What's on your workbench?

[MoonJelly]

Here's a question: how do people get a smooth finish on a maple fretboard. Mine always get uneven between the frets and sanding between them is really difficult.

I love maple fretboards, more than half of my builds I've used maple. I have noticed some pieces will swell a bit with humid climates/big swings in temperature. Best solution I've got is to fret about a third of the board and then re-cut the remaining slots because they start to close up. I used to go from the 24th to the 1st, but now I intentionally skip to every third slot. Then I will try to push just the corner of a fret in the slot to measure how tight it is. Seems to be a good measure if I need to re-cut any slots.

 

[KR250]

String day! Somewhere around 20 sets of custom tension matched sets for various tuning's and scale lengths. Went through Just strings this time, super fast shipping!

 

[jwade]

The way you have it laying there looks like you have a crazy 15 string and a 9 string.

 

[MrYakob]

Had this build in progress for almost a year now but been distracted with other things. Finally got some finish on it the other night and wow I'm glad I bought 4 of these walnut tops when I did!

 

[KR250]

Figuring out the next few builds, leaning towards the middle combo of Ash/BEB/Ziricote for the upcoming multi-scale bass. Mahogany/Amboyna burl/Macassar ebony for 7 string guitar, and still trying to sort out the neck through ziricote piece, Limba, Cocobolo.

 

[DistinguishedPapyrus]

6 string build. Walnut top, spanish cedar body, walnut and sapele neck, roasted birdseye maple, gold EVO metal thingies too...

Smooth fret access, feels good.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

threw some glitter into some leftover shellac and brushed it on to see how it would turn out. seems to work relatively well compared to when I was using spray adhesive and just smearing glitter everywhere

 

[electriceye]

I have been making somewhat slow progress lately, with two kids in the middle of hockey tryouts and tournaments the past few weeks. Really taking my time on this one, since I don't want to screw it up. Other than getting brass inserts for the pups and filling in about 100 dents in the back of the poplar body, it's just about ready to be stained and painted. Doing a hot pink stain, natural binding and black back. I got a SD Mustaine Thrash Factor set for it, so really anxious to get her done. (I haven't even touched my white limba Gibson V replace in months)

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

threw some glitter into some leftover shellac and brushed it on to see how it would turn out. seems to work relatively well compared to when I was using spray adhesive and just smearing glitter everywhere

I've had good luck spraying clear coat and sprinkling loose glitter on it, then covering with clear epoxy after it dries.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I've had good luck spraying clear coat and sprinkling loose glitter on it, then covering with clear epoxy after it dries.

yeah I've watched a couple of videos of how other people do it and this seemed like the easiest option given I don't have a spray gun, plus shellac works with most finishes.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

yeah I've watched a couple of videos of how other people do it and this seemed like the easiest option given I don't have a spray gun, plus shellac works with most finishes.

Nice. Well yours looks really good. I tried brushing glitter in clear before and got brush marks in the glitter.

To be clear, with my method, the spraying isn't needed. It's just what I did.

I do love me some shellac though.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Nice. Well yours looks really good. I tried brushing glitter in clear before and got brush marks in the glitter.

To be clear, with my method, the spraying isn't needed. It's just what I did.

I do love me some shellac though.

I tried something similar to that before where I essentially doused my test piece in clear and then put glitter everywhere. this seems a little bit less messy. I'm not finding glitter all over my clothes/garage for 6 months
the only thing I've figured out with shellac is to not over brush it. put the coat down, let it self level.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

I tried something similar to that before where I essentially doused my test piece in clear and then put glitter everywhere. this seems a little bit less messy. I'm not finding glitter all over my clothes/garage for 6 months
the only thing I've figured out with shellac is to not over brush it. put the coat down, let it self level.

Cool. Gonna have to try that.

 

[Omzig]

Guy next door to my brother house (were my workshop is) died last year @ the age of 87,He was a real nice guy and was always interested in my guitar builds/projects,any hows the new guy who bought his house turns out to also a real nice guy (also a reggae drummer) and gave me the old guys fireplace he'ed ripped out after he found out i build guitars and stuff.

I wasn't quite sure wtf it was when he gave it me as it was covered in some super hard ass yacht varnish,first i thought it was walnut

But after having to go down to 60 git to remove the finish it turns out it Mahogany! (real Mahogany id say as its been in there for 50+ years) stripped back and damped down

Still needs to get jointed but atm it's just over 6"'s wide by 1 1/2 thick so once i pair it up with some mad (flame/quit/spalt) beech i have i should be able to grab 2 body blanks from it for some headless builds im planing

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

Guy next door to my brother house (were my workshop is) died last year @ the age of 87,He was a real nice guy and was always interested in my guitar builds/projects,any hows the new guy who bought his house turns out to also a real nice guy (also a reggae drummer) and gave me the old guys fireplace he'ed ripped out after he found out i build guitars and stuff.

I wasn't quite sure wtf it was when he gave it me as it was covered in some super hard ass yacht varnish,first i thought it was walnut

But after having to go down to 60 git to remove the finish it turns out it Mahogany! (real Mahogany id say as its been in there for 50+ years) stripped back and damped down

Still needs to get jointed but atm it's just over 6"'s wide by 1 1/2 thick so once i pair it up with some mad (flame/quit/spalt) beech i have i should be able to grab 2 body blanks from it for some headless builds im planing

Oh man that's the dream right there . Been watching craigslist for similar finds but not had any luck. An old, broken table or desk would be ideal.

 

[Omzig]

Oh man that's the dream right there . Been watching craigslist for similar finds but not had any luck. An old, broken table or desk would be ideal.

Shame your not my side of the pond id have sent you some along

My brother also got me a load of Mahogany from some old window frames out of a funeral home his company was gutting/refitting,this stuff has been in for place 25+ years come all weathers and is real Mahogany (ive seen the original fitters receipts)

I got about 35 of these frame sections in all as well as some much larger 5x5" by 10+ foot....all of it was going in a skip/chipper/burnt before he rescued it for me,god i hate it when people waste such good stuff,dumb fuckers

Should be set for neck blanks for a fair old while lol

 

[failsafe]

Swapped out the 81 set for the Het Set that I originally had in my PRS. I think it classed it up some.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

Golly that's pretty.

 

[KR250]

Picked up a Jackson King V today as a trade. Did a bunch of maintenance, fret polish, drill out the low tuner, string change, adjust the stripped out FR bridge and played for a bit. Great axe, but I hate FR with a passion. The extreme headstock angle makes keeping the strings on the nut a bit of a challenge without the locking nuts in place. Gave it a chance though, but I just so happen to have an extra Evertune bridge that will fit nicely....

The HT7 on the right was purchased with the Evertune bridge installed, I did a fret polish, new tusq nut, and swapped out pickups for Nazgul/Sentient combo. It's got a 5 way super switch which was a bit interesting. I'm not sure i have it 100% wired correctly yet, although it sounds great and does coils splits on the 2 and 4 positions. Overall great axe out of the box.

All the annoying nuances make me realize why I got into customs again.

 

[Lemonbaby]

String day! Somewhere around 20 sets of custom tension matched sets for various tuning's and scale lengths. Went through Just strings this time, super fast shipping!

Respect man - a lot of casual dating going on there...