decadentjon Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 (edited) Hey guys, i've been watching these forums for quite a while now but havent really posted, i'll introduce myself first. My name is Jon, im 21 years old from Perth Western Australia. been playing guitar for about 10 years and working as a guitar repairer for the last 3ish years (worked in music retail for a while and found it a lot more relaxing behind the tech bench and sorta found my way from there) I've been working for Perry Ormsby since early this year taking care of much of his repair work and helping where i can with his builds. I have minimal woodworking background but know the fundamentals of a good guitar, so hopefully that along with Perry's guidance will help me to make something I'll be happy with. So. to the guitar- I really dig a lot of quirkier retro styled guitars but often am let down by sound and playability and find myself wondering just how far i'll go for aesthetics. I wanted to make a guitar based on a Mosrite ventures body shape but with components of my choosing - here's what im planning: Swamp ash body - to be black grain filled, sanded back and finished in a few coats of clear nitro. 3 piece set neck with long tenon - Indian rosewood with a thin maple strip to make up the correct width and an ebony fingerboard (24 fret, 25" scale)(couldn't find a piece of rosewood thick enough for an angled headstock without a scarf joint which i didnt really want) Inlay- was thinking of inlaying a kite in mop at the third fret (with a bit of overlay into the 2nd and 4th) and having the kite string in perhaps crushed pearl set in epoxy running up the fretboard with two little triangular flag type things coming off at all the important fret positions) might be a little ambitious, for a first inlay but i figure if i plan, am patient and careful I cant go too far wrong, also with an ebony board it will be easier to patch up inevitable mistakes. Pickups - 2x Gibson 57 classics PAF's (generally a total P90 freak but want something with humbuckers for this) Wilkinson/Gotoh VSVG vintage tremolo, grover or schaller locking tuners. (all chrome hardware) bone nut So yeah, that's my general idea. all I've done so far is got the materials together, bandsaw the rough body shape and made a body template, shall hopefully get some real progress down on Saturday and will undoubtedly get some photos then too! Cheers. Jon. Edited November 21, 2007 by decadentjon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 Cant wait to see this guitar finished, so you can get back on the bench and do some work instead of weazel'n through the wood stash looking for "scraps... big enough for one piece bodies..." The start... GOTM for Feb 2008: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted November 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 i was really hoping for guitar of the month for January... *sigh* i guess February will do. i found no such scraps, although there is some of this strange brown wood i don't seem to see around much of in Australia down the back of the workshop which is obviously being neglected. ma-hoganashy? or something... bah, I forget what it was called but I might grab a plank on Friday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted November 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2007 finally got some groundwork done today! thanks again Perry for being patient. I learnt many things today, firstly that routers scare me its a healthy fear however. the weird colouring on the bottom left was testing the grain filler, the part outside the line is obviously yet to be carved. neck currently being glued up. i already really dig the contrast. will start working on the inlays from home over the weekend. but all in all, very happy to finally be underway! would be happy to hear any comments or suggestions people might have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted November 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2007 finally drew out a rough design for my inlay tonight and couldn't wait to get started, so i have- sorry about the camera phone photo. -the spacing for the kite looks really uneven but its just the photo, its a pre-radiused board so nothing is sitting 100% flat, when it gets glued and sanded it should look fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougK Posted November 24, 2007 Report Share Posted November 24, 2007 I like the kite thats pretty cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted November 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 ok now i need some help/suggestions, i've sorta finished most of my inlay, with the exception of the kite string, i dont know how to do this, below is a photo of the fretboard, you can see the pencil line where i want a small channel cut and filled with some kind of shiny *something* and epoxy or whatever. i really dont know whats a good option. what can i fill it with? anyway i'm fairly happy with the inlays thus far, none of the tags are the same size but i wasn't really intending them to be, i just cut a triangle and outlined it on the fb and cut, so each one really only fits into its own slot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 can you get hold of some silver strips from a jewelery maker/marquetry supply place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 As for the kite tags being the same size, I don't really think that is all that uncommon. From a well know inlay and shell place here in the US, I have bought a number of pieces of shell and precut inlays recently. The inlays that I bought were precut and while they were all around the same size they were all unique. Even though they were all different you could hardly tell once installed, you'd have to really look closely. One thing though is that I had to label each one because as you said, each slot is different, so I hade to individually scribe and route each inlay. So, no biggie and it looks great, very cool idea and its turning out well. As Wez said, some silver would be awesome, I have actually seen that done I believe a couple times and it worked great. If I find a pic or a thread of someone who did that, I'll link it. Best of luck and keep the progress pics coming. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 well it would make no sense to have all the tags the same anyway - as an object moving through 3d space some would be further away some would be turning etc... it might have looked a little too stylised if they were uniform Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 If Jon wants to see a silver strip inlaid, he'll just have to turn around from his workbench and check out the guitar on the wall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 Jon's a lucky little beggar aint he Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 Seems like I remember something like a silver vine or something somewhere ... If Jon wants to see a silver strip inlaid, he'll just have to turn around from his workbench and check out the guitar on the wall Oh, yeah. How could I forget? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTU 7's. Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 Maybe you can use a thin perloid binding to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted November 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2007 im actually thinking of using some cream binding for the string, still making my mind up, don't think ill use silver though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael.Speer Posted November 26, 2007 Report Share Posted November 26, 2007 havent done many inlays myself but cant u just get some MOP (or watev ur using) dust and mix it with some glue and just rub it in there. It works for filling wood with sawdust and wood glue dunno maybe mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 26, 2007 Report Share Posted November 26, 2007 pearl dust is essentailly nothing more than chalk. Didnt perry do something recently with tiny shards of pearl as lightning - not sure it would look right as string though.. Maybe some kind of rope effect purfling would be fun... maybe cut the channel and then fill it with lots of short lengths of maple to give a twisted bit of string look Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted November 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2007 hey wez, perry used something of the sort looked good for lightning, but i'm not 100% on the look for this, perhaps because it was in a fairly light rosewood fb. (or maybe it was the upside down crucifixes ) i'm definitely digging the idea of maple, do you mean bending maple laminate? or cutting pieces to suit the bends? a bit worried that maple might be impossible to keep clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 27, 2007 Report Share Posted November 27, 2007 yeah that was definately too evil for this inlay scheme... i only emntioned it because dust was mentioned. I know that wont work and small shards are the closest i have seen to that.. definately not right for this i think thin strips of a lighter coloured wood are the way to go. If you can get something with a bit of grain in it it might look quite like string anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted December 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2007 ok, finally had some time to work on the guitar today, carved the top and finished the inlay work. i went with white binding as the kite string in the end, i shall have some photos asap, i think perry might have taken a couple today so if he could post them that would be cool, the inlay hasn't been sanded so its all gluey and gross looking but i'm pretty pleased with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted December 8, 2007 Report Share Posted December 8, 2007 Had to re-install windows, so i dont have photoshop right now. Give me a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted December 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 (edited) radius sanded the fretboard today, and got little pic of it and the body. some of the inlay isnt 100% even but i think it looks nice. Edited December 10, 2007 by decadentjon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RjY Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 That looks sweeeet dude, really nice unusual idea and i glad it came out alright! RjY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decadentjon Posted January 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2008 finally got a bit more work done, fretted, rough cut the neck and routed the neck pocket. should hopefully shape the neck this week and get some more routing done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 20, 2008 Report Share Posted January 20, 2008 I really like that inlay design. Good to see some creative takes that still count as fret markers! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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