Current Happenings

[colin]

Also in the next couple days I will be working on the special offer socialite that was purchased by a member!

In the coming months I will be developing 5 or 6 new electric models, a couple will be flat-top hollow bodies, as well as some more basses!

Can't wait to see what you've got coming!

[Nelson Instruments]

Taking some time to work on the special offer socialite purchased by one of our own!

Here is the heel as it has been. There was a small crack in the wood left by a shaper cutter. While it doesn't appear that it was going anywhere it did have enough movement to crack the lacquer.



So I decided where the best places for reinforcing would be, set up the drill press and drilled some holes.



Here are the drilled holes. This is a 3 piece neck and seeing as how the crack didn't spread to the piece on the left I left it alone.



Wood dowels ready to glue in. Ends tapered to make sure they go in easily.



Here they are glued in with hot hide glue, trimmed, and sanded. Pretty much ready for finish touch up.



One more shot.



Next step will be perhaps adding a little color to the dowels (though matching the surrounding color would be almost impossible) and then doing finish touch up.
Stay tuned!

[Chankgeez]

That pink one looks real good.

[Nelson Instruments]

Pink one? You are referring to the pink bass VI?

[Chankgeez]

Yep, that's the one.

[colin]

Taking some time to work on the special offer socialite purchased by one of our own!

Here is the heel as it has been. There was a small crack in the wood left by a shaper cutter. While it doesn't appear that it was going anywhere it did have enough movement to crack the lacquer.



So I decided where the best places for reinforcing would be, set up the drill press and drilled some holes.



Here are the drilled holes. This is a 3 piece neck and seeing as how the crack didn't spread to the piece on the left I left it alone.



Wood dowels ready to glue in. Ends tapered to make sure they go in easily.



Here they are glued in with hot hide glue, trimmed, and sanded. Pretty much ready for finish touch up.



One more shot.



Next step will be perhaps adding a little color to the dowels (though matching the surrounding color would be almost impossible) and then doing finish touch up.
Stay tuned!

Can't wait for this to be done. I'm getting excited!

[bob the r0bot]

Can't wait for this to be done. I'm getting excited!

Dude, they're so worth it too.

[Nelson Instruments]

Dabbed a bit if color on the dowels. I'll sand it back a tad and it might (?) lighten a bit. I also drop filled some lacquer into the crack to fill it. In a few days I'll sand it so it is level and then I'll finish the touch up work.

[Nelson Instruments]

Tonight I level sanded the areas on the heel where I drop filled with lacquer.


Tried stamping a "2" in the back of the headstock but as you can see it didn't go well. There is no doubt this is a second now!


Decided to do a fret dress to insure it plays as great!


And then I installed some tuners, oiled the fingerboard and those freshly polished frets, and fit a truss rod cover. Now it's time to finish touch up, get a pickguard made, and get it put together!


In other news all ukulele bodies are glued together. Three will get top binding. They are shaping up pretty nice if I do say so myself!

[colin]

Tried stamping a "2" in the back of the headstock but as you can see it didn't go well. There is no doubt this is a second now!

[Nelson Instruments]

Haha or I this case it isn't a 2nd, but perhaps a 2,222nd

[Nelson Instruments]

Next step is to most on some butyl cellosolve. It is a slow drying solvent that will soften the cured lacquer so that the following lacquer coats will melt in nicely.
You can see that the previously sanded area is now wet looking.

[Nelson Instruments]

Well after all that touch up work I leveled and buffed the guitar out. The finish looks better than when I did it the first time!
The lower bout of this guitar has the most amazing looking piece of cherry!
I just need to wait for the pickguard to arrive and the. I can out it all back together! So just another couple weeks and it will be ready to roll!

[colin]

Wow, that looks awesome! The next couple of weeks are going to just crawl by for me now. Well except for the fact that I'm in the middle of packing to move right now, so I should be able to keep myself somewhat occupied while I wait for that beauty to show up.

[Nelson Instruments]

Here is a little photo collage from last night when I turned some gorgeous leftover cherry wood into ukulele necks. Now I know that a ukulele neck blank looks an awful lot like a gun but I can assure you these are NOT assault ukuleles....probably!


Also I have been getting hardware on the bass VIs. Here is the link one!!!


And finally just for the folks on ILF (only a couple close friends have seen this so far so you are the first in the world to see this sneak peek!) here is the master design template for the upcoming Nelson long scale neck-through bass!