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.

Part 9: "It looks good - how does it smoke?"

You'd almost think I knew what I was doing!
Okay, my moment of hubris is over lest I tempt the wrath of the wood gods or the ire of the router king...
In short - I'm happy with how it looks. There are many many many mistakes and goofs but overall it looks how I wanted it to. I'm only about 60% done but it looks further along than that. Here's what's cookin' today:
(FYI - there is a healthy whallop of mineral spirits on the wood for most of these images - hence why they look so sleek).

My original intention was not to create my own nut and bridge out of brass and cocobolo. When I first started planning this build I was going to make the bridge and nut out of aluminum. Because it's easy to do and cheap! You cut a peice of aluminum to size, slot the top for strings and maybe smooth out the edges so you don't hurt yourself on sharp metal. The problem is that this looks exactly like what it is - a piece of cheap aluminum, bought at home despot and repurposed for something it was never intended to be.

Then I had a brainstorm - why not use both? My plan is to cover the bridge with some kind of hand-rest - so you'll never see it. So, after I had spent the better part of 2 hours shaping, sanding, and polishing the cocobolo used for the nut - the idea of using aluminum for the bridge (which was already cut to size) sounded great!

For the curious: I sanded the cocobolo down to size (so that it would match the height of the aluminum bridge) with 150, 220, 320, and 400 grit sand-paper. Then I polished it with 000-steal-wool. I went through the same process shaping the valley that holds the brass rod. I wrapped sandpaper around the rod and shaped the valey that way - by hand. It took a while to get it right.
I cut the brass rod with a hack saw and then polished that as well with the steel-wool (after rounding off the corners with a file).



FYI - the coin is a 1937 Irish 1 penny piece. I'm toying with the idea of inlaying it right about where it is.


As you can see from the images of the headstock - something is rotten in the state of denmark. It's a whole post unto itself - but in short - the headstock now has a piece of walnut veneer on it - hiding sins most grave. I'll speak of it soon.

Part 10: Progress...

(click on the photos to see close-ups)

It's been a while since I've made any headway on this build - but I'm back at it. It's winter - what else am I gonna do?

Recent work:

Drilled the hole on the top (and the cavity in the back) for the volume knob.

Inlaid a strip of cocobolo the length of the neck and headstock

Inlaid the Irish penny piece (needs some sanding and polishing still)

Inlaid the fret-dot markers. Man, it you are off by even 0.5 mm it looks funky. Still - it was fun.

Burnt the 'frets' using a wood burning tool. Bought a metric ruler and a set of calipers for this. FYI - calipers rock.

I 'dressed' it with all the hardware for these shots. I still have a bunch of things to do before assembly. Including making a new nut. That aluminum has got to go...

Part 11: Taking her out for a test drive (aka Buzz Buzz Buzz)

Partly because I’m impatient and partly because it worked out so well on the last guitar I built – I decided to take the lapsteel out for a test drive prior to 'finishing' it. I found that it was very useful when making my Tele to assemble the instrument and see where the issues were prior to putting a finish on the wood. That way if I screwed up royally – I could still fix it without having to re-finish the guitar.

And just like last time – I’m glad I did.

In my haste to finish the guitar (so I can start playing it - for the love of all that’s holy) I was less than precise with regards to the nut and bridge construction. In short – the strings are not uniform in height or spacing – so you have to compensate while playing. This was the first time I’ve made a bridge (or nut) from scratch – so some mistakes were to be expected. It’s playable but I’m not happy with it – so I’ll be revisiting this before I shellac the instrument.

I also ran into a bigger problem - Grounding.

I know very little about guitar construction. I know less about guitar wiring. I dislike soldering and would be fully prepared to build some bloke a guitar for free if he/she will do my soldering for the next ten years. I find it that onerous.

So, imagine if you will, me poring over a wiring schematic (courtesy of Seymour Duncan) with soldering iron in hand - and realizing I have nothing to “ground” the electronics of this guitar to. See Wiki if you don’t know what grounding or a ground loop is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_(electricity)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)

The first time I plugged the guitar in it buzzed like a fridge. Like having a bee stuck in your ear for hours. It was no good and I ran back down to my workshop to unsolder everything and try again.

On my second attempt I soldered the pickup directly to the input jack – no volume or tone controls between. I went back up to the music room and found the buzz still there.

Grrrr…

While sitting there I happened to try placing a spare scrap of wire between components to see if I could ground the signal to something. I even screwed a metal screw into the cavity of the guitar in the vague hope that by connecting a wire to that I could ground the signal to the body of the guitar.

Did I mention that I know next to nothing about wiring?

At last I came across something that worked – I connected the scrap of wire to a string ferule on one end and the input jack on the other. Bingo – buzz gone!

So, one last time I went to the basement and resoldered everything. In order to do this I had to drill a tiny hole between the control cavity and the bottom of the string ferule hole. The ground wire is sandwiched between the bottom of the ferule and the hole that it sits in. Once the guitar is strung up to pitch – the string tension holds the wire in place. Not sure what I’m going to do when I put this together for real – but that’s one less problem to have to anticipate.

I am keeping the wiring for this guitar as simple as I can: One pickup, one volume knob, one varitone knob and the input jack.





So now that she doesn't sound like a 1970's alarm clock - I was able to test her out. She sounds good! I'm a crappy lapsteel player but no one can say I've got crappy gear.
Sound files coming soon!

Part 12: Shellac that puppy!

Please click on any of the images to enlarge.

So, I test drove her for a couple of months and boy does she sound good. So good - I didn't want to take her apart again - even to finish her. But I've got two other projects stewing right now and want to be done with this one. So, it's time to 'finish' this one up.

I decided to try using shellac for this build. If you are unfamiliar with what shellac is - go here.



I decided to make my own shellac instead of buying a can of it. The reason for this is that it was advertised as an easy process (it was) and the end result is supposed to come out better (it looks good to me). Making shellac is pretty easy. You buy the flakes (thank you Rockler), grind them up a bit, add denatured alcohol (how much alcihol determines the 'cut'), stir or shake the mixture, wait 24 hours, and you have shellac. I went for a 2 pound cut. I probably should have gone lighter for my final coats - but such is life.

I also heard that you should strain your shellac before using it - as it might have impurities still in the flakes (read bug parts). I did not and was happy with my results. I might try doing so next time.

After you have your shellac you have to apply it. I chose to use a brush. Next time I will try a pad (this is also called French Polishing).

I'm just about done with the shellac as of this post (maybe 1 more coat to go) and I can say that I probably will put a top coat of laquer on top of it. I wasn't going to but after all of the coats that I've done - I don't want to have to do this again. The biggest problem with shellac is that it isn't terribly resistent to water and it is defensles against alcohol. So, if I spill anything on this - I'm back to square one. If I hit this which a couple of coats of laquer - this thing will look good and be protected - so that's what I'm gonna do. Check back for updates.