Sorta Gretsch-inspired...

[Hollmanp90]

Keep on trucking and make'n it work.....and it looks primo.

[Fezdeluxe]

Sunday is meant for resting I´ve heard. Just too eager to make progress. Fretboard looked great once the clamps came off! Exactly where I wanted it to be and hardly any squeeze-out. The little that was could easily be taken care of with a sharp chisel. Excess wood behind the nut was cut off with a coping-saw and cleaned up with rasps and files. Got rid of the nasty marks from the bandsaw aswell with a scraper and sanding-block. Headstock is dead on. Truss-nut hole was a bit tight so I had to sand it open with some stikit 220 on a piece of tubing. (I gouged it yesterday) Necessity is the mother of headache..... Once the nut fit ok, i tightened the trussrod to get a slight backbow and just taking very thin shavings with a SHARP plane worked my way from the edges to make a nice 12" radius, checking constantly with a straightedge and radius gauge (thanks again Stew-Mac) ,cleaning up now and then with an 80 grit sanding stick. Once the radius was okey and fretboard nice and straight I sanded it down to 600, taking care to not make any dips or round the edges.

Cleaned up the nut-slot, and glued on the binding. Just have to wait until the glue dries before any more gets done.

I´m really surprised how well everything goes, believe me! I´ll probably make a major goof anytime soon, like routing through the body or something...

[Fezdeluxe]

Head and shoulders..?

[Jack Wells]

Wow ............. this is going to be a real beauty.

[Fezdeluxe]

Thanks! Sure hope so. Doing my best, but there will be goofs! :-)

[Jack Wells]

If you're planning on orange, the Colortone liquid stains from StewMac work well.

[Fezdeluxe]

That´s exactly what I had in mind. :-) Think I´ll experiment with red too to see if I can get a more "Tennesseean" look. You got any tips on doing that?

[Jack Wells]

The following was done with the ColorTone Orange liquid stain mixed in the recommended proportions of 1 oz. stain to 32 oz. alcohol. Since you probably don't want to mix up a full quart, that works out to be 3/4 teaspoon stain to 4 oz. alcohol. They say it can also be mixed with water but I chose alcohol. I have no idea how those proportions would relate to European measures.

......

[Fezdeluxe]

Looks sweet! I´ll just have to Google a converter for the measurements. Somtimeyz me likEe tha innernut. You have more pics of that axe? And yep, alcohol is better. Soaks better, dries faster and doesn´t raise grain. Even like the smell of meths...

[Fezdeluxe]

Very productive day yesterday. Got the bridge in place which was a pain since someone at Wilkinson had a bad day and drilled all the string holes (in fact, ALL holes) way off... which means that instead of just drilling, I had to make loads of measuring and calculation to compensate when I drilled for the ferrules. Hate maths... Getting the ferrules right is one of the hardest parts I think. The least bit wrong and it shows instantly.

With the bridge in place, time to rout for the neck pup. Couldn´t figure out how to do it with the few routerbits I have. Ended up using the router I normally use for trussrods. The router isn´t good for anything else because the 5mm bit is stuck in there since the collet is broken... Measuring out where the different cavities would be, drilling out most of the wood.
Trying to position the oversized templates was a whole lot more work than I expected. The template ring on the router wasn´t exactly centred if you know what I mean, and it had to be done in two steps with two templates overlapping.

One thing I hadn´t thought of was how the bit would cut in the curves. Inside curves were ok, nice and sharp. But outside? I didn´t get the nice humbucker-type cavity I aimed for, looks kind of weird I think. First goof?

It won´t show, but it still nags me. Pickup fits great though and to my surprise, dead centre. At least I know what not to do the next time.

[Fezdeluxe]

If anyone hears and echo, don´t worry. It´s just my pickup-cavity. Looks like Grand Canyon..

[Fezdeluxe]

Turned out good though. I´m happy! I have to be because I´m NOT going to do that again!!!

Next time I´ll have to figure out a better way. Maybe do an Esquire...

[herr_rudolf]

Love it!
Can't wait to see it in a dark color. Vintage orange? ...Wallnut brown would be cool too...

[Dr.Ow!]

Looks great! Love that bent top. And Tennessean Orange is such a classic...+++

[Jack Wells]

You have more pics of that axe?

Here's one.

......

[Stuco]

Absolutely fantastic work.

[Fezdeluxe]

Thanks alot guys! Really appreciate it. I´m getting second thoughts on the colour..... Orange or red....? Red feels a bit more elegant to me, orange is more punch in the face attitude. What do you guys think? Would be fun to have a vote and let the outcome decide.

Same with the pickguard. Have a few ideas but none seems to work out too good. Suggestions?

[herr_rudolf]

I always thought the orange of the reissue gretsches were too bright. But Fender guys trying to reproduce that colour seem to get it even brighter. (and the gold even more 'goldier'...) Not a good thing, imho. Looking at lot's of pics of vintage Gretsches should give you an idea. Those colours look more natural to me than the new ones, whether it's the orangebrown or redish-brown...

...and look what colour pickguard shoud go with it. As for the shape: ...you have a Telebody-shape, and a Tele-controlplate... I think the only way to go is an original Tele pickguard-shape on this one...

good luck!

[Fezdeluxe]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Just thinking of late fifties Tennesseean s who seems to be more 6120 orange, or the later ones who were more to the red. And Firejets of course. As for the pickguard (it will be black) I´d prefer not to make it too big, more like a hybrid. I´m picky, I know, just don´t want to obscure all the nice flames.... :-)

[Uma Floresta]

That's looking really great!