Lungs / Adventures in MDF

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Shadoweclipse13
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Jun 04, 2019 10:13 pm

Amon 7.L wrote:
Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:05 am
Image
I like both, but this one is my favorite. I know it's not my project, but I definitely think this one goes with the already established lines a bit better.
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http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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epizootics
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:26 am

Ok folks...Almost done...

I wanted to take more pictures of the vinyl covering process but I spent most of it trying to keep that ù:mù:;_ç_àç_lm'"ékjé* sticky piece of (more random characters) from folding, creasing, sticking to itself, etc.
I think the vinyl I got is not great quality. It is probably meant to be stuck onto shelves or something. I kinda knew it but went with it anyway. Live and learn...Hell, if needed, I'm sure I can strip this thing in thirty seconds! I'll still lacquer it though, just to see how it can look.

the whole thing looks like a guitar though:

Image

Image

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Amon 7.L
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Amon 7.L » Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:37 am

This looks rather good, man :w00t:
Did you cover the entire body with one single sheet or is a three sheets Top/Sides/Bottom combo to keep it tuned with the Cra-Z Sanny theme? ;D
Whichever is, you've done a bloody good job, I can't see any seam nor traces of wrinkles.

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Rgand » Tue Jun 11, 2019 12:26 pm

Nice, very nice. Looks good.

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:12 pm

Hot damn!! That is amazing Epizootics!!! The colors and the smoothness of it are just perfect!!!
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http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Jaguar018 » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:04 am

Very cool. I love it.

( I feel like that pickup switch is right in the danger zone of getting hit whilst playing, but it would be easy to get used to.)

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by solfege » Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:33 am

epizootics wrote:
Fri May 17, 2019 8:05 am
Thanks for the tip, I am keeping a notebook with all the ways to alter the color of all sorts of wood...That's a new entry :)

The CockBat (erm) took over my poor Lungs, because it has to be done by next Friday...

Routed the cavity, contour & binding channel:

Image

(now here's one LIGHT body)

...and, talking of doing stuff to poor wood...here's the back after going through the Tint-o-Matic (and a bit of relicing):

Image

(white vinegar, steel wool and a handful of English pence...)
So I'm super interested in this tint you have going here. Two questions:

1. Older US pennies (the almost fully copper ones) would also work, or is it the tin content in older English pennies?
2. Do you know how this would react to shellac? I've seen cases where tannin stained wood goes from blue/black/grey to brown under shellac. I'd be using something that was just denatured alcohol and flakes, but I don't want to black it out beyond that look if possible. Using Pine, though probably newer wood, which is part of why I'd want the shellac layer to seal any knots.

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:46 am

What a great color. It complements the fretboard really nicely.

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epizootics
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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Sat Jun 15, 2019 10:45 pm

Thank you guys...It only looks neat when you don't look at the sides, those came out something of a mess. Good news is that it's only a peel away from being corrected. I think I will refinish this one further down the line. The main thing for me was to try that MDF sandwich thing - I'll assemble it and see what it sounds like :) I've been sidetracked by really bad news and a vintage Italian guitar restoration - it looks just like this one:

Image

...but the neck managed to take an 'S' shape AND a twist with time. No truss rod, and a crappy mahogany-lookalike soft wood. I removed the fretboard entirely, added a few quartersawn maple strips and made a new FB for it. Pictures to come soon.
Jaguar018 wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:04 am
Very cool. I love it.

( I feel like that pickup switch is right in the danger zone of getting hit whilst playing, but it would be easy to get used to.)
It's close but not quite - I vetted the position with my ultra-scientific process of playing the non-existent strings to see if I'd hit the switch. So far so good.
solfege wrote:
Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:33 am

So I'm super interested in this tint you have going here. Two questions:

1. Older US pennies (the almost fully copper ones) would also work, or is it the tin content in older English pennies?
2. Do you know how this would react to shellac? I've seen cases where tannin stained wood goes from blue/black/grey to brown under shellac. I'd be using something that was just denatured alcohol and flakes, but I don't want to black it out beyond that look if possible. Using Pine, though probably newer wood, which is part of why I'd want the shellac layer to seal any knots.
Well, I used recent pence - what was left in my pocket after my band's last gig in London - and it seems they are copper-plated steel! So you'd be safe with any old bit of copper and a few nails. I leave everything in the jar - steel wool & pence - so the composition must change a bit with time, but I'd say copper is the main bluing agent here.

You won't know for sure until you hit a piece of scrap from your blank with the mixture, as the process has a strong random aspect to it (which is part of the fun), but you'd want to use very pale shellac since the yellow tinge will mess up that very pale blue. Maybe a good way to do it would be to use shellac on the knots only to seal them and use clear poly everywhere else. In this particular case I used dark shellac flakes + India ink to get that burnt/worn out look. Give it a try and see what happens :)
marqueemoon wrote:
Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:46 am
What a great color. It complements the fretboard really nicely.
Well, I get all the colors I use vetted by my wife :) She can distinguish every last bit of the composition of a color, where I'm quite close to being color-blind (let's say I have color-nearsightedness). She spent hours and hours mixing paint and pigments when she was a kid, just for the sake of seeing what would happen, which left her with the visual equivalent of perfect pitch. I'm trying to do the same but I suspect my brain is too old/calcified by now :whistle:

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by solfege » Sun Jun 16, 2019 7:33 pm

Thanks. That's super helpful. I think I want to try this finish, but I definitely want it heading toward blue / grey, not red. Cheers.

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:21 pm

A bit of an update...Damn, has it already been a month? A good friend of ours was taken at 30 by a very agressive cancer in June, which pretty much put everything on hold for a while. To quote old Lou once again, 'life's good/but not fair at all'.

Getting back to the guitar stuff (which is a good way to keep the brain and hands busy when needed)...

Sadly I must say that it was hate at first sight for lil' Lungs and I. (1) that vinyl finish felt horrendous. I think I should have gone for the automotive stuff rather than the hardware store version. It just tore off if you gave it a bad look and the whole thing looked rather untidy. (2) working with MDF is not fun, or nice, or good for your health. (3) the guitar felt like it should have been a hardtail. The trem/TOM combination worked, but something felt wrong with the sound of those mini-HBs combined with the JM trem. Those pickups are brighter than a regular humbucker but not enough so to bring out that wonderful trem zinginess you get with single coils. I'm sure it works for some but not for me. (4) the tiny body made if feel kinda crammed and I didn't plan ahead well enough to make the fitting of the electronics a comfortable operation.

Onto the good things now. When not using the tremolo those pickups sound stupidly nice. I caught myself playing Johnny Winter licks quite a few times, which I hadn't done since I was teenager with really overgrown hair. The neck also turned out really comfortable, quite a relief since this is the first neck I ever finished. All of this got me thinking I would make a new body for it and fuggedabout that MDF/vinyl combo.

Making my brother's guitar was so much fun I decided to use wood from the same douglas fir as his. Incidentally, the same tree provided 75% of all the shelves in our flat. The shape of the headstock had me thinking it would work well with the Tupelo shape I drew a while ago (and already having a template cut out didn't hurt either). Here's the plan:

Image

and here we are so far...

Image
('yeah, hooman, drop that phone and gimme some food now')

The idea for the bridge is the same as the one I was planning to use on the non-reverse Cra-Z Sanny Club thing I posted a while ago. There will be a big cavity underneath and the TOM will be screwed onto the plate via two M8 rivnuts. This should keep the resonance going and add some depth to the sound. Since it was going to be made out of stainless steel, I thought I'd make a pickguard out of the same material. I roughed out at the window with my angle grinder. Doesn't look like much for now but the hardest part is done.

More soon!

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by Rgand » Sun Jul 14, 2019 5:41 am

That looks good. Stainless will be nice on there. I like working with it. It polishes up beautifully, too.

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by mulesing » Sun Jul 14, 2019 11:04 am

epizootics wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:21 pm
Image
('yeah, hooman, drop that phone and gimme some food now')

More soon!
Great thread, love the body styles of your builds!

Beautiful looking cat too!

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by solfege » Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:16 pm

epizootics wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:21 pm

Making my brother's guitar was so much fun I decided to use wood from the same douglas fir as his. Incidentally, the same tree provided 75% of all the shelves in our flat. The shape of the headstock had me thinking it would work well with the Tupelo shape I drew a while ago (and already having a template cut out didn't hurt either). Here's the plan:

Image

First off, condolences. There are few things so emotionally wrenching.

Second, I love everything about this but the knob placement. I feel like they probably need to be on a level and sort of centered in the fat part of the pickguard, or maybe pushed a bit toward the back, but in any case not angled the way they are and crowding the bridge pickup.

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Re: Lungs / Adventures in MDF

Post by epizootics » Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:18 am

solfege wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:16 pm
Second, I love everything about this but the knob placement. I feel like they probably need to be on a level and sort of centered in the fat part of the pickguard, or maybe pushed a bit toward the back, but in any case not angled the way they are and crowding the bridge pickup.
Absolutely agreed. I had originally placed them on a straight line that went up to the pickup selector, but it did look weird in the end. That's now been taken care of...

More metalwork today. Time to make that little bridge plate.
It all starts with a template...(all best stories start with a template):

Image

Roughly shaped & drilled:

Image

A few hours of sanding and polishing...and voilà!

Image

You can see the bottom of the rivnuts poking from under the TOM. I made a few tests and they work just as well as your typical Gibby wood insert - with the added benefit they can be made to squeeze onto any sheet metal you want!

Process not shown, but the scratchplate went along for the ride:

Image

Phew. Now I can get back to the wood - for a while. I still need to make a round stainless plate for the toggle switch. I don't have any ss washers big enough to cover the enormous guts of that Switchraft selector, then I'll make a new neck plate to accommodate the new body shape. I'm thinking of giving up on the little diamond-shaped thingie on the headstock - it looks like there's quite a bit of shiny metal on this guitar already!

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