Inlays 1

I want to make bat shaped inlays for the fretboard. And I want them to be all different, and made of mother of pearl. That's hard it turns out. mother of pearl is expensive and really fragile to cut. I need 12 inlays in total to do a 24 fret neck. I can get away with 10 if I skip the 24th fret.

I found some mother of pearl (pieces of polished oyster shells) on ebay and it came in about a week and a half.  There weren't very flat and there weren't very white.

I traced the fret board and drew out the inlays.

I cut the paper inlays out and glued them to the backs of the mother of pearl.

After a miserable attempt to cut them with the scroll saw I switched to this set up. That's the pearl clamped between two pieces of wood and a manual coping saw. It's slow going and they crack easily in the vice. It's the least worst way I've come up with to cut them so far. They're way too small to hold onto while cutting them anyway. 

I got 4 cut out that are usable so far. I ruined 4 in the process. When this is finished I'll need to carve holes in the fret board to match these exactly. I think that'll be even harder. This might have been an ambitious design....

Cut Away

My original design had a cut away that kept part of the lower right wing but still allowed access to the higher frets. After actually cutting it out and doing a little testing it turns out that its not a big enough space if you're hitting the high strings. I cut it out a little more and I think its much better. The curved style fits in better too I think.

Here you can see the original design and the pencil line for the new cut. 

Now there is lots of room..

Finger Board

I started into the fingerboard today. I planed it down and cut the fret slots. I needed to make a couple of jigs to do that. I also tapered it down to fit the neck.

The measurements of the frets were pretty fussy. They are identified right down to the 1000th of a millimeter.

The first jig i made was to clamp the finger board against a square surface to cut the slots.

The second one was a depth stop camped onto my fret saw. I will need to do this one again after sanding the curve into the fingerboard.

 Here is all cut out from the nut.

....and from the bridge.

Here it is trimmed to match the mahogany portion of the neck

Pickup Holes

I routed out the pickup holes and fit them into place. They're not screwed in yet so they're a bit crooked.

Bridge Routing - Tremolo

Back side is all ready. This is where the springs will attach to the bottom of the bridge and strech out to be bolted to the far right side. So now I have a fair sized hole right in the middle of the guitar.

 

 

 

Bridge Routing - Top

I routed out the bridge hole on the front side of the guitar today. I made all the routing templates by hand so they're not all exactly straight everywhere, but it fits in there nice and snug and it looks right. Tomorrow I'll try to do the back side of the routing.

Here it is, there are 3 separate depths, each different shapes and two 10mm holes for the mounts. The back side is 2 separate depths and part of it will overlap with this one, so you will be able to see through when its done.

 

 

Here is the bridge sitting in place. It will sit higher then that when its done.  

 

Bridge Routing Plan

This is the routing planfor the bridge. I'm a little reluctant to attempt it. I think I might try a trial run on a 2x6. I'll need to transfer this design to several actual routing templates since the different sections are all seperate depths and they'll need to be done one at a time.

 

 

The Pickup template is much more simple. The placement of these is just as important as the shape - and you only get one try.

Mail Order 3

Another mail order arrived today. The Floyd Rose Original and all the do-dads that go with that as well as two humbucker mounts. All in black.

Pickup Selector Switch

The pickup switch is now in place. I cut a big hole in the back using my doorknob hole saw which seemed to be the perfect size. I then took the middle of the hole in a little deeper using a forstner drill bit and then routed out around that. Just need some pickups to select now.

 

 

Mail Order 2

My order from www.stewmac.com arrived. The truss rod was the main item. I also ordered a truss rod cover and strap buttons. It all came in a box that could have held a volkswagen. Oh well, it didn't get lost at least.

Metal

The guitar got a little bit electric today. The 4 knobs and jack will all need to come out again to paint of course, but they all fit and look pretty good. I'll clean up the routing on the component cavity and make a cover later.

I decided to put the jack facing straight out like an SG. Also, you sort of need to hold this guitar like a classical guitar due to the pointiness, having the jack out the outside edge would get in the way. I think this is cooler anyway.

Top On

The clamps came off today and I trimmed down the excess maple to be flush with the mahogany underneath. I ended up taking a little bit of the edge off the points of the wings, tail and ears. They were just too sharp. So now I guess its just a little hazardous rather then outright dangerous to hold. It really looks like its starting to come together.

Topped

The maple came out pretty good. I was able to cut it roughly to the shape of the bat and glue it on. I left a fair bit of extra wood hanging over the edge. I will wait for the glue to dry and trim it all off using the same sanding techniques that I used on the curved surfaces before.

I'm glad that portion is over, I was pretty nervous about screwing it all up.

I also had to route out channels in the mahogany so that the wires can travel through later on.

I started off the channel by drilling a hole with a flat bottom Forstner bit where the pickup selector will go.

I used a small handheld router for the channel. This one has a transparent base and led lights. It makes it easy to see where you're going.

After tracing the bat on the maple, I cut it out using the scroll saw, leaving lots of excess that can be trimmed later.

Dry fitting to be sure.

more glued and clamps. And now I wait.

Guitar Tools

I got a few guitar making tools today at Lee Valley, a fret saw and an inlay chisel. Which are for exactly what you might think, cutting fret slots and chiselling out inlay holes. Lee valley is not cheap but they sure have nice stuff. The saw blade is about 3/128ths of an inch wide.. or half of a millimeter. That's about 5 pieces of regular printer paper. pretty slim. The chisel is a little thicker.

Top

I finally got two nice pieces of maple to use for the top. They have matching opposite grain patterns, slopped slightly toward the back of the guitar. They're both planed down on both sides and nice and square on the edge that they'll be glued on. 

Here it is glued together, sandwiched between two flat surfaces and wax paper... and clamped.

First Set Back

I couldn't get 2 pieces of those maple slabs that matched when placed side by side.  Planing them down was harder then expected as well. They are so thin and the grain goes up and down all along each side. The planer complete ate one. The other 3 were just too miss matched to place side by side.

I headed back to KJP and picked up 6 more. Surely i can find a nice pair with these. The total bill for the new six was just over $ 29.

Mail Orders

I got some mail today from AllParts. All electronics that I will need aside from the pickups (Les Paul style), knobs, fret wire and a piece of ebony to make the fret board.  Not that I'm ready for any of these just yet. Total bill for what's seen below was $158.76 CAD plus another $27 for duty. Almost exactly 2 weeks for delivery.

I also made some more orders today. A Floyd Rose Original tremolo bridge from www.warmoth.com and a truss rod, truss rod cover, some mother of pearl blanks from http://www.stewmac.com/.  Warmoth shipped the Floyd Rose two hours after I ordered it which is nice. Both are coming from the US.

Barry at Ewart Guitars in Burnaby, BC was very helpful in helping me find the right bridge. Thanks Barry

Pickups

I picked up two really sweet pickups on Kijiji today. A Gibson 490R and 490T. They came out of an SG that was switched out with P90s. Thanks to Dave for supplying them for the great price of 90 bucks for the pair.

Creative Sanding

The preparation for final gluing of the body continues. I rigged up a table for my drill press and cut a hole for the sanding drum. Its long enough to be able to sand the entire depth. That sorted all the inside curves.

I also rigged up a table for my belt sander at 90 degrees to sand out the outside curves by clamping the sander itself to the bench. Inside the bat's head between the ears will be a manual job.

 

This square has been around the block a few times. Also, if anyone is in the market for a belt sander, this one by Ridged is great. It'll go all day long, doesn't get hot and is nice and light. It's also designed so that when you lock it turned on and flip it over it sits nice and flat so you can hold things against it. Turns out it sits perfectly square on its side too if you clamp it in place.

Headstock and Sanding Drums

The headstock came out pretty smooth. the inside corners were a little tricky given the angle of the head to the neck, it wouldn't sit flat on any power saws so I cut it manually using a coping saw. I also sanded out the rest of the neck and started sanding the main body. Sanding drums on the drill press made the inside curves really smooth.

In the background here, you can see my original drawing as well as my MS Paint sketch up. Notice the classic Michael Keaton style logo

Curly Maple Top

I found some thin slabs of curly maple that will work perfect for the top of this guitar (I hope). they're each about 8 inches wide and 20 inches long. they vary between about 3/16" and 3/8", I need 1/4" so hopefully i can find enough good pieces that will cover the guitar and look nice. They're pretty rough so they'll need a fair bit of planing. I only need two of these but i got 4 because they had 4 that were big enough. So I'll have a little contingency. They ranged in price from 3 to 7 bucks.

This is an example of what curly maple could look like when its finished. they can vary a fair bit so hopefully two of these are close enough to be used side by side on top of the guitar. My plan is to stain the top grey and do a black burst around the edge. The side and back will be all black. 

Looks like a Guitar

Today I got the top of the neck carved out and some extensions glued to the head stalk. I also cut out the body but haven't glued them. I'm going to wait until the neck is farther along since it's so much easier to manage on its own.