Crafty's Midnight Special Baritone

[crafty]

This was built in my garage over the last year using basic power tools, small band saw and bench top drill press and router table.

Specs:

• Basswood body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, markers made from maple scraps from neck
• Hand carved body bevels and neck
• Glued in neck, tenon under neck pickup, scarf joint with volute.
• 13 degree headstock angle with Planet Waves trimlok tuners
• 28 inch baritone scale, 24 jumbo frets
• Dual action truss rod w/heel adjust
• 1-11/16 string spacing at nut, Graph Tech nut
• DiMarzio D-Sonic neck and bridge pickups, f-spaced. Screwed directly to body.
• 3 way toggle, 500k tone, and 500k volume
• Top load bridge
• Dunlop Straplocks
• My own design, inspired by EBMM Petrucci model for elbow relief, very small body overall
• Lacquer finish

Here are the initial sketches and scarf joint work.

 

[crafty]

Truss rod routing and neck shaping:

[crafty]

Body shaping and routing:

[crafty]

I used Rustoleum rattle can lacquer. I will probably not use this again as it still hasn't cured very well, but it did take to wet sanding fairly nicely:

[crafty]

Final guitar after full wet sanding to 3000 grit and polishing using 3M and Meguiar's products:

[Muzz]

7 hours ago, crafty said:

I used Rustoleum rattle can lacquer. I will probably not use this again as it still hasn't cured very well, but it did take to wet sanding fairly nicely:

I finished a guitar in Rustoleum and it cured well after a month except I had to recoat the bits that sat on the foam in the guitar stand with two pack because the foam reacted with the Rustoleum and went dull. Your guitar looks awesome though, great job on it

 

 

[ShatnersBassoon]

9 hours ago, crafty said:

This was built in my garage over the last year using basic power tools, small band saw and bench top drill press and router table.

Specs:

• Basswood body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, markers made from maple scraps from neck
• Hand carved body bevels and neck
• Glued in neck, tenon under neck pickup, scarf joint with volute.
• 13 degree headstock angle with Planet Waves trimlok tuners
• 28 inch baritone scale, 24 jumbo frets
• Dual action truss rod w/heel adjust
• 1-11/16 string spacing at nut, Graph Tech nut
• DiMarzio D-Sonic neck and bridge pickups, f-spaced. Screwed directly to body.
• 3 way toggle, 500k tone, and 500k volume
• Top load bridge
• Dunlop Straplocks
• My own design, inspired by EBMM Petrucci model for elbow relief, very small body overall
• Lacquer finish

Here are the initial sketches and scarf joint work.

 

Nice work. I like that you have chosen your own body shape, gives it a unique look. I’ve been curious about Baritones for a while, especially seeing as a lot of what I play is in altered tunings.

Edited September 18, 2018 by ShatnersBassoon

[crafty]

4 hours ago, Muzz said:

 

Same thing happened here, except everything reacts to it or leaves an imprint, even cloth or carpet if it let it sit for more than an hour. I removed the foam on one of my wall hangers and just hung it there by the tuners. Maybe in another month it’ll be okay. The foam has never reacted to my nitro LP, but the LP was already a year old when I bought it. Next time I’m using two-pack.

[crafty]

2 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Nice work. I like that you have chosen your own body shape, gives it a unique look. I’ve been curious about Baritones for a while, especially seeing as a lot of what I play is in altered tunings.

Thanks! I was curious as well and I have plenty of standard guitars. It really does sound nice and boomy and I like the string tension on the longer scale. If I build another, I’ll probably scale up the body a little so it doesn’t feel so small.

[ScottR]

I wondered if you were going to keep the trapezoidal neck carve,,,,,I see you did. Is that new for this guitar or something you've come to prefer?

SR

[crafty]

2 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I wondered if you were going to keep the trapezoidal neck carve,,,,,I see you did. Is that new for this guitar or something you've come to prefer?

SR

It's something new. The sides of the neck have a good amount of curve, but I liked the feel of the flat back as I was shaping it, so I thought I'd just go with it. It's completely different to anything I have now and very thick with the 1/4 inch fretboard. My Kyser capo barely fits around the neck.

[Mr Natural]

nice job- thanks for sharing all the pics.

I am curious though- with the small body and longer scale- any neck dive issues? how is the balance with a strap? I like smaller bodies but have found some basses and guitars I have played to be plagued by neck dive

[crafty]

51 minutes ago, Mr Natural said:

nice job- thanks for sharing all the pics.

I am curious though- with the small body and longer scale- any neck dive issues? how is the balance with a strap? I like smaller bodies but have found some basses and guitars I have played to be plagued by neck dive

Thanks! The guitar is slightly unbalanced, but with the strap it isn't bad at all. I left a pretty good chunk of wood on the heel end to compensate for the longer scale and give a little more beef on the body. The body is about the size of an SG, but much thicker.