Finished Pics! impmann's Alembic-esque Electric

Andyjr1515

Legionreturns said:

Andyjr1515 said:

impmann said:

Wow that looks amazing!

Phew (again)

One of these days he'll come on here and say "Oh...actually that bit's a bit rubbish" just to see what happens

I'll have probably said it to myself that many times that I'd probably just nod in agreement

paulnb57

That really is a thing of beauty Andy...

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

That really is a thing of beauty Andy...

Thanks, Paul.  There's definitely something about neck-throughs that give  touch of extra elegance

Andyjr1515

I've got a feeling that the fretting will take all of today, off and on...

The great news is that the figuring in the ebony is still there after radiusing - you can see the waves of the grain along the edge so it really is all the way through and up the fretboard.

The less good news is that it is very brittle - much more so than ebony boards I've used in the past.  I've had to slim the board as much as I dare to get past some edge chips but as for fretting...well it just isn't going to work with my preferred method of 'ribbon of titebond, hammer one side, hammer the other side, hammer middle, clamp radius block on'.

Pressed in and clamped until the titebond has set enough to hold them secure is the only way.

Trouble is I don't have a fret press system or caul.

Ah....but what I do have is the radius block!


This works absolutely fine, but it's going to be slow - min of 15mins per fret...

Still - it's raining outside so what else would I do on a Sunday

Andyjr1515

Lunchtime and 8 are in:


Only another 14 to go

Andyjr1515

16 done and 6 to go.  That's enough for one day!  Now I'm getting to the body, I need to change the clamping arrangement so it's a convenient place to stop


Note that I have the bridge fitted and a couple of old strings in - this is no time for nasty alignment surprises!

I've de-tanged both ends of the fretwire and rounded and positioned the bass side - the treble side overhang will be clipped and the ends rounded once the timbermate is fully hardened.  The method I ended up using is very slow but seems to be producing a decent finished result so far

Andyjr1515

And all the frets are in



The fret-ends were pre-dressed on the bass side and now trimmed on the treble side ready for those to be rounded too.  I'm going spherical ends to give maximum usable playing width.

Tuners are on order - I won't drill for them until I have them physically in my sticky mitts!

After that there are just two or three small jobs to do before I can start the final sand and finishing process.  Probably be able to start that on Wednesday

meltedbuzzbox

All it needs is a Floyd rose and some massively over wound alnico 8 humbuckers of death.

Looking good mate! 

TTony

Andyjr1515 said:

@impmann wants straight string runs but is open to suggestion in terms of the actual shape.  Now simple logic and geometry says that to get straight string runs, then the broad shape is going to be angled 6+0 (Strat style) or triangle 3+3 (Seagull acoustic style) or a mix of the two 4+2.

Here you go, sort of 6+0 meets 3+3

NPP

TTony said:

Andyjr1515 said:

@impmann wants straight string runs but is open to suggestion in terms of the actual shape.  Now simple logic and geometry says that to get straight string runs, then the broad shape is going to be angled 6+0 (Strat style) or triangle 3+3 (Seagull acoustic style) or a mix of the two 4+2.

Here you go, sort of 6+0 meets 3+3

that's really cool, what is it? The shape has a 70s vibe but the black tuners don't, and it looks very new 

Andyjr1515

TTony said:

Andyjr1515 said:

@impmann wants straight string runs but is open to suggestion in terms of the actual shape.  Now simple logic and geometry says that to get straight string runs, then the broad shape is going to be angled 6+0 (Strat style) or triangle 3+3 (Seagull acoustic style) or a mix of the two 4+2.

Here you go, sort of 6+0 meets 3+3

Wow...that's different! 

Andyjr1515

If the day goes to plan, I'm actually going to string it up later...

It's not impatience - there's a functional reason.

Here's how it's looking.  For the tuners, I mixed and matched two sets of the new Axesrus thumblock tuners (I'll report back later...initial impression is that they are VERY good) to get a black/gold look to match the bridge:


Don't panic - the headstock plate's not finished yet   , but this gives a closer view of the mix 


So why might I be stringing up later?

I mentioned above that the figured ebony has turned out to be a little brittle and, to avoid chips at the edges, the neck is quite slim.  This is generally not an issue....but it depends on your playing style.  What I want to avoid - because @impmann uses pull off's quite a lot and has had issues with some necks of the 'strat' problem of the string dropping off the edge - is just that...the string dropping off the edge.  So the easiest way of finding out is to pop a set of strings on and try it.

And what if it is an issue?  Then it's something that sounds drastic but actually, at this stage, isn't so bad (and in someways leads to a 'better' job in the end) - defretting, adding a binding to the sides of the fretboard and refretting with a wider fret over-run.  Because the neck is still straight edged at the moment, the bottom of the binding would be just scraped flush as part of the finish profile shaping.

I'm sort of tempted to do that anyway...

Oh...and what will I do with the other tuner parts?  Put them onto my sister build albeit with black body and gold knobs

Andyjr1515

Andyjr1515 said:

So why might I be stringing up later?

I mentioned above that the figured ebony has turned out to be a little brittle and, to avoid chips at the edges, the neck is quite slim.  This is generally not an issue....but it depends on your playing style.  What I want to avoid - because @impmann uses pull off's quite a lot and has had issues with some necks of the 'strat' problem of the string dropping off the edge - is just that...the string dropping off the edge.  So the easiest way of finding out is to pop a set of strings on and try it.

And what if it is an issue?  Then it's something that sounds drastic but actually, at this stage, isn't so bad (and in someways leads to a 'better' job in the end) - defretting, adding a binding to the sides of the fretboard and refretting with a wider fret over-run.  Because the neck is still straight edged at the moment, the bottom of the binding would be just scraped flush as part of the finish profile shaping.

And it is now strung up...and it IS too close to the edge.

To be honest. I'd pretty much decided to defret and add binding in any case....

The good news is that in pretty much all other respects, it's absolutely fine

It even INTONATES!!!!  All that measuring and checking and measuring and checking obviously helped...

impmann

Great news on the intonation etc, shame about the extra work though mate.

Teyeplayer

Bindings going to look grand, worth the extra work for it to look perfect.

Andyjr1515

impmann said:

Great news on the intonation etc, shame about the extra work though mate.

Not a problem at all....I should have thought to do it earlier, TBH 

Andyjr1515

Well - it takes a lot less time to remove frets than put them in in the first place


I heated each one up with a soldering iron and then used one of the special ground-end fret pullers to ease each out.  Two bits of good news, in a way - First, they were very well seated!  Second is that they've come out with quite modest chipping and none beyond the fret line.

I have some binding strips on the way and, in the meantime, will start on finishing off the headstock and control chamber.

Andyjr1515

And they've long gone back to Africa, but the obligatory swifts...


Next target is the trussrod cover

Andyjr1515

First side of the binding is on:


I've gone for wenge which will tone in with the other demarcation strips.

Pity I couldn't have got 22 clamps in - it would have saved me having to refret   With the screw threads of the clamps, @impmann would even have been able to have individual string spacings for each fret!

normula1

Looks like you hit upon a template for an electric sitar there