Winter Buildoff 2022: Still A Diva

[RichterScale]

Are those pieces discolored where they broke out? Almost looks like there was a knot or something.
I might try putting on the Magoo goggles and carving the spot out with an X-acto. Almost like a micro mortise. Then fitting in a little square piece. Make sure it will fit perfect before really pushing it in tight and gluing. If that didn't work, then I'd try the glue and dust filler.

 

[dwizum]

I agree with @RichterScale - might be easy to just fit a wedge of the same veneer into the slot. If not, glue slurry. Test the glue slurry mix out first since it never ends up the same color as the wood you started with. I like to blend dust from different sources to get the best color match for something like this where it'll be obvious if it's wrong. But hopefully the veneer works and you don't need to worry about it.

 

[Jisch]

I always try using a sliver of wood to fill in stuff like that, it blends so much better than the sawdust/glue putty thing does, especially in a visible spot like that. The putty doesn't have any grain and will likely be a slightly different color when finished.

 

[boxerrider]

The ones that didn't chip out look really nice. I would saw out the broken ones and replace the whole piece. Pay attention to the grain orientation of the pieces when you put them in so you avoid using a a weak spot. If the pieces are smaller before you glue them in, then you don't have the leverage of those large pieces working against you.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Ditto on saw out the bad ones and just do it again, any patch job wont look right. It will probably take you half an hour, well worth it on this beauty.

 

[RichterScale]

I feel bad for recommending the fret saw. Well, I either feel bad, or I have gas. I get my emotions confused sometimes.
But we need to figure out if there's something wrong with the saw, the wood, or how you did it. Because I'm not good at things being my fault.

I didn't think of sawing them out and replacing. That would be a better end result. For me though, I'd be worried about the saw wandering and making the slot bigger. That's why I'd probably go through the trouble of doing surgery with the Xacto and a microscope. But if you can keep the saw steady and perfectly in the slot, it probably would look better with starting over and replacing the whole thing.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Yeah, all good info and good points. I am concerned about being able to saw them out steady and straight without ending up with a new saw kerf next to the existing marker. I am also concerned about trying to match a glue/dust slurry to that exact color, but less so than trying to saw them out. I don't really know if a perfect color match worries me that badly. This build is for me and won't be sold, it's not gonna end up "out in the wild" until I'm dead and gone and the prizes for this build-off thing were basically like a really cool participation ribbon and whatever I can dig out of the back shelf of my fridge, so it's not like I'm competing for a million jelly beans or something. I think I'm digging the glue/dust slurry idea over anything else, and if it's close then it's good enough for me.

I may also not need to worry if my radiusing removes enough material to get down below it too. I don't know, it's hard to tell just how deep those go. I know my saw kerf was pretty much a 45 degree angle into the corner of the wood, so as you go into it, they will get shorter quick. For now I'm gonna set it aside and ponder a bit before I make any moves. But chances are, I'm not sawing them back out at this point.

 

[Beej]

My meagre thoughts on the subject:

If I were to saw them out, I'd probably build or set up a fixture that holds the saw blade precisely in that location so that it cannot wander. Like some steel blocks on either side of the veneer slot so that the saw can only cut the veneer exactly.

If I were to attempt filling, I'd probably pick out what I could and then glue in another little sliver like @Jisch said, as glue slurry very rarely matches the wood in light coloured woods (paraphrasing @dwizum ).

If I were forced into using a glue/dust slurry, I've had better luck matching spots in maple by using holly dust mixed with CA glue rather than wood glue.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Thanks @Beej ... and everyone else too. The "pick at it like a sore and then try to insert a tiny sliver" method sounds like it may be the best option here.

Again, I'm gonna ponder it for a bit. Probably won't get much done this week after work, so we're pondering till the weekend or so at this point. I may dig Lucifer back out and start trying to spot fix that run in the finish, just to clear my mind. I tend to get bogged down if I am stuck on one thing for too long and it helps if I just set it aside for a bit and come back to it. Kind of like how I set lucifer off to the side, I'm ready to come back to that now.

 

[RichterScale]

In the meantime, I was looking for headstock pics last night to see if there's a headstock angle on the Diva and if I could remotely gauge how much of one they use and came across a few pics that may/may not be useful.

 

[dwizum]

Looks fairly shallow but emphasized because of the prominent volute. Do you have any close up photos of the front of the headstock?

 

[dwizum]

Also, "The Prominent Volutes" would be a great band name.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Yeah, I don't know what they use either. But I know what I'm using.
I cut that volute on mine a couple years ago, so it ain't changing. I didn't even bother trying to calculate what Marleaux did or does, I just said "Meh, this looks good..." and went with it. I'm pretty sure mine is 11 degrees (if memory serves me, which it usually doesn't). I did a bunch of interweb searching and found that it can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer anywhere between 7 and 13, so I settled on 11 because it seemed pronounced but not extreme, kinda like my belly.

At the end of the day, stressing over minute details such as that will eat you up. I take a different approach. Just make your version of a Diva and be proud of it. Big things like body shape matter, little things like headstock angle don't. It won't be exact, but that's fine. It's yours, not theirs.

 

[RichterScale]

I stress over details on some things and not on others. There's no rhyme or reason as to why I'm OCD about some things and a slob on others.
I s'pose a shrink could figure it out but I'm not interested at this point.
I figure the way I am is everyone else's problem, not mine.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Yeah, it doesnt matter that much. As long as the strings have some down angle over the nut, it's golden. Too much and you'll get into short grain issues. I tend to set them at the maximum angle the bass can be laid on it its back and the headstock just touches whatever its laid on. In theory that means the head wont snap off when I accidentally step on it. That usually works out to.something like 8 degrees on my builds so far.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Luckily I was traumatized as a budding musician and now I never lay my basses or guitars on the floor...period.

Gather round kids, it's story time! -
"Way back in the day", my guitarist and I were hanging out late at night one Halloween. Our local guitar store we frequented (you know... the one you always went to after school and played all the cool stuff you couldn't afford for an hour and then hung it back up, came back the next day and did the same thing again) was having this cool Halloween party and drawing. We did our usual, sat around playing our songs on their cool guitars and basses while the store manager had that same look on his face like "These shmoes again? Somewhere close to midnight they pulled a name from the drawing and wouldn't you know it, it was my guitarist! He was the winner of a brand new 1991 Ibanez RG550 in bright neon orange with black hardware and pickguard (you know, Halloween colors). It was amazing, and exactly what he and our band needed. He loved it, they went everywhere together. They were like Slash and that Les Paul, or Angus Young and that Gibson SG, they were inseparable. Until one fateful day about two weeks later when he sat it on his couch and his little sister (yes, just like Skid Row and many others, we wrote a song about her titled "Little Sister" ) came along and leaped on the couch, landing her rump right on the neck and snapping the headstock off like a Les Paul on stage at a Ramones concert. Ever since that day I go to great lengths to protect my bass headstocks in any way I can, swaddling them like a newborn baby's neck. It haunts me to this very day.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Yep. I witnessec a Ric Tuxedo White bass get knocked off its stand, and off came the headstock. It was plugged in, of course. "Thrwaanng! It went. The bassist nearly wept. Moral of the story and my House Rules: In your hands or In the Case.

 

[RichterScale]

I'm the youngest, so I have no clue what younger siblings are like.
Based on the relationship my middle son and youngest daughter had growing up, I'd say little sisters are the 2nd biggest PITA there is.
Next to having to parent all of them.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Grab Her By The Ears -
Well, I decided that since I'm kind of running out of things I can do without getting serious about building a couple jigs, I'd go ahead and start on that headstock I've been putting off....

Yeah, that's a constant theme of my life.
Anyways, let's see here, how best to do this.... Oh wait, I've got that offcut from the lower body wing, it was pretty good sized and already has a piece of purpleheart and wenge glued together! Let's take that over to the bandsaw and cut a strip the same width as our headstock thickness....ish -

From there we can cut a couple smaller pieces that will act as the ears I need -

And then get set up, glue and clamp them bad boys on -

Yeah man, looks good from here -

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Some of you are gonna say "But you laid the grain on its side" and you'd be right, but I'm not listening to you. So there. It'll be fine, I know the customer and he's okay with it.

In Other News -
I also got that lower section of the fretboard (the part behind the pickup) routed to shape. The process was much the same, but different, from the disastrous previous attempt. I did "The Trick" to fasten it to the template, then I set the router bit at half the height of the fretboard piece, routed it, then moved the bit up to cut the other half. Still some times where it was sketchy and I think I may have paid a LOT more attention to grain direction and feed direction, possibly feeding "backwards" in a few areas due to grain direction, but in the end I got there and it isn't messed up. Pretty sure it's gonna work.

I guess I'll need to get on that radius routing jig sooner rather than later. But for now, I can entertain myself with shaping a headstock and volute I guess. I was kind of saving it for later, but whatevz.

 

[RichterScale]

I also got that lower section of the fretboard (the part behind the pickup) routed to shape.

That's fine, I'll just try to imagine what it looks like. Don't worry about it.
I'm mostly here for all the words anyway.