ShatnersBassoon Posted February 3, 2020 Report Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) So I’ve been building a headless over the past few months. It’s neck through design...was so close to a one piece in terms of the thickness of the Wenge blank! Oh well. It’s been quite a journey! I have gradually evolved this build in to a Strandberg inspired build. One unusual aspect to this build is the scale length of 23.4 and the deliberate lack of a fretboard radius. Combined with the jumbo frets and skinny neck (almost Ibanez Wizard profile) this should be quite an interesting guitar. Logistically this was quite tricky to build on account of me having to recess the body around the end of the neck enough for me to attach the poplar burl cap. The Ziricote fretboard was a pig to work with by the way! As you can see, I’ve done quite a bit of contouring and weigh relief. At the moment the guitar is 6.4 lbs, but I still have to route the trem cavity and take of the chunk of wood at the end of the neck, so hopefully it will end up more around 5.5 lbs. Anyway enough waffling, here’s so photos. Edited February 3, 2020 by ShatnersBassoon 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JouniK Posted February 3, 2020 Report Share Posted February 3, 2020 Looking very nice. Where is that bridge from? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShatnersBassoon Posted February 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2020 Just now, JouniK said: Looking very nice. Where is that bridge from? Cheers. I got it from a seller in China on EBay. It was around £65 including some accessories like the string holders (can’t think of a name for them haha). It seems quality enough, although it’s pretty heavy! I suppose Floyd Rose style bridges normally are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShatnersBassoon Posted February 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2020 4 minutes ago, JouniK said: Looking very nice. Where is that bridge from? Industry_mall on EBay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 3, 2020 Report Share Posted February 3, 2020 You've done some very nice work on that body and neck. Excellent contouring work and very nice wood choices. Really good stuff! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShatnersBassoon Posted February 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 (edited) A bit more contouring today, partly in an attempt to further reduce the weight. I was tempted to contour the lower bout in the same way as the upper bout, but I figured that that might make the guitar slip off the lap whilst playing...so I decided on this somewhat unconventional route, titivating needed- Edited February 7, 2020 by ShatnersBassoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted February 9, 2020 Report Share Posted February 9, 2020 feel like I somehow missed the start of this. v cool build. all 1 piece wenge? you must still be pulling splinters out of places you didn't know existed! really looking great. I did a zero radius for a slide guitar and was surprised at how comfy it actually is. talk about low action potential. this should be a crazy good player. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShatnersBassoon Posted February 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2020 22 hours ago, mistermikev said: feel like I somehow missed the start of this. v cool build. all 1 piece wenge? you must still be pulling splinters out of places you didn't know existed! really looking great. I did a zero radius for a slide guitar and was surprised at how comfy it actually is. talk about low action potential. this should be a crazy good player. Not quite 1 piece! So close though. I used the remaining wood that I had cut around the neck section for the 'wings'. I don't seem to have had many problems with Wenge, although I think that because Ive read so many horror stories about the splinters etc that I have been quite careful with it. This piece in particular cut quite nicely. The Ziricote on the other hand... Yes Im looking forward to stringing this up...an easily achievable low action is one of the aims with this build. Im probably putting some small fret markers on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted February 10, 2020 Report Share Posted February 10, 2020 12 minutes ago, ShatnersBassoon said: Not quite 1 piece! So close though. I used the remaining wood that I had cut around the neck section for the 'wings'. I don't seem to have had many problems with Wenge, although I think that because Ive read so many horror stories about the splinters etc that I have been quite careful with it. This piece in particular cut quite nicely. The Ziricote on the other hand... Yes Im looking forward to stringing this up...an easily achievable low action is one of the aims with this build. Im probably putting some small fret markers on this. right on. did a nice job matching the grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 10, 2020 Report Share Posted February 10, 2020 2 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said: The Ziricote on the other hand... There are several of us here that will testify that ziricote is possessed by demons. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ShatnersBassoon Posted March 11, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted March 11, 2020 (edited) So far so good! I tried staining it black and it reacted with the wood and turned it purple...so sanded it back and experimented with different colours. Black to highlight the grain, then some yellow and some brown. I’m liking this effect. Turned out that the bridge was too wide for the neck, so to cut a long story short I modified it and it is now a hardtail. The plus side of this is that it saved quite a bit of weight, that brass block was heavy! Some modifying of the scratch plate is now needed, so that it folllows the curves better. Edited March 11, 2020 by ShatnersBassoon 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 12, 2020 Report Share Posted March 12, 2020 Yeah, that is look sweet and tasty! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted March 12, 2020 Report Share Posted March 12, 2020 Crikey this one is starting to look awesome. That top looks mean and I love how the binding jumps out of the wenge 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShatnersBassoon Posted March 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2020 Thanks everyone! Ended up redoing it a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShatnersBassoon Posted March 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) All strung up with the glu boost on. Just making a panel for the back now...ofcourse me routing for a trem left an annoying hole...I changed the bridge plate for a spare piece of Ziricote, looked classier to me and gave me chance to add a little logo. Hope everyone is well! Edited March 30, 2020 by ShatnersBassoon 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 30, 2020 Report Share Posted March 30, 2020 It looks like it's alive.....I keep looking at it expecting to see it breath. Really nice! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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