Custom Coronado II Project

[u6crash]

On 7/18/2023 at 5:14 AM, gardo said:

The headstock is evolving into something nice.  Had you considered slightly aging the headstock finish so it’s not “newt” looking than the body

Sort of. I'm not going to ding up the surface of the wood and I think it's getting painted black. But what I'll do with the shellac is use a brush to apply it so that it looks kind of consistent with the body.

Body doesn't look remarkably different now. I'm letting it dry longer between coats and using a brush now instead of spraying. Here's some silly stuff I'm doing in the meantime.

This is a jig I did today for drilling the holes for the tuner bushings straight. I'll cut out a replica of the headstock and test it before I do the actual thing. Had to run to the store for a 11/32 drill bit. I'd have ordered a forstner, but I couldn't find that size readily. I think this will be straight enough.

Not looking forward to this. This scrap of plywood has 8 different grits of sandpaper (4 to a side) stuck down with double stick tape. 400-3000. I don't think I need to accomplish a mirror finish, but the better they look before I plate them, the better they will be.

Picked up some nylon string to fish parts through the guitar cavities. I might get around to making a cardboard jig this week and pre-wiring the pots, jack, and switch. Saw in my parts bin that one of my pots is left handed. Hope I have enough of the right kind.

[u6crash]

I'm sure glad I made a test headstock first.

 

Can you tell which one is crooked? It's not just one.

Used my drill jig and it was off. I'm going to buy a forstner bit. As far as I can tell, no one makes an 11/32 forstner bit, so I'll go down to 5/16. The bushings pushed in easily into this pine. I feel like with a mallet and some love they will go into a slightly smaller hole on the maple neck.

The other part of this exercise was to see how it would be to shape the profile of the headstock with the tools I have. I rough cut with a jigsaw and cleaned it up with an oscillating spindle sander and a file, followed by hand sanding. It's not sanded as fine as I would sand the final product, but I feel like the proof of concept is there. The point at the top is the hassle. It's pretty clear why more headstocks don't have a notch like that. 

This piece of pine is thicker than the neck, thus why my staggered tuners don't emerge from the top as expected. I double checked that they will in fact be long enough for the neck.

If I get real ambitious tonight I might do some electroplating. I'm letting the shellac cure more before I go sand the body.

[mrbrown49]

Love to see a project thread on here again.  Keep it up!

 

Close to the edge hammering oversized bushings into hard wood like maple is likely to split.  Ream it to the proper size first.

[daddymack]

2 hours ago, mrbrown49 said:

Love to see a project thread on here again.  Keep it up!

Close to the edge hammering oversized bushings into hard wood like maple is likely to split.  Ream it to the proper size first.

My thought exactly. Maple can be very unforgiving.

[u6crash]

Delays. On top of things not going right with this project, my priority has been job searching. Anyone need a junior UX designer? Anyway...

It's electroplating day!

My finest wet sandpaper is 3000 grit. I went ahead and polished it with some toothpaste for that last bit of minty shine. Not going for a mirror finish, but this didn't cost me any extra money.

Here is the part in the bath. I think I messed up at first by allowing the lead to touch the solution (the lead is not made of nickel) and I fixed that later.

Four parts in various states. Clockwise from top left: Raw brass part, plated part from previous attempt,.part plated today prior to polishing, and polished and plated part.

Couldn't resist a mockup shot.

I'm debating how I'm going to mount everything. At one point I thought I would just have the screws of the pickup rings hold the pickup against the body. Also realizing I should figure out a way to recess the bottom side of the black spacer ring. I'd really like to do it without buying another tool.

Been practicing the drilling and reaming of tuner holes and I'm not getting them consistent enough. I have a reamer arriving later today, so maybe I'll have some headstock progress to share soon.

[u6crash]

One more little update.

Reamer arrived. It seems okay. I had some test holes drilled already. Here is what it looks like with the bushings in and tuners installed from behind.

It's not perfect. It might be good enough. There isn't a ton of leeway with the posts in the bushings, but there is some. The thin board is just applying enough pressure on the tuners to line them up. The low e (far right) is the one that is off most. I don't know that I'll get it much better without some expensive jigs.

Maybe I'll get brave enough to drill into the real neck tomorrow.

[daddymack]

4 hours ago, u6crash said:

One more little update.

Reamer arrived. It seems okay. I had some test holes drilled already. Here is what it looks like with the bushings in and tuners installed from behind.

It's not perfect. It might be good enough. There isn't a ton of leeway with the posts in the bushings, but there is some. The thin board is just applying enough pressure on the tuners to line them up. The low e (far right) is the one that is off most. I don't know that I'll get it much better without some expensive jigs.

Maybe I'll get brave enough to drill into the real neck tomorrow.

Plating looks great!

When doing anything that could ruin your project, remember the 3 Ms: Mark, Measure, Measure Again.

This will save you from TFYF [Trying to Fix Your Fnckup]

[gardo]

On 9/4/2023 at 7:21 PM, u6crash said:

One more little update.

Reamer arrived. It seems okay. I had some test holes drilled already. Here is what it looks like with the bushings in and tuners installed from behind.

It's not perfect. It might be good enough. There isn't a ton of leeway with the posts in the bushings, but there is some. The thin board is just applying enough pressure on the tuners to line them up. The low e (far right) is the one that is off most. I don't know that I'll get it much better without some expensive jigs.

Maybe I'll get brave enough to drill into the real neck tomorrow.

I’m enjoying the progress. The last major project I worked on before retiring was building an industrial wire plating line. You have it right down to the most basic form. 
Thanks for the upvote. 

[u6crash]

Baby steps.

Back side of the headstock with a piece of scrap pushing the tuners in line. I used a awl to mark the holes for the tuner screws, but haven't drilled them yet.

Front side. Bushings aren't pushed in quite all the way. I have staggered height tuners so I won't need string trees.

Headstock shaped! I still have to rig up a sanding tool to get in between the point and the curve at the top. It might be as simple as a rubber eraser with sandpaper wrapped around it.

Hopefully I continue to make a little progress tomorrow.

[gardo]

I like the shape,it really turned out well.

The B tuner alignment looks to be a bit of a challenge, do you have any ideas ?  
If that’s the way it fits the screws won’t go in very easily. I would probably consider using a small file or a dremel and match the openings enough to get the screws in

There is always a way to make it work.

Edited September 23, 2023 by gardo

[daddymack]

14 minutes ago, gardo said:

I like the shape,it really turned out well.

The B tuner alignment looks to be a bit of a challenge, do you have any ideas ?  
If that’s the way it fits the screws won’t go in very easily. I would probably consider using a small file or a dremel and match the openings enough to get the screws in

There is always a way to make it work.

saw that as well, but they look like they are already installed in the finished headstock shot...which, as noted, turned out looking cool!

[u6crash]

12 hours ago, gardo said:

The B tuner alignment looks to be a bit of a challenge, do you have any ideas ?  

 

That's probably a function of there being some amount of wiggle room and them not being perfectly straight when I took the picture. When I did the punching for the awl, everything was lined up pretty well. If the absolute worst happens, I already have a dowel on hand to plug and redrill a hole. 

One thing I haven't figured out/decided on, is how far the bushings should push in with just hand held force. There was no point in pushing them all the way in at this point if I had to push them out again, but I wonder how wide I should ream those holes prior to final installation.

About to go out to the garage and sand a little more. Might get as far as painting the headstock black today.

[gardo]

8 hours ago, u6crash said:

That's probably a function of there being some amount of wiggle room and them not being perfectly straight when I took the picture. When I did the punching for the awl, everything was lined up pretty well. If the absolute worst happens, I already have a dowel on hand to plug and redrill a hole. 

One thing I haven't figured out/decided on, is how far the bushings should push in with just hand held force. There was no point in pushing them all the way in at this point if I had to push them out again, but I wonder how wide I should ream those holes prior to final installation.

About to go out to the garage and sand a little more. Might get as far as painting the headstock black today.

Glad to hear the alignment is good. You’ve done such a great job As I should have known the holes ‘were right. I recently put 10mm tuner bushings in a Squier . They pressed in completely with moderate thumb pressure..  I agree that there is no need to press them completely until it’s finished.

Keep the updates coming. I look forward to them

[u6crash]

Blacked out and drying.

Instead of spraying the black, it is an acrylic ink that I brushed on. I first sealed with shellac, then brushed black, sealed, and did another coat of black. There's a possibility this ink will shrink and crack over time, but I'm okay with that.

Group shot.

The neck came with a thin coat of nitro and I'm debating if I want to spray more or not. I might hold off and see how it feels. I ordered this neck a V back profile and I hope it's not a problem. I think when I ordered it I figured the worst case scenario would be that I'd sand it down closer to the standard C shape.

[u6crash]

Well, phooey.

Doing a test run/dry fitting and inventory before wiring anything. Learnings:

My four 500k pots are short shaft. They get through and I can get the nut started, but just barely. Ordering long shaft pots soon. (One pictured is a long shaft 250k)

Have two 0.047uf and 0.033uf paper in oil capacitors. I'd kind of had it in my head to use 0.022uf and a 0.015 (just to be different). I'll do more reading. Maybe I'll be different by going with 0.033. Neck and bridge are 7.8k and 11.8k respectively. Might even mod my pots to be no load at 10.

Standard Switchcraft Jack is too short. Deep panel jack is too wide. I could widen the hole for the deep panel jack, but I feel the way it mounts is not meant for this application. 

Have not made a pickguard, but I will. Hollow top bracket in my cart now.

Pickup selector switch is good. Straplock buttons on hand, although I have black pads instead of white. I'm tempted to go to the shops in town and see if they'd trade parts for parts just so I don't have to spend any more money.

Pre-slotted nut, trapeze tailpiece, and bridge ready to go. Vintage cloth wire with braided shield. What am I missing?

[u6crash]

Hrm. I found this sold listing for an original Rowe wiring harness. It used 1 meg pots for volume and 250k for tone. And maybe no capacitors? Wild.

Edit: No, there are caps. I found another one for sale and I'm trying to look at it and figure out how it all connects. I don't know that I'd wire it this way, but I'm fairly open minded. Found some Gretsch folks who swear by the 1 meg pot setup, with a caveat that it doesn't play well with dirty pedals. I'm probably going to do a lot more reading. Not sure this is the best use of my time today.

Edited September 26, 2023 by u6crash

[daddymack]

3 hours ago, u6crash said:

Well, phooey.

 What am I missing?

Knobs...?

I will suggest you put a mounting plate for the jack [old dry wood] and open the aperture a bit. I have had to do this several times for [my and other people's] hollow/semi-hollow guitars/basses.  In the long run, it solves potential repair issues...like if the side wall 'caves', which I have seen happen...on older Harmony, Gibson, Gretsch, Silvertone...[it was the first mod I did to my 'hollow beast'].

 

[u6crash]

3 hours ago, daddymack said:

Knobs...?

I will suggest you put a mounting plate for the jack [old dry wood] and open the aperture a bit. I have had to do this several times for [my and other people's] hollow/semi-hollow guitars/basses.  In the long run, it solves potential repair issues...like if the side wall 'caves', which I have seen happen...on older Harmony, Gibson, Gretsch, Silvertone...[it was the first mod I did to my 'hollow beast'].

 

I have knobs. I lucked out in that the original knobs were some off the shelf variety that is still being made today. At one point I was going to get fancy and make wooden knobs with buffalo nickels inlaid in the top. But I'm running out of patience.

I kind of hate to put more holes in the guitar, but you have a good point about old wood. I'll look around. I might even have a spare plate.

 

 

[daddymack]

so...no Bigsby, eh?

[badpenguin]

Floyd! Floyd! Floyd! 

[u6crash]

Checking parts before I wire them up.

Wasn't paying attention and got CTS "The Art of Tone" 525k pots. 5% tolerance has them ranging from 518k to 544k. (They could have been between 450-550 with 10% 500k)

For a while I thought I'd do special/different wiring (TV Jones tone pot mod, Gibson 50s wiring, etc) but not everything has to be so complicated.

Going to use .0033uf caps on the tone pots because that's what I have closest to .0022uf. Might do a treble bleed on one of the volume knobs with a .0001uf cap (measures at 860pf). The only part I am still waiting on is the jack plate I ended up ordering. And I am going to grab a gold paint pen for the headstock tonight or tomorrow.

[u6crash]

I'm getting impatient and sloppy. Deep breaths....

Paper template in place for setting screw holes for pickups.

Shown with pickups in place. I used a pen and an awl to make the holes. It's clear by eye that the original pickup routs were not aligned with anything, because they really didn't have to be, but I didn't want to trust the alignment of the original screw holes, either.

Eight tiny holes in place.

The holes in the corners of the cavity are to allow for the round head of the screws holding the pickups to the face of the body. They aren't perfect, but they don't have to be. These are the black trim pieces that still have the protective paper on them.

Tiny failure here. I tried to drill the holes in the black plastic large enough that they didn't need to be a perfect fit. You can see the alignment is a little off with the nickel trim pieces. I have some thoughts on how to fix it, and if all else fails I have four spare black plastic trim pieces. And I could go without them if I really wanted to.

Some pre-wiring done. I have dry fitted every piece so it should all fit. I have pulled parts through with string alone, but I think I'll try tubing and string so that the strings don't get tangled.

Acquired gold paint pen. Will be practicing my penmanship. The pen has a bit of a chisel tip, which I didn't realize when I bought it. Should be fine.

[gardo]

44 minutes ago, u6crash said:

I'm getting impatient and sloppy. Deep breaths....

Paper template in place for setting screw holes for pickups.

Shown with pickups in place. I used a pen and an awl to make the holes. It's clear by eye that the original pickup routs were not aligned with anything, because they really didn't have to be, but I didn't want to trust the alignment of the original screw holes, either.

Eight tiny holes in place.

The holes in the corners of the cavity are to allow for the round head of the screws holding the pickups to the face of the body. They aren't perfect, but they don't have to be. These are the black trim pieces that still have the protective paper on them.

Tiny failure here. I tried to drill the holes in the black plastic large enough that they didn't need to be a perfect fit. You can see the alignment is a little off with the nickel trim pieces. I have some thoughts on how to fix it, and if all else fails I have four spare black plastic trim pieces. And I could go without them if I really wanted to.

Some pre-wiring done. I have dry fitted every piece so it should all fit. I have pulled parts through with string alone, but I think I'll try tubing and string so that the strings don't get tangled.

Acquired gold paint pen. Will be practicing my penmanship. The pen has a bit of a chisel tip, which I didn't realize when I bought it. Should be fine.

Overall I would say it’s outstanding. Sure there may be something you’re not quite satisfied with but you are probably the toughest critic. I think it’s great 

[u6crash]

12 minutes ago, gardo said:

Overall I would say it’s outstanding. Sure there may be something you’re not quite satisfied with but you are probably the toughest critic. I think it’s great 

Thank you! I'm starting to get excited. You have no idea how many false starts I've had in the last 20 years. My one success was assembling a Carving bass kit (I wish they still made kits; those were a great value).

Second attempt with black trim rings.

This one looks successful. I earlier made the mistake.of not lining them up when I drilled the pilot holes through the plastic. Both were parts I custom ordered through Send Cut Send, and I think I omitted the holes in the plastic because I thought they might have to bend substantially, thus changing the distance between centers.

Not sure how much more I'll get done today. Should have mowed the lawn. Should probably eat something.

I don't have to make a pickguard, but I'm going to.

[gardo]

1 hour ago, u6crash said:

Thank you! I'm starting to get excited. You have no idea how many false starts I've had in the last 20 years. My one success was assembling a Carving bass kit (I wish they still made kits; those were a great value).

Second attempt with black trim rings.

This one looks successful. I earlier made the mistake.of not lining them up when I drilled the pilot holes through the plastic. Both were parts I custom ordered through Send Cut Send, and I think I omitted the holes in the plastic because I thought they might have to bend substantially, thus changing the distance between centers.

Not sure how much more I'll get done today. Should have mowed the lawn. Should probably eat something.

I don't have to make a pickguard, but I'm going to.

Pickgaurd ? It will be interesting to see what shapes you come up with. Following this thread is great