BrotherJack
Junior Member
- Messages
- 80
This is my latest project in progress. Just working on the body for now (laid out with some junky parts so I can get an idea where it's going). By the time it's done, it's going to get a Warmoth neck with no inlays, a much simpler pickguard, some dark stain, and a Tru Oil finish. I'm thinking I may even go so simple as to have a single humbucker in the neck position (what I use for 95% of my playing, and could probably do 100% of with i if I wanted to), or at most, dual humbuckers. I'm also reaaaal tempted to try a Lace Alumitone in this thing. I keep reading good things about them, and if they're as clear as everyone says, one of those in the neck would probably make me a happy camper.
I'm also militantly pursuing the goal of having a 100% Made in the USA guitar; every screw, every wire, etc. So far, I'm pretty much on track for it, once all the parts get here. I've found Made in the USA sources for screws, bridge, jack, ferules, strap knobs, etc (some of which took some fairly hard looking around). I suppose some of those bits are probably made from foreign sourced materials or are more technically 'assembled in the USA' and the manufacture just lies and says 'Made in the USA' on the box, but I have no way of knowing all that, so as long as it legitimately said 'Made in the USA' on it, I figure that's their conscience that has to live with that, not mine.
The body is offset a bit, not as much as a Jazzmaster or whatever, but definitely enough to notice. That came about because my right shoulder is fairly bad, so I tend to play with my guitar slung down below my belt - not so I can look cool, but so I can relax that shoulder as much as possible while I'm playing. But in that position, my arm hangs over a standard strat body farther forward and at the wrong angle to get any benefit from the forearm comfort contour. So as I was building a new one, I figured - what the heck, nothing stopping me from modifying the contours a bit for my own satisfaction. I could have just gone with modifying only the forearm contour to wrap it farther forward on the body, but I thought as long as I was at it, why not do something to make it more obviously a custom guitar (as if the inlay-less neck with a 3x3 headstock and cool stained wood finish wouldn't have been a good clue, LOL), so I gave it some offset as well, and am REALLY pleased with how it came out. I was tempted to go a bit more with the offset, but right about there was the point at which I thought "that looks cool, and if I go much farther, it might start looking less cool" so I stopped there.
The first picture below is just rough shaped and rough sanded. I had just laid out to get a good visual rough impression of how the final will look. The second pic is after the first of several rounds of finish sanding. I did the shaping with 80 grit on a drum sander and with a hand orbital sander (also 80 grit). I then did some 100 and then 120 grit smoothing with a small vibrating sander. Then I wiped it down gently with a moist cloth to get the rough ends of the grain to stand up/out, and from there it was all by hand as I worked painstakingly from 180 grit all the way up to 5000 grit (yes, 5000 grit). Then one more gentle wipe with a moist cloth, and repeat the whole thing, this time starting at 220 grit. I'm pretty sure I crossed the line between 'sanding' and 'polishing' somewhere around 1500 grit, but the better the surface is prepped, the better the finished product, and this is getting nothing but stain and Tru Oil, so I wanted it polished as smooth as humanly possible before I moved on to applying the finishes. That 2nd picture honestly does it no justice - you can see that it's shiny-smooth, yeah, but not near as much as you do with the naked eye, and you'd swear if you handled it, I'd already grain filled and Tru Oil'ed it - it's just "I can't believe it!" smooth. Only took about 6 hours of elbow grease, hah!
Anyway, here's the pics. Hope you guys enjoy.
I'm also militantly pursuing the goal of having a 100% Made in the USA guitar; every screw, every wire, etc. So far, I'm pretty much on track for it, once all the parts get here. I've found Made in the USA sources for screws, bridge, jack, ferules, strap knobs, etc (some of which took some fairly hard looking around). I suppose some of those bits are probably made from foreign sourced materials or are more technically 'assembled in the USA' and the manufacture just lies and says 'Made in the USA' on the box, but I have no way of knowing all that, so as long as it legitimately said 'Made in the USA' on it, I figure that's their conscience that has to live with that, not mine.
The body is offset a bit, not as much as a Jazzmaster or whatever, but definitely enough to notice. That came about because my right shoulder is fairly bad, so I tend to play with my guitar slung down below my belt - not so I can look cool, but so I can relax that shoulder as much as possible while I'm playing. But in that position, my arm hangs over a standard strat body farther forward and at the wrong angle to get any benefit from the forearm comfort contour. So as I was building a new one, I figured - what the heck, nothing stopping me from modifying the contours a bit for my own satisfaction. I could have just gone with modifying only the forearm contour to wrap it farther forward on the body, but I thought as long as I was at it, why not do something to make it more obviously a custom guitar (as if the inlay-less neck with a 3x3 headstock and cool stained wood finish wouldn't have been a good clue, LOL), so I gave it some offset as well, and am REALLY pleased with how it came out. I was tempted to go a bit more with the offset, but right about there was the point at which I thought "that looks cool, and if I go much farther, it might start looking less cool" so I stopped there.
The first picture below is just rough shaped and rough sanded. I had just laid out to get a good visual rough impression of how the final will look. The second pic is after the first of several rounds of finish sanding. I did the shaping with 80 grit on a drum sander and with a hand orbital sander (also 80 grit). I then did some 100 and then 120 grit smoothing with a small vibrating sander. Then I wiped it down gently with a moist cloth to get the rough ends of the grain to stand up/out, and from there it was all by hand as I worked painstakingly from 180 grit all the way up to 5000 grit (yes, 5000 grit). Then one more gentle wipe with a moist cloth, and repeat the whole thing, this time starting at 220 grit. I'm pretty sure I crossed the line between 'sanding' and 'polishing' somewhere around 1500 grit, but the better the surface is prepped, the better the finished product, and this is getting nothing but stain and Tru Oil, so I wanted it polished as smooth as humanly possible before I moved on to applying the finishes. That 2nd picture honestly does it no justice - you can see that it's shiny-smooth, yeah, but not near as much as you do with the naked eye, and you'd swear if you handled it, I'd already grain filled and Tru Oil'ed it - it's just "I can't believe it!" smooth. Only took about 6 hours of elbow grease, hah!
Anyway, here's the pics. Hope you guys enjoy.
ccasion14: :icon_thumright:
