Eve: A Guitar 3 Years in the Making (kind of...)

[Jontain]

That finish is looking lush man, going to look ace with a nice bit of clear coat and a buffing.

Good luck with the rest of the build!

 

[AndrewG716]

Great to see this going again.

As for the questions:

1-no need to dye the edge of the maple for the binding... flame will be very obvious one it's got some finishing on it. Or maybe I'm understanding it wrong. do you want a natural binding? Or are you thinking of a black binding, hence the black dye?

3- You could actually mount them directly into the guitar, BUT I'd sugest using some small metal inserts like these.

The one in the pic is waaay bigger than what you need though, or I would have posted a link, haha. Or even plastic ones if you can't find any metal inserts.

I can vouch for those inserts as I used them in my guitar. I went to Fastenal, which may or may not be where you live, but they probably have an online store. The only catch is that you have to either drill out the ears on your pickups or find a bolt with no threads on the top. It may be possible to grind some of the threads off the top portion of a bolt so that it would turn freely. I'm not sure because I drilled out the holes on mine.

Btw, I am always impressed when I see that huge slab of maple you're using.

 

[aWoodenShip]

Oh good God that's nice. By order of the Jarl, make me one too!

 

[BlackMastodon]

Oh good God that's nice. By order of the Jarl, make me one too!

I just got done playing Skyrim for the night and I come here to see this. There's no escaping it!
And if I could find the time I would love to do this on the side, though I'll admit that doing the top like that with the mahogany has proven to be quite challenging, but very fun as well!

Can't wait for the next 2 I got planned.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Took the tape off:

Still a couple small areas where the green seeped into the mahogany a bit so I will have to carefully sand that out.

Tomorrow I will grab some mineral spirits and see what she looks like wet .

 

[BlackMastodon]

Regarding those metal inserts, what size thread should I use for humbucker height screws?
According to StewMac, the screws are 3-48 thread but I don't see any on the site I'm looking at. What size threads did you guys use? If I can't find any inserts then I'll just drill into the wood, should be OK.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

[Purelojik]

Regarding those metal inserts, what size thread should I use for humbucker height screws?
According to StewMac, the screws are 3-48 thread but I don't see any on the site I'm looking at. What size threads did you guys use? If I can't find any inserts then I'll just drill into the wood, should be OK.

you know im actually wondering the same thing. BTW that green is so sexy.
i justupdated my build and need the same thing, im thinking i'll just take the screws to a hardware store and see if they can help me out.

 

[scherzo1928]

im thinking i'll just take the screws to a hardware store and see if they can help me out.

This. Best advice I can give. If not, use a plastic one.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Alright thanks guys. I've been busy the last couple weeks with working full time afternoons and going to school 3 times a week (good thing it's my off semester and I'm only taking one class), so I'll try to do some work on it when I get the chance. Also the weather is completely screwing with me. Last week we had a couple days where it was about 15 degrees C outside, now we are back to about 1 . This has been a messed up year for weather.

 

[Metal_Webb]

This has been a messed up year for weather.

It's been messed up down here as well It's meant to be summer but I think we've had about 3 days over 30C and it's been raining or overcast for most of it.
/OT

That green is the sex mate! Can't wait to see it completed.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Probably about time I update this, no? A little while ago I bought some new tools:

Rotary planer for drill press, not Wagner Safe-T planer from StewMac, apparently those don't exist anymore, but I did manage to find a similar one on eBay that works quite well so far:

Pretty clean. Going to use this to plane out the cavity covers some time soon.

Also bought these on sail from the magical internets:

Used the core box bit (round one on the far right) to do this on the back:

which will make it easier to grab the cavity covers.

So yesterday I grabbed my body and noticed quite a few terrible scratches in the green through natural light (finally sunny outside) sooooo I sanded it off yesterday and then redid the dying process today. Came out pretty decent I think, didn't lose anything as far as I can tell:

I had to fill the one bridge post (again ) because it was very much off so I will have to fix that up. I also drilled the holes for direct mounting the pickups (probably won't need the inserts, but I have some anyway if it all falls through) and the pilot holes for the trem claw as well as string tree on the headstock. Next up will be to redrill that bridge post, pop the bridge in and grab some kind of thread/string to line up the neck, drill the holes into the neck, and then make the cavity covers.

NOW, a question: when using the StewMac fast acting epoxy, should I mix the 2 components in a separate container and then dip the magnets in and put them in their slots? Or should I just pour each epoxy mix into the holes and drop the magnets in? Anyone have experience with this stuff? I think the hardener got reaaaaaaally thick too.

 

[theo]

YEAH! that stain looks great

 

[BlackMastodon]

Thank you Only thing I'm a bit worried about is that some of the figure on the butt end of the maple (behind the bridge) seems to have gone away. Hopefully it will look OK once it's finished.

 

[scherzo1928]

I'd mix the epoxy in a small container, and use a toothpick-stick-brush-whateveryoucanfind to apply it where you want it. Keep in mind you won't ever be able to get rid of the epoxy on the container or toothpick-stick-brush-whateveryoucanfind, so use something you don't care about... oh, and wear a mask... and work fast, it dries FAST.

As for the figure, it will pop out again with the finish.

 

[Ghost40]

I love the top man, that green is sex!

 

[asher]

Tasty green and nice carves

 

[Stompmeister]

Lookin so good man! What kinda chisel did you use to carve the top? It looks so sexy.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Lookin so good man! What kinda chisel did you use to carve the top? It looks so sexy.

One of these:

Slapped in a handheld grinder. Much quicker but considerably more pants shittingly scary.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Oh hey, some cavity covers.

unfortunately the trem cavity cover is a fair bit too small so I will most likely be redoing it.