Daughter of Ol' Piney

[Taipan]

I was going to call this build the Son of Ol' Piney but a friend of my reminded me that all my guitars have girls names and (Arlo snagged that name already).
I know I have a lot of build going on but this will be the one I concentrate on first.
Say hello to my little Darling ... She weighs in at 3.88 lb. She is a little spinner.





Since I could not afford to have the dust in my Machine Shop and it was to cold to do it outside my brother in-law Clint routed her out at his place. If you look closely at the neck PU cavity and the control cavity above you can see where he signed it as the router got away from him a bit.
We used a set of Ron Kirn templates. If anyone needs a set of Templates look no further than Ron. They are Sweet.

[Taipan]

And this will be her party dress:

[0le FUZZY]

...NOW! yer cookin. I kin come back tew this thread over and over again and smile.


...Very very purdy grain and oh sew Tele lookin!!

...I hope yew don't put a J5 neck and headstock onnit HEE! HEE!

...Keep us posted !!









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[BritishBluesBoy]

What a pretty, pretty piece of Telecaster shaped timber... Nice!

This one's gonna be a looker I can tell...

Cool.

[91xlntS-3]

Now THAT'S a nice looking piece of pine! great job! Can't wait to see how she turns out!

[Caper]

That is a great lookin body, glad to hear you'll be putting a see through outfit on her

[Taipan]

Had a chance to do some work on the the Ol' girl this past weekend.
First we had to make up some parts.
Starting out with some Aluminum , Brass and 304 SS

We when to:

And ended up with these:

[Taipan]

Then we had make a spot for them to go:


When we were done we ended up with:


When it comes time to play with the tone I can drop in the different materials and dial her in:

[Taipan]

I also wanted her to not have anything sticking out on her backside. Kinda like when you see a girl with a great fitting par of jeans with no back pockets. Your eye just follows the.... shape.
So I recessed in the neck plate:


I make my neck plates out of 304 SS and they are .12 thick I dropped it in around .125 and we get:

Nice and Smooth

[GilmourD]

That "ferrule" idea is awesome. Is that how G&L does it or is their's thinner?

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by GilmourD

That "ferrule" idea is awesome. Is that how G&L does it or is their's thinner?

Their high density plastic block is actually about twice that deep, if I remember right. Been having this in mind as a remedy in case I mess up a string through drill through, so easy to do. The G + L block just slips out when the strings are removed.

[odiemann]

Now there you go! A simple, modular idea that provides some basis for an individual to dial in their own pet tone. That is one hell of an idea! Long overdue and functional. With all the conversations about pickups, rosewood v. maple, bridges and saddles, this is a real influence on tone which can somewhat be tested scientifically.

Good on ya'!

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by odiemann

this is a real influence tone somewhat scientifically.

Well I don't know how scientific it was coming to this but a few years ago I picked up a Godin LG - P90 at a good price. I was really impressed with the guitar but since this is a Tele site I won't go into those details. What I will say is that I was looking at installing some boutique made pickups like Lollars , WB, or Harmonic Designs as we all know ( or think) that the "Made by Seymour Duncan" couldn't be all that good, right? One day while changing the strings I pulled out the thin brass plate ( .120 thick ) that Godin uses. The pocket that they put in for it is . 50 wide and .4 deep give or take how much paint they have in there. I went into my shop and made one grabbed a 1/2 square piece of brass and made a new one up and put it back together. We I tell you what that guitar that was pretty good , came alive. I just could not believe the difference it made. Nether could anyone that had heard it before. They all asked "What did you do? " Did you put new Pick ups in it?" Well needless to say the made by Seymour Duncan stayed in the guitar and I have made and sold a bunch of them to other Godin owners.
Then one day while I was changing the strings on my Tele I was looking at the string ferrules and thought same-same with the Godin and I have not looked back. I have made and sold a bunch of them to other Tele owners. In using the different materials ( Alum, Steel, 304 SS. Titanium or Brass ) You can tweak and lean the guitar to the desired tone before running off and changing pickups. The biggest compliment I get is from the pro players that play for a living. They are the ones that really know their guitars and their amp settings. When they call or email me to tell me that they changed their amp settings because of my bar, I know I done good.
Yes you have to mill or rout a slot in the back of the guitar and some purists throw up their arms at the thought of removing the string ferrules and shout "if Leo this and that" but that's OK I am not out to win anybody over. I know what I know.

As far as my girl is concerned I have cleaned her up, sanded her, wet her down to raise the grain and sanded her again and she is ready for finish. I was going to put Feed-N- Wax down on her but I am having some reservations. Let me explain. I put some ( 4 coats ) on a test piece over two days being real careful, let it dry another 2 days and buffed it out. It looked real, real good. But my concern is that I picked up the piece later in the day after I had been machining and although my hand were not all that dirty I put some smudge marks in it. When I went to wipe them off I sorta wiped them in. They did not come out so I thinking that's not good.
I grabbed another piece and took some boiled linseed oil. Heated it to 150 degrees or so and wiped in on. Waited 20 mins and wipe it of then wiped some more on waited another 20 mins and wiped it off. Then I let it dry overnight and put 2 coats of shellac on let it dry overnight and then 2 more coats. I must say it looks pretty damm good and almost the same tone/tint as the Feed- N - Wax but not quite as dark. Grain looks good.
My question is has any one every used Boiled Linseed oil/ Shellac in this manner? Anything I need to look out for before I put it on my girl?
Thanks

[casterway]

Originally Posted by Taipan

Well I don't know how scientific it was coming to this but a few years ago I picked up a Godin LG - P90 at a good price. I was really impressed with the guitar but since this is a Tele site I won't go into those details. What I will say is that I was looking at installing some boutique made pickups like Lollars , WB, or Harmonic Designs as we all know ( or think) that the "Made by Seymour Duncan" couldn't be all that good, right? One day while changing the strings I pulled out the thin brass plate ( .120 thick ) that Godin uses. The pocket that they put in for it is . 50 wide and .4 deep give or take how much paint they have in there. I went into my shop and made one grabbed a 1/2 square piece of brass and made a new one up and put it back together. We I tell you what that guitar that was pretty good , came alive. I just could not believe the difference it made. Nether could anyone that had heard it before. They all asked "What did you do? " Did you put new Pick ups in it?" Well needless to say the made by Seymour Duncan stayed in the guitar and I have made and sold a bunch of them to other Godin owners.
Then one day while I was changing the strings on my Tele I was looking at the string ferrules and thought same-same with the Godin and I have not looked back. I have made and sold a bunch of them to other Tele owners. In using the different materials ( Alum, Steel, 304 SS. Titanium or Brass ) You can tweak and lean the guitar to the desired tone before running off and changing pickups. The biggest compliment I get is from the pro players that play for a living. They are the ones that really know their guitars and their amp settings. When they call or email me to tell me that they changed their amp settings because of my bar, I know I done good.
Yes you have to mill or rout a slot in the back of the guitar and some purists throw up their arms at the thought of removing the string ferrules and shout "if Leo this and that" but that's OK I am not out to win anybody over. I know what I know.

As far as my girl is concerned I have cleaned her up, sanded her, wet her down to raise the grain and sanded her again and she is ready for finish. I was going to put Feed-N- Wax down on her but I am having some reservations. Let me explain. I put some ( 4 coats ) on a test piece over two days being real careful, let it dry another 2 days and buffed it out. It looked real, real good. But my concern is that I picked up the piece later in the day after I had been machining and although my hand were not all that dirty I put some smudge marks in it. When I went to wipe them off I sorta wiped them in. They did not come out so I thinking that's not good.
I grabbed another piece and took some boiled linseed oil. Heated it to 150 degrees or so and wiped in on. Waited 20 mins and wipe it of then wiped some more on waited another 20 mins and wiped it off. Then I let it dry overnight and put 2 coats of shellac on let it dry overnight and then 2 more coats. I must say it looks pretty damm good and almost the same tone/tint as the Feed- N - Wax but not quite as dark. Grain looks good.
My question is has any one every used Boiled Linseed oil/ Shellac in this manner? Anything I need to look out for before I put it on my girl?
Thanks

Hey, cool. Just looked at my LG-90 (Gold metalflake-what colour is yours?). I'm a machinist, too. I'm going to try this trick too.

[Taipan]

casterway - Got a Gold Metal Flake 24 fret and Black Metal Flake 22 fret. Report back on what you find after you mod it and how fast you rip them ferrules out of your teles.

[Arlo]

Vince, the Feed N Wax is notorious for picking up smudge from a guitar stand with foam. Especially black. I have been dealing with that since day one. I would imagine that having a lot of metallic dust from your machine shop would also be a problem.

The wax never really dries out so much as it soaks in overtime. My guitar does get dry as a bone after a few months but that is usually what triggers off the re coat reflex.

The only really nice thing about Howard's for me is that it will keep the body looking like raw wood. That was one of my reasons for building a Pinecaster in the beginning. After seeing those body's on Glendale's site I envisioned having a plain Pine body with a nice vintage style neck.

So I can certainly point out that Howard's looks great and will give you a protection for a plain open wood, however it will be tough to deal with. It remains wet for days and needs to be rubbed off and like any wet waxy substance attracts smudges from guitar straps, stands with black foam or dirt.

[mlp-mx6]

I would simply say that wax is not a finish.

BTW, you sell those "ferrule blocks"? More info, please.

[Taipan]

After I sanded her down to 320 grit - Did I ever tell you how much I love the smell of pine?... I put her on the scale.

Then I wipe her down with Naphtha , Mineral spirits, and then water mixed with some Ammonia to get her nice and clean, let her dry and then sanded her lightly - Did I ever tell you how much I love the smell of pine ?...to remove any raised grain.
I decided against the Feed -N-Wax and heated up some Boiled Linseed oil to approx 150 degrees and generously wiped it on, waited 30 mins and wiped it off.
Here are the results after 24hr drying:






Pictures really don't show how good the grain looks and the overall tint. I will be giving her one more coat of the BLO let her dry couple of days and then it will be time to give her a good Shellacing.

[Taipan]

Been slowly working on this ing thing. I tell you give me a gun and let me shoot a guitar any day. But since the weather is not going to let me do that we will just have to keep on rubbin and rubin and rubin and rubbin some more.
Tips so far: Spend more time leveling the guitar before you start the French Polish. Shooting with a gun you can lay more on and level the paint. With the FP method your build up is so thin that you have to build and build and build and build some more to level so your better off to do it on the raw wood. I have 11 coats so far and I am almost level.

[Taipan]

Couple of more images:

[Ronkirn]

Lookin pretty dawggone good without sprayin' anything...


Ron Kirn

[Arlo]

Looking good Vince! Keep posting them pics bro.

[boris bubbanov]

[quote=Taipan;1160003]


I don't know which I like more, wood or guitars.

I guess wooden guitars is best.

Great work. Someday I'll have the patience to do it right like that.