Avello Vibrocaster Deluxe
From start to finish (Summer '09)
From start to finish (Summer '09)
The body, straight out of the box from Rondo Music.
The neck, birdseye maple, pre-headstock shaping. It came with a black plastic nut, which will be removed and replaced with a bone nut.
This is the headstock after I cut it with a jigsaw and sanded it. Slightly resembles a '72 Tele Deluxe headstock.
The body, neck with shaped headstock and pickguard for mini-humbucker.
Body and neck, dry fitted. Good fit!
This is the headstock after I cut it with a jigsaw and sanded it. Slightly resembles a '72 Tele Deluxe headstock.
The body, neck with shaped headstock and pickguard for mini-humbucker.
Body and neck, dry fitted. Good fit!
Unfortunately, I didn't take any process photos of spraying and finishing, but I do have some photos of the curing and drying process for the neck and the body
Close-up of the neck with the decal. Polyurethane spray finish. Not sanded yet. You can already see the grain of the wood popping through!
Getting the neck ready for sanding at my workstation in the corner of my bedroom!
This is the body after it was sprayed, in between coats.
This is the bone nut I carved out, to make it "vintage" I soaked it in black tea for a couple minutes. It soaked the color right up.
This is the body after the color coats. Not sanded. I used Dupli-Color Auto spray. Its called "Sierra Tan". I needed about three cans.
This was my first time finishing a guitar, so I had some major problems wet sanding and went through the finish. I also didn't wait long enough for the finish to cure. I actually got pretty lucky and was able to fix this without ever knowing it happened on the finished product.
The color coat, lightly sanded with 600/1500/2000 grit sandpaper.
There was a point in the project where I got too anxious about it so taking the pictures was no longer my priority, so we'll be fast forwarding to the final product. What I didn't take photos of was wet sanding the polyurethane finish after it had cured for a month. I also didn't take any photos of the electronics or soldering them. The project took me about three months to complete, but a lot of that time was spent waiting for parts to come in the mail. After finishing, this project, I'm completely addicted, and will be starting a new "from scratch" project pretty soon. I'll try to be better with documenting and taking photos. I'm very happy with the way things turned out with this guitar. I'm especially happy with the Bigsby tremolo. The guitar itself is built like a tank, and it's pretty heavy, but it's full of tone. I'll try to post a video or soundclip of what it sounds like in the near future. The specs of the guitar are:
* 3-piece alder body
Have a look at the guitar. Any questions or comments are welcome!
Close-up of the neck with the decal. Polyurethane spray finish. Not sanded yet. You can already see the grain of the wood popping through!
Getting the neck ready for sanding at my workstation in the corner of my bedroom!
This is the body after it was sprayed, in between coats.
This is the bone nut I carved out, to make it "vintage" I soaked it in black tea for a couple minutes. It soaked the color right up.
This is the body after the color coats. Not sanded. I used Dupli-Color Auto spray. Its called "Sierra Tan". I needed about three cans.
This was my first time finishing a guitar, so I had some major problems wet sanding and went through the finish. I also didn't wait long enough for the finish to cure. I actually got pretty lucky and was able to fix this without ever knowing it happened on the finished product.
The color coat, lightly sanded with 600/1500/2000 grit sandpaper.
There was a point in the project where I got too anxious about it so taking the pictures was no longer my priority, so we'll be fast forwarding to the final product. What I didn't take photos of was wet sanding the polyurethane finish after it had cured for a month. I also didn't take any photos of the electronics or soldering them. The project took me about three months to complete, but a lot of that time was spent waiting for parts to come in the mail. After finishing, this project, I'm completely addicted, and will be starting a new "from scratch" project pretty soon. I'll try to be better with documenting and taking photos. I'm very happy with the way things turned out with this guitar. I'm especially happy with the Bigsby tremolo. The guitar itself is built like a tank, and it's pretty heavy, but it's full of tone. I'll try to post a video or soundclip of what it sounds like in the near future. The specs of the guitar are:
* 3-piece alder body
* Birdseye maple neck
* Sierra Tan w/ Black pickguard
* GFS Mini PAF Humbucker neck pickup
* GFS Vintage Alnico '62 bridge pickup
* Bigsby B50 Vibrato w/ WD 6 Saddle Bridge
* 3-way switch, 1 voume, 1 tone
* Wilkinson Vintage Tuners
Have a look at the guitar. Any questions or comments are welcome!
