kfowler8's 2nd and 3rd Builds

[kfowler8]

I've got two builds in the early stages. One will be a righty based on a PRS Custom 24. This one's for a friend. He agreed to buy all the wood and parts and I agreed to build it for him at no charge. I figure it gives me chance to practice on another build. Not sure on the specs for his yet but it'll be a walnut top with a Indian rosewood neck.

The other build will be the main focus of this thread. This one's for me. It's going to be based off a '59 LP with some notable changes.

Here are the specs:

• Left handed
• Big leaf quilted maple top
• One piece Spanish Cedar body
• Indian Rosewood neck
• Indian Rosewood fretboard
• String-through
• Undecided on pickups
• Undecided on inlays
• No binding
• Whale blue stain

I want the wood to be the focus on the guitar. So I wanted to stay away from binding or any kind of really fancy inlays.

So let's talk wood!!!

Here's a group shot.



The body is Spanish Cedar. Special thanks to Brian I who hooked a brother up. It's a really nice solid piece. Very nice tap to it from my little experience. It was really hard to find a piece this size. BTW, my shop smells awesome. I have had the desire to lick the cedar to see if it really does taste like ear wax. So someone on this forum has told me anyway.



Next is the Indian Rosewood neck. Talk about hard to find. My PRS has a Brazilian Rosewood neck and I've always felt it was the best feel of any neck I've played. The rosewood blank is quartersawn with dimension of 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 30. This thing is beautiful. It's almost a really dark purple. Tapping it is so very cool. It was pretty rough cut when I got but it's been cleaned up and now looks fantastic. Talk about something that smells good when you work with it! I can get two necks out of it. One for me and one for my friend.



Finally the top. This just came today. I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves. It looks better in person than I expected. One difference from my last build was that the flame on it was very subtle. It was more apparent at certain angles compared to others. This quilt billet is complete opposite. Just amazing. I'm taking it to have it re-sawn this weekend.





Here's a very bad photoshop of what it might look like



Color wise, this is what I'm after. It's one of Marcovis' guitars.



I'll be posting updates as I progress. I probably won't make significant headway until after the 4th. The wife and kids are headed to the in-laws so I'll be a bachelor for a week.

[szlash280z]

Do Faux binding! it looks awesome!

[JimmyPage968]

Originally Posted by szlash280z

Do Faux binding! it looks awesome!

Faux binding or natural binding?

I'd like to see it on a LP style! Do it!

[nicudeemus1]

Rosewood neck AND that top!?
subscribed.

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by JimmyPage968

Faux binding or natural binding?

I'd like to see it on a LP style! Do it!

You guys have good style. That was actually something I was going to ask about. My PRS has what looks like natural binding around the edges. I'll take a pic when I get a chance but it's similar to this.



I always thought they just taped it off when staining and left it natural. Is this faux binding? What's it made from? How easy is it to bend?

Thanks for the suggestion.

[DanielDeGregoriis]

Originally Posted by kfowler8

You guys have good style. That was actually something I was going to ask about. My PRS has what looks like natural binding around the edges. I'll take a pic when I get a chance but it's similar to this.



I always thought they just taped it off when staining and left it natural. Is this faux binding? What's it made from? How easy is it to bend?

Thanks for the suggestion.

Awesome wood choice!

Regarding 'faux' binding: 'faux' is French and actually means in this context 'faked binding'. It's like you said, top wood that isn't stained.

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by DanielDeGregoriis

Awesome wood choice!

Regarding 'faux' binding: 'faux' is French and actually means in this context 'faked binding'. It's like you said, top wood that isn't stained.

Great. Thanks. When I get to that point I'll be posting to make sure I understand the right way to do it.

[fatdaddypreacher]

glad you wound up with a nice slab of cedar. all of your wood is excellant. i'm eager to see chips fly.

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by fatdaddypreacher

glad you wound up with a nice slab of cedar. all of your wood is excellant. i'm eager to see chips fly.

Thanks again for helping me locate s piece!

[szlash280z]

faux binding is probably easier to do than regular binding anyway. no routing involved. you just gotta make sure you can get whatever coloring you put on the guitar off of the "binding" area.

[djrussell]

Yeah I'm a big fan of faux binding... why do people put binding on a guitar? To make it look cool... if theres an easier way without the potential need of ruining the body AND it looks the same then i'm all for it.

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by szlash280z

faux binding is probably easier to do than regular binding anyway. no routing involved. you just gotta make sure you can get whatever coloring you put on the guitar off of the "binding" area.

OK call me dense but now I see why they call it faux binding. Because it looks like binding even though it's really just part of the top. I was thinking it was just like regular plastic binding but made out of a different material. I kept thinking of faux window blinds. Now I know!!!

[Rapdog]

I did a solid rosewood neck on a build thread ealier. my only remark to you would be careful with the weight of the neck as it may be a bit off kilter with the spanish cedar body. My advice would be to possible make the headstock smaller or thinner to help keep the headstock from diving. I did the same type build on a prs copy and it can be a bit neck heavy if you dont balance it right. the spanish cedar is amazing at how it lightens up the body. Looking forward to watching this one.

JR

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by Rapdog

I did a solid rosewood neck on a build thread ealier. my only remark to you would be careful with the weight of the neck as it may be a bit off kilter with the spanish cedar body. My advice would be to possible make the headstock smaller or thinner to help keep the headstock from diving. I did the same type build on a prs copy and it can be a bit neck heavy if you dont balance it right. the spanish cedar is amazing at how it lightens up the body. Looking forward to watching this one.

JR

Interesting. Thanks for the advice. My PRS has a rosewood neck and the mahogany is chambered. Not sure how they chambered it but it feels balanced.

[kfowler8]

I got some updates. My 2nd and 3rd build became 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. My friend talked me into building another LP for him. So one lefty LP, one righty LP, and one righty PRS style.

Here's some pics.

My quilt maple top



My Spanish Cedar body

[kfowler8]

Wife and kids got back Saturday after being gone for a week so things are going to slow down.

I did get the carve steps done on two of the guitars. I attached a large square plexi plate to my router and did this free hand.



Started slotting the frets. I'm using a different technique this time. Last time I used my digital calipers. This time I'm using a ruler as I found I wasn't getting any more accurate by using the calipers. I mark them in mm as I found it's easier. With a mechanical pencil, you can mark down to 0.5mm but it's really hard to get more accurate than that.

I also tried a new technique where I secured the board to a straight edge ruler. This allowed me to get a perfectly square cut every time. Seems to work well.

[laurence997]

Great work kfowler8 (and unreal wood), subscribed
A note on the natural binding- I'm certainly no expert or anything, so make what you will of it, but I've read up on doing natural binding and people that have done it seem to say that its not enough to just tape the binding while you stain the top as the stain will tend to bleed under the tape. A better solution is to tape around the binding with pinstriping tape, apply about 2 clear coats on that area, then remove the tape, so there's a clear coat over the binding wood. Then tape this with pinstriping tape and stain your top. Here's a guide that will explain it better than I can - Bursting with a Different Color

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by laurence997

Great work kfowler8 (and unreal wood), subscribed
A note on the natural binding- I'm certainly no expert or anything, so make what you will of it, but I've read up on doing natural binding and people that have done it seem to say that its not enough to just tape the binding while you stain the top as the stain will tend to bleed under the tape. A better solution is to tape around the binding with pinstriping tape, apply about 2 clear coats on that area, then remove the tape, so there's a clear coat over the binding wood. Then tape this with pinstriping tape and stain your top. Here's a guide that will explain it better than I can - Bursting with a Different Color

Great reference. Yeah I'm worried about that part. I've considered putting some kind of shellac on there as well.

[kfowler8]

I finished slotting the board last night and marked the outlines of the inlays. I hope to rout the cavities tonight and maybe even glue them in. I've got to remember the best thing to glue them in.

This wasn't really a surprise but it's amazing how much better these builds are than my first. Everything is so much cleaner than the first time. It really helps knowing what not to do this time.

Example was outlining the inlays. I thought on my first build they looked sloppy. This time I placed a large piece of masking tape across the board. I then measured each fret and then each inlay. From this I drew reference lines that were square to my center line. This worked really well for keeping the inlays lined.

[sectorix]

some of us *wink* would love to see progress on the "prs" as well :")

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by sectorix

some of us *wink* would love to see progress on the "prs" as well :")

Yeah that one's lagging behind for a couple of reasons. I had to make totally new templates for that one. My friend, who I'm making it for asked me not to work on any major pieces of it unless he was there. He's helping out and wants to be a part of it. I'm hoping to finish the cavities and get it glued up the week. We'll see.

[evolved_insanity]

Unreal quality of lumber here. And I see alot of lumber daily. I am definitely watching this thread. Keep up the awesome work. That quilted maple top....drop dead gorgeous.

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by evolved_insanity

Unreal quality of lumber here. And I see alot of lumber daily. I am definitely watching this thread. Keep up the awesome work. That quilted maple top....drop dead gorgeous.

Thanks but it was EXPENSIVE!!! That being said when you take into the total cost it's not that bad and worth it. I fully admit I'm a sucker for nice tops.

[kfowler8]

Got a couple of updates. For the PRS, I routed the wire channel and control cavirty and glued the top. I still need to cut the neck plane and carve the top. For the other walnut LP, I've cut the terraces for the but need to cut the neck plane and smooth out the carve.

I've progressed a little further on my personal build.

Here's the fretboard. Came out so much nicer than my first. It's darkened up nicely. The inlays are paua and MOP. First time I've worked with paua and I can't say I like it. Maybe the quality of these are bad but they're fairly porous. I had to fill a couple of spots with CA glue. Still look really nice.





I was able to cut the neck plane and finished the carve on the body.





I'll probably work on my radius jig next and cut the neck and pickup cavities.

[sectorix]

the people demand updates !

[kfowler8]

Originally Posted by sectorix

the people demand updates !

Ha! Planning a major update tomorrow. The lefty LP is just about ready for lacquer. The color looks AWESOME!! The walnut LP needs binding and the neck. PRS is a little behind that. I should make some headway tomorrow. I'll take some pics.

Thanks for following.

[kfowler8]

OK friends. Here's a short update with much more to come tomorrow.

Body before staining



Body after initial black stain



Sanded Back. Note it's wet.



Final blue. Came out exactly what I was going for. Really nice. It's dry in this pic. No enhancements. My daughter calls it sky blue.

[BWGuitars]

That is a cool shade of blue. Can't wait to see it all shiney!

[kfowler8]

OK let's get some updates.

First my lefty LP. I'm further along on this one as I've been waiting when my friend can come over to work on his other two.

The neck is about 75% done. I still need to shape the neck, headstock inlay, and tuner holes. I figure I can do this while the body cures. I know some don't like the smell of rosewood but I love it. That being said it get's a little overpowering when sanding an entire neck.

For the body, I've been trying Z-poxy on the back. I've got three coats on and will probably add one more. I'm still trying to perfect the best application of it. Sands really nice and I like the honey color.

The blue stain on the top turned out perfect!!! Exactly what I was going for. What you see here is just stain. No sealer. I'll spray sand sealer this week before I leave for the UK on business.

The pics here are a dry fit with the neck. It's not glued in yet and won't be until the body is lacquered. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the way it's going. Light years ahead of my first build.











Walnut LP next

[kfowler8]

I made some good progress on the walnut LP and PRS today. We mostly worked on the PRS as it was the farthest behind.

The LP got some further sanding to clean up some tear outs. I bought a Ridgid Spindle Sander toward the end of my last build. Man this thing makes life easier. I modified my binding jig to accept a new trim router and got ready to cut when one these cheap screws broke that keeps the router in place. At least it didn't break while cutting. I glued the piece back and it's drying over night. I'll try again tomorrow. I haven't started the neck or fret board yet.