Sing The Body Electric - Building a Parter

[Jim]

I put a small dab of silicone all around the brass ends, and a dab or two on the top rod in the middle. I put a few pinches of fiberglass between the rods also. When I got done gluing on the fretboard, the rod still vibrated when I struck it with my hand on one side. The next day I tightened it a bit to relieve some bend and of course it is now silent. So I believe it is OK.

Here's a few progress shots.


I filled the pores twice, especially on the willow, with Zpoxy. It still wasn't perfect, but since I wanted to seal the body better, I sprayed a few light coats of shellac and it is now drying. Maybe this evening I can sand it back and even get on a coat of the color I've chosen, white.


Here's an out-of-focus shot of the headplate. I am presently sealing the neck with shellac also.


And here's the end of the fretboard. I obviously haven't sanded the end of it. But I had a problem with fretting. I had a coil of fret wire, and successfully put them in, but ran out of wire with four frets to go. I had some straight wire from Stew-Mac that I eventually located right where it should have been, and used it for the last four slots. As you can see, it is slightly bigger than the Stew-Mac version, but the main problem is that it won't seat. LMI has the right kind, so I'll remove these, put in some glue, and install the last 4 frets, hopefully by the weekend.

My electric guitar guru, Doug Hunt has kindly let me come up to his shop to learn a few tricks with his tech ed class. Here's a few shots of Doug's class. A few guys were just about completed and were busy with set-up.

Doug does a great job with these kids and has won some nice awards!






Jim

[Eben]

Ooooohhhhkay;

Well, like I say, not much intended for me gets done very quickly around here...

Here's the body as it sits; this was intended to be the base coat for a burst, but the more I look at it, the more I like it, (And I suppose if I'm ever gonna finish it, well...)

Neck I've done nothin' with - It will get tung oil finish regardless of the body; I have dark and light oil, so I can match the base coat pretty closely when I get to it. Still have not decided on headstock shape.







There are pics of the hardware for this one back a few posts.

Urb

[Jim]

The guitar is about complete. I need to file the nut and set it up properly. Also need to make a small black plate for the headstock, and a better cover for the electronics on back. I have a lacewood plate on there now, but am making a thinner one.

Main problem seems to be the electronics. I used my junior high soldering skills (that's what it looks like) and can only get a faint sound with a lot of buzzing. I need to check all grounds, add a ground to the bridge and perhaps I've got the input socket wired bass ackwards.

Here are some photos:


Painting white in the open air.


Not yet wired and strung in these photos, but the body and neck are complete




If you have any ideas about what might be wrong, feel free to comment.

JIm