Myka Guitars

I had nearly forgotten about that. That song was stuck in my head with your voice (and face) for a long, long time. Haha!~ This Dragonfly turned out great, Chris. The snakewood looks wicked. And I like the taper of the tailpiece. This was a really good time back in the old Georgetown shop. We had a little fun. Ah the memories,... Can't wait for some clips. ~David

Why not put a miter guide on the sled if you wanted to cut slots on an angle? Glue sandpaper to the edge so that it would not move when you cut, or use hold-downs. ~David

This is similar to my approach with Tru-Oil finishes. I also level sand between each set of coats (10-15 applications = 1 set). I do not wet sand it however, I use 600-800 grit dry paper and #0000 steel wool. I apply a set of coats, level it, repeat until I like it, and then polish it with #0000 steel wool before I put on the last 2-3 coats which have to be applied perfectly. Final polish is with a soft cotton rag. ~David

Whoa, you're lucky that was all that happened. What others have said is the way to go: cut close to your template and then route. A router table is the best way to go since you can control it so much better. Here is a pic showing how I do it (my router table has a bigger surface these days): This is same bit that Chris is talking about. It has a 1/2" shaft and is about as sturdy as you can get. Stay away from 1/4" shaft bits for cuts this big. You can take it all in one pass as long as you trim to within 1/16" of your template shape. You can get away with 1/8" but it doesn't take much more effort to get better with a bandsaw. Oh, and a bandsaw is easier to get better results than a jigsaw. I used my Delta 10" benchtop bandsaw for years and they are about $120 new. ~David

komodo, I have taken two pieces of the same species and dimension and had very different results as well. I have some mahogany that rings like a bell and some that doesn't at all. But I have never had a piece become more resonant after processing it. In my experience I have found that certain qualities (resonance, sustain, bell-like chime) are inherent in each piece and do not change much with processing. This is why it is important to hand select the woods you use. It's all subjective and impossible to special order. The tuning fork method is very interesting. I have tried it a few times and find that I am now using it along with a finger tap. The tuning fork is vibrating metal and like a string it provides a metallic resonance and a driving force. It's a good method in my experience. ~David

After listening to this I feel that this article is very misleading because he isn't explaining what he is hearing very well at all or how it might play into the finished instrument. The way he leaves the article by tapping a piece of wood and then playing a guitar made 70 years ago offers nothing substantial to our understanding of how any of it relates to guitar building. The topic of tap tuning is misleading enough without this. And this article is not about tap tuning. At best it is about wood selection. This technique is mostly about wood selection but that again is meaningless without the experience to understand how each piece fits into the overall tonal picture (which is not discussed). All this guy is doing is selecting wood based on what he thinks he is hearing. But since he never explains his goals in detail I can only assume that he is just following a recipe. To begin with those are very unrefined tap tones and do not have the dynamics of a braced top. Nor does he tap around the board to show how the different ares shape the tones (you would also need to see that). So the information present is very raw and vague. If you do not have a audio-vision of where you are going then the tone you hear from a piece of wood won't help you. It is all about how certain natural characteristics fit together to make a complete tonal picture. And that takes guesswork at first and the experience of how your guesses pan out. That takes building many guitars before it starts to make sense. This isn't difficult. Take any piece of wood and hold it 1/4 of the way down and 1/4 of the way across and tap it in the opposite corner. That's the natural fundamental of that piece. Hold it 1/4 down and 1/2 across and that is the octave. It is extremely important to note that these tones are of the piece in it's current dimension. It will change as soon as you cut, scrape, slot, brace, glue, route, etc. You really won't be able to tell much about tap tones of raw materials unless you tap it at every step of the way and hear how the processing of wood affects this tone. This is just the beginning of a huge topic of discussion. ~David

avengers63, got your PM. These hybrid guitars are something that I love to explore. In fact my first exploration brought my Dragonfly into being. This guitar is essentially an electric guitar that has a thinner arched top. There is bracing on the top because I wanted it to be as thin as I could get it for it's acoustic tones. There is a lot of debate over this types of guitar's ability to produce acoustic tones but it happens. It's not anything like a Martin D-28 but that was never my intention. I built this guitar and acoustically it has a very loud and strong archtop voice. And this is a guitar that has a 3/8" back and 1/2"-5/8" sides all routed from a 1-1/2" piece of mahogany. The top is carved very thin (1/4" in the center to 1/8" near the edge) and this guitar resonates amazingly well and will keep up in an acoustic mix as a lead and chord player unplugged. For a guitar like this I didn't expect the sides to do much at all. The back however is another story altogether. There is ahuge difference when the guitar back is allowed to freely vibrate (by holding it away from your body when playing it). I put a K&K Pure Archtop pickup in this one that sounds really nice and I was pleasantly surprised when I placed half of another K&K pickup in the center of the back. It really opened up the higher registers and produced an extremely detailed and 3-dimensional sound compared to just the archtop pickup (placed under the feet of the bridge near the parallel braces). If I were going to build a guitar with a thicker top without bracing I might try a 1/4" or thicker spruce top on a frame or a chambered body. Make it thick enough to not distort from string tension and I bet it would have a decent voice. I would not expect anything like a braced or carved thinner top but I bet it would work if you put some acoustic pickups in it. The best thing to do is try it. You don't even have to get fancy. Check out these little instruments that I make for a children's museum in Western New York: dan doans. I make a bunch because the kids destroy them and so each batch I test out a new construction idea. They are cheap (all scrap) and easy to make and would answer so many of your questions. ~David

Wow, that is an awesome fingerboard! Love the design and details. I agree, post more for us! ~David

Yeah, but at least i got to blather on about the switching! You have to remember I spent my grade school and high school years in a small garden shed building guitars in semi-rural NY. I miss the most obvious humor sometimes. But hey, you get to laugh twice! ~David

Not really. A standard LP has a volume and tone for each pickup. This one is identical except that it has a master volume. Each pickup V/T module is wired so that when turned all the way down they do not ground out the signal of the others (only the master volume shorts the signal). What this does is allow a precise and otherwise unobtainable configuration that is something like an onboard mixer. Now you can turn the mix up or down without affecting the mix ratio. This is essentially a studio guitar. This setup is ideal for that environment. ~David

OK, the Korina Brazilian guitar is done. Man, this is one of my favorites. It was really hard to let it go. I was actually depressed after I dropped it off at the post office. I need to make myself one similar to it and it has to happen soon! This guitar blew me away. The simple woods and the vast array of configuration make for an extremely versatile tone machine. You'll notice that the pickup rings have changed. We decided to make all the covers look the same so form a distance the negative space isn't so weird. I really like the new look. This guitar played great. The larger chambered body with a substantial amount of wood leftover is a great recipe for a lighter weight guitar that still has the thick chunky tone of a solidbody. And the woods are so resonant. It was a joy to play. I miss it. Here's a pic: Here's the rest of the gallery: #078 main gallery And here's some more: #078 second gallery And the process pics: #078 process gallery I know, I took an insane amount of pictures but I couldn't help myself. Enjoy!~ ~David

Actually I don't give it that much thought honestly. I put the neck pickup right up against the fingerboard and the bridge pickup about 1.25" forward of the bridge to the center of the closest coil. This gives as much room in between the pickups as possible so that the pickups aren't in the way of my pick! I do like the sound of a neck pickup on a 22 fretter better than a 24 fretter. So I suppose I could say that I like the neck pickup to be as close to the center of the string as possible to pickup the most movement (translate: fuller sound). I am totally intrigued by the work of Michael Stevens. His LJ model has slanted pickups in the bridge and neck to make (my assumptions here) the high notes fatter and the bass nice and tight. I like it! Would love to play one and see what it does to the tone. ~David

It looks like the neck heel is not at the correct angle. This could be due to the actual heel angle, the angle of the neck block in relation to the top and back, or something else altogether. Hard to say from the picks but that angle is dramatic. I am surprised you didn't notice it before you glued the neck in. This is the danger of building from kits that try to take care of all the hard stuff for you. Thinking things through for yourself makes sure that things like this don't just happen. Do yourself a favor and get this book and build it from scratch next time starting with a full scale drawing. Then you will not have any surprises. ~David

I don't think this is good information. I have some questions to help you clarify: 1: If I measure the distance from the nut to the 4th fret I can't measure that same distance to the bridge. Why not? 2. Which harmonic? The open string harmonic or a fretted note harmonic? 3. If he's using a humbucker which coil sits at the harmonic? 4. What about intonation, will that screw up an ideal harmonic placement? 5. How did you come to your conclusions zayk? ~David

It was a great time Chris. We'll have to do it again! Got a pic of the knobs I had made for the limba Brazilian guitar: The line marker is white limba from the body wood. Totally cool!~ These are made to order by David King of King Bass in Portland. Knob's order page. ~David

The Bardens have a single blade polepiece built into the bobbin. There really wasn't a way to take it out to sand the tops of the pickups to make room for the veneer. So I made these by taking some thin wood that I sanded as thin as I could possibly get it. Then after cutting out the slots I glued it on top of the bobbin. I did not veneer the sides at all, just left it black. Actually it's a 5-way and a 3-way. The way this guitar works is simpler than it looks. I have distilled some of the basic wiring into components that can then be strung together to produce some extremely versatile setups without being overly complex under the hood. To explain the 5-ways I will describe the whole thing. 1. Each pickup has a separate volume/tone stack 2. Each pickup also has a 3-way toggle for capacitor1/tone-bypass/capacitor2 3. Each humbucker has a 2-way toggle for humbucker/single mode (Barden TwoTone specific) The humbuckers then run into the first 5-way (independent of humbucker/single setting) which offers the following: 1. Bridge 2. Bridge and Neck in series 3. Neck and Bridge in parallel 4. Bridge and Neck series out-of-phase 5. Neck The output of this runs into the 3-way switch that controls the middle pickup like this: 1. Adds Middle to current setting (of the 5-way) 2. Middle pickup bypass (or 5-way only) 3. Middle pickup only (5-way bypass) The output of this switch then goes into a Master Volume. The output of the MV goes to the blower switch which works like this: 1. No change 2. Bridge pickup only (with humbucker/single setting) no volume/tone In order to get the 3-way and the blower to effectively bypass the signals (in Middle only and Bridge only modes) the system needed to be modular with a simple output wire from each stage. Then the output could be interrupted. I hope this makes sense. And yes, I do like wiring! It is one of the most fun aspects of doing the custom work. This particular guitar has the most amazing array of tones available. My client uses these guitars in the studio and out gigging. He assures me that once you get the hang of the setup it become second nature. ~David

Haha! Glad you all like this one. Thanks for the comments. This was built from a Roland AX-1. ~David

Ok, time for something a little different. I was contacted by a local musician in the Seattle area that has a decent keytar collection and wanted to, and I quote, "own the world's only custom keytar collection". Well there's something to be said for setting attainable goals. I think he'll do just fine! Keep in mind that this is just a prototype. The next one will have some nicer woods, wood binding, and some cool key details. But for a proof of concept this is pretty cool. My client is coming tomorrow to decide the finish. Once it's done he'll give it some play time and see if it works or not. Here it is so far: For more pictures: keytar progress gallery. Enjoy!~ ~David

The second Brazilian/Limba guitar is still in process. It actually is quite close to being finished. I have some knobs coming and I need to rewire a control but it is pretty much ready to roll. The thing I love about this guitar is the simple wood choices. We chose a great tonewood: white limba (korina) and matched that with a great fingerboard tonewood: Brazilian rosewood. All of the details are Brazilian as well: knobs, pikcup rings, pickup veneers. We decided to use some Joe Barden pickups for this one due to their TwoTone humbucker pickups. These are supposed to be able to split very well because the split happens in a different way than a usual coil cut. These have a tap in each humbucker coil so that when you 'split' the pickup you are actually tapping both coils to produce a single coil voiced humbucker that is, according to Joe Barden, 95% there in comparison to his single coil pickups (which are also hum canceling). I concur, these are awesome pickups and the bridge/middle combo is a Strat killer. Here is a great shot of the pickup veneers: The Brazilian knobs will match these. It is going to be beautiful! They were made with a super thin veneer that I made with my thickness sander (it only chopped up 3 out of 7 pieces). I then cut the slots out with some seriously cutting edge technology: a straight edge and a razor blade. They were super glued to the pickup bobbins and cleaned up with a file and steel wool. I think they look great. Nice and sleek with a modern pickup under the hood. Here is the progress gallery so far: #078 progress gallery. This one will finish up this week so final pics will be ready sometime next week. ~David

Whoa, forgot about this post. Things have been very busy since my last post. These two guitars are part of a batch of 4 guitars that I am finishing up (3 shipped, 1 to go). The walnut/limba guitar is finished. It was a very cool project in that it was a close copy of my own personal #001. I loaned my guitar to a good friend of mine Michael for a couple of months so he could try it out. He was hooked and a couple of years later he ordered one based on that. It just so happened that I had a piece leftover from the body so it was a pretty good match. He's very happy and plays it out a a couple times a week ever since. His old Tele is a backup now since this guitar gets all those tones and more. Oh yeah! Here's a pic of the finished guitar: For the rest go here: #077 web gallery. And for the rest of the progress pictures: #077 progress gallery. ~David

Ola, These are looking great. I have a couple of ideas already. I am looking forward to see how your fulcrum works out. ~David

I know you are already done with this but I use a flush trim router to cut back bindings to the body. I usually work the bindings oversized just a touch so I can either route or scrape them to fit. It solves a few problems to do it this way for me. I have not had any chip out so far. Oh, and I use a router table to do this so there is no chance of tilting the bit. For acoustics and other non-flat surfaces I rasp (very fine cut) and scrape to fit. ~David

Here's a link to one of these completed: Dragonfly #027 It has more feedback than a solidbody or a semi-hollow. The top is carved like an archtop with parallel braces to add more of an acoustic archtop tone to the electric guitar. Depending on material choices, how the top is carved, how thick the back is, and how stiff the braces are the amount of feedback can be controlled to some degree. Playing technique and volume levels will make a difference as well. There is a way to set up the amp and guitar volumes so a controlled feedback is maintained (or eliminated depending on what you want to do). ~David

Oh, one more thing: make yourself a router table. Cutting 2" of wood with a handheld router is never going to produce consistent results. This can be as simple as mounting your router underneath you work bench and cutting a hole for the cutter. My cuts are incredibly smooth. After routing I start sanding at 220 grit on most woods. ~David

I always route my guitar bodies full depth with one pass on the router. I make sure that I bandsaw the shape to no more than 1/16" away from the line so the router does not have to remove much and work too hard. It looks like you took too much off and/or were climb cutting with your router and it grabbed on you. Feed direction is very important especially with long bits. Check out these articles: Router kickback Climb cutting Here is my setup using a Whiteside downshear router bit: Go very slowly around the cutaway section and make sure that the piece is held very firmly ensuring a steady feed rate. And to repeat what Kenny said always use a sharp bit. Dull bits are dangerous. I use my bit exclusively for body perimeter routing and replace or resharpen it once every 12 months. ~David