Gibson Ultratone Build

[Mark Frederick Jr]

Once again to the rescue! Excellent breakdown, thank you!

For those interested in Gibson lap steels, the Duchsossoir book is a treasure trove of information. The photos alone are worth the price of admission. It's jam-packed with fascinating information throughout. Highly recommended.

I have it on my wish list, my wife just had knee surgery a few weeks back and won't be back to work for a bit. We prepared financially and there are no problems, but I don't want to tempt fate. It always seems like a car dies or a roof needs replacing at moments like this..

[Mark Frederick Jr]

After getting the body blank down to 1.75", I cut it out on the bandsaw and did the same with a hardboard template. I love seeing shapes emerge from chunks of wood.

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[Mark Frederick Jr]

Making progress on the covers. They still need sanding and some small fills. This is sometimes the moment where impatience can take over, and I may end up with something less than it could be. I have to get more spray fill, the can I had was used. The pics can be deceiving, they aren't quite as nice as they appear, and the color coats will accentuate that. So I have a few more rounds of spray and sand to go before I shoot the color.

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[Jack Hanson]

Anxious to see the finished covers.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

Trying to keep things moving at a steady pace, a bit here a bit there. The covers are so darn close to getting color, there are just a few small imperfections that need to be sanded out, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am using rattle cans for this, it is too cold for my spray setup and I am not an expert in mixing colors. Plus, the cans are formulated for plastic, but we will see how it comes out. I usually use a waterbased product called crystalac, and I can mix pigment in to get whatever shades I need, but I have only done that twice.

I took the template to my sanders and got it as perfect as I can. Spindle sanders are amazing and awful. Just the tiniest bit of pressure can easily ruin a project. It went fine though, I am happy. I will probably just use the template as a reference with a one-off piece like this. I have all sorts of neat router bits, but the router is always a bit of a calculated risk. Then again, this wood is very soft compared to maple and walnut, so maybe there is nothing to worry about there. And maybe I am way overthinking it.

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I have to ponder a bridge. I saw a neat design posted by Mike Holland that used two pieces of angle aluminum. I have some of that (though one is steel).

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I saw another by Jim Pitman on the forum that used a piece of metal rod, threaded like a big tele saddle to intonate a bit, with a base of angle aluminum. I really like the way that looks too. I have some steel rod I could work up like that I think. Have to ponder more, don't want to overthink there, the cover means it doesn't have to be a dead ringer.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

Not much to report, I sanded the body to the final dimensions yesterday, but it wasn't an exciting task. That isn't a bad thing, the older I get the more I appreciate intense concentration on a single activity. It has been raining and cold so I haven't been able to start shooting color on the covers, hopefully this weekend.

I also took the body to the bandsaw and gave it a rough cut to the side profile. I will finish that up with hand tools. Hoping to get to the router this weekend and hog out the cavities and roundover.

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Aesthetically, I am a bit torn with the tuners. I have a set of gold grovers that have been lying around, they were a good deal and I just added them to the parts bin. I think I will use these, it won't look too out of place with the gold knobs. I do think the original tuners look better, but these are here and 'free'.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

Shot some color, this is the lighter shade. We will see how it looks, it is tough to really tell from the caps. This may not be gray enough.

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[Mark Frederick Jr]

I received a P90 pickup kit from mojotone today, unfortunately the other company never sent the kit until I had the payment reversed. It apparently is on its way now, but I will just be sending it back. I left several phone messages and emails and they didn't answer for a month, so they have lost my business. I don't want to badmouth anyone on the forum, all I will say is I should have researched my sources first, as this isn't an uncommon thing for this particular vendor.

I wanted a kit because according to my CAD software, the pickup cover is the same size as a standard P90, just with wider spacing. This seems to play out as the kit bobbin is the same size as my printed templates. It makes sense that a large company like Gibson would repurpose existing resources.

However, it does mean that I have to consider a few things. The wider spacing means less room on the bobbin for wire. If they simply ran the machines as usual, with a set wind count of around 10k, will there be enough room on this bobbin? Did they use less winds for these pickups, or thinner wire? I am not too concerned with being exact, I am confident whatever I make will be a functional magnetic pickup. I am very curious though! If anyone has insight to this mystery let me know!

Ok, so I used double sided tape to attach my bobbin fibre to my 3d printed template. Then I sanded and scraped it flush and drilled the holes. It mostly went fine, but next time I will drill halfway and flip the piece on a central pin and drill the second half, like a set of string-through holes. The was a small bit of wandering. I was hoping the template would keep the thin bit straight, but it isn't perfect. Then I glued the wood spacer I made out of some laminated maple, which wasn't that hard to whip up. Then I expanded the holes using the kit bobbin as a reference. I'll use the whole kit as a reference to manufacture my own pieces (baseplate, spacer), and then I can make a whole P90 from the kit for a Les Paul Double Cut Special build down the road. Now I just have to give the bobbin a spin on my homemade pickup winder! Fun!!

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[Mark Frederick Jr]

Had a productive day, things are moving at a very nice pace. I brought the covers in after three coats of base color. It looks really nice! Very excited for the potential! Of course, angle is everything, spray cans generally leave a lot of 'orange peel', and this is no exception. But I can take a pic to minimize the effect and give an idea what it will look like when sanded flat.

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Unfortunately, I am having a problem with another vendor, who is not coming through on my custom flower decal prints for the cover. They keep assuring me it will be sent out any day, but I am about out of patience there. Some bad luck with procurement on this build. Well, I'll figure it out. Might just do it myself, but I'll have to learn photoshop I suppose...

[Mark Frederick Jr]

I spent some time on the body as well. I used my #4 plane, a rasp, file, and a sanding sponge to shape the back contours. It is looking really nice so far!

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