What's on your workbench right now?

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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ThePearDream
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by ThePearDream » Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:58 am

Almost done with the finish on the neon green 22.5" Duo-Sonic II for my wife's cousin's son. Sanded to 1500 so far. Should be all polished and ready for shielding by the weekend.

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Doug
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by MC5tooge » Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:41 am

When it all gets here...

Candy Apple no-name red poplar Fender spec Strat body - cheap but new from
Player series coronado ii neck
Jaguar rhythm circuit with 250K or 500K pot instead of 50K and pickup selectors
Chrome strat knobs
Switchable mono/stereo output jack
Dylan Talks Tone one-off Jazzmaster (cream covers) and lipstick pickups
Floyd Rose Rail trem or similar (not decided yet)

Going for something similar to the Alternative Universe Jaguar Strat - just with Jazzmaster and lipstick pickups - and a Strat-style trem.

I MAY put a piezo system on there while I'm at it, for complete overkill.

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UC3
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by UC3 » Wed Jun 02, 2021 5:33 pm

A little progress and an initial mock-up.

Original concept was aged white knobs, switches and pickup covers. Too much white. Leaning towards black knobs and switches, but retaining white pickup covers. Something not quiet right about the home-made pickguard color - which is McMaster-Carr Garolite "Brown" Going to mess around with a few more ideas and see what sticks.

Body and neck have been grain-filled with Zpoxy and sanded to 320. Going with satin lacquer and if I don't like it, will try translucent white - Mary Kay - finish. Thinking you'll still be able to see the contrast between the different timbers and wear overtime will reveal wood beneath.


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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by CROSS_guitars » Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:04 pm

Where did you get that brown Pickguard material?

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UC3
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by UC3 » Wed Jun 02, 2021 8:19 pm

Hey Pat,

You can get it at McMaster-Carr. They have many thicknesses/sizes to choose from, but colors are limited. I think I got turned onto it on TDPRI while searching for Tele Blackguard material. It machines well, but will chip - note switch edge which was drilled and filed by hand.

I did purchase many moons ago, so YMMV on the current shade of brown. Still reasonable priced IMO.

Garolite XX - Phenolic sheet

https://www.mcmaster.com/phenolic/grade~xx/


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I actually made the guard by laminating the Phenolic with layers of craft paper and clear casting resin. That's a 45 degree bevel.


Regards,

Mark

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by CROSS_guitars » Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:15 am

wow! Thanks heaps for the link.
I'm always on the look out for rare and unusual materials.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by blimpage » Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:23 am

ThePearDream wrote:
Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:58 am
Almost done with the finish on the neon green 22.5" Duo-Sonic II for my wife's cousin's son. Sanded to 1500 so far. Should be all polished and ready for shielding by the weekend.

Image
Hell yeah!!! Now that's a colour.

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joeld
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by joeld » Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:23 pm

My kitchen block is currently my workbench, I just made this pickguard for my Affinity Starcaster:
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I had an old esquire telemaster pickguard that was broken, I figured I would recycle it. I don’t have any power tools (other than a drill) to hand so I cut this by hand with a coping saw and a dollar store file. Turned out pretty well!

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by ThePearDream » Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:54 am

Doing some assembly and set-up this weekend!
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Also, polishing up this body for my own vintage style 22.5" Duo:
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This reminds me, I still have a lefty 22.5 neck to finish up. Maybe I should make a lefty body to go with it. I'll have to take a look at my box of extra parts and see if I can come up with something cool. Of course, I don't play lefty, but the world always needs more cool left handed guitars.
Doug
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by ThePearDream » Tue Jun 15, 2021 4:04 pm

Pretty much done, except I broke the tone pot while putting on the knob :derp: . I guess I don't know my own strength sometimes. New one should be here tomorrow.

I love this neon green paint and this was probably my best polishing job to date. I'm definitely going to be trying out some of the other neons from Molotow. Looking hard at the blue, violet, and turquoise


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I have on a set of 11-48 strings. I don't want to scare the kid or his parents off with anything much thicker, or make an 11 year old, new player, buy expensive or hard to find strings. But it could use a hair more tension to get the right neck relief. I have a few extra sets of Beefy Slinky 11-54s on hand. I think I'll switch to those.

This neon green manages to make my Electron Green Player Strat look drab :D

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Amon 7.L » Wed Jun 16, 2021 7:10 am

ThePearDream wrote:
Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:54 am
Image

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I love them! :w00t:

I'm not usually fan on neon guitars but I can't deny how cool that neon green is!! The black pickups on white pickguard do really blend marvellously.
Also, your Dakota Red Duo-Sonic II is exactly like the one on top my GAS list.

Great job, brother, great job!

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by s_mcsleazy » Wed Jun 16, 2021 12:56 pm

dakota red is always a good choice on a duo/mustang
offset guitars resident bass player.
'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by UC3 » Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:07 pm

Looking good Pear! Tis' the season for Duo's. The green is growing on me.

More pickguard mayhem... may not be for everyone, but I think I have settled on .0625" Garolite XX. I really like the thickness match with the control plate and bridge which I was not getting with .125" At this thickness, slide switches going to be prairie-dogging. I see switch spacers in my future. Up in the air on a hand-sanded/machined round-over. Might just knock the burr off the edge and call it good. Going to hold off routing pickup cavities for now. I have some Croatia "Q" mustang pickups- eBay, but I think it would look, and sound just as good with lipsticks. I have a pair from an old Coral Firefly, but need to noodle the mounting approach.
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Last edited by UC3 on Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by UC3 » Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:55 pm

Wanted to mention my experience with pore filling because I unwittingly chose a-lot of porous timbers for this project. I tried AquaCoat, artist's medium, shellac and sawdust, and Glu-Boost CA, before finally settling on Z-poxy PT-40 finishing resin. It is easy to mix, has a long open time - even on a warm day, dries overnight, and sands easily.
However, it will add an "amber" hue that some people do not appreciate. I used a short piece of rubber squee-gee and a soft-edge gift card to apply. I also kept rags dipped in Denatured Alcohol at hand for easy clean-up. If you do not like sanding - apply it so thinly that you are almost removing what you just applied. . Multiple thin coats and patience are the name of the game. It was clogging the Mirka paper I was using but you can make the most of it by removing the build-up with one of those rubber deals they use for cleaning sanding belts. Oh yeah, don't set your project in the sun prior to applying or after applying the epoxy, the air/gases/moisture trapped in the wood will generate plenty of pinholes as it expands upon warming up. I don't know about using it as a finish coat, I'm just pore-filling before I try my hand at lacquer.

Regards,

Mark

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by antisymmetric » Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:54 am

^^Looking amazing! That thinner pickguard with just a softened square edge looks just right to me. Re your pickup choice, if you decide to go with the lipsticks are you thinking of doing the Dano-style rear mounting? I've done it before on a Fender-ish body, some routing was needed obviously, but it looked good and kept the pickguard looking clean. On the back I used Tele string-through ferrules drilled out for the adjuster screws, their heads sat down inside the ferrules. It looked more "finished" to me than the screw heads just sitting there by themselves. Just a thought.
Beautiful work. :-*
Watching the corners turn corners

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