Prairie Custom Guitars

Some of you may notice the Bloodcaster page is no more

I have decided to use this beautiful wood for my first bass build

Going to be close size wise

I think we can do it though.First I have to taper the pieces so the

horns of the bass will be in the wide part of the boards.

Next it's time to glue up the two sets.

I know the one set is large enough so I will use it for the top

I will work on the back set first.Going to be tight.

Just as I thought.Just a bit small.The long horn will need some filler of some kind at the end.I will worry

about that when the time comes.

There is one other bad spot that will need filling too,hey,it's the back

Other than those two spots,it looks pretty good 

Lets move to the front.This one I know is big enough

Here are a couple shots just to give you an idea of the figuring

in this wood,WOW 

OK,now to get the center figured out,Hmmmmmm

How about some Honduras Mahogany

All trimmed up,jointed and routed

Should look good

Pretty sure I am going to rear route this and not use a pickguard

Don't want to cover up any of that wood

Now,what kind of output jack

Decided since this is going to be rear routed,it would make it

much easier if I did the wire channel now.I can still route the pickup cavity after but I wont have to try to

drill this

Marked out where the cavities will be.I doubt if I will do that big of control cavity but it will be

close.Thinking on putting the output jack on the edge like a tele.The front mount on a p-bass

are nothing but trouble.

I will use the handheld router and a cutoff for a guide so I stay straight I am going to do right through.I

have an old 2x6 under to cut into so I get a nice clean edge.

OK,out with the glue.I am just going to do one cap at a time.It would be to tricky to keep both lined up

and centered at the same time.I wiped them with a damp cloth to raise the grain

Then out with the glue 

Probably a bit overkill but,never have too many clamps 

I will let this sit until after work tomorrow and then do the other cap

 Pulled the clamps and got ready to do the back cap.

We have some pretty bad cracks on the back cap.I decided to

stabilize the worst ones before I put on the back cap.

Out with the medium CA glue

Decided to fill a few on the top too while I was in the mood

 Got the glue all sanded off the back cap

Glued it on and let it sit overnight.Pulled the clamps tonight

Didn't bother with any pics of that

Did a starting roundover with the router.I always finish it by hand anyway Just wanted

something to go by to do the top contour.

I don't want to go through the cap so it wont be

contoured as much as a regular p-bass

Belt sander is a wonderful thing 

 Then it was on to the tummy cut.I didn't care if this went through

the redwood.Still not going to be as big as a regular p-bass though

Now just some sanding.Lot of that to do yet.A quick wipe

with mineral spirits gives an idea what it will look like with

a clear coat.It also shows any glue I have missed

Time to address that horn

I was thinking of filling it with some kind of epoxy but

decided to try to patch it with redwood. 

I used my flush cut saw to cut the bad piece straight and cut a

piece of redwood  and glued it in.After it dried I sanded it to shape.

Looks much better than the epoxy would have.You can still see

the joint in the face but it blended very well on the edge.With

some more sanding it should be fine,and it is on the back

Decided to try to fill the other bad spot

I mixed up some sawdust that I made from some of the scrap redwood with some CA glue.

I used it like filler,let it set and sanded it.It's not too bad.

It will probably blend better after some sealer is applied

Looks better than black epoxy would have

OK,now that the big weekend is over. Time to get back to work on a few of these

I managed to score a beauty of a neck for this.

It's a beauty

Birdseye Maple with a Pau Ferro fingerboard

It is a paddlehead so I can cut it any shape I like

I will probably stick to the p-bass head

 Just check out the birdseye on the head

And on the back

I got the neck pocket finished and I had to do a quick mock up just to see 

 Going to look pretty good

Figured it was time to get back to this

I have been waiting for a template to do the rear route. Guess I should have just made one

So,while I wait I decided to do the pickup route

Because there will be no guard on this,I want the route to be nice and tight to the pickups

The template I have leaves too much gap around the pickups

because it was designed so the guard would cover it

I took a p-bass guard and made myself a new template

After routing I had to square up the edges with a chisel,pretty snug it

Hey,I guess my measurements were correct

The wire channel even showed up in the correct spot  

 Decided to do the rear route tonight

The templates I have a a bit big but,hey its on the back

Had a chance to do the headstock shape too

Needs a bit more sanding

For the neck I have decided to try TruOil

I have heard great things about it and have done a few test pieces

It really brings out the figuring in the wood and has

a really nice silky feel.

I tested it with a couple drops of amber dye

I want to darken the neck a bit to make it closer to 

the color of the mahogany.

After the first tinted coat

I put on a nice even coat,let it sit a few minutes

and then wiped off the excess.I will let this

dry over night and then hit it with some steel wool

Now that the bugs have backed off a bit,I can get back

to spraying some of these projects

After some final sanding it's time to start putting some sealer

on this.This is a high solids sealer so it will fill in some

of the low spots.Thats the only bad thing with using burls

Lots of filling needs to be done to get them smooth

After the first coat of sealer

I will let that cure,sand it back and spray it again

Going to take a few coats

After about 3 hrs(they say you can sand after 1 hr)

I sanded it back and hit it again.I went full strength this time

The first coat was cut 50% to thin it so it would

soak into the wood better

Hmmm,it's a little foggy in here 

I will let this cure over night

Been a while for this

Invasion of the aphid like critters has kept me from doing 

much finishing so I got a chance to work on filling some

of the voids in this.I tell you,working with this burl wood

is a challenge.Lots of time is needed for filling and sanding

filling and sanding,well you get the picture.

Here is is after a couple more go rounds of sealer

Starting to level out nicely

I thought I had the neck tinted to where I wanted it

However,out in the natural light,it was still pretty light

So I did another tint coat

Much better now

After some drop filling and more sanding

It's almost ready for lacquer

Finally got this girl about ready for some lacquer

This burl wood is a bit tricky to work with but sure looks cool

WOW,twins!!