Gibson Ultratone Build

[Mark Frederick Jr]

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I don't believe any of mine are decals, however. I had been under the impression that the flower pattern was silkscreened. Or perhaps an electrocal? (which may not have been invented yet, or viable in the early '50s). I had always thought that the embossed floral pattern was more gold-colored than silver, but my color recognition is far from flawless.
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I see gold color as well, thank you for the insight as always! It is tough to tell working from pics. I assumed silkscreen as well, but the other pic I found looks like it has depth, and it looks like it was painted on top (as it appears some of the paint got into the low points of the pattern).

That is interesting about the use of the cover, I have never played one of these style lap steels. I just have an acoustic with a riser nut in open D tuning and a homemade steel, so this is going to be a lot of fun exploring a new instrument. Hearing folks jam on these instruments in my research is making me impatient to make some notes!

As far as the depth goes, I kept searching today, and I am finding examples that look raised as well as examples that look flat. Perhaps they did it several different way over the years?

[Chris Clem]

Possible Stencil ? Which can be hand painted or sprayed,

[Mark Frederick Jr]

Possible Stencil ? Which can be hand painted or sprayed,

That's a good way to turn the thinking around. I wasn't thinking in terms of production efficiency, Definitely a possibility, that's a good thought!

[Jack Hanson]

Agree with Chris that the floral motif was possibly -- if not likely -- applied with a stencil. And it's also a possibility that the factory (or its vendors) could have used different methods over the 5 or 6 years that they marketed the blue Centuries (and Century Deluxes), before introducing the pink/coral (aka "bittersweet") models in late 1955.

Personally, I prefer the white-backed fretboard with black frets and markers that was installed on the pink Centuries. I find the blue ones to be difficult to see under certain lighting conditions with my old eyes. But they certainly do look cool, and are a great match for the blue bodies. But the white ones would also look good on the blues guitars, in my opinion.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

I think that is a cool model as well, these must have been very striking instruments in their day, like the lap steel equivalent of a flying V. Although these were successful at the time.

Well, I will put both covers up in the 3d print section, that way anyone who doesn't want to go through the hassle of having decals or a stencil made can just print and paint the cover. It looks pretty neat with the floral pattern right on it. Since I bought the decals I will use those and paint the raised version as well, for a side-by-side.

A heads up if anyone wants to print these in the future, standing straight up with the string opening towards the ceiling is definitely the way to go (at least on my printer).

[Mark Frederick Jr]

I have been working on the fretboard and trying different ways both digital and analogue to get the best looking instrument, and it has been a mixed bag. I know from small scale work I could use tape and punches to paint the markers and board. I also made a model of the board in fusion, and I found out you can add color in that software:

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So that looks pretty nice! I then tried exporting it to some dedicated graphics software, adobe illustrator and photoshop. These are huge platforms, and I am still learning how to use fusion as I go along in this project, so learning more software isn't too appealing right now, to be totally honest. To put it lightly, there isn't an intuitive way to import the fusion file and make it awesome.

I tried exporting directly from fusion, but when it makes a drawing it goes for a blueprint style technical pdf. It adds lines around everything and the image quality goes way down, not suitable for our purposes. So that is out.

So I tried increasing the resolution on my screen and taking a screen shot of the fretboard, and this worked well. I had to size it a few times, but it is dialed in and printed on glossy paper. I am very pleased with how it came out. Have to see what it looks like under some clear acrylic, but I think we have a winner!

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[Jack Hanson]

Your fretboard looks great, Mark. It should look just fine beneath a piece of clear Lexan. Your 3D-printed covers are most impressive. If by chance you ever decide to go into production, I would definitely be interested in both a blue & gray Century Set, and possibly two red & gray Ultratone sets.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

Your fretboard looks great, Mark. It should look just fine beneath a piece of clear Lexan. Your 3D-printed covers are most impressive. If by chance you ever decide to go into production, I would definitely be interested in both a blue & gray Century Set, and possibly two red & gray Ultratone sets.

That's the best compliment I could ever ask for, thank you so much! I was actually interested in sending you one to see how close it is to an original for final tweaks to the 3d model.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

As I said earlier, I have some metal stock lying around from various projects and unfulfilled daydreams. Since I went and made a pickup, a body, and plastic covers, I figure I should try to make as much of the rest as I can. So I will try my hand at some crude hand shaping of an aluminum stopbar bridge. I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but I think I can make it happen. Sure wish I had an end mill!

So I trace my 3d printed bridge onto my aluminum:

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And then I figured I would drill out the ends so I have a perfectly round end, which I think would have worked fine if I had slowed down and used some lubricant. Instead I took this opportunity to learn a valuable lesson by breaking off my 3/32" drill bit in the metal. I am definitely an advocate of lifelong learning.

So I had to get that bit out in the most productive way possible. I tripled up a dremel cutting disc and carefully cut into the bar. It went really well, and I managed to dig out that broken bit. Then I grabbed my chainsaw file and cut an undersize but uniform path almost to depth. I can now follow up with a bigger round file until it is around .26".

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Tomorrow or over the weekend I will break out the angle grinder and make some cuts. Which will hopefully go swimmingly.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

I only have a bit left to do on the body, so I figured I should get that pickup cavity routed. This is one of those areas where I kind of have to go by gut, so I hogged out a cavity and then routed it down to about 1". The pics show a little shelf in the middle that the pickup rests upon, with a little channel cut for the wires. I figured it would be easier to make the shelf separately and just glue it down. I am assuming the strings ride around 1/2" above the body and 1/4" above the fretboard (if anyone knows let me know!). I'll have to tweak the shelf so the pickup sits at the right level.

No real surprises here, it went very smoothly and basswood cuts like butter. I used my long aircraft bits and drilled some holes for the wires from the pickup and the jack. Oh man, we are getting close!

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[Jack Hanson]

I am assuming the strings ride around 1/2" above the body and 1/4" above the fretboard (if anyone knows let me know!). I'll have to tweak the shelf so the pickup sits at the right level.

I just measured a couple of mine, and at the nut, the strings on average are about .45 above the body, and .26 above the fretboard on both sides. With the extruded, screwed-on bridge, the strings are about .58 above the body on the bass side, and about .56 above the body on the treble side. (All measurements taken from the bottom of the strings.) Of course, with a stud-mounted stoptail bridge, its height can be adjusted to suit.



The standard Gibson P-90 is constructed with two perpendicular holes through the center of the bobbin between the 2nd and 3rd poles, and the 4th and the 5th poles. Two screws, with springs between the bottom of the bobbin and the top of the pickup cavity's wooden mounting platform, attach the pickup to the instrument. The Kalamazoo factory usually mounted the pickups relatively close to the body, with its individual polepiece screws raised. I prefer the sound of the polepieces nearly flush with the top of the pickup, with their heads protruding about 1/16 of an inch, and the entire pickup raised to about the thickness of two quarters (.25-cent pieces), and then fine-tuning each individual polepiece's height to balance the output of each individual string. Different strokes for different folks; methods may vary. All are good.

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Dunno, but here are two nearly identical '55 Royaltones -- with their respective fingerrests removed for clarity -- to help demonstrate. The top pic is a rescue with a Sentell P-90 and pickup cover. The Royaltone in the photo below is dead-stock, with a factory pickup (no cover) and setup. Notice the protruding polepiece screws on the factory setup in contrast to the nearly flush polepieces on the rescue.

[Mark Frederick Jr]

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I just measured a couple of mine, and at the nut, the strings on average are about .45 above the body, and .26 above the fretboard on both sides. With the extruded, screwed-on bridge, the strings are about .58 above the body on the bass side, and about .56 above the body on the treble side. (All measurements taken from the bottom of the strings.) Of course, with a stud-mounted stoptail bridge, its height can be adjusted to suit
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Perfect, excellent info thank you!

[Mark Frederick Jr]

I made some progress with the bridge today, although I have never used my grinder to cut aluminum, only steel. Aluminum feels very different, almost like cutting hard butter when it heats up. I ended up going slightly too far in one spot, but I should be able to work around it. I used files to take the rough cuts down, and shaped the ears. Then I made a flat spot. I will continue this on the other side and then start shaping the curve, but first I want to use this flat surface to establish the string-through holes. I also want to drill the adjustment screw holes while the back is flat.

It is going very well, but I don't want to treat it like a done deal. Nothing is wrong, but since this is a new experience for me I expect more than one mistake will be made that could derail the piece. I am hopefully optimistic so far. Once the holes are drilled I will know, I think. I believe getting them straight and lined up will be the real challenge with the equipment I have available.

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[Mark Frederick Jr]

I would say up until now I have had some good guidance and some good luck on many tasks in this build, but I reached a little too far on the bridge. I do want to document my failures, I like it when others do the same. It gives me a 'why' rather than a 'don't do this'.


So I read up on ways to drill more accurately through metal with a drill press, and it really did help. I made a flat surface for the bit to bite, and I picked a good speed for aluminum. I tapped the bit to get an impression started to minimize the bit wandering. And it really did make a difference. But not enough to overcome the loose tolerances of my setup. This task really needs a mill. Which I don't have. Yet. I made a little jig to set the angle, screwed the bridge in so it wouldn't shift on me, and set up a fence to keep the holes in the same line.

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I used oil and lubricated my cuts, I enlarged the holes in part so they would accept the ball ends of the strings.

The top could probably be worked to make it look better, I gave it a quick sand on the disk sander but it isn't even, it distorts the holes placement on the top.

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The bottom, however, isn't even close.

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I don't think I can make this work with my setup, which is ok. It cost me $5 to learn this lesson. So, I will have to decide to find a maker for this specialty item (an excellent lead has been provided to me by Jack), or make a simpler bridge. I suppose I could also do both. Have to ponder. I think I will drill some tuner holes tomorrow, and I have a few neat mystery items to share from Raybob that will help with the next items in the build.

If anyone has experience in metalworking that can share something I missed or can try in the future, please let me know!

[Jack Hanson]

Mark, if you like the looks of this one, by all means check in with Dave P in AZ. He made it, and most likely still has the drawing and specs, and can plug them right into his CNC machinery. His work is excellent, and his turnaround time is quick:

[Mark Frederick Jr]

Mark, if you like the looks of this one, by all means check in with Dave P in AZ. He made it, and most likely still has the drawing and specs, and can plug them right into his CNC machinery. His work is excellent, and his turnaround time is quick:

Thanks Jack, I actually took your advice and sent him a message last night!

[Mark Frederick Jr]

This week has been pretty packed, I have three kids who are all simultaneously in sports (two softball kids and youngest in baseball) for the first time, and we are all over the place every day of the week. Plus my wife is an ER nurse who works the weekend track overnights, so it is mostly just the kids and I all weekend. Really taking a toll on shop time, but family comes first. I know I will miss it when they are grown.

So I haven't been able to do too much. I found a company that will laser-cut my acrylic fretboard for about what it would cost to buy the material, so i sent them a 3d model to cut. If it works out well I will make sure to include the proper .step file of the fretboard for anyone who wants to go this route.

I also decided to splurge on the bridge, and have followed Jack Hanson's advice to contact Dave Peterson, and he made quick work of it. He sent me some pics of his work, and it is very impressive. I will definitely post a pic as soon as I receive the bridge.

That's about it for now, Sunday is looking nice, but I have some house repairs that need to be done asap, so that may take unfortunate priority. I don't want anyone to think this is going to be a dead thread though, I am seeing this thing through.