gpcustomguitars Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 I was recently asked to make 2 identical bodies, template being a headless shape, to be used with common necks based on Ibanez specs. The bodies would be cherry and walnut. I wanted to tweak the shapes he wants a little, and we settled on this: 001-ZS0000 by Goran P, on Flickr Colors will be different, but it's a starting point. Made a template for the bodies: 01-ZS000 by Goran P, on Flickr 04-ZS003 by Goran P, on Flickr 05-ZS004 by Goran P, on Flickr 08-ZS008 by Goran P, on Flickr 09-ZS009 by Goran P, on Flickr 010-ZS010 by Goran P, on Flickr 011-ZS011 by Goran P, on Flickr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 One piece walnut root body blank: 013-ZS013 by Goran P, on Flickr One piece cherry blank - it has a slight bit of center of the log, radial, decided to try to preserve it as a feature: 03-ZS001 by Goran P, on Flickr Starting the routes: 014-ZS014 by Goran P, on Flickr 015-ZS015 by Goran P, on Flickr 016-ZS016 by Goran P, on Flickr 017-ZS017 by Goran P, on Flickr 018-ZS018 by Goran P, on Flickr Last 10mm of thickness were cut roughly on a model saw, and then routed to spec form the other side. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 and then sanded on the oscillating sander...at this point I decided to concentrate on the cherry body first. 019-ZS019 by Goran P, on Flickr 020-ZS020 by Goran P, on Flickr 021-ZS021 by Goran P, on Flickr and the edges were rounded 022-ZS022 by Goran P, on Flickr Then, I drew the edges of the slope 023-ZS023 by Goran P, on Flickr and the arm rest area 024-ZS024 by Goran P, on Flickr and proceeded to cut them with firstly marking them more visibly with some marking tape. 025-ZS025 by Goran P, on Flickr Then some chiseling to bring it down to 15mm from the bottom 026-ZS026 by Goran P, on Flickr 027-ZS027 by Goran P, on Flickr soaked the heartwood with some CA 028-ZS028 by Goran P, on Flickr and started sanding 029-ZS029 by Goran P, on Flickr pencil line shows where I intend to place the jack 030-ZS030 by Goran P, on Flickr and planed the armrest. 031-ZS031 by Goran P, on Flickr Now it's up to date, more pics to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 there is a line that continues from the fretboard to the body on the purple one... but i don't see that on the green one... not sure due to the color... but I like that feature. also... I like the idea of using wormy wood. Idk why... just kind of don't see that a lot, but it looks kewl. some nice stuff there... great work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Just a mistake in my drawing - it will be there on the actual bodies. I'm planing to Inlay either a 1mm aluminum strip there, or a 2mm cream/white abs strip, mirroring the radius of the fretboard inlay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 (edited) This is my fretboard stock, canadian walnut, dried as a log in my shed for a few years now, freshly cut: 06-ZS 006 by Goran P, on Flickr 07-ZS007 by Goran P, on Flickr the pics are not doing it justice, it's more purple-brown in person 012-ZS012 by Goran P, on Flickr there are knots and irregularities there, but I'm sure I'll manage to pick a fretboard and electronic cover. Edited May 15, 2019 by gpcustomguitars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Interesting concept- headless with a head. I love the way you always choose pieces of wood that most would leave behind, and turn them into gorgeous guitars. It's like you start closer to the tree than the rest of us. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Well said, @ScottR. Wood is a natural material but all that is sold as guitar wood is categorized as A, AA, AAA... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted May 16, 2019 Report Share Posted May 16, 2019 On 5/15/2019 at 11:25 AM, gpcustomguitars said: This is my fretboard stock, canadian walnut, dried as a log in my shed for a few years now, freshly cut: 06-ZS 006 by Goran P, on Flickr 07-ZS007 by Goran P, on Flickr the pics are not doing it justice, it's more purple-brown in person 012-ZS012 by Goran P, on Flickr there are knots and irregularities there, but I'm sure I'll manage to pick a fretboard and electronic cover. I like the idea of a headed headless. I think there are a number of advantages of the headless system - but visually, I just can't get used to the sudden nothingness at the end of a headless headless! Your Canadian Walnut figuring is VERY close to the English Walnut I used for one of my recent re-bodies It's a beautiful wood to work with and, like you, I think the fissures and flaws add to the look rather than detract I very much look forward to seeing how this one develops! Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2019 Thank you all for the kind words! I was trying to come up with a suitable thread name, and I think this was fitting Usually guitars get modified to be headless, not as much the other way around. Regarding my wood choices, I happen to have a huge batch of cherry, along with some other stuff, near to 5m3 of seasoned wood. It would seem wrong not to use it, so I try to overcome any inherent flaws in the material, which is also rewarding as a learning experience. Also, any irregularities in the wood do give it some character, which I prefer to actual figured wood. Most of my stash are trees that were cut down and rough sawn when I was present, and I've air dried it all in my shed. Andy, very nice work as usual! Yes, that does look pretty close, does it have a bit of purple hue in person? I was not able to do any work for a few days now, but I'm preparing one jig to route them all (neck pocket, both hums) which could get done during the weekend. With shaping the back of the body and the electronics cavity routed after that I should be done with shaping the cherry body and start sanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2019 (edited) Finally had some real time to work on this yesterday, I'm also including a few photos from the previous session. First, used some of the fretboard offcuts to make the electronics cover 032-ZS032 by Goran P, on Flickr and roughly cut a suitable piece for the fretboard. It had one small knot which I'd like to use as a feature if I can, but first, some CA to stabilize it. 033-ZS033 by Goran P, on Flickr and started the routing jig for all the front cavities: 034-ZS034 by Goran P, on Flickr Printed out life sized neck profile 035-ZS035 by Goran P, on Flickr and picked one of my 1" maple blanks to cut some lams. 036-ZS036 by Goran P, on Flickr had to use a jigsaw, as my bandsaw is not available at the moment, some burning of the edges, but everything is oversized for now 037-ZS037 by Goran P, on Flickr 038-ZS038 by Goran P, on Flickr humbucker routes I've managed to cut almost perfect just by electric coping saw, almost no need to touch up with a file. 039-ZS039 by Goran P, on Flickr My flattening jig, works really fine 040-ZS040 by Goran P, on Flickr and first 3 lams, maple/cherry/maple add up to 50mm out of 58 needed, so I'll add 2 lams of canadian walnut used for the fretboard. Looks nice I think. I'm using the piece with some features I wouldn't be able to work around for a fretboard, but can avoid when cutting a neck profile. 041-ZS041 by Goran P, on Flickr 042-ZS042 by Goran P, on Flickr Neck pocket part of the jig I've routed flush: 043-ZS043 by Goran P, on Flickr ...and realized that I need a bit more material between neck pocket and hum cavity, it would probably be prone to breaking. I'll make the fretboard hang over the neck for about 5mm. 044-ZS044 by Goran P, on Flickr That's it for now, I should cut the 2 remaining neck lams in the next session and glue the neck up. The truss rods are in the mail, I've also ordered some fretwire. BR, Goran Edited May 22, 2019 by gpcustomguitars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 24, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2019 Finally had some time to cut the remaining lams (day before) and glue them up (yesterday). They'll be in the clamps until this afternoon, cant wait to see how they will clean up. I'm planing to level the fretboard surface on the router jig shown earlier. I've been working on some more headstock designs as he wants a few more options, so there'll be a update on that as well, and we are also talking about a few other inlay options as well. 045-ZS045 by Goran P, on Flickr 046-ZS046 by Goran P, on Flickr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 24, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2019 ...a few headstock designs later, we are still not closer to deciding on a shape .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted May 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2019 Just a little update - I have planed the surface flush by hand (a big victory for me, getting somewhere with my learn-to-plane policy ) and used the resulting surface to route the back to uniform thickness of 19.5mm for now. 047-ZS047 by Goran P, on Flickr 048-ZS048 by Goran P, on Flickr the headstock was also planed by hand and routed to 12mm thickness, as the plan is to add a 3mm headstock plate. 049-ZS049 by Goran P, on Flickr 050-ZS050 by Goran P, on Flickr and had to see how it will look with the fretboard wood: 051-ZS051 by Goran P, on Flickr 052-ZS052 by Goran P, on Flickr 053-ZS053 by Goran P, on Flickr we might have a definite winner in the headstock design department, so more pics to follow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted May 31, 2019 Report Share Posted May 31, 2019 Lovely clean work 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted June 6, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 Finally, some updates! We decided to go with this headstock: 054-ZS054 by Goran P, on Flickr I've glued a printout to some mdf, and proceeded to thickness some cherry offcuts to 3mm: 055-ZS055 by Goran P, on Flickr and made the A/B sides to cut i on the scroll saw. Then, with tin snips, made a alu strip 3.5mm wide, bent it by hand and tried gluing it to the wood with CA, but I was not so sure it will hold properly, so 057-ZS057 by Goran P, on Flickr 058-ZS058 by Goran P, on Flickr I cleaned it up and reglued with some epoxy and a few clamps 059-ZS059 by Goran P, on Flickr Then, roughly cut the mdf template, still have to sand it to line 060-ZS060 by Goran P, on Flickr Doesn't look like much out of the clamps, but 061-ZS061 by Goran P, on Flickr some sanding later it's looking a bit more interesting. 062-ZS062 by Goran P, on Flickr 063-ZS063 by Goran P, on Flickr Then, used the recently made jig and started on the neck pocket. The route was actually finished on my router-press 064-ZS064 by Goran P, on Flickr 065-ZS065 by Goran P, on Flickr and then routed the humbucker cavities: 066-ZS066 by Goran P, on Flickr Finished the yesterday's session by gluing the next needed template: 067-ZS067 by Goran P, on Flickr Now we have to finalize the fretboard inlay design... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted June 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2019 Slow progress, lots of rain and huge amounts of mosquitoes, so not much quality shop time. Did manage to route most of the electronics cavity out, still a few mms to go. 068-ZS068 by Goran P, on Flickr 069-ZS069 by Goran P, on Flickr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted March 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2020 Well, after the usual winter hiatus, I'm getting ready to finish a few started projects. This has to be the first tho, as it's far along. So, marked and cut starter lines with exacto knife, and then actually cut the slots with the fret saw. I'll trim, thickness and plane the sides of the fretboard next. I'll be making a jig to dremel out the line for inlaying a 3mm strip of 1mm thick aluminum. Dots will most likely be white acrylic, laser cut. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 12, 2020 Report Share Posted March 12, 2020 Good to see you back in the shop again, Goran. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted March 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2020 Thanks! It's good to be back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted March 13, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2020 A bit more work done yesterday! Sawn off the taper of the fretboard, and planed the sides. I still have about 1mm to spare, to be taken off in the actual neck shaping. Also, thicknessed to nice 6mm. A bit off topic - I'm a consultant for a Polyester resin producing company, and we have little 1" disks from different batches all over the office...never acured to me to try to use them for something until now - tried to make some faux amber jewelry for my wife, this was really quick and rewarding: I think I'll try to make some one-piece rings next, and perhaps, a guitar or a bass for the company's stand on exibitions, if they allow me to experiment with 5-10liters of the resin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 13, 2020 Report Share Posted March 13, 2020 1 hour ago, gpcustomguitars said: A bit off topic - I'm a consultant for a Polyester resin producing company, and we have little 1" disks from different batches all over the office...never acured to me to try to use them for something until now - tried to make some faux amber jewelry for my wife, this was really quick and rewarding: Nice! Love the man in the moon. Nothing better than a happy wife either! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted March 13, 2020 Report Share Posted March 13, 2020 Ooh - amber pickup rings could look rather nice, especially if roughed up to look natural like that hanging piece. Matching tuner knobs? Edit: I bet that could probably diffuse the light from a couple of LEDs too, if you want some really snazzy pickup rings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted March 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2020 Well, it's too brittle to be machined into rings, but I might try. I think I'll definitely try pouring a body, with some pieces of wood and pebbles, but when temps go above 20C, this stuff polymerizes poorly when its cold. Definitively some LEDs Knobs shouldn't be a problem, I have some cutters, and tapping it for screws should also go fairly easy. Well, as I'm stuck at home, I get more shop time at least...the alu inlay went well, so I can tell I had fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted March 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2020 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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