# Dark Lord of the Sith type build ;)



## Omzig (Jul 14, 2020)

So Ive had a headless hipshot bridge kicking about for over 2 years i guess,i got my bro to pick it up from the otherside of the pond while on a trip out that away (saved me silly postage costs)

while in lockdown i started to mess with some headless designs,do copies and mods of a few just for learning and fun and to kill some time,kinda decided i like this one enough to start a build based on it....Steinberger+RG i think id call it 






​Atm im trying to decide what wood combo i should throw together for it,i have a combo of african woods at hand that seem to sit together well (not in a "tonewood" can'o'worms kinda way lol ) 

R-L Idigbo (1 pc body blank) Wenge (neckblank) Ovangkol (FB) Black Limba (2 pc bb)




​The Wenge is 32mm thick so i would beable to pull a slab neck/board out of it....im thinking of keeping it as a just a simple idigbo/wenge build...but that Ovangkol FB is pretty sexy aswell.

Hummm,what you guys think ? time to grab some top down pics and make some PS mockups.


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## MaxOfMetal (Jul 15, 2020)

Looks like it'll be nice and light weight. Perhaps call it the "Skywalker".


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## Bobo (Jul 15, 2020)

I like it. I'd use the black limba and wenge neck/fb. I think I'd like the contrast between the fb and body.


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## JimF (Jul 15, 2020)

Omzig said:


>


​
Love that design, its like a prettier Kiesel Vader! Is this programme Fusion360?


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## Omzig (Jul 16, 2020)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Looks like it'll be nice and light weight. Perhaps call it the "Skywalker".



Super idea...now i have to add Blue side LED's! 



Bobo said:


> I like it. I'd use the black limba and wenge neck/fb. I think I'd like the contrast between the fb and body.



Yep i think i'll be going this route thanks for the feedback  So after deciding to use's these 2mm Blue LED's as side markers as insipred by MaxOfMetal above






I dug out this Wenge board that has a much tighter grain,quick mockup leaves me something looking kinda like this....i go'er i think.








JimF said:


> Love that design, its like a prettier Kiesel Vader! Is this programme Fusion360?



Slam the GM4T and an RG550 together & it pretty much turns out you end up with a vader lol (this might have a bit of a fatter ass) 

Design Progy is Rhino,I really tried to like fusion360 but much like 3dmax it was birthed from the 3d nav/interface just does not work for me...Rhino is about the only one ive used sofar that reminds me of QE4 and the old Unreal Ed i wasted way to many hours in building gaming levels many moons ago....i got a copy off of evilbay,no sure if it's 100% legit but it came on a usb stick and shows as activated and update,so if it's doggy im not sure why it's still working ! (no doubt i'll start it tomorrow and it will get nuked)

Progress will start after i reroof my workshop and get another body milled for someone else's project


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## JimF (Jul 16, 2020)

That looks fantastic with that wood sample in it! 
I need to get to grips with a design programme like that. I picked up a CAD based 2d programme pretty quickly in a temp job at a laser cutting firm, I was only an estimator but half of the time it was quicker to draw the components myself rather then submitting them to the drawing office! Turns out the in-house programme I was using was some awful bastardised CAD ripoff and left me with unintentional bad habits!


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## Omzig (Jul 24, 2020)

So 2mm tower LED's have arrived and i think they should work out well.

I have a few options/ideas for installing/routing the pockets for them.

First i tried half of today would be a 50-50 pocket routed into both the fretboard and neck and then closed together so they sit on the joint between fb/neck,might be a bit of a pain in the ass to get right as if im out even 0.25mm it will suck..






2nd method would be to route a longer channel into just the Freatboard wood then drill out the 2mm for the tower section from the edge in and slot the LED in and push up to sit flush

3rd option is to route the full depth of the led with a channel like in the above pic and then dust/CA fill the underside which glues to the neck,should be easy to hide on wenge...Humm i'll give all 3 a try on monday and post the results.


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## Extrafunk (Jul 30, 2020)

If it's not too late, don't use blue leds!

It's a little longer explanation, but basically your eye is not very sensitive at that wavelength of light and it's nigh on impossible to judge distances. Green or amber is a much, much better choice...

Source: I work with lighting as my day job.


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## Omzig (Jul 31, 2020)

Extrafunk said:


> If it's not too late, don't use blue leds!
> 
> It's a little longer explanation, but basically your eye is not very sensitive at that wavelength of light and it's nigh on impossible to judge distances. Green or amber is a much, much better choice...
> 
> Source: I work with lighting as my day job.



Wow well it's always nice to learn something new everyday  many thanks for the post.

I was going for the blue to channel maxofmetal's skywaker suggestion (+ im a massive fan of the org starwars trilogy...the rest...err no so much)






But i guess green would also work within the theme if i go ROTJ 






I'll throw some green on order and see how they look,i don't gig at all these days so no need to worry about darken stages for me...


So been spending a bit of time looking at a string retainer option,I can't find anyone who has a hipshot LP retainner instock (+ i think there stupid money) ....ive used the single string options before and i got to say i really dont like them much

So the idea im playing with atm it to make up a solid brass retainer like the one in the top right of this pic 






And then insert it directly into the head (less) stock section after the srings and have the fretboard wood extend right over the top but holed and slotted in the wood to give this kind of look after the zero fret 






Brass bit's are on order & i will kick up a test once they arrive....

Did a test route (or 2) for the bridge,first was out by about 4mm (because i didnt read the min/max intonation settings in the hipshot pdf......) 2nd came out great.






Hope to get the body cnc'ed next week, almost forgot to post this but i decided to KISS for the led slots and just use a simple block route out and drill in from the side,but looking at the layout in rhino on the 12th and 24th im going to have to go vert for the slots so i can get both led's inplace,a small goove in the outside scrap of my fretboard blank with a 2mm ball end should give me a nicely centered & correct depth goove to drill in from....






laters.


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## Bobo (Jul 31, 2020)

Looking cool Omzig. How will you go about machining the brass? And is the 2nd trilogy all _that_ bad? I mean yeah, initially it was kind of a let down, but maybe after a few more watches (for me at least), I came to respect the story more even if the story telling method wasn't up to my expectations. 

Now back on track...have you given much thought on pickups yet?


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## Omzig (Aug 4, 2020)

Bobo said:


> Looking cool Omzig. How will you go about machining the brass? And is the 2nd trilogy all _that_ bad? I mean yeah, initially it was kind of a let down, but maybe after a few more watches (for me at least), I came to respect the story more even if the story telling method wasn't up to my expectations.
> 
> Now back on track...have you given much thought on pickups yet?



Hey Bobo

I'll be machining the brass on my CNC setup (workbee clone) Ive done a few small tests cut's & hole profiling on some scrap blocks i had kicking about and the came out great.

So this was kinda my orginal idea for placing a retainer block under a wooden cap (i was lazy and c & v'ed the string gaps i'll reduce each gab in relation to it's string thickness on the final)






But after doing the brass milling test's ive decide to just mill the whole thing in brass and then use some patina solution to blacken it and lacquer it to protect the surface from chips.


As for Pup's, no thoughts yet but as you ask i think i have a dimarzio sd kicking around here somewhere and i'll prob grab a IG jailrail II for the neck...or maybe just go rail crazy a slap a quadrail in the bridge aswell and go dpd switch split mad! 

back off track...

2nd trilogy....humm i watched it again a few years back and dam some of the dialog and delivery is bad..........Oh annie......& dont get me started on jarjar lol.....Story wise i do like the way that palpatine's machinations play out, but i i think it could/should have been a bit grittier/darker,as for the off shoots,i dont mind Rouge one (i like the way it sets up epIV) but the only person in it i gave a shit about was the ex imp droid  Solo wasn't to bad,i know ppl really slatted it but i did'nt really have high expections for it so i wasn't let down much,Mando was pretty good and i think it has way more of the org SW vibe, be interesting to see how they tie stuff in.

I've done ep's VII-IX once each can't bring myself to re-watch them,way to much man hating/wokeness/box ticking for me


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## Slaeyer (Aug 4, 2020)

Omzig said:


> Yep i think i'll be going this route thanks for the feedback  So after deciding to use's these 2mm Blue LED's as side markers as insipred by MaxOfMetal above



I've also wanted to go with LEDS for long, but found that going with optical fiber and placing a larger LED below the neck pickup was easier for me. So that might also be worth considering. I usually rout a small channel into the FB for the optical fiber. 
Only things you have to be careful about is that those optical fibers can be damaged quite easily (bent too much, gets brittle when using super glue, et cetera).
Besides that they worked like a charm and there was no need to place a led, as I've always been afraid what to do when the LED breaks


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## Omzig (Aug 5, 2020)

Slaeyer said:


> I've also wanted to go with LEDS for long,




Thx for the suggestion  I have tried FO in the pst (before i had cnc) and threw it out after much frustration and just used glow powder/CA...i just checked the 2mm FO cable prices here in the UK and it's expensive (dirt cheap from china but im not ordering from there atm...),maybe i'll try it on the next build but as all the mill layout work is ready to go for this one i'll stick with the LED's

So spent some time cleaning up the retainer design,here's the 2nd test in limba and what i think the final brass design will be,i think the double lock will work better,this will also be tapped in the underside in 3 places and will be bolted to the neck ala old style floyd nuts and will have string runouts from the rear of the back slots.






Brass bar and patina solution are in the postal pipe so once they arrive i'll post progress pics.


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## Omzig (Aug 6, 2020)

Ok i think this in brass will work.






Waitting on the post "person"


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## Omzig (Aug 10, 2020)

So got the brass and a fe broken bits later got the slots and grub holes CNC'ed 






Didn't get chance to cut out and tap yet,should have a few hours in the morning to get to it i hope


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## Omzig (Aug 11, 2020)

So got this out of its slab






A few of the hole tapping's didn't really go to plan......don't ask lol  

so i guess i'll be cutting a second proto tomorrow and reordering/joining/deepening some of the cuts as the tap didn't take the excess between holes/channels as i expected and i've also ordered some new m3/m4 taps as the ones ive got are a bit shit...or so i just found out


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## Omzig (Aug 12, 2020)

So someone asked me what i fucked up on the tapping....well i managed to distend the surface of the unit by over tapping the rear holes, to try and rescue it i drilled though the face on both sides and retapped to m5 but as you can see this distened the edges into the side string slots so toast, i could have just cut a cover for it and OOSOOM'ed as it does work 100% it but for the hour or so to cut a second i rather redo the work,while cutting the 2nd i used the first to test the blacking/patina solution,which came out pretty cool but the acetone i used didn't clean it up 100% (checking the lable it seems it has 10% water in it as you cant buy 100% off the street in the UK now because a few years ago some fuck heads started to throw it in ppl's faces....),still was a good test,this has a bit of a fallout vibe,would look cool applied to a full brass coated body. 






So second cut in brass...on the right, i deepen the holes and widened the slots and ran them straight out the back (ala status hardware) + i reduced the rear mounting holes to 2.5mm for future m3 taps...and order some proper bottoming tap cutters....

Laters.


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## Mr_Mar10 (Aug 13, 2020)

Looking good Stevo, awesome skills


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## Omzig (Aug 13, 2020)

Mr_Mar10 said:


> Looking good Stevo, awesome skills



Hey Marty nice to see you dropping by  thx for the feedback (dont take what i do as skill it's more akin to bumping into stuff in the dark lol) .....Where's that BM SG build log 

btw if you'ed emailed me in the past week or few i have an issue with yahoo's spam filter ,any thing with multi re:'s & it seems to keeps binning messages as spam and there web mail portal wants me to sign my life away in cookies to use it and thet really hate my my ad bloacker's,Time to ditch sky/yahoo for email i think....seems even if your paying for a product your still the product....

So while i wait for the new taps to arrive i thought id run a full board/side placement test on the LED's, Just a quick note...if your going to route side dot markers with a cnc make sure you have no bow in your FB blank (or if you do clamp it out)...

2nd test (this time with a straight edge board) cnc'ed the side dots to 2mm-5mm deep then later pillar drilled down in to the led bed slots..no way I could ever get/got 13 side dot markers inplace with no more that 0.2mm driff from 1st to the 24th marker...







Going to do the full solder up over the weekend,as i should beable to just pop them out and slot them back into the final wenge board once it's cut.


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## Omzig (Aug 14, 2020)

Ok managed to tap the 2nd without messing up any of the treads! got it petina'ed and first coat of lacquer on







Ok now that's done and dosn't look half bad i think it's time to move onto some wood.....


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## Omzig (Aug 19, 2020)

So on to wood...had some super heavy rain here in the UK for the past few days some of which flooded my porch and worse still caused a small land slip outside my workshop...great fun.

Any hows got the board slotted and radius'ed (15.75" - 20" compound low to high) swapped the trussrod to an end wheel unit and then re jigged the LED slots in the back a little.











After a few fails with trying to solder a continuous wire across each - + connection in the same channel (cutting the external sheath between each contact to expose the wire was a PITA) i decided to use a gauge 0.11 string, create x2 channels and then sheath the + connection arm on each LED,much easier to solder,once there all in and working i'll expoxy the whole channel.


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## Omzig (Aug 20, 2020)

So the 0.11 String and sheath one arm of the led thing worked out really well ! only took about 5 mins to solder all the connections once everything was cut and placed in the beds/slots






One slight/small issue is that when i radius'ed the board the Ds tape on the bottom right side of the board must have come away slightly as the led holes are 0.5mm to close to the top edge of the board...not the end of the world but im sure it will piss me off everytime i look at it from now on


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## electriceye (Aug 22, 2020)

I always ask this of other builders: what do you use to route the truss wheel slot? Do you have a template? Or do you just concoct something on the fly? I’ve managed to do 3 of them, but I don’t have any templates and I’m always worried about screwing them up. 

Also curious how you’re finishing the wedge, as they can be super splintery.


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## Adieu (Aug 22, 2020)

Omzig said:


> pretty cool but the acetone i used didn't clean it up 100% (checking the lable it seems it has 10% water in it as you cant buy 100% off the street in the UK now because a few years ago some fuck heads started to throw it in ppl's faces....),still was a good test,this has a bit of a fallout vibe




Ppls faces? Whaaat?

No, clean and pure solvents are not legally available to the unlicensed public almost anywhere as part of the War on Drugs

Because pure solvents make DIY chemistry too damn easy


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## Dust_to_Dust (Aug 31, 2020)

Nice work dude!


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## redkombat (Aug 31, 2020)

Adieu said:


> Ppls faces? Whaaat?
> 
> No, clean and pure solvents are not legally available to the unlicensed public almost anywhere as part of the War on Drugs
> 
> Because pure solvents make DIY chemistry too damn easy



that highly depends on what solvents. anything used to make drugs is usually not pure and things used to make explosives are generally pure and easy to get. speaking in just the us idk about where else


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## Adieu (Aug 31, 2020)

redkombat said:


> that highly depends on what solvents. anything used to make drugs is usually not pure and things used to make explosives are generally pure and easy to get. speaking in just the us idk about where else



Not that kind of "make"

Solvents are essential in DIY chemistry for extracting shit from other shit.... like reagents from pills or plant material....

The reason most legal solvents in most places are now slightly diluted by a few % with something else isn't harm reduction, it's actually harm maximization.

See, the right pure solvent for the right precursor will pull just the needed ingredient for your future diy narcotics, while leaving behind all the weird unwanted botanicals, pill chalks, or whatever.... a sliiiiiiightly mixed solvent won't.

Bit of alcohol, ether, water, and acetone added in, and suddenly your pure extraction solvent becomes a universal goop remover (to various degrees of effectiveness, of course....but the point is it is useless for separating raw material A into a clear vial of pure dissolved precursor B and a bunch of filtered-off insoluble toxic trash C. Toxic trash now follows your solvent, dissolved in the small % of intentionally mismatched adulterant solvents.)


It's all so that your DIY drugs stay difficult and hazardous to make, risky to take, and will refuse to react at all by basic textbook cooks without many extra steps to ditch the adulterants.


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## redkombat (Aug 31, 2020)

Adieu said:


> Not that kind of "make"
> 
> Solvents are essential in DIY chemistry for extracting shit from other shit.... like reagents from pills or plant material....
> 
> ...



to a degree this is true but pure solvents are still easy to get, and as far as anything that has to do with plant matter i can tell you from business experience that pure solvents even dmso are easy to get. acetone in itself is a solvent, the kind from a grocery store is 80% pure and not much of one while the kind from a roofing supply company its 100% pure and is also used in a host of major explosives. usually pure solvents at most need a business supply contact and 90% of the time you don't need an llc to get you just need contact information and $$$. 

youre definitely well knowledge in this area i might add


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## redkombat (Aug 31, 2020)

and solvents are only used for extraction in both the cased of drugs and explosives from what i know of


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## Omzig (Sep 14, 2020)

OK time to get this build back on track (done finishing up another body project and having a bout of insomnia)








Adieu said:


> Ppls faces? Whaaat?



Yep there was a trend a few years ago where "gang" members (mostly in London) started to throw corrosive/solvents in other "gang" members faces, and sometimes they just attacked random poeple or food delivery guys....media dubbed them "acid attacks" and goverment punished everyone not just the muppets committing the crime...

Anyhows i popped my head into a local nail bar and explained to the very shocked looking young lady (who im sure thought is this long haired bearded guy here to rob me) what i needed and why she sold me a bottle of 99% acetone and told me if i need more to pop back,i did ask her about the UV nail clear they use but she didn't know if it came in larger units....

Laters (just hope i don't get s.w.a.t 'ed at my workshop sometime soon)


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## Omzig (Sep 14, 2020)

electriceye said:


> I always ask this of other builders: what do you use to route the truss wheel slot? Do you have a template? Or do you just concoct something on the fly? I’ve managed to do 3 of them, but I don’t have any templates and I’m always worried about screwing them up.
> 
> Also curious how you’re finishing the wedge, as they can be super splintery.



This was done on the CNC i just extended the board a few mm out past 24 and pathed the slot,wheel head pokes out of the end of the neck and ive cut a recess into the body neck pocket for it,I had to buy the wheel section and then chem weld it to the orginal TR with a section of 4mm allen.

I did a few tests last year on different oils and finished on wenge and found the best results for feel/finish were to take it upto 600 grit and then wipe with colron finishing wax to seal and then buff,the CFW doesn't seem to darked the wenge like trad oils do,but i also found that taking it upto 1500 with micro mesh gave a super glassy feel without effecting the colour.


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## JimF (Sep 15, 2020)

That body looks gorgeous!
I'm taking notes about finishing wenge for my other project


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## Omzig (Sep 15, 2020)

JimF said:


> That body looks gorgeous!
> I'm taking notes about finishing wenge for my other project



Come on what you building and where's your build log ? 

Well heres a pic of the Colouron wax vs unfinished vs CA from my other thread.






Every oil finish or other clearcoat i tried pretty much killed all the contrast of the wood/grain, also as electriceye stated it's a little splittery so haddle/finish with care, but if you do get stung by a wenge splinter get it out sharpish as i will turn nasty pretty quickly!


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## Adieu (Sep 15, 2020)

Wax looks better.

But what about aforementioned splinter issues?? And how did you apply superglue (that CA right?) so evenly?? Or was that slather-and-sand?


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## cip 123 (Sep 15, 2020)

That body is looking great!


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## Omzig (Sep 16, 2020)

and the flip side....god this black limba kinda stinks like a goats and donkey shed smell when its getting milled, yuck.






Now i hope you guys don't think my heel sucks as bad as the real vaders bolt on design 






For the ferrules im going to try something i saw a while ago in a random YT cnc video, I'll cut some 14mm by 10mm high wenge circles glue them into the already cut holes and then rerun the ball nose heel cut and then hole the wenge ferrules for the neck bolts,if it works they should become a smooth part of the heel....

im going to try some inset 3mm by 1mm deep magnets for the cavitiy covers, i found pairing them up one inset the body one inset in the cover plastic really helps the cover lock together better that just 1 magnet on a metal plate. 



Adieu said:


> Wax looks better.
> 
> But what about aforementioned splinter issues?? And how did you apply superglue (that CA right?) so evenly?? Or was that slather-and-sand?



I really didn't find this FB that came off the cnc all that splintery,i have had them before while working it by hand and they do tend to hurt/ache a lot more that other wood splinters,might just be me? 

CA i got is very thin i think its ref to as "water thickness" and is almost self leveling,it's the cheapest stuff in the store and as a glue it totally sucks but as a quick drop filler for finishes it's great and polishes up to a nice glassy finish, mind you i doubt id use it on a full body as a finish as it's pretty nasty if you get a wiff of it...


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## Adieu (Sep 16, 2020)

You must be crazy. CA glue smells like ambrosia.


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## cip 123 (Sep 16, 2020)

Oh my, a Vader with a decent heel joint, is the world ending?


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## Omzig (Sep 16, 2020)

Adieu said:


> You must be crazy. CA glue smells like ambrosia.



Only if you've sniffen enought of it lol


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## JimF (Sep 17, 2020)

Omzig said:


> Come on what you building and where's your build log ?



This is the scratchbuild I started a hundred years ago - https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/jimf-first-build-slow-progress.328683/

Going to do a build thread / NGD when the lastest project is complete 



Omzig said:


> Well heres a pic of the Colouron wax vs unfinished vs CA from my other thread.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That's interesting how the CFW has seemingly kept more colour in that leaving the wenge unfinished!


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## Omzig (Sep 17, 2020)

JimF said:


> This is the scratchbuild I started a hundred years ago - https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/jimf-first-build-slow-progress.328683/
> 
> Going to do a build thread / NGD when the lastest project is complete
> 
> ...



Hey Jim

Well sometime's i think a good break away from a project can be what you need,dam i got half baked stuff going back 10 years im pretty sure i'll get around to finishing them  I say defo revisit and finish up your build looks like you've come to far with it to just leave it gather dust,my first build took me 2 years (or about 8 months total as i was working in an unheated 6x6 shead!) 2nd one was 3month and came out way better.

And yep the wax does seem to help the lighter tones pop a little more,hopefully i can get the neck cnc'ed and wax'ed up this weekend.


So what do you know that furrels and 2nd ball nose pass kind worked out real well i think.







Laters


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## cip 123 (Sep 17, 2020)

Omzig said:


> Hey Jim
> 
> Well sometime's i think a good break away from a project can be what you need,dam i got half baked stuff going back 10 years im pretty sure i'll get around to finishing them  I say defo revisit and finish up your build looks like you've come to far with it to just leave it gather dust,my first build took me 2 years (or about 8 months total as i was working in an unheated 6x6 shead!) 2nd one was 3month and came out way better.
> 
> ...


That is a great Idea!

Sorry but I might have to steal that one day


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## JimF (Sep 18, 2020)

That looks fantastic! Very organic!

I do intend on finishing the other project soon, but the current one is capturing my interest more!  
I think I may end up having to re-fret the neck I made, which isn't ideal. Hence the procrastination!


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## Omzig (Sep 18, 2020)

Made a hole lol






I'll post a better Update on Sunday when im not stuck with just ms paint to resize things!






JimF said:


> That looks fantastic! Very organic!
> 
> I do intend on finishing the other project soon, but the current one is capturing my interest more!
> I think I may end up having to re-fret the neck I made, which isn't ideal. Hence the procrastination!



YRe-fretting im sure you'll find is is one of those things you think will be a major super rock hard job, but once you've started you'll think...why did i put this off for so long!, myself i always order extra jumbo SS these days as there's a lot more meat for me to make mistakes on 



cip 123 said:


> That is a great Idea!
> 
> Sorry but I might have to steal that one day



Steal away (the night) as i say i saw this on a random YT cnc cutting video & thought well that's cool might have to try it one day..


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## Omzig (Sep 18, 2020)

My bro told me to post this as he thought it was funny...seems i lack the "Rad" Tat's though


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## cip 123 (Sep 18, 2020)

Omzig said:


> My bro told me to post this as he thought it was funny...seems i lack the "Rad" Tat's though


Bro Kiesel stole your design, that’s totally not rad


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## KR250 (Sep 19, 2020)

Killer body! Very clean.


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## Omzig (Sep 21, 2020)

KR250 said:


> Killer body! Very clean.



Your step over tip helpped with this one  that and using the trem pocket and heel holes to screw to the spoil board i got away without having to use bridges,which was nice.

So yep milling a 15mm neck profile from a 32mm Wenge blank.....a very very bad idea,next time it gets ripped on the bandsaw to 20mm (this was one of those times were 10 mins to change and setup a ripping blade would have been the best option....)

6mm ball 10% step over 0.25 left for sandout...i think i might run a past cut option on the side's before i profile cut it out of the blank.


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## JimF (Sep 22, 2020)

Wow! Amazing work! Can't wait to see the finished project (then buy the next one you make!  )


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## Omzig (Sep 22, 2020)

JimF said:


> Wow! Amazing work! Can't wait to see the finished project (then buy the next one you make!  )



Cheers Jim  glad your diggin the build, and you have enought projects and guitars by the sound of 

Well just when you think everything is going to plan and your totally happy with the result the CNC god's decide to slap you about a bit !

Left my phone in the workshop so no pic's atm but the CNC lost steps in the X axis (while i wasn't watching) and managed to cut the profile for the outside of the neck 1.5mm out of wack to the bass side of the neck.....Now im pretty sure could save it/fix it in the mix but doing so would alter the profile (which is a copy of my laguna GH) way to much and it would always be bugging me every time i pick it up so this neck is going on the rescue me project pile and i'll use it for a later project and i'll cut a 2nd, there are a few little thing that are bugging me about the fretboard also so that's getting remade as well (for anyone wondering what the issue is it's because i cant see the led/postion markers without them being on (yep not a big deal))

Not sure why the cnc lost step first time ive had such an issue,in fact even after check and cleaning the little dust that was on the X axis gantry i couldn't find anything that should have caused such an issue ????? I re-ran the cut in the air and not one issue..i can only think it was a power gitch/usb interruption

So i'll try and pick up my phone tomorrow for the pics of the fuck up but no more updates for about a week or so as i'll be on demolition duty for 5 days or so with my bro as he's short handed at work.

Laters


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## JimF (Sep 22, 2020)

Gutted! I'm sad for you mate!
I've heard of things like this happening when belts skip a tooth or something. Could you split the blank down the middle, add a contrasting strip of wood then start again? Essentially moving the incorrect neck edge outside of the cutting area?


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## dmlinger (Sep 22, 2020)

Omzig said:


> Hey Jim
> 
> Well sometime's i think a good break away from a project can be what you need,dam i got half baked stuff going back 10 years im pretty sure i'll get around to finishing them  I say defo revisit and finish up your build looks like you've come to far with it to just leave it gather dust,my first build took me 2 years (or about 8 months total as i was working in an unheated 6x6 shead!) 2nd one was 3month and came out way better.
> 
> ...


Looks rad. Really digging this concept.

With the angled heel, do you think there will be any issue with the way the screw heads set into the wooden ferrules since they will be off axis to the neck when you mount it?


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## dmlinger (Sep 22, 2020)

Omzig said:


> My bro told me to post this as he thought it was funny...seems i lack the "Rad" Tat's though


This is mega awesome! Did you get your "finish line" tattoo removed from your thumb? 

Don't want to triple post and am too lazy to quote your wenge neck photo...but, damn, that is fucking sick. I hate that your machine lost itself. Has happened to me before. It isn't a kick in the nuts for the loss of wood (even though wenge is more expensive than maple), it is the loss of TIME that sucks so hard. Takes so long to mill a neck. 

You'll definitely recover from the neck mishap and this guitar will rule. I'm super jelly and have a major itch to design a headless now.


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## cip 123 (Sep 23, 2020)

Omzig said:


> Cheers Jim  glad your diggin the build, and you have enought projects and guitars by the sound of
> 
> Well just when you think everything is going to plan and your totally happy with the result the CNC god's decide to slap you about a bit !
> 
> ...


Might not help but before I start jobs I usually check if there’s any flex/movement on any of my axis’ just by pushing lightly. I’ve had a lot of trouble with my Z axis flexing so always make sure to check it’s all tight.


Like you said maybe just a glitch, just if it helped!


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## Omzig (Sep 23, 2020)

dmlinger said:


> Looks rad. Really digging this concept.
> 
> With the angled heel, do you think there will be any issue with the way the screw heads set into the wooden ferrules since they will be off axis to the neck when you mount it?



Screws sit flat inside the ferrules it's just the sides that are flush with the heel,i just tryed this as i didn't want that scoop/ridge id have gotten in the rear holes with using a flat topped ferrules

And yep the time lost is the biggest kick in the nuts (even more time if you stupid enought to mill it from a 32mm blank ,my excuse is wenege is a bitch to cut on my bandsaw and i my thicknesser needs sharppening  ) 




cip 123 said:


> Might not help but before I start jobs I usually check if there’s any flex/movement on any of my axis’ just by pushing lightly. I’ve had a lot of trouble with my Z axis flexing so always make sure to check it’s all tight.
> 
> 
> Like you said maybe just a glitch, just if it helped!



Good practice i think i'll add that to the wall behind the cnc in big black marker pen.

OK shocker but it turned out it's not a Glitch but user error!!!! who'ed have thunk it....i went back over my feeds&speeds settings to check,because at the time i had dropped the cut/engage rate from 1000 id been using for hogging to 500 for the final pass to avoid any chance of chipping....some how id managed to also set the approach rate to 1500 which is about the max my axie's will run smoothly at without gagging (im also going to recheck and clean all my axie wheels next week) but this time around it seems that 1500 was a little to much for it so it lost steps,i'll drop the max rate to 1250 in GRBL so it never exceeds that and make sure to check my rates before i hit OK!

So any hows onto the pics of the F**K up (im sure most ppl with go wtf "just sand that out"....)






Doesn't look like a major issue in this pic but as you can see below it runs the full length and has a little scoop






And dam how strange does fresh milled wenge look? super pale im guessing its UV or oxygen reactive? 

Stuff that turned out good....

Brass retainer i milled fits perfectly and looks great in place 






Also forgot to account for the string/wires for the LED's power coming out the base of the FB so i'll have to add a slot for that,BL/Wenge combo looks great though...was thinking of going ebony for the new fb but i'll stick with wenge/wenge i think







Right im off for a beers as ive been taking down a roof and smashing up block work all day.

And thanks for all the feedback and comments/likes guys i really appreciate your input :tumbsup


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## cip 123 (Sep 23, 2020)

Omzig said:


> Screws sit flat inside the ferrules it's just the sides that are flush with the heel,i just tryed this as i didn't want that scoop/ridge id have gotten in the rear holes with using a flat topped ferrules
> 
> And yep the time lost is the biggest kick in the nuts (even more time if you stupid enought to mill it from a 32mm blank ,my excuse is wenege is a bitch to cut on my bandsaw and i my thicknesser needs sharppening  )
> 
> ...


If you're set on getting a perfect neck, I'd just reuse that neck for another project if it's salvageable or just even as a test neck for fitting new bodies if you need it. Not all a waste!


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## dmlinger (Sep 23, 2020)

Omzig said:


> a beers



Nailed it


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## Omzig (Sep 24, 2020)

dmlinger said:


> Nailed it



Ha should have read a great many beers


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## Omzig (Oct 1, 2020)

So after a ball breaking 6 days demolishing block and concrete inner warehouse building's i managed to get back to this

I decided to rub down the messed up/lipped edge neck to see how the wax feels and it's super silky defo using it as a finish on both neck and fb.






As im rebuilding the neck and fb i decide to add some m5 inserts/bolts (these one's im going to try are know as Hole Slab based T Nuts) might need to countersink the holes slightly but i think these will work better than the standard round/tang T-nuts






My DPDT switches turned up also (will only be used as spdt north/both/south coil switches for neck and bridge), these came with water proof covers not sure if i'll keep the surround/covers on (i already pop the tip cover off) or just use the standard nuts.

Also as i had the issue with the tower led side markers being useless without them being powered on i have 200 of these blue/green 3x2x4mm led's coming that im going to try instead of dots






these will sit flush with the edge of the fb so shouldn't need to be powered up to be usable as a marker.

Also a bought a new slab of wenge @ 24mm thick, to save me hogging out another neck from the 32mm slab i already have....turned up the other day and it's 29mm thick....well that's 2 passes saved i guess.


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## dmlinger (Oct 1, 2020)

I love this build!

You have a jointer and/or planer? Best score in my shop is a 6” jointer from Craigslist for $50. It’s the little Porter Cable one and has been a workhorse. Even without a planer, if you had a jointer you could get a perfect straight edge and take the board down so the thinnest part of the board is thick enough for your work piece. Then the CNC could take care of the rest and save time.


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## Omzig (Oct 2, 2020)

dmlinger said:


> I love this build!
> 
> You have a jointer and/or planer? Best score in my shop is a 6” jointer from Craigslist for $50. It’s the little Porter Cable one and has been a workhorse. Even without a planer, if you had a jointer you could get a perfect straight edge and take the board down so the thinnest part of the board is thick enough for your work piece. Then the CNC could take care of the rest and save time.



Thank man but this is (as ive heard said on your side of the pond?) Little league compard to the fanatasic work your kicking out atm. dam if you were in the UK i think id be commissioning a build from you asap 

So yep i was trying to not crack the planner out so i could get x2 necks out of this blank CNC'ing out the first then leaving the thickness there just in case i needed it for the next one....but today i had the idea of just cutting x2 of the same necks from this blank,and building a fixed bridge with some cheaper single piece hardware, that said after about 5 mm my planner really started to protest about being feed wenge (i both love and loth this stuff lol)....looks like it's finally time to get them blades sharpen! 

It's down to 27mm now so that's a good few passes less for the CNC to worry about 

After doing a bit of reading ive found out that it's UV (like most wood) that causes Wenge to darken after cutting

Here's my Newly purchased slab left vs the freshly planned old blank 







And wow quite a difference! Now id like a half way house before i wax (doubt the wax will act as a UV block but) so once the new neck is cut i'll throw it under my UV curing lamp for a few days (no good putting it outside in the Grey UK lol) to give it a good start.

Right i think it's beer o'clock  (but then when isn't it?)


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## Omzig (Oct 6, 2020)

Blah having some more shitty bouts of insommna so i didn't want to get back into this in case i fuck it up worse  

That said i managed about 3 hours sleep last night so decided to get out the house venture forth and recut the FB today.






Decided to try a 5% pass on the 6mm ball end so that's 0.3mm off every shift!...took a while longer but the need for sanding is greatly reduced...also decided to stick to the single 15.75" radius as on the laguna






Just out of it's cradle (i bridge at top/bottom and use the tape/ca trick under the board so i can cut the edges clean and not have to worry about removing bridges) it's a lot tighter/straighter grain wise than the first (sanded and waxed up on the right) still feels/looks great

Led wires will now pass under the - + arms,will still need to shield the + arm as before.






Side LED slots came out looking pretty good,the flat LED's are still on the way & almost here based on tracking info but that said ive had that "last mile" part last upto 2 weeks in the past so... 






I re-profiled the side groove in the failed neck cut(see above) so atm its asymmetrical not what i want on this build, i might leave it like that and use it in another build with the first FB....god i need sleep lol


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## Omzig (Oct 7, 2020)

So T-Nut things and truss rod routes are cut (rod will be replaced with the wheel modded one once the neck is fully cut) those little slots bottom left are for the wires for the LED's 

T-nut things will also get pinned and glued in place,i doubt they will twist in the routes but it's worth the 5 mins work to pin them in i guess






Hope to get the neck fully cut tomorrow...Anyone else here think fresh cut wenge smells like burn toast or is it just me ?

laters


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## JimF (Oct 8, 2020)

Its that long since I cut any I couldn't tell you! 
Those pronged tee nut inserts look so neat!


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## dmlinger (Oct 8, 2020)

That's a cool way of doing machine screws for the neck. I've seen the threaded brass nuts used on the other side of the neck, but haven't seen them used beneath the fretboard. Really cool. 

Your use of CAD for the LED side markers and these T Nuts is super clean. Have you considered doing blind fret slots with your CNC? The only extra step is nipping and filing the fret tang.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 8, 2020)

Omzig said:


> Hope to get the neck fully cut tomorrow...Anyone else here think fresh cut wenge smells like burn toast or is it just me ?


You sure you weren't having a stroke?


----------



## Omzig (Oct 8, 2020)

dmlinger said:


> That's a cool way of doing machine screws for the neck. I've seen the threaded brass nuts used on the other side of the neck, but haven't seen them used beneath the fretboard. Really cool.
> 
> Your use of CAD for the LED side markers and these T Nuts is super clean. Have you considered doing blind fret slots with your CNC? The only extra step is nipping and filing the fret tang.



I came across the Weld t-nuts while looking for regular 4 pronged circular t-nuts for my drum sander adventure (must get around to up dating that thread now its all up and running and tweaked) i fell over the bookmark for them while i had this on hold and thought id try them out as an alt to wood screws,im hopping with the flat sides and holes to pin they'll have less chance to move under the fb,standard round one wouldn't fit with a heel end TR,thought id stick with X head for the bolts though as the Allan M5 version of these only has a 2mm hole. 

Like wise with the flat LED's while looking for replacements from UK sellers for the towers led's id used before i got a bit pissed at the prices i was seeing,found the flats on Ali for much much less than anywhere else ($2 for 100 inc shipping! vs $5 for 20 here in the UK....as they pretty much already came from china seems im only lining someones else's pockets for sorting out 20 and putting them in the post...) first thing i tought when seeing them was...dam those will be much easier to route and install than the tower LED's,and they were/are 

Blind Slots yep...Well i have tried it on a few boards before now and i always have trouble with keeping the nipped section of the fret down flush with the board,even if i over radius the wire it always seems to pull up at the ends once tapped in..then i end up getting CA allover the neck and board and its just pisses me off more lol, i'll give it another try on the next board this will just get CA and dusted

Kinda start to go 70/30 on the hate/love wenge meter,it's just so nasty/hard to work, i have about 4 splinters and the stuff stinks, ppl say Zebrano is bad but i'll take that over working wenge anyday.

btw Im just kinda taking inspiration from all the stuff you guys here are doing and trying to get the extra little details in here and there to help bring level up my builds some,Having a cnc does kinda trigger my somewhat mild OCD though...gradually making it worse 



BlackMastodon said:


> You sure you weren't having a stroke?



Kinda feels like it atm lol,i guess lack of sleep can really mess with your head,Im gonna go take a few day away this weekend and get out for some hill/valley walking...that is if i can find anywhere not in lockdown to camp ! 

laters


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## Omzig (Oct 9, 2020)

So flicker looks like it's out to lunch atm so...so back to good old SS for hosting

Well things didn't start off to well this morning,thought my vac system was dying as i had like 90% loss of suction...tunrs out id made a nice looking wenge choco chino






Anyhows after ruffing out the blank i started on the final neck pass...the bit i F**ked up before...this time i slowed it right down...

Kinda felt like watching one of those freaky birthing videos...i can see the head!







So 58950 passes & 4 hours later it's done,yep 4 hours because wenge.....i decided to go outside and paint the fence while it ran..but dam the relief when it came off the board complete !






Humm i think i need a new spoil board....






The 5% step over take's way way longer but i only had to look at it with some 180 grit and the remaining micro scalloping lines are gone






While it did piss me off a bit im really glad i went back and remade the neck and FB everything is Toight






Onto clean up and fretting....

Laters


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## KR250 (Oct 9, 2020)

Wow super clean! Can I send you my richlite neck


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## dmlinger (Oct 10, 2020)

Note to self: run a 5% step over for wenge. Because sanding.


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## Omzig (Oct 15, 2020)

KR250 said:


> Wow super clean! Can I send you my richlite neck



Sure, just as long as there's enough material for 3 attempts i might just get one cut out of it 

Well had a few days break this weekend just gone and had a few to many beers sunday night and fell asleep outside my tent by the fire only to wake up a few hours later cold and damp! so ive had man flu for a few days...

So LED's arrived today and i decided to go with the clear/blue units as the green colour'ed while looking cool in the neck give off a yellow'ish glow once powered up (i'll grab some pics tomorrow)

Might put a voltage regulator on the led's so i can drop them down to 2.5volts as a 3.2 there pretty bright (even with a resistor) ! 

pics will follow....sniffle sniffle


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## Omzig (Oct 16, 2020)

So some pics of the new flat led's in the board

Flush and unlit






The element inside adds a nice little sliver tint to the center of each LED

3.2v (even with resistor) and it's like a runway!






Voltage step down to drop them down to 2.75v











Nothings glued up yet which is good because checking these pics it seem that the 15th is a little less intense that the rest..might just be the camera,im pretty sure they all looked uniform in the flesh....


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## JimF (Oct 20, 2020)

That ferretboard looks gorgeous! Also, never fancied LEDs until this build thread!


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## Omzig (Oct 21, 2020)

JimF said:


> That ferretboard looks gorgeous! Also, never fancied LEDs until this build thread!



Lol well right up until building this i really wanted LED's...now not so much

Because ARRRGHHHH...intermittent LED at the 12th....






Was totally find while i glued the neck up yesterday morning (had it powered up...now 28 hours later it seems to have pinged off one of the contacts,looking at this macro pic it seems there's a slight gap above the led...gonna see if i can tap it back in/up to get it to stay on...if not the FB is coming off so i can fix it......i think the Dark side is trying to make me unleash my anger with this build


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## odibrom (Oct 21, 2020)

Damn, those shits are prone to have us banging our heads at the wall, good luck with that... fixing that led, not banging your head at the wall...


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## Omzig (Oct 22, 2020)

odibrom said:


> Damn, those shits are prone to have us banging our heads at the wall, good luck with that... fixing that led, not banging your head at the wall...



I need both thx  

So i tried tapping and no joy after a few mins of being powered up it changed from intermittent to totally dead.....So i heated and popped the board off the FB, it came away in about 10 mins top to bottom,replaced the LED and cleaned up and reglued/clamped

Might need to CA and dust a few little spots along the join as wenge is just one of those splintery wood, all in all though the join looks about 95% as good as it did first glue up & most of the fixes will be on the treble side and should pretty much blend into obscurity once sanded and waxed...good job because this moring i was in the mood to put it in the fire pit  Soz no pics atm i left my phone in the shop.


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## odibrom (Oct 22, 2020)

Good to know you managed to flip problem around, looking forward into seeing more developments...


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## Omzig (Oct 23, 2020)

odibrom said:


> Good to know you managed to flip problem around, looking forward into seeing more developments...



And many thanks for your support 

So sticking with my current warts and all postings.....

Re-guled board wiped down with BBQ lighter fluid (loads cheaper than napatha like 90% cheaper here in the UK,take a while longer to evap but cleans up pretty much the same)







As you can see around the 9th LED slot there's been a little build up of titebond, seems it's mostly from leaking out into the open grain near the Neck/FB joint that or there was some fiber pull out on removing the first glue up,i'll see if i can acetone melt it out and refill with dust/CA,jut got to stay away from the led's, dont want to have to replace any more lol.






Ive also decided to leave the surfaces of the led's un polished as this really helps diffuse the light better,if you check out the 21'st fret marker above that one was polished back up as a test.






No sure wtf happen to the Wheel access slot in the body route/plans...it's to shallow and not wide enough...measure 5 cut once/twice....a quick cnc of a small template for it and hand route should solve things..

Have a good one.
Giz


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## Omzig (Oct 28, 2020)

So been a bit of a delay in getting back to this as Ive had to go help my bro a work again for a few days due to CV-19 staff shortages.

Any hows i decided it wasn't really worth leaving the 1.5mm of wood in the wheel pocket so i blasted it clean out into the neck pup pocket 






Good news is the LED's are all still working !






Decided to cut some test covers and see how mounting the LED power switch/voltage reducer/battery to the underside works out, pretty good infact (pwoer switch is a latch on/off at sits recessed in the plate by 1mm so the button is about 1mm proud of the front)






This plastic is pretty shitty tough and marks up really easy (dispite the seller claiming it was heavy duty sheet...shit more like) so Ive just ordered some 2mm aluminum sheet and will re cut/mount later in the week.


Right on to doing some hemispherical frets...last method i used worked well but i wasn't to happy with the slight variance i got on each end so im going to have a think about building a jig of some kind.....


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## odibrom (Oct 28, 2020)

... impressive, the force is strong with this one...


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## Omzig (Oct 29, 2020)

odibrom said:


> ... impressive, the force is strong with this one...



Lol love the star wars quotes, but ....Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them, apart from a few bumps here and there im pretty happy with it sofar....so hope fully i can......Stay On Target 

Spent the morning trying to jig up some thing to flush/detag & Hemi the ends of my frets so i can get a quicker more consistent result, got the first x2 down with a little block jig thing but after a lot of faffing i just went back to the old method id been using (basically highline guitars YT video on hemi frets) but as im working with SS fret on this build i used a x2 rotary tool set up, the first has stone disks to shape the ends & the 2nd rubber type to refine/smooth and then a buffing pad 

I also tried the "by hand" method with a beveling file (far left) but as you can see below the file doesn't have the depth of roundness i can get using the wheels.







These days i always start at the 24th and work backwards to the zero because if i over cut/grind i can just move it down a few frets and still use that bit of wire....note to self you better check that middle wire width as it looks a little skinnier that the other 2.


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## KR250 (Oct 29, 2020)

I use a similar process with the dremel's (Highline) for ball end frets. Getting them consistent is tough. If you come up with something better I'd love to know!


Measuring the fret slot widths to a tenth of a mm
Writing them all down
Subtracting a consistent amount to prevent overhang (like .5 to 1mm total) - write those down
Bend all the fret wire
Cut to close width with nippers
Cut/file the fret tang ends
Use a sanding wheel to get width it within about .5mm of target
Precisely grinding to the intended width with the dremel wheels (stone then polishing)
If I overshoot it, move it down a fret (highest to lowest). 
Last couple builds have been within a few tenths of a mm from desired width, though some inconsistency comes more with lining up the frets perfectly while pressing them in (hence leaving some slop factor in the measurements)
Level, crown, polish, done!


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## Omzig (Nov 1, 2020)

Pretty much what i follow although i just tend to work 1 fret at a time and use a small cutting disk to section up the fret wire 

My main issue has always been the inconsistency of the ball/file groove cut into the disk to create the end,as the cutting disks wears out as you shape the fret and have to flatten the disk edge & recreate the groove every other fret or so with SS and real pita

My brain is now ticking over a method using a much larger ply/hardwood wheel fitted on my grinder that uses 3 progressively deeper slots and SS cutting paste to create the end round overs,my bro uses this kind of method to bevel and sharpen his knifes so it should work...


----------



## JimF (Nov 7, 2020)

So impressed with this build so far mate! Haven't been getting notifications for some reason, it looks so clean in the mockup picture!


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## Omzig (Nov 10, 2020)

JimF said:


> So impressed with this build so far mate! Haven't been getting notifications for some reason, it looks so clean in the mockup picture!



Hey Jim,Many thanks for the feedback and encouraging words  btw did you get your body back from the spray shop yet (and when do we get a build thread)? 

Haven't gotten much chance to work on this in the past week or so due to hving help my bro out at work again and rebuilding my main Home/Gaming PC + x2 home office PC build for relitives + having a stinker of a cold (was defo not Cv-19!)

So managed to get back at it today and as my 2mm ali plate still hasn't arrive i decided to take some off what remained of the body shell and kick some covers up from that...came out pretty good i think ?
(paper is there so i can get them out as they are magnetically held in place 










Voltage controller is just held in place with an 3M d sided sticky pad,Batery holder will be epoxied in its corner grooves once everything is soldered up and alive.

After a lot of faffing about and not getting the results as repeatable as id like with Hemi ends (wheel/cutting paste method did work but suffers the same issue as the rubber/stone discs) i decided to just stick with trad style fret edging,half way there.






Hope to get some more time on it this week...thanks for looking in 

Cheers
Giz


----------



## JimF (Nov 10, 2020)

Looking great! Those rear covers look fantastic! Definitely don't need to get any thicker plastic or aluminium!
My plan was to start a build thread when the paint is done but the guitar is away being assembled/setup/fretworked, but to be honest I keep forgetting!
Glad you've not god Covid yet, must be all that Moretti!


----------



## Omzig (Nov 12, 2020)

JimF said:


> Looking great! Those rear covers look fantastic! Definitely don't need to get any thicker plastic or aluminium!
> My plan was to start a build thread when the paint is done but the guitar is away being assembled/setup/fretworked, but to be honest I keep forgetting!
> Glad you've not god Covid yet, must be all that Moretti!



Hey Jim

Im pretty happy with the covers as they just came off some scrap that was in the burn bin, i think im just going to add some small 2mmx20mm fingernail lift slots so there not such a pain to remove, looking forward to see the end result of the ET RG,i gotta say that ws the best feeling ibby neck i ever put my hands on (good job i took the profile just for future ref  ) I wonder if we could get funding to see if Moretti (or any beer and stout) acts a a CV-19 repelant  im pretty sure it would take a few years to test though 

While i was in the scraps box today i decided to kick up a quick wenge/BL vol knob

,





Im going to kick up some others in just black limba and wenge to see which suites better, im waitting for my bro to pick up my new spindle sander before i start the body clean up,id been using a drill press + diy bobins till now and while it works ok i does produce a bit of chattering whch still needs hand sanding so time to find space for a spindle sander.

Someone asked about pup's for this build, well ive decided to throw a set of oripure pup's (yep i know chinese crap lol) in it for now,a mate of mine ordered a full HSS rail set of them and for some reason they sent him x2 sets out at once and as he needed a little routing doing to fit the rail S's in his strat i did it in exchange for the pup set, from what i see on YT these are not the pure low end shit type rails like the bellcat stuff and are really well build pups, that said they still might sound like shit once i get them in but i have to say they sound pretty good sofar checking out the various YT oripure vids.


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## JimF (Nov 13, 2020)

Those knobs look sweet!
That neck was a bit of a gamble when I bought it, but it feels super nice doesn't it! Proper played in 
I'll see about starting a build thread soon, would be rude not to!
I'm drafting the Moretti funding application now


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## Omzig (Nov 18, 2020)

JimF said:


> Those knobs look sweet!
> That neck was a bit of a gamble when I bought it, but it feels super nice doesn't it! Proper played in
> I'll see about starting a build thread soon, would be rude not to!
> I'm drafting the Moretti funding application now




Sweet look forward to it (both build log and the Moretti test funding  )

So haven't had much time on this the past week (again) freaking UK lockdown has me out shopping for other folks x3 a week...

got one of each full wood type knobs cut, i think i'll be going for the wenge for Vol,My mild OCD now tells me i need to also cut a matching switch tip....






Bobbin/Spindle sander has arrived and it's pretty dam cool, give's a lovely smooth finish but only came with 80 grit sleeves so ive been making a batch of my own 150-180-240 sleeves using some card masking tape sander paper roll and epoxy 







i do find the table surface size/layout a bit strange as the front section is rather small and is pretty much useless for something the size of a guitar body,so looks like i'll have to build a table for it or find a way to insert it directly into my desktop!


----------



## odibrom (Nov 18, 2020)

... and here I was hopping for progress and what do I get? a SANDER... bah...

...



Tools are cool, may it serves you well in this and future builds...


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## Omzig (Nov 19, 2020)

odibrom said:


> ... and here I was hopping for progress and what do I get? a SANDER... bah...
> 
> ...
> 
> ...



What my Knobs dont count as progress! i'll have you know i spent mintues on those minutes!  

Well the reason i wanted to wait till i got the spindel sander was because the drill press bobbins id been using left a small amount of drum chatter which ive had to hand sand out by hand, kinda defeating the point of using a drum 

Hope to get the body sanded out today,if no one else in my family decides my time is worth less then theirs


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## odibrom (Nov 19, 2020)

All cool bro, I know you know I was kidding around, right? 

Please, keep posting your progress, even if it is as "little" as wood knobs or a new sander machine...


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## Omzig (Nov 19, 2020)

odibrom said:


> All cool bro, I know you know I was kidding around, right?
> 
> Please, keep posting your progress, even if it is as "little" as wood knobs or a new sander machine...




Yep i know it was in jest  all cool and beers all around hehe


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## JimF (Nov 19, 2020)

That little sander looks ideal. I admit I've been eyeing them up as well (same brand as my router) and I did think having very little workspace towards the front seemed strange.
I suppose you could always turn it around 180deg on the bench and use the rear area. But bench mounted is very tempting!

PS Nice knob!


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## Omzig (Nov 19, 2020)

JimF said:


> That little sander looks ideal. I admit I've been eyeing them up as well (same brand as my router) and I did think having very little workspace towards the front seemed strange.
> I suppose you could always turn it around 180deg on the bench and use the rear area. But bench mounted is very tempting!
> 
> PS Nice knob!



Why thank you kindly 

Gotta say the spindel sander is pretty F'in great, using the drill press i always had issues getting into the upper horns to remove tools/router depth cut marks but the SS just removes them pretty much first pass,i grabbed this one from toolstation for £130, i ve seen it branded under a few different names and colours but from what i can tell there all the same unit, aftermarket sleeves for this are a crazy price though £17 for x6 240 grit...nope not paying that lol made my own from some card @ £1.25 for x8 A3 sheets + £1 masking tape + sand paper i already own + epoxy + maths

Im looking at some way to be able to desk mount it and cap the hole/drop the spindle when not in use.....






Final sanded upto 240 grit (looking back at the pics i think i need another pass in a few area's) wipped down with BBQ lighter fluid






Still not sure what/how to finish this Black limba,I was looking at a 2 part epoxy finish by ARC that's used for tables/bar tops 






Anyone got any feedback on 2 part epoxy finishes such as the one above ? 

The Black limba is way to soft for any kind of "RAW Tone" finishes i think, i do love they feel of oil finishes but i hate the "just look at me for instant dings" lack of surface protection.

I do have enough of the UV SolarRez epoxy i used on my crackle finish to do this body with but im not really in love with it as it doesn't laminate very well and i found you need to heat both the solarez and the job a good few degrees to get the stuff to flow/selflevel, not great during a UK winter (in fact not great at anytime of the year here in the UK  )

Got another project that stealing a bit of my time atm, a 2 player Bartop Arcade unit (kinda insipred by Stanger Things S02) not really the place for a build log of that though 

Cheers for the feedback and likes  beer o'clock time


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## JimF (Nov 20, 2020)

Looking great! I love black limba as a wood. We definitely need a build thread for the arcade machine!


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## Omzig (Nov 25, 2020)

JimF said:


> Looking great! I love black limba as a wood. We definitely need a build thread for the arcade machine!



Thx jim,Black limba works pretty easy but it also picks up tool marks and surface scratches like you would not believe + it stinks like goats and donkeys when you cut or route it which i find pretty horrid lol you are forwarned!

i'll throw some stuff up about the bartop arcade build once it moves to the cutting stage, i have an old ips 20" monitor laying about i can use as a display but if i can grab a 27" or 32" cheap somewhere on BF i think i'll just super size it 

Ok after some shit with an ebay seller and the epoxy i ordered (i was sent a tottal different brand & type of epoxy...) I got my money back and on some very good advise in my other thread i decided to just get some 2k clear cans delivered they are 500ml & non-isocyanate based hardener pre cat so no break and mix/short life & will not melt my eyeballs 






Onto some faffy stuff before i clear (or read that as "shit i forgot to do"...)

first up insert the trem studs, rather than hammer these in i decided to cut down an allen key and stick it in the drill chuck stick in the thread arms and press them in...which worked very well.






Trem test fit...yes thiger tight






Now i pretty much hate the jacks used on vaders that plate sticking out just really kills the flow of the lower horn so i decided to recess the jack, the following is something i came up with while working on an RG550 body build a few months ago where we had to move and re angle the jack,bassically it uses a 2 part route template to allow you to route the recess for the jack end and washer and then the route for the barrel section without the chance of your arbour bit chewing out the end grain.



...a pic = 1000 words ectect 


































Hope to get the 2k clear on tomorrow and cured over the weekend,neck and fret edges/slot side fills are now pretty much complete its just going to need dressing and setting up once fully built,i hope to see it done this time next week (just don't quote me on that!)


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## Omzig (Nov 26, 2020)

So the 2k spray cans went on great & ZERO orange peel infact straight from the can the surface feels like ive spent hours with micro mesh buffing & leveling it out...im pretty much floored by how nice it went on, cans are like x3 the cost of 1k clears i use but i dont think i can ever go back to using 1k now !






But (and i always have a but right) i really should have grain filled it....to late now lol, unless anyone knows of a good post clear coat grain filler (please dont say just add more 2k  )


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## dmlinger (Nov 26, 2020)

Looks amazing! 

I believe Aquacoat filler would work. You’d need to use high grit to sand it back and then shoot more 2k. 

Someone correct me if there is compatibility issues. It’s water based so as long as it’s dry you should be fine.


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## Omzig (Nov 26, 2020)

dmlinger said:


> Looks amazing!
> 
> I believe Aquacoat filler would work. You’d need to use high grit to sand it back and then shoot more 2k.
> 
> Someone correct me if there is compatibility issues. It’s water based so as long as it’s dry you should be fine.




Cool thank fo the heads up, i was just checking out the aquacoat but its like $50 a tub here in the UK so nope F that  i think i'll just suck it up and leave it open pored...my finishing impatience gets the better of me once again lol.


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## dmlinger (Nov 26, 2020)

What a rip...it's $25 here.


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## Omzig (Nov 26, 2020)

dmlinger said:


> What a rip...it's $25 here.



Yep extra postage + import tax/duty + no doubt some other EU Env charge,it's pretty much the same for most other stuff like the bright tone finish and solarez all x2 - 3 the price of the USA, UK "treasure island" i think they call use because it seems we are willing to pay any sticker price lol


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## JimF (Nov 27, 2020)

That looks so good! I'm definitely going to check that out. I might even use it on my walnut build! I suppose I can always sand it off and oil it if I don't like it!
Just out of interest, what's the effect of having not used a sanding sealer? Uneven surface, imperfections etc?
Also, having never lacquered bare wood, does it have the same "figure enhancing" effect as a good coat of oil? 
I'm really lusting after a black limba guitar now!


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## JimF (Nov 27, 2020)

Also, I always forget you're in the Midlands - I delivered my amp & cabinet to Derby two weeks ago, I could have dropped in for a socially distanced brew!


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## Omzig (Nov 30, 2020)

JimF said:


> Also, I always forget you're in the Midlands - I delivered my amp & cabinet to Derby two weeks ago, I could have dropped in for a socially distanced brew!




Hey Jim 

Well you'ed have been looking at another 50 odd miles to your journey but if you ever over this way feel free to drop by  

Nay & Nay on the Uneven surface/imperfections the 2K has bonded directly to this surface and is super smooth and glossy right out of the can 

Here a shot of the back so you can see the effect it's had on the tone of the wood vs the unfinished plates 







Now had i been smart enough to do a test on some scrap before spraying this on i might have decided to do a little light bleeching with some weak oxalic acid solution to remove a little bit of the yellowing.....id say oil gives a little more pop/deeper sheen but im not to sure how 2K goes down over oil? If i use black limba again i think i'll stick with it as a top/cap (i have a very wide bookmatch piece of BL with orange streeks im thinking of using on a kelly build for a jacksom sharkfin neck i have) if you are going to get some to work on open an outside door when you cut/route it as i smells like donkeys/goats...really nasty to my nose lol

Now i managed to strain the muscles in my left shoulder/neck on sunday moving a washing machine (hey it was that or a broken leg) so i only managed to test fit some hardware today but now it looks and feels like a guitar not just bits of guitar shaped wood 






BTW Any one got any tips on bending down the arms on trems without messing them up ? the arm on this hipshot trem is way way to high






Dam thing looks like its downed a pack of little blue pills (that's a naughty word......really ) ! down boy down.


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## JimF (Dec 1, 2020)

Is the bar painted or anodised? I'd say heat, but its not good if the finish flakes off!

50 miles extra is nothing  I did 180miles the other day for fun!

The guitar is looking so good! The bridge looks decent too.


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## Omzig (Dec 1, 2020)

JimF said:


> Is the bar painted or anodised? I'd say heat, but its not good if the finish flakes off!
> 
> 50 miles extra is nothing  I did 180miles the other day for fun!
> 
> The guitar is looking so good! The bridge looks decent too.



Driving under lockdown for FUN....come here ladie! lol

I think the bar is anodised? might have to mail Hipshot to get that clarified though...and yep it's a nice unit but at £235/$315 landed i F'in well hope so  ive build full floyd rose'ed guitars for less! 


So i managed to work through some pain today and get the LED setup wired in,i decided to swap out the 9v for x2 3v button's in a lower profile pack, that was mainly due to the weight of the 9v battery casuing the magnets to give if the front of the body was bangged






i also picked up these short male/female harnesses so i can remove either the neck or plate wiring without having the rethread the whole thing under the pups.











Tried to get a doc's apiontment for my shoulder pain but they wont see me for 3 days so im off to A&E to get it looked at because they are totaly empty im told! Gonna be MIA for a few days.


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## odibrom (Dec 1, 2020)

looking good, you're almost there...


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## cip 123 (Dec 1, 2020)

Man that body looks so good!

Everything does, but that limba...


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## dmlinger (Dec 1, 2020)

Clean! How long you think before it's ready to assemble?


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## JimF (Dec 2, 2020)

I've thought about using quick connectors for pickup wiring but I often think I'd just be making work for myself. For the LEDs its ingenious.
Feel better soon!
(No more driving I promise  I was just charging the battery officer)


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## Omzig (Dec 2, 2020)

Hey Guys thx fori the feedback 



odibrom said:


> looking good, you're almost there...



Feels like it's so close but sofar away atm 



dmlinger said:


> Clean! How long you think before it's ready to assemble?



Well it's pretty much ready to get final assemble and setup right now...but ive been told off by (a rather attractive lady) nurse at A&E last night for contiuing to work through the pain, seems i have torn some muscle fibers in my deltoid and have brusing in the area,they've advised to not do any work or excessive movement with my left arm for about a week...i have other tatty little things i can finish up like 1k spray the covers but i think i'll stay at home i the warm for a few days and plan my next few builds (a kelly, a super tele & something for the koloss headless unit i just ordered....)



JimF said:


> I've thought about using quick connectors for pickup wiring but I often think I'd just be making work for myself. For the LEDs its ingenious.
> Feel better soon!
> (No more driving I promise  I was just charging the battery officer)



ingenious or just common sense lad  but now you said about using the same system for pup's i think i'll order a set of quick connect clips so i can swap these oripure out if they totally suck, duh didn't think of that myself.

if anyone is wondering why the strings/wires for the led's at the base of the neck aren't shorting out, ive coated them with CA and they each sit in a small groove in the neck heel which aligns with a hole in the heel/pup cavitiy.

thanks again for the feedback/likes and kind words


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## odibrom (Dec 2, 2020)

If you're tinto swapping pickups, use these blocks instead...






You solder those pins to the circuit and leave the holes for the pickups' leads. No need to alter the pickups' leads. Since these have no electronic components, they are true bypass, they won't interfere with the guitar's tone nor volume whatsoever.

I've been using these for about 10 years now with great satisfaction.

You can also use these to test/swap components like pots or caps or switches.

The one pictured has 2 slots, but there are those with up to 12 slots. There are also different brands, shapes and sizes, I use the smallest ones. They can connect with each other forming larger units with more slots, if on the same brand and size/model, obviously.

These can be found at any regular radio supply sop and are pretty cheap, or you your online store... they are called *PCB Block Connectors*.


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## 777 (Dec 7, 2020)

Any plans to contour the body? It is T H I C C


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## Omzig (Dec 8, 2020)

odibrom said:


> If you're tinto swapping pickups, use these blocks instead...*CB Block Connectors*.



Sweet, thanks for the heds up, i have these on my CNC driver PCB's never even thought about using the for pups! i like to learn something new everday 



777 said:


> Any plans to contour the body? It is T H I C C








Lol  ,on this one no, i might look at it if i build a 2nd or 3rd body of this type but im pretty sure if i do i'll mod the design a bit more to take it away from the sith type, BTW i know it looks Thick but it is only 45mm just 1mm more than a standard RG,i think its the sharp edges that make it look more slab.

So, i've broken this back down to it's single parts and im knocking back the gloss from the 2k to do a wax buff because i found a few spots that were'nt quite as glossy, neck is still quite stiff but the brusing has faded quite a lot so im happy to restart work, not much of an update soz 

Totally OT but i started the cuts on the arcade/bar top unit today after finally finishing up the cab design, should look something like this once done,all black but with chrome T-Molding and an upper light panel.






laters.


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## Omzig (Dec 13, 2020)

Hey Guys 

Sorry for the lack of updates! the Arcade unit has now turned into a commisson build for my brothers xmas present (his GF is paying for it to be built as he kept telling her how cool it would be to borrow) so it's kinda taken over my time this last week....


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## odibrom (Dec 13, 2020)

All cool bro, we're just enjoying the show here, you're the boss!...


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## Omzig (Feb 17, 2021)

So where was i.......*Do not leave newly made guitar necks on a workshop desk in -2c weather.*....i did for almost 2 weeks and the result was this neck ended up with a very nasty cup that even at full tension the trussrod could not compensate for at E standard tunnig (trust me it felt like i was about 0.0000000001 % of a turn away from stapping the rod trying to get it to fully strighten) it was playable (just) but i love a stright neck with out any of that 5-9th fret string bounce....so

today after coming close to burning this thing in the fire pit i decided to try one of Dan earlywines tricks of putting the rod at neutral and force clamp in an back bow over a center hump then i reheat'ed the FB glue with a small travel clothes iron) just enough to set the bow inplace...and what do you know in GD worked!...now at neutral.









im goingto leave it for a few days for the glue to reset and then i'll try a 2nd setup.

Sorry about the delay in updating this build but i had some shit going on which needed police involvement to finally cure.


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## Omzig (Mar 3, 2021)

Can you tell what i did yet 






Thou shall mock me no more fowl neck....

Ok my fix didn't really fix much lol, it did help a little but not enough & the 9th led marker went out as a result of the forced back bow, so iron on and the whole board is coming off, as i really need to check just wtf the subzero cold did to the neck section, if it comes to it i'll be onto my 3rd neck cut for this one lol...don't F*** with the Sith haha


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## odibrom (Mar 3, 2021)

damn, this one is taking it time, hey, one can't mess with perfection... may the force be with you... no, wait, that's the other way around... what was it that the sith used to say toeach other?


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## dmlinger (Mar 3, 2021)

Dude...this hurts and I feel for you! It's not the cost of the wood, frets, truss rod and other materials that hurts...it's all of the hours that went into it.

Here's to hoping you can save it!


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## Omzig (Mar 4, 2021)

odibrom said:


> damn, this one is taking it time, hey, one can't mess with perfection... may the force be with you... no, wait, that's the other way around... what was it that the sith used to say toeach other?



Id never use the word perfection for anything i attempt to do  more like dogged till its about right.



dmlinger said:


> Dude...this hurts and I feel for you! It's not the cost of the wood, frets, truss rod and other materials that hurts...it's all of the hours that went into it.
> 
> Here's to hoping you can save it!



I think the fretboard/frets/led's and all that work is salvageable, the neck might even be if i can get some carbon rods in there, looking at it with the board off it seems the neck is fish tailing upwards at about the area of the 2nd fret, im thinking this might be because the rod isn't set far enough back towards the nut, i'll post some pics later on and you guys can let me know what you think...atm im thinking 4-5 hours to cut a new neck or 3-4 hours to try and fix this


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## Omzig (Mar 4, 2021)

Right ive decided that i can't be bothered spending any more time cleaning up the old neck,removing the glue & trying to fix that POS so it's getting burnt..."burning the night with the devils child....."  & im just going to surface this wenge blank i have and recut the neck section....







I have reclaimed the fretboard/led's/rod + wheel and frets so that's not a total loss, & i replaced the dead 9th LED (which hadn't come lose at all it had just died???) and all the others are still snug and fully lit.

Hopefully getting it right the 3rd time won't make me hate this guitar once it's finished


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## odibrom (Mar 4, 2021)

In my homeland we say something like this: _não há duas sem três, e à terceira é de vez_... 

It is just a saying to bring up the moral when things go south for the 2nd time... we generally don't track nor count these things... just don't loose the lesson on that!


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## electriceye (Mar 5, 2021)

After you cut the new neck, let it sit for a couple of weeks. I’ve had a few move on me with the release of the tension in the original board. PRS lets their neck blanks sit for a month. 
(Although it always seems to be curly maple necks I have the issue with.)


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## KR250 (Mar 5, 2021)

In addition to letting it sit for a few weeks after cutting the neck to shape, it's also worth re-level sanding the top of it before you glue on the fret board. Or if you glue on the fretboard before cutting the neck to shape, re-radius the fretboard after a few weeks before fretting. I've had a few non laminated necks walk on me a bit, but the bonus of being really slow at building guitars is that they get a chance to take their intended form before I make mine out of them.

For as stiff and as much of a PITA it is to work with wenge, I've seen it shift more than expected just by itself. For that reason I only use it with laminated necks, or place it with opposing grains.


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## Omzig (Mar 7, 2021)

Hey guys

Many thanks for the advice and feedback, you are all like and oasis of knowledge in my desert of ignorance 

So i was about to build a funeral pyre for this neck but my bro taked me out of it and conviced me to let it sit for a while then level it of and add a 2-3mm accent line between the neck and fretboard to rebuild what i'll loose and use it on another build.



odibrom said:


> In my homeland we say something like this: _não há duas sem três, e à terceira é de vez_...
> 
> It is just a saying to bring up the moral when things go south for the 2nd time... we generally don't track nor count these things... just don't loose the lesson on that!



that's agreat lesson to learn, here in thr UK we have a saying "3rd times a charm" which i take as if i fuck it up a 3rd time it's time to give it up 

laters


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## Omzig (Mar 14, 2021)

So as ive had this offcut sitting for about 10 days now i'll try and get it CNC'ed into a 3 neck tomorrow, i was going to do it on friday but retuning the CNC and dropping in a new wasteboard took a bit longer than id hoped, but was worth it as i now have it transporting at a max of 2500 mm PM which is up from my old max of 1800,seems my guide wheels were a little to pinched to the rail and were gagging at higher movement speeds

Pic feels like dajavoodoo  3rd time lucky


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## Omzig (Mar 15, 2021)

More Glitches in the Matrix, this time with code update to inc 4x4mm carbon rods. 






I didn't get chance to do the rear profile today as i was delayed this A.M. waitting around for DHL to drop my new water cooled spindle and a slab of padauk for an upcoming fretless bass/neck im working on.


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## odibrom (Mar 15, 2021)

... looking super coll, fingers crossed this time...


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## Omzig (Mar 16, 2021)

3rd neck cut and wohoo no major screwups  after a few tweaks and a bump to 10% step over i got it done in about 2hr30mins,also using an 8mm bit at 50% step over for roughing out really helped reduce the run time.






not completely without issues though...but nothing that a little dust filling and sanding won't fix....Got a strange scalping issue on the transition between surface cuts at the head end & a little bit of tear out on the last pass of the head end...F'in Wenge






And just to show how far back the old neck has sprung back due to that cold snap we had here it board off cleaned of glue and face down on an (almost) prefectly flatten wasteboard






I still think i can fix it by skiming off a mm or so and adding a slightly thicker fretboard....ok onto my fretless bass build


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## JimF (Mar 17, 2021)

Everytime I see this it makes me want to get out my wenge/bubinga necked 7 string. But I keep it hidden for special occasions!


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## Omzig (Mar 18, 2021)

JimF said:


> Everytime I see this it makes me want to get out my wenge/bubinga necked 7 string. But I keep it hidden for special occasions!




Not sure why but my brain read that as you like to get naked with your 7 string out  LOL, thx for the feedback and encouragement it really does help.


So so glad I recut this neck, it been sanded up to 400 and it feels super smooth (doubt I’ll even wax this one) I’m going to leave it over the weekend (I doubt it's going to move with the CF rods in there) and I’ll glue it up on Monday







Im about to start a "Consolidated Build Thread" to keep all my crap in so i'll link this thread and post updates in that one from now on.


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## JimF (Mar 22, 2021)

Omzig said:


> Not sure why but my brain read that as you like to get naked with your 7 string out  LOL,



Well I didn't say I *didn't* do that!


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