Baz's "Other" Progress Thread

[Irish Luder]

Ya I'd say it will be, it would be a sickner if it wasn't ha. I'll make sure I keep dropping in every now and again to see your progress though, I love projects like this

[PJF_Lude]

you going to do something fancy with the inlays or just plain dots?

[DrTony]

Sorry to hijack thread (but it's a thread abt guitars so.....) wats a good acoustic guitar to buy for a learner? Like totally noobie just to learn the basics? Nothing fancy or expensive. Like I said, just something to learn on before I buy a better one. Thx!

[DrTony]

And I'm not as talented or have the necassary tools to make one...nor do I Want to wait lol

[Baz]

you going to do something fancy with the inlays or just plain dots?

lol, woo, someone asked it... i just got started working on it yesterday... i had plans to have my own design of inlay, kind of like two curved lines crossing over in the middle... which apparently looks like an "x chromosome" the only problem with that is that we wouldn't be able to make it out of mother of pearl, so, what we've decided to do is make it out of a light coloured wood... we're using the same piece of maple that my neck blank came from... how we're gonna cut it thin enough and then inlay it is beyond me... but that's part of the learning experience, lol

Sorry to hijack thread (but it's a thread abt guitars so.....) wats a good acoustic guitar to buy for a learner? Like totally noobie just to learn the basics? Nothing fancy or expensive. Like I said, just something to learn on before I buy a better one. Thx!

just go to your local music shop and see what they have... Ashton seems to be a pretty popular brand of guitars for beginners on both acoustic and electric, so, maybe get one of those? it won't cost you overly much either, maybe $150 - $200... maybe even less

a quick look on the Allans Music website says that they have Epiphone, Yamaha and Ashton acoustics (all good brands for beginners) between $150 and $200 http://www.allansmusic.com.au/prodca...s/100-200.aspx

[Baz]

well, today i worked on qhat was questioned this morning... the inlay =D

as said before it's done from the same piece of wood as the neck, the maple, as shell would be too hard to do it with, but i reckon it'll look just as awesome anyway

i'm surprised i actually managed to get it all done today... i had the design roughly drawn up yesterday so i was ready to get cutting today, and by the end of the day we had the inlay cut out and the fretboard holed out to fit it perfectly and glued down all by the day's finish, which is awesome

a bit of a fun fact about the inlay: where the lines start and finish and where the two lines come together, is where the dots that would normally be there would sit, i.e. the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 12th and 15th frets... pretty kool right? lol

anyways, i don't have pics of it in the fretboard, but i have a couple of "teaser" pics to give you a rough idea

so, here's the design roughly cut out and sitting on the fretboard roughly how it's sitting at the moment


and here's the design after a good sanding


it's kinda like a teaser pic cause you haven't seen it compared to the rest of the design to see just how awesome it looks... or at least how awesome i reckon it'll look =p

[Baz]

just thought i'd share a couple of pics of the goodies i got today in the mail =D

surely you can guess what's in this box?


PICKUPS! (there's three, 2x EMG 85's and 1x EMG 81) the only reason they look a bit "scratched" on the top is cause there's plastic over them... they're actually really smooth and shiny and so god damn pretty... can't wait to see them on the guitar when it's finished =D

[JSpec]

oooooooooo shiny!

hurry up and do your fretboard! lol

[Baz]

lol, we're working on that today, hopefully we'll have the fretboard on the neck so we can finish shaping the neck properly and maybe have the frets slotted, but maybe not the fret wire put in by the end of the day =p pretty sure there'll be quite a few pics today, lol

[Baz]

well, today i couldn't take any photos cause my phone decided to not charge completely over night and was dead by the time i got to the city... gay...

anywho, today i got a fair bit done, over the weekend Daz must've sanded down my fret board ready to have the fret wire slots cut... cause i sure as hell didn't do it, lol, but yeah, it took SO long to cut enough slots for 24 frets... apparently Ebony binds to things really well... including saw blades... so it took maybe 2 hours to saw enough slots into my fret board, which is ok, cause it looks fantastic and sexy like... we also got it glued onto the neck, so tomorrow will mostly be cutting out the rest of the shape of the neck and shaping it and it'll pretty much be a finished neck other than the fret wire needing to go in... then i just need to paint the neck... cause wood coloured necks aren't that appealing to me... so, it'll look damn awesome and sexy when it's done =D

then once we got the slots cut and the fret board glued to the rest of the neck, i just sanded back the second coat of primer (it's a kinda cream white now... different to the pink it was before, lol) it looks really good too, but still needs some more primer to get rid of some bumps on wood, lol

i would have taken a few photos today, but like i said, my phone is gay and it died on me before i got to the city... which sucked, cause i wanted to mock up the electronics onto the body and get a snap of it with the tremolo and three pickups sitting in the body to see what it'd look like, lol, anyways

tomorrow will just be shaping the neck properly and hopefully getting the fret wire in too... once that's done it'll look damn sexy and even sexier once the paint is on it too =p can't wait =D

[JSpec]

sounds good, picsorban!!!!!!

[Baz]

pics tomorrow, promise!

[Baz]

today was probably one of the most exciting days so far, i'm actually really happy with how much i got done today... although it probably doesn't seem like much, how it all looks at the moment is just awesome and i can't wait for it to be finished

i started today with a bit more wet sanding the primer... might still need another coat of it yet to completely smooth it out, but that's ok cause i know that at the end it'll look damn awesome

after a bit of sanding on the body we undid the clamps holding the neck and fret board together to show our neck with the fretboard glued on good then it was just a matter of trimming off the sides and sanding it all down, then the most arduous task of the day was putting a 16" radius curve on the guitar... took so long to do... but it looks really nice at the moment and tomorrow we'll be shaping it more (the headstock isn't completely finished) and it's just a matter of sanding down enough of the wood so it looks good and so that the fret board sits flat against the guitar body when it sits in the neck socket... then to round the back of the neck to suit my hand and the neck will be complete apart from painting it too... oh yeah, and the frets need to be put in as well... hopefully that'll get done, or at least started on, by tomorrow

during my lunch break i decided to mock up the tremolo system and the pickups and it looks awesome at the moment... even with the dull white primer on the guitar... but the highlight of the day was at the end when we mocked up the neck and the body together just to see what it looks like, and i'm really impressed with myself of how well it's turned out

anyways, enough of my lame crap, who wants to see? like promised, plenty of photos

the body after a quick wet sanding


after unclamping the neck, with the inlay in, before cutting off the excess


the neck after cutting away the excess and before sanding that curve into it


the mock up of the pickups and tremolo


different angle


and the teaser pic =p

[Geolude]

Looks very good mate!! Since you've got a floating tremolo I'm guessing you're going to put locking nuts on the headstock as well?? Cos it seems there isn't a mounting point at the end of the fingerboard. Btw what colour is the inlay gonna be??

[Baz]

lol, i've got a locking nut... but we forgot about that bit, so we couldn't mount it as we cut the neck out before i reminded him we had the bit, lol, so there'll be a tremolo nut, but the tuners will be Grover locking tuners... gold of course =p should look awesome, and cause they're grovers, you know they're good, lol

as for the inlay... i haven't really decided yet... not sure whether to keep it that colour, or maybe try what Daz suggested and stain it a yellow colour to give it a vintage look about it... keeping in mind that there'll be gold fret wire going in it at some point, so, maybe the yellow will blend in well with it, i'm not sure, haven't really thought about it al that much tbh, lol