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Well folks, the OLF guitar back is now glued on. I discovered there truly is a good use for rubber cement in luthery. Unfortunately, I was very tired when I did the work, and consequently I glued the upper bout to the lower bout. At least the center line was perfectly aligned! Not being sure what to do, I simply trimmed the lower bout of the back to fit the upper bout of the rim. That left me with two really great sound ports at the outer parts of the lower bout. Wow! Mistakes can make for great ideas! ! ! ! ! I reinforced the edges of the new ports with some of that great table-top epoxy coating stuff. Now the port edges are good and strong, even though they're now about 1/4" thick.

Pics to follow.....

And the other good news is that the OLF Guitar is making it's way to Chatham Massachusetts tomorrow to have Matt Gage glue on the top. I'm excited to see what he's done. We're a bit concerned because the drawing I sent him to make the top was at 3/4 scale. Hopefully he left the top trimming a bit large. So long as that's the case we shouldn't have too many issues getting it glued on to the rim.

Don

Don W38366.9664351852

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

We're moving at a snails pace but we are moving!

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Okay, now when you get there, kinda go easy on the pale ale. Don't forget to say hello to the Mrs. It ought to be fun. Hope everything works out with the scale and everything. In construction (Matt know's this), if things don't exactly reach, you just scab on. Besides, it's all up to the painter in the end, isn't it? Painter'll cover it.

Well, I put a new back on it this morning after Lance screamed at me over the phone last night. Too bad...I liked the ports !

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Cool, dont forget to bring the rubber cement with you so we can attach the top.
I ran out and had to glue the bracing with some PL- 400 construction adheasive. it worked so good to stop sqweeks in my kitchen floor that I had to give it a try.

lets see, say`s here to allow 36 hrs to cure....well I guess it would be ok to string it up tonight.

Matt

if my friend Rocky was in the oven.... would I turn the gas on?Gage Guitars38367.3820833333

Great work Don, thanks for posting the pictures of the OLF FOLK (friends of Lance Kragenbrink) Guitar.



Take a bow!

Matt,and Don, what I've found to work even better than rubber cement is spray adhesive. I don't use that 3m stuff, it's just too expensive. But the stuff you can buy in the harware isle of the supermarket. What I like about it is you never have to get your fingers messy to get a nice coat. Just spray the heck out of the whole back and your assured that you have it on the edges where it will make contact.
I've heard of using bubble gum for this purpose. Might try this someday.

That thing needs a label, Hey MichealP do you think you could design us up a label with your fancy computer. Maybe put the names of all that have/will donated and worked on it and maybe a cool OLF logo (do we have a logo). Sorry Mike I hope I'm not putting you on the spot here John How38367.4636921296

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Mission Accomplished ! ! ! !

Matt Gluing top:





More pics to follow!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Hey! cool! Dang Matt, did ya hafta take out a second mortage for all then Quick grip clamps!
Looks great guys!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

That looks great guys, plus, now we know what a surfer-dude look like in wintertime. What no pale ale bottles on the floor..... it's time to celebrate, I'm gonna go grab one right now. Here's to Don and Matt's success! A toast: Long live the OLF, and long live a little guitar travelling among us! May it play sweet for it's owner!

Man, I need to get cranking on that neck. I kinda dozed off on this project.

John

I am assuming you want the neck bolted on. (I believe that's the plan) but would you also like the fingerboard extension bolted on as well? That is how I normally build my guitars, but I noticed that the block under the fingerboard does not have a slot for the tenon that holds those bolts. That is not a problem, just wanted to make sure what your feelings were about such a removable neck joint.

John

John, id love it to have your neck joint, then I could take it apart and learn from it!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Ahhhhh....the neck joint...
Yes, there are some interesting things going on there.
The mortise is actually slightly wider than the the typical 3/4", and it's also shallower than I'm used to seeing. There's also no slot cut in it for the truss rod, and no bolt-on holes drilled as yet. Matt and I were perplexed at how all that is going to come together, but figured someone out there had plans to deal with it.
One WARNING to whoever gets this thing next. (Paul W.??)
There is no stop to the neck tenon mortise, so you're going to have to be very careful when cutting the binding channel, lest a router bit sinks its way into the mortise pocket and right down through the back.
I was tempted to put a mahogany stop block in there, but didn't know if I would mess up someone's design.

Please let us all know what the plan for this is, and the design elements of this unique neckblock!

More pics of the box tomorrow!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don
I think it would be a very good idea to glue a small stop block in that area to ward off such disasters. Make it about 3/8 inch deep,(or thick) and that will not interfere at all with the neck tenon and should do good things for binding as you noted already. Don't worry about the mortise depth. There is some flexability there, the neck itself will have a mortise as well and the spline will be partly in the body of the guitar and partly in the neck joint.John Kinnaird38368.2760416667

HEY
   Thanks Lance for the promotion! My brother will be jealous!

A toast indeed! In fact we had so much fun that we forgot to bust out the brewski`s.

anyway, Thanks for a fun day Don.

p.s. Don brought a fine guitar down for me to check out..... I think it was his SJ...our was an OM? anyway the workmanship was superb. nice job Don.

p.s.s. Yes Lance the quick grips cost me two arms and two legs. At 24.99 a pair it took me years to collect enough of them to go around a guitar. I still need a few more. they rule.

www.gageguitars.com Gage Guitars38368.3628703704

A newer version of the trusty spool clamp. You definitely have maximized their potential in this case. Cool to see. I'm glad you guys had fun with the project. This is a true Road Trip guitar!

The neck Joint....I tried to make the neck block to accomodate John K's neck joint. I didn't put the cavity into the top of the block because I was not sure of the dimensions. I figured John could rout it in when he gets the guitar. The FBE support block is generous in thickness so there should be plenty of material there. I was not sure were the truss rod adjustment was going to be so I didn't make allowance for it. I think John usually does his from the headstock, is that right John? Lookin good guys, I hope to be able to play this guitar some day. John How

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Yes John
I do put the adjustment in the headstock, though I could be persuaded to do otherwise. The plans show a paddle shaped headstock. Is that what everyone (esp Lance) wants?
That internal block looks just fine, I'll route the cavity.

John

More pics...all trimmed up and ready to ship out (to who?)

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Could I possibly see the head stock design? Pretty please

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Nice!   it looks great all trimmed up good work Don,

here is a shot of Don putting his signature in the back, and one of him rippin it up on my dred.

I am sort of seeing one of those mottled tortis pick guards on this in my mind's eye.... what do you guys think?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com