Creating the baritone frankenstrat.

[allmektig]

So.
Today I started on my newest project.
It involves the body of an old genereic strat copy, a neck from a shortscale bass, 6 guitar tuning knobs, a piece of brass for the nut and a couple of humbuckers and single coil pickups.

I don't have to many pictures yet, as I didn't think of getting any good ones while I was working on it, but there are a couple.


Drilling the new holes in the back of the neck.


And a bit of a mockup.



To get the scale length and intonation correct, I need to move the bridge back quite a bit.
Wich leaves me with the hole from the tremolo.
The plan is to stick a single coil in there, and then have two humbuckers on a black control plate.
The guitar will be sanded down and painted black with matt black regular spray paint.

I'm wondering about painting the fingerboard too, since I'm more of a "EVERYTHING MUST BE BLACK!!!" kinda guy.

Would that be a horribly bad idea?

I'll post more pictures later. The guitar is still at the workshop and I'm home now.

[newey]

Cool stuff, allmektig! Keep us apprised as this goes forward.

I think painting the fingerboard won't work very well unless you first pull the frets. To get a good result without runs will be tough, and you can't sand in between the frets very well with the frets in place. And, if you're going to pull them, that means a re-fret as well. I don't know if you're equipped to do that yourself, but if not, having a tech do it would add cost to the project.

[cynical1]

Jun 6, 2013 16:59:05 GMT -5 allmektig said:

I'm wondering about painting the fingerboard too, since I'm more of a "EVERYTHING MUST BE BLACK!!!" kinda guy.

Would that be a horribly bad idea?

For the back of the neck and headstock it's doable, but avoid the hardware store cheap spray cans. And spray a clearcoat over the black and headstock to seal it. For spraying the fingerboard...is it bad? In a word...yes.

If the fingerboard absolutely positively has to be black, sand all of the finish off of the maple...and I do mean all of it rght down to the bare wood. Which will mean pulling the frets and re-installing them later. Rub the fingerboard with denatured alcohol and acetone, let it sit, and use black leather dye once the solvents evaporate.

Use it carefully, as that stuff is wicked to get out of anything. Might take a couple of coats. Let it stand for a week, hit it with some steel wool and you have a black fingerboard.

This is the oldest cheapest trick in the world to simulate ebony.

You have noticed that painting and dying everything black wipes out your side and fretboard markers? Just thought I'd point that out. If that's no big deal, then never mind.

HTC1

[Deleted]

Useful data Cyn1. I have this question myself. Why not go for a Ebony fingerboard in the first place? Uninstall the old maple one, and install just the new ebony one? Would not be more expensive than 50 USD?

[ashcatlt]

Where you gonna find a baritone or shortscale bass neck with ebony for $50?!?

[cynical1]

Jun 7, 2013 4:05:21 GMT -5 @pyrros said:

Useful data Cyn1. I have this question myself. Why not go for a Ebony fingerboard in the first place? Uninstall the old maple one, and install just the new ebony one? Would not be more expensive than 50 USD?

It's not the expense, it's the labor. Stripping the finish off that neck will give allmektig a whole new appreciation for natural finish necks, but swapping out the maple to an ebony fingerboard, provided it even has a separate fingerboard, will more than likely increase the homicide rate over there.

I'd think long and hard about what's involved to "Paint It Black"...before it leads to your "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown"

HTC1

[cynical1]

Jun 7, 2013 11:23:47 GMT -5 ashcatlt said:

Where you gonna find a baritone or shortscale bass neck with ebony for $50?!?

I think he's just talking about a fingerboard. West African Ebony, or Gabon Ebony, would probably run around $40.00 with the radius and slots in place. Macassar Ebony is cheaper, can be quartersawn and drops another $10.00 off the deal. You will still need to dye either one to get that deep black, so it's easier just to dye the maple.

The days of getting that deep black ebony are gone, folks...unless you're sitting on that winning Lottery ticket...

It's actually not a bad idea, as you can have the new fingerboard and slots cut for an exact scale length versus fudging a short scale bass neck.

HTC1

[allmektig]

So just spraying a very thin coat of black spray paint on the fingerboard won't work?
I'm tempted to do it anyways, I mean, what's the worst that can happen?

Anyways. Couple of questions.
Today I bought some "chemical wood" at a hardware store to fill in some of those nasty chips in the body. (The previous owner of the body had actually glued the bridge from a steel string acoustic where the vibrato bridge originally was, and I weren't carefull enough when I tried to take it off)
Can I use the same stuff to fill the original holes for the tuners?

I'm going back to work a bit more on it on monday. I'll bring my camera then and take some more pictures.

[cynical1]

Jun 7, 2013 16:55:32 GMT -5 allmektig said:

So just spraying a very thin coat of black spray paint on the fingerboard won't work?
I'm tempted to do it anyways, I mean, what's the worst that can happen?

If you spray with a hard enough commercial or automotive finish, and clear-coat accordingly it might work. The final clear-coat needs to be very abrasion resistant.

You do this with cheap cans of flat black aerosol cans from the hardware or home improvement store and you'll understand my point a lot better.

Anyways. Couple of questions...Can I use the same stuff to fill the original holes for the tuners?

If you're talking about the little holes on the back of the headstock that secured the old tuners, yes. If you're talking about the through holes the pegs travel through, no. Which ones are you trying to fill?


As always, with anyone who come here, this is your guitar. You can take a chainsaw to it if it makes you happy. In the time I've been hanging out here, and decades previous, I've seen more problems OSM arise from "I mean, what's the worst that can happen?" than anything else. All we try and do here is keep everyone happy with all of their fingers.


Happy Trails

Cynical One

[ux4484]

From the way he phrased it, I think he means the original tuner post holes cyn.

Allmektig: For the new tuners, you need to fill those old tuner posts with dowel rod (snug enough it needs to be pressed/tapped in) that is glued in and sanded flat if you want any kind of stability from the new tuners.

I was going to ask about those "skid marks" behind the bridge opening, I would NOT fill that with plastic wood either (as cyn points out, it's only for small holes).

HAVE A ROUTER?

This could be a multiple boon for you. Since you are going hardtail, you could route a nice rounded rectangular box that would be easy to make an insert for. While your at making that plug, you could make inserts for the original bridge route and trem cavity as well (just thinking more body wood for a baritone is a GOOD thing for rumble).

Going cheap is one thing (often my methodology), going down and dirty... Gets you an ugly piece of unplayable junk.

On the painted fretboard: There is a reason hardware store spray paint has pictures of lawn furniture on it....

[cynical1]

Allmektig: Listen to this guy. He's giving you pearls.

Going cheap is one thing (often my methodology), going down and dirty... Gets you an ugly piece of unplayable junk.

On the painted fretboard: There is a reason hardware store spray paint has pictures of lawn furniture on it....

There should be a plaque with this carved in it to act as a mantra. True is.

Again, doing it right the first time prevents having to do it again.

HTC1

[ux4484]

Thanks cyn!

[sumgai]

ally,

Take a gander at this thread:


guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/2065/method-plugging-tremolo-opening


Long-ago member fobits (Frank) did a nice job of detailing how to make a body ready for a hardtail bridge.

HTH





sumgai

[cynical1]

Very close to how I did the fills on Project #1 and #2. I used TiteBond 2, Dremeled the seam and filled with epoxy wood filler. Sand it flat and once the paint goes on you can't see anything.

HTC1

[allmektig]

I've done a bit of progress today.
I've decided to just leave the fingerboard as it is, and paint the headstock and body.

The chemical wood I had was of the epoxy variant, so I decided to go with that to fill in the skid marks where the bridge goes.
That piece of aluminum plate is what I'm planning to make the pick guard from.







And test fitting the nut.



Filing the slots in that will be a bit exiting.
Fortunately I have several pieces of brass I can use if I mess it up.


I didn't find any 12mm dovel rod to use to plug the holes from the tuning posts, so I'll have to do that later.

[allmektig]

A bit of an update.


Plugging the holes from the tuning posts.



Reducing the size of the headstock.



I'll even out the bottom part of it later when I have a file.
If I can be bothered.

(I feel that this rules out carpentry as a future career option once and for all)

[4real]

Am I missing something here...how are you going to tune this? Is it going to be a 3x3 head or something?

[ux4484]

Jun 18, 2013 18:32:07 GMT -5 4real said:

Am I missing something here...how are you going to tune this? Is it going to be a 3x3 head or something?

I looked at this three times, and after everything else we said, I just shook my head.
Thanks for waking me up 4real.
Wrong head angle for 3x3,, un-even tuner spacing and tension angle into the nut (though that doesn't stop Reverend). Should have some interesting harmonics.

[cynical1]

Jun 17, 2013 13:40:31 GMT -5 allmektig said:

A bit of an update.


Plugging the holes from the tuning posts.



Reducing the size of the headstock.

Well, at least you used real wood to plug the old bass tuner holes.

One thing I always do when coming up with a headstock design is to use a paper template with the tuner locations and string paths scribed in. Saves a lot of "oh crap!" moments later. This headstock can still be made to work, but you're going to have to do some layout work first.

I'll even out the bottom part of it later when I have a file.
If I can be bothered.

That's an aesthetic issue, really.

Is that nut glued in place? Unless it's the light, or camera angle, you're going to have a lot of filing to do to get that brass nut down to a useable height profile...unless you're making a slide baritone guitar.

(I feel that this rules out carpentry as a future career option once and for all)

Well, pattern maker is a non-starter...

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[4real]

Hmm...well I would ahve kept that headstock and gone 4x2 and just added two guitar tuners to the other side with bass tuners above to take the massive stings this thing will likely need, or something aesthetically pleasing like that, build some kind of roller things to help with string alighnment perhaps...oh well, too late now.

It would still be possible to go 3x3 or similar I suspect, staggered tuners or something perhaps, string trees, something like that...

Am I looking at over enthusiasm here, or is there a clear plan as to where all this is headed?

Just because there is a 'hole' as well, there is no need to push a SC in there as well. The scratch plate is being replaced and customized and so, you have the option of doing anything you want. As there will be no trem and a lot of tension, might as well fill the spring cavity and everything while you are at it as well I guess and place pickups as you see fit, not where they fit!

[allmektig]

Regarding the placing of a pickup in the tremolo cavity, the idea was to see how bright it would get.
Since that would be closer to the bridge in relation to the string length than it would be on a regular guitar.

The tuner arrangement is going to be 4+2, since that's the tuners I've got.
The plan there is to figure out where to put the tuning posts to get the string as straight as possible, then chop of more of the headstock as needed.


Thanks for the paper template tip!


And yes. I know the nut will require a lot more filing.
I just didn't want to file down to much untill I had a general idea as to how to do it.
It seemed like a good idea to file off a bit less than needed, and then file of more later, than to file off to much...

I found an article on steve mac that deals with nut filing.

The strings I'm going to use on it is just regular baritone strings.
I checked the length of them, and they're made for 29 1/2 inc scale length.
This guitar is going to have a 30" scale length, so they should fit.

And I'd just like to point out that the reason for making this guitar is more to learn and get some experience than to make a good instrument.

[halfstack]

Looks like a really ambitious project. keep the progress coming .