Uh, definitely transparent! You have all this one piece of gorgeous wood, you have to show it off, right?
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Looks great! Couple questions. What's the weight on the fretboard? Are you doing a simple radius on the fretboard or compound radius?
@ the baint thanks for chiming in and offering an opinion. I'm still not sure, the same amount of work has to go in whether I paint it solid or transparent so at least I don't have to make the decision just yet.
@ smithcreek I'm not sure what the weight will be on the fretboard. It's a standard 20" radius, 22 fret, 30.5" scale and is 6mm at it's highest point. Doing a compound radius didn't cross my mind and now i am wondering whether it's too late to program the CNC yet.
@ smithcreek I'm not sure what the weight will be on the fretboard. It's a standard 20" radius, 22 fret, 30.5" scale and is 6mm at it's highest point. Doing a compound radius didn't cross my mind and now i am wondering whether it's too late to program the CNC yet.
Well I did warn you that it would be a long build but the real hold up has been manufacturing the fretboard. The machine shop had the worst run of luck with storm damage, one of their operators getting sick with cancer and being stupidly busy. But I am a patient person and all's well that ends well and I picked up the board today.
So got back into it tonight with more shaping on the neck, the transitions into the body, around the edges... you know lots of filing, scraping, spoke shaving, whoops more filing.... But it's coming along nicely.
The body is still cracking up so I am either committed to painting it or take my step fathers advice and make a feature of the cracks by using a metal dust in the glue I am going to push into the cracks to hold them together.
So got back into it tonight with more shaping on the neck, the transitions into the body, around the edges... you know lots of filing, scraping, spoke shaving, whoops more filing.... But it's coming along nicely.
The body is still cracking up so I am either committed to painting it or take my step fathers advice and make a feature of the cracks by using a metal dust in the glue I am going to push into the cracks to hold them together.
Purchased some atomised stainless steel dust from the UK this week. I'm going to have a go at making a feature of the cracks whilst stabilising them. Think steel tree roots leading away from the neck, like the neck is leaking stainless steel. The headstock is more than likely to get docked off now too.
MichaelOz
Commercial User
Very organic solution, Blaine - didn't expect anything less from you!
Regards,
Michael
Well it's been a while coming through the shop. I finished this one a little while ago but life got in the way of the important stuff.
The SS dust in the cracks didn't come up as I had hoped, too grey, but it's not too bad a feature. She's just under 6kg which a lot of the weight is the fret board. Next time I'd machine pockets in the back of it to lighten it up but it balances well enough on the strap. The Nol 3 band parametric EQ preamp gives me lots of options on tone out of it so overall it works fine.
The SS dust in the cracks didn't come up as I had hoped, too grey, but it's not too bad a feature. She's just under 6kg which a lot of the weight is the fret board. Next time I'd machine pockets in the back of it to lighten it up but it balances well enough on the strap. The Nol 3 band parametric EQ preamp gives me lots of options on tone out of it so overall it works fine.
With the left over bit of the same slab of Mahogany I built this for a mate of mine. I know it's strings are too thin...
My take on a Tele Thinline. Mostly Australian woods in the build. Chambered Mahogany body, Myrtle top, Queensland Maple neck with a Gidgee fretboard. Gidgee is an Acacia only found in Australia and has a Janka hardness of over 4200 lb/f, that's right up there with the toughest of them and it'll be my go to fretboard material I think.
My take on a Tele Thinline. Mostly Australian woods in the build. Chambered Mahogany body, Myrtle top, Queensland Maple neck with a Gidgee fretboard. Gidgee is an Acacia only found in Australia and has a Janka hardness of over 4200 lb/f, that's right up there with the toughest of them and it'll be my go to fretboard material I think.
Very nice, but where have you managed to source the gidgee from? And enough for a fretboard? I'm jealous, I really am. It's like hen's teeth here in Sydney, from my searching and usual sources so any info you care to share would be appreciated
Hi Mark, Luthiers Supplies in QLD is where I get my stuff from locally, relatively speaking because I'm in Melbourne. So Invalid Link Removed should get you to the fingerboard section.
Worked fine! Thanks for the link. I'd kind of "forgotten" about ALS's wood supplies. Or rather, for the stuff I'm doing, they are just too pricey for me. Though the gidgee is very tempting...
