Burley 335: Finally Complete

Well, the Burled Maple 335 is finally complete and I couldn't be happier with it. The finish, being a combination of Tru-Oil to both pop the grain and provide a subtle amber colouring and Acrylic gloss for a deep shine works really, really well. That burled veneer from DIY Guitars is so freaking amazing! Obviously the secret for combining these two finishes is not to go too far with the Tru-Oil; making sure that you leave enough tooth in the surface for the Acrylic to bind to.

Tru-Oil + Acrylic Gloss - a god damn winner for beautiful wood.

IMO the chrome hardware works really well with the natural colouring, much better than gold would have done, and the chrome humbuckers with chrome surrounds are a great replacement for the original cream dogear P90s.

Chrome GFS parts really complete the perfect picture.

Speaking of the humbuckers, all the GFS hardware here works extremely well and really looks the part. The full chrome Dream 180 pickups sound awesome - from a crystal clean tone to a punchy growl when needed.  The roller bridge combined with the XTrem tremolo system provides a great tremolo solution, keeps the guitar is tune (even with heavy tremolo usage) and really looks the part.

Glamour shots in the daylight

But with all that said, it is as a playing instrument that this guitar really comes into its own. It is light, has great tone, and the resonance that this thing produces is be felt to be believed. Even unplugged the guitar generates a beautiful acoustic tone that is a feast fro the ears. Either plugged or unplugged, you can really feel the chambers vibrating as you strum a note. And all this with the stock plastic nut! Interestingly I haven't had to adjust a thing at the nut end of the fretboard. The string height at the 1st fret was perfect with the supplied plastic nut (unheard of) and so I haven't had the courage to change it out yet.

With this project completed, I am now officially in love with 335 guitars again. I can't find the words to describe how amazing this thing is to play. I have another 335 kit in the stack and now I'm itching to get it started!

Burley 335: Final Touches

Got some time to spend on the 335 today, and that meant finally tackling the wiring and doing a fret job. First the wiring, which is always a little daunting for these semi-hollow builds. Thankfully i stayed with the stock mini-pots for this build and that made fitting the hardware into the sound-hole much easier. As usual, I wired up with shielded push back wire from Stewmac. This is a must if you want to minimise the noise for a semi-hollow or hollow build where no cavity exists.

Wiring harness complete and ready to be inserted.

This time I also allowed myself a generous amount of wire between pots and the output jack. As a result, the wiring harness went into the body with very little fuss - I'm getting quite adept at using the aquarium tubing to pull the controls through their holes.

With the wiring in and tap tested, it was time to turn my attention to the fretboard. I straightened the neck by adjusting the truss rod (clockwise to add back bow!) and let my notched straight edge show me when it was good. It was then on with the files to get the frets leveled and re-crowned. A pretty straightforward process all up.

Fretboard straight and ready for fret levelling.

With the frets leveled and re-dressed it was on with some Dr Ducks Axe Wax to clean it up, condition the Rosewood and generally make it look the business. I'm not sure about the nut for this build at this stage. The plastic nut that came from DIY guitars actually looks pretty good in terms of string height at the first fret, so I may run with it for the time being to see how she feels and plays. I know bone is better, but if it ain't broke and all that.

On with the Dr Ducks for a some nicely conditioned Rosewood.

And so this build is finally ready for final assembly and a test-drive. To be honest I can't wait. I think the front veneer looks killer and I really love the way semi-hollows play. I'm excited to see how this one plays, and my hopes are high that she's going to sound very sweet indeed!

Burley 335: New Hardware & Clear Coats

Was finally able to get back into a little building today. With travel for work followed by a couple of weeks holiday OS, there 's been precious little time for building of late. It's great to be back in the man cave, even if it is just finishing up some long overdue projects.

On the table today is my 335 kit with Ash Burl veneer that has been bumming around the man cave for about 12 months. In between bouts of coding the last few months, I've been able to get some White Knight acrylic clear coats on her, and my OS trip gave the coats plenty of time to cure. Today I rolled up my sleeves and with some 1500 grit, 2000 grit and Meguiars Ultimate Compound, polished the crap out of it. Pretty happy with the results - that White Knight sure is the easiest way to clear coat a build, and the results can't be argued with. Yes, it's a bit cheaper using you own spray equipment, but with no mixing and no cleanup I'm happy to spend a few extra bucks on the cans.

Acrylic clear coats. Very happy with the results.

I immediately followed up with the hardware. This time around I'm rocking a GFS xTrem similar to the one I used on the Thinline Cabronita build. To this I added a roller bridge and a set of GFS Mean 180s. I was very happy with their sound on the Les Paul Florentine build, so thought I'd use them again here for a little extra chrome, and a little extra punch. I gotta say, I'm very happy with how she's looking!

GFS hardware installed. Now for the electrics.

Just the electronics to go now. That's no simple task (at least the insertion) but hopefully I'm an old hand at it by this point. She's going to look really sweet hanging with my other 335s! I think I'll get back to Jeremy's Les Paul first though - that's a build that's long overdue (sorry Jeremy!) and the thought of getting the fish tank tubing out again is giving me the willies.

Burley 335: Tru-Oil on the Neck

Well the clamps have come off the Burled Birdseye Maple 335 and the set neck looks good. It's a strong join and should serve nicely. With the glue dry, the application of Tru-Oil can now resume. I've gotten 5 coats on the back of the body now and it's starting to look great.

While there's no "figure" to speak of on the back or the sides, the maple grain has been highlighted nicely by the Tru-Oil. I must say I'm liking the natural colour for a change.

So too with the neck. I've now managed to get 2 coats of Tru-Oil on the neck and headstock. This is the first time I've done a rock maple neck completely natural - without dye of any sort - and I'm amazed at how dark the wood is becoming!

The Tru-Oil is picking up the grain very nicely, and I think the darker overall colour will contrast nicely with the natural body. There's still a shitload of coats to go, so I do expect it to "Amber up" quite a bit before I'm finished. It can only look better and better!

Burley 335: Setting the Neck

With 7 coats of Tru-Oil on the front of the Burled 335, and the decision finally made to finish the guitar in an all-natural colour, I decided to get the neck on and glued as soon as possible. With 3 coats already on the back and sides, I could see how this guitar was going to look and I'm really digging it. With a natural Tru-Oil finish also planned for the neck, there was no reason to delay setting the neck. In fact, it seemed a better choice than waiting given that it will allow me to get a more even finish around the neck joint.

And so, without further ado, out came the clamp and the Titebond. The neck fit was still super-tight, but with a little coaxing (and clamping) the bugger was finally seated in the pocket and glued down tight.

A little cleanup with a wet-rag around the joint (I always use way too much Titebond) and everything was good to go. The great thing about set-neck kits that don't have the bridge pre-positioned is that you have the flexibility to get the neck glued without having to worry about whether it's centred with respect to the bridge or whether the strings are traveling nicely down it. That can all be fine-tuned when we drill the bridge posts.

Now all that is left for me to do is to  wait 24-48 hours for the joint to fully dry. After that it is back to the Tru-Oil!

Burley 335: 1st Coat of Tru-Oil

Well, after finishing the sanding of the Burled Birdseye Maple 335, I debated long and hard about what colour to dye it. I was thinking of a dark walnut colour, and then an amber and red mahogany burst like my 335 Bass,  but just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on the dye job. I slept on it last night, and this morning decided to leave the top natural as I had originally intended.

With this decision made, the first "soak" coat of Tru-Oil went straight on the veneer. All I can say is wow! The Tru-Oil revealed details in the grain that I never knew existed, and the amount of chatoyance - even with a single coat - is amazing. I'm very pleased with how this is shaping up!

I still haven't decided what to do with the back and sides. My current thinking is to go natural just like the veneer. But hey, all that might change come tomorrow morning ;). A dark walnut colour could also contrast very nicely with the natural top!

Burley 335: Sanding the Figure

I started sanding the top of my 335 with the Birdseye burl maple top today. Man what a bitch!! I started with 240 grit and quickly realised that this was too coarse - the grit quickly scored deep scratches all over the veneer. This stuff has grain going all over the place so it's very difficult to 'sand with the grain'. I'm sanding top-to bottom like I always do, but this stuff is more like end grain to sand than anything else!

Anyway, I quickly skipped to 360 grit, and this has made things much better - I've been able to remove most of the original scratches from the veneer and the top is slowly getting smooth. One of the big issues I'm now facing is glue spots. I am thinking now that I might like to dye the top veneer, but large patches of glue exist in and around each of the burls. The factory has quite kindly filled the burls with some kind of bog to give the veneer a much flatter surface. Unfortunately, in doing so the area surrounding each burl is one large glue spot (or so it seems).

I'm slowly going around each patch of glue and sanding it out. It's very slow going with 360 grit I can tell you. Here's a couple of patches that I've cleaned up.

I reckon it's going to take me a week just to get the 360 grit done. Still, that's what I signed up for with this guitar building lark, so nothing to do but to revel in it and savour every new piece of wet and dry! It will all be worth it in the end. I'm thinking a darker wood tone for this one now, maybe a caramel or red mahogany with some kind of burst. I'm looking around the interweb for examples to inspire me..

Burley 335: Shaping the Headstock

Not much happening on the Burley 335 build at the moment (too many builds!), so I thought I'd get the headstock shaped in between working on the Stone Roses Tribute. Gibson headstock templates are a little thin on the ground compared to Fender, but I did manage to find a template for a Les Paul here: http://www.australianlespaulforums.com/download/Headstock.pdf. The template didn't fit my headstock perfectly - neither in width or tuner hole positions - so I had to do a little fudging to work out how it should go.

Using a center line I lined the top profile up with the sides of the headstock width-wise and ignored all other aspects of the template.

I then traced the template profile with my clutch pencil and roughed it out with my scroll saw. Taking the roughed out shape, I sanded the curves right down to the pencil line using my smallest diameter Josco Brumby Slap Wheel.

The tight curves at the centre of the shape always seem to pose a problem for me. I got these close with the scroll saw and still needed to use a tiny file to get them closer to acceptable. In the end they came out OK but I'm yet to find the best method to get them really perfect.

Burley 335: Unboxing

A spanking new kit dropped on my doorstep this morning courtesy of DIY Guitars Australia. It's the new ATH-26, a semi-hollow 335 style kit, topped with a burled, birds-eye maple veneer and powered by two P90s. I had high hopes for how this baby would look and I wasn't disappointed! The top veneer really looks amazing. There will be no dye needed for the top of this baby - some clear coats is all it will take to make her look spectacular.

The grain has been filled in a couple of places (most notably inside the burls) at the factory, and there are a few places where some quite open grain still exists in the veneer. I'll have to find some kind of clear grain filler for these. The rest of the grain on the back and sides looks great, without any visible glue spots or other blemishes. The neck also looks good - with some nice maple grain down it's  length and on the headstock.

The fretboard looks good with no machine marks or scratches. There is a small issue with the width of the neck at the heel - it is a very tight fit into the neck pocket (this is a set-neck kit). In fact it is so tight that I can't get the neck all the way down into the pocket. Looks like I'll have to sand a little off each side of the neck heel before it will reach the bottom. No sweat - at least this will guarantee a tight fit and that's perfect for a set-neck build.

Despite this small issue, all in all I'm very, very happy with the kit and I think it looks awesome - I'm really looking forward to this build!

First thing will be the mock build to make sure everything fits (including sanding the neck heel) and then I'll be able to start the finishing process. I have a real soft-spot for hollow and semi-hollow guitars, especially the 335 body shape. Whist this baby will be the 4th semi-hollow kit I have attempted, it's the very first with P90s. I really can't wait to hear their vintage growl coming from a 335. Total awesomeness!