SPRAYED !!!

I haven't posted in far too long. Since my last post I have sprayed my guitar with lacquer, sanded, and buffed. Then I decided I wasn't happy with the finish, so I re-sanded, re-lacquered, re-buffed. Then again I decided I wasn't happy with it. So I re-sanded, re-lacquered, re-buffed.......Yeah, you guessed it, still not happy. However, this time there was just a small spot to re-sand, re-lacquer, and rebuff. Each time i decide to improve the finish I had to wait for it to dry enough to sand and buff, so with that many attempts you can understand why I haven't posted in a while.

Today I buffed with a machine, then hand buffed. I know that by now you would assume that the finish is perfect. Well you would be wrong, it is not nearly perfect. I however am pleased with the finish and will consider it good.

Next is installing the electronics, I am eager to get on with my guitar. I want to see the finished project.

Ready to Spray

I finally had a free day to work on the guitar. I was able to get it ready to spray the lacquer. It is all sanded with 400 grit paper. The holes for the wiring of the electronics are drilled. I also drilled the holes for the bridge and the the tailpiece.

I am so excited to get this thing done, but today was too hot to spray by the time i got everything else finished. I wish at this point it was spray and play however, it is more like spray, wet sand, buff, install pickups, bridge, tailpiece, Re-cut the fret slots, install the frets, install the tuning machines, wire the pots and switch, install the strap buttons, shape the nut, install the nut,and the strings, tune, then play......whew, I'm kinda tired just thinkin about it.

Now I need to decide who I wall ask to play it for the first time. Tough decision.

Getting Closer

In the past few days I have been able to make a little progress. In fact, I am getting close to being able to start routing the holes for the pickups and stuff. Soon I can cut the neck to the correct width, shape the neck, install the fretboard, etc. The bummer is, not sure how much time I will have on Saturday to work on it. Oh well, it seems some other things are important too. Including an animated .gif for y'all. you will have to click this link tho.

WOW! Two posts in two days!

This morning I took the clamps off of the pieces i was gluing together and thought I'd post pics of them.

I still have the backs to glue on, the front and back pieces are curly cherry but the center is just regular cherry. So after some more sanding i will glue on the backs an then be on to the next steps including cutting the neck to the width of the fretboard and rounding the back of the neck to its shape.

I set the fretboard on just to see how it looks. It won't be attached until a later time.

Finally..Progress

Today was a nice day, not too hot and certainly not too cold. I was able to make significant progress today, I can only imagine how much I would have gotten finished if the glue dried instantly.

I was able to do the rough cutting on the neck giving it its basic shape, It still needs to be tapered to fit the fretboard and also have the back rounded.













After cutting the neck i was able to cut several of the pieces of the body and glue them together and start gluing them to the neck.




I was able to glue 1/2 of the body to the neck, the other 1/2 will have to wait. This is the part where I wish the glue was instant, waiting for the glue is something that I don't dare to rush. I would hate it if something came apart because of my impatience. So, even tho it is hard, I will wait, until it is safe to remove the clamps and glue the other side on.

It's starting to look something like a guitar :)

Dual Action Truss Rod install

I finished another part of the guitar. It isn't the most romantic or pretty piece, in fact you will never see it once the guitar is finished, it is hidden.

However, it is a vital part of the guitar, It is in the neck, it allows you to bend the neck in either direction to give the correct amount of string spacing. I am including a couple pics because I know you want to see it before it is covered by the fretboard.

I made my own router bit from a 1/4" router bit that I have laying around. As we all know, the slot needed to be 5.5 millimeters instead of the 1/4". A difference of approximately 3.4 hundreths of an inch. It doesn't seem like much however you want it snug to prevent and rattle. Also, there are several places where i put a drop of silicone in the groove, again, to prevent rattling. As you can see i protected the wood on the sides of the groove with tape before applying silicone because i want to make sure there is no residue on the wood when gluing the fretboard on.

I am glad to be done with this, now I am ready to start the shaping of the neck. Stay tuned.

Old and New Tools

I've been reading some other instrument builders blogs, some of them talk about the need to use spokeshaves and other ancient tools that builders in the past have used.


I think the only reason they want to use a spokeshave is so they can say " I used a spokeshave on this ". In my opinion, the only reason the old builders used spokshaves is because electricity hadn't been discovered yet. They were intelligent people, they would have used Dremel tools and belt sanders if they had the chance. True, many of them did beautiful work, but, todays builders do equal and better work using state of the art tools.

I remember years ago working for one of my first employers in the building trades. He was using a handsaw on a 6 inch x 24" beam. I asked him why he wasn't using power tools to do that. He replied that that was they way he learned in the old country and if it was good enough for them it was good enough for him. I found that terribly illogical, but, he was the boss and I let him do it.

Seems to me, that is like having something frozen that needs to be thawed,Not using a microwave oven, but building a fire out of logs because great-grandma did it that way. I will continue to use modern tools and will gladly let others turn up their nose because they used obsolete tools.