Building Slowly

[Matt Liebenau]

While I’m on the tagging folks thing, I don’t remember if I ever showed @Lesfunk that the body I got from him did, in fact, get used and I like the bass a lot.



32” scale I-been-ez’d neck. T-40 pickup. I did wire it up with the Peavey spin-a-split wiring and I may just rewire with a standard tone and push pull for the coil split. Not too many assembly pics. Sorry. It’s one of many that I started and started taking pics then just kinda drifted off with the pics.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Last, one for @Gilmourisgod. A bass based on the good ‘ol BC Rich Eagle. Thanks for the drawing, sir. You’re an artist and a gentleman.

Radiatia Pine back and a Mango top. There may be more to come on this one. Later though, later.



It is actually done but I don’t seem to have any “done” pictures at the moment. (Shrug emoji)

 

[Flamingo21]

I believe I posted this bass before, maybe not in the LC though.

Yes, I think you posted it in Basses somewhere. I remember asking you if they were Victory guitar pickups.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I wasn’t sure if this would fit better somewhere else but here’s a clamping option for someone with limited space. I may buy a couple of those kits myself.





Edit: it might be more correct to say limited workspace and bench vice options. I can picture a few ways they could be handy even with benches and vices.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I wasn’t sure if this would fit better somewhere else but here’s a clamping option for someone with limited space. I may buy a couple of those kits myself.





Edit: it might be more correct to say limited workspace and bench vice options. I can picture a few ways they could be handy even with benches and vices.

That looks rather scary. I guess it would probably work for chainsaws too.

If you want to use your router as a table router, I'd suggest drilling holes in a rectangular board, so it bolts on in place of the base. Then clamp that down.

 

[Max Bogosity]

I wasn’t sure if this would fit better somewhere else but here’s a clamping option for someone with limited space. I may buy a couple of those kits myself.





Edit: it might be more correct to say limited workspace and bench vice options. I can picture a few ways they could be handy even with benches and vices.

The thing with the router is at least three different kinds of bad, but the clamp modification is brilliant.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

That looks rather scary. I guess it would probably work for chainsaws too.

If you want to use your router as a table router, I'd suggest drilling holes in a rectangular board, so it bolts on in place of the base. Then clamp that down.

I’m pretty sure the cover picture is clickbait. The closest a router comes to the clamp in the actual video is when Stumpy shows what kind of bit to use to cut the V grooves.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Ok, something completely different! I needed to buy some parts so I could use up some parts. Makes perfect sense, right? Plus I had some fun stuff in mind. First, a new logo was sketched up. My son came up with an initial idea and I got out the graph paper and #2’s and had at it. I’ve never really done anything like that so I was kinda proud of myself. Afterwards, it was redone in a caveman type drawing program and decals were printed.

Old:


New:



I also made a stencil so I can airbrush it on. These pictures are just a test done with spray cans.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Some poplar was glued up.



Then was router planed to thickness. This was before I had the pin router or at least before I had it working.



Then there was the usual mish-mash of patterns, Forstner bits and routers.



After a bunch of filling, sanding to 220, filling, sanding, sanding, head scratching and questions of WHY?!? then sanding, etc we have one body in Createx Autoborne sealer black and one in white.



Oh, I forgot to mention, in with the sanding and despairing I sprayed the bodies with clear Varathane Ultimate and did more of that sanding thing. Then they got the sealer as seen above.

More in a bit.

 

[Flamingo21]

I needed to buy some parts so I could use up some parts.

It doesn't get any more LC than this.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I guess I should have said “More Tomorrow.” I ran into a bit of a kerfuffle with some pumpkin pie then today had a serious bout of loafing since I have a more then full week at work next week after being off.

Anyway, the white body got metallic white on top of the sealer and the black body got a splash of gloss black. I seem to have forgotten to take any “in process” pictures of the black body so I’ll just set this here as it’s the materials and process I used.



Which put us here.




After some clear coat(s) and some sanding it got hit with 3M super duty compound and final polish. Currently about here.



And with the bridge post inserts and the spring claw in.



I did remove the spring claw and solder the ground wire on then reinstalled it. I also soldered the hot and ground wires for the output jack on the pickguard controls.

More to come at an indeterminate time in the future.

 

[RichterScale]

That's a cool look.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

That's a cool look.

Thanks. Wait till you see the other body…

 

[Matt Liebenau]

The black/yellow body got the pickguard and strap buttons attached. I also rewired the guard for the white body as master volume, master tone and the hole closest to the strings will get a hole plug or something in it. If the volume is right there by the strings I hit it when I’m playing and turn myself down. I’m not the greatest guitarist ever but I’m that bad…



As far as the white body, it got metallic white, like I said. I decided it was going to get an old school low rider, hot rod, chopper trick for the paint. First, a test run on an old plywood body.



Ok, that came out pretty good. Now we do the same thing on the real body… I had mixed up some candy black for the lace pattern. I also used that to do the edges. I got the sides pretty dark but you can see the pattern fade into the edges. It might come out in some of the later pictures.



The first couple of coats of clear had Createx Hot Rod Sparkle added which is pearl flake mix. After 2 or 3 coats I switched to regular clear and sanding. 3-4 coats and level sand the front and back then 3-4 more. Hopefully I get the pictures in the right order. It should go 400, 600, 800 grit then 3M super duty and finally Turtle Wax polish. Not much difference in the pictures but I wanted to put them up anyway.



Edit: the first 2 pictures are pre-sanding. I only did the front and back with 400 and 600 grit. I didn’t touch the sides or roundovers until the 800 grit and naturally the polishes.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I’m really happy with how this came out. It’s hard to capture the sparkle in pictures but it looks really good in person. Hopefully I can finish it up properly.




Anyway, I need to catch up at work. I took last week off. It was slow but still… I’m also working out of town until Tuesday or Wednesday so probably no more progress until the end of the week.

 

[Dubious Aa]

I’m really happy with how this came out. It’s hard to capture the sparkle in pictures but it looks really good in person. Hopefully I can finish it up properly.

View attachment 4886967 View attachment 4886968


Anyway, I need to catch up at work. I took last week off. It was slow but still… I’m also working out of town until Tuesday or Wednesday so probably no more progress until the end of the week.

Dang, you have some pretty cool shniz going on there!!
I’m looking forward to seeing your progress

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Pirates were here and left booty! I had some OT money and Stumpy Nubs sucked me in with the mask (for dust not for socializing ) plus I got those clamp kits from the video above (no routers near the clamps after I make the V grooves… promise) and a few other things.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I guess I’m some kinda maroon…

I’ve had this neck floating about for a while as is. I got it from a buddy years ago and it’s been on a couple of different guitars. I was getting it ready to go on the marbled body and inexplicably decided it needed a logo. I wanted to do the stencil thing I posted above but didn’t want to drag out the airbrush. I did have a couple of spare decals so, following the instructions from our own irreplaceable @ChickWithaRic, I applied the decal and am clearing over it.



Meanwhile, I started putting the paisley body together and discovered the neck I had planned for it had some issues that were beyond what I felt like fixing. So we’re going to play some musical necks (pun intended). The one for the paisley body needed a shorter heel since the one I planned for it was a cheapo Chinese oddball. The neck for the black and yellow body timidly raised its hand and volunteered so I made up a quick template and shortened the heel a bit under 1/8”. No pics of that but here’s one of the template and the result before any finish.



Fancy right?

I’m going to ponder what I want to do about the black and yellow marbled body.

 

[Flying B]

I’m really happy with how this came out. It’s hard to capture the sparkle in pictures but it looks really good in person. Hopefully I can finish it up properly.

View attachment 4886967 View attachment 4886968


Anyway, I need to catch up at work. I took last week off. It was slow but still… I’m also working out of town until Tuesday or Wednesday so probably no more progress until the end of the week.

Wow that really turned out great! Yet another technique I'll add to the list of stuff I want to try...

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Wow that really turned out great! Yet another technique I'll add to the list of stuff I want to try...

Yeah, Lace paint. Like I said, low rider, hot rod, chopper stuff. There’s another channel, Time Warp Customs, I think who has done a couple of vids with something that embosses a pattern on tin foil then he attaches it to a car hood with sizing like you were doing gold leafing then buries it in clear. I’m not sure how practical it would be for guitar but it looks really cool.

I also really like the Serape blanket thing like this. It seems like it would be better on something big like a V or an Explorer.



Here’s the tin foil one.