psikoT

Great work!... I like the simplicity of your builds.

BTW that body must have a special sound... it's a hollow body.  ^^ 

Thanks guys!

15 hours ago, ScottR said:

I don't remember if you have always done them that way or if this is something you've been developing as you go.

No, this is different... I was improvising, as I had to move it forward in order to avoid touching it while playing. Not so nice as the others but more ergonomic.

So I got the back mostly done, it just needs some sanding sessions...

... and some tweaking.

WTF is this??   Got a weird stain in the middle of the neck... hope to get it out after sanding.

So next will be carving the top, maybe I get it done this weekend.

Cheers!

3 hours ago, ScottR said:

Nice. Any reason you did that before carving the neck?

SR

Yes. Basically I hated how it looked before carving...   another reason is that I like to work in both start/end profiles before carving the neck, so I have some reference. Didn't show the volute yet because is not finished.

19 hours ago, ScottR said:

Man, I like the dimensions of that guitar. I don't think you are going to have a forearm issue at all. I also like the black high contrast cavity covers. Personally I'm a fan of large control cavities. I like having the extra room for wiring and soldering. And I like the the weight reduction aspect of it.

SR

Thanks, glad you like them cause they will stay like that.   Yeah, now it's like 1 kg lighter, we can call it semihollow.

8 hours ago, kmensik said:

Your neck heel is pretty thick still. Consider sloping it towards the neck so that the offset ferrule hole would disappear, then drill a new one. That is how I fixed the same mistake, plus it is a more comfortable neck joint.

Already considered, thanks for the suggestion and the pictures, very well done.   

However, I'm not totally sure... I wanted to avoid a thin heel, as I had some issues in the past. I made some calculations and I would need to reduce the thickness in all of the holes if I want a curve like yours, and still I probably will get the old recess still visible. The heel itself is 19mm thick, the recess is 7mm deep. If I want to remove the old hole, I'll get a 12mm thick heel at the end, which I have to recess 7mm, so the result is 5mm... that screw would do nothing, just decoration.

Hi there, got some updates...

@kmensik I bought a set of premade templates, so I have to stick with them, but your approach makes total sense. Something to take in consideration.

Using these templates was awesome, but the downside is that I didn't have control over the dimensions, which ended in some odd result. Plus that I must have missed some measures at some point, so the guitar itself is gonna be really weird... you will see in a while... ^^ 

Cavities are huge, specially the electronics one... although I've seen that caparison makes something like that just for one potentiometer, so that forgives me a lil bit.  

The good thing is that the fitting is perfect. I've made two caps in ebony. Sorry but I don't have matching wood. Maybe I can get them in the same rosewood than the top. Let`s see how lazy I feel.

Ok, so here is the problem. The body is too small. I've already noticed that right after cutting it, but I thought it was cute. I wanted a small and light guitar, but I didn't consider the lenght of the scale, which moved the bridge way back. I was checking the ergonomy and there's not much space for the forearm, but that's something I will discover when I put the strings

Since I'm showing all the mistakes, here's the top one. The body sliped while drilling the recess for the ferrules...    

Anyway.... the good new is that I'm done with the router. Now is time to carve. 

Those videos are very entertaining... I like the swirl itself, but I'm not fan of colorful swirls. If it was me, I'd go for a black/dark grey or something like that, very subtle and low contrast. The second one is still too much for me, but I must admit that it looks awesome once it's polished.

Hi, thanks very much for the info...

I've already mounted the bridge and separated it 1 mm from the body, with the saddles at middle height, then measured the height of the roller saddle... that was 10mm. Once I got the height, went to the computer and drawn everything, because I have no frets installed ATM...

2 hours ago, pan_kara said:

the way I approach this is to get the neck pocket to a point where the fingerboard is ~1mm above the body, which seems a good starting point (unless the fretboard is really thin or really thick).

... and that was exactly what I got in the computer. So I'm gonna give it one more mm to be sure it doesn't get too low, which is my concern.

Thanks for the advice, really appreciated.  

Hi, thanks for replies...

Yes, sorry, I should have started from the beginning... the bridge I'm gonna use is this one:

The bridge It's a replacement for a strat, so the dimensionas are pretty much the same. This is the side view with the saddles at maximum height. Since it's the first time I install a tremolo, I've routed the cavity in a piece of scrap wood just to avoid any mistake...

In order to make the calculations, I need to know how the bridge should rest in the normal position. Not sure if it must be separated from the body as shown in the top-right diagram below, or like in the bottom-left one. 

So I've figured out that the screws in the saddles are more to match the radius of the fretboard, but the height of the bridge is defined mostly by the two posts as @StratsRdivine said... isn't it?

I've tested the fitting and the bridge has enough space to oscillate, but still not sure if I did the routing properly... anyway, I was wondering if I should center the "top hole" in the main cavity, stick it to the other side or leave it as it is now... As you can see, I have no idea about floating bridges.  

Thanks, glad you like it!  

So I have been working on the neck this week and got it ready to be attached to the body. 22 frets this time, due to the tight dimensions of the neck. Still 666 mm scale though.

All the hard routing work is done...

Having a shorter neck doesn't allow me to make the typical rollout at the nut area, so I had to do it Gibson style...  

And here is the whole thing. Finally!

I want to install a tremolo bridge, so the neck wont have any angle... is there any trick to calculate the depth of the neck pocket? I don't trust on my calculations....

Thanks!

I like that bit-in-the-box-o-matic! 

Got the top and the body ready to be glued, just need to find some extra clamps... 

It's starting to look like a guitar...

3 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I wonder how many psi of pressure you get that way....I'll bet it's quite a lot.

I think the question here is how many psi of pressure the top needs to be properly glued. Since is not a structural part and the whole thing will be glued to the body, I guess is enough.

43 minutes ago, ScottR said:

How did you tension those cords?

SR

 The tension is given through the multiple passes, as every time you pass the chord is giving a lil bit more of tension. But yeah, crossing some stick as tensors would have been nice, in the next one...  

This method is the same i've used to glue thinner tops, where you place some nails in both sides, but the distance between them is slightly shorter than the width of the top, so the nails are giving the pressure from the side:

The problem with thicker tops is that the nails are not strong enough and they tend to bend outwards, that's why I've used the chords, just to keep them pushing inside. I know is not the most professional way to do it but I've checked it and it worked very well.   Plus I don't have long clamps... 

So I got some days off, which I'm gonna spend with my guitars. I've already started laquering the singlecut and made the templates for this one. I'm gonna prepare the body first, which is the hardest part.

I don't have long clamps, so I've used this method to glue the top. Japanes style, looks fine to me... ^^  we'll see...

On 2017-5-12 at 11:15 PM, Andyjr1515 said:

I haven't decided yet whether to fret up before I fix the fretboard or pre-roundover those particular frets on the bass side and just tidy up the treble in the normal way.  It's one of many decisions still to make before the fretboard goes on.

You can also round the fret ends before installing them... that's something I want to do some day.

This is awesome concept, looking forward to see all flushed... not easy though.  

White is also cool... glad to see it finally painted, even if it's only primer.

That fretboard is too cool to be directly clamped, man... take care. ^^ 

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

The other is that Carlos said in his mail that they had had some issues with washers sometime back and this one must have got through. 

That's his standard excuse I guess... ^^ 

Made some progress...

So there was no room for triple veneer, due to tight dimensions on both neck and headstock. But single veneer is also cool. 

I'm tempted to add a binding to the fretboard. I had this koa binding laying around since long time and wondering if I should...

Very happy with the truss-rod access. BTW, I'm not going to install the carbon fiber rods, I don't have a proper router bit. Maybe for the next one.

I think it's time to make the contour templates for the body and headstock... I hate that.

Cheers

I finally could level the surface with the thicknessing jig. Actually, I had to remove some material because I got the neck too short this time.   Well, live and learn, next time will take a lot of things in consideration.

But yeah, it's done... now I have to think how to make a couple of 5mm slots for the carbon fiber rods.

To be honest, I have no idea about trigonometry... luckily nowadays those things are done by the computer.  

I don't trust on bridges, no matters who designed them.

1 hour ago, mattharris75 said:

One thing that I've found helps me on funky joints like this, where there is a big tendency for the joint to slide, is to use blue painters tape on it. A bit of tape in the right spot can really minimize the amount of clean up work you have to do.

I've pinned the two pieces with 4 nails but they got bent while applying pressure with the clamps, so I finally got the headstock 2 mm lower than the rest. But I can level it with the thicknessing jig, I guess... thanks for the suggestion anyway. I saw a jig for this purpose somewhere but I was unable to find it.