DaLefty's 2015 Harley Benton Guitar Challenge - It is photo intensive

Chalky

Don't know which aspect to comment on - your achievements on the guitar, or your ability to go without sleep...

Dalefty

Saturdays work in the Laboratory of Mayhem

Due to me fucking up my hand on friday night, and me not being able to get into work till after having some surgery done on my left hand I did basically sweet fuck all to the neck, well thats not true.

I did remove the clamps and scrap piece of wood:



So this it what it looks like once the glue has had around 24 hours to dry and the scrap of wood clamped over the fretboard has been removed.

The amount of inlay above the fretboard:



Here you can see just how much of the inlay is sticking out above the fretboard, not much, less than 5% of the inlays thickness, I just really couldn't be bothered and had had far too much pain medication and valium to even consider playing around with really sharp blades, and attempting to get things level when I was higher than the I.S.S, so all this was was basically an inspection to make sure everything I did on the previous day worked, I'll also be honest, my Laboratory of Mayhem is also where I keep my pain medication and valium at work, so I'm always in and out of here throughout the day.

This brings us up to today - 20/04/15, when I'm actually not too drug fucked or in too much pain that I can actually be bothered to put in an hour or two into the project, and even update this thread.

Tools Used;

None, but I did take a shit load of medication, probably far too much if I'm being honest

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£2.99 for the black mother of pearl inlays

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0, but three have been broken, two have been dislocated and 4 pins have been put in to my little finger.

DaLefty

Dalefty

So Mondays going ons in the Laboratory of Mayhem.

So today I decided to man the fuck up and get to leveling the new inlays flush with the face of the fretboard.  This really is simple to do, and quick, if a bit on the iffy side, basically you have to be prepared to get cut doing this, and you will the first few times you do it, or you can always do it the slow safe way with sandpaper.

The amount of inlay protruding from the fretboard:



Here you can see how much the inlay protrudes from the face of the fretboard, there are two ways to fix this, the first is to use a radiused sanding block and gently sand down the protrusions, and the second is to use a razor blade or stanley knife and shave the protrutions down by holding the blade at 30 degrees from the fretboard and moving it back and forwards being careful not to mark the fretboard, I used a stanley knife as it's a quicker method.

Using a stanley knife to lower the protrusions:



It's not easy to see in the photo but I have the blade bent almost to the point where it is about to snap, and I'm running the blade of the stanley knife over just the black mother of pearl inlay, not the fretboard, just the inlay, at an angle of 30 degrees from the fretboard, every few strokes I run my finger over the inlay to check whether or not it is flush with the fretboard, I also alter direction of strokes as well every frew strokes, from headstock to last fret for a few strokes, then the reverse, from the last fret down to the headstock.  It doesn't take long but after about 45 minutes to get all ten inlays level with the fretboard.

The new fret inlays leveled with the face of the fretboard:



Here you can see that the new inlays are now flush with the face of the fretboard, all that is left to do now is to give the fretboard a quick wipe down with linseed oil.

Fretboard after wipe down with linseed oil:



Here is what the fretboard looks like with the new black mother of pearl inlays in it after a quick wipe down with linseed oil, they are now flush to the fretboard, they don't stand out nearly as much as they seem to do in this photo, there is a camera flash plus several lights shining on the fretboard from different angles in this photo, but anything more than three to five steps away from the fretboard and the black mother of pearl inlays become hard if not next to impossible to see.

Here the neck is nearly finished, just the nut, string trees, and machine heads are to be installed,  the only thing holding me back from completing the project now is the bridge which has yet to arrive after being ordered over twenty one days ago, once that arrives it will take a couple of hours to finish the project.  I might come up with something offensive to print onto the headstock or something just to kill time while I chase up the bridge, at this rate with the delays in the bridge it better not only play good, but scratch my nuts if the get itchy when playing.

Tools Used;

Stanely knive
Linseed oil
Rag

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£2.99 for the black mother of pearl inlays

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0
DaLefty

Dalefty

So I was bored as hell today doing paper work, so I figured while I wait on the bridge that I ordered almost a month ago to turn up - this is exactly why I avoid the so called 'boutique' companies.  I decided to have a mess about in G.I.M.P. to see what I could come up with for the headstock especially since I have access to all the required tools to do it, namely a laser printer and waterslide decal paper.  So using this image of the headstock



I have come up with these two fairly tame ideas, just so you understand, this is just a fuck about using G.I.M.P., I haven't printed off the waterslide decals yet, I'll probably make a decision regarding which font I prefer tonight at some point, and finish this off either tomorrow or Monday depending on how busy I am at work.

First Idea:



Second Idea:




The positioning and sizing isn't 100%, but it's close enough for me to get a general idea of what the headstock will look like once one of these decals is applied.  This is basically my thoughts for the headstock, nothing more, both the necks I have for this guitar, the fretted and the fretless will have the same headstock decals applied to them, though having a quick think about it now, I'm tempted with the idea of ''Special Needs I'' for one of the necks and ''Special Needs II'' for the other neck, or ''Special Needs NF'' for the fretless neck, and ''Special Needs F'' for the fretted neck.  I'm even thinking about applying the decals on upside down, especialls the words, not so much the graphic on the left of the headstock.



DaLefty

cruxiform

What's the rationale for the headstock logo?

Dalefty

cruxiform said:

What's the rationale for the headstock logo?

Two things really:

1, Firstly and the most important reason of the two was that I was bored shitless at work and got distracted playing around with G.I.M.P. while I was doing some paperwork.

2. Secondly, roughly 15% of the worlds population are left handed, therefore any tool or object designed for use by left handed people is by definition a tool or object designed to fulfil a special need.

That's the two reasons I can come up with off the top of my head, though it was genrally a case of reason 1 more so than reason 2.


DaLefty

Dalefty

A quick update from my Laboratory of Mayhem before I head back into work.

So after yesterdays quick mock ups using G.I.M.P. I decided that I liked the look of the font in the first picture better, so I decided to go with that one.

So I went from this this:



The headstock with no decals on it,

To this:



After playing around with the size of the text and graphic in G.I.M.P. which was surprisingle quick and easy, I printed it out on waterslide decal paper with a laser printer, once printed out it was just a matter of soaking the decals in some warm water for thirty seconds or so, and sliding off the top clear layer onto the headstock.

And finally this:



I decided to put the text on upside down, I just figured it looked better, more unusual and fitting to have it upside down than it did to have it the right way up.

And here it is after drying:



This is the headstock after drying for a good four or five hours, the waterslide decals dried clear, all that is left to do to finish the headstock off is a few coates of nitrocellulose lacquer which I should be able to do tomorrow at some point.


Tools Used;

Laser printer
Waterslide decal paper
Bowl of water
Paper towels
Scissors

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£2.99 for the black mother of pearl inlays

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

DannyP

WezV;600537" said:

I love a bit of black pearl, but it can be frustrating

they tend to disappear from certain angles so if you have not installed them yet its worth lining them up and looking at them from different angles.  turn them all around till they all reflect the same way,  then mark the top with an arrow

then once installed they will all look nearly black from one direction and nearly white from the other.  

It's the curse of the black pearl, innit.

lloyd

How have you got no scars after severing 2 fingers??

lloyd

Dalefty said:

GuitarMonkey said:

Seeing you make that pickguard reminds me of that time when I took some fine old growth timber... 

...made some accurate blueprints... 

...and built myself a Les Paul using only old cutlery for tools 

Feel free to post some links to examples of your super professional mad skills and expensive world class tools, because going through your post history I can find nothing that demonstrates any of your so called skills or super expensive world class tools, just you trying to act and behave like the keyboard hero, so please feel free to prove me wrong and post examples of your work and tools

dindude said:

^ genuine LOL. A great thread, but come on, you made that pickguard, REALLY?

Yes I did, I even went through the effort of posting step by step instructions on how I did it too, believe whatever you want though, I honestly couldn't care less.

DaLefty

This is hilarious!

Dalefty

Since I have an hour or two befor I have to head off to Edinburgh for a gig and get fressed up in drag, I thought I update this thread with the latest going ons in my Laboratory of Mayhem.

Well the headstock had the waterslide decals applied to it:



Turning it from this rather boring looking headstock.

Into this:



Into this rather fine sexy and hansome looking headstock, complete with a reproduction of one of my tattoos - I'm not going to tell you which waterslide decal it is you can try and guess.

To ensure that the waterslide decals stayed in place and generally behaved themselves I gave the headstock three quick very light coates of satin nitrocellulose lacquer. 


Installing the machine heads:



To put the machine heads on and line them up all nicely, what I did was install the machine heads for the first and sixth strings, then lined them up with a straight edge, this time my smallest straight edge would fit so I didn't have to use a box of valium like I have done in the past, then clamp the straight edgre in place so it wouldn't move around, and install the last four machine heads.

After all machine heads are installed and lined up from the back:



This is what all the machineheads look like installed, but not yet locked in with screws, and lined up from the back of the headstock.

From the front of the headstock:



This is what all the machineheads look like installed, but not yet locked in with screws, and lined up from the front of the headstock.

Installing the locking screws on the machineheads:



To install the locking screws for the machine heads - the screws that hold the machine heads in place ans stop them from turning, I had to drill pilot hole for the screws to bite into to, this meant keeping the straight edge clamped in place, making sure the machine heads where installed and correctly lined up nice and tight and using a 1.5mm drill bit and very carefully drilling a mm or 2mm into the wood, just enough to give the screws a helping hand with getting grip and stopping them from slipping and sliding about while trying to screw them into place.

All six locking screws installed:



Here are all six machine heads finally installed with all of their locking nuts holding them securely in place so that the won't move about while under tension.  The only thing left to do know really to the headstock is to install the string trees and remove the protective masking tape that I used to protect the fretboard while I sprayed the headstock with satin nitrocellulose lacquer.

Installing the string trees:



Here is the headstock almost complete without the string trees installed.

With the string trees installed:



Here is the headstock now just about complete - it still needs a nut, with the string trees installed, I decided to go for roller string trees because I think they not only work a lot better than the traditional 'W' shaped ones, but they also look a lot cooler than them too, not to mention that there are no sharp edges on them that come into contact with the strings that can potentially cause the strings to break.

The headstock with the protecive masking tape finally removed:



And here is the headstock with the proctive bit of masking tape finally removed, I did go over the headstock with some fine sandpaper to remove the sheen that can be seen in this photo, but I haven't bothered to take a phot of that yet.

So in the end I decided to go with locking machine heads, even though I personally hate the things and really don'tlike the looks of them, plus why not, I got them for cheap enough afterall, but none the less other than the nut which I still need to cut and shap, the neck is now complete, well one of them is.



Tools Used;

Drill
1.5mm drill bit
Clamps
Philips head screw driver
Machine heads
Straight edge

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£2.99 for the black mother of pearl inlays
£15.00 for the set of six locking machine heads

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

Dalefty

And the last of todays updates from my Laboratory of Mayhem before I head off up to Edinburgh for one final rehersal before tonights big gig with me all dolled up in drag. I'm actually going to have a laugh with this tonight and see how many people or idiots I should say, that I can convince that I'm in the process of transitioning like that media whore Bruce Jenners, from male to female, even though I don't shave my legs, have a goatee and stubble long enough that it is probably as long as a number two right now, not to mention that I have dreads and am 6'3, anyway it should be a laugh.

Well the bridge that I ordered finally turned up, after all the raves and good reviews from people on this site - I'm seriously going to ignore every review on this site because they really are written by some sad prats for lack of a better term hoping to brown nose their way into a manufacturer or suppliers good books in the hope of maybe scoring free gear and are not objective or in the least bit honest at all.

Anyway here is the bridge that I ordered, it hasnn't been assembled yet, nor has it been installed but here is a photo of all of the bits and pieces it came with.

The bridge:



Here is the bridge broken down, well it wasn't broken down this is how it arrived, I decided to go for the Wudtone CP Holy Grail complete assembly made in Mexico 2 1/16 mount, modern 54mm string spacing, with a white tremolo arm tip, left handed, nickel plated, and standard tremolo arm length.  So it hasn't been installed yet, yet alone put together, I won't have time to do it tonight as I'm about to leave the house to head up to Edinburgh and the girlfriend, her parents and I have decided to make the most of a night out in the big city and spend the night at a hotel there instead of driving back after the gig when it will be after 3am, so I probably won't get a chance to properly look at the bridge nor install it until after the girlfriend's parents have gone back to Ireland, so that means it will probably be Tuesday at the earliest before I can get round to setting it up and have a good look at it, truth be told I haven't had the time to have a proper look at the thing yet and give it a good once over.  I must say so far I'm very dissapointed that the bridge didn't come with any form of assembly nor installation instructions, not even a link to a place online where you could find instructions for the product, especially for the cost of the product, and seeing how when you order their finishing kits you get given a link to where you can download or print off instructions for them, and they cost less than £30.00.

Tools Used;

Stanely knife to open the envelope

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£2.99 for the black mother of pearl inlays
£15.00 for the set of six locking machine heads
£136.00 for the Wudtone CP Holy Grail bridge

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

ThePrettyDamned

I guess if you're buying a top end bridge, you probably know what they look like - it's hard to assemble them incorrectly?

Dalefty

ThePrettyDamned said:

I guess if you're buying a top end bridge, you probably know what they look like - it's hard to assemble them incorrectly?

You are taking the piss right? I take it top of the line guitar amps and sound systems don't come with instructions for that exact reasons. DaLefty

impmann

I thought you are a guitar tech - therefore why do you need instructions for building and installing a Strat bridge?
Looking back at my review of the bridge on this forum,I did mention a lack of instructions:
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/12504/wudtone-tremolo-fitted-and-reviewed#latest

But really, it's no different to installing a normal Fender bridge

robinbowes

I would expect top-end stuff to not only come with instructions but to come with bloody good instructions. And it's not unreasonable to bring it up in the context of this build thread. Looks like you were right about the fanboi reviews, @Dalefty

lloyd

No answer about your magic fingers?

ThePrettyDamned

Dalefty;628580" said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

I guess if you're buying a top end bridge, you probably know what they look like - it's hard to assemble them incorrectly?













You are taking the piss right? I take it top of the line guitar amps and sound systems don't come with instructions for that exact reasons.





DaLefty

It's just a standard 6 point fender bridge - I wouldn't have thought it needed any, to be honest, though maybe coming with a picture or two would fix it?

There isn't really any instructions needed though... Put on guitar, screw on, screw on saddles.

andypwudtone

Hello there, 

Thank you and good luck with the project. 

This link may help http://www.wudtone.com/forum/?topic=fitting-the-wudtone-cp-holy-grail-cpvt-tremolos

contact details on the link if you need any further help 

kind regards

rsvmark

Late arrival to this inspirational thread. Nice work and great stuff so far