An EIR Dred in the D45 tradition.....

[johnnparchem]

" ... about a one inch area of the maple purfling on one side was about gone."

I hate when that happens, I had it happen to me with purflex on the top of a guitar. You wisely removed the wedge, I tried to repair the bad area first ... :(

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Yep, it was easy to remove and I didn't have to recut for the wedge, just cleaned up the edges of the rebated area, made a new wedge and fit it.
I'll scrape it down tomorrow afternoon, but I think this time I got it right.

Kevin

[nkwak]

Looking good! It's coming together (relatively) quickly - but the binding and purfling will likely be your biggest headache! I had to get creative to cover some boo-boos. I'm glad to hear your end wedge was salvageable.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Did a little work this week but the time got away from me.
Installed the new edge wedge, the purfling lines look good this time.
I glued on the back bindings, inserting the Teflon strips and one of the black lines as I glued. The Teflon comes out to leave a channel for the abalone purfling. I started to install the abalone and the other black line. I got about 5 inches done and it is going well. My abalone is about .010" too wide so I'm to sand the strips some but it is not bad. It is going to look really nice I think. The picture is just shows the abalone in the channel, there is not CA glue applied yet and of course it is not finished flush with the top. The abalone is actually inlayed about .005" below the spruce and binding so they will be take down to the purfling when all done.
Anyway, just a sneak preview. I'll show a picture when it is all in and sanded down.
Oh and I did have an opportunity for a design flare. I preinstalled the maple bindings, dry fit and taped them on the back to check the fit and to mark the ends for length. Did this and always cut them a little long, maybe 1/16" or so, so I don't end up short. I know the real deal when taped down tight they always get longer. So I glue down the one side, and it is a an 1/8" long....not unexpected, so I trim it off to the center line of the guitar. I glue the other side in, bring it around to meet the joint, and it is an 1/8" short! Ugh! I don't know what I did...never had this happened before. So, what to do. This is on the heel end back side so I know the side is not going to really show but it will looking down, and two seams in the maple is not going to look good. Soooooooo, I cut out a 1/4" piece of EIR binding cut out a 1/4" space on center in the maple, and glued in the EIR. It matches the body, and the neck heel cap will be up against it. I think it will look fine. A good reason to always start at the butt end and work around to the neck end as it would have shown a lot more obvious on the butt.
I could have pulled the binding off (all glued in place) and worked with the mess, made a new one, etc.......ugh.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

the abalone.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I got the back purflings all scraped and sanded flush last night and it came out pretty good. There is one place about an 1" long that must have been a little high and I sanded through the top layer of shell, and lost some color....oh man, but it will be okay.
It was good practice to do the back first. When I do the top I'll be more carefull and make sure no areas are high so it doesn't happen there.
I tried to take some pictures, don't think they show the abalone very well, but I'll check it out tonight and post.
I like doing the installing of the abalone.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Here are some pics of the back purfling all scraped and sanded flush. One pic shows the spot where I lost some color, not terrible but it will stand out to the trained eye.......

Kevin

[darren]

guess my eye is untrained cause it looks good from here. nice job!

[geoawelch]

Beautiful job

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Thanks!
First picture right above the center area of the purfling, there is a section that looks like zebra stripes......SEEEEEE.
What I'm wondering, because I don't have much experience with shell, is if I sand this area a little further, am I LIKELY to get back into some color again? Does anyone have some experience with shell doing this? I may take some scrap abalone and sand on it and see what happens.
I can live with it, but I'd sure like it to be better.

Kevin