kmensik Posted March 15, 2015 Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 Hallo, this is my second attempt at a complete guitar build. I like the RG, but most basswood pieces lack the bite I want, so I chose sapele. Also because I had some of it left from my previous S body build, I'm making her a sister. Neck is three piece maple with a thin 4mm zebrano fretboard. I want to keep the back cavities uncovered, to stress the mechanical engineering look of the body. Whatever you might not like or have an advice how to do better, please tell me or kick me. Here is my gallery. http://www.rajce.net/a10845499 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted March 15, 2015 Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 Fantastic. looking great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted March 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 My new RG is almost finished, just waiting for a new tremolo baseplate. The recycled Edge III is in a horrible state after an attack by a previous owner. Shellac body finish again, purpousely showing the grain. Wipe on lacquer on neck, linseed oil on fretboard. Plays great, fulfilled my hopes. Despite the weight of 4kg and very sharp body edges it feels comfortable. The whole build photoalbum is here: http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_RG/ Hope you like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zack Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Very nice! My RGT42 is my all time favorite guitar (that I didn't build). If you get some extra dough just wasting away, the Edge Pro is a huge improvement. Love the valute work. A neck feels naked to me without one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 It looks incredible, well done. A logo on the headstock would really finish it off, why not put your name on it to show it is hand made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 Excellent job, very clean indeed... Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted April 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2015 Oh, thank you. I do my best to make all detail precise, all curves fluent. Still I´ve got a lot to learn, like patience. As for the tremolo, the demaged Edge III is working now, though I had to make the cruelly shortened block a bit longer with two hex bolts. Dirty, hopefully temporary solution. Actually I have Edge Pro in my S470 http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_S/ and it fits this RG. I hope I find one second hand. And yes, a volute was the first feature I was certain about. I enjoyed adding one also when I repaired a broken Epi SG headstock. http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/Epiphone_SG/#P1360165.jpg Logo is a problem. Firstly I don't feel like putting my name on a copy guitar. I only put my name and date inside the neck pocket. Secondly, I have no idea what the graphics shoud look like or what name shall I use. For my business card I designed this logo, which comes from my initials K.M. It can be made plain black to put on the headstock. I hesitated wether to put any name on my first neck, which was a tele, but it remained clean since then. BTW it is this one http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_Tele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santa Claws Posted June 25, 2015 Report Share Posted June 25, 2015 wow thats really nice.. great job,.. I'm actually starting a build myself of an rg, just wondering did you have any guitar plans for the rg? or what way did you do it? did you buy templates? any advice at all welcome.. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted June 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 Hi. Look at the complete album, there is a lot from the building process, e.g. the simple router table I built for this. I printed out plans for JEM guitar and made templates from that. I had an actual RG470 at hand to compare to and measure some details, but I got all I really needed from the plans. http://www.gitarrebassbau.de/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6 I think I used http://www.gitarrebassbau.de/download/file.php?id=18027&sid=30628572ce17bc4fbad3fe0985b4bf1e I changed the neck pocket a bit, cut away the little corners and kept the neck heel not rounded, ald the headstock angle is 14° like the older japanese, newer ones have 12°. Good luck building, show your progress. BTW I just started a new body from a superlight kind of poplar wood. What do you think of it? Can it remain in natural finish? Yellow is the other choice. http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_Featherweight/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted July 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 I just finished the poplar body. I call it Orange peel, guess why. Actually I sanded the front and sides, keeping the infamous texture on the back. The body is 1070g of wood + 120g of PU laquer, the whole guitar 2550g, i.e. 5.62lb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted May 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2016 Starting a new build: S style body of alder, three piece mahogany deep set neck, zebrano fretboard, ZR tremolo. Other specs will arise during the work, not much is planned. Album Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 12, 2016 Report Share Posted May 12, 2016 Nice. I love RGs and super strats. Will this be a set neck? The neck pocket looks long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted May 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2016 Yes, a set neck. It goes right in the neck pickup cavity. The remainihg tongue is still 11mm thick under the neck pickup, so it has some structural function. Some progress in routing cavities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 What kind of trem is that? The spring cavity looks interesting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted May 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2016 Ibanez Zero Resistance with Zero Position System. It is a lot more complicated to route cavities for this trem. During the weekend I contoured the body, rough carved the neck joint and neck profile. I did a very clean job drilling the jack hole, but after contouring the body I had to make it a little deeper, freehand, with a forstner bit. Messed that up big time. The forstner damaged the hole, the top and side of body. Had no heart to take pictures. Well, I fixed it by removimg more wood, mainly enlarging the jack hole from 20 to 27mm diameter. Next is fretboard radius, some scraping, sanding, and gluing the neck in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 18, 2016 Report Share Posted May 18, 2016 From where I'm sitting that looks like very clean work, in particular your routes. Very nice work. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted May 18, 2016 Report Share Posted May 18, 2016 My god that looks great! I love Sabres! If you find some time please explain how you carved the radius of the top and back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 18, 2016 Report Share Posted May 18, 2016 Yes please share how you did the carve! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockhorst Posted May 19, 2016 Report Share Posted May 19, 2016 1 hour ago, SIMpleONe89 said: Yes please share how you did the carve! +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmensik Posted May 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2016 My pleasure. This is my 2nd S style body. I made a routing jig for the first one. It removes most of the mass of excess wood and leaves a "drop top", a shape of half-cylinder. Then I can rotate the body in the jig and make more adjacent half-cylinder segments, which creates almost a spherical segment. Look here http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_S#P1140577.jpg and read here http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/47314-sabre-body-for-ibanez-s-470-neck/ Anyway, most of the work is done afterwards by hand with a drawknife (reducing the waist) and with a flat spokeshave smoothing the segments. I messed up the first upper half-cylinder, went too deep, so I decided to make the carves asymetrical front/back and top/bottom. The body is thinner under my right arm, about as thin as the original Japanese Sabres, more contoured from the top, but I left it thicker in the lower bout where it would rest on my leg. The upper bout is cut more from the back, so it is as comfortable as a strat belly cut. The jig is really not necessary, if you practice with the handtools. Draw the lines around the edges of how deep you want to cut, clamp the body firmly to the table (shame I do it on that lightweight foldable bench) and cut away with a drawknife. It is a rough dirty tool, but can do a fine job too. I carved the initial neck profile just with that. BTW what do you think of leaving the neck profile segmented as it is now? Just smoothing the edges closes to fretboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted May 19, 2016 Report Share Posted May 19, 2016 Wow, that jig is super cool!! Thanks for that! Do you use the same radius for the front and the back? I guess I could examine one of my s bodies to find this out. As for the neck as it is I would find that extremely uncomfortable but that's just my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 19, 2016 Report Share Posted May 19, 2016 While I've never had one in my hands, I've read that trapezoidal profiled necks are very comfortable and you stop noticing the shape almost immediately. Having said that, I'm happy with the way mine feel and so don't expect to ever make one. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 20, 2016 Report Share Posted May 20, 2016 But wouldn't that shape be extremely uncomfortable for the thumb? I prefer my necks to be relatively flat along the middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 20, 2016 Report Share Posted May 20, 2016 I was thinking it was flat along that center laminate. The trapezoid necks I referred to are flat in the center as well. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 20, 2016 Report Share Posted May 20, 2016 1 minute ago, ScottR said: I was thinking it was flat along that center laminate. The trapezoid necks I referred to are flat in the center as well. SR Oh right I was looking at his picture and I thought the sharp line was the centre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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