Prairie Custom Guitars

Ok,here we go

This one I better pull up my shorts!

No comments from the Ronnie Gallery!!!!

What the hell is that....A strat!!!

Boooooooooooooooooo

Time to do a custom tele style(Sorry Fender) guitar

This one is a bit different than most

This one is my first high profile build

We just got to get that strat out of his hands!

This one will be a spalted maple capped swamp ash 

Lets start with this

Going to be lots of pics on this one

Hoping there are a few following along

Going to do the back in swamp ash

Got the blank all glued up

Layed the template on and marked it

Off to the bandsaw

 Rough cut on the bandsaw 

                                                       Front,wont really see it under the cap                                  Back

Now off to the router

Starting to take shape

Now on to the top

Pretty much the same precess

The top will get left a bit oversized.

I will trim it after it is glued on

I like clamps! 

Time to dry

After letting it dry over night the clamps are pulled

Then it's off to the spindle sander to get it close,then to the router to trim it up

Not everyone likes spalted maple,but I think it looks cool

Unfortunately the exact thing that makes it look cool makes it very

tough to work with.The  woods different state of decay give you the nice

contrasts but also give you very different hardness of wood to work with.

The light colored spalted parts are really soft while the darker parts are super hard

making it a challenge to keep flat.To help fight this and to toughen up the spalted

areas,the wood needs to be stabilized.There are a few different ways to do this

I like to use CA (Cyanoacrylate) glue.It's just a fancy name for super glue.

That being said,there are many different qualities of super glue.The stuff I use is

very strong and fast drying,unlike what you get now days in the little tubes.It comes in 

different thicknesses (thin,medium and gap filling) and will make the top rock hard

 Time to kick open all the doors.This stuff is really toxic

It will burn the lungs right out of ,especially when you are using this much

Have to take precautions 

 You also have to be careful.As this stuff cures it creates heat

Before I started

After it was pretty much cured

I wasn't on the ball with the camera

It actually hit 130* before it started to cool down

 Now we will give it an hour or so and then sand it back

Round two

Same thing,more Ca glue and more sanding

I think we are good to go now

Before I can go much farther I need some indexing points

The string through holes and neck mounting holes are next

On goes the template and off to the drill press

This will be made so it can be strung either string through body 

or just topload through the bridge

Now that we have the string through holes,we have an indexing point

to do the rest of the routing.Control cavity,bridge pickup cavity and neck pocket

Just take our time and do small passes until we have the correct depth for the neck

Then the control and pickup cavities

Time for a test fit

Now that the neck pocket is cut,I can route for the binding

Now the fun part

Cut a bunch of tape,prepare for sticky fingers

Now we will let this sit over night,then pull the tape and scrape the binding flush

After during over night I pulled the tape

Just doesn't  seem to matter how careful you are

There is always some seepage!

Now out with the good old utility knife blade and scrape it flush

Top pretty much done

Now the sides 

Well this will do for now.There will be a lot more sanding and scraping

once the tummy cut and back roundover are finished

OK,had a meeting tonight,but got back at it when I got home

 I just find it as easy to do the roundover by had.By the time you route it and 

then clean up all the bearing tracks,it's just as fast to do it by hand

It also just has more of the hand built feel,maybe I am nuts

So I did the rough work before I started the tummy cut

Then I marked out the tummy cut

Off to the spindle sander to rough it out

Then it is just a matter of getting nice straight lines with he block

Maybe I should have asked Cindy just how big to make it

Moving along....................

 I will make this guitar dual load

It will be able to string it through the body or just top load at the bridge

Next is the output jack hole

Need to mark it so I get it centered.Always looks off with binding

Next up.................

Trust me.I am a Doctor!!

This is actually one of the most stressful parts of the build

It sucks if you get too steep

Don't ask how I know that

Just for curiosity I threw it on the scale

There was no chambering.Ronnie is a big guy

Not too bad.Should be just over 4 1/2 lbs after the rest of the routing

OK,I just had too

OK,once I confirm with Ronnie thats how he wants it

I will route the rest of the cavities

Well the sides and the back seem  to light colored for the top

They need a little age,so I mixed a little tint in with the first coat of sealer

I will sand it back some and then give it another coat to even it out

Did another couple coats of tinted sealer

Looks OK,but just not real happy with it

I tried to age it more where it would be naturally aged

Inside the horn,around the tummy cut etc

These places see more sweat than others

After I sand it back again I will decide what to do

Well I have to say I am not at all happy with the results

The top looks killer

The back looks OK,but the edges look terrible

Instead of old they look like someone finished it that did not know what 

they were doing.All blotchy and it just looks bad

Unfortunately the color has soaked in enough that I can not completely remove it so.....

The only other thing to do is.......

I do have an idea but,because the tort binding is so dark a darker color  on the back

will not work all that well,but I have an idea!!!!

We need something to separate what I do from the darker color of the binding

One way to do this is to add a strip of light color

Now I can sand off as much of the yucky color and continue with my idea

Also got one more thing to add!