Maple Burl Thinline with Herringbone Purfling

[gb Custom Shop]

I started a new build a couple weeks ago, and there are some new things I'll be trying out here. What better place to document all this!?

The inspiration for this build is this custom shop fender with the burl top and herringbone purfling. It's well outside my budget, so I've elected to build my own.

I'll be using maple burl for the top, and torrefied ash for the body. The top has quite a few imperfections that will need to be addressed, and that's where I started.

I started by cleaning out all the little soft, brown spots. I bought a cheap set of dental picks just for this task. They were helpful, but for slightly bigger areas, I found the Dremel with a mini carving bit to be much more efficient. Once that was done, I cleaned everything up with a brass brush. All in all, this took hours!

After all that was cleaned up, it was time to fill all these imperfections. The reason I'm doing this now at this stage, is because some of these imperfections go all the way through the top. And since this will be a thinline, it needs to be addressed before gluing on the top. So I masked the backside of the top with tuck tape.

Then I mixed up a slow cure epoxy with some black mica, and filled in all the holes.

Thankfully I got no leaks! Once it cured, I cleaned it up at the drum sander. That revealed a few more imperfections that I just addressed with CA and mica.
Lastly, I routed out the f hole and control cavity, at which point the top is ready to be glued to the body.

 

[AlbertoMilanese]

Damn, that's going to be a looker!

 

[gb Custom Shop]

I've used swamp ash a couple times before, but this is the first time I use torrefied swamp ash. I'm a big fan of torrefied woods, on many different levels.

Got it chambered, and routed some channels for the wires. I'll be using wood-mounted P90's for neck & bridge, so I routed the wire channel to the final depth of the pickup cavities, with consideration to the top thickness.

Got the top glued on, and here it is out of the clamps.

Flush trimmed the perimeter, routed out the pick up cavities, drilled bridge and ferrule holes, and sanded the edges as perfectly as possible...all before the real fun part!

Without the neck pocket and side jack hogged out (which I'll do after the binding/purfling install), we're sitting at a weight of:

Happy with that weight!

 

[gb Custom Shop]

At this point I'm just about ready to tackle the binding & purfling. The purfling is wood, and I elected to use plastic binding. Thus I decided to use thin CA as my adhesive, which was a first for me for binding.

I did a little test piece, and noticed that with the porous ash, the thin CA really seeps in and darkens the wood considerably. However on the maple top, this was not an issue. Therefore I decided to apply a diluted wash coat of zpoxy to the ash before cutting the binding channel. I'll also use zpoxy as part of my finishing process

I routed the purfling and binding channels, and then started to prepare the purfling. The herringbone purfling I'm using was pre-bent for a dreadnought, but that was neither advantageous nor disadvantageous (it's just what my domestic luthier supply store had in stock). I followed the Stewmac video demonstration of splitting the purfling into 3 sections to allow for easier bending around the tighter radiuses. A little heat and they split apart like butter.

I then worked the piece of purfling around the body. Apply a little bit of heat with the heat gun, bend into place, tape, and repeat. I started with the horn area, but if I were to do this again, I would start at the butt joint at the bottom centre seam. The purfling joint in my case ended up ever so slightly off centre of the top. Once the purfling was all in place, I tacked it into place with thin CA.

I removed the tape from the purfling, then heated and taped in place the plastic binding. Once perfect, I put a little drop of thin CA between the tape. Then took the tape off, and ran a bead of CA around the top and side seam. Finished up by scraping the binding flush.

Quite pleased with how this turned out, especially for my first time!

 

[Freeman Keller]

Nice job on the binding.

 

[AAT65]

That binding looks fantastic!

 

[tlsmack]

The last time I saw Herringbone Purfling, he opened for Johnny Lee Hooker.

 

[Boreas]

Great job!!

 

[schmee]

That is going to be sweet!
The only thing I want to know is after it's playable, is it going to be neck heavy with all that routing out on the butt end?

 

[orbiterred]

Looks great!

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Wow...holy really nice craftsmanship, Batman!!

 

[eallen]

Very nice! In my experience with burns of that nature it is extremely porous & on the soft side when finishing. On really soft burls I coat them with thin CA followed by warmed clear epoxy once the CA is dried. If not soft I still do at least warmed clear epoxy until the surface is texture free before sealing. Otherwise the burl porosity majorly soaks up finish.

By the way this one is a full thinline route totalling 6.6lbs and is not neck heavy.
Eric

 

[mrz80]

View attachment 1068494

What pickups are those? Wildes?

 

[eallen]

What pickups are those? Wildes?

Yes, L45s bridge and L90 2.0h neck. 5-way Megaswitch M with series out of phase parallel positions added. Top notch combo.

 

[mistermikev]

binding looks really great, nice work.