Pick Up Cover

 

I seem to have missed getting pictures of the process of making this inset on the neck position pickup cover. Not a great quality image, sorry about that, it was evening - getting dim - when I took it. The white area is meant to suggest a radio dial. 

I friction fitted the white into place from the back, with the face of the cover laying flat on a surface, and then used superglue around the edges. There were some tiny gaps around the ebony (very tiny, really) that I filled with ebony dust and dropped a bit more superglue into.

This was nerve-wrecking. I thought the whole time I was going to destroy this cover by slipping with my dremel or something. The next nerve-wrecking task will be to put the six holes to allow access to the pickup pole screws for height adjustment.

Pick Up Lines

So it begins. I shudder to think about cutting holes in the top I spent so long carving. But here is where I will be cutting for the neck position humbucker. I measured and checked and double checked these lines over and over before starting to cut the holes.

I don't have a proper router, so I chose to go with a somewhat unconventional method. I simply clamped a ruler in line with where I wanted to cut and followed it with my dremel, after drilling out the corners. Sounds crazy, but it worked.

 Here is the first cut.

 After doing the same all around I then began to clean out the hole and tweak the edges to accept the pick up cover.

 And it slides down into place like a dream.

 Next comes the bridge position pick up. Same thing.

I just need to fine adjust for height and angles, which I will do after the neck is set and I can be sure they are the correct distance below the strings.


I will also need to make a hole in the guitar top on either side of the boxes to allow the pick ups to be screwed down into place. I'm not sure yet how I will hide those holes. I might have to get creative.

From a Hunk O' Wood to a Neck Block

 It's a hunk o' wood, that's what you're thinking. And you'd be right. I found it at a local used/rescued building materials place. I'm not sure what it is, but I think it might be mahogany (don't assume I'm that good at identifying woods though). I brought it home because when I picked it up and tapped it with a knuckle it rang like glass. "Oh", said I, "that has a nice tone!" I used it to build the new neck and tail blocks. There wasn't enough usable area on it (knots, nail holes, etc) to do much else, but there is enough of it left to get at least a few more neck and tail blocks.


Why did I make yet another neck block? Well, after I changed the depth of the guitar I couldn't use the one I made before. This is just as well, as I much prefer the wood for this block anyway.

So here's the new neck block in place on the top. I've got the top set roughly in place on the back to check the fit of the join between the forward edge of the neck block and the edge of the upper bout wall section. As you can see, I had some tweaking to do... though the gap you see in the image is somewhat exaggerated due to it not sitting exactly in place for the picture. The fit is much nicer now, though I can't seem to find a picture of it. Well, that'll show up later as I construct further.

I'll have some trimming around the contour of the top and back after this is together. Time to see if I can source me a good quality router, I think.

Those Pesky Knobs are Back Again

After a bit of a talk with the man who will be playing this guitar, it was decided that just two knobs for volume and tone would be enough. This means a less cluttered top, and it also means I got to change things up again! Yay! I love changing things mid-project! (actually, I do) There will still be two humbuckers, but they will be controlled by two knobs and a three-way switch. The switch will be located on the upper bout.


So now we're looking at just the two knobs down at the back end below the tailpiece, following the curve of the sound hole. Once I receive the potentiometers and wiring I will drill the post holes. My pots and wires are coming from www.stewmac.com . Just shipped yesterday. Not sure how long it will take to get here. Pacing. Tapping fingers on desk. Checking time to see if mail is here yet. Remembering it's only been one day since the order got shipped.

Putting Things In Place

 Using some birch dowel around the inset for the neck overhang to provide both a clean edge and strength.

The hole in the bottom of the neck set was where I used a nut and bolt to compress the neck block into place on the underside of the guitar top while the glue dried. That hole won't matter when it's assembled, and it worked perfectly to keep the pressure and alignment right. Unfortunately, pictures of this process were lost when I put my trust in a cheap (read: free promotional item) USB stick.

Using some maple veneer on the undersides of the sound holes to prevent splitting of the laminated spruce strips of the top. Once glued in place I used a sharp blade to cut the holes open again, leaving only a maple rim around the underside of the sound holes. The one in the picture is extended downward to include the area where the holes for the knobs will be drilled as well.

Kerfing

Sometimes I like to try to make funny sounding title for new blog entries, but "kerfing" stands on its own.

 Well, kinda. The sides of the guitar are standing on their own in this shot, but not for long. The glue on the kerfing is drying even as I type.

 I had to run out and get more of those clamps before starting this stage. They are great clamps for this kind of job.

And, just for added security, I'm throwing in some nice pink clothespins as well. Not sure how that blue one sneaked in there. The big clamps take the brunt of the chore of holding the kerfing in place, but the clothespins add just enough extra clampitude to make it all neat and in place.







After the two remaining upper bout sides are in place I will finish the kerfing on the bottom and then glue the rest around the upper edges as well. Once that's done the back will be ready to assemble onto the top. But not before I prepare the top for the pickups, knobs and electronics.

Dot

 Remember when I said I was a low tech kinda guy? Well, that really is true. The inlay dot for my tailpiece was cut by hand, using only an X-acto knife, and bit of sandpaper to clean the edges up (not quite complete in the pic here). I used a flat-bottomed drill to make the recessed cut for the inset (making sure beforehand that my disk and the drill were the same size of course). You can barely see the shallow recess I made in the ebony.

The insert is now in place, and all that is left to do is level it flush with the ebony and smooth it all out. I used cyanoacrylate (super glue) to set it. That is what the little streak down the back end is from, where I wiped the excess away with a cloth. That sanded off very easily, and left no discolouration.

The little drawing you see here is what I want the finished inlay to look like. The dot is essentially a transmission point, and the concentric curves out from it represent "radio waves". I'm considering using the same motif on the fingerboard. The motif also recalls the fermata I was considering using a while back. I liked the fermata, but I found it was too static for the freehand kind of look I was going for.