Partscaster

[conorb]

This is my first attempt at guitar building/assembly.

Specs are:

1 piece swamp ash body
Quartersawn maple neck with rosewood fretboard
Sperzel locking tuners
Jumbo stainless frets
Danny Gatton (Barden) tele pickups
All Callaham hardware and switches

I decided to cut a 'tummy-cut' into the body and finish it myself. It's been quite a long journey and doing this in the middle of the wet and cold Oregon winter hasn't really helped. I've been working with the nitro-cellulose lacquer and after about 10 coats of clear it's starting to come together.

I probably should have picked an easier finish to accomplish then transparent green put I really wanted to show off the grain of the wood.

Based on the results I should probably stick with metal.









Conor

[conorb]

Conor

[Bob Ross]

Tele with a tummy-cut, what a great idea!

You made the neck by hand? Need more pics of that, that's not an undertaking for the meek!

[Dave Porter]

great name too Conor.
Ah, will it plane?

[jimi]

Nice tort! Got any pics of it all put together?

[conorb]

Nice tort! Got any pics of it all put together?

That's how it looked yesterday (1/31/010) - I'm getting there.

More pics after more lacquer and lot's of buffing.

conor

[GravityAngel]

Damn nice! want to build up a Stew-Mac tele kit for myself at some point, only problem is I have too many guitars already!
Cheers

[conorb]

Well, I was doing like coat 10 or 12 or something and I must have gotten it a little thick since the lacquer blistered.

When it dried I tried to cut it and then sand it smooth. Unfortunately during the sanding there were some lacquer flakes that got 'mushed' around and embedded into the clear in various spots on the body.

Needless to say - not good.

So, more sanding, more smoothing, a bit more dye and some more sealer.

Maybe in a week or two I might be back where I was.

original chunks:



sanded:



re-dye:



new sealer:



Have a few more sealer coats to go.

Right now I'm a little disappointed and enjoying a nice glass of wine.

</sigh>

conor

[jimi]

That sucks! Don't let it bring you down (...it's only castles burning. Sorry, I couldn't resist that). It'll look great in the end but will probably sound even better.

[edoz]

Nice, and I love how you had it in a bike stand:)

[nbrewste]

Nice finish. How did it turn out?

I built a Strat homage a few years back w/ a three piece body (birdseye maple & mahogany -- it's heavy). Lots of time with a spokeshave and sandpaper!

[conorb]

Nice finish. How did it turn out?

I built a Strat homage a few years back w/ a three piece body (birdseye maple & mahogany -- it's heavy). Lots of time with a spokeshave and sandpaper!

I decided I just couldn't do it anymore and took the body to the guy who paints our bikes.

My wife and his wife picked out a nice color (don't remember what - hey I was depressed). Anyway the painter got it finished and he said it was blotchy so he has to re-do it. I know, I know. Cursed right?

Anyway, now I don't feel so bad but it's going to be another week or two before I get the body back. I think it's going to be metallic blue with candy green over the top or metallic green with candy blue - or whatever. So something turquoise-ish.

It still should be perfectly fine once it's finished but it won't be nitro finish which is what I was trying to do.

Conor

[OnTheEllipse]

hey conor, we've been doing a video series on guitar building....you might find it interesting? check it out if you have some time

http://www.prsguitars.com/detail/

[conorb]

hey conor, we've been doing a video series on guitar building....you might find it interesting? check it out if you have some time

http://www.prsguitars.com/detail/

Those are really cool; thanks!

I've always admired PRS. Nice stuff.

Conor

[conorb]

Alright, it is finally done!

I had my set back on doing the transparent green finish and was pretty disappointed but am now very happy with the overall result.

The final color is a metallic blue with candy green over the top so the body will look blue to green to turquoise depending on the light situation. Also the metallic is very nice.

I can definitely see us using this color on a frame some day.

The name derives from my astrological sign (Taurus) and wanting to use a bull as a logo. After some research I discovered that Bos Taurus is the scientific name for bovine including bulls and oxen with the genus being Bos. So I decided to make it "Boss" and go from there.

















Overall with the jumbo frets and using 11's for strings it plays like a dream with a fat "bossy" tone. I've got a small niggly issue with the control knobs staying on but that should be easy to sort out.

I played it for several hours on Thursday with some friends as part of an small blues jam and had a bunch of fun.

Conor

[Dave Porter]

Conor, great looking. congrats!
dave

[jimi]

That thing looks hot! Glad it all worked out in the end.

jimi