Part 4 - Build an electric guitar with Crimson Guitars

Welcome Perkins

guitar

s and welcome to day four. This

guitar

is in progress. We've carved, shaped and even

part

ially fire-finished the neck because why doesn't it have frets? Although I have a lot of fret work to do today, the body and the top of our one, so the body has to be finely sanded, rough sanded, stained and then oiled and maybe we'll even put some hardware on it today, We'll see, but there will be a lot of rubbing, sanding, filing and prepping. but essentially we have a guitar and how do I start and stop talking soon? We're just not going to get there.

This is the beginning of the fourth day, so we only have two days left and yeah, let's move on, so the dishes are gone. We had a good level yesterday, none of them are

part

icularly high, so my pressure while hitting them was even throughout, pretty well set for the most part, it always helps to check these things well, so you'll notice I didn't. To put glue under the frets, it is not absolutely essential to glue the frets, although for most of the time I have been teaching people how to do this and have been doing it, I have always used glue in some form. as you adjust the guitar and that's not actually holding the frets on the tenons, it'll do that pretty well, it's completely to fill the space and solidify the neck as you go, so what we're going to do now is mask the neck a little bit. fretboard because I know I'm going to mask off the neck and leave the fretboard and fret slots exposed and use some type of water absorbent, find super glue to go down the ends of the frets and just keep it solid. now in a normal

build

, in a normal

build

we wouldn't have finely sanded and finished the neck at this particular stage and you could just glue it on and then sand it later.

I have a little microphone cable here. I also do it. I don't want to, okay, I don't want the super glue to stick to the fretboard, if anything, I'd like to avoid that, so it's just a matter of putting superfine blobs right there, if you polish the tape, it'll make them a lot finer. edge, yes, while we are talking about the ends of the frets, if this is your first time, I think I should warn you that most of the frets are made of nickel silver and at this stage they are very pointy and nickel silver is very good at promoting infections when hurt. you and you will collect dust.

It's a nice side effect of woodworking. Now the powder and super glue mixed together become very dark, so if I want to combine this Sepideh powder it looks good, so take a pinch of powder and put it at the end of the hole. and then just hit it Oh, too much, today there will be some news, okay and essentially, and that's sanded back, there won't be a gap and the inside of the refrigerator slot has a little bit of glue on its rinse, repeat 41 times and you polished it. as it was supposed to be fine, yes my neck is safe, the fret ends have now filled out and the tuning stability of the entire neck will be more stable as a result of the fingerboard being leveled to a

crimson

tone.

We make many tools for guitar builders. It's one of our main businesses, the fingerboard leveling file is a lot rougher, technically it's for wood, although it's made from a metal file, a rough metal file, and it works great for doing this pretty quickly now that it's not I'm holding a plane. m at an angle, this will roll slightly over the edge of the fretboard, making the entire guitar much more comfortable to play. It ends up feeling like a lack of indigenous myth that has been touched on a lot basically, but also the side. The effect is that in our case I cannot find the finished mast.

Keep the metal dust down, if possible, on the fret leveling file, which is ultimately a prototype that is even better. Guitar builders tend to use files much more than general files. carpenters don't know what they're missing, okay, not now. I haven't set the correct angle on the edge of the frets yet. I'm just sorting out the last bit of work before we get to that, the other thing. I'm aware that I don't want to change the shape along its length. I'm trying to cut relatively evenly. There are places where more glue has accumulated than others, so if I pay attention to what has been removed and what I won't be able to see if it is straight or not?

This is a loading end bevel file and basically sets an angle of about thirty degrees. What I usually do is start the process with that to get the angle right. and then match that angle using the fingerboard leveling file because it goes much faster this way now if you listen carefully you hear the difference when I start hitting the wood you didn't have to listen carefully Lourdes is blatantly obvious now no I don't want an edge perfectly square. I want it to be rounded so it is more comfortable. I also don't want to go too far because if you go too far you have to push the ropes in the war, the two outer ropes will slip. takes off too much so do it, but do it right if you put about three quarters to a thousandth of a fake firaon or round it up to make it small, very small, you should be fine and there we have it.

Walter feels comfortable, he takes two, he's fine, there are a couple of points. where I lit super glue to get to the fingerboard, so I looked for them in a while, but for now I worry about dressing well, now with this this file has a perfectly flat end or edge and once a slightly rounded edge with the flat edge I go and I just gently pry off the corner of the fret and I'm trying to make it flush with the bottom of the fretboard and this is all to make it comfortable, they say Frick work is the most important part of a well. one of the most important parts of a guitar, the freight finishes just one of the most important parts of Fred's job, okay, wet and dry, 400 grit, you can go down to 320 or 400 if necessary and this just continues with the rounding process, solder them.

Go around it three times again and you could even wrap it around a piece of peg or something or your finger which is what I usually do and this should go around the edges following the rounds that we've created and polish the fret. Also, the side effect is friction, which has an exothermic reaction side effect and you'll think about them and there you have it, so not only do we have the ends of the frets very well polished and that's something that doesn't dig into your hands. , but you also can't see the bottom of the frit grooves, there are no holes and the incredibly different color of the top ones actually matched perfectly now with the CO2-free fretboard and it looks like the frets were just drawn there, which is ideal and a rare result, a lot of guitar construction. especially when you have limited time is figuring out what you can do while you wait for something else to happen so I can do the fret work while the body finish cures since I was about to say I can too I realized I sanded the body while the finish on the neck cures, so what I'm really going to do now is apply an oil finish to the neck and see how it develops.

I have a problem though by mistake I only burned it up to this point and then it would be fine except for the fact that of course the neck ends there for one so we have a white section so unfortunately I need to turn the heat off again and just touch that little bit. up and then we'll apply oil, we'll set it aside and we'll apply a couple of coats of guitar finishing oil while the instrument is sanded and processed and we take it to a stage where that can also be oiled and then we'll apply oil. jump between the two and hopefully get this build done in no time, so light the fire, smooth it out, we have a product that we've made for ourselves called guitar finishing oil and it's fantastic and I designed it to be very penetrating and then to build.

After that I got a good finish, but I share the idea of ​​having double viscosity, even in a higher build version, and this is the prototype for that. I must also say that this is without a doubt my favorite part of the job. not the actual application, but seeing what happens when you do it, are you ready? So the difference between those two I just love, okay, now you're wondering why I haven't masked the fretboard and that's because that takes time. I want oil there in particular, although it's not going to hurt, but if I had masked it off and there was some oil underneath, I wouldn't know until much later in the process that it would have completely cured and then I would have to scrape it off and clean it off and use acetone and all that jazz again, whereas now if I put a little bit on, I can see I have a little bit and then I come back and yeah, fix it, we're in the body, this thing is going to be awesome.

It wants to be, it has to be, we'll see how it goes. I need to do some sanding and fine sanding and shaping and bits and pieces. I'm going to adjust the bevels probably with a spoke shaver and scrapers and stuff like that, but for now I want to get the two largest face sanders up to about 180 240 ish and for that random orbital sander and the air filter its remote high tech, it's actually pretty scary when it's in, you know, the gearing and the high speed on the side, it's a beast when doing that I realized I'm getting a little ahead of myself, there are supposed to be some holes in here and to drill those holes I have to have the bridge, which means it's time to unpack.

I called one of my favorite providers. In the world, all parties really want to reach this stage where

guitars

are bad at coming together. There is a problem and it is a psychological issue. When you get to this stage, you really want to just play the strings and play most of the time. When I started, I used to rush and finishing the final five percent of the work you do is the first thing the client will see, feel and experience, and if you rush, just to get in touch. We're in trouble so don't rush, we're back and Day in three quarters to do it anyway, so I've been looking for a Tele for myself.

I'm saying it for me basically, what's going to happen now is that this guitar is for me. I'm going to play it and keep it, but every time we do a guitar show or have a client nearby, it will be available for people to see, so it's a way to keep the guitar, but it's mine and I've been looking for a stuffed animal for a time. while people keep saying why don't you build one yourself because I don't have time. I need an excuse so the big question is building a limited tool without a drill press, how the hell do I do this?

I'm pretty good with one of these, I don't trust myself 100%, basically it's fine, what I have to do is get the strings on this guitar to go through these six holes through the body and sit on the little Farrell, okay, so I need to drill six small holes. the whole body accurately, yes, no problem. I can do it and just have a horrible wavy line, but we don't want this to be the closest I've ever come to giving up on the limited tool idea for the sake of it. I have a pillow job right there, but anyway, first of all, our neck is a little healed.

I need to make sure I'm happy with the position of the bridge and once we have it we can determine where I need to do it. I drill holes and I'm going to think furiously while I'm doing it and hopefully I'll figure out what they are like, how I'm going to do the rest, okay that's interesting, the act of burning the neck is They took off just a little bit of material, which it means the neck pocket is not as tight as I would normally like, it won't be a problem but it's not ideal, it's that tight, tighter than most, okay let's talk, boom there we are.

Come on, I have to do it. I have two things. I have many things. I have to align this on the center line. I already have a hole for my pickup and then we have an adjustable scale length in there and so long. Since I have the ability to adjust the scale length on either side of 648 millimeters, then I'm fine and do it, but just to make sure that I'm actually going to install the bridge pickup and make sure it fits in that cavity. very well stacked baby sorry I tend to respond for more flies what I'm working with that bridge is a steel metal of some kind no, duh, magnetic, it's magnetic, it's flat, it'll do the job here we go, there will still be a hole For the jack connector, you can also do it at the same time that its eyeball is the center.

Now I'm pretty good at observing things if you don't always double check it's a lot deeper than I need to go but why not? Alright. There will be one last hole to be drilled later once the bridge is in place. No, this is a Teddy bridge. I don't really think you need a ground wire because it's grounded, it's grounded, it's connected to metal, it's connected to metal. which is connected to the rope so we headed back to where we were before a hand drill cruelly diverted us ok so we have a little wiggle room there and you're out of the way yeah that's pretty much back and sent to them, Nick isnow look, I said 140.

I have about 643, but I have 20k or more travel on it, so I want them to be there, but they were only on the bolts, so that's fine, the only thing I really have to worry about is. How central this animal is says these six holes that have to go through the entire body. I have several options. I have several options open to me. Number one is that I use a drill press, which is the correct and proper way to do this. Number two is drill halfway from one side, halfway from the other, meet in the middle, jiggery-pokery we order, that's pretty much how we're going to do it, what you would normally do on a drill of pillar is drill through. in the two outer holes, use them as locating pins, remove the rest of the positions and then drill from the back to join them together.

I don't trust myself to have to drill completely by hand, so what I'm going to do now is hopefully figure it out correctly, which involves figuring out exactly where on the body these holes are and then marking them the same way from the other side. and then Hopefully it's just a case of it does meet in the middle, so my holes are 132 millimeters from that square edge and I already have a center line which is fine, so there we go, the holes should be based along that line and yes, it shouldn't. I have a problem, someone stepped on my transporter, we also have students here and I thought it made more sense for them to have my cute then than it did for me, since this is more about them than me, difficulties in life, here we go. so I sent that line and we are in the same position as before, as long as I have them properly centered, which I do, that's all we need, so move that action that way, this is where I find that I misread the rule, I said 132.

I've done a hundred and sixty-two or something silly, but that's not the case. I should have checked that the first really good holes are marked. Now what we're adjusting are these savages that have a My pliers were found and returned to me, yes, a little over eight thousand, a little over an eight thousand socket, so an eight thousand onion hole there and I'll start with that. I'm not going to drill completely. I also have a problem. chipped ash and it's very soft, which is fine, except it's soft in some places, hard in others and it's giving me problems.

I have a couple small tears there that I definitely don't normally get with this bit, now we have a little problem. there and I don't think I can do it because the edges are iffy. I don't think I can get where I want so I'm going to start with a 4 mil and go through the pilot hole and then move on to a step drill which is usually used for metal work but is also incredibly useful so to build a guitar, the three and a half thousand Brad point where we now have a problem is actually making The holes come together, let's see how long it lasts, so I'm going to go down.

I don't want to go through it completely, but we have contact again instead of a central point. I'm going to put in a twist drill now. we're fine, yeah well it's not catastrophic, a little off, we succeed, we succeed, haha, okay, I didn't want to have a huge five thousand six thousand hole between the two points because the shortest chord is between those two points. People I respect and tend to believe have said that causes a mini vibration inside the guitar which then causes feedback of just one additional turn. The analogy that you don't necessarily want a jingle, something like that, yeah, smaller holes, which also means more flexible. bits unfortunately, but anyway, that's what you know, it's actually done, woohoo, yeah, spot on, okay, while we're here we'll drill some pilot holes for these, the screws will hold the bridge in place until three million and a half, so the bridges. in position I guess we should also fix the neck stretch because this is the only part we haven't really worked out like these edges, so in the final sanding and carving etc., we're going to have to fix that, try to remember.

I haven't personally built a bolt-on guitar or a bolt-on neck guitar for a decade so this is new to me, it's pretty much where I think it should be, yeah that's good, there's no soft wood, it's fine, wood Hard is fine wood, it is a mixture. Between the two it's maddening, but nice for a mill vise with a half-thousandth of an inch hole, these fantastic bits are finally sent off to hand sanding. I could use scrapers and that would be great, we have too much variation. I could use scrapers and that would be awesome. I love scrapers.

I actually prefer scrapers to sandpaper, but in this case we have too much variation between hard scraping and soft scraping and no scraping, etc., so I'll use sandpaper at all times and be done with this and give it a little more shape. here with a hockey rasp I guess, and then, and then, yes, sand sir, yes, we're not taking much and we're ready to stain now, at this stage, what you would normally do is dampen the entire guitar, lift the grain, sand it again. with 320 or 400 sandpaper and do it until it stops raining and then stains, etc.

I'm not going to do that, we're running out of time, that is, we've just started the second half of day four. or five and I really need to finish here. I'm going to do a stain, we have a range of

crimson

guitar stains to complement the guitar finishing oil and I'll start with a black rub on the back and then heat it up. with a little bit of amber and red and I'll see where it takes me, so the trick with the dye is to apply it quite dry. What I'm planning and I hope this actually works properly.

What I'm planning is for this fake skin to last. Be natural Sycamore and the stain will be right on top of that. If I mess it up and put dye in the shampoo, I might stain it all over or sand it and it might not actually look good, we might stain it anyway, so there we start with relatively dry black on the rag and go from the middle out. now this is a water based stain so this is raising the grain but the reason I don't really care about that is because I'm going to sand this anyway so it's gray the grain is raised a little .

We're going to leave this for five minutes to dry, there we go and then we'll bring it back and start playing properly with the color, okay, 400 grit and this. it's going to remove some of the raised grain for one, it's also going to remove some of the sustain, okay, part one, stage one complete, I'm just playing around at this point, okay, if I just use the red, I know what I'm going to do. I will get if I use amber. I know what I'll get. I'm going to see what it looks like to have a red to amber stain going from the bottom to the top of the guitar.

You'll notice that I'm when I'm folding my tissue up, it's not wrinkled, it's not a mess, it's an edged tool and it's relatively solid, yes it doesn't survive the first contact with the stain, but we start with something that looks like or Al less, the black and gray, as it has become, highlights the flames and accentuates everything and we're done with it. Now, what I'm actually going to do. I have changed my mind again. This platform is a bit brilliant. What is crimson red? It's a little brighter than I expected and, in my opinion, doesn't quite match the fantastic colors we have on that neck, so I'm going to paint the whole body. rub this red again a little and then apply a little amber dye all over the top, doing this because the grain rises again just a fraction.

There we have the color that is close enough, a yellow on top that would really finish it off. The question is whether I want to continue playing or not. I don't know. I'm going to stop here. I'm quite happy with the color. The oil has a slight yellowish tint that will brighten everything, so yeah, here we go. I'm going to let this dry for a while and then we'll be fine. I can actually sand a little while it's drawing, so I just have to fix just a few spots on the edge, our first layer of oil in the middle.

The first two or three coats will be applied there and then the back will be finished when we can prevent color transfer basically so what I forgot is that we are playing with the new with a new double strength well the fun part a once again. I love my life. I really enjoy my life a lot, okay that's the first layer just for fun. I'm going to rub it here about 1500 and this means I can get a better finish quicker than I would otherwise and speed is something we're currently thinking about. I have a yellow oil based stain from that which I was thinking of putting on top at this stage because it's not quite there yet but it doesn't really get there, however I do it, it's potential this year.

I've made a big chamfer while that's drying for a split second, let's see if I made a mistake, this scraping plate is obviously for a standard tea time and what I've built isn't like that, here we go, that works, no we had it. It removes a lot of stains or pigments at least until I started using the 1500, so I feel comfortable applying oil to the entire Frisch tool. I could use a brush, but I don't want to apply as much, so I'm flooding. This now just to penetrate the vein as much as possible. It's also too hot here right now, so it will start healing almost immediately.

I forgot to say one thing. Wow, this wood really lives up to what I thought. was going to be yes, at this stage we normally drill a hook into the back end where the truss rod goes with the strap button and then I'm totally sure we have brush bristles, but hey, what an interesting life, but it does so hot that I'm not going to do that, I'm going straight to the rub off the excess mode, yes, oil comes out, no penguin, now when I say rub off the excess, what I'm saying is rub off the excess. it doesn't leave even the slightest bit of a sticky feeling, it needs to feel almost dry and that's why I don't use gloves.

You should wear gloves. It's not a particularly toxic thing, but there are dryers and bits in the oils that we probably don't want the skin to say I can go and feel dry and nice and soft, so once you've rubbed all of this guitar, which is a oddly physically demanding task, I'll put a hook on the bottom and hang it, hang it on a dock for two or three hours to cure and dry. I'm going to put several more coats on it today and when we come back tomorrow morning we can put port on ropes and things like that.

I play a guitar now my neck needs a few more applications. Don't do it so well while we're in the mood right now. You need to specifically warn yourself that this oil is very similar to linseed oil, teak oil, I think tung oil. oil also in the sense that if you leave an oil-soaked rag floating around your workshop to dry, crumple it up, throw it in a bin, if you do that you run the risk of burning down your workshop and that's not an old carpenter's tale like Oil. cures, it has an exothermic reaction and there are verifiable documented cases of this being the cause of Thai and people's workshops burning down, so yes, we have large water vats around the workshop and these routes go directly to them when we are done and I implore it.

You should do the same, okay? I'm going to let it heal, hopefully not exothermically. I leave that set for 5-10 minutes, rub it in, set it aside and yes, I have a few more coats of oil to apply for the rest of the day. are for all intents and purposes now at the end of the day for tomorrow tomorrow is the final fret work, so I'm going to level the crown of the frets and polish them very lightly. I'll install the hardware and the pickups will cry softly as I connect it. I do not do it. that bad and then assault your ears with hopefully a fully functional, fully playable guitar built in five days with limited hand tools.

Thank you very much for joining us on this journey, like and subscribe, share with your friends, go to the workshop and make some sawdust. you