Week 13

This week I started spray painting my guitar body. I used a carabiner and eye hook on the bottom of my guitar to hang it from the ceiling while it dries. I learned from Ben that certain types of spray paint mixed with the wrong weather can cause your paint to bubble.

Week 12

This week I finished wiring my electronics using a soldering iron and flux. I tested the electronics by attaching them to my pickups, plugging into an amp and using a tuning fork against the pickups to see if I get feedback through the amp

Week 11?

This week we started soldering the electronics to our guitars. I learned that you feed the flux into the iron where you want it to go instead of painting it onto where you want the wires connected.

Week 10

This week I put my pickups together. Using a Phillips head screwdriver, I put two screws with springs acting as nuts through the side of the plates, securing them to the pickup. I learned that certain plates belong to certain pickups as the bridge pickup plate is slightly slanted, slanted up towards the bridge and down to the neck.

Week 9

This week I used 1,000 grit sand paper and steel wool to make my frets all shiny after I re-shaped them using a diamond grit tool thingy. Don’t know what it’s called but it made my frets round and level. I learned that drop off at the end of your frets is okay but not at the top because then your strings will buzz.

Week 8

This week I used a rasp to put relief cuts into the sides of my body. I learned that size and density of a guitar body effect the way it sounds. The rasp is like a very harsh file, meant to subtract material from an object. Like my fingers.

Week 6?

This week I cleaned, bent, cut and pressed my frets into my fretboard. Using acetone I cleaned the oils and grime from the fretwire. To bend the wire, I put it through a “pipe bender” like machine set to bend the wire at a 12 inch radius. I then cut the wire to size and pressed them into the fretboard using a drill press with an attachment fit for the fretwire.

Week 5

This week I used a file to shape the back of my neck into a smooth transition from headstock to neck. I also drilled holes in the body of my guitar to accommodate the wires for the electronics in my guitar. As for the neck itself, I used 80 and 220 grit sandpaper to shape and smooth the neck of my guitar.

Week 5

This week I glued my fingerboard to the neck of my guitar. Using original wood glue, I put a thin bead down the neck of my guitar, with a strip of painters tape protecting the truss rod in it’s slot. Mr.Mcormack then helped me secure the fingerboard using a super long rubber band, wrapping it up and down the neck, making sure it’s as tight as can be. I learned that some guitar builders are so good at this process, they can apply the glue without tape and without an excess of glue squeezing out the sides of the neck.

Week 4

This week I learned how to glue a fretboard to the neck of my guitar. I used original wood glue and rubber bands to secure the fingerboard.