WBO 2023: The King In Yellow

[Max Bogosity]

A Strat jack plate in the top or back might just about barely work, but there's so little clearance I'm not completely confident that the tip won't hit the other side. I must admit I forgot about the idea of a Strat jack in the side once I got out there and started messing around. That was a cool idea that I will have to remember for a future project.

In the end I decided to go back to a straight jack in the side. Improvised a reverse-spotface tool with a dowel and a cutter made from a piece of a broken bandsaw blade. This is very crude but it got the job done. If I were to do it again I might try to file spurs on the corners, like a spade bit, to get a cleaner start.

After that, I drilled for the volume and tone pots and got a reminder that Masonite blows out worse than wood if you try to drill straight through. The one on the left was done second, and that time I drilled from both sides and met in the middle.

Pieced the blown out hole back together and hit it with some CA glue. It will be OK after I re-drill from this side. The outside is fine.

Also made up a template for the battery box cutout and used it to confirm that the pots and jack will pass through without any trouble. Before putting the back on, I'll need to note down a few measurements to locate the battery box beside the frame, not through it.

I think that's just about everything I need to do before putting the back on.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Another option could be to use a Strat jack plate flipped over so it’s an “outie” instead of an “innie.” I did that with a thin Teisco body.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Another small problem solved. I sunk the tuners below the surface of the top, then discovered the counterbore wasn’t big enough to get a socket in to tighten the bushings.

I might have been able to find a socket with a small enough outside diameter, but instead I just made a little tool to do the job. It’s a bit crude and won’t be very durable, but it should be enough to get the job done.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Another DIY tool: a flexible mylar ruler/protractor/square. Good for laying out lines on curved surfaces.

And now to arch the back, or actually just half of the back. The treble side stays square on the back to leave room for the controls, while the bass side gets very thin. Desperately trying not to mess up and accidentally arch the wrong side:

The curved cauls I used to clamp the top now do double duty as a cradle to hold the body, curved top down, in the router jig while arching the back. I would have sworn they were a good fit when I glued the top a couple of months ago, but they weren't anymore this morning, so I stuck them all down...

...and then used the body as a big sanding block to fit them to the top again.

I might have been able to get away without this step, but I didn't want to risk the body coming loose while routing. I did not get a perfect fit, but it was much better after this. Then I stuck down the body to the cradle ribs and routed away. Here we are part way through.

I was careful to get the centreline of the body aligned to the centre of the jig, but the runout of the curved surface to the flat surface still came out very slightly off parallel to the body centreline. I think the problem is that I accidentally altered the height of the cradle ribs while re-fitting them to the top, so the neck end of the body ended up a little lower than the bridge end. But it's close enough; the mismatch will sand out and become invisible when the back is on.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Time to glue the back on. A couple of spool clamps are running right through the tuner holes.

And here’s a “dumb but it works” solution for the corner where the angle between top and back gets too large for clamps to stay on. Cling film.

 

[Reedt2000]

Cling wrap seems a smart and budget friendly solution to me. I've seen people use bicycle inner tubes in much the same way.

 

[Max Bogosity]

That came out better than expected. The black lines are a surprise, though. At first I thought they were gaps where the joint hadn’t closed up properly, but no. Can’t get the tip of an exacto knife in, and they’re pretty consistent all around. Best guess is that the glue (LV 2002GF) reacts with the Masonite.

Minor screw-up when trimming the back. I failed to account for the angle between the back and the tuner shelf, and routed the edge slightly off square.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Good news: Everything goes together and it makes bassy noises. Total weight is about 2.3 kg / 5.1 lb, and it balances nicely (no hands) on a strap at any angle from 3 o'clock to about 12:30.

Bad news: The tone control doesn't seem to do much of anything, so I'll have to troubleshoot that. It's the stock EMG wiring harness, but it's been sitting in my unheated barn for (mumble mumble) years and possibly the cap is no good. The truss rod feels nearly maxed out trying to keep the neck straight, but maybe not too surprising from the cheapest neck on ebay. If it turns out to be a problem, well, the more I look at it, the more I think it should have a 24-fret neck anyway.

I gave it a coat of epoxy to fill the little booboos and sanded it back, hence the blotchy appearance. Next step is to read 114 pages of the water-based finishes thread.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Having read all 114 pages of the finishing thread, I decided to go the established route of the Createx sealer and colour coat and Varathane top coat. I've sanded to 400 with Mirka Abranet, wiped down with denatured alcohol, and applied two coats of Createx Autoborne white sealer thinned 10% with 4011 Reducer using a no-name HVLP spray gun.

My experience with finishing has always been bad, but so far so good this time. It's a bit pebbly and there's a run on one side that I'll have to remove, but nothing fatal.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Having read all 114 pages of the finishing thread, I decided to go the established route of the Createx sealer and colour coat and Varathane top coat. I've sanded to 400 with Mirka Abranet, wiped down with denatured alcohol, and applied two coats of Createx Autoborne white sealer thinned 10% with 4011 Reducer using a no-name HVLP spray gun.
View attachment 5188874
View attachment 5188875

My experience with finishing has always been bad, but so far so good this time. It's a bit pebbly and there's a run on one side that I'll have to remove, but nothing fatal.

Cool! What color coat(s) are you using? Feel free to PM if you have questions. I’m not an expert but I’ll help if I can.

 

[Max Bogosity]

I really like it in white, now that I see it. Kind of a Steinberger vibe. But it has to be yellow, either the regular Createx Wicked Yellow or Wicked Pearl Yellow. On one hand, the regular yellow looks more 80s Kramer and is probably less likely to show if I accidentally sand through the top coat. On the other hand, I kind of like the pearl yellow better.

My plan from here is to fix the run, do another couple of sealer coats, sand to 600, repeat as necessary until flat. Then a few coats of colour, diluted with the reducer and 4050 clear per Createx's instructions. Then a dozen or so coats of Varathane on top. Sound reasonable?

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Sounds like a plan. The cherry body in my thread got 3 coats, about 5oz, of sealer black and sanded up well with 400 grit. I got a couple of sand throughs but it’s going to get silver sealer next as an base coat for the candy I’m going to spray so it should be good.

I’d probably go with the pearl yellow but I agree that the brightest most neonist yellow would be the most 80s. I’m sure it will be good whichever you choose.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

You should be good with the white sealer but Createx has color keyed sealers so you can get good sanding and coverage in a color that’s will be at least similar to your top coat. I just got this yellow sealer to mix with tan for under the gold coat for candy apple red. Could be the ticket for the yellow paint. The thought being that if the sealer matches the top coat you’ll need less of the top coat to get good coverage.

 

[Max Bogosity]

You should be good with the white sealer but Createx has color keyed sealers so you can get good sanding and coverage in a color that’s will be at least similar to your top coat. I just got this yellow sealer to mix with tan for under the gold coat for candy apple red. Could be the ticket for the yellow paint. The thought being that if the sealer matches the top coat you’ll need less of the top coat to get good coverage.

View attachment 5189137

Yeah, that’s a good idea. I had somehow convinced myself that I wouldn’t need very much sealer and it didn’t make sense to buy a sealer that would be used on just one instrument, but now I see that I’m going to have to buy more anyway, so it might as well be the right colour.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Yeah, that’s a good idea. I had somehow convinced myself that I wouldn’t need very much sealer and it didn’t make sense to buy a sealer that would be used on just one instrument, but now I see that I’m going to have to buy more anyway, so it might as well be the right colour.

I get it. I used 6 or 8oz of the white sealer on the Kay body and necks I’m working on and still need more. Although I did end up sanding a decent amount away fixing some additional flaws. That’s why I got the yellow and tan. Hoping the darker color covers better. The black covered right away on the cherry body but it needed several coats to have enough thickness to level out the grain lines. As with many things, I’ve started to figure out how much paint I think I need then get more then that.

 

[Max Bogosity]

I get it. I used 6 or 8oz of the white sealer on the Kay body and necks I’m working on and still need more. Although I did end up sanding a decent amount away fixing some additional flaws. That’s why I got the yellow and tan. Hoping the darker color covers better. The black covered right away on the cherry body but it needed several coats to have enough thickness to level out the grain lines. As with many things, I’ve started to figure out how much paint I think I need then get more then that.

I was fooled by the packaging. “There must be a useful amount of paint in that little bottle if that’s how they sell it.” If you’re airbrushing Warhammer figurines, yes. Painting a guitar, no.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I was fooled by the packaging. “There must be a useful amount of paint in that little bottle if that’s how they sell it.” If you’re airbrushing Warhammer figurines, yes. Painting a guitar, no.

The 2oz (I think) Hobby Lobby bottles? They’re good for Hot Wheels. The two Hobby Lobbys near me don’t have Autoborne Sealer anymore anyway. I’ve been buying from Spraygunner.com. They list sizes up to a gallon for most of the Createx paints. I will say I’ve ordered 8oz and gotten (2) 4oz bottles but it works.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Back to this after a long delay. It's too cold to paint now, and it's too cold to even order paint because it'll get frozen in shipping. So on to sorting out the tuner knobs.

The spacing between tuners is narrow enough that the stock tuner knobs interfere with each other. That could have been addressed at the design stage by spreading them further apart. But that would have meant either increasing the sideways break angle through the bridge, or setting the tuners even further behind the bridge, neither of which seemed great. So smaller diameter knobs

I couldn't find any replacements that seemed likely to fit, so I made some. The holes in the stock knobs have two flats matching the flats on the tuner shafts. Rather than trying to duplicate that, I have drilled round holes to fit the tuner shafts and then drilled and tapped cross-ways for set screws to engage the flats. Not 100% convinced that's going to be a good long-term solution, but if not then I have a plan B and plan C in reserve.

These are just sections of 3/4" dowel, dyed black, with a couple coats of Varathane brushed on. Not very attractive, but if they work then I'll pretty them up.

That looks fairly reasonable and now there's plenty of clearance for fingers and knobs.

It does look a bit funny that the knobs aren't centred in the cutaway in the end of the body. When I sketched it with the cutaway centred to the knobs, it looked funny that it wasn't centred to the tuner posts and the flats on either side were different sizes. In hindsight it might have been better to embrace that and just make the whole body more asymmetrical. Oh well.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

A Strat jack plate in the top or back might just about barely work, but there's so little clearance I'm not completely confident that the tip won't hit the other side. I must admit I forgot about the idea of a Strat jack in the side once I got out there and started messing around. That was a cool idea that I will have to remember for a future project.
View attachment 5097301

In the end I decided to go back to a straight jack in the side. Improvised a reverse-spotface tool with a dowel and a cutter made from a piece of a broken bandsaw blade. This is very crude but it got the job done. If I were to do it again I might try to file spurs on the corners, like a spade bit, to get a cleaner start.
View attachment 5097303

After that, I drilled for the volume and tone pots and got a reminder that Masonite blows out worse than wood if you try to drill straight through. The one on the left was done second, and that time I drilled from both sides and met in the middle.
View attachment 5097313

Pieced the blown out hole back together and hit it with some CA glue. It will be OK after I re-drill from this side. The outside is fine.
View attachment 5097314 View attachment 5097314

Also made up a template for the battery box cutout and used it to confirm that the pots and jack will pass through without any trouble. Before putting the back on, I'll need to note down a few measurements to locate the battery box beside the frame, not through it.

I think that's just about everything I need to do before putting the back on.

I like your homemade 2-blade reamer! Technology from the frontier days, when men (and women) went into the woods and built log cabins. First they built their own axes, saws and drills. Then they built the cabins.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Back to this after a long delay. It's too cold to paint now, and it's too cold to even order paint because it'll get frozen in shipping. So on to sorting out the tuner knobs.

The spacing between tuners is narrow enough that the stock tuner knobs interfere with each other. That could have been addressed at the design stage by spreading them further apart. But that would have meant either increasing the sideways break angle through the bridge, or setting the tuners even further behind the bridge, neither of which seemed great. So smaller diameter knobs

I couldn't find any replacements that seemed likely to fit, so I made some. The holes in the stock knobs have two flats matching the flats on the tuner shafts. Rather than trying to duplicate that, I have drilled round holes to fit the tuner shafts and then drilled and tapped cross-ways for set screws to engage the flats. Not 100% convinced that's going to be a good long-term solution, but if not then I have a plan B and plan C in reserve.

These are just sections of 3/4" dowel, dyed black, with a couple coats of Varathane brushed on. Not very attractive, but if they work then I'll pretty them up.
View attachment 5306269

That looks fairly reasonable and now there's plenty of clearance for fingers and knobs.
View attachment 5306305

It does look a bit funny that the knobs aren't centred in the cutaway in the end of the body. When I sketched it with the cutaway centred to the knobs, it looked funny that it wasn't centred to the tuner posts and the flats on either side were different sizes. In hindsight it might have been better to embrace that and just make the whole body more asymmetrical. Oh well.

Just get a checkering file and checker the tuning knobs. Or have the local gunsmith do it.