Trying to get this body cleaned up so I can move on to the next part. My brain says my next step is to do the final body shaping, and the main part there is my edge profile.
I want to do a small round-over on both the top and bottom. I'm not a fan of the slab look, or sharp edges on this style of body shape, it needs that edge softened somehow. Plus, I want to do an arm carve on this one, so we need some sort of edge profile to blend that into. So my brain is saying something like a 1/4" round-over, both front and rear. But ultimately I'll need to route that and look at it and see how I feel about it.
But first!
Let's get this thing shaped correctly and get the waves out of it. I had a few spots where the router chattered and then there's the area where the neck-thru and fretboard are in the way so I couldn't route the shape all the way into there. So the first thing I need to do is set up the spindle sander contraption. This is my janky spindle sander table, utilizing my ShopSmith tables to extend my work area and also just give me somewhere to set the spindle sander itself. -
Then we just start working through various different sized barrels, getting into those horns and up to the neck to blend that in a bit better -
Yeah, I'm liking that a lot better.
Next thing to do was clamp it in my leg vice and start working on some of those "outside" radius areas with a hand sanding block. I like these little "mouse" sanding blocks, they use a typical 5" RoS disk so I'm not buying some other sandpaper shape or size, I just use the same ones I use on my RoS. -
This was just a lot of slow, tedious work. Turn on the radio, fire up the overhead dust collector, don the mask and take your time cleaning it up. After about an hour and a half of just hand sanding that edge I think I've got it where I want it now and feel like it's ready to route the edge profile now.
So let's cap this post off with a shot of where we are now -
Yeah, that seems rude to just leave it at that. Let's try cleaning it up with the Denatured Alcohol -
Yeah, I'm not at all unhappy with this piece of wood that got rejected from the local guitar manufacturer.
For a strange combo of country/blues and hair metal, this thing is starting to look pretty cool. The client, however, is literally over the moon with the build progress. He says it's the most beautiful guitar he's ever seen. I told him he needs to get out more.
He told me he's serious. He's jacked up about it and can't wait to hold it.
I'm a little torn on this one. I kind of want to leave it natural and finish it with Osmo. But part of me wants to apply some sort of colored burst stain to it. I just can't decide.
I do have some scrap offcuts that I could test stains on just to see how they look on this piece of wood. I just don't know.
-
