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My Padauk/Mahogany chambered guitar project


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The actual wood I will be using... Chambered body will be Cuban mahogany about 1.75" thick. It will form the skeleton...

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I made a practice body by cutting a 3/4 x 12 x 36 plank of pine in half and gluing them together making it 1.5 inches thick. I then drew the basic shape and cut it with a jigsaw and shaped the outsides with a drum sander, a Honda CX500 rear brake show eith sandpaper stuck to it (you read right!), and a disk and belt sander. I then drew up the chambers and cut them out with a jigsaw.

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Next installment, the top and back... Boggs

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Here is the 1/4 inch thick padauk which will be used for the top and back on the final product. In between the mahogany and the padauk both top and back will be a binding layer of maple veneer for visual contrast. Sides will be rounded so the mahogany and maple will frame the padauk.

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For the prototype, I have used a European hardwood plywood. Total cost for the body woods for the prototype are less than $10.

Here is the prototype body...

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The electronics compnents fit in this cavity and are a main feature of this guitar. Each coil can be selected independently in any combination. Controls are out of the way of the player so no accidental switches will result. The volume pot os the lower one for blind access for volume swells. Each switch location represents which pickup is controlled and it points to the coil selected. Very intuitive.

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Next installment is the neck and working prototype with sound samples... Boggs

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Here are some photos of the neck I had Carvin build for me... They were MOST helpful and easy to work with. The neck is mahogany (they bookmatch it in 2 pieces for additional strength and stability from twisting) with ebony fingerboard, stainless steel medium jumbo frets, offset MOP fret markers, and an overlay of maple and a second overlay of padauk I provided to them like the body will be. It is using the smaller 2+4 Holdsworth headstock for balance and locking Sperzel machines. It is a compound radius neck (12" at the nut to 15 inches at the body). The pictures are of the unfinished neck.

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Here is the built-up prototype... Bear in mind that there will be some minor visual cue changes on the final product.

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And finally a couple of sound clips. For some reason, my mp3 converter compresses the hell out of the tone. It is much less damped sounding than the samples. The first clip is just going through a few pickup combination changes flat except for the last where I added a little reverb and then chorus. No attempt was made to "tweak" for a usable tone. It is just to give you an idea of the level of different combinations are available. The second clip shows you it can rock hard with grit as well... It was plugged into my Genesis 1 and directly into my computer.

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/boggs.com/Gui...totypetest1.mp3

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/boggs.com/Gui...totypetest2.mp3

Cheers! :D

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The upper bout will be refined significantly, but the lower and the offset waists are ergonomically designed and will remain essentially unchanged.

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Well, I hesitated to respond because I didn't know a polite way of offering my criticisms, especially since I haven't built a single guitar of my own yet.

The problem is-- if the body is ergonomically designed for the lower waist to be so far back, it's tough to make modifications to the overall shape that would make it more aesthetically pleasing.

Without offering many suggestions per se, I CAN tell you that the visual balance of the guitar is off. The 'cutaways' (the upper one isn't so much a cutaway) have too much wood going on for my personal taste, and I suspect for general principles of aesthetic balance. I'd have to wait until I see your refinements before I offer anything further than that. :D

I like your thinking for the switching system, but I also can't help but think that you're going to flip the mini toggles when you go to switch the main blade switch. On top of that, the volume control is pretty far away from the pickups for 'on the fly' volume swells if that's your bag. (Personally, I find a foot pedal more intuitive for volume anyhow, but again, that's a totally personal thing).

I especially hate to criticise anything on the neck, because it's an expensive item that cannot be altered further at this point in time-- but having the 4 + 2 with the 4 on the bottom also contributes to a sense of unbalance.

The irony of it all-- and what will give you the last laugh-- is that if you're tailoring it to suit your own ergonomics (as well you SHOULD!!), the physical balance will feel great whether the aesthetic balance is 'on' or not. And that's the most important thing in the end, anyhow.

Greg

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I especially hate to criticise anything on the neck, because it's an expensive item that cannot be altered further at this point in time-- but having the 4 + 2 with the 4 on the bottom also contributes to a sense of unbalance.

IMO, i like this feature of the neck because it allows the the B & E strings to have a steeper angle over the nut which eliminates the need for a string tree. I feel that string trees cover up beautiful wood or detract from inlays and also causes another point for the strings to bind up that can lead to tuning instability.

But if you meant having 4 + 2 tuner set-up then I'd agree with that but the break angle feature is still there.

I also agree that the controls do seem a little bit too close together. I like that they're outta the way when playing but they seem a bit close for when you do need to use them. :D

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Great feedback! Thanks, guys. The center switch is significantly taller than either of the others, and I have switched "on the fly" without any difficulty. I will probably give them a bit more room on the final product based on your feedback.

The volume control is on the bottom so you can blindly roll your hand down there and hook it with your pinky or even palm remarkably easily. Don't even need to look because it is the first control you find when you bring your hand up. As was noted, a volume pedal is also an option as is hammering and rolling the volume pot. I designed this for the 90% of people who want controls more out of the way. Also, you will note that the orientation of the switches is such that if they were hit during aggressive strumming, they would not change position ( action perpindicular to strumming motion ). The other nice artifact of having this electronics chamber where it is located is that it is dead quiet even without having shielded the cavity!!! I played it this Sunday in a live application and it was perfect!

Both upper "horns" will be reconfigured for more visual balance, but I do need to keep volume as the horns are chambered and I want to keep as much acoustic volume as possible. The final version will look much more eye pleasing. That is why I built the prototype.

The offset waists really do make a difference in terms of comfort whether sitting or standing while playing. I let someone try it out and comment on it and the very first comment from him was how comfortable it was. I didn't prompt him. Made me feel real good! He also liked the switch layout and tone versatility. The ability to stand it on end without a stand was also a very cool feature of this design. Also, when using a right angle guitar chord, stepping on it will not pull it out and there is a lot of beef in that area. The chord just follows the body line...

I wanted to keep the headstock smaller for physical balance. It is difficult to achieve with a semi-hollow or chambered body guitar. That headstock is a standard Alan Holdsworth model Carvin shape. I also like the 2+4 configuration anyway, and I felt this would work very well for my application. No string tree needed. Pull seems to be evenly distributed in this configuration for a lower twisting moment on the neck. I like that engineering aspect of it as well.

Thanks for taking the time to be critical. I respect anyone who can say to me what they really think and especially those who take the time and care enough to! Keep the comments coming! Boggs :D

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The volume control is on the bottom so you can blindly roll your hand down there and hook it with your pinky or even palm remarkably easily. Don't even need to look because it is the first control you find when you bring your hand up.

I'm sure it's easy to find, but I still have a hard time visualizing how to do a series of swells while playing notes, a la Steve Morse. The EVH and Wolfgang guitars, for example, have the volume knob right near the bridge pickup to facilitate swells.

I believe you about the comfort, that's for sure. In my design, based on a 335; and also on a Godin LG I own, I find the lower waist makes the guitar feel oddly unbalanced on my lap... like it's wanting to slip off. More wood forward from the waist would alleviate this.

Cool beans about the amount of noise. I didn't really realize that having them down there would help rectify any noise situations.

Greg

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The volume control is on the bottom so you can blindly roll your hand down there and hook it with your pinky or even palm remarkably easily. Don't even need to look because it is the first control you find when you bring your hand up.

I'm sure it's easy to find, but I still have a hard time visualizing how to do a series of swells while playing notes, a la Steve Morse. The EVH and Wolfgang guitars, for example, have the volume knob right near the bridge pickup to facilitate swells.

I believe you about the comfort, that's for sure. In my design, based on a 335; and also on a Godin LG I own, I find the lower waist makes the guitar feel oddly unbalanced on my lap... like it's wanting to slip off. More wood forward from the waist would alleviate this.

Cool beans about the amount of noise. I didn't really realize that having them down there would help rectify any noise situations.

Greg

True enough that for rapid fire swells, it would definitely be harder on mine, but that is where a foot pedal would come in handy to take care of this function for the 1% of the time you might have to do that. It just seemed like a better compromise for the other 99% of the time the guitar was played.

Glad to hear you appreciate this ergonomic feature. It does make for a challenge in achieving visual balance especially when due to the size of the wood I have to work with, I am limited to a maximum guitar body width of 12 inches. I could do much more with the design if I had wider materials to work with.

The noise thing was a complete surprise to me! I don't know for a fact why the guitar is so quiet unshielded, but it is and that delights me to no end! I will still shield the cavity of the final product though. I also did add a conduit system for routing the pickup wires to ease feeding them through the chambered body into the controls cavity and to also separate them from each other. That may be making a difference as well. Boggs

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To be perfectly honest, I don't like the shape that much. Cant really place my finger on why not, but I don't need to like it, only you need to like it. That said, the controls seem well thought out, particularly the pickup coil switching. A bit out of the way for adjustments on the fly, but you have already given reasons for that. And the fact that its hollow will make it very light no doubt. Great for long gigs!

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The real visual imbalance is the upper left "horn". It is too bulbous. I think that is the biggest factor. That will be addressed.

Rapid-fire swells would be difficult for sure, but that is what "volume pedals" are for. Keeps the knob out of the way the other 99% of the time. How would you do swells with an acoustic? :D Also, I made changes in pickup selection on the fly Sunday, and I suck at it! B) It really isn't bad at all. Boggs

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just wonderin about the recording - i too have a genisis 1, and when i plugged it in to my computer it sounded alright but the bass was horrible. way fuzzy and unclear. what program are you using for this? i downloaded audacity or something and was using that

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Make sure your levels are correct and that you are plugged into the line in and not the mic in on your sound card. Sounds like your input level was too high or the input impedence was wrong. I am running Vegas and converted it (in too high a compression) to an mp3 in Sound Forge. Hope this helps. Boggs

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