hourihane.ca

Burke Ride

Another long time between rides. This time I dragged Anthony out for a ride on some lower Burke trails. A warm up on Hustler followed by Franks and then down to David Ave. Fun ride, it was good to get out!

Oh, and I’ve trying out Strava as an alternative to Garmin Connect. One of the cool things about Strava is that you (or anyone else) can identify certain sections of a ride and then whenever your ride includes this section, it will compare your time to all the other time you rode the section and to other people’s time as well.

Eagle Ride – Hey I Remember How to Ride a Bike

After many, countless  months off the bike I finally went for a ride. I think this was the third or fourth ride of the year for me. That’s right, I said year. I used to do that many rides per week.

Anyway, I finally managed to get out with Steve for an  “easy xc ride” in Port Moody climbing up from the rec center up through the various neighbourhoods to the power lines, to Physiotherapy to the hub that is the intersection at the top of Manhandler. From there it was down Mossom Creek trail to Academy down to Anmore and then back through Starz and down to the inlet again. I was hurting right from the start from my lack of any exercise this year, but it was great to get out.

Guitar Build – Done!

Finally done after a few months of work. There were  some setbacks along the way but overall it wasn’t a difficult project. I think it turned out well and it sounds great.

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Looking back on it, for a first build I probably should have gone a bit more basic with a simple one colour finish and no binding as it made the painting  a little bit complicated.

Guitar Build – Clear Coat, Assembly, Wiring

We finally had a stretch of nice weather so I managed to get some clear coats on the body. I wasn’t sure how long the weather would last so I hit it with as many coats as I could manage per day. I think in the end I ended up with around 9 coats of clear lacquer.

Hanging out, off-gassing and curing in the sun:

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After letting the clear coats cure for three weeks I did a little wetsanding and polishing to finish it off. No pictures of this, use your imagination.

Then it was on to assembly. The body came pre-drilled with holes for the neck mounting screws, but the neck did not, which meant I had to locate and drill some holes in (hopefully not through)  the neck.

I don’t have any pictures of this process, but here’s what I did. I mounted the bridge, dry-fit the neck into the neck pocket and strung up the E and e strings. Using the strings as a visual guide I then made sure the neck was aligned properly. When I was happy with the alignment I clamped the neck in place, turned the whole thing over, stuck an appropriately sized drill bit through the holes in the body and marked the locations for the next step.

Then, to ensure I drill the holes in the neck the correct depth, I measure the thickness of the body at the neck pocket and the length of the neck mounting screws to calculate the depth that I need to drill for my pilot holes. I mark the drill bit with tape then clamp the neck into the drill press and drill four holes.

Next it’s as simple as screwing the neck to the body, after putting some wax on the threads to help ease the screws into the maple neck. This is almost looking like a guitar now. I couldn’t resist placing some parts on as a mockup:

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Next on the list is the wiring. I downloaded a wiring diagram from TDPRI and set to work on the controls. Hopefully no one that actually knows how to solder sees this picture and cringes at my blobby job:

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Then it was mounting the neck pickup. This again involved drilling pilot holes into the body for the mounting screws, so I brought out the calipers to takes some measurements…better safe than sorry. The pickup install goes smoothly.

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I then wire the pickups to the controls as per the diagram I downloaded. Before I screwed the control plate to the body, I figured I’d better check my wiring, so I string up a couple of strings and plug the guitar in to try it out. Not good. The neck position works, the middle switch position does nothing and the bridge position is very quiet. Damn. After a little investigation I find out that the diagram I used was for a vintage telecaster which uses a different swith than what I am using. Or something like that. All I know is it doesn’t work. So I download a different wiring diagram, desolder the switch and start again. This time was a success and after testing, everything works as it should

The final bits and pieces go on. The strap buttons, the control plate, pickguard and string trees all get installed after drilling pilot holes for all the screws.

I install a set of strings and do a quick set-up. Rough in the intonation using my cheap little tuner. It’s close enough for now. Then check the neck relief and adjust the action and play with the height of the pickups. All goes pretty well.

Done!!!

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Guitar Build – More Neck Finishing and Tuner Install

The neck has been sitting for a while, so it was time to do some finish sanding, treat the fingerboard and install the tuners.

The face and back of the headstock were wet sanded starting with 600 then followed by 1000, 1500 and 2000 grits. After that was done I applied some polishing compound as the final step. The back of the neck was wet sanded with 600 grit and then rubbed down with 0000 steel wool for a nice satin finish.

After living in the garage for a couple of weeks and being covered with masking tape, the fretboard was looking pretty dry. I perused the web for the best way to treat the rosewood. There were, of course, conflicting opionions and thoughts. Some people suggest lemon oil, olive oil, linseed oil while others suggest disaster will ensue unless you use the special fingerboard conditioner sold in music stores and the last thing you should use is lemon oil. From what information I could find, all of these things are basically mineral oil, lemon oil isn’t made of lemons (well maybe a teeny bit) and I’ll leave the olive oil in the kitchen. I hit the local Rona and picked up a can of Circa 1850 Lemon Oil and applied it sparingly to my fretboard. Looks good, smells lemony.

Next up, it’s time to install the tuners. I decided on the vintage Kluson type for the tuners, mainly for the vintage look. The tuners come with bushings that are pressed into the tuner holes from the front of the headstock. Then the tuners are attached to the back of the headstock with teeny-tiny screws.

I assembled my hi-tech tuner bushing installation tool kit and went to work.

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The tuner holes needed to be reamed a bit as they had accumulated a few layers of laquer during the finishing process. That’s were the 1/4″ drill bit came in. Insert the drill bit into the hole, twist around a bit by hand and repeat five more times. Now the bushings could be started in the holes but needed a little extra persuasion than my thumb could provide. In comes the clamp and block of wood to be used as a press. Like a charm.

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Time to mark out the pilot holes for the tuner mounting screws. I flip the neck over and drop the tuners in to the holes from the back of the headstock. To line them up properly I use another tip that I found on the mighty internet. I clamp a straight edge, in this case a piece of wood to the headstock alongside the tuners, making sure that they are nicely lined up. Then the screw locations are marked. With the tuners in place, I drilled one hole and then started to install the screw. Unfortunately I ran into a somewhat common problem when installing these screws. The screw broke, leaving half the screw embedded in the neck. Crap, crappity, crap, crap. Or something like that.

What to do? After taking a deep breath I drilled three holes around the screw, with the holes as close to the screw fragment as I could get. Once I did that I pried the screw fragment with a finishing nail until it started to move and then came out. I was left with an ugly, nasty hole in the back of the headstock.

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What to do? After taking another deep breath, I clamped the neck to the drill press and bored out the ugly, nasty hole into a nice, clean 1/4″ diameter hole. I should mention that all these holes being drilled from the back of the headstock do not … and should not go through the front of the headstock, so for each hole drilled, I mark the depth on the drill bit using masking tape. What I now have is this:

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Next, I need to  fill that hole. The 1/4″ hardwood dowel that I have is slightly too small for my nice, clean 1/4″hole, so I put a piece of 5/16″ dowel into the chuck of the drill press and sand it down while it spins until I get to the correct diameter. I cut a short piece to act as a plug and glue it in place.

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After letting the glue set, the area around the plug is masked and the plug is sanded flush. Again, like a charm.

Back to the tuner installation, I threw out the wimpy brass screws that came with the tuners and picked up some #4 x 1/2″ metal screws. I also made sure to mark the depth of the pilot holes deep enough. Once again I mark out the location of the screw holes and then head over to the drill press and drill the pilot holes with a 1/16″ bit. This time, before installing the screws, they get coated with wax from a candle and everything goes smoothly. With the tuners installed, the plug disappears and only you and I will know it’s there.

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And from the front, the finished neck:

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Guitar Build – Disaster Recovery

I had some serious blushing issues with the paint on the back and sides of the guitar. I sprayed paint when it was raining out and it was way too humid to be doing so. What happened is that moisture in the air was trapped in the paint as the solvents in the paint evaporated quicker than the moisture could.

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I waited a few days to see what would happen and while there was a slight improvement, it was still pretty bad. The next thing I tried was to spray some lacquer thinner on, hoping that it would soften the paint and allow the moisture to escape. Again, there was a slight improvement, but not enough. Next, I wiped the body down with a lint free cloth soaked in lacquer thinner which took off a bit of paint, but more importantly solved my trapped moisture issue.

The blushing was gone, but I was left with an ugly, blotchy, uneven finish. This was okay, all I needed to do was spray some more paint. Before that I wet sanded with 2000 grit paper to get rid of some dust and lint.

Finally had a break in the weather and once my humidity meter dropped to an ok level of 55% it was time to spray colour again. This time things worked out well, and when the masking came off, I was left with this which is pretty much what I had about a week and a half ago…

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Next up is 9 or so coats of clear lacquer. I am going to patiently wait for nice dry weather for that step…lesson learned.

Guitar Build – Body Prep and Paint

The body is a nice piece of  swamp ash from Rutters Guitars. My plan all along was an opaque colour, but when the body arrived I started second guessing that plan, as I think the grain looks awesome one it. What to do?

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Before I get to paint I need to prep the body. Ash is an open grain wood, so grain filler is needed. Without it the paint will sink into the grain and the final finish won’t be smooth. When I was at Mohawk I picked up some grain filler and sanding sealer.

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The body as it came was pretty smooth so I assumed (I know…) that it was sanded and prepped a bit before it got to me, so my first step was a couple of coats of sanding sealer. Then it was time for grain filling. This stuff is a thick paste like material that gets spread onto the body where it sits until the surface starts to dry out. After that it is scraped off the surface, hopefully leaving the filler in the grain. Once it dries, I lightly sand and then buff with a cloth. I then repeat the process with another coat of grain filler. I wasn’t sure if it was necessary, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. Hopefully it was enough of an effort to fill the grain and let me get my smooth finish.

Next I sprayed a few coats of sanding sealer, followed by a light sand to get a nice level, smooth surface. Things are looking pretty good right now.

Now the paint. In my research (obsession) for this project I came to really like some old Fender colours, Sonic blue and Daphne blue. Both are a light pastel blue. Based on pictures etc, I noticed that what is called Sonic blue varies quite a bit and the same for Daphne. Often the names seemed interchangeable although they are definately distinct, separate colours. I wasn’t looking for an exact colour match, but more of a general idea or “feel” of the colour I wanted.

When I was at Mohawk getting my other supplies and flipping through colour chips, the guy helping me discovered that they had 1/3 of a gallon of pre-mixed lacquer that was right in the range of what I was looking for. I figured it was workable so I brought it home with me. After looking at it a bit I decided it may be a bit too blue, a bit vibrant. I fired up the google-machine and ordered a bottle of white Mixol tint, figuring I could lighten it up a bit.

I should take a step back and mention that although I now have paint I have no way of spraying it, so I picked up this spray system. Basically a can of propellant with a nozzle and a bottle to hold the paint. Wasn’t sure how well it would work, but I figured it’s worth a shot.

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The white tint arrived, the weather got a little better (not the 90% humidity, rainy weather we’ve been having) and it was time to start spraying the body. I fill up the sprayer bottle with 6oz of paint and try to tone down the blue by adding some white tint. I got up to 200 drops of white, testing the colour every so often. There wasn’t a huge difference after adding the white tint so I said to heck with it and started painting.

It didn’t start well. The paint came out in big splotchy blobs. Thinking about it I realized that I had neglected to add thinner as per the instructions included with the sprayer. (Yes, I eventually read the instructions). Thinner added and it is spraying a bit better although it was going on the body really quite dry. I stop again and consult the wisdom of the internet. The paint is drying in the air before it reaches the surface I’m painting…I need to slow down the drying time by adding more thinner. More thinner added and the paint is going on well and I’m finished with part one of my painting plan.

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The front is painted, I just have to decide what to do with the back and sides. My original plan was to use a dark blue for the back and sides, and that’s what I decide to stick with. With Megan’s help I pick out a can of Dupli-Color Navy blue metallic paint. This is lacquer so there will (should) be no compatibility issues with everything else I have used and plan to use on the body. This paint went on well and before it dried too  much I pulled off the masking tape. Looks good! In low light it’s dark, almost black. Under lights or sunlight it brightens up and the metallic sparkles. I like it.

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There’s a little touch up to do, mostly around where the binding wasn’t masked perfectly. I also need to scrape the paint of the front edge of the binding. This is a very narrow strip of binding, maybe 1/8″ thick, so it was impossible to mask and will be a bit tricky to scrape. I have an idea on a little homemade tool for this, thanks again to the interweb.

Di-freakin-saster. I started to spray some paint to touch up a couple of spots. Unfortunately things went south pretty quickly. Once again it was my fault for not taking my time and being impatient. This time it is weather related. It started raining which of course causes the humidity level to go through the roof. Instead of waiting for dry weather I went ahead and painted and the end result was blushing, which is moisture trapped by the paint.

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Stupid mistake. Argh (I used much stronger language than that). I’m going to give it a few days to see if it improves at all, but at this point it looks like my only option is to strip it back and re-paint… when it isn’t raining.

Guitar Build – Neck Finishing

As previously mentioned, I ordered the neck from Musikraft and the standard finish is a seal coat of shellac. The neck is maple, which is a bit pale for my liking so my plan is to finish it with a vintage amber kind of colour.

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Now, I could have had Musikraft finish the neck, but where would the fun in that be? I wanted this build to be  a learning experience, as I haven’t done anything like this before. Besides, it would have been an extra $100. I’m sure I can do it for cheaper and achieve the same professional results as a production shop with my limited knowledge, lack of skill and zero suitable tools or equipment. Right??

I should take a step back and mention that I’ve been using a great resource to research this project. TDPRI.com has a great forum for guitar builds and finishing. Lots of great advice from people that actually know what they are doing.

So, back to finishing the neck. I went down to Mohawk Finishing in Vancouver and picked up some supplies. For the neck I’m using a can of Amber toner and a can of clear satin lacquer.

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I masked off the fretboard, hung the neck up in the garage and got to work. Starting with a coat of clear I then sprayed mist coats of amber, alternating a coat of clear with a coat of amber.

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I ran into a couple of newbie issues…I rushed things and managed to do a crappy job that turned out blotchy and too orange. Damn. So out came the acetone and off came those layers that I’d put on. Back to square one.

Starting over I took my time and ended up with a pretty good finish. I’m pretty pleased with it.

Next up, it’s a bit of an arts and crafts project. I decided that the guitar needs a headstock decal and I can’t live with a blank headstock. Once again it was back to TDPRI for info and I came away with a plan for making a waterslide decal. After making the rounds of the RC shops and craft stores (shudder), I found some decal paper at a hobby shop in Port Moody.

Next is the hunt for a suitable font that has the same feel as the Fender logo. I found a free font strangely enough named Fender. That will work. Next thing is, what to put on the decal? This will essentially be the name of the guitar, so I did some pondering, going through various versions of something-caster or tele-something before finally settling on a name. After printing the decals I still had some work to do. I just have to have gold lettering similar to some decals that I’ve seen in my extensive (obsessive) research. That means I have to flip over the decal so that it is upside down and then using a paint pen, fill in the lettering with gold paint. Before that happens, it’s important to remember to seal the printed decal as the ink is not waterproof. I shot a couple of thin coats of clear lacquer as a sealer.

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Decal is done, then it’s time to put it on the neck. It goes on smoothly but despite making a mockup and doing a test fit the proportions are off, and the something-caster part of the decal is just too big. So I take it off and start over. Not quite back to square one, but annoying enough.

After a couple of hiccups, I finally get something I like and it goes on the neck. Here it is

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Hurricane is an old nickname of mine and Mega is one of my nicknames for my guitar playing, all around cool chick,  super-star daughter Megan.

It’s time to start burying the decal in clear coat. Spraying a couple of mist coats and then spraying some wet coats. I again rushed things a bit and put on a coat that was too wet and ended up with a run, which I then tried to sand out. Doing that I ended up taking off the toner on one of the edges of the headstock. Damn again. Back in the garage I spray some more amber toner. It looks like crap right now, but once it dries we’ll see if I can make it look reasonable.

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Some more sanding, more toner, more sanding, more toner, sanding again…carefully and I think it’s as good as it’s going to get. Definitely not perfect but at this point I can live with it as my only other option is to strip it back to bare wood and start again. No way I’m doing that.

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Now it’s time for more clear on the face of the headstock, I put an additional 8 wet coats over top of the decal. The back of the neck already has somewhere around 8 coats of clear.

That’s it for now. I’m going to wait for the lacquer to cure for 3 weeks or so before beginning the wetsanding and buffing.

Guitar Build – Parts, Parts and More Parts

I received a surprisingly small package full of a surprisingly large number of smaller packages. Which brings me to the parts for my telecaster. With the exception of the pickups and the pickguard, these were purchased through KokoTele Guitar Works, who is an AllParts dealer. AllParts is sort of the guitar world equivalent of QBP for you bike geeks.

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It’s a pretty standard bunch of parts, but since all I had until now was an unfinished wood body and a neck I needed every other little screw, part, and component required to turn these hunks of wood into a guitar. So, just the highlights:

Tuners : Gotoh Vintage tuners

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Bridge : Wilkinson staggered 3 saddle bridge

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Pickups : Tonerider Hot P90 (cream soapbar cover) in the neck and Hot Classics in the bridge

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I also ordered a cream pickguard from Warmoth. The cream pickguard and cream pickup cover are quite different colours, so I may try to find a different pickup cover that more closely matches the pickguard. Or I may just go without the pickguard… we’ll see.

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Guitar Build – Body and Neck Choice

Wow, long time no post here.

I’ve been busy planning a guitar build. Obsessing over a guitar build may be closer to the truth actually. It seems that it has taken over from my cycling obsession for the time being!

So, I’m building a Telecaster. Technically I’m not building it, as I purchased the neck and the unfinished body rather than starting scratch, but I don’t have the tools or skills for that. So I”m assembling a parts-caster.

Here’s the body and neck I have chosen.

Body: One piece unfinished swamp ash from Marc Rutters of Rutters Guitars. He makes some really cool vintage spec and hot rodded components as well. Unfortunately I can’t really justify $50 for a pair of control knobs, no matter how nice they look or how well they are made. The template used for his bodies is taken from an actual 1952 telecaster, while not super important to me is pretty cool nonetheless. I opted for a standard telecaster bridge pickup route, a P90 for the neck and I added creme binding. It looks nice, it’s making me re-think my plans to finish it in an opaque color.

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Neck: The neck was ordered from Musikraft. I chose a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, medium jumbo (6150) frets, 1-11/16″ nut width, medium C profile .83″ thick at 1st fret .92″ thick at 12th. I ordered the neck  a tiny little bit thicker than the one on my Gretsch which feels good to me, so this one should be good as well.

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I have a box of parts coming in the mail, currently passing through customs, so next time will be all about the bits and pieces that make up the rest of the guitars.