You know, maybe I got myself in trouble on my build for not starting with a budget (or ever really setting one). So this has turned into more of a āspare no expense buildā instead.
Got the guitar body shape cut out yesterday, but my phone is struggling to get that photo uploaded to flickr for some reason. I guess one advantage of Win 11 is that itās a bit easier to get photos off my phone. You can see the 2 or 3 little spots where the live edge of the tree left a natural bevel on the lower bout and the horns. Thatās how close this slab was to being too small. Iām pretty sure once I run the router around those edges that those spots will vanish. The one on the lower bout maybe not quite then, but it will when I carve the arm bevel.
So now for the next several days Iāll be doing lots of sanding to get the thickness down maybe another 1/8" and then Iāll mix up a little bit of epoxy for the cracks/checks. I think I have the outside edge pretty smooth for the router, but Iāll touch up a few spots by hand. Then carve out the arm bevel and belly cut and anything else I feel like carving. I should probably take the sander back to the tool library so itās not taking up so much work space.
Along the way I guess I better get routing templates made for the control cavity and control cavity cover. And I suppose I ought to get an order in for some walnut for that cover.
I think the last parts & tools order can wait until next weekend. That one will have all the electronics, the super long drill bits for the wiring channels, and the cavity shielding. Iāve been thinking about how Iām going to ground the bridge and it occurred to me that making sure that ground is hidden is going to be more challenging than I originally thought.
Iām hoping that the guitar neck gets finished this week and I get a shipping notice for it. Wed will be the the earliest date given by the production window of 4-5 weeks from when I ordered it.
got a shipping notice for the guitar neck from Warmoth today.
Which means Iāll be GTG to get the neck pocket templates made soon and that will allow me to start working on laying out the bridge and pickups and controls and all that.
Going to spend some time after dinner doing a bunch of sanding.
Been making a lot of sawdust. Have sanded it down to 120 grit and put in some extra time on the edges to make sure itās smooooooove. Running the drum sander left some waviness I needed to go back and hand sand away. wrapped the sandpaper around a piece of 3/4" pipe to get the inside curves.
When I was using 80 grit on the flat sides I thought I saw that the wood had some figuring. In the right light, after the 120 grit, you can see that figuring starting to pop out. Looks like my slab of ambrosia maple is ambrosia flame mapleā¦or flame ambrosia maple? I donāt think itās as figured as a guitar with a special figured top. But reportedly, the oil finish I plan to use will really make this sort of thing just pop and have a 3d appearance.
Iām ready to start on the edges with the router. I plan to do some practice runs on some off cuts tonight. Part of that will be deciding exactly which bits to use. I am leaning towards a clean bevel for the guitar but I have a feeling my wife will prefer a rounded edge. Still, I want examples of the options that I can touch and Iām sure she needs the same.
Iām going to start on a neck pocket template for the uke this weekend (since I have the uke neck already). That way I can work out the method and be ready to do the same for the guitar neck when it arrives next week.
Got the perimeters of the instruments rounded over. Wife liked the 3/8" roundover for her uke and I went for 1/2" (which will probably wind up being more after more shaping). I decided to go with rounded edges because I think those look better when the wood is more consistent. Chamfered edges look super cool if you make the top out of multiple layers of wood, but IMO, donāt offer anything more for a solid slab. And since I want these instruments to feel like butter, I wanted to keep away from hard edges where possible.
I also started working on the ukeās neck pocket, since I had the neck in hand already. I should have taken Sparrow up on the neck pocket routing template. Making one using the epoxy putty fill method I think I linked earlier did not go so nicely so I had to freehand it. Iāve not gone full depth yet, but even the partial one ended up with a looser fit than I like. Iāve got some maple edge veneer on the way so I can tighten it back up before I go full depth. Thankfully you donāt need a perfectly tight neck pocket for a bolt-on neck, but I do want to minimize the appearance of gaps.
I also cut my losses and ordered a neck pocket routing template for my guitar.
Iāve got some thin walnut on the way for the control cavity covers and the truss rod cover on the guitar. had to order quite a lot (at least compared to how much I need) to hit the minimum order requirement. Iāll have plenty to play with for future projects, at least.
The real turquoise fretboard dots on this one pop much better than the turquoise acrylic ones on the uke neck. If Sparrow had offered real turquoise, Iād have gotten that instead.
I didnāt get too many āupgradesā on this neck, but I did get a few. Went with birdseye maple instead of plain. Ziricote fretboard wasnāt the cheapest fretboard option, but it was close to it. I like seeing some variation there instead of being a solid and plain color. I like how this one in particular has some nice wavy motion to it. The turquoise fret dots were surprisingly not that expensive of an upgrade - only $10-$15.
Itās kindof a funny mashup of Fender and Gibson standards. Uses the Strat heel shape but itās a Gibson scale length and uses a Gibson-type nut. Funny because I bought a Strat-type one thatās WAY too short.
I was also pleased that it came with a truss rod cover. Not that Iāll use that one. Since I ordered a whole bunch of walnut for control cavity covers, I was planning to make the truss rod cover out of that. Well, now I have a template I can use to trace one out on the walnut. I guess thatāll be an excuse for me to get a little coping saw.
I was also looking more closely at the space on the headstock for the owl figure I wanted to have laser engraved and Iām not sure I have space for the one I shared above. Iāve been thinking along the same lines for the ukeās headstock, too. Iām going to need to go back to the drawing board, so to speak. I might be able to get a MUCH simplified outline/silhouette to work.
Iām still no closer to deciding what to name these instruments.
So right when I decided that I got the fit on the uke neck pocket just how I wanted it, I realized that I spent all that time and made a left-handed instrument! (I put the neck pocket on the back).
Which meant back to the drawing board to carve a new uke body out of what parts of the slab I had left. I spent yesterday and today on that job. Since it wasnāt my first time around, I got through it more quickly.
I think this piece of wood is going to look a little nicer for the uke. I wasnāt seeing the figuring in the first one that I was seeing in the guitar, but in this piece, I see some grain thatās really going to pop as I get it sanded and polished smooth.
I also took the opportunity to try a different method for making a neck pocket template for the uke and I think itās gonna work out. The MDF is thicker than I want it to be, but I think itāll be alright. I got the guitar and the uke both ready for neck pockets tomorrow (yes, I did trim back the tape thatās folded over on the templates).
Family in town for the Thanksgiving holiday, so progress is slowing down. Before they arrived, though, I got the neck pockets routed. Messed up a bit on the guitar when the router slipped, but thankfully the resulting gouge was hidden inside the neck pocket and I could fill it with sawdust and wood glue.
Drilling the bodies also didnāt go well. The methods to mark the spots I needed to drill the body using the holes on the pre-drilled necks didnāt go terribly well despite the care I took. And the portable ādrill pressā attachment didnāt work for crap because of the shapes of my work pieces resulting in poor support for it. On the uke, I just had to drill the holes a touch larger, but the guitar looks pretty bad underneath the plate. Thankfully itās all underneath the plate. On the guitar, installing the inserts also went poorly. I followed the best guide I could to ensure the inserts went in straight but no matter what, they were ever so slightly angled. So I really had to hog out the holes in the body for the bolts. Again, thankfully itās all under the mounting plate. So the necks are installed.
While I have the necks installed, Iām going to put on some masking tape and draw guide lines so I can position the bridges and pickups. Then Iāll remove the necks and start on the body carves.
electric uke sounds basically like an electric guitar. Maybe a bit less sustain.
It would crack me up if the local uke club my wife plays in would let her (or maybe voluntold her) to play it during one of their shows. They do a Christmas show every year, and they play at a farmerās market a couple times during the summer. This year sheās being voluntold to be the lead singer on a song that is not in her key and she really doesnāt want to sing. I think sheād rather be voluntold to play an electric uke solo.
The only other one Iāve seen played is in a fairly large uke band so even during a solo, it could stand out more. That one is a LP-shaped electric uke (not sure what brand it is) with humbuckers. I saw an actual Gibson Les Paul uke in Hawaii this past spring, too. That one was an older instrument, for sure.
