Prairie Custom Guitars

Custom Made Tele® Style Guitars

                        Birdseye T

This is my first actual custom order for someone other than me or a family member.Going to take my time on this one!

The person who ordered this wants a Thinline style semi-hollow body 

The main part of the body is built from a mystery wood.I bought it as Adler but thats not what it is.Way to tight of grain.Really nice wood though.It will work fine 

 

IT has some really nice grain on the side.

This is the wood we picked for the top

This wood again is from

Fraser Valley Fine Woods

I can't say enough how great their wood products are 

Here it is after it is cut out,with the neck we were going to use

 

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After chambering out the body,cutting in the f-hole and gluing it up,the buyer decided he would like to have binding on this guitar.Well because the top is almost 3/8" thick I had to use wider Les Paul style binding.I also wanted this to be different so I laminated 5 layers of binding on the top
 
 
Here is a shot of the top binding
 
 
Thought I better get something done on this one
I have been kinda hung up on the Barneycaster
 
Decided tonight I better do the ferrule holes
I didn't take pics because I forgot the camera in the house
This is what I ended up with
 
Did some more scraping on the binding
Just need to do the routes and then start to give it some finish
 
I'm thinking I better stabilize those knots too
One might get routed out for the control cavity but the other
may need a shot of CA glue to make sure it stays together
 
I give her the first coat of sanding sealer tonight
Let it dry,sanded it off and give it another
 
We will let it cure overnight
See how she looks tomorrow 
After sitting over night I decided to give them knots a bit more attention
I give them a drink of thin CA glue to seal them up good and then
leveled it out with some med. CA
I will let it sit over night again to let it cure out  
 
 

 Well after sanding down the sealer had to do the jack hole

I countersunk this one too

 

Well it was a little more binding scraping and shaping and she got her first coat of deft

 Well up in the earlier part of the page you seen the neck I was going to use

Thought I better add that I went to do a test fit in the neck pocket before I

started finishing and we discovered that it was twisted

It is a MightyMite neck and I contacted them and they are going to

replace it.Sure glad.I payed way too much for it because I liked the figuring

so I am glad I will at least get it replaced 

 

Well we have added a few coats of deft

Had a nozzle start spitting on me last night so we had to do

some wet sanding to get rid of a few drips.Worked out OK

Give it another coat tonight.The figuring is really starting to pop out

 

 

Another coat tonight 

The Birdseye T Reborn-The Skullcaster

Well with the death of the Grey T comes the birth of the Skullcaster.I never noticed but Trav pointed out some skull shaped figuring in the wood.And since it is now his,I guess we will re-name it

Because we have all the hardware we were going to use on the Grey T,we will be using it on this one.One problem,Humbuckers

Well nothing the router and Dremel can't handle.

Got it routed and did a quick mock up so Travis could see it

 

 

Looks pretty good.Hope he likes it 

 

Well thought I better give it a wetsanding after all the router work etc last night 

After the wetsand I decided to try drop filling a couple low spots

 

 

Hopefully after these cure I can sand them flat and it will keep me from having to put on so many coats to get it totally level 

 

Just an update

A couple more coats

Not to sure how many more we will need

 

 Well the finish is finished

Put on the last coat Apr 5th

Now time to let it sit

Here is a higher res picture

 

Well just an update

Did a check on the finish.Pretty much ready to buff out

Too bad there is no neck here for it yet,but thats another issue

I will just let it hang until the neck is here.It will only take one night

to buff this out after the neck arrives

 

Update

Since I had everything out buffing out the Nutcaster

I decided to buff this one out too

Looks pretty good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well now that we have the twisted neck issue

all straightened out,and I have a new neck,it's time to start

assembling this thing.Here is the new neck

 

 

 

 

I printed off some logo's and sprayed them with some poly

They will have to dry a couple days and then I will put them on

While they are drying,it is time to fit the neck in the body.

Had to do a bit of scraping to get the lacquer build up removed.

Now we have a nice tight fit

 

 

I might stick on a couple tuners so I can line up the neck and

the bridge.I wont mount them permanent yet because

they will have to come off when the decal goes on.It would be

nice to have everything ready for final assembly when the decal is finished 

 

Decided to get the decal on first

Printed it out,misted it a few times with some spray poly

Now we cut it out,and put it on,wipe off the excess water

I will let it sit for a day to dry and then clear over it 

 

 

It's getting there

 Well I think it is time to start putting this thing together

I sanded an buffed out the headstock,installed the tuners

Cleaned out the neck pocket,drilled the holes in the neck.

Then I mounted the neck and bridge and lined them up

 

Then I wired up the control plate

 

 

Now,I need to decide how to mount the front pickup.

We were going to go with no guard but......

I was thinking on maybe a special cut guard

I need a ring for the front pickup anyway,hmmmmm

May have to give this some thought 

 

I have decided I will make a pickup ring

I am going to use 3 ply pickguard material

I think the white will go good with the binding

 

 

Lets get this in and get it lined up

 

All lined up,pickups mounted

Wired the pickups,put on the control plate

Strings,string tree and we are about finished

Just need to do a final setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of pics