Thread: Progress - where are you at?

Originally Posted by Andrew_B

well....
i now have GAS!
and i feel a hint of jealousy lol

damn you and your skillz black_labb

thanks

the guitar may end up being sold, as we (the artist and i) originally thought it might be a fun to make and sell, but i dont know what kind of market there is for guitars painted artistically and below a certain price i'd rather keep it.

want to be the buyer

hehe
i doubt i could afford it.
(also unfortunately i doubt i would buy another guitar with an ashtray bridge,
after i built my tele i realised the ashtrays just arent for me.... the guitar plays alright, but due to the ashtray it just sits on the rack and collects dust
i may think about sticking a hardtail and humbucker in it in the future just so it can get the attention it deserves.)

but i do look forward to seeing this finished!
(theres a market for everything these days )

was the position of the p-90 (i am assuming its a p-90) originally meant to be where it is? or did you have to move it back so you wouldnt rout out ther end of the neck?
i really like the way its more in the middle position....
well thats what the pictures look like,

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i reallly like it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol

i prefer the neck pups a bit further back from the neck. when they are a bit further away they have a bit less fundamental giving more of the harmonic content and a bit more bite. i made sure to do this on this guitar as p90's have a warmer tone than a fender style single coil, and i wanted that bite. theres also going to be a series wiring in it and i wanted to keep the series mode usable for lead.

i do like some neck pup tones, but dont have the urge to try to replicate it.

what is it you dont like about ashtray bridges? uncomfortable for palm muting? or just the look of it.

i'm pretty sure you can get some non ashtray bridges for a tele that have the plate extending, but without the sides if thats the problem. as for the need for the humbucker, man up

well after reading that, i am expecting some sound clips!!
things like this make me realise i need to read up more on pups and wiring,
your a knowledgeable bloke

hmm ash trays...
love how they look...
dont like how they feel...
i play some pretty heavy stuff , aswell as punk and rock (and occasionally ill do some fingerpicking if im showiing off, and ofcourse i play a bit of the softer stuff considering i started playying around 10 years ago)

but yea with the ashtray i just cant play the way i do and palm mute the way i do,
i did make an attempt though... played around with the action and stuff....shimed the neck and raised the saddles up above the lip of the ashhtray but thats still akward and uncomfortable,

i sure could get a flat base tele bridge.... but i think they are ugly as sin
i really prefer hardtails
my main guitar is an ibanez,been playing it for 8 or so years, has a vintage style trem which i have blocked...
my strat's trem is also blocked,

i live by the "keep it simple" rule tbh

I like the look of the body of that teleishcaster from behind Black lab, looks cool.

Is there a reason you "block" the trem Andrew rather than just pulling the arm out and not using it?

Jim

Someone turn the Tele on please.

mate if you heard me using (attempting to use) a trem you would take the bar out and hide it
hahaha
its just not my thing
and i had problems with tuning on the ibanez and strat...
i actually had them blocked with 2 old guitar picks and a cork cut in half for years...
i later fashioned 2 blocks to fit snug in there, was alot of sanding and back and forth checking lol...
havnt touched them since
tuning is great
(im sure if i spent some time on them i could have set them up properly, but its just a waste, i am defenetly not a trem guy)

Originally Posted by toejam

I like the look of the body of that teleishcaster from behind Black lab, looks cool.

Is there a reason you "block" the trem Andrew rather than just pulling the arm out and not using it?

Jim

Someone turn the Tele on please.

thanks jim

when i first started playing guitar i blocked my guitar as i found that the floating bridge made tuning annoying, as you would have to go over it many times once it was significantly out of tune. i dont know how it got so far out so often though...

Some of my own progress, not quite worthy for its own thread...






1-piece Mahogany body
Rosewood neck
2-way truss rod
Jarrah fretboard (25" scale, 22 fret)
Flat headstock (strat style i guess)

Nothing too special, nice and balanced though.

More progress

Radiused fretboard and pressed the frets in.
Routed out nut seat and neck pickup (again)

love the guitar RGM!!

espc tht rosewood neck

Some real pieces of art in here.

A question for the builders here who have established themselves - how did your first few builds turn out? Whilst I know it's due to inexperience, I know mine's going to be an utter shitheap - and it is quite disheartening. The next will be better due to my learning from mistakes, and all that jazz, but to know I'm not the only one would put my mind at ease.

Cheers guys.

First build? Absolute shitheap, made it for year 12 design years ago... Didn't actually know what i was doing and was not even usable. (i'm not an established builder though, just answered anyway)

This would technically be my first working guitar, but i have a whole lot of bodies and necks on the go that i really should finish!

Still on my first build - Telecaster. Neck number 3 unfortunately. I dropped the first neck and cracked her. Wasnt too happy anyway so I wrote that one off as a practice run, got to play with carving and learned a bit more there. My equipment is substandard, and as a result I wasnt happy with the second attempt. So Ive taken some time out to improve my working environment and its given me better results on the third neck attempt. I took time out to rebuild a router table that works far better than the previous half arsed effort. Im also rejigging the neck template, and have gone back to a traditional tele headstock shape. i think i tried to put too much custom spin on the original design, so back to basics is probably the best way for build 1.

Made my own radius sanding block 13". made a dummy fret board and sanded down through the grades to 2000. Came up clean and shiny. Silky smooth, so I think Im going to be OK with the real one. Obviously Ill be gluing down to neck before radiusing the next one.

Hoping to progress with neck 3 next week.

The body is looking good. Chambering is fine, and the veneered cap is lightly sanded, and the figure has popped a little. Need to test rounding teh veneered cap on some scraps, to ensure I dont rip and splinter the real cap if i do round it over with a router. Going for 1/4" round, but if the results arent clean i fill probably just file and round the edges ever so lightly instead. Put it this way Im learning a tonne. Ive even created a project plan and seem to keep finding test steps and milestones, which is making the build time blow out, but I figure what time i spend preparing and testing, i save in actual build quality.

The neck's the only bugger killing momentum...that and the front fence that needs replacing. LOL.

original build thread for those that may want a peek at.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f98/ne...cratch-110075/

Not much progress, but a little here and there...



Forshitsandgigglescaster:





Oregon telecaster~ish thing that i knocked up today, not sure why, but i did.