Ada Lee
I finished late on Sunday night and was able to string her up and play her for 2 or 3 hours on Monday. Big fun! She plays pretty well and she sounds great. I'll be spending the next week tweaking things to set her up the way I like it but for all practical purposes - my first guitar is complete. It only took 7 months and 2 weeks!
So for those keeping score at home, that's three months over schedule and $300 over budget. Jeeze it sounds like a Government project.
Here are a few more pics:
Okay, so I skipped a few steps with regards to explaining the process. I'll go back and fill the gaps in the next few days. Highlights will include:
Spraying 3 coats of lacquer
A four week hiatus (during which I went to China. I'll have a blog for that too, eventually...)
Dry sanding/wet sanding
Polishing with a drill - pros and cons
Hand polishing - cons and cons
Soldering - ugh
Assembly - unique features of this guitar - varitone control, no tone knob, humbucker, volume knob, router "accident" and pickgard "fiasco", neck issues, input jack issues, and cranking that sucker through an amp!
2 comments:
Bravo my friend. I am in a similar situation and plan to make things even more, shall I say "challenging", and I am also a relative novice at woodworking. I do own a jig saw, various clamps, chisels, hand saws and a few other basic tools. I already planned on purchasing a drill press. Had not considered a router, but that will probably be easier than hand-chiseling.
I have always loved the look of the unfinished blonde Telecaster. Steve Morse plays an old beat up one. I am primarily a bass player, so I plan to make a Tele-shaped natural finish bass. I am going to have to research pickups in order to rout the proper holes, and oh by the way, I grew up watching and listening to McCartney and Hendrix, so even though I am a right handed person, I play guitar left-handed, and my creation will also be a left-handed model.
I also prefer peg heads with tuning heads on both sides instead of all in a row on one side (McCartney's Hoffner bass has its tuning pegs arranged in that fashion). So I am going to have to find a suitable neck which will dictate my neck routing chores.
Anway, good luck in future projects, and great job!!
I really enjoyed reading your article. The partscaster project can become an addiction. I am on my 5th project. Key point is that you can buy cheaper on the first project than you can make it but you will never gain the perspective of all the variables and steps it takes to create a functional guitar.
Also, agree with your comment about necks. A crappy neck will spoil the project.
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