Thread: recent progress- post yours

My first 'progress' post, since I seem to be slowly making some now.

I took a look at the carved Jazzmaster I was going to resurrect from the woodpile (pics posted here somewhere), and decided I could pull the TOM and stoptail posts and fill the holes (they where about an inch out and not suited to the guitar anyway). That is done and was a lot easier than expeced (claw hammer worked a treat).

The neck pocket that I routed on it eons ago is very snug down the sides, but a bit rough across the butt of the neck, so I need to make up a template to just trim the neck pocket a little. Unfortunately the butt of the neck I have is curved, so it's not as simple as a few clamped sticks as guides. I also don't have an appropriate router bit to do the job, so this project is now on pause for the moment until I figure out how I will do it depending on what bit I wil buy.

In the meantime, I have decided to finish stripping an old Ibanez RG340. I decided I would have a crack at putting a veneer on it. Has anyone here stripped a guitar before? It's bloody ridiculous how hard that finish is to get off. It's like Ibanez don't spray them, rather dip them in a 3mm resin coat or something. Anyway, it's slowly coming away with coat after coat of paint stripper. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them. It is taking a LOT longer than anticipated to get the paint of this thing. I briefly tried a heat gun, but that was fairly usesless. Barely even bubbled the paint.

I have three weeks off work over christmas , so with any luck I'll be able to get time to get some timber and get into building something completely new.

finished the tele a few weeks ago
the amp is still getting final tweakings with valve types etc
its a 5e3 [59 tweed deluxe] clone with a 12" lorantz [made in dandenong]
speaker - scrappy hurried cab was done by [a very impatient to get the amp going] me.



sound? think neil young crazy horse days with his lp
raunchy ragged driven sound made for the blues
dunno what they used these amps for in the 60's
dont remember sounds like this in those days

Originally Posted by Hammered

...In the meantime, I have decided to finish stripping an old Ibanez RG340. I decided I would have a crack at putting a veneer on it. Has anyone here stripped a guitar before? It's bloody ridiculous how hard that finish is to get off. It's like Ibanez don't spray them, rather dip them in a 3mm resin coat or something. Anyway, it's slowly coming away with coat after coat of paint stripper. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them. It is taking a LOT longer than anticipated to get the paint of this thing. I briefly tried a heat gun, but that was fairly usesless. Barely even bubbled the paint.

I've stripped a good few polyester finishes. Sanding with 80 grade No-Fil is my preferred way, as there are no "ghosts" of solvents like methylene chloride, to come out after the new finish has been applied. The trick is to strip the edges first - it seems the more boring approach, but gets you dialled in for pressure and time. If it's really chunky inside the cutaways, try a fine half-round file.

As with all stripping, the other knack is to make your final strip-sand, the final prep-sand. In other words, only take off about 70% of the poly with 80-grit, another amount with 120 and by the time you hit 220 (adequate for solid colour refins) the last traces of polyester are coming off to reveal that factory surface. Four hours should see you done! Hope this has been of help...

Regards, Adam.

Thanks for the tip there Adam. I already had the front and back stripped, and last night II used a fine round file to lightly clean up the cutaways, and it worked okay.

I have pretty much finished all the sides now too, which has taken about as long as the front and back together. I only have a small section across the butt of the body to do now, which should be finished tonight. Then I should be able to get onto final sanding over the weekend, which shouldn't take long. By next weekend it should be ready for respraying, which is where I'm looking for advise again.

Any tips out there on the best way to finish it off? I'm planning on doing the back and sides in a chocolate burgandy colour, and veneering the top with some QLD walnut. I will lightly burst it around the edges of the top. I was consider attempting to bind the edges, but I think I will give that idea the flick since the body is already shaped, and cutting a binding chanell will be a nightmare around the contours.

By "ways to finish it" do you mean techniques, or colour schemes? I could ramble for hours about simple, voodoo-free techniques for a glassy finish...

Originally Posted by addo

By "ways to finish it" do you mean techniques, or colour schemes? I could ramble for hours about simple, voodoo-free techniques for a glassy finish...

I meant techniques. I know what I want to do with it now. Top is getting a QLD Walnut veneer so will be clear coated, and back and sides will be sprayed a dark red/brown colour, hard to describe but I know what it looks like. Something that will blend with the walnut, as I will put a light gradient from the sides into the walnut rather than using binding to break the contrast of the veneer and the solid colour.

Anyway, sanding is 50% done now. Takes so long, especially around the cutaways, which for some reason seemed to be about 50% thicker paint layers than the rest of the guitar. I hope I can get an hour in the shed tonight to be able to finish sanding, and then it'll be ready for veneer and then finishing.

In addition to this, last weekend I was at my dads place, he just bought himself a thicknesser, so we found some decent scraps of Vic Ash and a strip of mirboo, and gave the thicknesser a test. I've already glued it all up to make a neck. Not sure how the mirboo will go, but it's pretty dense and solid, and reminds me a bit of rosewood on appearance. The glued up neck has a nice bright tap to it, so I think it will go okay.

Here's some pics...

Neck glued up and clamped. Left clamped for three days.


Removed clamps and ran the electric plane over it quickly to level out the difference (mirboo was a bit higher than the ash)


Another shot unclamped.

I havn't figured out the lengths yet, but I was contemplating using this as a first test build neck thru, at 3/4 scale for my son. I think the blank might be just a tad too short to make it though, in which case I guess it'll be a set neck.

You can make the lad a Ricky 325 replica! Its neck goes into the body about 4", so that's plenty in terms of your blank. When I saw the laminate proportions, it just screamed Rickenbacker to me.

I like to seal with satin Adeze. It's a stable base that bonds pretty well with nitro, and if you make a hash of the topcoats, out comes the lacquer thinners and paper towel, to take you back to the sealed stage again. Saves a lot more sanding, scraping and heartache if you do have to rework.

For shading, I've ended up using an Iwata round pattern gun with 65cc pot and 1mm nozzle. Seems to be a good size for guitar work. Dearer guns atomise slightly more consistently (in my experience), so I can at times drop the pressure down below 20PSI if I want that spattery vintage Fender look. Shooting off the edge around 45° (sort of a glancing blow) is the key to getting an even graduation of shading.

Also, most people are naturally right or left handed, so the motion to shade one side comes more smoothly. If you work out a way to hang the body from either end, you can play this natural advantage - do the easy side, hang it upside down and do the new "easy" side. I use eye hooks screwed into the strap pin holes.

If you add 15-20% clear to your tint/thinners mix, it gives enough body to avoid runs, yet doesn't add appreciably to film thickness.

Regards, Adam.

Originally Posted by old_picker

finished the tele a few weeks ago
the amp is still getting final tweakings with valve types etc
its a 5e3 [59 tweed deluxe] clone with a 12" lorantz [made in dandenong]
speaker - scrappy hurried cab was done by [a very impatient to get the amp going] me.



sound? think neil young crazy horse days with his lp
raunchy ragged driven sound made for the blues
dunno what they used these amps for in the 60's
dont remember sounds like this in those days

that amp looks great, and the tele looks great too.

i still need to finish my amp. i realised my power transformer isn't centretapped, so i need to make a bridge rectifier of some sort. ive got the diodes, just need to fit it in, and hopefully be able to get the right taps and get them where i need them. also considering getting the correct pt and using this one for another project, but im not sure if i want to do that, and i dont know if this one will be suitable for the projects im planning. im going to visit family at christmas in canada and plan to bring back alot of hardware and amp parts (transformers and such). also planning on getting 2 15" bass speakers, hopefully i can get someone else to bring back some of the parts (speakers are 10kg each) as i will probably bring back alot more weight than im allowed. ive got alot of holidays from uni so i hope to do alot of projects, might have a friend helping in exchange with helping him with a guitar. might make some friends some guitars if they are willing to pay for it. ill see though

Originally Posted by addo

You can make the lad a Ricky 325 replica! Its neck goes into the body about 4", so that's plenty in terms of your blank. When I saw the laminate proportions, it just screamed Rickenbacker to me.

I like to seal with satin Adeze. It's a stable base that bonds pretty well with nitro, and if you make a hash of the topcoats, out comes the lacquer thinners and paper towel, to take you back to the sealed stage again. Saves a lot more sanding, scraping and heartache if you do have to rework.

For shading, I've ended up using an Iwata round pattern gun with 65cc pot and 1mm nozzle. Seems to be a good size for guitar work. Dearer guns atomise slightly more consistently (in my experience), so I can at times drop the pressure down below 20PSI if I want that spattery vintage Fender look. Shooting off the edge around 45° (sort of a glancing blow) is the key to getting an even graduation of shading.

Also, most people are naturally right or left handed, so the motion to shade one side comes more smoothly. If you work out a way to hang the body from either end, you can play this natural advantage - do the easy side, hang it upside down and do the new "easy" side. I use eye hooks screwed into the strap pin holes.

If you add 15-20% clear to your tint/thinners mix, it gives enough body to avoid runs, yet doesn't add appreciably to film thickness.

Regards, Adam.

Hmm, I am a fan of some of the Rickenbacker's, but not the 325. Besides, it's not a 'cool' enough design for a rockin' ten year-old. I'll either make it an SG style, or a Flying V.

I did some measurements and calculations last night, and if I make the cuts just right, then I will be able to just sneak it in for a neck thru flying V at 3/4 scale (3/4 of 25.5"), which is probably what I will do now. It will be good practice.

Thanks a lot for the finishing tips Adam. Really handy stuff for many people I'm sure. I have copied your info to a notepad file and saved it on my computer for future reference. I'm sure it will come in very handy once I get to the finishing stage. I have some previous experience as a signwriter, so have a little skill actually using the guns, I'm just not very knowledgable about the methods and products to use.

Cheers,
DJ!

The bigman is happening again.
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...0&postcount=53

looking good bricks, what are you doing with the headstock?

i replaced the rectifying circuitry on the 5e3ish amp and tested it after catching a slipup (connected the centre tap on the output tranny to ground as opposed to the high voltage) and i fired her up, i now have heaters and high voltage going in. unfortunately all i got was some buzz, but nothing blew. the volume of the buzz could be controled by adjusting the volume on ch2, so ill see what that leads me to. cant be too wrong, as there isnt much difference between the 2 channels.

quick update,

got the amp up and running!!!!!

didnt change anything, but only one of the jacks work (was one of the 2 i didnt try )

id like to describe the sound, but ive been told twice not to play it (im playing it on the lowest level with the guitar volume turned down some more, but still no go) thats what you get when you get something working at 2am.

the amp sounds nice from what i heard. i put a switch in to change the bypass cap to change it between a cleaner sound (less gain really), a tweed style boost (8uf 16v bypass cap) and a more marshall style boost (0.047uf bypass cap). these little bits i put in seem to work well. they make a noticeable difference even at such low volume levels.
i think the other channel is set for a bit more gain compared to the one im plugged into now, so it should be more versatile than a standard 5e3.

cant wait to get home tomorrow after work and crank it a bit. having said that i should probably make the head to put the chasis in. i have it sitting loosely on my desk...

im feeling quite relieved, its a different satisfaction compared to making a guitar. with an amp you have no idea how it will turn out. for all i knew the thing could have self destructed. with a guitar you know how things are going as it goes, and there isnt much risk of something going horribly wrong when you go to play it.

im sure i will post some more tomorrow evening about it.



one question for you old picker, how did you wire in the pilot light? was it paralell with the heaters? paralell makes sense to me, but a ceriatone schematic makes it seem like it is in series, but thats silly as a blown pilot light would mean the heaters would stop working, which could be quite bad for the tubes (as well as the amp not working). having it in paralell doesnt seem quite right in my mind either, as the light bulb has less resistance than the speakers, which would mean that the bulb would be passing more current than the heaters and hence more watts, which doesnt seem right to me. i pulled the bulb from the socket (its wiredin paralell atm) incase it was an issue/wrong. if you know off the top of your head it would be nice to know for sure.

thanks
luke

Originally Posted by black_labb

one question for you old picker, how did you wire in the pilot light? was it paralell with the heaters? paralell makes sense to me, but a ceriatone schematic makes it seem like it is in series, but thats silly as a blown pilot light would mean the heaters would stop working, which could be quite bad for the tubes (as well as the amp not working). having it in paralell doesnt seem quite right in my mind either, as the light bulb has less resistance than the speakers, which would mean that the bulb would be passing more current than the heaters and hence more watts, which doesnt seem right to me. i pulled the bulb from the socket (its wiredin paralell atm) incase it was an issue/wrong. if you know off the top of your head it would be nice to know for sure.
thanks
luke

oohhhooo
no i didnt build mine
i have a fear of high voltages and dont really understand enough to actually do what you have done...congratualtions on getting it going - no mean feat

mine is stock 5e3 circuit which you prolly already have the schematics for

at the moment you are prolly blowing out your eardrums with it

lets know how it went at reasonable levels - maybe post some clips

Originally Posted by old_picker

oohhhooo
no i didnt build mine
i have a fear of high voltages and dont really understand enough to actually do what you have done...congratualtions on getting it going - no mean feat

mine is stock 5e3 circuit which you prolly already have the schematics for

at the moment you are prolly blowing out your eardrums with it

lets know how it went at reasonable levels - maybe post some clips

played the amp at reasonable levels today, very nice sounding. i need to sort something out on the second channel, as there is some hum coming through it (it gets louder when you adjust the ch 2 vol).

as for the sound, it has quite a smooth and cleaner sound without a boost, a fair drop in gain. with the 0.047 uf cap boost it has a nice slightly grinding distortion, similar to a marshall style amp. boosting with the 8uf cap gives it a smoother more bluesy overdrive.

there is something wierd with the tone pots, i think they may be wired backwards, but ill have a look at that when im in there.

ive turned it up a fair bit, but it gets to a point where it doesnt appear to get too much louder, but the walls and windows start to rattle louder. think that is because im playing it in a small room through a big cab. ill see how it goes once i get the 2x10 cab set up.