What's on your workbench today?

About 22 foot of rough sawn 1 1/2"x12" white oak slabs .I have had these in drying for 10 years.

 

Love white oak, nice grain, also lovely brown color when it ages. You should end up with plenty for some nice guitars!

 

The figure on that fretboard is awesome. Is this a scratch build?

 

No, it’s a cheap Brian May copy I got on Amazon for $190.
It’s actually well constructed. Frets are good, no sharp ends. The pickups aren’t a official BM product but are constructed very much l Like the real BM pickups.
I’ve gotten a little carried away with this thing. At first I was just going to get authentic knobs and so far I’ve:

• Had a new pick guard made with fewer holes and is solid black instead of black white black.
• Dismantled and waxed the pickups, removed the metal bottom plate from the neck pickup and replaced it with a non metal plate l fashioned myself. Brian Mays guitar is like that.
• Replaced multiple stainless steel screws with black ones
• White switches instead of black
• Spent a lot of money trying to find 220k pots, gave up and went with 250k. The originals were 500k.
• White knobs instead of metal on the tuners.
• Decided to replace the trem with a much better all steel Wilkinson.
• Had to counter sink the switch holes more because the screws weren’t flush with the pick guard.
• The nut seems to be made of a quality material, needs to be shaped better

Need to pull the old trem bushings, drill and install new ones and wire it up.

 

I think the colour has lightened from weathering. Other side is darker.
I took another angle shot, should make something nice.



How do you like that one Dave?

Scott

 

Come south young man

 

Most of the walnut in ontario is actually steamed during the drying process because it makes the colour more uniform.

If you get air dried walnut its way more wild looking, with vast colour differences between heart and sap wood.

http://www.woodcentral.com/articles/reviews/articles_894.shtml

Nathan

 

There's a body on my bench...

 

It never looks like a finished instrument, until the logo is on.



On to the next!

Scott

 

Milled the bridge for my mandolin. Now for the time consuming part of prepping it for plating...

 

P Rails for my Epiphone SG.
I Built a 4 string CBG a few years ago using Ceramic P Bass pickups. They did the job okay, but I wanted more Alnico sound and these will give me that. Put 500k volume pots to these in a guitar and they sound like a small P90. I'm going to change the tremolo too, going to use one of those old Tiesco/Harmony style units.

 

I bought a tremolo pedal kit from AliExpress. The enclosure didn't come pre-drilled, so I had to knock together a cardboard prototype to test the layout to make sure everything fits before I did something I couldn't undo.



And then I had to put it all away because this was on my home office desk. I'm going to need to get some drill bits for this, I don't have any this big for drilling into metal.

 

Get yourself a set of step drill bits.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GQ5AKG/?tag=tdpri-20

 

Just leveled and finished a neck with lmii’s gold evo alloy fretwire. Used a sanding eraser to 8000 grit then as the last step, I lightly buffed them with a little Dremmel and red compound, and I swear they look silver now. Is this possible or am I crazy??

 

That's probably a good shout.
That particular set is currently unavailable, according to amazon. And I'm guessing all the other sets they are throwing up as alternatives (seem to be branded CO-Z, Knoweasy, NOUVCO, HYCLAT) are nowhere near the quality... I'll have to hunt around for a set.

 

I am, unfortunately, in the old Shire of Hamp, not the new one, and I don't think they ship transatlantic.

 

Then check German and Belgian ebay, they make superb cutting tools and are a MIGHT closer. I would suggest Sheffield but the old gray mare ain't what she used to be

Dave

 

Try Chronos Engineering : https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/product/hss-conecut-taper-drill-6-20-mm/ - 6mm to 20mm is £7.58 including postage. I have a couple of sizes of these and they work well.

Andy