another good working day

Didn't lose my time today, having access to a band saw, I could cut my Ikea butcher block as a modified telecaster - though I still don't know if I should use my Microfret neck or wait until I can buy a baritone neck (the extra horn makes of course more sense with a longer scale neck)...

I also prepared planks for my next plank guitars and advanced finally on the fuzz box project - I should  finish it soon since I just had some enlightenments about electronics and I'm not stuck anymore...

Ikea birch wood butcher block, an ur-telecaster...

Here it is! I hinted at it last week, and due to the generosity of a benefactor (a little bit surprise to be asked for her humble kitchen appliance), I managed to put my hands on a second hand (with vintage patina) Ikea butcher block (out of production) made of glued birch cubes (I still don't know why birch is not a common tonewood for electric guitars, when it is used for its resonance for drums and speaker cabinets...), with the perfect dimensions to cut a telecaster out of it, Zachary style! 

Now I used the sitar bridge on the Doppelcaster so it would be a more standard project (also I have a lot of tele gear leftovers from my previous projects) though with a slightly different design (time to try the double lower horn) and the new mini-humbucker I bought lately in neck position. Also I don't know if I will use my Micro-Frets neck with its shorter scale or get a tele neck, or even a baritone mod one... 

re-refinishing the Televangelist

You may remember, last year I refinished my Televangelist with a glossy varnish that was right away abused in a performance (you can see how on this video).

I thought first that I would  slightly sand this varnish by hand and put a mate one, but the layer was so thin that it lightened the black paint, so I decided to remove everything and refinish it with wood stain and oil...

Microfret neck and Sitarcaster

Just bought on eBay this MicroFrets neck - from a 1968 Calibra - at a fair price, but missing its trademark MicroNut. Before I received it, I had planed to use it for my Butcher Block Sitarcaster project, so I wouldn't have to wait until I've saved enough money to buy a baritone neck for the Doppelcaster and recycle one of its necks for the new project (is it clear?) 

But then I found out that the Calibra has a super short scale, and that it doesn't fit at all for a tele - and on top of that, Ikea has discontinued its famous massive birch butcher block of 48x38 cm in which you could cut a tele body, so the project goes back to limbos - not for too long I hope... 

Here you can see a cardboard model of the  Sitarcaster body with its double lower horn - I'm quite proud of it, a classic design with a killer detail (the MicroFrets headstock would have looked terrific with it, with its Starcaster look)... 

Now I have to figure out what to do with this neck, my best idea so far is to make quickly a total junk guitar out of a battered plank I picked up in the street and the left over gear that lays around on my desk for month... But the frets are really micro and this guitar would require super low action, something you don't improvise!

more sketches

Have another project to add to my long list, but like the Doppelcaster, something concrete and not overly difficult to do - it requires just a little bit of money...

After the Doppelcaster I have some leftover gear that allows me to make another telecaster, I always loved the idea of the Ikea Butcher Block Tele created by Zachary, and I discovered recently that Rockinger proposes sitar bridge saddles for teles, so I was almost ready to make a Butcher Block Sitarcaster, but something didn't work: I don't see the point of just copying a tele since I'm mostly interested in guitar design. So I've been playing for a while with tele variations, unsuccessfully until I finally found what I want to do, it's the model H above.

I found this idea of the double lower horn a while ago and it didn't feel promising until now - I'm very slow in my process but it's not a waste of time after all!

more later...

Self playing Doppelcaster

Life is cruel: the very day i finished the Doppelcaster, I played on it one hour - enough to understand that it will take a long time of practice to figure out what to do with it - then I turned it into the sound installation for which it's been made. So it's currently hanging on a wall of the Akademie Schlos Solitude in Stuttgart, next to the video I posted previously, both being part of the exhibition Angel Meat I already mentioned. Now I'm back home, won't see it before one month - then the hardest will come...

Doppelcaster

Ladie and Gentlemen, the Doppelcaster!

Here it is, the Doppelcaster is born (and I must say that I'm quite proud of myself)! 

The lower neck is stringed in Nashville tuning (you can buy the set from D'Addario), the upper one is supposed to be replaced by a baritone one as soon as I've saved enough money to buy one. There are two outputs, so I can play each neck with its own effects... Better pictures will come soon, and a demo once I figured out what to do with a double neck guitar... I feel like playing like John McLaughlin but I'm not able to, so I have to find my own way...

You can also noticed that I'm extremely bad at soldering, but after a lot of sweat and some help from Seymour Duncan's wiring diagrams, I managed to do the job - and it works... 

more pickguards

Ferrules and pickguard variations

the finish

Two layers of wood stain and one of oil - still drying... 

in spite of the hours of standing, there's been a few small patches of the previous finish left, that I discovered too late, after I put the color. At first I was  desperate and decided to cover it all with lack, then I put all the gear on and after all, the few flaws end up looking like a slight relicking - absolutely involuntary since I usually hate that - and it feels good. Tonight I finish the oiling and tomorrow I start soldering (gasp!)

sanding the doppelcaster

Had to interrupt the Doppelcaster making for a few days because of performance tonight (yes, the performance for which the guitar was initially planed - didn't make it!) 

Thought I would post a few some beginner's considerations. First, the polyurethane finish goes deeper than I thought, I made a first sanding that felt good enough, but when I tried wood stain on it, it proved not enough and it needed a few extra hours sanding to reach the bare wood. 

I learned a few things doing this: it's way better to work in your basement with protecting goggles and dust mask than in your living room (yes, I can be dumb sometimes)! And you shouldn't spend three hours machine sanding in the morning when you rehearse music in the afternoon - I actually still have sore hands one week later!  And wood stain is not the best solution for refinishing, because it requires a perfectly neat wood.

doppelcaster project | stage 8