Huh, I thought I had one of those...

I sat down to do some more work on the binding last night. After casting about for a bit, I realized I did not have a scraper. I thought I'd ordered one from Stew Mac, but apparently not. No big deal, I ended up using a single edge razor blade, which seems to work just fine.

I started on the treble side and it became apparent where the low spots in the neck are over time. I decided, for various reasons and some internal debate, to sand the finish off the entire neck, rather than strip it chemically. Once the binding was level with most of that side of the neck, I sanded the rest of the finish away and made some putty for the low points.

I briefly contemplated gouging out a more or less square area in the biggest low spot and laminating some wood in there, but decided to just go with putty instead. I made some of my own to use. I've been saving sanding and routing dust from past guitars and have a little ziplock bag full of vintage mahogany dust. I mixed some of that with some hide glue to make a putty and applied some to the neck.

That was about it for last night.

From Astro Jet work 1

This morning, before work, I sanded some on the "putty" and mixed up/applied another coat. I also was able to get the bass side mostly scraped down. It will need a bit more work, but not much. Next up is getting the top edges brought down level with the finger board. I think that's going to mostly be a careful filing job.

Awesome!

Just sent the paypal payment for the pickguard. Finalized the shape last night, adjusted the file this morning and heard back with a quote from http://terrapinguitars.com just a bit ago. I decided to go with 0.090" black/white/black and to have no holes drilled for controls. I haven't decided how I want the control layout done, and since I now have a drill press I can do it when ever I wish. Best part is I was figuring the guard would run me just shy of $100, but he quoted me $37.50 shipped! Here's the final shape:

From Astro Jet work 1

Took the tape off the binding last night and all looks well. Will assess further and make the next move tonight....may start stripping the neck, may just sand it down and start addressing the worn spots on the treble side of the neck....we shall see...

more binding work

I removed the tape last night for the treble side binding and all looked good. I cut a length for the bass side, made doubly sure the channel was cleaned out and ready, as well as wiping down the new piece with some naptha. A generous application of WeldOn #16 and I put the bass side binding on. I suppose I went a little overboard on the tape for this side, but tape is cheap.:D

From Astro Jet work 1

Next I cut and filed a piece for the end of the neck and got that glued on and taped up. Once this sets over the weekend (I'll be at my GF's all weekend), I'll remove the tape and start scraping & filing the binding down to flush. I expect that will take a while. I also need to address the low spots in the wood on the treble side. The binding had been off a while and someone played a lot of the wood away on that side. Not sure what it's going to take to fix that, I will evaluate it probably tuesday evening, as I have band practice monday night after work.

I trimmed out the second pickguard template and layed it up on the body. I used a green fine point sharpie to mark where all the adjustments had to be made. Brought that into work today, scanned it and proceeded to make the necessary adjustments. I've printed a couple copies off to double check, but I have a feeling it's ready to send off to have the pickguard made. That will likely happen next week.

From Astro Jet work 1

The (perhaps) final pickguard template:

From Astro Jet work 1

I also worked up some line art for the missing badge on the bass side upper bout. Not 100% sure how I'm going to go about replicating that...or if I'll bother to come up with a pseudo serial number for it. I don;t know what the actual serial number of this guitar is, nor have I been able to figure out exactly what year it is.

From Astro Jet work 1

I have my eye on a regulay old Gretsch Filtertron neck pickup ending tonight on ebay. If it doesn;t get too high, I'm going to try to win it. I have a regaular old Filtertron for the bridge right now...I'll make use of these till I have the spare cash to buy a set of TV Jones pickups.

Working on my Gretsch Astro Jet

Last night I finally started on my Astro Jet. Previously I had done mock up work, getting it playable to check out how the neck did with string tension, see what I thought of various aspects of it, including the frets, Here is a gallery with some after photos of it to that point.

Grestch Astro Jet

I got this off ebay for about $450....I'm still pinching myself....


So, last night I loosened the strings and started working on her. The binding was completely gone on the treble side of the neck and was deteriorating on the bass side. It was also missing at the heal. I'd ordered some binding and glue from Stew Mac a few weeks ago. I also find a place selling red side dot marker material, which was cool as hell. One pack (around $6) is damn near a lifetime supply too!

http://www.doeringerguitars.com/servlet/the-669/Side-Dot-Rods-RED/Detail

I used a small square file to clean the old glue and other ditrius out of the binding channel. Then I cut a piece of binding to a generous length and used naptha to clean it and the neck well. I ran a generous bead of the WeldOn #16 glue in the channel and fit the binding in place. Lots of masking tape later, it was ready to sit for 24 hours. I hope to do the bass side tonight.

Once I'd finished there, I started on the process for making a pickguard template. Using a stiff piece of construction paper I basically went by eye, loose measurements, clues on the body and a picture to get a starting point for making the pickguard. I brought in those templates to work today, scanned them and using some photos started working one up in Adobe Illustrator. Here's a photo of the first rough draft template:

From Astro Jet work 1

I think clicking that photo will take you to the album where I will store the work photos.

More Explorer

I suppose it was about two weeks ago I went to a friends machine shop to drill the bridge location holes. Everything kind of fell together quickly after that. I'll try to detail what happened and where the project stands at this point.

Lack, at the time, a suitable drill press I made arrangements to go to a buddies machine shop after work and get my bridge holes drilled. I had spent some time the previous two evenings carefully measuring and locating where they would need to be. I even went so far as to mock up the guitar with a pick up and a high and low E strings so I could check out alignment. I propped the bridge up on some bits of scrap wood.

Once the drilling was done I went ahead and assembled the res of the guitar and ran into some trouble. The controls and cavity didn't all jibe correctly. I improvised a control layout and got a good Switchcraft 3-way switch and jack. It didn't take long to get everything assembled and playing, but I'll need to make some decisions about how to proceed with the electricals and a few other details. At this point, however, the guitar is together and after some attention to the nut slots, plays pretty well. The pickups are uninspiring, but that's OK as I have a set of Schallers for it. Very low string tension too.

I've procured some Behlins spray cans of nitro lacquer from Rockler for the finish work. Walnut, Natural (supposed to be like a light oak), some black and some clear. They run coupons for 20% one item almost every weekend. I need to make a habit of going by there to get a cheap can of Behlins clear every time they do that.

Eventually I'll get back to this, address the issues and start getting the grain filler on it in prep for the finish...but I have other projects going and the fun stuff is done now, so....sometime....soon...

From Explorer Kit

The Explorer Project

I was reading my favorite guitar forum (Harmony-Central) and a regular there had made a post about a kit he had just received. With it, you could build your own all mahogany set neck Gibson Explorer copy. The photos looked pretty good, and when he mentioned it was about $150, I had to know more.

They come from http://byoguitar.com/ and mine was about $170 total with shipping.

I had built a AXL strat kit before (same thing as a Saga) and wasn't very thrilled with it, though it did turn out OK and was playable. In particular I didn't care for the basswood body that had been absolutely drowned in this thick plastic coating they called "sealer". I was leery of that with the Explorer, but pulled the trigger anyway figuring I'd just strip it first.

I placed the order on tuesday afternoon and, to my surprise, had the kit in hand friday after work! I was also pleasantly surprised by the overall quality. Particularly the sealer coat...they said one thin coat on the webpage and they meant it. It's obviously enough to afford some protection to the wood for shipping and that's it. A plus in my book.

So last night I got started on it. I had tested the neck fit and ntoiced the neck was too big, or the pocket too small (depending how you look at it) for the neck and body to mate. In reality, it's pretty close and overall a good thing. It allows you to use files and sanding blocks to taylor the neck pocket fit precisely, which is what I spent about an hour doing. Then I pushed the neck into place (it was a tight enough fit I could pick the body up by the neck no problem) I checked neck angle and how centered it was with the pup routes.

All that was fine, so I had the bright idea to check the neck pickup...see if it would fit OK. It didn't...or rather barely did. I slid (hammered) the neck up about 1/16th" and all was fine. I put some pencil marks on the body as a visual reference for myself when I glued the neck in.

I took the neck back out, cleaned everything, made sure I had all the sealer sanded away on the gluing surfaces and then generously slathered the neck and pocket with Titebond III wood glue. I jammed the neck & body back together, got it lined up and clamped. This caused a lot of the extra Titebond to squeeze out, so I took the clamps back off and cleaned all that up with a damp rag. Titebond III has a 10 minute working time, so all was going to plan. I reclamped everything and then decided I would follow their instructions for structural joints and not bother it for another 24 hours. Pics below and more to come, eventually...

Explorer Kit

Haven't updated in a long time.

Since my last update I finished a second Gretsch Corvette project. Unfortunately, I did not blog about it. But, I'll post a synopsis of my work with some before and after photos here.

Back in the summer of 2008, I noticed a ebay auction for a project Gretsch from a seller I had dealt with before, gravitymusicgear. Great folks to deal with, BTW. I tracked it in my ebay and figured out what I was willing to bid and in the end on May 29th, was the victor! It was pretty much a basket case from the photos...but it was also not quite what they thought it was. They had it listed as a 60's Gretsch Corvette, but evidence indicated it was actually a Gretsch Twist! Total, with shipping, was $308.00. For a one piece 40+ year old Honduran mahogany body and Brazillian rosewood fretboard! Amazing (to me anyway).

When the guitar arrived, I assessed the situation and determined it had indeed been a Twist and was going to be a lot work work to bring back. The serial number on the edge of the headstock did not conform to Gretsches usual practice and placed the guitar as a 1961. It was clearly not your typical 1961 Gretsch Corvette as it had the carved contours. My best guess is it is a very early example of what most people would call a 1962 or 1963 Corvette....perhaps produced as early as late 1961, but who knows.

Here are some pictures from the auction and the small handful of in progress pictures I took. Wish I had taken more, obviously. I'll describe what I found and what I did to get it back into shape.

1962 Gretsch Twist before/during

I was happy to find it was structurally sound when it arrived. A number of holes (something like 13!) had been drilled all over it, some of them inexplicably. I set about plugging everything with some mahogany dowel rod I had acquired and getting the plugs flush with the body. I used Citrus Strip to strip the varnish or shellac it had been coated with and was able to get it down to bare wood without too much trouble. One of the items I was missing was a original trapeze tail piece. Luckily Paul Setzer from the Gretsch pages sold me a spare he had ($45). Parts where acquired, made and fabricated, re-finishing undertaken and by early fall (I cannot remember exactly when, late August/early September) I was finished. I'm very pleased with the outcome. I've gigged the guitar and it performs admirably and elicits comments from the other players in the audience.

Here are some after shots:

1962 Gretsch after

Lastly, the pickup it came with...that thing that looks like a icecream sandwich in the before gallery...I'm not sure what that is. I have yet to install it in something to hear it, but it does register on a ohm meter, so I think it works. I suspect it might be the original Hi-Lo Tron that someone made upper and lower bobbin plates for and then "potted" it in something akin to Millput, or a plumbers type putty. Sometime I want to throw it in a guitar and see what it sounds like. The pickup in the guitar now is a TVJones Powertron. The volume pot is a push/pull affair that allows me to coil split for a single coil tone.