The "CourtneyCaster"

My friend Courtney has been dying for a nice guitar of her own and I decided it was time to build one together. Its a nice 2pc alder body that we took down to 1.6" thick to help save some weight. Courtney is like 5'1" tops so the thinner body is good for her.

Anyways, some pictures of todays work

...before buffing
The buffer is still the best investment this year!
Tonerider Classic Blues pickups, PIO .047cap
"CourtneyCaster"!
Strung up, intonated ect ect




I need to take another picture with the owner *in focus* before she leaves! The smile through my camera completely out of focus!!

Day 1 of Fretting Day...

Stars must have aligned today. Some replacement parts for the CNC that were due today didn't make it so we all bailed out of the shop early. Right around the time we were calling it a day I get an email from Dave - "Have 3 hours to kill today after work, you working on guitars?"... well I guess we'll have too now! So I cranked out an extra rack to keep at Steve's and headed over to get a jump start on fretting.

Dave in fancy work clothes... knocking down the sanding sealer I shot last week.
Rolling out some fretwire in Steve's home built radius jig.
Cut and ready to press in!
We've been using Steve's drill press with the StewMac caul to press the frets in.
One down...
Three down.......

We did end up using CA glue on these to make sure they stay seated.
Working our way down. One unexpected upside to the drill press is we could lock the quill while the glue set.
hammering the ends a bit over radius.
Snipping the ends of the wire off at the board.
I don't know why but I thought I was making a funny face here...

After showing Dave what to shoot for he took over.
Before Dave got there Steve and I did my bound 'bird. Steve's using his homemade fret nipper.
pressed and edges filed.
Leveling the frets
And recrowned.

I PROMISE on Sunday we'll get some better shots of the various steps. Dave has really taken over as official documentarian!

revisiting an old friend

Brought the first strat I built out of retirement to try some new Paper in Oil caps of different values. Well anyone who has owned a strat knows every time you pull the pickguard you have to unsolder the ground and output jack. Major PITA to say the least. Well, Steve turned me on to these mini "molex" connectors used in RC cars and such. A buck fifty each and you have an instant disconect.

Unhooked...
hooked...
and back together.

One last thing...

Dave did bring a couple of other projects to work on over the next few days...
This guy needs a refret
And the one Im playing needs a new nut cut. We'll work on those when we get some time.

Moving forward... fire-ward?

Another Sunday... another update. Today started drilling my tail piece holes, chasing out tuner holes ect. The 2 'birds from the original batch needed the pots and output jack holes drilled as well.

This jig is for the 2 original bodies that only had pilot marks for where to drill.
Because of the way our CNC holds parts down I can't drill all the way through (plus it will blow the back side out) so we had to chase all the holes through. Using some old butcher block as a backer.
Another one of the originals that has to be drilled from scratch. This template lines everything up.
Dad hard at work drilling headstocks.
Starting to drill for tailpiece bushings.

The blue tape is to remind me NOT to drill the bridge holes. Those use a different size bit...
After the drilling was done I decided to shoot a few coats of sealer down. Normally I wait till after fretting but since the weather has been oscillating between warm, wet, cold ect I decided I might as well spray a couple coats of sealer on to protect the wood.
Same contraption as last time only on a grander scale.

Masked up and spraying. Three seems to be the magic number, enough room to work around.


Time to put Dave to work again! Thought he should learn to use the spray gun...
He got the hang of it eventually!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Was Dad's birthday today so besides the regular old dinner and presents routine we went out and sat in with Dave and some friends tonight. Was a fun night and the Tele we built together sure sounded good!