Stuff I'm workin' on

[conker2021]

You can!

I would if I knew a luthier willing to take on a pupil. I find online manuals are almost useless.

[sully]

People certainly learn in varying methods, but I'd say that 99% of what I'm doing has been info from books, online research (reranch.com is a treasure trove for finishing) and trial and error. Granted, having someone next to you to stop you from doing something bad is helpful; I could use one of those myself!

Sully

[toejam]

Sanded back the black.....holy crap, this top is insane.







Sully

That sure is insane! Love it! I see pyramids and skull/ghost faces, nuclear fallout clouds and UFOs...

[sully]

Joe, even the back of it has figure in it. Haven't seen figured swamp ash before:



Also got most of the assembly done on this:



Trans white courtesy of the lovely and talented Mike Fucking Learn. Betcha didn't know his middle name!

Sully

[toejam]

Awesome!

[coloradoman25]

Sully I would kill for that sumbitch! That is stunning and a bad ass color. The all seeing eye pyramid at the base is killer!

[sully]

While waiting for parts to arrive in order to complete some guitars, I decided to remove an ebony fretboard and truss rod from a neck that I built (but will not use) and use them to complete a neck blank. Recycling is good! The neck blank was ready for headstock binding as well, so I decided to get out the ol' clothing iron and have a old time fretboard removal/headstock binding party. Here's how it went:

Set the iron on its highest setting and start at the end of the fretboard. I used a t-shirt rag between the iron and the fretboard. If you're going to do this, leave the frets in; it'll help transfer the heat from the iron and get the glue softened up. This task isn't particularly difficult, but it does take time to heat the glue up enough so that you can separate the fretboard from the neck.



While the iron does its job, I got to work on binding the headstock. I'd add a strip, then go back to the iron and work on the fretboard removal, and then repeat.



I clamped the fretboard to a flat surface to keep it nice and flat and prevent any curling that may occur, and you can see how the neck should look when complete; although the new one has a thin strip of ebony laminated into the scarf joint. As long as all goes well with it, it'll have a neat little black strip after I'm done shaping it.



When I got home from work yesterday, I scraped the binding flush with the ebony and pulled the frets. The fretboard will need to be trimmed so that it can be bound, and you definitely don't want to rout a fretboard with stainless steel frets in it; be nice to your router bits!



I sure love me some bound, ebony headplates!

Sully

[straycat]

Good work Jon, love that headstock.

[sully]

Thanks man!

[rjohnstone]

That is pure sexy.
Dots w/ binding on an Ebony board.

[sully]

Thanks Rick!

[Mazrim]

Love your work man. One of the best headstock shapes around. There may be an order in the not too distant future from this side of the Atlantic.
You build it, Mr Learn can paint it.

[sully]

Thanks! There's a quote form on the site!

[vampire dark]

That is pure sexy.
Dots w/ binding on an Ebony board.

oh yeah +1

[sully]

This one's done and off to be shipped. Stay tuned, as there are five other guitars that are close to assembly time.


Sully