First Electric Guitars

[BlindBo]

I’ve been building acoustics about 4 years and have about 15 under my belt. I’ve just recently reached out to electrics (sort of). My grand daughter plays the stand up bass in the school orchestra. So, I loaned her an acoustic bass to play around with at home. She has enjoyed it. As a child of the 60’s, I’ve always loved McCartney’s Hofner bass. After reading posts here about TheGuitarFabrik (UK) Hofner kits, I decided that would make a great birthday gift. I ordered one and have been really impressed with their quality and their customer service. I have it almost complete except the tuners and strings.

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My second electric project is for the Guitars4Vets. I’ve given them 5 acoustics so far. My contact there mentioned that they have some folks who are interested in electric guitars. So, I ordered 2 Les Paul kits which arrived last week. Again, very nice quality. The last two days I started working on sanding, sealing and pore filling the body. My goal is to reproduce a 1959 Les Paul Standrd. Got the sunburst done this afternoon and tonight put on the base lacquer.

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After a few days, it’ll be time to level sand and do final lacquer. Then on to the back and neck.
I highly recommend these kits for anyone that wants a quick way to build a decent electric kit guitar.

[mike243]

Great looking guitars! Nice thing to do for your granddaughter and for the vets. You're racking up a lot of karma points. I'm not Buddhist, but I think good deeds done will result in good things coming your way.

[tippie53]

Bo your doing fine work for having such a serious visual issue. You have come a long way

[BlindBo]

Thanks guys. Mike, I’m afraid I built up so much bad karma in my younger years that I’ll never see the break even point!👹

John, that means a lot coming from you. If I hadn’t called you 4 yrs ago and you connected me to our friend Jimmie Hall, I’d still be struggling with the StewMac cardboard forms!😵‍💫 You have been unbelievably supportive and patient with an old, blind guy.

BTW, 🎼They say it’s your birthday. 🎵 Happy Birthday to you.🎵🍸

[tippie53]

I like to think my customers as friends Customer service seems to be a thing of the past sad to say. Lack of customer service brings lack of customers.

[RLR33]

Well said John.

[BlindBo]

I FINALLY finished my Hofner Bass. I think it turned out pretty well for a first electric build with my usual BlindBo “enhancements” as John calls them!😂 The GuitarFabrik makes a very nice kit.
I thought I’d share my build with y’all. Attached are some pictures and comments about the bass and a few extras I added.
This is the completed bass. I used nitrocellulose lacquer as I do on my guitars. I did my best to produce a sunburst like Hofner. I also added a small sunburst on the back of the neck.

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Here are some of the extras I added. First, I got a Fender bolt-on neck plate and bolted the neck for ease of future maintenance. I also added a white heel cap to match the bindings.

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I ordered a Hofner style tail piece to give it a little more true Hofner appearance.while working in that area, I added a Gibson (curved) jack plate for durability.

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Finally, for ease of inlaying my logo (BB foe BlindBo) and add some special flare, I added a Brazilian Rosewood headstock veneer.

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That’s about it. As my first ever electric build, I learned a lot. If I build another bass, I think I will eliminate some of the small issues I built into this one. Regardless, I really enjoyed the experience.
🎼Get Back🎵🎵😂
Bo

[tippie53]

I am so glad to see how far you came in the last year. your doing a great job.

[BlindBo]

Now that the Hofner kit is complete, I’m turning my efforts to #2, the Les Paul kit. This one is going to the local Guitars4Vets group.
Finished putting the top coats of lacquer on the body this afternoon. Now it’s cure time on a hanger.

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Got the neck pore filled and sealed yesterday and put the first few coats of tinted lacquer on this morning. I’m using Red Mahogany for the back, sides, and the neck. I’ll get back on that tomorrow.
These GuitarFabrik kits are fun!
Bo

[BlindBo]

I now have the neck in final coats of lacquer. So, I’ll start with the SuperAssilex sanding in 3-4 weeks.
One slight negative to these The GuitarFabrik kits is that they don’t come with a loose headstock veneer. It’s not an issue if you’re not inlaying anything or you’re really good at doing inlay pockets. I always like to inlay my BB logo. With my vision issues, hand routing the inlay pocket is problematic and typically results in LOTS of filling, leveling, filling again and on and on…………. Last year I bought a small CNC router which eliminated all that repair work. The issue w/o a loose veneer is that I can’t figure a good way to jig a whole neck and headstock on the router table. So I need my veneers separate.

For this build I made a veneer from thin maple. The grain was so pretty I didn’t want to cover it in the traditional Gibson black. Instead, I did a sunburst similar to the top.

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It may be a little “hoakie”, but, what the hell, it’s my build! Right?😂