I Dub Thee, Power Jem - Page 6

courtney2018 · #76 08-18-2007, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee

I dunno! On one hand, I know that cedar is a great, resonant wood, but on the other, I've seen people consider even 7-piece Fender bodies complete junk, pretty much because there are so many pieces that it might affect the resonance. Myself, I'm not a gear snob and I prefer not to say "this will sound like trash because of blah blah" -- it's just not possible to predict how it'll sound yet, you could well put together a knockout instrument. I hope so.

Good luck anyway! I'm sure it'll be a great project and I'll look forward to the pics.

Thanks Dee! I'm going to be working on it this weekend for sure. I've got other stuff to do as well, but ideally I'd like to get the rest of the routing finished, as well as the contour in the back of the body where the grip is, and across the front where your forearm would be. I'm betting those contours are going to eat up a good chunk of time. If all goes well I might be able to seal this thing up by Sunday evening.

Maybe next weekend I can set up a router duplicator and rough out a couple original Wizard necks with an AANJ.

Just to mess around with I think I'll also use poplar and cedar for the neck on this project. I'd like to use some really nice wood, but I think I'll save the nice wood for my next project.

I've got the bug to build a 7 string LNG with a maple board and disappearing inlays. I saw one go up on the bay yesterday. I wanted to press the bid button so bad, but I managed to calm myself.

I've never been a fan of maple boards until I bought my 20th RG550s and I just can't get enough of them. However, this next project probably won't use maple for the board. I would like to use a wood that looks similar, but has more wood grain detail - leopardwood. Look it up.....it's very beautiful.

BTW Dee, where you been lately? I haven't seen you on here much.

courtney2018 · #77 08-19-2007, 11:13 PM

Here's an update....

I worked about 7 hours or so on it today. I got alot done. The only thing that I didn't get a chance to do was route the neck pocket, drill the holes for the neck and drill the input jack hole.

I did a goof on it though, but it's recoverable. When I drilled the holes for the trem posts I went alittle too deep and I paid for it today, but it can be fixed. You'll just be able to see it when you take the trem cavity cover off, but it won't affect the way the trem handles. You can see what I mean on the pics below....look for the one that has a shot of the back side. You can see the trem post holes showing thru into the trem cavity. Oh well....it's one of those learning goofs.

Another - I guess you could call it a goof - was on the back side at the grip holes. When I drilled thru there was some tear-out. I scored the area of the back side before going completely thru thinking that this was enough to prevent tear-out, but it wasn't. So two lessons learned today.

However, what I've decided to do is to blend the pieces of wood seperating each finger hole with sand paper, so in the end you'll never know.

The contours were very easy to do. I just used the belt sander and sculpted it by hand until it looked right. I used another guitar as a guide and marked the body with a pencil line to keep track of where I was and how far I needed to go with the belt sander. It turned out pretty good I think.

For the Talon Claw marks I just outlined the basic shape with a pencil and then used a chisel to whittle the wood away. I'll go back with sand paper and smooth it all out so it's not so rough looking. In the end it'll still have the same shape, but it'll be smooth in the claw marks.

Next weekend I'll be doing the neck joint pocket and the input jack hole. I should have time to setup a router duplicator (see below for a pic on what one looks like) which I'll use to copy a neck for this project.

For the neck I think I'm just going to use the same wood - poplar and cedar. I'll make it a 5 piece neck. I'll laminate it on Friday and then Sunday, if all goes well with constructing the duplicator, I should be able to make a neck. *crosses fingers*

courtney2018 · #78 08-19-2007, 11:14 PM

Look up for more pics.

Here's an example of a router duplicator.

RG462 · #79 08-19-2007, 11:51 PM

looks like it coming out great! i wanna see RFR!

sers · #80 08-19-2007, 11:58 PM

Wow!!!
it`s looking great!!! could you post a blueprint? i WANT ONE LIKE YOURS!!

REGARDS

courtney2018 · #81 08-20-2007, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RG462

looks like it coming out great! i wanna see RFR!

I was actually thinking of Carotene Orange. You don't see much of those any more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sers

Wow!!!
it`s looking great!!! could you post a blueprint? i WANT ONE LIKE YOURS!!

REGARDS

I could post one if I had one. I'm using RG templates for just about everything. The body shape I just "winged it". It's all eyeballed and just sketching out some curves and cutting it out. When I get done I'll probably take some measurements of it and I could post that up then.

Ferrous Lepidoptera · #82 08-20-2007, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Cedar and poplar are both very hard woods,

Are you sure? Cedar is the wood that old guys sitting around the town square in small towns in rural Arkansas idly whittle, on account of its softness. So far as I know (me being no expert) only balsa (incredibly soft, you can dent it with your finger) is softer than cedar. To say that cedar is "very hard" is 100% wrong, at least for all the cedar which I am familiar with. Oak is hard. Hickory is hard (but useless, except as firewood). Maple is hard. Cedar? Very very very soft.

courtney2018 · #83 08-20-2007, 12:30 AM

It's harder than basswood. By no means would I call cedar soft though.

TongueNGroove · #84 08-21-2007, 04:24 AM

I checked out this thread a while back...looking forward to new pics. Looks great!

David McCarroll · #85 08-21-2007, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferrous Lepidoptera

Are you sure? Cedar is the wood that old guys sitting around the town square in small towns in rural Arkansas idly whittle, on account of its softness. So far as I know (me being no expert) only balsa (incredibly soft, you can dent it with your finger) is softer than cedar. To say that cedar is "very hard" is 100% wrong, at least for all the cedar which I am familiar with. Oak is hard. Hickory is hard (but useless, except as firewood). Maple is hard. Cedar? Very very very soft.

Guess it depends on the Cedar - Australian Red Cedar looks and feels like very high grade Mahogany (but much redder in colour - strange that, eh?) - beautiful, but very expensive and rare wood.

The Cedar you are referring to, I think, is Western Red Cedar, which is used for a lot of exterior building stuff as it is pretty much impervious to weather, but very soft indeed.

Brando Clean · #86 08-22-2007, 02:15 AM

wow. Just wow..

Nice

courtney2018 · #87 08-22-2007, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TongueNGroove

I checked out this thread a while back...looking forward to new pics. Looks great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brando Clean

wow. Just wow..

Nice

Thanks! I'll be working on it some more this weekend. I'm also going to try and tackle building a neck this weekend as well. Should be loooooooooots of fun. I'll be posting pics again of the progress.

Quote:

Originally Posted by David McCarroll

Guess it depends on the Cedar - Australian Red Cedar looks and feels like very high grade Mahogany (but much redder in colour - strange that, eh?) - beautiful, but very expensive and rare wood.

The Cedar you are referring to, I think, is Western Red Cedar, which is used for a lot of exterior building stuff as it is pretty much impervious to weather, but very soft indeed.

Yea, I don't know exactly which family of cedar I'm using. I didin't pay any attention to the name on the tag at the store, but it's definitely not soft. You can't put your fingernail into it, that's for sure. It's pretty hard. Maybe something was done to it before getting to Home Depot. I don't know. But it's pretty hard.

JJEMMER777 · #88 08-22-2007, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by courtney2018

Here's an update....

- That monkey's got ~CLAWS~

Maybe you could dub it the "Lycan-Grip"

It's looking great Courtney. Nice original ideas

jb4674 · #89 08-22-2007, 04:37 PM

Courtney,

I think you'll get a better effect out of the carving if you simply clearcoat the guitar, as opposed to painting it a different color.

Just a suggestion

Jimmy