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Author Topic: Wenge Rhoads Build  (Read 13239 times)

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #30 on: December 19, 2010, 08:34:43 PM »
Yeah, I just wacked into a scr@p piece with a rotary rasp, a carving knife and then grabbed a wide wood burning tip and just stabbed the piss out of the bevel. It's 6 inches of dead-on replica. Put some furniture oil on it just to see what it looked like dark and it's a no go. Looks bad. I think it needs the lighter wood to really pull it off. I don't get the color thing so much as the texture changes popping out at you. But grabbing my pen torch and burning the bevels may be an option I'll try later today on scr@p. I don't really feel like working on it right now. Last night was sanding and more sanding.

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #31 on: December 21, 2010, 05:58:18 AM »
Well I spent a lot of time working the neck and taking care of some little things I wasn't happy with shape wise that were a real pain to work right. Here's a shot of the neck joint just after I wiped it with mineral spirits to see if I had any scratches I didn't get out. You can see some of the dry Wenge, but I think this is a pretty good representation of what the final color will look like. The recessed straplock will be located there at the top of the "slide" helping me get a better balance hopefully. I have to travel for Christmas so it's on hold for a week or so. Next step, those bevels and the belly cut. The standard Jackson tapered bevel is 1/2 wide and deep on the 45, so not the hypotenuse or length of cut. I think I may give some wider bevels a shot on some scr@p as the natural RRs that I've seen seem kinda wanting there. I'm going to have to make a wedge for the router to move farther away from the edge as I go towards the neck and the crotch of the V near the bridge. Unless someone has a better solution, because that would be great. Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas.

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #32 on: January 06, 2011, 07:04:10 AM »
Well I'm just now getting over a bad cold, so I decided to get on those bevels as they were calling out to me. The short leg went great, couldn't ask for any better, as did the outside of the long leg. The inside of the long leg turned to cr@p after the two lines intersect near the tip. It looks like garbage. I'm gonna post pics tomorrow, just wanted to vent this out right now. I set up guides for the router base itself, clamped to the body. Worked well except it slipped on me on the inside route job when I had to take one of the two off to finish it up. I guess I have to lop off the tip and join a new piece now. It's not looking good and can't be fixed. Too much material gone. I thought this was gonna be the easy part, haha. Those Amfisound bevels are looking like heaven right now. Oh well, it's just the tip. It's not like it's trash all the way to the bridge area, that's all fine.

FernandoDuarte

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #33 on: January 06, 2011, 02:28:59 PM »
that's sad dude :(

Can you route down and add a top on it?

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #34 on: January 06, 2011, 04:18:05 PM »
No. It's not really an option to me. I already circumcised the long tip and fitted a new one on. It's going to cure overnight and then I'll just give it another go. There was a joint right there pretty much exactly where the slip happened so it's not going to affect it in the long run. It was depressing last night, but now it's on the mend and I'll be more careful this time around.

FernandoDuarte

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #35 on: January 06, 2011, 04:34:13 PM »
Hope it gets right this time.

In my (not very big) experience, guitar building in a "hurry" is equal to mistakes. Take the time you need to get it best done, even because making it twice takes longer than doing once well done.

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #36 on: January 06, 2011, 04:56:34 PM »
Doing this twice is horrible and humbling, but not the end of the world or the guitar by any means.

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #37 on: January 10, 2011, 03:32:23 AM »
Here are some pics of the good bevel, the bad one and the new tip clamped up. There are two 3/4 inch long, 1/4 inch wide dowels in that new joint there to keep everything in place. I tried to just glue and clamp and that was not anywhere close to working. Sliding around is what happens without the dowels to keep things aligned(thanks Feline).







FernandoDuarte

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #38 on: January 10, 2011, 05:28:43 AM »
It's looking amazing! :D Congrats!

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #39 on: January 11, 2011, 06:09:04 PM »
Thanks man! I have two Latin Americans named Fernando cheering this guitar on, the other is a co-worker who immigrated from Uruguay. I haven't done the other bevels yet though. I do like the grain pattern that was revealed on the bevels. One thing I did notice, that I hadn't before is the wings on a Rhoads aren't curved all the way to the tip, they straighten out after the point where the bevels come together. That is another factor to how that failed bevel happened to be concave instead of straight. It will happen correctly this next time, for sure.  :D

FernandoDuarte

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #40 on: January 11, 2011, 09:43:30 PM »
Cool! :D I'm looking forward to see it finished, but I've kinda the same low credit of PhillyQ to ask people to finish their projects fast :?

JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #41 on: January 11, 2011, 11:07:24 PM »
I've never done one like this before. I thought it was gonna go faster, but it took a lot of time to sand and final shape the body. The band saw I have has a very small blade, which leave more marks to sand out than a wider one. It is also much harder to control. It took me about 45 mins to just cut the wings out. I don't have access to an oscillating spindle sander or a palm sander like my last project and this has all been sanded by hand with a sanding block.

The neck profile also took me about 5 hours total to rework. I was sanding, comparing to my Jacksons, checking with the calipers, sanding some more. It was stressful getting the heel correct, especially near the binding. I am home from work now so I am going to get the rest of the bevels routed tonight.

This weekend I will take it to my luthier friend and he will install the bridge. I am staying out of that process. He does excellent work and gives me really great prices. It will cost $50 USD, but I have to make him the template to fit the bridge into the body. He has the rest of the template set for a Floyd Rose and those will work for the routes on the back side.

Here is a picture of the bridge that is going in. It is a NOS Kahler "Killer" 2700 series. It was the top of the line Kahler Floyd style fulcrum.

A host of nice features for this trem:

Every piece on the trem is hardened steel.

The arm is screw in style with a tension adjustment screw so it will flop or stay where you had it last.

The ends don't have to be cut from the string. This is cool because it aids in stability having the string end anchored as well as locked down near the witness point.

It has the lowest profile ever for a Floyd style bridge.

The fine tuners have almost twice the range of a standard Floyd.

The saddles can be adjusted for radius, intonation AND string spacing. All without shims.

You can do "pull ups" on individual strings by pressing the string lock thumb screws that are on the back end. The amount you can go up is dependent on where the fine tuner is screwed though. You're basically playing with the rest of the range, but it's still a neat effect to put your palm on them and rock it from low to high.

The knife edge is not on the trem itself. The knife edge is located on the "posts", which are really just black machine screws. The tremolo has little pockets to accept the edge of the screw head. So when the knife edge wears, it costs 50 cents to fix, instead of refiling or replacement.




FernandoDuarte

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #42 on: January 11, 2011, 11:14:58 PM »
Sounds like a really good bridge!


About the cutting: Wenge is damn hard to cut, isn't it?? :)

Jonny

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #43 on: January 11, 2011, 11:35:02 PM »
That bridge is bitchin!
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JacksonRR

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Re: Wenge Rhoads Build
« Reply #44 on: January 12, 2011, 01:06:02 AM »
Oh my god is it ever hard to cut. I made a snow sled out of pine with the same band saw and it was like soft butter compared to Wenge.