Puzzlecaster

[TRexF16]

Lightblue, thanks for setting me straight! I'm glad you're doing it that way. If you haven't done the epoxy yet, let me try to figure out the name of the two part resin I have used to fill knots and voids in knotty alder in some cabinetmaking I did. I got it at an automiotive store. When first mixed it is quite thin, and flows very well to fill all gaps, then hardens to standard epoxy toughness, and no bubbles to make unsightly voids as well. I used balck epoxy dye in my work. Might be just the thing for this.
Rex

[TRexF16]

OK, I found it. It's this stuff
http://bondo.com/bondo-fiberglass-resin-404.html

Though I got mine in a quart container, with hardener. I already had the epoxy dye, an Acraglass product I got through Brownells.

Good luck!
Rex

[Lightbluemk2]

Headstock idea?

[Lightbluemk2]

Progress;

Picked up my neck laminates and glued the neck blank up



Mixed up my black epoxy mix



I covered both edges for each join for the body and stuck them all togeather, and flooded the surface with what epoxy I had left, there's bound to be a few air bubbles and a few gaps around some pieces but nothing I can't drop fill with more epoxy later

[mgdesigns]

That's going to be a very heavy guitar when done, unless you weight relieve it from the back. Should look awesome though.

[Lightbluemk2]

Not to be rude, but I'm struggling to see how it's going to be heavy? The average density of the three timbers is about 650Kg/m3 and about 12% MC, and mine is at about 8%, in Autocad I found the volume to be about 0.004m3, so that makes for a mass of about 2.6KG not including my pickup and control cavities being taken out. I'd say that's pretty good!

[jipp]

looks great. cant say i care for the head stock tho. i think what i would do here is make two 1/4" puzzle pieces. then maybe under the puzzle have a ebony or some contrasting color to the core of the neck. and same to the back. would look cool, and still have the stability. but if you like the puzzle. hope that make sense. sorta like how gibson dose there holy veneer over the mahogany.. just instead of holly you use the puzzle.. if you like the puzzle head head stock go for it.
chris.

[oramac7891]

Great puzzle idea

[Lightbluemk2]

Today I went at both faces with the electric plane and roughly took off most of the epoxy to expose areas that need more filling, then I just drop filled those with more epoxy mix. Once all thats sorted I'll run it through the thickness sander and take a good couple of mm off each side



In general the black lines between the pieces were pretty good, they arent perfect, but I like it that way, reminds you it's hand made and everyones human

[Lightbluemk2]

I had another question to put to the electronics guys on the forum,

I have a Artec MB-1 blender preamp lying around I was thinking about using for this. It has a 2.5mm jack input for a undersaddle piezo pickup, however I've been looking into the LR Baggs T-bridge, which has individual piezos and a summing board giving you a single wire output, plus a shielding wire. Surely I could just wire these two into a 2.5mm jack in order to make that bridge comparable with my preamp right?

[Nick JD]

Originally Posted by Lightbluemk2

The average density of the three timbers is about 650Kg/m3...

That's about the same as Rock Maple.

[Jupiter]

That epoxy looks great!

[PinewoodRo]

Originally Posted by Lightbluemk2

I had another question to put to the electronics guys on the forum,

I have a Artec MB-1 blender preamp lying around I was thinking about using for this. It has a 2.5mm jack input for a undersaddle piezo pickup, however I've been looking into the LR Baggs T-bridge, which has individual piezos and a summing board giving you a single wire output, plus a shielding wire. Surely I could just wire these two into a 2.5mm jack in order to make that bridge comparable with my preamp right?

Don't see why not, although you might be better off hard-wiring it as 2.5 mm jacks are not the most reliable connectors.
Fantastic looking guitar, can't wait to see it finished. Thanks for posting all the pics.

[Warnz]

Can't wait to this with a finish on it, superb concept

Looking at the headstock, how do you intend laying out the tuners ?

[Lightbluemk2]

Don't see why not, although you might be better off hard-wiring it as 2.5 mm jacks are not the most reliable connectors

Thanks, I thought so too. The 2.5mm jack has 3 connections to the pcb board, I'll get out a multimeter and test for continuity between them, because it looks like a couple of earths and one hot, but I have no way of really knowing.

That's about the same as Rock Maple.

Hah we'll my timbers a fair bit dryer than the 12% MC i took those values from, and it's not going to be a thick guitar, so I'm not worried, worst comes to worst it'll just give my back a good workout

[Berndizzle440]

In general the black lines between the pieces were pretty good, they arent perfect, but I like it that way, reminds you it's hand made and everyones human

YES!!!! every time i make a mistake on one of my builds I get very angry and walk away from it for a while. After i come back the mistake kind of grows on me and i then realized "yes i made this and now i have proof to show anybody who might think i bought this (yea right) ;)"

[Lightbluemk2]

Hooray for progress, been a exciting day.

Thickness sanded the body, came out pretty damn good. There's a couple of areas of minor colour bleed into the pine but nothing a bit of light sanding and alcohol wont get rid of Im sure.







Also cut my fretboard on the cnc, didn't settle on a inlay yet, so laser'd out a puzzle piece as a template and think I might use that



I also thought I might do a couple of contours on the body, so cut a practice body out of some pine so I can be sure I have the processes down before I cut out the real deal, I'd hate to ruin the puzzle body after doing so much work to get it this far.





Knob idea? :D

[midget bar]

This is the coolist build going. I love the look of it and the fact that you are going with full thickness pieces. The knob idea is good as well. I can't wait to see this finished.

[Chewie219]

[






Could you possibly send me this design? I love the layout of this guitar and would love to build one. Thank you.

[JDO]

i'm digging this.