'58 Twins

[avengers63]

I've been eyeballing some headless hardware on eBay for quite a while now. With the sale of some Warhammer armies that I haven't used in probably 6+ years, I was finally able to get them. I was REALLY pleased with the construction. From what I can tell, they're all brass and steel. I don't know of the design was stolen from ABM, but it's totally different from Steinberger. The ball ends are held behind the nut, while the strings are wound around large spindles in the bridge.

Like with all of the guitars I work on, I've spent countless hours thinking things through in my head as to exactly what I want to do. Then, like with all of the guitars I work on, I start the work and things have to change for whatever reason.

The original idea I landed on was to have a pair of instruments - one guitar and one bass - that are for all intents and purposes identical. After looking through a LOT of body shapes, reasing the headstocks in the pics, and doing a lot of measuring and calculating, I decided on a pair of headless '58 Explorers.

Now, not everything would be exactly like the original. First, the hardware is black, not gold. Second, the neck and fretboard are both wenge, not korina and rosewood. Third, the pickguards are tortoise, not black or white. All of that aside, there'd still be no mistaking that these are an homage to the '58 Gibsons.

When I got in the hardware, the first problem didn't waste any time spitting in my eye. The way the guitar bridge is made, you have to have basically unlimited access to the back/bottom of the unit. The tension spring is back there as well as the lock. Were that to go onto an Explorer, there would have to be a huge chunk of the body cut completely out. Well, that just looks like crap, so the guitar can't be an Explorer. The wood was already in hand though, so the '58 theme was locked in as far as I was concerned.

But Gibson made another great model in 1958: the Flying V.

PERFECT! Putting the bridge at the back of the body let me have all the access I could ever need while not carving away a big chunk of the body. And it'd look great headless.

The only other specifics to note at this point are the pickups. The bass is getting a Carvin Music Man pup I found for $32 shipped. The guitar is getting a pair of Rockfield Mafia HBs I landed for $55 shipped.

To recap:

Both are getting white limba bodies, wenge necks, wenge fretboard, tortoise pickguards, and black headless hardware.

[avengers63]

The two body templates were made from tracings of Gibsons. They might not be 100%, but they're pretty darn close.

With 8/4 white limba being hard to get around here, I had to use 4/4 and thickness glue them. About 5 minutes of investigation told me that the original and current V and Explorers are both 1 9/16" thick, so that's what I made these two.

Wanting the twins to be as identical as I can, I bookmatched the fretboard blank. It'll be one of those small details that you wouldn't notice at first, but is revealed upon closer inspection. The guitar is 22 frets at 25" scale. The bass is 20 frets at 34" scale.

[Moth]

Most of the 50's guitars were hand made anyway, weren't they? With that in mind, no two would be exactly alike. So you're paying more homage by not being completely accurate!

[Our Souls inc.]

I 've got 2 sets of twins , so when I saw 58 twins , I was like - Thats a LOT of kids !

Then I saw you're building guitars ...... coolness.

I like the FB being booked on two different guitars. I've done it myself with a pair of guitars using birds eye maple and its a cool effect.

I have that same trem you describe from a Pearl River headless guitar. If you'd like a pic or two or some dims for the trem cavity , let me know. I have a nut too. The bridge is in use , but the nut aint. another "if you need it , let me know " lol.

Best of luck- these oughta be awesome.

[avengers63]

This is the guitar bridge I bought. They have a virtually identical bas bridge. The pics aren't the best quality, so I emailed the seller, then talked with him on the phone. I was able to ask some specific questions, and he convinced me that they were worth checking out.

I'll post some pics of the units later.

[guitar2005]

I like the explorer but the V just looks wrong with no headstock.

Have you thought of doing a steinberger strat style instead?

Edited March 17, 2010 by guitar2005

[avengers63]

Did you miss the whole point of the theme?

[avengers63]

Right now, all I have are WIP pics of the bodies. So starting with the bass....

I misremembered the bridge positioning when I took that pic. I thought the bridge was going to be really far back on the body. Oh well.

You can see from the underside of the bridge that there's a little shelf where the unit is screwed to the body. Then the tuning mechanism drops down so that there's a good break angle for the strings to go over the saddles. What all of this meant for me is that I had to put a recess into the body.

I didn't take a picture of the template I made for it, but the whole thing was pretty straight-forward. I routed the the dropped shelf about 1/32" deeper than the actual piece. This gives me a little room for error and finish.

The remainder of the large recess in the back wasn't completely necessary, but looked better than just a big crater behind the bridge. It ended up leaving a little less that 3/4" of wood back there because you need enough room to get your fingers around the tuners.

Also, I had originally tried a square edge in the bottom of the recess, but it didn't look right. I rigged up a way to get a core box bit in there and round out the inside corners.

Lastly, the angles match the body sides. If it didn't, it'd look all kinds of wrong.

Edited March 17, 2010 by avengers63

[avengers63]

[Our Souls inc.]

Yep , thats the one - identacle. Have you figured out what the hinged metal strap thing is ????? I never did.

Looking good - and remember , just because it's tuner-less , don't mean you cant have a HS. My ML clone was done using a FR speedloader , but I put a HS on it for 2 reasons : Aestetics and 2: Future option of using tuners should the speedloader strings become extinct. ( happening rapidly )

Dig the Bass. Looks like upper fret access will be a beast.

[Metalhead28]

I like your solution for mounting the bass bridge. Looks pretty cool.

[Metalhead28]

Yep , thats the one - identacle. Have you figured out what the hinged metal strap thing is ????? I never did.

Looking good - and remember , just because it's tuner-less , don't mean you cant have a HS. My ML clone was done using a FR speedloader , but I put a HS on it for 2 reasons : Aestetics and 2: Future option of using tuners should the speedloader strings become extinct. ( happening rapidly )

Dig the Bass. Looks like upper fret access will be a beast.

I was wanting to build a headless Speedloader guitar so bad - but I've been watching the strings disappear for the last year or so......sucks.

[avengers63]

Have you figured out what the hinged metal strap thing is ????? I never did.

It's a fold-out leg rest.

[avengers63]

TEST NECK

With this headpiece, I feel like a rookie again. i really don't know how the whole thing is meant to go together. I looked for a loooooooong time for something resembling instructions or pictures, but it just ain't there. At least it's not where I can find it. So......

It's time to go through the motions of making a neck with some pine and see what happens. With any luck, I can sort out the unknowns with this instead of dorking up the wenge. Here's the blank and the slotted fretboard.

...and here are some shots of the headpiece.

Based on what I can see in this headpiece and the headpiece on my Steinberger, this isn't supposed to have a nut, it's supposed to have a zero-fret.

It also looks like the traditional 5/16" fretboard is going to be too tall.

Lastly, the end of the neck has to be beveled to accommodate the headpiece. That's 1 out of 3 that I don't really need to think too hard about.

[avengers63]

The headpiece also has a hole in it to adjust the truss rod through. Better see how that's going to work out...

The channel is easy enough to rout out.

So is cutting the end bevel. Doing the hole however...

The hard grain of the pine made the bit wander. At least that's what I'm HOPING it was. I'll have to set up some kind of jig when I do the real thing.

Yea... that's all kinds of off center. I CAN get the wrench in there and into the t/r nut, but we all know that's entirely not the point. Still, it's good to know I have a little margin for error.

[avengers63]

Cool. My Stew-Mac order just got here. Now I can fret the Iceman.

I needed to put a divot and small shelf in the ned of the fretboard so that the headpiece will fir on properly. In all likelihood, the divot will be taken care of with the neck taper. The shelf will still need to be chiseled out by hand. Not a big deal.

And here is where the real issue in my mind is.......

[avengers63]

It seems right in my mind for the bottom end of the t/r to stop at the 20th fret on this one. That leaves quite a bit of the t/r nut sticking past the zero-fret line. My necessity, all of this extra at the end of the neck HAS to be there. There's simply no getting around it.

Maybe it just because it's a headless and I'm in semi-uncharted waters for me, but I'm not liking the feel of this. I can't explain why, but it just seems like there's going to be an issue with the rod with it all placed like this. Something feels hokey up in the area between the "nut" and the end of the headpiece.

Logic tells me that I've had the end of the t/r sticking out this far past the nut before, so there isn't an issue. It still doesn't feel right somehow.

On another note, does anyone have some short bits of whatever it is I'm supposed to use as a zero-fret that they can let me have? I use Stew-Mac #141 frets, so I THINK that I just need some really tall fretwire, but I honestly have no idea. I'd need enough for the guitar and the bass.

[Our Souls inc.]

A leg rest ..... go figure .........

the zero frets I've done have all been of the same wire as the frets themselves. When you level and crown , just don't level that one.

Wait till other more 'sperienced cap'ns chime in, but its worked 4 times so far with no problems.

I wouldn't fret it.

[Johnny Foreigner]

the 1st fret doesn't need to be taller than the 2nd fret, so why would the 0 need to be taller than the 1st?

if you imagine that all you're doing is the same as putting a capo behind any other fret. If you put a capo on the fifth fret, the string isn't fouled by the 6th.

[avengers63]

Truss rod channels routed on both. I added a 1/8" white limba pinstripe into the mix. I wanted to add just a little bit of decoration while staying with the minimalistic themes.

[WezV]

i had one of these bridges and headpieces to fit to a bass.

didnt like the quality but i guess it was alright for the price... mine had a lot of sharp burrs in the string slots on the headpiece.

I was fitting it to a bass with a normal nut so i left a short amount of headstock and just thickened it up slightly to get everything to the right height

[avengers63]

Then I guess I'll give the headpieces a thorough examination for burrs. Where did you get yours?

I came up with a pretty simple jig for doing the end-holes. I call it "Block of wood with a hole in it clamped into place."

It seems to have worked out pretty well.

Edited March 20, 2010 by avengers63

[avengers63]

And of course the obligatory "every clamp I could fit on there to glue on the fretboard" shot.

[avengers63]

WOW!!!!

To date, wenge is by FAR the easiest fretboard to radius. I expected it to be a LOT harder than it is.

Yes, I have some pics. I just don't have them up yet.

[eddiewarlock]

what kind of wood are those fretboards?