Steel Guitar Builder

I'll soon deestroy it (the back) for the electronic cavities...
The bridge was born in my mind... and I started to work at it, it will be made with a round brass rod, as I could find the router bit I needed to use it
How do you polish brass? dry or water abrasives? I may do it by turning it in a drill press, I rounded the extremities that way
Xavier

Here it is, I'll just have to give it a better shape:

Really looks good and is really coming along. Keep those pictures coming.

Paul

Hello,
It's time to rout the pickup cavity.

I'm really new at that and never did before
I draw a template on TurboCAD with the exact sizes of the templates I need, and made a try on scrap wood



What do you think about the result? Can I go on the real one?




What is the right distance between the top of the PU and the bottom of the strings? For the depth of the cavity?

Thanks,
Xavier

Xavier,
That looks great. Really good routing out for the first try.
If anything like the pedal steel, I would make the pickup adjustable in height.
Start out with the string distance being around 1/8" (3mm) and work up and down from there til you think you find the sweet spot.

Thanks Bent
I routed the cavity with the idea of 6 mm between PU and strings, and the ability to reduce the distance


Now I'm waiting for some Stewmac stuff, the electronics

Hello,
Some news about the new yorker

Yesterday I routed the electronic cavities

I was lucky, because my router bit wanted to be free::








I think I forgot the jack


As you can see, Paul, it's really not state of art... but "as I can do", I keep in mind that it will be painted black.

The rotary switch is very thick so I routed to less than 2 mm from the top, but I'm still not sure I'll can close the cavities... Maybe I'll have to remove all the wood and use a brass or aluminium plate screwed on the top for the switch

I'm still waiting for the fretboard inlays... I can't glue the fretboard before I got them because of a problem of C clamps I'll have to use to enlarge the fret slots. And if the FB' s not glued, I can't apply the finish...

Cheers,

Xavier

Xavier, you are doing some very nice work for the first ls project. It looks like you are taking your time and really thinking things through.
You're painting it black huh? Almost a shame. The wood is beautiful. But if it's a replica it's gotta be so...

Bent wrote: You're painting it black huh? Almost a shame. The wood is beautiful. But if it's a replica it's gotta be so...

Hi Bent, yes it's a replica, and easier for me to know it will be painted
Yes i's a shame... and I know I won't find any mapple here (not imported )

But you've given me an idea, let me know what you think:

What about painting it... in negative (ie white instead of back and black instead of white)...?