Part 8: Holy Walnut Batman!

I found out while making my first electric that guitars are in fact full of holes. I took so much wood out of the Telecaster that it's surprising that there was any wood left to color the tone.

I'm a big fan of shaping and sanding wood but to make it look like you want (and for it to function as a guitar) you gotta go digging. So here are some pictures of the lapsteel being excavated.


String holes
The strings will go through the body - so these six holes for that. I'll be using tiny ferules to smarten up the appearance. Those will be installed after I put a finish on the guitar. So for a while these'll look a little rough. The big hole right be hind the six small ones is either going to be for the volume control knob of the varitone switch. My money's on the varitone.


Control Cavity
So, I said I wasn't proud of the bottom of the guitar (and you can see why) but I figured if someone is really interested in this - they'll want to see how the whole thing comes together. The six big holes are again for the strings and will have larger ferules to hold the strings in place. I'm using the same type of ferules I used for the Telecaster build - mainly because they came out so well on that guitar that I figured why mess around with a good thing? The big cavity is for the varitone (or volume) control/knob. I'll have to get a soldering iron in there and the varitone switch is big - so I made the hole big. This will be covered either by a piece of wood or a plastic control cavity. I haven't decided which yet. The streaks and light colored bits are wood filler for all of the miss-matched joints. I haven't finished filling all of the seams and cracks yet but I will prior to gluing the covering on the back.

The back (or backing) is usually fabric - to help the lap steel stay on your lap. As of right now I'm vacillating between black felt (which is traditional) a yoga mat (which is super effective), and a swath of leopard print which I've had for 10 years (I don't know why I kept it for a decade either). Either way - there will be a gap in the fabric so that I can get to the string ferules and electronics.


The hole for the imput jack.
Yeah, this was no fun to drill. The first inch or so was done with a forsner bit and the remaining 3/4 of an inch was done with a standard bit. It took forever but now the input jack and the control cavity are connected. I was a bit nervous about this hole because there is a crack in the walnut that I had to drill through. It ended up being fine but just like on the telecaster build I had to put my whole body into drilling this hole - for a long time. ...I need to buy a drill press...



I also had to drill the holes through the headstock for the tuning pegs. I'm going to talk more about the headstock in a future post. It was a difficult process all around and deserves its own post.
For the record - this was a pain in the ass. If you can get your hands on a drilling template (Stewart MacDonald) and a drill press (craigslist) - do it!
Those two items would have made this part of the build much easier.

Also, as you can see the slope leading from the neck to the headstock is a bit mis-shaped. Right where the headstock begins it gets very thin and then gets thicker as you get to the end of the headstock. This is technically a no-no. Right at that thin part is where all of the string tension is going to sit. Walnut is tough - but I'm asking a lot. This was one of those times where hand shaping things didn't work in my favor. It looks pretty decent (considering how much wood I shaved off by hand) but time will tell if this is the Achilles heal.