Prostheta Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Phew. It feels like far too long since I've done a proper project thread. Mostly this is because I tend to save project work for tutorials and article content....anyway. As we progress through this build, various aspects will no doubt form the basis for various external tutorials, etc. We'll bring it all together anyway. So. The basis behind this build is a Khaya EB-0 body I'd cut a couple of years ago, and a Les Paul neck blank. I measured the two up and there's a few discrepancies that mean they can't be used to create any kind of faithful "dyed in the wool" SG. The neck will be about 1/2" closer to the body than normal, but that's about it. The objective is to make a simple SG Jr. style guitar for Nina, however with a single humbucker instead of a P-90. The bridge will most likely be an ABM wraparound bridge with the headstock kitted out with Kluson vintage keystone tuners. Not fully decided whether to inlay the fingerboard yet, however split trapezoids seem to be attractive to me at this stage. Unlike a Jr, the fingerboard will be bound, so you could more or less say this is a Big Jr? The TNT name is no small reference to the fact that Nina is an AC/DC fan.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Yay! Tutorials are great for learning processes and are easily searchable, but proper threads are so valuable, because of all the questions and answers delivered along the way. All the alternatives discussed, all the sidetracking that leads to new ideas and all the opportunities to be a clever smartass along the way, all the feedback is priceless and fun too. I'm looking forward to this. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Materials as they stand. Black fibreboard for the headstock, self-fabricated single-acting compression rod. Big tenon to hide under the pickguard ;-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 On 3/16/2016 at 4:41 PM, Prostheta said: Big tenon to hide under the pickguard ;-) Thus already addressing the number one weakness of SGs. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 You betcha. I love nice solid single-pickup wraparound guitars, so I think it'll suit Nina nicely. A low output PAF style pickup will complement it perfectly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 Okay, let's see how we got to this point shall we? Normally I would detail everything from raw boards to end product with every step in between, however a lot of this work was done to alternative specs (namely a Les Paul for the neck and an SG Bass/EB-0 for the body). So anyway, this is what happened neckwise: ---==--- Blank marked up with neck angle, side profile with waste recovery for the headstock scarf Detail on how I planned the tenon. This will require an angled base in the mortice. I never go by any sort of "vintage specs" or whatever even if I am making a more or less faithful copy. I choose what works best within my personal methods to to achieve the end product. It's worth considering issues that originals might have specifically worked around, but mostly "vintage correct" seems to correlate more to "maintaining poor design aspects for no good reason". Anyway. I digress. Removing the majority of waste from around the tenon using the bandsaw fence whilst the blank is still square and true. Cleaning the tenon on the shittiest router table in the world. Fence set to prevent the shoulder getting near the cutter. Close passes were done using a large square backing board against the fence. I was doing two necks at the time.... The same process is carried out for the underside of the tenon. All sizes were a hair over requirements since everything can be tuned later. Now here's what surprised me. I'd hand cut the shoulders. After cleaning up with a chisel. This surprised me. I believe that I actually took these necks over to the table saw (Martin T60).... ....and shaved a fraction of a mm around the shoulders to make it more precise. This was done by measuring the distance from the square end of the tenon, subtracting the blade kerf and making three cuts. Two with the blade straight and the blank on its sides, aligning the table itself plus/minus the neck angle, then once with the table straight and the blade at the neck angle. ---==--- So anyway; that's the story of how the necks came to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 Bodywise, I started out with a THICK 46mm body made to this plan. It's sort of out for an SG, but not by much. I'm not bothered really. The standard of the finished instrument is what concerns me, rather than some sort of authenticity.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 The body has a bit of a discolouration fault in the wood. It could be water damage in the tree. Most of it will be hidden or routed out so it's fine. Nothing structural. Well what do you know? I did clean the shoulders out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted March 18, 2016 Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 Making a perfect replica of a Gibson would be a step backwards I guess... sorry but we're in 2016. Looks very nice so far, clean and professional. I wish I had access to big machinery and a proper workshop. I'm really interested to see you working (no offense) and love your tricks, please don't hesitate to show us more... you are not aware of it but you saved my ass today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 I guess so, however other than the slightly forced adjustments it will be more or less a traditionally-styled SG. Nina likes that kind of thing, so I simply get to add my own spin to it. The access to machinery is limited these days, hence why I am building up the home workshop as best as I can. Not entirely unlike how you work yourself! How did I save your ass? Do tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 That Martin T60 is a serious bit of kit (€45k?) with a lot of great features but it's totally overspecced for guitar work. It's more geared to panel and sheet work. I bet you that one person who would LOVE something like that would be @demonx; right up his street I think. Outside of the CNC work, I think it would be something Allan'd get a lot of use out of. If I could purchase any table saw for my own use, it would be something like a Felder K700. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightroExpress Posted March 18, 2016 Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 Nice to see another build thread, Carl! I like the specs so far... have you decided on a finish yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted March 18, 2016 Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 1 hour ago, Prostheta said: How did I save your ass? Do tell. Maybe you didn't, cause I haven't started yet, but at least I'm gonna sleep better. I will start a build soon and I was worried about how to glue a top with no gaps, and found that trick with the slightly curved sticks you wrote in another post just brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 31 minutes ago, KnightroExpress said: Nice to see another build thread, Carl! I like the specs so far... have you decided on a finish yet? Yeah, however the schedule itself is still up for debate. Nina likes the standard antique wine or whatever you want to call it. I might change it up a little and go with a slightly darker fill for a black cherry kind of look. Deeper is probably the way to term it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 The pickguard will most probably be like a standard Jr however I'm going to play with the design a little. Balancing off the pickup ring and other features weight-wise is going to be a priority. There's a lot of blank real estate behind the bridge without that cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 35 minutes ago, psikoT said: Maybe you didn't, cause I haven't started yet, but at least I'm gonna sleep better. I will start a build soon and I was worried about how to glue a top with no gaps, and found that trick with the slightly curved sticks you wrote in another post just brilliant. It's a really old kind of trick. You can make these by setting the bed on a jointer so that the infeed is tilted higher than the outfeed. Everything comes out convex. Would you believe that there is a company making a profit out of manufacturing these? Crazy world, man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 18, 2016 Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 I'm pleased you are on the project path again. I will be following progress with great interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted March 19, 2016 Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 8 hours ago, Prostheta said: That Martin T60 is a serious bit of kit (€45k?) with a lot of great features but it's totally overspecced for guitar work. It's more geared to panel and sheet work. I bet you that one person who would LOVE something like that would be @demonx; right up his street I think. Outside of the CNC work, I think it would be something Allan'd get a lot of use out of. If I could purchase any table saw for my own use, it would be something like a Felder K700. My sliding panel scribe/saw is not in that league. Currently it is disassembled for a forklift load it onto a truck for the workshop move. As far as luthiery, a panel saw is overkill - however it's still great to have in the workshop for other purposes. I used to find ways to incorporate it into guitar building simply because I had one, but it doesn't get used anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 The size of the sliding table is what makes it great for fine work. I can dial in angles at 1/100th of a degree, hence why the three cuts around that tenon are so clean and well aligned. It'd look great in the living room. Yeah, it's great to be back in the saddle again Andy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 A little on work ordering and considerations. This might be a little stream-of-consciousness, however that might give you insight into how I make my personal design choices, or perhaps lack of them.... Truss Rod Currently the neck has been slotted through-and-through at a set depth for the truss rod. Originally the Les Paul that the neck was destined for would have had a single-acting dual rod sitting in there. I don't want to go that route, and certainly it isn't too late to do otherwise. Since it is still more or less square, the channel will be re-routed (or done on the table saw) so that the rod channel lays about 1/8" or 3mm above the back of the neck. I'll be running it straight simply because I want it to be functioning solely by compression rather than by in-built tension from a curved channel. Whether this will actually have any effect on the sound of the neck is debatable; I am simply chosing to do it this way out of simplicity and trying out the configuration. I might have opinions after the fact, however I doubt that I'll have an objective point for comparison. The rod itself was built during the single-acting compression rod tutorial and consists of a length of 6mm mild steel rod and an anchor made from a square of steel peened onto the end. I'll need to make a half-moon washer and figure out how I want to do the rod cover. I like the look of the "floating" truss rod cover which doesn't butt up against the nut. It's pretty classy in my book. Once all of the rod channel work has been completed, I can consider cutting the rough taper on the neck and using the recovered stock for headstock wings. This is where several key choices snowball.... Headplate I have a piece of black fibreboard which understandably only looks good when buried under a clearcoat. I'm not too good at shooting paint for a number of reasons. It tries my patience so I must have some specific personality flaw that relates to shooting paint. Maybe a traumatic childhood drama? Anyway. An option on the table is Tru-Oil. I don't know whether that is in fact a good idea simply because it would potentially amber the black cherry look out too much. Warmer/yellower is a better option than going too far down the burgundy route, however it might be too far down it. The choice of whether to shoot 2K clear (likely rattlecan) or Tru-Oil directly affects the headstock plate....2K=fibreboard. Tru-Oil would mean real wood such as Ebony or whatever. Nice little knot of problems there. Fingerboard I'm going to look into what Carlos at Guitars & Woods has in stock. The only boards I have on stock at the moment are flamed Birch, white Oak, Wengé, Kingwood and black Paperstone. The only one of those that really come close is the Kingwood, and that's far too stripy. Proper clownish stripy. I figure I'm going to use that as radial purfling stock instead for some other build. @verhoevenc really inspired me with that idea. In all likelihood I'll try and snare a black-black Ebony headplate and some non-jet fingerboard. I like lower-grade Ebony simply for the interest that the streaks give it at high polish, similar to my 7-string. Alternatively, I'll snag some Pau Ferro or a Rosewood. Inlays The headplate and the fingerboard will be inlaid....trapezoids or split parallelograms fit with the tradition. I'm not sure whether Nina has her own preference, but we'll see. Completion of several build stages will be held up by completion of my inlaying pantograph. Henri over at MooCb will probably be requisitioned to produce an acrylic scale template of my logo (3:1 or 4:1) and maybe the fingerboard inlays depending on how that pans out. Costs soon start stacking up. Electronics Single pickup instruments have their own charm. My last build was single pickup also, and it alters your playing on a very fundamental level. The personality of the instrument is very much set, and you concentrate on playing instead of figuring out which voice to use. Shut up and play yer guitar! In spite of using single humbucker with a "vintage" output which might seem very very traditionalist, I might well install one of my 18v virtual earth preamps. Like the last bass build, this can all be hidden out of sight under the pickguard. I like the "sleeper" type of look. On the outside, the only clue might be jack placement since it needs to use a DPDT-switched socket rather than the stereo jack of single-ended supplies like EMG circuits. Top-mounting that jack won't be happening any time soon with the thin SG body. Instead, it'll need to be side-mounted. The preamp is purely to kill any remaining noise in the signal and produce a low impedance output to eliminate losses from cable capacitance. Contrary to what purists believe, this simple buffer doesn't fundamentally alter the sound of an instrument or kill any "organic" aspects. Anybody who would like to disagree can write their misgivings on a piece of paper, roll it up and return it up there bottoms whence the opinion came from in the first place. Big Minor Considerations The detail around the neck (binding, inlays, etc.) kind of set up a bit of an imbalance body-side. The sparse nature of the Jr. style body configuration might clash with its minimalism....especially with a wraparound and only two controls instead of four, a jack and a toggle! Part of me is vacillating around adding a neck pickup, and that bothers me somewhat. Perhaps the answer lays in the neck binding and inlays....? Those aspects set up an imbalance that I'm not quite comfortable with. Maybe dialling those back a bit is necessary..... Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted March 19, 2016 Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 4 hours ago, Prostheta said: The sparse nature of the Jr. style body configuration might clash with its minimalism... Didn't you already say you planned on doing something special with the pickguard? Jr-ish but customized? That could give you some room to bring the visual interest of the body up to meet the neck. Personally, I love a good one-pickup design. If that is what you are feeling, don't abandon it for aesthetic reasons. While I am light-years from putting the same consideration of design into my guitars as you are doing here, that is why I ended up adding the pickguard to my weekend build project. That's how I got from trying to pick out a color, to designing a pickguard... Bottom line: Use your pickguard to help with the visual balance. That's my thought. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 I completely agree. Part of it is that I like the look of the pickguards used on 2-pickup SGs. I am perhaps overthinking the issue, but sometimes these subtleties are in fact the prime movers of the design and some things force your arm in terms of design choice. There are a few SG Jrs with a full SG guard, however I don't like the big blank area where a second pickup should live. That looks fudged. I need to draw this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 Thinking about it, it's also that the guard narrows out underneath the dogear P-90s. It needs tweaking to better suit a ring-mounting bucker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted March 19, 2016 Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 I can't take the credit, first person I ever saw do the radial purfling was my friend Todd at Greenridge guitars. I'm even talking years before you started to see it pop up in custom builds and even mini-factories. He's one creative, and geniusly-inclined, dude! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 20, 2016 Report Share Posted March 20, 2016 Interesting to witness the thought process, @Prostheta. I agree with your pondering in terms of head plate. Personally, I've never got on with fibreboard. I find it difficult to get a neat sharp sided rout for inlays and no advantage for finishing. For a junior, I always think the 'less is more' examples shine. An understated but elegant feature such as small inlay, or pickguard shape or similar can often raise the desire to pick it up and take it home with you much more than the more fancy stuff more usually seen on the double humbucker designs. Mind you, this is from a guy who has just built an outrageously bling single cut bass..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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