Sorta Gretsch-inspired...

[Jack Wells]

....aren't you a bit tempted by the idea of clear pickguard painted golden from behind?

Speaking of painting the backside of a clear pickguard gold, has anyone had good luck doing this. I've tried it a couple of times but didn't get a nice uniform result like you see on a Gretsch pickguard. If anyone has any tips, I'd appreciate your sharing them.

[nasonm]

On Gretschpages.com you can find a user by the name of Setzer Signs that makes fantastic "gretsch" back painted guards. He can make anything you want.

shots of his work

[Fezdeluxe]

Originally Posted by Jack Wells

Speaking of painting the backside of a clear pickguard gold, has anyone had good luck doing this. I've tried it a couple of times but didn't get a nice uniform result like you see on a Gretsch pickguard. If anyone has any tips, I'd appreciate your sharing them.

Hold the spraycan very far away and do multiple passes. Just "dust" or dryspray it it until it´s covered. Check against a light to make sure.

[Fezdeluxe]

Just waiting for the "Bullet"-rod, then I can start working on the neck. Can´t finish the layout of things until I know exactly where the fretboard will end, then the fun begins... :-)

[Fezdeluxe]

Jeeezzz. Busy weeks. Coming down with a heavy cold, taking care of a friends dog while he and his family went skiing in the mountains, and no trussrod in sight. Until now that is.

FINALLY!!! Started roughing out the neck and body. I keep the neck too thick for the moment until the hole for the truss-rod nut is drilled, then take it down to thickness. Will have to gouge the underside of the fretboard later to make sure the nut fits ok.

Body, no prob so far. A plane, a rasp,a scraper, some elbow grease and voila, contours!

Tried to sketch my ideas on the body to see how it will work out. Not quite decided on the shape of the pickguard yet.

[Fezdeluxe]

Not quite there yet, but taking off more wood will have to wait until the maple-top is glued on so I can see how it looks with binding and all.

[Fezdeluxe]

Managed to get to work early today as i needed lots of time to get the top going.

I found the body a bit heavy, so I decided to "Swiss-Cheese" it to get the weight down some.

Secured the top in exact position using three smallish woodscrews, clamped a real dense board along the "breakpoint" of the armbevel and got out old Betty.... Woodbending on a budget.... Maximum heat and soaking the wood with water between runs. Applying heat, bending, rocking and pressing the iron until the curve followed that of the mahogany underneath. Well, sort of. It´s really hard to get flame maple 4mm thick to do what you want.

Clamped the whole thing down as tight as I could to let it settle for a while. Took the whole thing apart after 30 mins or so, masked of the edge of the guitar to avoid glue-runs on the mahogany, applied a thick coat of epoxy (especially on the bevel) positioning the top using the screws again and clamped the whole thing down HARD, making sure the top didn´t slip, cleaning up glue squeeze out and checking that the top is sitting tight all around.

Had some trouble pressing it tight at the bottom edge of the bevel, clamps just won´t get a good grip because the angle is too steep and they keep falling off. Ended up putting 80 grit sticky sandpaper on both clamps and cauls which made things a bit better, but there´s still a small gap. Well, let´s see what it looks like when the clamps come off. Hopefully it will disappear when I cut the binding-ledge.

[TEAM LANDRETH]

I would go with the clean fret board. Dot inlays along the top edge are a good idea, and I really like the Danny Gatton cubic zirconium fret markers, too.

Good luck with your build! It looks great so far.

[Fezdeluxe]

Thank you. You´re absolutely right. Fretboard needs to be clean. Thought of rounded block inlays or off-centre dots in different sizes but nothing worked out. Guess it will make a nice contrast as the rest of the guitar will be quite busy with lots of crome and details all over.

[GustavV]

Kul att se att det finns fler svenskar här på forumet!

Kommer följa bygget med spänning.

[Fezdeluxe]

Hallå ja! Vi får se hur det blir. Kommer inte åt att få av tvingarna förrän måndag.....otålig..

[Fezdeluxe]

Weheey!!! Glueing went OK! No slipping, glue-seam is dead center and just a slight gap of 1/32" along the "tip" of the arm-bevel, which will disappear completely since I got lucky and found some 2mm wide old celluloid binding. Forgot I had it. Have to work a bit more on the contour on the back to make it follow the shape of the top a bit better. Only a slight adjustment, but not for now. So impatient to get going, which is not very good as things tend to go wrong..... that´s why I took it easy today. Just cleaning up the edges with bandsaw and router, laying out and drilling the cavities.. Hopefully I can get to routing it all tomorrow. The neck pup will have to wait though until the neck is done so I can position it correctly. Extended fretboard and a big, shiny pickup-frame makes for indecision..

[Birdmankustomz]

lookin good so far

[Fezdeluxe]

Good decision to do the routing today. Got up early and had lots of time before work. No stress means decent routing. What had bothered me was how to avoid the truss-rod gap on my template. Took a chance to use a straight piece of MDF as a guide for the routerbit, and it turned out ok. Just aligned my (not too good anymore) standard template to rout the rest.

Even had time to sand the top a little with 80-grit to get rid of the worst marks from bending and glueing. And to lay some stuff out just to get a preview...

No more work for a while, which feels nice. Although I know cutting the binding ledge and getting started on the neck will be buzzing in the back of my head, vacation or not.

See ya monday, I´m off!

[blrproject]

I like what ur doing I did one 2 years ago like that out of birds eye maple

[Fezdeluxe]

Cool! Thanks for the pic. Gives me a better idea of what I´m aiming for. How does the neck pup behave?

[blrproject]

Originally Posted by Fezdeluxe

Cool! Thanks for the pic. Gives me a better idea of what I´m aiming for. How does the neck pup behave?

pretty awsome sounding, I dont play it much,

[Fezdeluxe]

Well, today is holidays, so I got to work early.... Man it feels good to have a whole day to just work along without having to look at the clock. And I really got it going.

Cut most of the binding-ledge with a rebate-bit on the router table, the bevel had to be cut the old-school way. Homemade cutter and chisel...turned out nice though I haven´t done it for quite some time. Cleaned up any uneven spots from the routing with 120 grit and started getting the binding in place using glue made from celluloid scraps dissolved in laqcuer thinner. I also rediscovered exactly how flammable celluloid is, just heating it a bit with a hairdryer to make it bend easily in the curves.. That stuff is REALLY dangerous!! Smoke all over the place.

Once the binding was in place it was time to start with the neck. (Finally) Been putting it off for a while because I didn´t dare to drill "in the dark" as I have no jig or proper measurements to work from.
Until today that is, but I was very nervous. Marking centre, estimated starting point and where I´d like the truss-rod nut to end up (it´s a "bullet") drilled with a LONG 9mm bit, then 5mm (marked with tape to get the correct depth) making sure to keep both aligned with the centreline and at a slight tilt. After that, it was time for the moment of truth. Routing the trussrod channel is a breeze now that I have a decent jig. Just used double sticky tape, aligned the neck with the centre-line, set the depth and... Shallow passes until the channel was flush with the hole from the 5mm drill. (Phew... not too deep, and dead centre) I left the neck way too thick just to have enough wood for the drill to dig in to without slipping, once it was done i took it down to 21mm with the planer. Will have to gouge the fretboard later to make room for the trussrod nut, but I´ll save that problem for later....

Cut the trussrod to length, made an anchor out of a scrap piece of brass, threaded to 10-32 and glued the whole thing in place once the rod was done.

Even had time to cut the fret slots! Thank god for Stew-Mac! Very nice piece of ebony cut perfectly with the awesome acrylic template.

[Fezdeluxe]

Continued....

[Fezdeluxe]

Got a little something done today aswell! Springtime has finally arrived so I didn´t feel like staying all day in the workshop. Scraped the binding flush with a cabinet scraper, and to my surprise it looked really good. I find it very difficult to get it completely tight all the way around, especially with 2mm thick and stiff binding and lots of curves.

Fretboard cut to width and hand planed until the edges were dead straight and the width was spot on. The hardest thing is to work equal amounts off of each side of the fretboard. If you don´t, the frets won´t be 90 degrees to the centreline which in short means: not good. Positioning the fretboard on the neck with the help from two small nails, applied a very thin coat of epoxy (to prevent the neck from warping or getting a back-bow, which often happens with water-based glues) and clamped it down hard, cleaning up the squeeze-out with TP and meths. I decided not to use a clamping board as the fretboard had taken on a slightly concave shape. No problem keeping the edges tight there. Sometimes you get lucky...

Enough done. The sun is shining, my gramps old bicycle is creaking as I make my way to the nearest Pub for a big cold one sitting outside in the sun on the first REAL day of spring.