Original's 2016

[Original]

I'm Back! I had some health issues that kept me from doing much last year, but I'm building guitars again, and have some momentum going into this new year. I put the finishing touches on two projects already this year. The first was an experiment in multi-scale construction. Some of you may have seen it already, as I had it entered in the GOTM contest for January. I've been intrigued by Multi-scale guitars for some time, and have wanted to build one for a couple of years. I kept this one very basic so I could familiarize myself, keep the cost low, and not be encumbered by other complications. 

> One piece maple neck, with walnut fillet. 8" radius with jumbo fretwire. Abalone markers. Traditional truss rod. The scale lengths are 25.5 / 24.7

> Poplar body.

> I built the overwound AlNiCo V specifically for this guitar.

> Alpha pots, switchcraft jack.

> Nitrocellulose finish on the body, and tru-oil on the neck.

It's a simple little guitar, that really couldn't be more stripped down, and still be a playable instrument. The fingerboard layout that is perpendicular at the eighth is really comfortable, and combined with the 8" radius makes this thing an absolute players dream. The transition from playing on a single scale to this was almost seamless. I built this from the most inexpensive materials available, and used hardware, with the exception of the bridge, and electronics. I made the pickup from parts out of the junk drawer. In ten years, this is the least expensive guitar that I've ever built. The single most expensive purchase was the strings. Altogether though, it's an amazing little guitar that's full of tone, and a joy to play. Thanks everybody that voted for me in the poll! I've got several more projects to add here, so stay tuned.

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Original

[ScottR]

Welcome back John! That is certainly an impressive return with the Tomato there. It is very elegant in its simplicity.

I'm looking forward to seeing more.SR

[Guitaraxz]

Yeah, I remember seeing your Tomato in the GOTM, yours and Scots' were absolutelly awsome. 

I relly like the miminalism yet carefull detail on the multiscale, going from a normal length to a smaller one seems like the right direction in standard tuning. To me atleast. 

[Original]

Thanks Guys! The red guitar is really fun. I like handing it over to people who have never seen a multi, and watching their reactions when they play it. I'll be doing another with the same scale lengths soon. This one is generating a lot of very positive interest. For anyone think about building a multi-scale, something like this is a inexpensive project that will allow you to explore the format without being too heavily invested.

This is the second one that I've finished since the beginning of the year. I started it a while back, and set it aside when I was laid up. The original idea for the guitar was focused on the pickup. I had a vintage Fender XII in for some repair. I thought the pickups were pretty cool, butthat they looked clumsy oriented square in the offset body. I like making unique custom pickups, so this was a good opportunity to put my design idea of an angled variation of an uncommon Fender pickup in an offset body into use.

> One piece African Mahogany body. It came from a magnificent plank that was 17 feet long, and 15 inches wide. The shape is original, but heavily inspired by a Mustang.

> Hard Maple one piece neck. I love doing necks in this style. To me, it's sculpture when you craft a neck from a single block of material. I love the process of the building, and the aesthetic of the seamless neck. It's a 25.5 scale, with jumbo frets, walnut fillet over a traditional cambered truss rod, and abalone dots.

> The electronics are definitely the heart of this one. When I laid out the pickup design, I oriented the angle to conform with the design of the body. The spacing was adjusted so the strings would lay directly over the poles. Although I had an idea how the pickup would sound, I wasn't certain so I built two completely different prototype pickup styles. One has .790 AlNiCo V rods with 42 gauge wire, and the other steel poles, ceramic magnets, and 43 gauge. The coil forms on both are 13 mm tall with 12 mm pole spacing. I tried the rod magnet version first. It sounded so good that I didn't feel the need to even try the other. It's design would make it inherently darker, and I didn't need that. I vacuum form my own covers, so the pure white plastics are like icing on the cake. 

> There's nothing special about the hardware. I used some good quality Schaller copy tuners, and an inexpensive top loading hardtail strat style bridge. I thought the top need a little more chrome, so I added the stratocaster jackplate.I finished it off with a tele dome knob. Sweet, and simple.

> The finish is my version of what Epiphone called "Silverfox" in the early sixties. The solid color finish with contrasting grain filler is tricky to get right, but the final result is worth the effort. I never visualized this one as anything other than blue, and it worked great on this guitar.

 

[Prostheta]

Pulling off "sweet and simple" is difficult to do elegantly. Every little detail and aspect becomes ten times more important. Keep up the good work, and glad to have you back running on all cylinders, man.

[psikoT]

I love those mini pups!... impressive!

[PDX Rich]

Those are sharp. I like!

[sirspens]

1 hour ago, Original said:

> The finish is my version of what Epiphone called "Silverfox" in the early sixties. The solid color finish with contrasting grain filler is tricky to get right, but the final result is worth the effort. I never visualized this one as anything other than blue, and it worked great on this guitar.

Do you have a reference (article, video, etc.) on how to accomplish this finish? It is very similar to what I am wanting to achieve for my current project. And I am working with African Mahogany as well.

And beautiful guitar, by the way.

[ScottR]

Wow! That is about as retro as anything I've seen in a while. And yet kind of modern at the same time.....wow!

SR

[Original]

Thanks everyone, I'm really pleased with the way this one came out. 

Quote

Pulling off "sweet and simple" is difficult to do elegantly. Every little detail and aspect becomes ten times more important. Keep up the good work, and glad to have you back running on all cylinders, man.

 Like this

 

Thanks! You have no idea how delighted I am to be making guitars again.

I do fuss over small details. Fit and finish make all the difference in minimal designs. I love the simple look, but sometimes ironically it's pretty difficult to achieve. I try to create distinction in my guitars by using the lines, and styles that players are familiar with, but with subtle changes that reflect my tastes.  

Quote

Do you have a reference (article, video, etc.) on how to accomplish this finish? It is very similar to what I am wanting to achieve for my current project. And I am working with African Mahogany as well.

And beautiful guitar, by the way.

I haven't written anything like a "how to", but I'll put together a hopefully concise instructional of how I go about it, and post it "in thread" 

This is another example of the finish. The sample, and ultimately , the guitar

 

[Original]

2 hours ago, ScottR said:

Wow! That is about as retro as anything I've seen in a while. And yet kind of modern at the same time.....wow!

Thanks Scott! I'm still trying to get into this whole 21st century thing

[sirspens]

5 hours ago, Original said:

That is precisely what I want to do, in fact. Fantastic work.

[a2k]

Oh man... these are beautiful! I am a sucker for a guitar with one knob.

[Original]

On 2/8/2016 at 4:27 PM, sirspens said:

That is precisely what I want to do, in fact. Fantastic work.

Thanks! I'm not sure how others go about it, and if anyone has a different technique that might be easier please chime in. I started experimenting with these finishes with the objective of doing a convincing "TV Yellow", or "limed Mahogany" for replica guitars. 

I'm going to try to keep this short.

The prep work is important. I sand the wood to 400 grit in stages to make sure that there are no scratches, because they will catch the filler just like the grain, and it isn't pretty. The color coat goes on first. It's necessary to use a color that is not water soluble, thin enough to not clog the pores, but will cover with one coat. The trickiest part of the process is consistency. Spray cans work very well. Aerosols have to be very thin to work with the little nozzle, and usually cover pretty well. If more than one coat is used it will fill the pores, and there won't be room for the grain filler. (The color has to go on in one coat, and applied very evenly. "touch ups" will be obvious.)

I use Timbermate  pore filler. It's water based, and will not affect the color coat. I thin it to about the consistency of cake frosting. Not runny. It needs to be thin enough to penetrate, but heavy enough to not be pulled out too easily. It doesn't take much water to thin the timbermate, so if you want to add color, it needs to be very concentrated. Push the filler into the pores, and pull it back until the desired effect is achieved. Allow it to dry thoroughly!, and seal with shellac. Make some samples, and get comfortable with the process. It took me some practice to get it right, but it's one of my favorite looks, and worth the effort.

[Prostheta]

That's a really interesting process, and great to have it spelled out in no uncertain terms. Finishing is the one thing that I have never spent enough time getting practical experience learning. I have theory by the bucketload, however in finishing it means little compared to getting your hands dirty.

I think I need to get some dark Timbermate in the next few weeks. Nina's SG will be a "heritage cherry" type of finish, so I want to pack the pores with a dark colour and dye red over the top of that, then oil it up. Quite a "standard" approach by all account, however I bet you I can screw it up.

[Original]

On 2/10/2016 at 7:09 AM, Prostheta said:

That's a really interesting process, and great to have it spelled out in no uncertain terms. Finishing is the one thing that I have never spent enough time getting practical experience learning. I have theory by the bucketload, however in finishing it means little compared to getting your hands dirty.

I think I need to get some dark Timbermate in the next few weeks. Nina's SG will be a "heritage cherry" type of finish, so I want to pack the pores with a dark colour and dye red over the top of that, then oil it up. Quite a "standard" approach by all account, however I bet you I can screw it up.

Thanks! I've never used the pre-colored Timbermate. I have always tinted it myself using concentrated dyes. I've done red samples, but haven't used it on a guitar yet. One thing I've learned is that it takes multiple applications of the dye to get a deep red. I like dark grain fill on Mahogany. It can really add a lot of character. This one got dark fill, and a walnut flavored dye to coordinate with a "tobacco burst"

 

[ScottR]

I've not used Timbermate yet. Does it clog up sandpaper as bad as most fillers?

SR

[sdshirtman]

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

I've not used Timbermate yet. Does it clog up sandpaper as bad as most fillers?

SR

I've used it on the last 4 builds. It doesn't clog paper as long as its completely dry. That being said it doesn't fill as well as I would like. Will be trying an oil based filler soon as recommended by Tom Bartlett. 

[ScottR]

Be sure to let us know how that works out. The last bonafide filler I used was a two-part job that was remarkably like auto body putty I have used in the past. It clogged badly, but that may be because I added some dye to it.

SR

[curtisa]

I use Timbermate all the time. Occasionally it needs a couple of coats/sandbacks to fill all the pores properly, but otherwise it works well, sands well.

[Prostheta]

I bet Abranet would work like a dream cutting back grain filler. Last time I had to fill grain it was under a solid on a closed grain wood, so I used shellac to stop paint being sucked into the end grain. Some Timbermate would be super useful to me right now.

[Original]

The Timbermate isn't perfect, but I love it for it's versatility. It sands freely enough, and clogging isn't a problem. A little goes a long way, so the cost per use is really low. I don't use it exclusively though. For some things, I prefer Z-poxy.

[Prostheta]

That's one of the more important and/or useful aspects of Timbermate and "soft" grain fillers; they're softer than the wood around them, so the risk of modifying the workpiece is minimal. Epoxy, CA and other "hard" grain fillers are a real pain since the work required to cut them back can be too aggressive for a semi-finished workpiece. Hard sealers/grain fillers have their uses, but they're like spraying paint....better to get them close to finished during application than doing craploads of work trying to cut it back.

The MSDS sheet on Timbermate lists it as:

• <75% Barium Sulfate (white pigment and filler)
• 0.5-1.0% Crystalline Silica (bulking/thickener?)
• <5% Guar Gum (thickener/binder I guess)
• >10% Water (solvent)
• <2% Iron Oxide (pigment)

That's just your average thixotropic grain filler to a tee.

[Original]

After I started the Red guitar at the beginning of the thread, I felt confident enough with the aspects of Multi-scale construction that I began work on another. This one is a 7 string 27"/25.5" I used the "fret2find" software to print my layout. Enough has been said already about what a useful tool this is, but I'll repeat it anyway. Cool Software!

I've got some reclaimed Brazilian rosewood that I've been saving
for years. In a moment of weakness my propensity to hoard was overcome by exuberance, and I cut a fingerboard billet from my stash. 

I used my router sled to flatten it, and true-up the dimensions. While researching I came across a couple different designs for jigs to cut fret slots. I modified it to my tastes, and built a little slotting tool. I would recommend one of these to anyone attempting this. The red guitar was a one piece neck, so it wouldn't have fit in this, but for an attached fingerboard, this is a good aid.

 

 

[Original]

I like the look of laminated necks, but have never done one before this. The inherent stiffness should handle the added tension. I used maple, sapele, and some alder for the smallest stripes. As always for me, a traditional cambered truss rod.

I'm using a maple cap over a chambered one piece Honduran Mahogany body.

A big majority of the Multi-Scales I've encountered have been more influenced by the metal genre. I'm going to do this one more like a "Jazz box" with a modern twist. I haven't been this excited about a project in a long time.