Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 16 to 25 of 25

Thread: Guitar Build Number Two

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Neither here nor there
    Posts
    3,829
    Blog Entries
    6
    Love it. I actually clicked by accident but I am glad I did. Always wanted to build
    one of these. I built a solid body ‘52 copy Tele with a bigsby. I play a lot of slide and this guitar would be a sweet slide guitar with the right pickup, although probably more suitable for jazz.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    Tele-types are pretty darn versatile...I gotz some interesting ideas for a few more. I just wish that my left wrist was more amenable to playing at this point. I got "reasonably ok" back in the 1980s when I kinda had to play guitar in a band I was working with when the covers called for two guitars, such as a bunch of Pretenders material and no keys were indicated. I had a big pile of keyboards plus one very heavy Kramer solid-body with the aluminum horseshoe neck. (which I sill own) I also played bass for the same reason with the band I had when I was in college..."somebody had to do it" and the lead singer was also an exceptional piano player. So I bought a bass and played that for a couple of summers.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #18
    Sorry for coming so late to the party, Jim.

    First off, I have to compliment you on yet another awesome build! You seem to have gone from 0-100 in an instant. But I'm not surprised, considering your amazing talent.

    Now, I have to ask you, how did you accomplish the black burst? I'm curious because when I've done it, I just winged it.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    Thanks for your kind comments, Julie. I have some new designs I'm working on that I'm really itching to start, too!

    For the burst, I leveraged my new spray gun with the PPS cups from Homestead finishing that John T recommended awhile back. The gun is very nicely adjustable for fan and material so I was able to "dial it down" to almost an air brush like pattern. The pressurized disposable cup system (kinda like the old Platex baby bottle with the liner that deflates as the kiddo sucks out the milk...) makes it so one can hold the gun in ANY angle at all. After all the normal sealing, etc., I first sprayed a couple coats of clear that had Honey Amber dye added to get the base color. When I was happy with the level of "yellow", I added some brown dye to the mix to get to the darker shade and dialed down the gun so I could work the edges slowly and carefully. You spray from the inside out for a burst and by very gently spraying toward the edges (and keeping the gun moving) you can gradually build up the pattern until you are happy with it's consistency and color. The back and binding was masked for this (other than the top edge of the binding of course) and that edge was scraped with a blade after completing the burst and before moving on to a billion clear coats.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  5. #20
    Thanks, Jim. The reason I asked is I never actually read how to do the burst. I would see pros at the factory do it but no explanation about setting the gun. I have a Fuji Super 3 with gravity cup gun and I just dialed it down to a narrow pattern, did a few practice runs and then onto the real thing.

    BTW, that gun you have sounds pretty cool. With mine, I have to be aware of the orientation of the cup when spraying.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  6. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Part of me wants to take the "violin" idea further

    I like that head, Jim. It would need a pretty fancy body but I wouldn't give up on it.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    Quote Originally Posted by Julie Moriarty View Post
    I like that head, Jim. It would need a pretty fancy body but I wouldn't give up on it.
    I still like the general idea, but I've now moved to the 4+2 design that I like a whole lot better, especially since it eliminates the need for string trees and feels and looks more "balanced" to me. I'll be cutting a real neck with that design soon...I have to get some paying work that came in done first.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    So......this body got damaged when something inadvertently fell on it and took a couple of nasty gouges out of the top down near the bottom. Many bad words were said (and more were thought) but they didn't fix the problem. I was really bummed about it, so I set it aside while I worked on other builds and client work. Today after I did the binding on the new d-fir capped body (build 4) that I haven't done a thread yet here for, I decided to "take a little off the top" and start anew with a fresh surface. I got lucky in that the larger of the two gouges were not as thick as I imagined and peeling things down by about a half millimeter using my "new to me" drum sander totally fixed things. So I'm back to raw wood on the top and will refinish it, hopefully with a similar result. The color is easy....it's just honey amber for the base and I still have enough of the darker tint I slapped together for the first effort to do the burst.

    In addition to sanding off the top up through 220, the various recesses were taped off so I didn't get new additional finish in the cavities. I'm going to have to do a little repair work on the back from some scratches obtained while sanding off the top in the drum sander, but I expect that will be minimal and disappear after more clear-coat, micro mesh and polishing. Cross your crossables that there are no more disasters here!

    IMG_6019.jpg IMG_6020.jpg
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #24
    Ughhhhh! Never like hearing about an instrument being damages, especially one you built. Glad you have it on the path to recovery.

    David
    David
    CurlyWoodShop on Etsy, David Falkner on YouTube, difalkner on Instagram

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    Yea, it was heartbreaking, David...and about a week before it happened, someone on TDPRI messaged me out of the blue that they were actually interested in buying it. Needless to say, that wasn't possible at that point.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •