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slingblader

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Everything posted by slingblader

  1. Wow, thank you. I'm still learning, myself... so not sure how much you'd get out of being my apprentice. Although you could help me to find my damn pencil or ruler, or glasses, or whatever else I can't find at the moment.
  2. Wow, that was a long afternoon/evening/night. I got through 3 levels of polishing on the necks and bodies. I'm beat. Tomorrow, I'll do a final cleanup and wipe down and a quick coat of wax on all of them. Then it's on to assembly and setup over the next few days. Fingers crossed, it looks like I should make my deadline. Here are a few pictures at the end of the polishing.
  3. That cavity will hold 2 9v batteries if needed for active electronics. I put a passive circuit in this bass, but I used my standard control cavity template. Here is what's in it now: Here is the same cavity in another bass with an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp installed. Butt yeah, you can totally put your weed in there if need be.
  4. Well, I didn't start polishing today as planned, but I did get the yard mowed before it rains tomorrow. So, I've got that going for me. I did, however, get my work area set up for polishing. All the components have been already been buffed on the buffing arbor, but need a final polish. For the polishing process I use a small auto detailing polisher along with 3m Perfect It polishing compounds and polishing pads. It works great and it give a really glossy, deep shine. The problem is that it's incredible messy, so I keep trying to find better ways to shield the spatter. I'm happy to say that all the time I spent in my youth building forts didn't go to waste. Welcome to the He-Man Guitar Polisher's Club. #LOOTHING
  5. I finally got back to the Tele project. I have a hard deadline of May 20, because the "flag" Tele is a birthday gift for my Dad on his 80th, so I gotta get serious here! This week I got everything level sanded and tonight I started the buffing process. Hope to start polishing tomorrow evening and assemble, etc. this weekend.
  6. Thanks. Yep, that's pretty much the process. This is the second time that I've done this, but essentially you have to plan for the back layer to be a good thickness for a cover plate. I could have gone a little thicker for sure. Here is how I went about it. I scored around the template very carefully. Then I scored an area on the straight side extra deep until I could push a knife through. I put that on the scroll saw where I could thread a blade through the slot and very carefully cut on the line. That's the rear plate before gluing to the body wing. Gluing the rear plate to the treble side wing. The top face is up here. I used alignment pins between the rear layer and the wing core to keep the plate perfectly in place. I also glued the rear plate with hot hide glue so it would be simple to clean up the squeeze out. Just like magic.
  7. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it! I should be getting back to the Teles within a couple of weeks.
  8. Well, I finished up the fretless 5 string. Here are waaaaaaay too many pictures of it from every conceivable angle.
  9. I got this thing final sanded today and put on a primer coat. I think it's going to be pretty special.
  10. Been a while since I've updated this thread! The Teles are currently hanging in my basement awaiting level sanding and polishing. I got started on building a five string fretless bass in January and decided the guitars could wait for a while before they get finished up. The bass is a slightly refined version of my first 5 string bass design. This is the first one, for reference. I wasn't entirely happy with the body outline of the first version, so that has been tweaked. I've also redrawn the headstock so that the design actually works as intended this time. When I built the first one, I made 2 identical neck beams, so I'm using the 2nd one for the fretless build. Here are the specs for the fretless: 34" scale Figured Gabon ebony fingerboard with various position markers Neck wood: Wenge Hard Maple Bloodwood Black dyed poplar veneer Body wood: Quilted western big leaf maple top Black dyed poplar veneer for pinstripes Mahogany Padauk Headstock has matching woods Hipshot ultra lite tuners Individual bridges Nordstrand big split pickups, passive with balance and tone I'm currently in the final stages of the fretless build, but here are some pictures of the build progress to this point. Pile 'o wood... Sorry, I know that's a lot of pictures. So, after the mock up and rough assembly, I've broken it back down to refine the carving and get everything final sanded... and on a bass like this with all the swoopy curves and facets, it takes a damn while. Hopefully will be applying finish in a day or two, which will (I think) consist of an epoxy sealer followed by a coat or two of Rubio Monocoat hard wax finish.
  11. This week I made a final push to get the finish on the Teles completed. Here are some of the highlights. I applied water slide decals to the headstocks (not pictured). I've blurred these logos in my photos where I show the headstocks. They are not F logos, but rather my own "hobby business" name which I don't know if I will ever use in an official capacity. The bottom line is that I'm not a business and I'm not trying to promote any kind of business, nor am I making a counterfeit item... I just wanted to get that out of the way. So, you may recall some mention of my color choice fiasco for the "gold" Tele. Since it turned out to be lime gold, I decided to try and knock that green down a bit by applying several coats of UV aged lacquer. That's the stuff right there. This is a picture after the body had about 3 coats next to the headstock which didn't have any aged lacquer applied at this point. To me, it looks like it is taming it considerably. After I had the gold one where I wanted it, I threw a couple more coats of clear on it while all the other guitars got several additional coats of clear. After drying overnight, I level sanded everything one last time. I used P800 on my ROS for the flats. I followed that up with P800 on a block to get rid of all the pigtails and to nock down the transitions on the flag Tele. Ready for final coats. I took a two days of vacation to get this project wrapped up and today was the last day. I got started at a decent time and laid down two solid coats, plus a flow coat at the end. (I shoot my "flow" coats using a fairly high percentage of retarder which helps everything to flow out and reduce the amount of level sanding later.) Here are a few shots along the way. Pumpkin pie break... Stamped some born-on dates and build numbers. The one for my dad has his birth date, which is part of the reason for this build, for his 80th birthday. You can see that I used some aging "toner" that I mixed up on the necks here. I thought the sun coming through the garage door windows and through the lacquer haze looked pretty cool. And here they are to hang for a few weeks to dry. Later today I'll remove all the tape, then chase all the holes and hit them with a countersink bit while the lacquer is still soft. I've found this is safer than waiting until everything has dried for a few weeks... things can get chippy with lacquer if you're not careful. This has been a long and arduous build to be sure. I was really hoping to be done before our family gatherings for the holidays, but that won't likely happen. At this point, I've told my brother to expect his by mid-January. We've decided to present the flag Tele to my dad on his birthday celebration this May since my parents head to Florida right after Christmas. Seems like it would be good timing anyway. If you've made it this far, congratulations and many thanks for following along.
  12. Stike is the freaking man. That had to be a pain in the ass to mask all those stars around the perimeter! I was looking at his gallery earlier today... I'm strongly considering just sending all my stuff to him from now on. These flake Teles have really burned me out. Damn, now that's pretty cool too. Although that Strat jack plate looks like ass on the front of that guitar... just my opinion of course.
  13. Well, it's been a little cool here and I've been busy with the Thanksgiving holiday, so progress has been slow. Here's what's been going on with the Tele project. I needed to get everything level sanded as much as possible without getting into the flake itself. I got pretty agressive with this as the surface was very rough and I had a lot of clear built up. I started with P320 and used a ROS on all the flat surfaces. I sanded up to P800 so that no large scratches were remaining. Most of the way there. There we go, only a couple of low dimples remaining. Today I decided to get the color on the "Flag" Tele. This took a lot of measuring and careful masking. Headstock masked off. I used a taped down ruler to help lay out the stripes on the body. Center of the body masked off. Ready to spray! Started with the blue. Needs a few more coats to get the color depth that I'm looking for. That we go. Moved the middle masks and started on the red. And now we have U.S. flag stripes! There is a little cleanup to be done around the binding. After that, I'll start top coating with clear. I'm pretty dang pleased with the result so far. Thanks for following along, more soon!
  14. Thanks! The color is really growing on me... seeing it with the pickguard sorta pushed me over the edge.
  15. I didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped this weekend, but I did get the pickguards made. I was able to lay out all 3 on one sheet of W/B/W material. I rough cut the pieces, then mounted each to my template. I used a flush cut bit followed by a chamfer bit. Drilled the holes and countersunk them. A few shots of the guards laying on the bodies. I had hoped to level sand the clear this weekend, but our plans changed and I ran out of time. So, that will likely happen in a day or two. If the weather holds, I should be able to continue shooting finish around the Thanksgiving holiday. More soon, thanks for looking.
  16. A quick update on the Telecaster chronicles. I've basically been working to get the flake buried. After the first 5 or 6 coats, I very gently and quickly just took the tops off the mountains with some P320 on a block. The pictures below after another 5-6 coats (so, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12) I hit the sides with P320 on a rubber block and the flats with P320 on my ROS. I went a little more aggressive on this sanding since I had built up a bit more headroom, so to speak... but I still did not attempt to completely level the finish at this point. And here we are after another 5 coats (roughly 16-18... I know I forgot to mark down a coat or two on my tracking sheet). It's still very wavy, of course, but now I'm really building up. I'll let this dry for a few days. I'm pretty sure I can sand completely level on the next round. Once everything is level, it will be time to apply the flag stripes to the silver w/white binding. I'll also be applying headstock decals during the final clear coats on the necks and of course throwing on the last few coats of clear on the bodies. This has been a long process and I've gone through a lot of finish. I'm ready to be done, for sure! More soon.
  17. Thanks man, it's growing on me. This has certainly been a learning experience.
  18. Here's another quick post which will get this thread up to current time. For anyone who has not shot metal flake on a guitar with binding, let me just say that removing that initial mask is just the beginning. Yikes! The initial masked line was generally pretty good, but the timing of the mask removal is crucial. Too soon and it doesn't pull away cleanly; too late and it gets a bit crumbly. Once the mask has been removed, I let it dry a bit, then cleaned up the lines with various blades and scraping tools. Before shooting the next coat of clear, I used a dry brush to clean off all loose flake from the bindings and crossed my fingers. I'd shoot another coat, then repeat the process again, scraping out any stray flecks of flake from the bindings... clean up with a brush, shoot again, ad-infinitum. I lost count, but I think it took approximitely 5 sesssions of scraping/cleaning/shooting before all of the flake shedding/binding contamination was under control. Not to mention repeated vacuuming of my shop to get most of the loose flake cleaned up. It was a bit nightmarish there for a while, I'll admit. At one point, the house looked like it had hosted a stripper convention. Now, I have enough build over the flake that I can start to block sand every few coats to knock down the peaks and start to level the clear. These will definitely not be an ultra-thin finish; not no way, not no how. Here are a few more shots of the process. Things look a bit rough now, but they will come around eventually. Binding cleanup... Building up the clear. More to come.
  19. Sounds like the general consensus is to keep it. 👍 I think what I may try is to shoot a few coats of some UV aged lacquer on it near the end of the finishing schedule. That will impart an amber cast to it and may knock the edge off of the green somewhat. I really want to get these finished up so that I can buff them out by Christmas. Right now, it is snowing and that makes it harder to keep the garage up to temperature and these puppies will need a lot of top coats to get them level sanded without cutting into the flake. Thanks for all of the kind words everyone, I really do appreciate it.
  20. The next steps were to get the metal flake applied and pull the masking. I had bought a gun with a large enough needle to handle the flake size that I was using, but still had issues with the passage clogging. I think this was partly due to the viscosity of the lacquer as well as the flake size. So, I ended up using a hybrid method of spraying some flake and sprinkling some flake by hand. This was certainly not ideal as sprinkling adds quite a lot of rough texture, not to mention that it's never as even as I would have liked. But I soldiered on, hoping for the best, and overall they came out pretty OK. Again, some spots not as even as I would like, but I'm satisfied with the overall appearance. I was just finishing up metal flake application to the "gold" one, and shooting a couple sealer coats over it before I pulled the masking. My wife comes out to the garage and says, "hey I like that green one". Uh... What?!? Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm definitely "color deficient", but I can see all colors given enough saturation. My main problem is that I don't pick up on subtle shades, especially green and red. A light shade of pink may register as gray to me, especially in low light. My brain just automatically makes an assumption about light shades. So, after looking at it more carefully and in the sunlight, I totally saw it. Definitely green/gold. I even went back to the container to check the color name... there it was in black and white, Citron Gold. I mean, for Pete's sake, it literally means lime gold! I felt like a complete dumbass. I'm not sure if I'll keep the color, or strip it next summer. It's growing on me I guess, and it's definitely a bright color, but NOT what I had intended. Here are some photos of the initial flake application and mask pull. So, I guess this has really taught me a lesson to always show all of my colors to my wife before committing to them. I should mention that a good friend of mine came over last night (who has good color vision) and said, "I love the gold one!". Maybe it's the lighting, who knows, but he saw it as mostly gold with a hint of green. I felt a bit vindicated. Regardless, have a good chuckle at my expense, it's OK. Anyway, not sure how much my camera and our screens show the true color, but let me know what you think. Keep it, or strip it?
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