placed the switches out of sight in little wooden buckets on the bottom edge.
Some specs:

Top and back Tasmanian oak grain filled with red shellac
Sides Sassafras
Neck Meranti, 13 degree scarf, Tas. oak veneer,gidgee skippy
inlay, zero fret, fret board is tilted to the playing hand side
to make that edge thinner and easier to access.
Bridge The bridge is home-made from Red Gum, as are the string
retainer, and pick up covers. The bridge angle is 5
degrees and radiused the same as the neck with a piece
of bass guitar fret wire the same as the zero fret
Tone bar Stainless steel

I must say that the intonation surprised me being so close to 100% accurate across the board something hard to get without a compensated bridge, but I was trying to make it as simple as i could and 5degrees seems to be close on some others I have done previously

The biggest problem was the finish (apart from not stuffing up the video thing 30 odd times) I always have trouble with that. If I ever build another guitar I think the wipe-ons will be used instead.

Anyway friends thanks for the advice throughout all this and now a few pix.

1gqrM44Ya3g&feature=channel&list=UL


Hi all as the title suggests the quality of playing is very rank. Tom Emanuelle was going to come over and do it for me but something important came up, probably cutting his toe-nails or something!

Thanks to all the people here for the advice and encouragement and best of luck all, there are some truly talented and generous people on here.
I think I'll not build another guitar for quite a while, when some other stuff is sorted maybe, but I'll be lurking so good luck everyone!

That was uber cool!

Great playing and the guitar sounds and looks absolutely ace! It has a great tone and sustain.

Really well done Dave! I think the finish looks pretty damn good as it currently stands too - no matter what type of finish you were aiming for in the first place. It's also a special guitar because of the creativity that went into the design - and that really shines through.

Wow, very well done!

hip, hip , hooray for dave.....

a very surf sound .. cowabunga!...

looking good... it's ALIVE!!!...

Awesome Dave!

Love the tone of your $7 pickups. Sweet! I think your ideas about not using tone or volume controls have merit. Really they are only on guitars for convenience as they already exist on the amp. I know my Esquires really jump when I switch them to the straight through position. Really nice design and execution. Now it's time to clean up!

Barncaster

Awesome Dave!

Now it's time to clean up!

Barncaster

Clean up is correct BC the shed is looking like a rubbish tip and the house needs a scrub, and my act is also in need of a clean-up. I now have about 9 guitars so don't really need another one. I have found over the years that the best guitar in the world will never equate to playing ability, I'm looking at something else to fill the void for a while. I love making these things and will again but need a change.

I want to email the link to that video on You Tube to a friend overseas, does anyone know what I need to copy and paste into the email??

Thanks in advance! DC

Hip hip hooray!

Well done Dave, what a groovy sound, complements the fabulous look and build quality.

Congratulations on a fine guitar!! :grin:

I want to email the link to that video on You Tube to a friend overseas, does anyone know what I need to copy and paste into the email??

Thanks in advance! DC

You can put this link in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1gqrM44Ya3g

Awesome, great playing Dave. Thanks for sharing this cool build and some cool ideas.

That sounded great! Nice build.

Hell!!!! I forgot to post the photo of Skippy the single most important and best part of this guitar. So without further ado, I present "Skippy the bush kangaroo! "

Wow, that is absolutely fantastic!
I love all the wood grains and the little buckets for the switches.

Great Job Dave - sounds and looks great!

That thing sounds HAWT!

Thanks Guys! Too kind! Thanks for the info Mr. South

Looks great Dave. Really like the cutaway. Oh and Skippy, he was great too! :)

Dep

Superb, Dave! Thumbs up for a job well-done!

Great playing Dave and a great build - The guitar is superb.

That turned out great, and sounds awesome as well. Hip hip hooray indeed! Cheers mate, hope you build another (at the very least) for next year's challenge.

I'm loving the sound!

Hi Dave!
Congratulations on another beautiful and innovative guitar - love your work. The video's not bad either for an old bloke :-) No really, your entire thread re this build challenge has been informative, inspiring, and best of all hugely entertaining (as I knew it would be, coming from you!)
For others reading this, my first post to Dave's thread, I am the very lucky custodian of Dave's Skelecaster (described elsewhere). This amazing creation features Dave's kerfing construction in a double sided variation, and a trapezoidal neck profile with his signature volute on the rear of the headstock. Other details include original hand made nut, bridge plate, pickup surround and control plate, plus unique fret markers and Dave's solid no-tweak truss rod. Photos? It may still be on TDPRI - happy hunting!

Hi Dave!
Congratulations on another beautiful and innovative guitar - love your work. The video's not bad either for an old bloke :-) No really, your entire thread re this build challenge has been informative, inspiring, and best of all hugely entertaining (as I knew it would be, coming from you!)
For others reading this, my first post to Dave's thread, I am the very lucky custodian of Dave's Skelecaster (described elsewhere). This amazing creation features Dave's kerfing construction in a double sided variation, and a trapezoidal neck profile with his signature volute on the rear of the headstock. Other details include original hand made nut, bridge plate, pickup surround and control plate, plus unique fret markers and Dave's solid no-tweak truss rod. Photos? It may still be on TDPRI - happy hunting!

Hi Paul Good to see you on here. Now all you have to do is get some wood(Lord knows there's heaps of it where you live!) and make some sawdust yourself.

HEY!!! I almost missed this "completed & video'ed" update. Good thing it came back up.
GReat job and the guitar (and the playing) sound awesome!

Well done Dave! :smile:, another unique build (where do all the ideas come from?). Good luck on the other pursuits, and God bless :grin:

Great job , sounds awesome :smile:

Love it...looks, sounds, playing...it's all good. Congrats!!!

1gqrM44Ya3g&feature=channel&list=UL


I shall endevour to do the video thing again, and post a final photo as requested.

This challenge was a blast as usual and made more enjoyable by the help and camaraderie of this entire body of people.
I especially would like to thank Kwerk for technical help and for being the brunt of my wierd humour, (remind me to tell you the truth about Kwerk, the sheep, and the midget), and not so Crazy Dave for being an encouraging force for all contestants, and a real gentleman!

This is really is a great place to be and the level of friendship and help and sharing of information is just wonderful.

Regards Dave C.

Dave that really is a sweet looking and sounding build , Great job on the video me thinks! Wish i could play like you. Congrats!! you should defiantly be proud, all your hard work really paid off.

Nice work! It's a beauty, it's different, and it sounds great!