Tuesday 27 March 2012

Eddie Van Halen



With the release of the new Van Halen album I've been going back through the back catalogue of VH stuff - I was a huge fan when I started learning guitar and he was a huge influence. In recent years I had given up on them as too many years have passed. I mourned and moved on.
Thankfully the new album is awesome - if they can stay together throughout this tour without any serious ego disagreements then the future may indeed be rosy.
So I'm making a Musicman EVH as a kind of tribute.....
I've glued the book matched maple top to the body and started on the birds-eye maple neck. She's gonna be good....... ;)
Philly

Sunday 11 March 2012

Strat Piccys




So I waited as long as I could before wet sanding the Strat. I had doubts about the lacquer - had I put on enough coats to allow me to level sand her without cutting through? I started wet sanding with 1500 grit Micromesh (awesome stuff, by the way!). I managed to remove pretty much all the low spots without removing coloured lacquer so decided to leave adding more lacquer. I lightly buffed out the finish to a satin sheen and started to assemble the components - it all went together pretty smoothly (which left me somewhat surprised, if pleased).
I need to do a final fret dress (the fourth fret is slightly high) and then she's good to go!


Philly

Thursday 8 March 2012

Fire Away!


The Strat is sat there drying out (and I'm trying no to pick the thing up every five minutes and gawp at it!). So I took another look at the Firebird - time to put the neck on. A quick re-think on the neck joint was in order - I was going to go for the usual Gibson long tenon thing but decided to go for the PRS full-width neck style. Took me ten minutes to stick some MDF guides around the actual neck to lay it out and then drill out the waste and plug in the router. And it left a lovely tight joint!
Philly

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Fretting..

So with the lacquer sprayed it's the part I hate most - waiting for it to cure! Thankfully there are things to get on with. Frets for one....


I usually hammer in the frets but that always does a little damage to them. I saw a home made fret press made from a welding clamp on a forum and thought that might be worth making. A few quid later for a cheapo Ebay clamp and an hours work cutting, drilling and making wooden jaws and voila! My own press for less than a tenner.

It worked magnificently - I really was quite impressed with what a nice job it did and there was no damage to the frets - this baby is going to take very little fret work! If anyone is interested in how I made my press let me know and I'll put up the photo's.

I also started making templates for a Musicman EVH - that'll be coming along after the Firebird :)

Philly

Sunday 4 March 2012

Sunburst...


So I couldn't wait to get spraying - my first go at a three colour Fender sunburst, and I'm fairly happy with it. In the morning I'll have a fresh look and maybe get the airbrush out to touch up the black - then some clear coats.
The neck is almost finished. Four coats of TruOil give a lovely finish, but you can still see every pore - wonderful!

Cheersx
Philly