Edw5493 Posted May 2, 2016 Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 Hi guys I have just found this website and thought a few of you might be interested in my first guitar build. It's a tad ambitious for the first build so I have help from phillip porter guitars in manchester uk who runs custom guitar building courses and is helping me with this one which is hopefully the first of many. I wanted to build somthing a bit different and individual which is unique but still ergonomic and has all the features that I wanted. Thanks for looking let me know what you all think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 Above was the original plans and the redrafted ones showing the internal routes the wood I chose for this build was flamed maple for the neck and top, swamp ash for the back and ebony for the fretboard. I apologise in advance I got a bit over exited and didn't take as many pictures as I should have during the build Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 First of all we made the templates for the build which locate on the body sections via 3 pins one for the internal routes and one for the external body shape after shaping the templates to the desired shape and size we proceeded to choose the nicest grain on the body woods and cut out the shape roughly on a bandsaw and then route round the templates to get the final shape of the body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 I had decided to make this a hollow body guitar at the design stage but that has a few challenges because I also wanted to have recessed volume and tone controls, an armrest and a cut in on the back of the body meaning that we couldnt route to a constand depth on the inside of the cap and the body. So we started with a 20mm flamed maple cap that was planed down to 16mm and then I carved in the armrest for the top and carves at the bottom for the controls before using the overhead router and another template that we made to cut the volume and tone nob recesses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 At this point we skimmed out the cap using the internal route template to take the cap down to where the recesses in the cap were about 6mm thick. I also carved in the back of the body to where I wanted it so we could do the same with the back of the body 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 We then made another template that followed where to cut ins went too so we could route deeper into he body without coming though the other side of the back or the cap and hen carved in the blend on the back of the body and and sanded in the lip on the cap I also drilled though the control holes which I had popped with a pilot hole earlyer before routing and forgot to mention whist writeing this post. I apologise for the missing pictures of steps I have described ect as this was a couple of montgs ago and I forgot to take enough pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 2, 2016 Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 Keep going the way you've started and this is going to turn out very nice! I like your design too. I 'm a big fan of original designs. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 2, 2016 Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 Great idea for the belly contour. Hope to see more soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2016 Hi thanks for the kind words I'm actually quite far on with the build now almost ready to paint was just writing in bits as there is rather alot to mention really appriciate the encouraging comments I am a tad unsure what the general opinion would be of the design I love it though Below are some of the pics from the neck building I used a stew mac hot rod truss rod and cut the fingerboard using the stew mac jig (sound like I'm advertising now) haha And used a neck template for a strat and a router to cut the ebony to size before lining it up to the centerline on the neck then roughly marking with pencil and cutting the shape out with plenty of excess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 (edited) using an overhead router we cut the neck down to near finnish thickness and used the fretboard as a template to route the neck. Afterwards whilst we still had flat sides I centre punched drilled and used apoxy and a heat gun to soften the glue to fit the side dot markers I Appologise but I have included a picture of my drunk friends by accident and don't seem to be able to delete it Edited May 4, 2016 by Edw5493 Can't delete picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Haha your friends are clearly celebrating your guitar build! What saw is that for the fret slots? Looks like a Japanese saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Haha yeh they look pretty excited about it and thats a good spot yeh it's a Japanese saw aparently it worked very well http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Types_of_Tools/Saws/Japanese_Fret_Saw.html That's the one don't know alot about it to be honest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Here are the first pics of starting to carve the neck in at the top and bottom I still needed alot left flat so i just started to bring each end in to make a start and i was also working out the string splay on the headstock I was trying to keep the strings as strait as possible but it made the headstock too small to keep the shape I was after so I ended up slaying the strings fractionally and think it looks good at the moment will be interested to see what it looks like once it's strung up. I drew the headstock onto the wood traced it and made a template that lined up will the tuning peg holes and routed round it to save ruining the neck if there were any accidents with the rasp and then baught the edges into the nut with rasps and files Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 It's always nice to see where your up to sometimes it was cirtainly starting to look a bit like a guitar at this point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Lookin good! Are the tapes on the fretboard the design for the inlays? Haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Was just masking tape had a centerline drawn on and we're just about to do the inlays so we cut out the tape on the nessesary slots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Looks pretty nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 2 hours ago, psikoT said: Looks pretty nice! Yeah, it does.! SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Cheers thanks guys appriciate it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 hi guys back with a few more pics been having trouble uploading them these are from doing the fretboard inlays we found the centre of each fret centerpuched drilled and then used apoxy to glue them in place before sanding the radius into the fretboard and getting it all nice and flat with the sanding block and recutting the fret slots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 This is one of my favorite bits i got someone locally with a cnc machine to cut my autograph into a headstock veneer the bed on the cnc wasnt large enough for the neck so couldnt cut it strait in and inlayed it with abalone to match the fret markers it looks awesome in person never comes out as nicely on pictures. them we positioned it using the headstock template and drilled the tuning peg holes to line it up routed clamed and glued it to the headstock 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Time for the frets (well most of them you will see why later) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightroExpress Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Good going! I really like the signature inlay, it's very classy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2016 cheers man im glad i got somthing on the headstock i allways think it looks like it is missing somthing when there plain. i couldnt be happier with how it turned out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edw5493 Posted May 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2016 i have some more to update but unfortunate;y i cant seem to upload the pictures and im not really sure why anybody have trouble with uploading? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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