Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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Rgand
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Rgand » Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:25 am

I like the SS work. That bridge plate is killer and the PG suits the whole design well. On the switch, have you looked at fender washers? Some of those are fairly large in diameter. At any rate, you can cut one out easily enough.

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Amon 7.L
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Amon 7.L » Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:39 am

Great work, I'm glad see you back to work... awesome project! :-*

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solfege
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by solfege » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:28 pm

Looks great! Following with interest.

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epizootics
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:49 am

Rgand wrote:
Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:25 am
I like the SS work. That bridge plate is killer and the PG suits the whole design well. On the switch, have you looked at fender washers? Some of those are fairly large in diameter. At any rate, you can cut one out easily enough.
I have a few of those, but they only go up to 35mm in diameter and I needed something around 45mm (1 3/4"). The only place that sells'em big enough would be Aliexpress and I didn't feel like waiting for four weeks :) So here goes:

Image
(my angle grinder's attempt at doing something round)

and...
Image

That's the building across the street. I mounted it on my hand drill with a screw & nut, then spun it against the grinder's sanding wheel. Then I took it through various grades of sandpaper until it was polished silly. Polishing round objects always gives me a silly smile - just spin it and watch it get shaaaaaaahny.

I also routed the neck pocket & contour on the bottom:

Image

Still waiting on the mini-hb rings. Next up will be the routing of the different cavities. Mo' dust.

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epizootics
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:50 am

edit: double post
Last edited by epizootics on Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Amon 7.L
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Amon 7.L » Fri Jul 19, 2019 5:27 am

It all looks so slick... great job, epizootics!
If you keep this steady pace, this guitar is going to be finished in no time!

What kind of finish are you thinking about for this one?

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Rgand
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Rgand » Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:40 am

epizootics wrote:
Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:49 am
and...
Image

That's the building across the street. I mounted it on my hand drill with a screw & nut, then spun it against the grinder's sanding wheel. Then I took it through various grades of sandpaper until it was polished silly. Polishing round objects always gives me a silly smile - just spin it and watch it get shaaaaaaahny.
Yeaaaah. Looks great! I have a local shop here called Mirror Image that does some wonderful polishing. I take my stuff to them for final shine. I learned about them when I built a custom trike a number of years ago. They're Bonamasa fans. We get along fine.

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VPO
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by VPO » Sat Jul 20, 2019 1:54 pm

Oh man these guitars are soooo nice! Keep em coming! Guitars for cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors and work buddys.

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epizootics
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Mon Jul 22, 2019 9:53 pm

Getting there folks!
Those rivnuts are now attached to the bridge plate (and they're not going anywhere). I don't have the fancy tool to install those but it's easy to do by hand using a long bolt, a nut and a washer:

Image

Image

You just hold the bolt in a vise, thread the rivnut onto it and turn nut until the knurled section is compressed to your liking. Those are stainless steel too, so they did take a bit of convincing to doughnut-up.

Those pickups rings finally arrived through the mail yesterday! The cavities under the control and bridge plate are now routed, so it's only a matter of doing the pickup cavities and connecting'em all together now.

Image

Out of curiosity, I installed a string (clamping the body to one end of my bench and attaching the string firmly to another clamp on the opposite side) to see how the bridge plate thing would sound acoustically and, gee, this thing is going to be loud unplugged. Looking forward to seeing how it'll translate to the amplified sound.
Amon 7.L wrote:
Fri Jul 19, 2019 5:27 am
It all looks so slick... great job, epizootics!
If you keep this steady pace, this guitar is going to be finished in no time!

What kind of finish are you thinking about for this one?
That's still up for debate. I can't do the same orange-ish color as the one I did on my brother's guitar as it would clash hideously with the padauk fretboard. I might try to go toward mustard yellow. The other option would be to use the penny vinegar and try to keep as much of the blue in as possible. I think I need to make a new jar with copper only (no steel wool) to get it to blue out without darkening the wood too much. The bottom will be pretty much the same as my brother's axe though.

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by lhwarp » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:57 am

Nice work and stunning result in perspective, epizootics ! 8) 8) 8)

-lhwarp

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Rgand
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Rgand » Tue Jul 23, 2019 6:34 am

Looks great. What makes that bridge plate spectacular is the reverse curve at the heel. It's just right.

Your mustard color sounds like it will look really good. Almost any subdued color would go well on it. Greyish blue, tomato red, light green (toned down) or light battleship grey would all go well on it, too.

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solfege
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by solfege » Tue Jul 23, 2019 1:20 pm

epizootics wrote:
Mon Jul 22, 2019 9:53 pm
The other option would be to use the penny vinegar and try to keep as much of the blue in as possible. I think I need to make a new jar with copper only (no steel wool) to get it to blue out without darkening the wood too much. The bottom will be pretty much the same as my brother's axe though.
Selfishly, I'd be super interested in seeing the results of this vs. the steel wool version. But that's just me.

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epizootics
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:43 am

Almost...

Image

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Amon 7.L
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Amon 7.L » Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:12 am

Super cool, it's coming along nicely ;)

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solfege
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by solfege » Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:42 am

Oh wow!

I feel as if, had I a set of chrome pickup rings lying around, I might try them, but the black coordinates nicely with the knobs and switch tip.

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