4 String Driftwood, Cherry, Maple & Walnut

There was quite a bit of panic, rushed actions, glue spread all over my pants, which were ruined anyway due to...uh...other reasons. I also got glue all over the neck and headstock which added a bunch of sanding time. All I could think about during whole endeavor was how badly I did not want to make another fretboard. :D The cut just kept bleeding through all of this too, I ended up getting blood on the mothman drawing, the board I've got for the top and the walnut I'm going to use for the neck stringers. I'm not sure if I need to join a cult at this point, as I think I may have incidentally started one. :wideyed:

I can't remember where in the final process this is, but close to being finished.

Here too.

Finishing the neck blank meant I could carefully measure and align the template and rout the neck pocket. Here's a little mockery of the situation. :)
 
There was quite a bit of panic, rushed actions, glue spread all over my pants, which were ruined anyway due to...uh...other reasons. I also got glue all over the neck and headstock which added a bunch of sanding time. All I could think about during whole endeavor was how badly I did not want to make another fretboard. :D The cut just kept bleeding through all of this too, I ended up getting blood on the mothman drawing, the board I've got for the top and the walnut I'm going to use for the neck stringers. I'm not sure if I need to join a cult at this point, as I think I may have incidentally started one. :wideyed:

I can't remember where in the final process this is, but close to being finished.

Here too.

Finishing the neck blank meant I could carefully measure and align the template and rout the neck pocket. Here's a little mockery of the situation. :)


I have certain..... doubts.... that the Mothman will be to offended about you bleeding on him, even in unassembled form. In fact, that may be what let you finish this part. :laugh: :rolleyes:
 
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Last night, in addition to doing more finicky fretboard work, I worked on the bridge block. Since the walnut was quite a light coloured piece, I stained it with...walnut. :woot: I routed out the body for the bridge block, chiseled the corners and glued it in with epoxy. This will give a nice hard level surface for the bridge to mount. It's 21mm thick and goes well into the cherry for a solid mount to the body. It's mostly hidden by the bridge.
 
I'm not sure if I need to join a cult at this point, as I think I may have incidentally started one. :wideyed:
I'll be an Acolyte.
cutting myself and getting blood into the glue.
:eyebrow:...This is a ritual I regularly perform anyway... on purpose. :cautious: :woot:
 
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You had me at walnut! :hyper:
The walnut had me at walnut too :D

Dang @Beej you're making me think I need to spend time walking along the beach more often. That's some beautiful wood (and work) :woot:
There is some interesting stuff out there. To be honest, I can walk the beach weekly for two months without finding anything worth bringing home, and then only about 1/3 of that turns out to be useful. The best part is it's free! I think the guy that lives across the street from the beach I go to must think I'm nuts when he sees me unloading driftwood from my car and putting it on the beach. :p

I'll be an Acolyte.
:eyebrow:...This is a ritual I regularly perform anyway... on purpose. :cautious: :woot:
My wife always offers to throw dog excrement into my builds, but I've usually declined this particular offering. :meh:

Not enjoying your pain or anything, but this thread is very entertaining.

The mothman needs blood! What were you thinking?!
Well, I'm secretly working on him too :D
 
Ok, where were we? This weekend has been a bit of a blur. :)
I hammered and then glued the frets in place (wicked in CA glue from the hole under the fret on the side) and filled with wood flour to clean up the fretboard edge. I also eased the edges a little, but they will get more as the process goes. Board has been sealed up with Minwax Wipe-On poly, just two wipes.
I also installed the side dots during this process.

I drilled for the tuner holes - one tiny pilot all the way through, then 9/16" forstner from the front (to clearance the bushing) and 1/2" from the back (to clearance the centre pin). This allows a tight fit for the tuners, reduces slop in the fit and keeps everything tight. :thumbsup:
You can see in this photo that the edges of the A string tuner hole have lifted slightly - this is the rubbery epoxy coating on the surface. I will wick in some thin CA and clamp it down.
The volute got a little rough attention so that I could begin carving the neck. I usually start with the volute.
I also located the neck in the pocket along with marking the bridge location, so I was able to drill the mounting holes in the body.

I also realized I had not yet made the pickup routing template for the body cavity, so I started that late last night to remind myself to complete today.

I also started the process of final prep before applying finish on the body. The entire backside of cherry was steamed* and then grain raised 2x before fine sanding with 220. It then gets a final sanding with 280 before I apply the epoxy sealcoat. I'm using a water based finish, so I need the epoxy (or shellac or something) to pop the grain before the boring water finish goes on.

*Edit: I should clarify the steaming is not the entire surface, I go over it with a magnifying glass (literally - I'm that blind) and any dents, dings or scratches get steamed out with a small 1" square terry cloth (towel) soaked in water and a soldering iron. I grain raise and then fine sand after this step. :thumbsup:

More to come! :)
 
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Let's pick things up a bit! :woot:

That was terrible wasn't it? :bag:

I'll try for redemption through lutherie :smug:

Continuing on from the pickup routing template layout from last time, I line up the five flat sides, screwed them down and routed out the middle.

My cover making process goes like this. First I make a paper drawing and print off a few copies. I make the pickup dummy out of one. I use another to make the negative template that will rout into the body, and I use them on the pickup cover itself, plus the routing template for the cavity inside the pickup cover.

I used four straight pieces of MDF screwed down onto a larger board of MDF and routed out the template (everything you see is recycled :D ). I then glued little half-dowels to the sides of the template to create little standoffs for screw holes.

I aligned that template over the location on the back of the walnut pickup cover and routed a cavity 18.5mm deep. The pickup cover is 21mm thick.

The large cavity is a tight fit for the Geezer Butler EMG pickup, but easily allows a person to swap the locations of the pickups if they want the reverse P layout. I plan to attach these to the covers using double-sided tape and foam on the backs to hold them in place. If someone wants something more permanent, it's easily doable, but for now I want to keep these easily swappable.

I also drill pilot holes from both sides of the cover after measuring carefully, and then use a forstner on top so that the hex keyed cap bolts will sit flush with the surface of the pickup.

Now that its ready to have the exterior shape routed, it's over to the bandsaw to be cut close to the line. I first tape over the top to avoid marring it too much and save me the trouble of tons of sanding later. I then screw it down through the mounting holes to the routing template, which is the same pickup dummy from before.

I go around it a couple of times just taking off some of the outside, but not routing all the way to the template. When there's around 1mm left, I climb cut (go around in reverse, against the bit) the last portion, which leaves a cleaner surface IME.

The pickup is very snug in the rout, but this will be adjusted when the sides are sanded back smooth.

And with that done, we can now do a full mockup! :woot:

Now it's a crapload of fiddly detail work getting it ready for finish, but I'll be sure to bore you with some of it. :D
 
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Looking great! This thing is going to need a strap made from old rope and fish nets with a glass float accent :thumbsup:

And since giving unsolicited advice is my superpower, when I saw the picture I also wondered what it would look like to continue the inlay theme onto the pickup cover, like the "window" in a gold foil pickup? Feel free to ignore or mock as appropriate :D

Beej_idea.png
 
Thanks @Reedt2000 and @BeeTL :thumbsup:
Do you find the pickups lose any output at all with the wooden covers?
I haven't noticed it before with wood or plastic, but I think if the top is thick, then one could potentially have to keep the pickup further away from the strings which could reduce some volume? I'm far from a pickup expert, but my understanding is that wood is magnetically transparent and doesn't directly impact it. Hopefully one of the pickup nerds can comment. :D My covers usually only have a 2.5-3.0mm thick top, so they don't interfere much with the ability to adjust distance from the strings.

Looking great! This thing is going to need a strap made from old rope and fish nets with a glass float accent :thumbsup:

And since giving unsolicited advice is my superpower, when I saw the picture I also wondered what it would look like to continue the inlay theme onto the pickup cover, like the "window" in a gold foil pickup? Feel free to ignore or mock as appropriate :D

View attachment 4212776
I love the idea of the rope, nets and glass float. There's tons of such knick-knackery around here. :D We must be on the same page because I did up a template for a pickup inlay and everything, but decided not to do it for a couple of reasons. (I also planned to inlay it into the truss-rod cover and tops of the knobs :p). The first was because the bass is already so visually busy, I thought it might be just a bit over the top. The second is because the top of the pickup cover would either have to have super thin inlay, or a thicker driftwood inlay would have to be routed into from the bottom of the pickup cover. Both of these present danger through 1) weakness of the top in final form, and also 2) the explosive nature of routing the stuff. :smug:


Also...

I forgot to show a pic of the bottom of the completed cover. I love that this little system of templates can reproduce them identically. :D

I also stained it with one coat of Minwax red mahogany followed by one coat of Minwax jacobean. The lighting in the pic changes what it looks like, it's much darker in person, even in the sunlight. :cautious: