# Eve: A Guitar 3 Years in the Making (kind of...)



## BlackMastodon (Apr 27, 2011)

Originally, I started this build in 11th grade about 3 years ago. At the time, I wanted to make something along these line:





Needless to say, I was young and naive .
At least I knew my limits and decided to buy a neck from Warmoth. Nothing too special, just a 22 fret maple flat paddle neck with an ebony fretboard with MOP circle inlays and stainless steal frets and a slot for a locking nut.

Anyway, I later bought a body off ebay for about $100 that was routed for a LoPro licensed Floyd (which cost me about $50, we'll see how long it takes for me to regret that purchase) and had a H/S/H configuration. Pretty decent body, only it was made for a 24 fret neck. Turns out (no shit ) that a 22 fret neck made for a 25.5" scale guitar will indeed fit a body made for a 24 fret neck, but the scale length will be about 24.75" instead.

So instead of filling EVERY hole on the ebay body, I just said screw it and bought a mahogany blank and flame maple top and decided to make my own body. And now with school being done for 4 months, I actually have time to work on this thing.

tl;dr: Fuck it, I'm making a new one.

*Body Specs:*
Wood - Mahogany with flamed maple top (still deciding whether it will be chambered).
Shape - carved top RG shape with ever so slightly changed horns (probably won't be noticeable. Also not sure if the carve is gonna be along the lines of an RGA or an ESP Horizon, I'm leaning towards Horizon if I can do it).
Scale - 25.5"
Super Special Awesome Things - Not too much really, considering chambering the body a bit, just 3 chambers on the top but I'm kinda worried that this will interfere with the stomach contour on the back. Also the cavity covers will be held on with magnets (they work, go to hell ICP) and will be made of mahogany.
Neck Joint - Standard bolt on, using the shape of the heel from the Warmoth neck, seems pretty comfortable and I'm gonna carve it a bit anyway.
Finish - Some kind of dye, thinking either blue or green dye or a dragon burst (leaning towards dragon burst if I can do it). Natural sides and back. Gloss finish.

*Neck Specs:*
Type - 22 fret, 6 String Warmoth straight paddle.
Wood - One piece maple (not flamed or anything, pretty standard).
Headstock - PRS type of shape with matching flame maple front. Will attempt to do a custom inlay in the maple.
Fretboard - Ebony with white side dots.
Inlays - Mother of Pearl dots.
Frets - Stainless steal 6105 (narrow and tall).
Nut - 1 5/8" wide locking nut.
Contour - Standard thin (0.8" at 1st fret, 0.85" at 12th fret).
Fretboard Radius - 10" - 16" compound.
Finish - Satin back, gloss on headstock.

*Hardware:*
Bridge - Chrome licensed LoPro Floyd. May switch out for a Floyd Pro (original, not licensed).
Pickups - EMG 81 (bridge), EMG SA (middle), and EMG 85 (neck). I don't have a guitar with actives so I want to see how it is.
Pickup Rings - Chrome tapered.
Input Jack - Chrome side mounted oval.
Electronics - Volume and tone pot with black speed knobs, 6-way pickup selector (from StewMac).
Tuners - Chrome Gotoh Midsize Rotomatic (3 and 3 configuration).
Other Crap I Feel Like Mentioning - Chrome strap locks, chrome ferrules for mounting bolts.

Alright I think that's everything. Now on to what all of you want: Pictures! (Insert obligatory apology for not so great quality of pictures due to them being taken by an iPhone 4 here)

First the neck:




Better shot of ebony:
























Front of headstock:









I used my buddy's wood burner to write the name 'Eve' in crazy, whacky lettering that I made. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out buuuuut since I'm gonna be doing a dyed finish on the body I'm gonna cover it up. Guess I'll have to write her name on the back of the headstock or maybe on the heel.
Last couple shots of the fretboard:










Templates!
Body shape:




Those boxed off areas are the chambers I've been toying around with, still think I'm gonna leave it alone so I can do the back contour without worrying.
Neck pocket, bridge, and pickups:




Back routes for the Floyd:




The left one is for the trem block, the right one is for the spring cavities and what not.
Cavities:




I'll cut the remaining templates in the next few days.


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 27, 2011)

Mahogany side un:




Mahogany side dos:




And the thickness of the Mahogany:




My inspiration of choice (needed it to cut/file/sand that template):





So after finishing the body template, I bbq'd me some dinner when at my door there came a rapping. I ordered a new tv last week and was expecting it between 4 and 5 this afternoon. I thought it was a bit early and was pretty excited. Alas, the package was not a tv, instead it was for my dad (or so I thought). When I brought it inside I noticed it was from F.V. Woods. My excitement immediately jumped back up as I realized it was the flame maple I ordered a couple weeks back. I brought it to my room and grabbed my package opening device:




And what was inside? Why, my 5A flamed maple top of course!




Wasn't too pleased to see that they drew a lefty Tele outline on it, but It can be erased.




Not bad for $100 bucks, not bad at all, especially since it's (according to Fraser Valley Woods) 5A flamed maple!
Shot of the grain:




This one really shows the depth of the flame:




Artsy, no?
The top is about 0.7" thick, perfect for carving. This of course means that I will need to plane the mahogany down to about 1.25" or so, something reasonable so that this thing doesn't end up being 3" thick. That's all for now though.


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## SirMyghin (Apr 27, 2011)

Good luck, Sleemans Honey Brown is a really good dinner beer. Not much of a lager fan myself, but Camerons dark is another fantastic ontario lager.

Really like the fretboard.


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 28, 2011)

Thank you, when I ordered the neck I expected ebony to be, well, ebony, but I really liked the lighter parts when I saw it, very pleased with it.


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## ryantheyetti (Apr 28, 2011)

cant wait to see what you do with that top, the grain looks awesome!


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 28, 2011)

Thanks, I was actually really surprised with how well the grain looks on the top wood, and that's with no mineral spirits or anything, just the wood! As for the carving, if I carve it like an RGA then I will probably use a grinder and some rasps and what not. But I would really wanna carve it like a Horizon, but that might be tricky. Might have to use a router bit for that, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 29, 2011)

Just a quick update with the hardware. I've had the pickups and stuff for a while so might as well show them. 
I bought the EMG 81 a couple years back when I got the neck, so it's an older model. the 85 and SA I bought recently so they are the newer ones that come with the solderless set up. Honestly, I think I'm more intimidated by the solderless set up then the original, probably just gonna do soldering anyway as I find the new solderless thing looks like a bunch of crazy Lego blocks. Though I do love me some Lego....Anyway, back on track.
Here's the 81:




The SA:




And the 85:










I didn't put the 81 in its bracket yet as I am waiting for the screws to arrive, another kick in the balls is that the older EMGs didn't come with mounting hardware, but at least they changed that now. 

And here is the cheap licensed Floyd:




















Fun fact about that bridge, when it arrived from god knows where on Ebay, the fine tuner on the low E had broken threading. It wold only give maybe 2 full rotations but that was it. Somehow my dad managed to get it out of there (I assume pliers and cursing were involved). Also found out a fun little fact: it is *REALLY *hard to find Floyd fine tuners in chrome . Eventually I settled for a black one from StewMac, and when it arrived, I found out another little fun fact that I'm sure is quite visible in that last picture: the new fine tuner is considerably shorter than the others. Hopefully this is isn't too big of a problem, if it is I guess I will get that real Floyd.

Anyway, that's all for now, hopefully I can finish up those templates this weekend and maybe glue up the body. Gotta wait for my router bits from StewMac to come in though (also really hard to find good router bits around here).


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## Prydogga (Apr 29, 2011)

Looking good man, IMO you should replace all the fine tuners with black pieces, black on chrome looks much better than all chrome


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 30, 2011)

Hmmm, the thought didn't even occur to me but it might be a good idea. Would look better than one gimp fine tuner that's different from the others. Though the thing I am worried about most with that is that the black fine tuners are shorter than the chrome ones that came with the bridge. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it (see what I did there?).


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## BlackMastodon (May 4, 2011)

Just a quick update:

Finished cutting out all the templates. The neck pocket I drew originally was a bit crooked so I redrew it and cut it. When I test fitted the neck into it, it held very snug. Even if the neck is still a bit crooked from the centre line I can just adjust it when I'm doing the routes. 

I did notice something rather interesting about my Licensed Floyd nut: It's about, oh I don't know, maybe 1/64" lower then it should be, so the low E string would be a tad bit lower and the high E string risks jumping off the fretboard. This means one of two things: 1) The mounting screw holes for the locking nut were drilled slightly off, or 2) Warmoth drilled the holes for the mounting screws too low. Since Warmoth is a reputable company and the LFR is made god knows where, I'm gonna go with number 1. This is basically the last straw for the LFR, I've decided to get an OFR to save myself the headache. When I checked the Floyd Rose site for measurements on the OFR routes, they were pretty close to mine on the template but I'll double check before I route of course.

Lastly: gotta figure out a way to plane the Mahogany by about 1/4" or so. I don't have an electric planer and I don't wanna do this by hand so I'm gonna use the Scherzo Method and make a router jig. I'm not quite sure how I'll keep the Mahogany steady though, might just clamp it down on one side and do it one half at a time.

That's all for now, sorry there are no pics, I'll glue up the body and stuff after I plane it, hopefully that can happen soon.


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## caparison_x (May 4, 2011)

I think you're gonna regret installing that floyd.

I really think you should consider getting a cheap Gotoh floyd. The Cheapo licenced floyds are a false economy. 

Trust me I used chinese floyds, OFR and Lo Pros. Even the ESP/Washburn/Jackson floyds are better then the ultra cheap bargain ones.

As a guess, i think the use of cheap pot iron/metal compared to more expensive alloys means the sound coming from the floyd isnt very full and lacks sustain. 

Similar to the reason that Bells and other metallic instruments use specific alloys. PLEASE CHECK the routing posts you drill are spaced correctly to swap with another type of floyd so if in future you get a cheap ofr or lo pro you can swap it out.

I've seen a few sub $100 lo pros and OFRs in the gear section so check it out and see if you can get something decent for cheap.

Any ways! hope it sounds as good as it looks !


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## scherzo1928 (May 4, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> Lastly: gotta figure out a way to plane the Mahogany by about 1/4" or so. I don't have an electric planer and I don't wanna do this by hand so I'm gonna use the Scherzo Method and make a router jig. I'm not quite sure how I'll keep the Mahogany steady though, might just clamp it down on one side and do it one half at a time.


 





99% of the time, works everytime.


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## HaMMerHeD (May 4, 2011)

Look for cabinet makers in your area. Call them up and explain what you need. Cabinet makers generally have large planers. I found a guy with a 34" planer and he planed 1/4" off my neck blank for $10. Took about 3 minutes.


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## SirMyghin (May 4, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> Thank you, when I ordered the neck I expected ebony to be, well, ebony, but I really liked the lighter parts when I saw it, very pleased with it.



A common misconception, most 'ebony' boards are dyed. Finding pitch black ebony is pretty difficult (it does exist, just not nearly as often as you would seek). Gabbon is probably a lot closer either way, compared to macassar.


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## BlackMastodon (May 5, 2011)

caparison_x said:


> I think you're gonna regret installing that floyd.
> 
> I really think you should consider getting a cheap Gotoh floyd. The Cheapo licenced floyds are a false economy.
> 
> ...



Yeah shortly after buying that LFR I began regretting the purchase. That's why yesterday I ordered an OFR for about $170 so this fix some of my problems. Really hoping that nut problem is due to the cheap Floyd though.


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## BlackMastodon (May 12, 2011)

Some progress. Did a practice route with a template:




Jesus, that double tape is deceptively strong.














Bit wasn't long enough so this is what I'm left with:




Gonna have to buy a bit with a bearing at the bottom.
Since it was nice out, decided on some quick outdoor pics, still looks kinda crappy cause of the iPhone but meh.


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## scherzo1928 (May 12, 2011)

whoa, how thick is that top?? And are you routing it together with the back wood? (would seem so, but who knows) if so, did you end up doing the chambering?


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## BlackMastodon (May 13, 2011)

According to the ad when I bought the maple, it is 0.7" or 0.72" thick, perfect for carving. Yes I glued up the woods and routed them together, no I did not go with the chambering. This is my first build and that neck has been sitting in my room for a couple years taunting me so I want to get this done with as few complications as possible. The main reason I didn't go with the chambering is because now I can make as much of a back contour as I want without worrying about going through the wood into one of the chambers. Maybe on the next body I make, I'll make it chambered.


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## BlackMastodon (May 13, 2011)

Finished routing the body shape today after I went out and bought a new bit.
Drilled a few holes in the channels I made yesterday so I could see where I have to cut:




At first I tried to just use the router, but the bit is pretty crappy and there was a lot of wood so it started burning it. Used a jigsaw instead to cut out a rough shape and then finalize with the router:




This goes to show how crappy Mastercraft (or should I say Mastercrap, damn I'm witty) bits are. The bearing got lose on the bottom and carved into the body a bit. Guess I'm gonna have to sand it down a bit or carve it or something, we'll see.




Shortly after I tightened the bearing, I began routing again when I felt a bit of a kick. Luckily I stopped because this is what was left of the bearing:




The little bastard exploded. I just took the bearing from my StewMac bit and put it on here to finish up and it worked fine. Here's the back:




The side:




And the top:




Just gonna have to plane the top once I get my router jig made, the one side (the right side in the picture above) is slightly higher than the other one. Also gonna sand the sides to get rid of the burns and make it all nice and even sometime. Then it's on to the neck pocket and so forth.


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## SenorDingDong (May 13, 2011)

Looks beautiful so far.


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## Nile (May 13, 2011)

Thick fucking top dude.


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## BlackMastodon (May 14, 2011)

Nile said:


> Thick fucking top dude.


All the more for carving . Speaking of which, anyone know a good way to do a Horizon-esque carve? Preferably not 'with a chisel and a lot of patience'.


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## BlackMastodon (May 18, 2011)

Update time:
Made myself a routing jig, all I need is some aluminum angle pieces and I can use my router as a pseudo-CNC machine.












As for the body itself, I sanded the sides and got rid of the burns and what not. Also sanded out the nasty gouges that the crappy router bit left (found another one on top of the one on the back).











Got a drum sander bit for a cordless drill to get inside the horns. This was MUCH easier than doing it by hand, thank god I was able to find the bits at Canadian Tire for relatively cheap, still wish I had a spindle sander though.






Only sanded the sides with 60 grit so it's still quite rough.






Got this in a couple days ago, looks much more sturdy than the other one I had. I think I will end up using the old LFR as a fixed bridge in another build.











Only had to modify my template for the bridge route a little bit to fit the OFR.






Put the new locking nut on the neck and it looks much more promising than the old one. The strings line up much better on it and I don't think I am going to have a problem with it. It isn't absolutely perfect, still a fraction of a millimeter lower on the treble side of the neck, but it shouldn't make a huge difference. You can see it here:






It's only really noticeable to the touch but even then, it's an improvement.

Tomorrow I will screw in the sides of the router jig to the MDF base just for extra sturdiness, then hopefully I can start routing out the neck pocket and pickups and all that nice stuff.


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## iRaiseTheDead (May 19, 2011)

thats a pretty thin neck!


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## BlackMastodon (May 20, 2011)

iRaiseTheDead said:


> thats a pretty thin neck!


1-5/8" at the nut, the contour on the back is Warmoth's standard/thin option but yeah it feels promising, can't wait to play it after having it sit around for over 2 years.


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## BlackMastodon (May 21, 2011)

Got my router jig up and running. Unfortunately I couldn't find any angle iron around so I settled for wood instead. Not too pleased with the result as the wood kinda bent with the weight of the router. Next time around gonna look harder for some metal.
Anyways, pictures:















That's the bit at its maximum depth. Nowhere near the body. I took some scrap MDF and made a riser platform for it.





















Was still too short, the bit was just grazing the top so I added another scrap sheet of particle board under the whole thing.











Well that's the final result. From eyeballing it, everything seems pretty level, but there are a lot of ridges and lines and stuff that need to be planed down. Gonna either sand the whole top level or go at it with the planer. THEN I will finally start routing the neck pocket and pups.


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## BlackMastodon (May 31, 2011)

After a week and a half of ass-tastic weather, some sun started to show and it finally feels like summer so I started working on it again. I sanded the ridges and imperfections out of the body as best I could with a palm sander to prep it for routing.










I think the router bit pushed in a little into the template so the neck probably won't be as snug as I would've liked but hopefully it should be fine still.
















So that's where I'm at now. Only went about 6.7 mm in to the Floyd route which according to the site is the minimum depth (the shelf part where the studs are). I didn't want to go too deep on the neck pocket and pickups so I'm gonna find out how deep I have to go and then finish up later today or tomorrow hopefully. Wish I had a normal router instead of a plunge .


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## scherzo1928 (May 31, 2011)

Looks ´pretty clean, great job.


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## b7string (May 31, 2011)

Great work dude! Looking sharp


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## Rusti (Jun 1, 2011)

Hey! nice job there 
next time you could try with some plywood for holding the router. turn the ply vertically and it wont bend


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 1, 2011)

Rusti said:


> Hey! nice job there
> next time you could try with some plywood for holding the router. turn the ply vertically and it wont bend


Yeah after the MDF mishap yesterday I was thinking that maybe next time I will use plywood or something. It might have been the humidity outside while I was routing. Makes me more excited to move because now I'll actually have a workshop in a garage with benches that aren't cluttered with random stuff.


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 1, 2011)

Update: basically finished the pickup routes, gotta make the middle one a tad bit deeper bat that's about it. Overall very happy with how they turned out. The neck pocket is pretty decent too, there might just be a small area where it went a bit too deep, I'll check later when I do a test fit.

PICTURES!






This is after all the routing was done. I had to square off the pickup routes for the humbuckers though so they would fit. Used a chisel for that:











There as one small booboo (the left circle in this picture) where I think the chisel slipped or something. I ended up having to make the route a bit bigger as the pickup didn't fit so this was taken care of, no pic of that though. The other circle is where I noticed a slight gap between the two pieces of the top wood. After I stain it and everything I will probably fill it with some epoxy, good idea? If not, lemme know of a better one.






Test fit the pickups; I'm liking it.











Here's the neck pocket.






Cleaned up the edges a bit.






Edit: Checked to see how well the neck fits with the body. Wasn't too please, right now the edge of the fretboard comes out and would probably interfere with the pickup ring. So I think I might put a small shim at the back of the neck pocket (closest to the pickups) so it fits better or cut the end of the fretboard a bit. We'll see, but I would rather have a tighter fit on there.


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## kylendm (Jun 1, 2011)

Needs. MoAr. Lacquer! 

Just kidding dude. It's looking nice as hell! Keep it up.


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 9, 2011)

Not gonna lie I was tempted to lacquer it up right then and there so I could play it sooner but I will be patient. Anyway, UPDATE!

It finally cooled down a bit today and wasn't humid so I took advantage of the situation.






I did some routing and chiseling to make the little shelf and was prepared to do more chiseling to make the slot for the block until I remembered I made a template just for this reason.






I still have no idea why I made the template so small, it seemed like a good idea at the time. In any case it worked out fine though.






I reached maximum depth from the front so I had to break out the drill press and p.o.s. Mastercrap routing bit to finish it up.






Turned out okay. I'm really not too worried about the stuff in the trem cavities since they will be covered up anyway.
















Slight mishap here: the bearing rode up a bit too high and it bit into the body where I didn't want it too. This shouldn't be a problem though, I'll just route it a bit more into a smooth semicircle and say that it's easier access to removed the covers that will be held on by magnets.

I also realized that the control cavity template I made is too big, which is good news for me since I was thinking of making a smaller one anyway. Most likely just gonna end up having a volume knob and pickups switch anyway so I don't need a ton of room.

That's all for today.


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## Rusti (Jun 9, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


>



Why don't you just extend the routing on the bottom side for a couple mm making that side straight again?


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 9, 2011)

Rusti said:


> Why don't you just extend the routing on the bottom side for a couple mm making that side straight again?



...moments like these that make me question why I'm in engineering . For some reason I thought I was somehow limited with the cover, but of course it isn't made yet, duh. So yeah that's a great idea Rusti, should I make a slot or something in the cover itself to get it off easier or leave it all nice and flush and use other magnets to take it off when I need to?


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 10, 2011)

Fixed the trem cover route.






And finished up the trem route.






The top and bottom part of that larger route are freehand as I'm sure many of you can tell.






Turned out okay but the stupid flipping bearing kept riding up which made a bunch of inconsistent grooves and stuff in there, luckily it will be covered up.






Also drilled out for the bridge posts.






For some reason the picture is on its side, but it looks like the trem route as a whole is mortified. That's probably because the trem posts that I drilled are too big . Gonna have to go out and buy a 1/2" dowel now and fill it up, guess I'll have to drill for 3/8" instead. This is actually kind of a good thing because the one post I drilled for broke through into the route a little bit because I was stupid and made the back trem route too big. This is the first fuck up along with the bridge posts being too big but hopefully with the dowel and the smaller posts it will be fixed. Here's a shot of what I mean about it breaking through to the route:






I'll go buy the dowel today and glue it so it can be finished up tomorrow, while I'm at it I might as well get a bit more MDF to start making the templates for the top carve.

Edit: GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! Found me a bit of angle iron when I went to get the dowel and MDF. Haven't been able to use it yet but I guess I didn't look hard enough last time.


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## Rusti (Jun 11, 2011)

Lol yeah i wasnt sure about to suggest that cause i thought there was a reason why you didnt do it already


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## CrushingAnvil (Jun 11, 2011)

Good thread, dude. Nice move with the floyd - That logo looks horrible though


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 11, 2011)

CrushingAnvil said:


> Good thread, dude. Nice move with the floyd - That logo looks horrible though



Yeah the wood burning tool wasn't very even but it's gonna be covered by flame maple anyway. I'll get around to sanding the clear off of the headstock soon.


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## Rusti (Jun 11, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> Yeah the wood burning tool wasn't very even but it's gonna be covered by flame maple anyway. I'll get around to sanding the clear off of the headstock soon.



When the bit starts to burn or to do unclean routes on the wood it may be time to re-sharp it.


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 17, 2011)

Small update: Redid the bridge posts, hopefully it'll work out now, I didn't test to see if they line up and everything but I did make sure that the posts themselves don't just fall into the holes drilled for them.






Blurry pic is blurry.

I also drew out the various levels of carves I'm gonna do on the body, I might add some in between each but right now they are about 5/8" apart except for at the horns. I did buy MDF an started making the templates but they only sold 2'x2' pieces in 1/4" thick pieces so they aren't too good for templating, might just use them for a rough outlines. And yes, I could've bought a bigger piece of thicker MDF but it wouldn't fit in my car and I didn't want to hurt my car .











I'm liking it. Hopefully this weekend or next week I can start doing the carved top and then the control cavity. I also have to make the back route of the Floyd (the part where the fine tuners are, more specifically the little screws that hold the strings in place, yeah you know the ones I'm talking about). Was thinking of making it go along with the carve but I don't think it will look good. I tried to dremel it but the only tool I had for that had really small bits that just burnt the wood so I may just buy a bowl end router bit or what not (one of these little bastards) end do it that way.

Also that ugly area in the neck pocket is where I put some wood filler to make it all level, then I just covered it with a thin layer of wood glue to harden it and then sanded it down again. Hopefully now there isn't a gap on the side when I try to put the neck on there.


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 24, 2011)

Update; time for good news and bad news.

Good news:
Finished the control cavity with considerably less burning after I started using the 3/8" bit. I tried to sharpen the 1/2" one but it didn't work as it just kept on burning.
















Pretty happy with that, Hopefully I can fit some magnets in that recess.

Here's the Mahogany that I'll be using for the cover plates:






It was hard to get a good shot of it but there is a good bit f figure in the wood.
















And now the bad news. I did the router 'steps' method for the top carve today but there were a few problems.
Here's an idea of the different levels that I went






And a less blurry pic:






And here's the product:






There was quite a bit of slipups here, unfortunately some of them went right through to the Mahogany. The bit got loose in the chuck a few times and it went deeper than I would have liked. Here's an idea of what I'm talking about:






Here's the worst of the tear out:






The horns were a huge pain in the ass to do, especially when trying to keep the router steady and then suddenly having it bite into the maple and jump further than you wanted it to.

Here is where it routed slightly too deep and went through to Mahogany:






All in all this isn't catastrophic, worst case scenario this means I can't go through with the green and yellow dragon burst I wanted to do unless I make it very dark/almost black on the edges. It was a good learning experience I suppose. If I don't get called in to work any time in the next hour or so then I will start to sand and hopefully it will be a bit better. If not, there's always tomorrow morning.


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 24, 2011)

Almost forgot! Ninja kitty!!!!!


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 24, 2011)

This gave me some hope:











I'll go pick up some more sand paper and a grinder disc tomorrow me thinks.


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## BlackMastodon (Jul 21, 2011)

Bump. This project isn't dead. I got this for and I'm not gonna give up on it, though I am a bit worried about the carves. I figure the worst case scenario will be that there will be about 5/8" of mahogany showing around the edges which I can live with. If that's the case I will most likely leave it natural and not dye it. I just haven't had a chance to work on this because it's record heat in my area. Looking at my weather network app, it says that today it will be 37 C, with humidity feeling like 49 C . Good thing I have Mass Effect 2 to keep me busy inside .

On to the real thing. I am having some trouble sanding the carves. I'm at a point wear I need to use the bit of sandpaper on the sander that is on the front (the part that loops over and is attached by, that I can't explain worth a shit), but by using this part the sandpaper rips very easily and eventually comes off the sander. I was thinking of using a grinder but I don't have a lot of room for error here. Maybe a rasp/file to do some of the rough carving and then hand/drum sanding after?

Anyone got an opinion?


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## scherzo1928 (Jul 21, 2011)

Dont know how I didnt see the last 2 updates.

I think your best bet to get going on removing a bit more material from the carve "steps" is a chissel. Just chissel away at the edges, but be careful, and dont try to take away huge chunks of wood. If not, the disc grinder sounds like a great plan, just be careful, because they take out material FAST.


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## PyramidSmasher (Jul 21, 2011)

oh fuck man!! how hard was the routing to do? I have a cool RGA mod idea.


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## BlackMastodon (Jul 22, 2011)

PyramidSmasher said:


> oh fuck man!! how hard was the routing to do? I have a cool RGA mod idea.


Well it was freehand, so it was pants-shittingly scary. Though I realized afterwards that I am, in fact, a moron. If you look at the earlier posts you see that I routed the body out of a big chunk of wood. I still have that big chunk of wood and it would have made my life a lot easier while doing the routing, and I wouldn't have gotten that tear out on the lower horn. That being said, it's very doable, just takes time. Also leave more room than I did, I'm a bit worried to see how it's gonna go and really wish I put more thought into it and left more room.

To Scherzo, thanks for the advice man. And yeah the grinder disc is my absolute last resort because I know it will eat that wood away quick and I want to keep mistakes to a minimum. I'll try the chisel method maybe Saturday or Sunday when it cools down to about 32 degrees C outside .


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## Rusti (Jul 22, 2011)

Hi, maybe you could round the edges removing the top till the part left is completely clean. like this for example:





I use to carve guitars with the grinder but i know it may be hard to use for someone since it cuts wood quite fast. I suggest you to use it only if you are very practical with it. Otherwise id go with some chisels and then with sandpaper and a block of wood.
dont give up man!


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 1, 2011)

So using the metal grinder for the carved top, would just a standard metal cutting disc work fine for wood? Will it burn the wood or anything? I tried a rasp and file earlier but realized it would be way to much work and the horns would be next to impossible to do with those. Any info on the grinder is hugely appreciated.


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## Rusti (Aug 2, 2011)

A disc for metal will burn the wood. Buy one for wood, it cost about 3&#8364;






you may also find some disc with a bit of angle, not completely flat and it could be useful for the top.
Keep a lot of attention while working it and practise on another wood first


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## Rusti (Aug 2, 2011)

Radial


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 2, 2011)

Awesome, thanks for the info Rusti.


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## Metal_Webb (Aug 3, 2011)

Just watch out with the flap discs, they tear through timber a lot quicker than you think they would, even the finer grades.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 5, 2011)

I went out and bought one of those magic sander disc majiggers earlier and got back to work (thanks again to Rusti).

Tested first on some poplar:






You guys weren't kidding when you said that it takes that wood off fast . After I got a little confident, I then got a little crazy and got to work on the body:






Not too shabby. This is what I was left with after all was said and done:































I'm not quite sure what I will do about the inner horns. Maybe be SUPER careful with the current disc I have now, or maybe go buy a smaller one. I'll figure something out.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, would have preferred if the mahogany didn't have to show on the top but I think it might turn out pretty interesting this way. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday I will finish up on those inner horns and then I will smooth it all out with some good old fashioned sandpaper. Then I will do the stomach contour on the back...And maybe the neck joint too, we'll see how crazy I am/how comfortable it is without much carving.


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## Swyse (Aug 5, 2011)

Have you considered just refining the horn part like a ran crusher? Just smoothing it out might look boss. Are you going to do a opaque burst on the sides to hide the mahogany, or are you going to go trans all the way across? A dragonburst would look sick on that.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 6, 2011)

Swyse said:


> Have you considered just refining the horn part like a ran crusher? Just smoothing it out might look boss. Are you going to do a opaque burst on the sides to hide the mahogany, or are you going to go trans all the way across? A dragonburst would look sick on that.



If I can figure out how to do the RAN style horn carving I would very much like to. I actually saw one of those mini sanders at a home depot for like 40-50$ so that would help me with that, but I just got my balance for my next semester of school and would like to save some money .
I thought about doing a burst over to hide the mahogany but I think I'd rather leave it as I'm not hating the look of it. I'm quite sure if I'm gonna go through with the dragon burst yet, if I don't then it will most likely be just dyed green or blue and the mahogany will be natural.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 6, 2011)

Update again!
So to answer the previous question, no I will not be doing the RAN type contours on the inner horns, though I wish I could have. Another build, another time I suppose. But I digress!
I did some work this morning:











Pretty happy with how it turned out. I tried to avoid showing too much mahogany on the insides o the horns but as I was trying to use the grinder (I got impatient and used the same 4.5" wheel) it started taking off the maple in certain spots and showing the mahogany so I just said screw it and made it work. Ninja kitty didn't seem to mind sitting 6 feet away from me while I was doing the grinding either:






So after a bit of sanding on the top to smooth things out a bit and get rid of the burns, this is where I left off:






Overall, I'm rather happy with it.

Next on the list:
1. Recessed input jack (gonna have to figure out how to do that, any links in project guitar?)
2. Drill in between pickups for wires.
3. Drill for volume pot and switch, also recess them.
4. Add a tiny bit of mahogany to the control cavity to fit the magnets, since I'm dumb and didn't do that when I was routing .
5. Make sure neck fits well and scale length is right, also drill for neck screws and carve the heel.
6. Dye and finish.
7. ????
8. Profit?

Also should I show mahogany all the way around or leave it as is? I kind of like it how it is.

TL;DR here's more pics.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 9, 2011)

Made a mockup with CorelDRAW for the recessed input jack, the brown/purple is the wood and the black is the jack.






Will this work if I just make the hole big enough to tighten the nut of the input jack onto? Or at most just put a washer in front of it or something?

Also does anyone have an opinion about the mahogany? Should I show it evenly along all the sides or leave it as is?


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## scherzo1928 (Aug 9, 2011)

Just read the last few posts. Great save with the carve.


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## Levi79 (Aug 9, 2011)

Spent a good amount of time looking at the pictures but just skimmed the text. I think you should still use the flame top and just do the blackburst edge thing like this:


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## Swyse (Aug 9, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> Made a mockup with CorelDRAW for the recessed input jack, the brown/purple is the wood and the black is the jack.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Just a suggestion, get what they use on the Japanese Ibanez, something like




It is longer and it wont be as much of a bitch to get the nut on it


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 9, 2011)

scherzo1928 said:


> Just read the last few posts. Great save with the carve.


 
Thanks man, appreciate it .



Levi79 said:


> Spent a good amount of time looking at the pictures but just skimmed the text. I think you should still use the flame top and just do the blackburst edge thing like this:



That's still a possibility, we'll see how it all goes when I get my dyes. I'm still not even decided on a colour yet so yeah. If I do a blackburst then I will carve an even amount of mahogany just so that the edges are all an even thickness.



Swyse said:


> Just a suggestion, get what they use on the Japanese Ibanez, something like
> 
> It is longer and it wont be as much of a bitch to get the nut on it



Yeah I was thinking of getting one of those to make it easier. Any good brand suggestion or should I just look up Ibanez input jacks?
edit: Just checked ebay, will definitely get one of these and it should make it easier. Thanks for the help man.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 11, 2011)

Update. Did the stomach contour:





Also added a bit of mahogany to the control cavity to fit the magnets:






Rough cut of the heel contouring.






After some sanding:






After more sanding:











The whole back:






And a couple of outdoor shots since it was sunny:











VERY happy with how the stomach and heel contours turned out. They both feel incredibly comfortable so I'm quite excited. Ordered a switchcraft barrel jack and hopefully that will come in sooner than later.

Another little question about the magnets for the control cavities: they won't mess with the sound or anything will they? Because these magnets are hella strong.


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## Metal_Webb (Aug 15, 2011)

IIRC a stationary magnet won't cause problems for the stuff in the control cavity, as it's moving magnets that will induce a current in a wire. As the magnet isn't moving relative to anything in the cavity, it shouldn't be an issue.

As for the pickups, probably would be right, as they're located out of the plane of the pickup poles. Best way to check would to be to sitck them in a guitar you already have and see what they do to it's sound.


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## flo (Aug 15, 2011)

That looks nice! I especially like the idea with the mahogany on the top. Sweet.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 15, 2011)

flo said:


> That looks nice! I especially like the idea with the mahogany on the top. Sweet.


Thank you! I was actually really worried how it would look with mahogany showing on the top but I didn't have much of a choice in the matter and I think it actually looks pretty good with it.



Metal_Webb said:


> IIRC a stationary magnet won't cause problems for the stuff in the control cavity, as it's moving magnets that will induce a current in a wire. As the magnet isn't moving relative to anything in the cavity, it shouldn't be an issue.
> 
> As for the pickups, probably would be right, as they're located out of the plane of the pickup poles. Best way to check would to be to sitck them in a guitar you already have and see what they do to it's sound.


Yeah I was thinking about that too, it should be fine though. The magnets only seem to have an effect if there are 2 magnets on either side of the body (the little buggers are really strong) but it's fine if it's just a magnet and another piece of metal. If this works out fine then I will most likely use magnets in future builds as I think it makes it look a bit more clean.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 15, 2011)

And another small update. Slowly but surely I am getting closer and closer.

Made the slots for the magnets:
















Like a glove.

Also drilled for wires, might have to make them a bit bigger though.











Also made the recessed input jack. I followed the tutorial from Project guitar and it worked out pretty well until I drilled using the 1/2" bit, but I fixed it up using a dremel bit in my drill. Unfortunately there was a few booboos on the outside that I tried to fix up a bit using wood glue and mahogany dust.






The jack is on the bottom of the guitar, basically where it normally is on a super strat shape. I had too much wood to put it in the same position as a JEM.

And finally, drilled for the neck screws:











I may drill out for a fifth one to add some stability. Still gotta make the recesses for the ferrules and epoxy in the magnets, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.


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## CD1221 (Aug 19, 2011)

Looking good. I actually like the carve on the inside of the horns - the mahogany looks great.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 20, 2011)

Bah, I wanted this to be my 666th post! 
Oh well .

Anyway, the tiniest bit of progress (and a small step back).

Drilled for a 5th neck screw and managed to get one ferrule recess done today before duty called:





















And thank you CD, I am quite happy with how the carves have come out now that I came to terms with it. Here is a shot of the stomach contour to give you an idea of how hella comfy it feels just from holding it against my chest:






And now bad news, earlier my dad accidentally knocked over my neck and there are about 4 little dents in it now. In hindsight I should definitely not have had it sitting in front of a tool drawer. But that's neither here nor there. I'm gonna have to sand off the satin clear from the back of the neck and probably fill the dents with some maple dust that I will make from doing a bit of light sanding. This isn't a huge deal as I wanted to sand the clear from the back anyway and redo it, but the dents do suck.
















Back to good news! Got a package from LMII: my dyes came in.






Got black, blue, red, and yellow. Also ordered some rosewood knobs for the GSR205FM bass I bought a couple months back.











They match the fretboard pretty well, a little bit brighter but definitely better than the stock knobs:






Bleh.

And last but not least, I made a couple logo ideas in Corel:






No, I'm not being cheesey, my last name is actually Muzyka.

That's all for tonight, will finish those ferrule recesses tomorrow.


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## quaned (Aug 20, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> No, I'm not being cheesey, my last name is actually Muzyka.
> 
> That's all for tonight, will finish those ferrule recesses tomorrow.



Give me an endorsement 

But seriously, keep up the nice work! This is gonna turn out to be a bitchin' shred axe!


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 20, 2011)

quaned said:


> Give me an endorsement
> 
> But seriously, keep up the nice work! This is gonna turn out to be a bitchin' shred axe!


Give me several years to get better at these and we'll talk endorsements . Thanks though man! This is gonna be my first guitar with active pickups (actually my first guitar that costs more than 400$CAN), so I'm pretty excited for this. Only thing I'm worried about is the middle pickup getting in the way of my pick, but if anything I will just lower the little bastard to keep him outta the way.


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## Solodini (Aug 21, 2011)

I prefer the 2nd logo idea.


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## Augury (Aug 24, 2011)

Muzyka means Music in polish ^______^


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## Hyliannightmare (Aug 24, 2011)

can't wait to see this finished


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 24, 2011)

Augury said:


> Muzyka means Music in polish ^______^



In the words of my guitar tech: "with a name like that how can you NOT play?!" Also fuck yeah Augury 



Hyliannightmare said:


> can't wait to see this finished



Imagine how I feel.


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## flo (Aug 25, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> In the words of my guitar tech: "with a name like that how can you NOT play?!"



Oh well  

I guess I'd be an acceptable player myself if I spent less time discussing, building, writing about and staring at guitars... 


I'm really looking forward to see it with the dye on! Also, tasty knobs sir! 
But the best advice I can give you is to take it really slow in the end, I know it's tempting to say at one point "enough, now I want to hear what she sounds like!" Take your time with the finish and the setup, you'll be so much happier with it 



Don't worry too much about the dents, quite often it's only the lacquer and you can pretty much just sand them off. 

I'm seriously planning to make a scratchy neck on the guitar I'm building, on porpuse


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 27, 2011)

Got my Switchcraft barrel jack today:





Quick question though: what exactly is this part for:






and is it completely necessary? 

The reason I ask this is because the jack extends a fair bit into the control cavity and gets in the way of where I wanted to put my volume pot (thank god I didn't drill for that yet ).


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## Solodini (Aug 27, 2011)

Isn't that where the wires solder to?


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 27, 2011)

Don't think so, it's really hard to see in that blurry pick but there are the two stereo tabs to the upper left in that picture.


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## Swyse (Aug 27, 2011)

I assume you are talking about the giant end part. If its like the other jacks of the same nature I've seen The shortest is the hot, the gigantic unnecessary part is for the ground, and the middle length one is for the battery, if you've got one.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 27, 2011)

Swyse said:


> I assume you are talking about the giant end part. If its like the other jacks of the same nature I've seen The shortest is the hot, the gigantic unnecessary part is for the ground, and the middle length one is for the battery, if you've got one.



Ah makes sense. Could I maybe get rid of the enormous ground and simply solder the ground wire to the outside of the jack where there is threading? Or even just solder it to a small portion of that ground and cut off the excess? I don't think that would damage it or anything but I just want to make sure as I've never worked with these (or any other guitar electronics) before.


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## Swyse (Aug 27, 2011)

I don't see a reason as to why you couldn't just cut some off, maybe drill a hole in it and lop off the rest. It won't hurt it if you cut some off, but you certainly won't be able to return it haha. I need to get a new barrel jack one of these days my 1989 one isn't holding the cord in like it used to


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 20, 2011)

Still alive over here. I took what little finish there was off from the neck and filled the dents. Doesn't look too bad. I also glued a thick piece of the flame maple onto the headstock, unfortunately I didn't plane the original headstock perfectly level I guess, but hopefully nothing a glue syringe won't fix. 
As a result of this, though, I visited my local Parker dealer and will be ordering my very own Scherzo-style-router-jig-of-doom. Well not quite as big but it'll be an improvement. The guy at the store was awesome enough to give me a Parker catalogue for free so I was drawing up my plan for the jig earlier, figuring out what I'll need. Hopefully I'll go back tomorrow to order it so I can get to finishing this. Pics will come when I get the jig and fix up the headstock.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 1, 2011)

Small, rather disappointing update. I drilled out for the controls (just a volume knob and the Free-Way switch) and did the recess on the front. Disappointing part is that my spade bit was crap and just kind of tore up the front, so I had to use some glue and saw dust. If it ends up looking like crap with the dye (hopefully the knob and such will cover it up) then I will just paint the insides of the recesses black or something.












I wish I had the patience to get a new spade bit and round off the edges (I forgot who it was, but someone on this forum did it and it was a damn good idea).

Gotta either call or go back to that Parker supplier Monday and finalize my order so I can get my router jig and finish this up. It's getting cold and working outside isn't much of an option anymore.

At least I have my methanol on its way so I can start testing dyes soon!


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 17, 2011)

Well the control recesses on the front kinda pissed me off so they will most definitely be solid black as I had to use filler on them, hopefully this will be fine.

Got my shellac and methanol yesterday so today I am mixing up the dyes and letting them settle, I've also started to sand the body to be ready for dyes and oil and such.

Hopefully tomorrow or some other day this week (depending on if the professors at my school go on strike or not on Wednesday ) I will begin testing dyes on scrap and see where this goes. I'm getting there!

Also, haven't heard back from the Parker supplier in my town yet, gotta call them again to see what the deal with my quote is, if worst comes to worst I will have to (very carefully this time) plane down the headstock plate with my crappier router jig.

Just wanted to give a quick update since I haven't had one in a while.

Also, spoilers:





Wonder what these are gonna be for


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Oct 17, 2011)

i wouldnt sweat the knob tear out. You will never see it once you get knobs in there.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 17, 2011)

That's basically how I see it, especially since the volume pot is getting a speed knob. I was a bit worried with the selector switch but it should be fine. I'm just a bit of a perfectionist.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 22, 2011)

Well, school did not go on strike so I didn't get to have a break, but I have some time now in between studying and assignments so I started prepping some scrap maple I had to test out some dye colours and methods. I'm gonna make the top just straight green dyed (the mahogany will be natural of course), with black backing obviously. How much black I leave will depend on which one I like best.

So far I sanded some of the scrap pieces to 150 and the rest to 220 grit, I'm not gonna go past 220 since I talked to my good friend who is a cabinet making apprentice and he said that the wood won't absorb the finish as well if I sand it too high, and there isn't even that much of a point in going past 220 since the finish will basically level itself out after a few layers anyway.

I've decided that I'm going to french polish the top of the guitar with shellac, and the sides, back, and back of the neck I will leave natural and tung oil.

ON TO PICTURES!

These first 2 kinda suck since I used the flash from my phone. All of these pieces have mineral spirits on them.






This piece has some wood filler on it so I can see how the dye reacts to it.






And now here are the money shots in natural light. This piece is sanded to 150.
















These are just off cuts from the edges of the original maple board so the figuring isn't too impressive. But it still looks damn good if I do say so myself.

And just for kicks, a bit of mineral spirits on the guitar itself, which as it stands is only sanded to about 100 grit.
















I rubbed the scrap pieces with a damp cloth to raise the grain and am just waiting for that to dry before I do a bit of final sanding and then apply the black dye.

Should have an update on that a bit later.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 22, 2011)

Lots of pics now. Put the black dye on after sanding each piece of scrap down to its respective grit and buffing with 0000 steel wool.






150 grit:






I'm already liking this.

220 grit:






This dye dried much faster than I thought it would! So shortly after, I sanded the pieces down again to leave a certain amount of black on then buffed with steel wool again before I began dying.

Here's some green.
















And after a bit of mineral spirits after it dried:






Here are the green pieces together. The top one has mineral spirits on it and is the one I took pictures of above. For that piece, I left the black on in a gradient, where the one side has no black taken off, and the other has no black put on, with the middle sanded to different levels of black as best I could.






The middle piece is with a fair bit of black left and the bottom is with as much of it removed as I felt like doing at the moment, which doesn't seem to be much now that I look at it. 

The dye also took to the filler surprisingly well! You can see it about half way down on the left in this picture.






My brother is putting together a Warmoth strat too so I made some red test pieces for him. Same kinda deal with the black being left on as I did with the green.






The top piece there has some mineral spirits on it. He isn't really a fan of the red as it is a bit more of a tangerine/dark orange and he wants a really deep red. So I'm gonna try to add some more of the red powder to the dye, sand these pieces back a bit and add more, see how that goes. I personally like this shade of red but it's not what he wants.

Here's some more shots of it though.




































And just for kicks, I did a blue one too. unfortunately there was a couple dots of red that splashed on to it earlier but meh. Still looks very nice.











Well I think that's it for now.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 23, 2011)

Redid the red for my brother's strat. We both think this one looks a lot better.










Here it is after being buffed with 0000 steel wool and then given a bit of mineral spirits.


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## orakle (Oct 23, 2011)

the red comes out amazing


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 23, 2011)

Agreed, it's outshining the green now so I'm gonna make that one a bit more vibrant too I think.


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 27, 2011)

The red is skeetastic bro it looks amazing,
and so does the blue man
hell they all look great, 
but not skeetastic like the red


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 27, 2011)

Yeah I'm really jealous that the red looks that good . But my mind is pretty set for having the guitar green. I wanna try and finish a piece of mahogany this weekend with some tung oil and see how they look together.


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## demonx (Oct 30, 2011)

I like the red...

Almost inspires me to go buy some flame and do a red flame trans top myself!


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## scherzo1928 (Oct 30, 2011)

taht certainly looks nice.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 30, 2011)

Small update on headstock.






Wish I knew how to use a planer . I'll fix this up soon.


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## Jacobine (Oct 30, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> Yeah I'm really jealous that the red looks that good . But my mind is pretty set for having the guitar green. I wanna try and finish a piece of mahogany this weekend with some tung oil and see how they look together.


 
geniousses choose green


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 3, 2011)

Silly question, though I think it's worth a shot to ask:

Can I dye the top of the maple piece on the headstock but leave the sides natural?

I know that the dye will sink into the wood (obviously), but if I tape off the sides and carefully put several thin layers of dye on the wood, will it be possible keep the sides completely or mostly natural? Or will there be dye visible no matter what?


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## espman (Nov 3, 2011)

^Yes, and if a bit of the dye/stain does leak through, you can use the edge of a stanley blade to scrape it off and get it back to a natural finish. IIRC that's what PRS does on their tops since they don't mask off anythingduring the staining process.


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## Solodini (Nov 3, 2011)

Alternatively, you could bind it with undyed maple, if it all goes wrong.


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## chipsta21 (Nov 3, 2011)

that red is amazing!


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 3, 2011)

@espman: Yeah I think it should work if I take my time. 

@solodini: definitely another option but it's not that huge of a deal and I would like to finish the guitar as soon as possible. I'm getting antsy . I may try my hand with maple binding on a future build but so far I have no plans of using it. Maple/natural binding would be a prefered one for me though; I'm not big on white/cream bindings and can't stand abalone.

@chipsta21: Yeah the more I see that red the more I want it. Future builds though! I still have plenty of the dye left and shouldn't need much for my brother's strat.


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## Pikka Bird (Nov 4, 2011)

I've heard that some guys just shoot a quick coat of clear onto the sides if they want it to stay natural while dying the front. Just make sure to sand a little on the front so there's no overspray left there before dying.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 4, 2011)

Pikka Bird said:


> I've heard that some guys just shoot a quick coat of clear onto the sides if they want it to stay natural while dying the front. Just make sure to sand a little on the front so there's no overspray left there before dying.



Definitely a possibility, but I plan to mask off the sides and be EXTRA careful when dying the top. My main concern is that the dye will sink in deep enough around the edges where it would be visible from the sides. Though I think I may end up taking your advice as I have most of a can of satin spray around which I was going to use on the neck before anyway. Up until now I was thinking of tung oiling the neck but I do love me some satin neck .


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 9, 2011)

Sanded the body and neck up to 150 today. Will sand the back of the neck up to 220 some time and then everything should be ready for dying. Here are some pics of the body and neck with mineral spirits on.





































Yeah, so I'm pretty damn excited to get this puppy finished after seeing that mahogany.

Also, does anyone have any tips on fine sanding the inner horns? I can't seem to get the gouges out even though I'm sanding with the grain. I'll try to get a dowel and sand it that way but if anyone has a secret or two they want to share that would be sweet.


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## HaMMerHeD (Nov 9, 2011)

I have a fairly fine half-round file that I used for smoothing the inner horns on mine...lemme see if I can find a link. I got it at home depot.

Here it is:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

~$10. It'll get the rough gouges out, and then you can use sandpaper to get the file marks out, and so on.

Looks awesome, btw. Your mahogany is much prettier than mine. But I bought paint grade, so there you go.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 9, 2011)

^ thanks man! I got that mahogany blank for $50 from my local wood mill and I did not expect it to look that nice. I'll give that file a try. I have a half round file too but I don't know how fine it is.


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## Pikka Bird (Nov 10, 2011)

I know it was accidental, but man, I love the way the top wood has been carved away. Are you done with that aspect or will you sand a little on the remaining edges so the part that's showing at the ass-end is joined with the other exposed bits?


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 10, 2011)

I might do a tiny bit more on the ass-end of the maple but it's going to look like this for the most part. As good as that mahogany looks, it would be a shame to get rid of most of that maple.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 13, 2011)

Small update:
Put the black dye on and then spent a couple hours sanding it back:










This is with mineral spirits of course. I still have some work to do in some troublesome spots.

'Course that's gonna wait a while:






Got a couple blisters on my thumb so I'm gonna take it easy for a few days. Oh well, more time with Skyrim .

I think next time I will leave it natural and/or not do such a deep carve...


----------



## brynotherhino (Nov 13, 2011)

Looks awesome man!


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## Metal_Webb (Nov 14, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> Small update:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That's not a blister, just a baby callous 
Looking sweet mate, can't wait to see (and hear it) finished!


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## Solodini (Nov 14, 2011)

Metal_Webb said:


> That's not a blister, just a baby callous :lol



So go play Tosin/Reggie Wooten thumb things!


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## crow (Nov 14, 2011)

I'm sorry to say. very nice started making guitars. But when the plastic, do not have to step around the bite.
The edge should be just a little bit around the bite. 5 to 6 mm of the edge.
The next guitar will just work


PRS Private Stock Manager Joe Knaggs


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 14, 2011)

Solodini said:


> So go play Tosin/Reggie Wooten thumb things!



I wish .


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## jarnozz (Nov 14, 2011)

dude, that flamed maple top is just orgasmic! omg staring at it for 5 minutes and still love it! love to hear how it sounds when it is finished


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## Swyse (Nov 14, 2011)

The only thing I would do is even up the amount of mahogany showing through on the end of the guitar. I think the mahogany showing through makes it its own guitar. Everyone has seen a flame maple top, you made it interesting. Accident or not I like it.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 14, 2011)

Swyse said:


> The only thing I would do is even up the amount of mahogany showing through on the end of the guitar. I think the mahogany showing through makes it its own guitar. Everyone has seen a flame maple top, you made it interesting. Accident or not I like it.



Mucho gracias señor. I think I'm honna leave it though. I kinda like the non-uniform mahogany showing.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 14, 2011)

Told you the blisters were bad .
Enough gross crap though, I'll get back to this later this week or next week maybe.


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## HaMMerHeD (Nov 15, 2011)

Skyrim is giving me blisters on my eyes.


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## Pikka Bird (Nov 15, 2011)

Swyse said:


> The only thing I would do is even up the amount of mahogany showing through on the end of the guitar. I think the mahogany showing through makes it its own guitar. Everyone has seen a flame maple top, you made it interesting. Accident or not I like it.



Agreed. Not widening it at all, just hitting the back edge with some sand paper so the thin strip of mahogany that's showing through will get connected to the areas coming around the hips. Or at least on the top side of it.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 15, 2011)

I think I may know what you guys are talking about now, and I like the idea. Do you mean to add more mahogany along this red line?


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## Sepultorture (Nov 15, 2011)

man, that mahogany showing through is ace, and yeah, a little more o the arm rest would be mint \m/


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## Pikka Bird (Nov 15, 2011)

BlackMastodon: Yeah, exactly like that. It shouldn't take loads of work and will really tie it together beautifully.

Also, it will make the bit that's exposed on the rear look like it was on purpose, harr harr.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 15, 2011)

Pikka Bird said:


> BlackMastodon: Yeah, exactly like that. It shouldn't take loads of work and will really tie it together beautifully.
> 
> Also, it will make the bit that's exposed on the rear look like it was on purpose, harr harr.


It actually was on purpose  but I definitely see where you are coming from and I really like that idea. Thanks guys! I will get to that when I get to it, hopefully sooner than later.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 27, 2011)

So I finally got around to staining the headstock of the neck and starting on the body again. I did both in black (second time for the body since I had to do a lot of sanding before) and then did the green on the headstock.
















Unfortunately I didn't mask the sides of the headstock very well because it bled through like crazy in a few spots . Hopefully that will sand out, but for today, I'm tired and don't really want to tear through my thumb again.


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## Mordecai (Nov 27, 2011)

BlackMastodon said:


> So I finally got around to staining the headstock of the neck and starting on the body again. I did both in black (second time for the body since I had to do a lot of sanding before) and then did the green on the headstock.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



that green dye is sick dude!, thats like my dream color for a guitar.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 28, 2011)

I got a question about the grain on the sides and sanding.

Obviously, the grain of the mahogany is in this direction:






The way I have been sanding the sides is shown with the blue arrow in this pic:






But I realized that there are areas of the grain that run perpendicular to each other (at least I think so), most noticeably on the horns and the curves on the back.

So can anyone tell me which direction I should be sanding the sides? So far, I have just done it going lengthwise along the sides, but there are areas where that is going perpendicular to the grain and I'm not sure if I should be changing the direction of the sanding in those areas.

I know this might be a bit confusing but can anyone help me out?


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## Metal_Webb (Nov 28, 2011)

To get the best finish, make sure you sand with the grain for your final smooth off.
Sanding cross-grain results in scratches that are pretty hard to get out in the long run, avoid it if possible.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 28, 2011)

Yeah I've been trying to do that, and it's easy enough for the top and back. The problem is the sides when the grain changes orientation.


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## Metal_Webb (Nov 29, 2011)

And the the best things in life are never easy


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## BlackMastodon (Dec 22, 2011)

The last few weeks have been hella hectic with exams and moving (still don't have a proper work shop as it is cluttered with stuff right now ) but now that that's all over I finally got a chance to work on her again.

Not a whole lot here 'cause it's bloody cold outside, just died the rest of the neck green to hide the spillover from the headstock. I tried to sand the green back as best I could but it was still showing in the grain so there was no way of hiding it. I can live with this though.

These shots came out more turquoise than green but the last couple show the actual colour a lot better:































This time I used an old white t-shirt to apply the dye instead of a sponge brush and it was waaaaaaaaay easier this time around. The sponge brush soaks up so much of the dye that it pours out a lot in certain spots and then you have to hurry and spread it around as best you can before it dries up. The old shirt/cloth method just gives you a lot more control as it lets you do multiple thin layers of the dye until you are satisfied with the colour. Might add a few more coats of the green to make it a bit more uniform.


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## Augury (Dec 22, 2011)

What are those screw holes for? Tremolo system or smth?


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## BlackMastodon (Dec 22, 2011)

Yeah, locking nut.


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## BlackMastodon (Jan 23, 2012)

UPDATE
Finally....

The snow from the weekend melted and it was actually +9 degrees C outside so I jumped at the chance to sand the black off of the body earlier today so I can get this thing rolling again.

Here she is sanded back:











Ready for green:






My brother's Warmoth Strat got it's black coat as well:











Aaaaaaaaand here's mine after I put the green on:































The filler didn't turn out too bad, it will mostly be covered by the knobs anyway.







Also added a liiiiiiiiiittle bit more green to the neck:





















Sorry for the lack of natural light but yeah that's all for today I guess.

NOW, on to business.

First order of business: Should I dye the sides of the headstock black where the flame maple is to make the faux-binding look pop out more?

Second order of business: A couple days ago I test fit the pickups and neck into the body just to see if it was all copacetic; it was not. The carve on the lower horn went a bit too deep so if I use pickup rings then the neck one will hang over by about a quarter inch on the corner. Solution: we are going direct mount.  Which brings me to Order number 3.

Third order of business: How should I go about mounting the pickups to the body? Are there small T-bolts (similar to the ones some people have used for their necks) that I can use for the pickups? Or will it be OK to just use a small pilot hole in the wood and put some foam under each pickup? Also, how big should the springs be?


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## scherzo1928 (Jan 23, 2012)

Great to see this going again.

As for the questions:

1-no need to dye the edge of the maple for the binding... flame will be very obvious one it's got some finishing on it. Or maybe I'm understanding it wrong. do you want a natural binding? Or are you thinking of a black binding, hence the black dye?

3- You could actually mount them directly into the guitar, BUT I'd sugest using some small metal inserts like these.






The one in the pic is waaay bigger than what you need though, or I would have posted a link, haha. Or even plastic ones if you can't find any metal inserts.


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## BlackMastodon (Jan 23, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> Great to see this going again.
> 
> As for the questions:
> 
> ...



Awesome, I'll take a look around the interwebs for some small inserts and what not.
As for the headstock question, I'm not sure if I should leave it alone or dye the sides of the flame maple black so that it looks kind of like black binding.


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## Jontain (Jan 23, 2012)

That finish is looking lush man, going to look ace with a nice bit of clear coat and a buffing.

Good luck with the rest of the build!


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## AndrewG716 (Jan 23, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> Great to see this going again.
> 
> As for the questions:
> 
> ...



I can vouch for those inserts as I used them in my guitar. I went to Fastenal, which may or may not be where you live, but they probably have an online store. The only catch is that you have to either drill out the ears on your pickups or find a bolt with no threads on the top. It may be possible to grind some of the threads off the top portion of a bolt so that it would turn freely. I'm not sure because I drilled out the holes on mine.

Btw, I am always impressed when I see that huge slab of maple you're using.


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## aWoodenShip (Jan 23, 2012)

Oh good God that's nice. By order of the Jarl, make me one too!


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## BlackMastodon (Jan 23, 2012)

aWoodenShip said:


> Oh good God that's nice. By order of the Jarl, make me one too!



 I just got done playing Skyrim for the night and I come here to see this. There's no escaping it!
And if I could find the time I would love to do this on the side, though I'll admit that doing the top like that with the mahogany has proven to be quite challenging, but very fun as well!

Can't wait for the next 2 I got planned.


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## BlackMastodon (Jan 25, 2012)

Took the tape off:











Still a couple small areas where the green seeped into the mahogany a bit so I will have to carefully sand that out.






Tomorrow I will grab some mineral spirits and see what she looks like wet .


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## BlackMastodon (Feb 5, 2012)

Regarding those metal inserts, what size thread should I use for humbucker height screws?
According to StewMac, the screws are 3-48 thread but I don't see any on the site I'm looking at. What size threads did you guys use? If I can't find any inserts then I'll just drill into the wood, should be OK.


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## BlackMastodon (Feb 7, 2012)

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?


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## Purelojik (Feb 7, 2012)

BlackMastodon said:


> Regarding those metal inserts, what size thread should I use for humbucker height screws?
> According to StewMac, the screws are 3-48 thread but I don't see any on the site I'm looking at. What size threads did you guys use? If I can't find any inserts then I'll just drill into the wood, should be OK.



you know im actually wondering the same thing. BTW that green is so sexy. 
i justupdated my build and need the same thing, im thinking i'll just take the screws to a hardware store and see if they can help me out.


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## scherzo1928 (Feb 7, 2012)

Purelojik said:


> im thinking i'll just take the screws to a hardware store and see if they can help me out.


 
This. Best advice I can give. If not, use a plastic one.


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## BlackMastodon (Feb 7, 2012)

Alright thanks guys. I've been busy the last couple weeks with working full time afternoons and going to school 3 times a week (good thing it's my off semester and I'm only taking one class), so I'll try to do some work on it when I get the chance. Also the weather is completely screwing with me. Last week we had a couple days where it was about 15 degrees C outside, now we are back to about 1 . This has been a messed up year for weather.


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## Metal_Webb (Feb 7, 2012)

BlackMastodon said:


> This has been a messed up year for weather.



It's been messed up down here as well  It's meant to be summer but I think we've had about 3 days over 30C and it's been raining or overcast for most of it.
/OT

That green is the sex mate! Can't wait to see it completed.


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## BlackMastodon (May 3, 2012)

Probably about time I update this, no? A little while ago I bought some new tools: 











Rotary planer for drill press, not Wagner Safe-T planer from StewMac, apparently those don't exist anymore, but I did manage to find a similar one on eBay that works quite well so far:











Pretty clean. Going to use this to plane out the cavity covers some time soon.

Also bought these on sail from the magical internets:






Used the core box bit (round one on the far right) to do this on the back:






which will make it easier to grab the cavity covers.

So yesterday I grabbed my body and noticed quite a few terrible scratches in the green through natural light (finally sunny outside) sooooo I sanded it off yesterday and then redid the dying process today. Came out pretty decent I think, didn't lose anything as far as I can tell:
















I had to fill the one bridge post (again ) because it was very much off so I will have to fix that up. I also drilled the holes for direct mounting the pickups (probably won't need the inserts, but I have some anyway if it all falls through) and the pilot holes for the trem claw as well as string tree on the headstock. Next up will be to redrill that bridge post, pop the bridge in and grab some kind of thread/string to line up the neck, drill the holes into the neck, and then make the cavity covers.

NOW, a question: when using the StewMac fast acting epoxy, should I mix the 2 components in a separate container and then dip the magnets in and put them in their slots? Or should I just pour each epoxy mix into the holes and drop the magnets in? Anyone have experience with this stuff? I think the hardener got reaaaaaaally thick too.


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## theo (May 3, 2012)

YEAH! that stain looks great


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## BlackMastodon (May 3, 2012)

Thank you  Only thing I'm a bit worried about is that some of the figure on the butt end of the maple (behind the bridge) seems to have gone away. Hopefully it will look OK once it's finished.


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## scherzo1928 (May 3, 2012)

I'd mix the epoxy in a small container, and use a toothpick-stick-brush-whateveryoucanfind to apply it where you want it. Keep in mind you won't ever be able to get rid of the epoxy on the container or toothpick-stick-brush-whateveryoucanfind, so use something you don't care about... oh, and wear a mask... and work fast, it dries FAST.

As for the figure, it will pop out again with the finish.


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## Ghost40 (May 3, 2012)

I love the top man, that green is sex!


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## asher (May 3, 2012)

Tasty green and nice carves


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## Stompmeister (May 4, 2012)

Lookin so good man! What kinda chisel did you use to carve the top? It looks so sexy.


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## BlackMastodon (May 4, 2012)

Stompmeister said:


> Lookin so good man! What kinda chisel did you use to carve the top? It looks so sexy.


One of these:






Slapped in a handheld grinder.  Much quicker but considerably more pants shittingly scary.


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## BlackMastodon (May 29, 2012)

Oh hey, some cavity covers.















unfortunately the trem cavity cover is a fair bit too small so I will most likely be redoing it.


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## scherzo1928 (May 30, 2012)

Lately I've been thinking about having cavity templates laser cut or something, because it's a PITA to get the cover and the cavity to match well enough... It's also entertaining though, and rewarding once you finally get it right.

Btw, did you only take your socks off for the photoshoot?


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## Pikka Bird (May 30, 2012)

Couldn't you make perfect covers by making a single oversized template and then cutting the cover recess with one large size ball bearing around the shank followed by cutting the cover using a smaller sized ball bearing? You'd size up the ball bearings so that the bigger one would line up the cut on the inside of the line and the smaller would make the cut outside the line.

edit: Strike that- don't need the ball bearing for the cover cut. If you're using a ½" router bit then you'd make the template ½" oversize and just cut the cover directly via the template. Then you'd use a ball bearing that adds that ½" of distance to the template.


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## JamesM (May 30, 2012)

Looking good man. Good luck on covers.


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## BlackMastodon (May 30, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> Lately I've been thinking about having cavity templates laser cut or something, because it's a PITA to get the cover and the cavity to match well enough... It's also entertaining though, and rewarding once you finally get it right.
> 
> Btw, did you only take your socks off for the photoshoot?



 I took them off earlier and just left them on my floor.
But yeah some laser cut templates would be awesome. On the next one I will just leave some buffer room when I cut out the template with the jigsaw. I don't mind the top and bottom sides being slightly off, it's the 1/8"+ on the shorter sides that bugs me since the magnets would be exposed with this cover. If you look close you can probably see the wholes I made for the magnets.


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 8, 2012)

So lately I've just been doing some final sanding on the body and neck and I also did a mockup of the control layout only to find that I didn't have enough room for the battery. Planning fail on my part but better late than never. So now I will be extending the cavity a fair bit to allow for the battery bag to fit in there, which also means that I will be having to redo both cavity covers.  Good times ahead.

So today while I was doing some proper sanding on the neck to get rid of some scratches and whatnot (I didn't properly sand the edges on the sides of the headstock at first so I needed to redo those) I decided to experiment and tried taking off as much of the green dye as possible from the back of the headstock to see if I can still make the maple of the neck as natural as possible. Here is the result:







The maple cleans up pretty well but you can still see the green inside the grain, especially in this area:
















So should I bring it back to 99% natural with small hints of green in the grain? 
Is there a way to get the dye out of there without bleaching the wood? 
If I did bleach it, would it look good? 
Or should I just stain it green again and forget about it?

If I do sand it back, I will get a spindle sander to clean the edges properly and this way I can keep most of that "natural binding" thing I wanted earlier. But the problem is that the joint where I put the maple in doesn't look to good and the dark of the green kind of helps cover that up.  I keep changing my mind on what I want to do. Ideally I would take off a bit of material all around just to get it back to natural with as little green as possible, but if I can't do that then it won't be the end of the world.

So anyone have any advice for my indecisive ass?  Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, I need to motivate myself to finish this SOB.


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 9, 2012)

Anyone? Bueller?


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## scherzo1928 (Sep 9, 2012)

When it comes to finishes I'm completely clueless


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 9, 2012)

I'm just wondering whether or not it will look stupid with the green in the grain. I was also thinking maybe of staining it like a light mahogany colour? It could match the body more and make the green less noticeable.


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 15, 2012)

Made the cavity bigger today:
















Also spent a lot of time sanding the sides and edges and getting everything nice and smooth and also put some more green on the top. I think it looks better than ever now though the green is kind of hard to get in a picture.




































Still undecided on what I should do with the neck but so far I'm leaning more towards sanding it back as much as possible and hitting it with a cherry-like stain that matches the mahogany a bit.


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## TimSE (Sep 15, 2012)

Looking excellent man! Love that colour!


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## iRaiseTheDead (Sep 15, 2012)

envyenvyenvyenvyenvy


----------



## Dan Halen (Sep 15, 2012)

thats pretty awesome. good job


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## jake7doyle (Sep 16, 2012)

easily one of the nicest finishes ive ever seen man


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## Jason Spell (Sep 16, 2012)

I dig the body wood showing underneath and around the separate actual carved top. Looks great!


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 16, 2012)

Thanks for the positive comments guys.  I think for the neck I'm just gonna sand all the end grain properly and dye it green again; I already made my bed with that so I'll sleep in it, and trying to stain the maple darker doesn't help mask the green too well anyway.

I mixed up my shellac over the weekend and will start working on test pieces with it before I do it on the body so it might take a while.

A question about shellac: do I need to fill in the pores of the wood before I do this or after a few thin layers of the shellac? I've seen a tutorial where the guy used fine ground pumice but I can't find any in my city and it seems like a big hassle so I think I will just use regular wood filler if anything.
But I am curious, do I need to fill in the pores at all? I'm leaning more towards yes because of the mahogany but with enough layers shouldn't the shellac begin to smooth itself out after filling in the small pores?

If anyone could shed some light on this it would be great. Scherzo I know you did a shellac finish on your first guitar and it turned out great; any suggestions or tips?

Thanks again guys.


----------



## skeels (Sep 16, 2012)

I have serious tool envy.

I'm building with sharp rocks and fire and bonesaws ...


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 16, 2012)

I basically have a router, a drill press, and a jigsaw. And then other miscellaneous stuff my dad has in the garage.  I was considering getting a bandsaw but I would rather get a spindle sander and router table. I wouldn't have the patience to do a build if I didn't have a router, though. Using a chisel makes me really uneasy and just irritates me because I can never make the cavities clean.


----------



## BlackMastodon (Sep 22, 2012)

Updates:

The alcohol in the shellac reacts too much with the alcohol in the dye I used for the top so I won't be using that, instead I will be using Tung oil (glossy top, matte sides and back) but I still may use the shellac as a sealer for the mahogany before I apply grain filler.

Also cut out the shapes of the cavity covers the other day but didn't get to plane them to proper thickness til today. Here they are before thickness:


























Made some saw dust this afternoon:






All for these little bastards:




































I gotta sand the sides of the trem cover a tad to make it fit properly and the electronics cover is a bit to small in some areas BUT I don't care.  I ran out of mahogany to be picky at this point. Soon I will go back to work and make my magnet system work.


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## scherzo1928 (Sep 22, 2012)

Ah, I read this too late. Shellac is an amazing sealer, no need to seal before appliying it. Just do a layer, let it dry and sand it back a little bit with 600ish grit (wet) and do a bunch more coats afterwards.


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 22, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> Ah, I read this too late. Shellac is an amazing sealer, no need to seal before appliying it. Just do a layer, let it dry and sand it back a little bit with 600ish grit (wet) and do a bunch more coats afterwards.


No worries about the late response, but thanks for the tip! I'm just glad that I tested it on some scrap and saw that the dye was coming off which I wasn't a fan of. It does work great as a sealer so I will definitely use it to seal the mahogany but I am definitely gonna go with the oil finish instead of the French polish for simplicity's sake.


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 22, 2012)

Update to my update! Added the magnets to the body and the metal pieces to the plates using epoxy.



























What I used one the plates were small iron (I assume) discs that I got from work from a machine that punches holes into the fenders of the Dodge and Chrysler (and VW) minivans. I just filled up a glove with them and took them home one day during lunch and they ended up working perfectly! 

This is what they look like normally:









And because I couldn't resist, here is what it looks like with some mineral spirits after the plates were sanded up to 220 as well.



































I tried to get a couple shots in while the sun was peaking out and before it started setting.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 4, 2012)

Update with picture dump!

About a week ago I put shellac on the mahogany as a sealer coat before the oil but that didn't turn out too well and was running over edges and caking over itself and it just turned out much worse than I wanted it too. SO, I spent about 3 hours sanding it all down and redying and green I had gone over again and then was finally able to start on doing the coats of tung oil. The good thing about the shellac disaster was that it sealed the hell out of the pores in the mahogany so I didn't have to worry about grain filling anymore. Guess there's the silver lining. 

But I digress! Here is where she stands after 3 coats of tung oil:































































































It seems that the oil had a bit of a reaction with the filler I used in the knob recesses but it shouldn't be a big deal since they will be covered.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 4, 2012)

Probably going to do another 3 coats for the top of the body and headstock. I think I'm done with the sides and back of the body as well as the cover plates and the neck should be good too. Soon all I need to do is use some of the foam that came with the pickups to add some cushion for the Floyd and then fit it all up and attach the neck.


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## scherzo1928 (Oct 4, 2012)

Looks bloody awesome!


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## RuffeDK (Oct 4, 2012)

Amazing build! Good job so far


----------



## Omzig (Oct 4, 2012)

nice work,love the contrast between the bare wood and green finish on the top,cant wait to see it with the hardware inplace


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 24, 2012)

A little tease for everyone.


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## theo (Oct 24, 2012)

awesome!


----------



## Danukenator (Oct 24, 2012)

I was totally hating on this build at the start but it really turned around. The whole deal looks absolutely awesome!


----------



## BlackMastodon (Oct 24, 2012)

Danukenator said:


> I was totally hating on this build at the start but it really turned around. The whole deal looks absolutely awesome!



I'm not gonna show you the back of the guitar then.  Admitedly, the dyed neck and natural body look kind of goofy together but I came to terms with this a while ago. Just gotta wire her up and bring her to get a set up and all should be good.


----------



## Survivalism (Oct 24, 2012)

Dude....... Dude.
DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE.
This is the nicest fucking build thread I've ever seen!
Classy, tasteful, elegant... If I had the abilities to hand
build a guitar like this, I'd sit at home 24/7 and rake in
fat cash


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## iRaiseTheDead (Oct 25, 2012)

She's.... amazing :')


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## jarnozz (Oct 25, 2012)

ok, that finish looks amazing! what fill-oil did you use there


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 25, 2012)

Survivalism said:


> Dude....... Dude.
> DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE.
> This is the nicest fucking build thread I've ever seen!
> Classy, tasteful, elegant... If I had the abilities to hand
> ...



Oh, you. 
Thanks man, really appreciate the kind words! This is just my first build so there are some small aesthetic hiccups but I'm VERY satisfied with it so far. And for the record I only built the body, neck building will come soon enough for me. 



iRaiseTheDead said:


> She's.... amazing :')



Gracias senor. 



jarnozz said:


> ok, that finish looks amazing! what fill-oil did you use there



Thank you! It's just Minwax Tung Oil. Probably about a dozen coats on the top. In between this last update and the original one where I showed the first few coats of oil on it, I actually massively screwed up and had to completely sand off all the oil on the top and then redye the maple, running out of dye right as I was finishing up.  It was really really discouraging but after a couple days an small fix ups to it I got back on that horse and am very happy with it. You live and you learn, which happens all too much on a first build.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 23, 2012)

Guitar has been sent to tech. NGD to come next week if all goes well.


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 29, 2012)

It's here! http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/st...sly-its-almost-2013-cmon-son.html#post3292375

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who gave me words of encouragement, criticism, ideas, and any kind of help. This forum gave me the knowledge and kick in the ass the finish this and I don't think it could've turned out this well without everyone's help here.


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