LP jr - sanding, bridge and pickup route

So I've gotten quite a bit done in the last couple of weeks. First I sanded the body and neck to 220 grit. The details are really showing up nicely. The pin-stripe maple veneer really jumps out on the body.

Yes, I used two pieces of veneer on the neck laminates. In addition to the maple veneer, I used walnut veneer to accentuate the the lighter center curly walnut piece.

Then I positioned the bridge. In order to do this I strung-up both E-strings with dental floss. I lined up the floss with the sides of the neck. Because this isn't rocket science the center of the bridge position needed to be nudged about 1 mm above the center line. This movement of the bridge will not be visably noticeable to the naked eye. I also used a shim to check the overall string height of the bridge.

And finally, on Sunday, I routed the first of two pickup cavities. The cavity for the bridge pickup was a straight forward route. I just need to line the template up with the bridge. The neck pickup route will be more complicated as I will need to cut a template to fit around the base of the neck and it will have to sit higher for me to execute the route without damaging the neck. I will take plenty of photos in order to document this process.

LP Jr - Removing Dents

When I glued the top to the body, I made the mistake of placing the clamp directly on to the wood on the lower cut out. This caused a dent in the walnut. In order to fix this, I could have just sanded the top. But that would have taken a great deal of work and turned a great deal of the top into saw dust in the process.

I decided to try something that I read about somewhere on the internet. It involves using steam to raise the grain grain in the dent.

The first step is to apply water directly to the dent.

Then lay a cotton cloth over the water, and apply an hot iron creating steam.

The steam raises the grain of the wood.

Then follow up with a light sanding with 180 grit sandpaper. repeat this process a couple of times, and the dent will slowly disappear.

The completed Lap Steel

After about one year, I've finally completed the Lap Steel for my friend, Sven. I delivered it Sunday. He plugged it in for a test drive. The hard maple body offers a warm yet bright sound. The 250K tone pot combined with the .022uF capacitor provides a long smooth range.  

Here are a view more photos of the completed guitar after my final setup.

LP Jr. Gluing the Top

Here's a little more progress on the LP Jr. I've glued the maple veneer and the curly walnut top into place. Here are the before and after photos with the clamping process. As always, I keep the clamps in place over night until the glue has cured.

So far, I am about 30 hours into this build. I'm probably a couple weeks away from moving onto routing the pick-up cavities. This weekend, I am hoping to finish the lap steel build. No photos of that one right now, polishing out the finish doesn't really lend itself to interesting photography. I promise to do a separate blog post of the electronics, hardware and finished product next week.

Top view before

Top view after

Side view before

Side view after

LP Jr. - more progress

So far I have about 28 hours into this build. The back of the neck has been shaped, peg holes drilled and the neck glued to the body. I used the tape to mask off the edges in order to make it easier to cleanup glue drips. In the background of the bottom two photos is the Curly Walnut top that I will eventually glue to the body.

I'm also continuing to add Tru-Oil coats to the Lap Steel. This weekend I plan to begin wet-sanding and polishing.

Coming Soon...

In about a week this Ash Tele that I started working on a long time ago, will finally come up from the basement. I'll finish up the electronics some time this week.

The 8-string lap steel will be the next one up from the basement. after a few final coats of Tru-Oil, I'll begin the wet sanding and polishing. Then it's just a matter of fitting the hardware and the electronics. Shouldn't be more than a couple weeks.

The Red Special's new home

We brought the Red Special with us on our Thanksgiving trip. While we were in New Orleans, we met up with my former guitar teacher, Austin Scicard. Here are a couple videos of him playing the guitar.

Austin was one of the reasons I chose to build a Red Special. I remembered him being a Brian May fan and owning one of the Guild Red Specials. This was why I wanted to get his opinion on this build. As a show of gratitude for Austin's lessons (particularly the lessons in improvisation) and his friendship, I gave him the guitar.

LP jr. - 20 Hours

Some more progress on the Junior. I'm about 20 hours in on this project.

This weekend I picked up a new router bit. It's a 1 1/4 inch spiral downcut bit with a guide. This is replacing the my straight cut 1 1/2 inch bit. The cut went quickly, took about 5 minutes to shape the top to match the body. I tried a climb cut with a position pin. This time I had absolutely no tear out.

The next challenge was to cut a squared opening for the fretboard extension for the 24th fret.

Last week, I shaped the headstock and sanded it flat.

I also shaped the the contour on of back of the neck.

Lap Steel - Finishing

I'm getting to the final steps on the lap steel. Last Sunday, I set the bridge in place, drilled holes for the screws, and lined up the first an last strings.

After Sanding through to 320 grit, I was able to start on the finish. I will slowly rub several coats of Tru-Oil everyday for about a week to 10 days.

LP Jr. - Double Cutaway

So, a few weeks ago I began working on a walnut double cutaway guitar with a set neck.

I cut the base of the neck to a 4° angle instead of routing the angle in the neck pocket.

The neck is made from three strips of curly walnut with maple and walnut veneer between the strips. The center strip is a lighter piece of walnut.

The neck was cut from the same plank of walnut that was book-matched for the top of the body.

The body is a three piece walnut with walnut veneer sandwiched between each piece. This weekend I sanded the body flat and sanded a 12 inch radius on the fretboard with 80 grit. Next, I will drill the holed for the side dots. Then I will carve the the back of the neck.