S.Dodding Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 (edited) Hi all, Having been reading these forums for a while now and doing as much research as possible on the subject of guitar making, I've finally started my own project. As I live in the uk and don't want to import from america I spent a while looking around for places to buy the hardware for my guitar, and found www.voxhumana.nl which i've also seen linked to a few times on this forum. The basic specs for the guitar are: Mahogany and Maple Laminate body Solid Maple 24 fret bolt on neck Dual WSC Closed cover humbuckers (Click here for the link and scroll down to find it) Single coil hot Strat pickup (Click here, again, scroll down to find it) Les paul style Bridge and Tailpiece Control wise - Single tone knob, Single gain knob, Strat 5 way switch Here are a few pictures of the design which I knocked up in Neopaint for the rough idea of what I want, ignore any errors or incorrect spacings and sizing, it's just to give an idea of what i'm trying to achieve. Any discrepencies between the specs given and what it looks like is being shown in the pictures are also just rough, the specs given are what i'm doing, what is shown on the guitar in the pictures was just me toying round with ideas. The full thing The body design The Rough headstock shape As you can see, it is, by no means a conventional design. The reason is fairly simple, I want something that completley stands out from any other guitars around it. I spent weeks fiddling around with various aspects of this design before I was happy with it. So far i've finished planing, cutting and scraping smooth the various body woods and they are currently gluing in clamps. I used a japanese pullsaw to cut the wood to size (I can't reccomend them enough) and a no.5 smoothing plane to level and straighten the edges, then finally a scraper to smooth it. A few pictures of the gluing wood, In the photos you may be able to see the outline of the guitar drawn on roughly with a pencil using a sized up cad drawing, printed over several a4 sheets, pieced together and cut out as a rough template. It's just there to make sure the wood was glued in the right spaces, and as reassurance that it fits on the blank. The Maple you see in the pictures being clamped is actually thicker than the mahogany, once properly glued it will all be levelled. A detail not shown in any of the pictures is that the guitar will have a mahogany backing on it (about 1 cm thick), as well as the mahogany stripe that runs down the center of the guitar, this is mainly to make up thickness as the pieces of wood I have are not thick enough. Any comments, opinions, advice or constructive criticism welcome Cheers, Sam Edited September 7, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigtommyb Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 I really like it!! only thing im not 100% sure about is the knob/switch placing... they seem a bit too much out of the way. BigT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truerussian558 Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 i like it too, as for the switching, it depends on how your going to play it (in which postition), as for the guitar, the headstoc makes me feel like something is missing, since it seems a tad small and ends abruptly, maybe elongate or draw out that offset a bit more or maybe even turn it into a 4/2 tuner hole style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 the body is...meh...kinda like a jagstang meets a kelly, very original tho. but, dont take my opinion too strongly, i'm more of a traditional style guy. the headstock, though, does need work. if it were a bit longer, and had a more powerful arc on it, on top, rather than the softer slope you have, it'd look a lot more suited to the radical curves of the guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fehgalloway Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 I think that looks great!!! I want to try and design something original too, but always end up with a "samey" design... I can't really tell from the photos, but is the angle on the top of the headstock the same as the angle of the body? if not, that's my only recommendation... knobs look fine to me, but i don't really use them a lot, so i guess it depends on how you play! Keep the photos coming!!1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted September 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 (edited) Having looked at the headstock design in relation to the body again, I have to say I agree, it's not the right shape, I'll post some new ideas later once i've re-designed it. As to the switch and knob placement, i'm not the type of player who needs to reach them quickly in the middle of a song. I'd much rather have them a bit more out the way to make sure they arent accidentally knocked once i've set them up. The Body progress is going annoyingly slow, mainly in that the glue takes 24 hours to totally dry and cure. The main blank turned out fine. However, when I started gluing the backpiece of the body, I ended up putting one of the slats of wood on the wrong side, so I had to cut it again and re-plane and glue it, meaning another long wait In any case, by the end of today or beginning of tomorrow I should have the body blank as a solid piece. I'll post some more pictures once it's all glued and planed up. I may start on making the neck today, however the amount of work I can do is limited by the fact that none of the parts for the guitar have arrived yet. I did make up a neck template however, based on the neck from my Jackson PC3. As the headstock is going to be angled back I figured i'd cut the neck and headstock seperatley and then cut the angle and glue them together, as i've seen done a few times on this forum. Something i'm puzzling about is finishes, I want to leave it more or less totally with it's natural colour, I was thinking a plain laquer or a simple oil finish however i'm unsure what products or suitable or where I can get them. Can anyone help with this? bear in mind I don't want to import from america (europe is okay). Thanks for the kind words and suggestions, Sam Edit: Photos added to this post rather than create a new one. Gluing the magogany backing onto the main blank, you can't see much as it's all obscured by a multitude of clamps and offcuts (to stop the clamps damaging the wood) This one is just to show how stupidly big two of the clamps used are. It's what happens when you don't have enough of the proper size Edited September 9, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 i know criticism doesn't mean anything without the constructive part. so, i went into paint with your 2 original designs(body and headstock) and thought i'd put together a headstock that i thought'd be more suitable for the guitar. basically what i did was took the lower bout the of guitar(the curved part), shrunk it down, rotated 180 degrees, slapped it ontop of the headstock, and made everything fit into itself. i think side by side to the body it fits better, and looks fine on it's own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted September 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 (edited) American_Jesus: That looks much better, cheers for the help. Started cutting the body shape out of the blank today using a jigsaw, and a very fine blade (to prevent tearouts), went very slowly and it all turned out perfectly. I did'nt cut up and around the top as until the neck is finished, I don't have an exact template to accuratley draw the neck pocket in and so don't want to cut any away in case I need to change the shape slightly. Having cut quite a bit away, it's still quite rough, but i'm really pleased with the way the mahogany backing came out, there is'nt a noticeable join line at all, just a change from Maple to Mahogany. The hardware should all be arriving on monday/tuesday, so i'll be able to really get some proper work done. I've also got a nice piece of birdeye maple arriving, which will be used for the fingerboard. I actually ended up giving voxhumana a miss and ordering the neccesary parts from www.axesrus.co.uk and from http://www.craft-supplies.co.uk/ (who have an absolutley brilliant guitar section full of great woods and parts) In any case, here a few pictures of the cutting progress on the body blank, and the mahogany backing on it. In case any of you wonder, the lines i'm cutting to are drawn on the back of the blank, not the ones on the top. In the below one you can see a knot in the wood, i'm not totally sure how to fill that. Any ideas? Edited September 10, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 no problem, i just hate giving criticsm without putting my thoughts out on the subject, but i'm glad i could help! the body looks cool...i'm sure it's gonna look a lot better when sanded and stuff than it did on paper. i really like the shape of the body. what kind of top you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted September 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 The top is going to be more or less as it is, natural finish (possibly Danish oil?) with the maple and mahogany stripe. As it's my first guitar i'm not going for anything particularly fancy in case I mess it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted September 11, 2004 Report Share Posted September 11, 2004 yeah, it should turn out pretty cool, the only thing i would have done is put a center lamination of something either white(maple) or something red(paduk) in the middle of the mahogany, just for a touch of flare... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted September 11, 2004 Report Share Posted September 11, 2004 you can fill that knot with 2 part epoxy,superglue,or wood filler wait a sec...if that is a left handed guitar your rear body bought(gut cut) should take that out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammy Posted September 11, 2004 Report Share Posted September 11, 2004 Yeah it should take most of it, depending on how deep you go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted September 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 I think there's been some confusion here. The guitar is a normal right handed guitar, the front of it is where the maple shows, with the mahogany strpe going through it, not the plain mahogany backing. The mahogany back is, as i've said, only to make up some depth on the guitar. Wes: Cheers for the tip on knot filling Have'nt made any real progress on the guitar since the last post, mainly because i'm waiting for the parts to arrive (should be tomorrow or the day after) and also as i've been too busy this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted September 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 (edited) Started work on the neck today, first job, set the headstock angle on the neck. To do this I cut a 13 degree angle, ending at the nut into the neck, then did the same with the headstock, with the angle starting at the nut. Then planed the cuts down smooth and glued them. Currently the neck is setting in the clamps. Have'nt done much more on the body yet, it's all been planed level however i'm waiting to finish the neck heel so that I can make final adjustments to the design. Neck pics: http://uk.geocities.com/gibmeistar@btinternet.com/neck2.jpg http://uk.geocities.com/gibmeistar@btinternet.com/neck3.jpg http://uk.geocities.com/gibmeistar@btinter...ckangleplan.jpg Edited September 24, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmmr Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 looking good so far! is there any special reason why you chose to do the neck angle this way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted September 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 (edited) Apart from not wanting to make the neck out of a massive block of wood and waste some of it, not really. I looked around the net a bit and saw a couple of similar ways, and took a look at the construction of various guitars I have access to, and from that just drew up a way of accomplishing a 13 degree back angle on the headstock. Recieved the fingerboard today, it's a really nice piece of birdseye maple. Here are some pictures of it with the fret slots cut and dampened slightly with a very small amount of water to show the figuring more, the fretboard is still very rough and so does'nt look it's best. Another picture of the fingerboard Picture of the body planed flat and wiped with a damp cloth to bring out the grain Another picture of the body Picture of the glued neck blank, unplaned Another picture of the glued neck blank, unplaned Edited September 25, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted October 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 (edited) Did the truss rod routing in the neck today. This was the first time i'd ever used a router (practised on a couple of pieces of scrap before using it on the neck) and i'm really happy with the result. Pic 1, as you can see in this pic, I made a small error with the depth of the route, but it was quickly rectified. Pic 2 With the Truss rod in the slot Another one with the truss rod in the slot Progress is slow, but i'll get there eventually Edited October 6, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted November 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2004 (edited) Since the last post, i've cut the neck to shape (still the headstock to do) cut the thickness of the neck and headstock, started shaping the back of the neck, radiused the fretboard and installed the frets. Once the fretboard was sanded perfectly smooth, this absolutley beautiful figure came up in the birdseye maple. Close up of the top of the fretboard Back of the neck, still a ton of work to be done here. None of the pictures are very good, as they were taken in poor lighting conditions, apologies. Edited November 4, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 looks great! hope you're not planning on putting some inlays in...that'd totally ruin that beautiful figure you've got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay5 Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 What kind of truss rod is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted November 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 I decided agaisnt putting inlays in the front of the neck as I only ever use the side markers, so the fingerboard is safe The truss rod is a Two way Gotoh one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!!METAL MATT!! Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 Cool look's great sofar and good progress pic's of the neck I know I found them helpful!! Thanks !!METAL MATT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Dodding Posted December 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2004 (edited) After recieving the long awaited router bit I needed for the templates, I finally decided to stop procrastinating and actually did some more work Made a template for the body and routed the body blank to it's proper shape, After spending ages sharpening the spokeshave I also did some more work on carving the neck. Fingerboard has had some initial coats of oil applied and looks spectacular. Headstock still has'nt been shaped yet, so thats the next job. I started on filing the frets flush with the fingerboard, but it's very slow progress as I dont' want to accidentally scratch the sides of the fingerboard which are planed perfectly smooth. Work is now on a hold again as I got a letter from the company I bought the router from recalling it, due to potentially lethal parts being exposed if dropped So now i've got to wait until the new one arrives. Anyway, onto the pics... Body Neck carve Top of Fingerboard closeup Bottom of Fingerboard closeup Enjoy... Edited December 3, 2004 by S.Dodding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xebryusguitars Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 Mleh I absolutely love it. The fingerboard is to kill for. I always wanted a birdseye fingerboard but i cant find anyone selling good enough birdseye for my liking. Cant wait to see it finished. I also like the style of the body a lot. Great luck with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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