Drak Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 Here's one I was working on last weekend, Koa top and back, solid Poplar body. Here you can see my typical Tele chambers, and the rear control cavity cover already cut out, and the area taped up so the glue seep doesn't cause me problems in the glue-up. Here's a shot of the control cavity and the cover. Here's a shot of the control cavity cover in place, screw-holes drilled and countersunk. Here's a shot of the typical shape of my rear bouts, what I normally shoot for when carving them out. Here's the 5-way switch being readied to be cut out. The screw holes are already there, the steel rule is double-taped down to the body in the proper position for my Dremel router base to glide against for a smooth cut. Here it's been cut out and I use some small files to clean it up. Here is a mock-up of it dry, no water, and the 5-way switch hasn't yet been cut or the middle pkp hole either (I decided at the last minute to put a middle pkp in it). And here are 2 shots of it with water spritzed on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdw3332 Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 Ho Hum, another Drak masterpiece. Awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOG427 Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 damnit you make me so mad.... i cant do any of that ,i curse you by all means......oh nice guitar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 wow. but where the hell is your carrie? seriously. looks super killer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 Great guitar! Another question: What do you do with all those guitars? As far as I remember you said you dont sell them.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drezdin Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 are those 2 different guitars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted March 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 Nope, same guitar. Some shots were taken inside, some outside, some were wetted, some dry... What do I do with them? Dude...I PLAY them! I try to build all my guitars exactly the way I would have a luthier custom-build them for me. Let's just say I'm a collector and a builder, so I wind up collecting my own guitars...make sense? Litch, the Carrie is bound and gagged on a chain in the deepest recesses of the Castle dungeon. I feed it fish heads and frog morphs occasionally. I know this section says works in progress, but this place is all about working on guitars...the reason I'm posting these shots is so folks can see the way I do certain operations, what tools I use to do what, etc...I remember back when I was reading the MIMF, and I would be reading these long posts about how to do stuff, until someone would post one picture of the way they did it, then BOOM!...it all made sense...so I'm just sticking this stuff out there , maybe someone will find a new way to do something...I dunno... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Luthier Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 Your control cavity cover is from the same piece as the back right? How did you cut it out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 I'm with lex. I would like a tutorial for that. I dont thing a scroll saw would work, because you need to drill a hole. I see no hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted March 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 That's cool. I took pics during the whole back cover process, I'll start a new thread by the end of the day showing it in detail, cuz this thread won't accept anymore new pics. ...and yes, it was done with my $100.00 Delta cheap-ass scroll saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsl602000 Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 That's sweet, Drak.. very nice! I try to build all my guitars exactly the way I would have a luthier custom-build them for me. Let's just say I'm a collector and a builder, so I wind up collecting my own guitars...make sense? Absolutely.. I do the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaper Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 We are not worthy! We are not worthy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted March 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 I forgot to add, this guitar will be my first attempt at installing a set of Graph-Tech Acoustic Simulator bridge saddles and the pre-amp that goes with them to also get the sound of an acoustic guitar. Another bridge to cross... But this guitar should be pretty versatile, which is what I always shoot for. It should be able to get vintage Strat neck tones, vintage Tele bridge tones, hot-rodded hi-gain tones (EMG Afterburner, 'natch ), and acoustic guitar tones too, all with chambers AND a comfy rear-bout to boot! If I gather the balls to do it, it also might have a small inlay surrounding a small soundhole in the upper bout. You can see in the one pic where the two chambers are located, I want to install a smallish inlay and soundhole right in the center of the upper round bout, but I can't draw/design my way out of a wet paper bag, so that's a challenge to come up with a small inlay design, ...then actually do it! But I try to challenge myself with each new guitar, building on what I can already do, then add some small challenge on top of it...in this case it will be the inlay/soundhole and the acoustic simulator saddles/pre-amp installation. I smell a big fat Wall-Of-Death strike coming on! HAHAHA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morben Guitars Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 Drak, Awesome guitar bro.. I never get tired of a killer tele. That last one I did has Graph Tech GHOST system...my first experience with it. Sounds amazing. Let me give you a few tips.. Buy the push/push mid/dark volume knob. Kills two birds with one stone. (you'll want the deeper sound of the mid/dark switch) Also buy the quick switch. You'll want to use just magentic, just acoustic, as well as to blend them. Blend knobs don't work well with this system (many conversations with graph tech on this). The install of the saddles requires some pre planning. We used similar bridges, so here's what I found to work best. 1.) set intonation. If you have another guitar with a similar bridge, use the measurements from that. 2.) Drill six small holes in the bridge centered under each saddle. They should be staggered to the aproximate intonation settings. 3.) Align bridge on the body and mark location of the holes. Route six small "paths" from the marks straight up to the pickup route. Now you have a path for your wires to travel and duck into the pickup route. Here they will meet with the coupler and the single wire will go into your electronics cavity. Note, in order to get the wires into the small holes you drilled in the bridge, you'll need to remove the teeny-tiny black couplers. This is a real pain. I used a very small pick to gently lift the tabs (I broke one) and carefully pull out the wires. Be sure to check the orientation of the plug to the two wires (clear and blue). then immeadiatly reattach the coupler after i't through the bridge. Also...double check the width of the saddles!! I ordered the tele saddles, and when I put them on, they were too wide! Some quick thinking and some 100 grit sand paper solved that problem..They were also a bit shorter than my original saddles, so I *just* made the intonation... You'll be psyched when you plug this one in...they are super conviencing...and the blend feature is sweet as well. Good luck and again, killer guitar. -Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted March 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 WoW! Blown away I am. Ben, cannot thank you enough for that info, and yes, the Ghost system is what I was looking at installing, and some of the points you already mentioned I had been wondering about. I'll probably be PM'ing you before it's all over Many thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feylya Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 Another bridge to cross... Ooooh, nice pun. Guitar ain't bad either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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