Couple of New Teles underway: The Entomopter and the Booncaster

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

After deciding to go w/ the Magneto font and playing around proportions a bit I think the Entomopter decal is almost there:

The Warmoth stuff showed up too  :headbang:

I wound up needing to ream for the bushings of the Fender vintage style tuners on the Booncaster, but got it together enough for the nut install tomorrow:

I'm gonna start off w/ the SD Jerry Donahue bridge pickup and Callaham Enhanced Vintage saddles and see what I think.

I wound up needing to do a fair amount of chiseling. filing, and sanding to get the LSR to fit but I did get around to test fitting the Grovers and they fit perfectly:

Got it all taped out and the markers for my screw holes for the B16 and neck pickup ring done and ought to be able to get them all drilled and have put together something resembling a guitar tomorrow.  The "hinge plate" bit puts the screws entirely in the top of the guitar w/ the rear felt pad. I took it off and will probably drill those holes at a bit of a downward angle so I can get more of the body proper involved w/ them.  The top of the string spindle read .652" from the top on the calipers w/ everything lined up.

The rest of the geometry seems like it ought to work out well although I'm a bit disappointed in the fit of the shim in the neck pocket. The holes all line up but it falls about 1/16" per side short of flush.  I might take a swing at making one out of mahogany that fits the dimensions of the pocket and neck better. 

I also picked up some mahogany veneer and few board feet of mahogany board for finish samples and some spray shellac and clear grain filler for the Entomopter.  They did a great job on the sanding and it seems to I just have the occasional pore to fill.  They didn't have any alder for finish samples for the Booncaster but I'm hoping the ash I've got will give me a decent enough stand in to get close to what I'm shooting for.

 

[rgand]

The magneto font looks good. Those bodies look really fine. Progress. Looking forward to these two.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I got the Entomopter assembled to the point of being able to string it up using the Bigsby floating bridge on Saturday and initial impression is good.  Hopefully I'll be able to make some progress on a pickguard for it and get started on the wiring this week. 

I've got the wiring all ready to go for the Booncaster as soon as I get the nut on it.  Also the decals came in for it, they look pretty great IMO:

Not really one of the builds but, since I've mentioned it here before, I went ahead w/ the mods to the Duo Sonic as well using a blacktop Filtertron I had in the parts bin since the Megatron hasn't shown up and the seller has been completely unresponsive to messages. 

Wiring:

The (more or less) finished product:

These pickups seem to match up really well together and it's very smooth playing and a whole lot of fun :icon_biggrin:  It will still be getting a bone nut and I may eventually try a different neck pickup searching for a bit more detail on the clean sounds.  It's sounding awesomely fat down low and jangly up high on any of the pickup selections w/ a cool snarly, raspy, trashy character when digging in a bit when the volume is dimed and the tone pot out of the circuit as it is though, so no big hurry.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Couple of updates on the progress...

The Booncaster is playing and sounding great As long as I don't screw up the finish too badly I think I'll like it a good deal more than the Deluxstom and it was pretty nice as it was.

I also got started messing around w/ some dyes for the body and will get started on the finish once I've got some thing I'm happy with. Initial results w/ the dyes and toners I was able to wrangle up locally lead me to believe I'll probably be waiting on some Dark Walnut tint and toner I ordered yesterday to come in.  I think I'll probably do a really light brown tint on the neck as well kind of like the left hand sample on the little chunk of maple to the right of the neck in the pic.

The wiring:

It's in large part salvaged from the guts of the Deluxstom but w/ treble bleeds and a new switch & switch wiring.

The Entomopter is also playing well and sounds really nice acoustically so far.

Everything forward of the bridge surround on B16 part itself seems to be a bit canted/offset to the high side so I think I'm gonna put a couple felt washers under the low side screw of the hinge plate and fill & redrill the top mounting holes. I'll probably hold off on it until the finish is curing on the Booncaster.

 

[rgand]

Both are coming along really well. That Custom is outstanding. Looking forward to seeing the finish on it.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Think I've finally landed on a finish I can live w/ for the Booncaster:

I couldn't grab any Alder to test on but I'm liking this process on the maple and cherry I've tried it on. 

It's sanded w/ 320 then dyed w/ a 1 oz alcohol, 50 Dark Walnut, 40 Brown Mahogany, 20 Coffee Brown TransTint mix sanded back a bit then dyed w/ a 50 Dark Walnut, 20 Brown Mahogany, 10 Coffee brown mix.  Then it got 2 coats of Behlen Walnut toner then a coat of Dark Walnut toner.  The pic has 2 coats of Behlen Stringed instrument Lacquer right over the top but I'll most likely put a coat or 2 of vinyl sanding sealer and hit it w/ 400 grit in between the toner and clear unless that's a bad idea???

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I got the body dyed today and just finished w/ the first coat of toner.

No pics w/ the toner yet but here's a couple of the dyed body:

Not the best lighting or pics and it was still pretty wet when I took the one of the back, but I think it took the dye significantly better than the samples I was working with and I'm pretty happy w/ what I'm seeing so far  :hello2:

Hoping to have the toner done tonight then do a couple coats of sanding sealer on it, sand it as needed w/ 400 grit, and move on to the clear tomorrow.

I think I've decided to give a light dusting of this StewMac Aged Clear toner a try on the neck rather than dye it:

 

[rgand]

Oh Yeah!  :glasses10:

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I wound up going w/ 3 coats of Walnut tone then a couple of vinyl sealer.  I sanded it and got 4 coats of clear on it so far. 

I'm just about to sand it again and plan to get another 3-4 coats on it over the next couple of days.

 

[Cagey]

Looks really good! I like that color.

 

[Great Ape]

Yes, looking good!

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks guys!

Didn't get any pics this morning but I'm feeling pretty good about where it's at after a good sanding w/ 600 grit and coats 5 & 6 of the clear.  It's getting some nice dimension to it now.

Debating if I just spray another couple coats tonight or sand again and plan on 3 or 4 more...  Would you go any finer than 600 if I should decide to sand before the final clear coats?

Finally ordered the aged clear toner for the neck, hopefully it'll be here mid week and I can get rolling on that bit...

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Wound up sanding again w/ 600 grit and then got another 4 coats of clear on the Booncaster body last night for a total of 3 coats of toner, 2 coats of sealer, and 10 coats of clear (although I probably sanded back the equivalent of a couple of those in the process).  Here's a couple quick snaps of it from this morning:

These pics are showing off a whole lot more red than I feel like I'm seeing in person, but I kinda like it either way.  Gonna let it cure up for a couple/few days and start the sanding/polishing.  Was initially feeling like I wanted to go for somewhere between satin and matte finish but I may be leaning more toward satin/almost semi-gloss.

The toner for the neck of this one was delivered this morning so hopefully I can get a couple of light coats of it and some initial clear coats on tonight, maybe have the decal on and all of the finish sprayed by the close of this week.  If so I might even get to sanding and polishing of the neck and final assembly of this one before I leave town next weekend :toothy10:

 

[stratamania]

Looks very good...

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Got a couple really subtle passes of the aged clear toner and 4 coats of clear on the Booncaster neck on Tuesday night and another 4 coats of clear over that last night. I also shot a couple of mist coats on my decals.

Planning to flat sand the headstock, apply the decal and lightly cover it w/ 3 or 4 coats of clear tonight then give the whole neck several days of curing time before a light sanding and polishing.

Aside from the headstock I think I'd be perfectly happy w/ the look and feel of the neck as it was this morning, it's got a good natural feel and not a hint of tackiness

I'll get some pics of it tomorrow after the decal is on.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Decal's on, dunno that I 1000% nailed the placement but hopefully it'll be good enough:

Got 4 coats of clear on top of it and now it's down to watching it dry...

 

[bagman67]

Looks good to me; or as one of my Texan buddies in the Army used to put it, "Close enough for the kinda girls I like to date."

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

The Booncaster is pretty much finished for now and at the risk of breaking my arm patting myself on the back, I couldn't be happier w/ how it's turned out  :toothy10: :toothy12:  It's got a great playing feel for me, I love the sound of it for just about anything I've played on it so far, and I'm grooving on the aesthetics.  I think i'll probably have my luthier friend do some fret dressing above the 12th when he's got time, but I think it's a keeper for sure!

I'll get around to taking some better pics of it actually assembled eventually but here's the best I've got showing the full guitar at the moment:

I finally got some time to shift back over to the Entomopter and got the the pickguard cut, sanded a bit, and mounted on the guitar this evening:

I need to go a bit further w/ my countersinking efforts but I think it turned out pretty good w/ very minimal sanding.  I've got some time off coming over the next week and a half so I'm hoping to rekajigger the B16 and then get moving on the wiring and finish for this one as soon as the Xmas celebrations are done.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Pretty much finished up the wiring on the Entomopter yesterday.  I'm still having a bit of an issue w/ the series, out of phase w/ cap option but otherwise it went surprisingly smooth:

I've only tried it through the Micro Terror stack so far but it certainly seems like a very different sounding guitar from the Booncaster. Tons of sparkly attack on both pickups.

I may wind up trying to match a chrome chicken head to the aging of the knobs.

I remounted the B16 earlier in the week, but the washer wound up overcorrecting so I'm gonna need to fill and redrill again splitting the difference...   It'll have to wait until I get over the mega-cold that hit me like a truck on Tuesday.

 

[Cagey]

That Bigsby sure is an attractive part, isn't it?