Travel Electric (Warmoth)

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Wow....  jaw will be bruised from how hard it hit the floor.  That's really cool lookin'!  I didn't like the headstock at all until I saw it on the finished product. 

Now hurry up & take it apart to get it finished!  :icon_thumright:

 

[LushTone]

That's awesome! :headbang1:

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Update - been working on the guard for the tuners (and the mount point for the bottom strap button).  I also picked up a piece of 1/8" Padouk that I am going to make the cover for the rear route out of.  I've been working with my router and an inlay bushing to get ready for that cut.  I've also made an inlay out of the Padouk to go in the inset for the tuners on the back side - I think the accents on the back will look great.

On the bracket my first attempt failed - I machined it flat and then attempted to heat and bend it and it just let go at the bend:

So I started again with a solid 2 1/4" x 2" x 4 1/4" block of aluminum - made a BUNCH of aluminum shavings tonight and got through about half of it:

Here's the design of the guard (drawn in Google Sketchup):

Should be able to get back to it this weekend and finish up the guard and my harness should arrive next week which will let me finish up the control and rear route.  Then it's time to put the finish on!!  Getting close . . . . .

 

[rapfohl09]

This is very intriguing. I have been traveling a ton lately and thinking about ways to work out a travel like guitar. This seems to be the most economical and practical way to take a stab at the headless thing. I mean even if you hate the headless style you can take all the parts and use them on a regular guitar. As opposed to the big money dedicated systems.

I know you haven't had this thing strung up for long, but what did you make of Steinberger's warning about the thinner unwound strings? Something about if they aren't wound with steel cable or if you don't give them a quick shot with solder they don't like to stay in tune well or something?

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I'm not worried about it in my case - with the strings going through ferrules at the top of the neck I don't see any issues.  I didn't have any tuning issues while I had it strung up and I bend a lot.  My guess is with the steinberger because it's pulling straight on the strings and they aren't bending over anything that's where the problem comes in - no issue here.

I finished the machining on the tuner guard/strap button mount over the weekend.  Just have to do a little rounding over of the edges and  paint it and it's done.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

So . . . after a LONG layoff on this project due to 1) health, 2) winter (a couple times), 3) getting up the guts to plunge the router into the body again - I'm finally making progress again.  I'd never used a router inlay kit (bushing) before and was VERY afraid of ruining all the work I put into the body in getting the control cavity cover made and fitted.  Did a couple test pieces over the last couple weeks (which really wiped me out physically) and finally got the guts to do it on the body today.  Man, swamp ash burns REAL easy with a small router bit - it start smoking the instant I'd plunge the bit in.  But it looks great!  Will have to rest up over the week and I'll probably get the rest of the control cavity opening carved out (that should be easy - already have the template made), then it's just drilling the holes for the controls and then finishing the body .  After messing with the tuners some more I've decided that I'm not going to use the guard - don't think it's necessary.  The bottom button is going to go just above the tuner cavity instead of being centered.  Inside the control cavity is also going to have a padouk inlay.  Can't wait to have this project complete!

 

[Surf n Music]

What a awesome thread! Love it. First time I've seen it. Looks like some really great progress from the initial idea to what ya got now. So close! Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

So I think I might get the award for the longest term unfinished project  :laughing7: .  With a LOT of time on my hands being isolated going on 3 months now with my family I've been doing a lot of guitar work.  I've been nervous to plung the router in and route out the control cavity since my previous post on this thread - 5 years ago.  A few days ago I decided I was either going to dive in and get it done or not so I did.  Major progress has been made and it won't be long now! 

I've routed out the control cavity and fitted the control cover and Padauk inlay where the tuners are (match the Padauk neck) .  However, when I did it I went too deep and made the top too thin in that spot.  So I've glued in a reinforcement there.  Everything's now been fitted and sanded.

I filled the grain with Ebony grain filler to bring out the grain and used a Colortone liquid stain to stain the rest of the body.  Once this has time to dry I'll sand the body again and decide if I'm happy with the tint.  Then I'm planning on a black burst and then clears.

7 year project finish to end - I can't wait to actually hold it in my hands to play.  Shouldn't be more than a month or so.

 

[rauchman]

Oustandingly cool!

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I wanted the grain to pop some more so I  sanded down the raised grain from that first round of stain.  Grain filled with ebony filler again, and then sanded that back down. I wanted more red so I mixed a new stain. I left some of the old stain lightly visible to create some more texture. 

I'm loving this color! If the grain isn't raised this time I'll move on to get ready for the black burst. Otherwise I'll sand and restrain again until it's smooth.

Going to follow this up with some sanding sealer and then a couple coats of clear before the burst. Here it is now:

 

[rgand]

That's a great red on it. Looks very nice!

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Steady progress now.  Here's after doing 7 or 8 coats of clear when I had what remained of the grain filled, level sanded, and then 1 more coat of clear.  I had already scuffed around the edge for the burst at this point.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Have had a couple hiccups along the way.  I made some adjustments to the burst a couple times.  I was almost done and just putting final clear coats on and all of a sudden I got fish eyes on the front .  I tried sanding down, putting a coat of shellac to seal it, etc - they kept coming back. 

So now I've sanded all the problem areas down to wood and I'm restaining that area tonight and will build it up.  I'm going to try to blend it into the the rest of the finish that already looks great.

First couple pics are just before I attacked the fisheyes.  If you look on the pic of the front towards the bottom of the pic you can see them in that one.  The 3rd pic is after I sanded it down and applied the stain again (I meant to take a pic before the stain but forgot).

 

[rgand]

I like the red with a black burstover. That's always been one of my favorites. It'll look great when you're done.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Finished the lacquer on the body.  I'm going to let it harden for a couple weeks before wet sanding and buffing and then final assembly  :headbang: .  I love how it came out. 

This was only my 2nd guitar finish with the other being a '59 Strat tribute/clone that I did at the same time (waiting for decals to finish that one).  That was just a basic vintage white with clear coat on an alder body.  This was a water based dye, with a black overburst over ash.  There's a couple flaws that probably no one but me will ever see.

Burnished the neck last night too - sooooooo smooth

 

[rgand]

That really look good! I like the shade of red you ended up with. Then, there's the black...  :icon_thumright:

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Aargh - setback.  The headstock of the neck looked different than the back after I burnished it so I was trying to remove the ferrules so I could do the same to the headstock and I broke it  :sad1: . Going to have to buy a new neck and it looks like that may take a while.  3 steps forward, 2 steps back . . . . . .

 

[bagman67]

Don't give up without trying to glue it back!  Many joints made with modern adhesives are much stronger than the materials they bond together.  There is hope!  Titebond is your friend!

 

[PhilHill]

I agree. Can't hurt to try gluing it, you could also try drilling it cross ways at top and bottom and gluing in two small dowels for reinforcement.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I figured no way it would hold but it can't hurt to try.  I glued it up tonight.  Have to wait for the finish to harden on the body now before I go any further.  Thanks for the suggestion.