ragman Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 Hi, i am from germany, so please do not laugh about my english. Its my first attempt at building an intrument. I decided to post some pictures of the progress. I will update it weekly. I hope you will enjoy it. I like James Hetfield´s Ken Lawrence explorer, so my guitar is a replica of it. Here is a cad drawing of it. This is a piece of Sipo Mahogany. I will use it for the body. My friend made a chalk drawing of the body, so we can saw it broadly with the pad saw. Here are the selfmade templates, which we need for the shaping. Shaping the body... Here you can see how the guitar will look after glueing. It will be a neck through construction. The neck is a Jatoba one piece and the body is mahogany. The fingerboard is brasilian rosewood. The Head will also be made of mahogany. Next week. greets from germany Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slabbefusk Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 I see no faults in your english, good lucK! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 nothing to laugh about,english or otherwise.seems like you got it "goin' on" are you going to use a t.o.m.? don't forget about your neck angle...how are you going about that part? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 Nice work ragman, good english, were in Germany are you? I was at Kitzingen for one year and I love it, I wish I could had stayed longer! What material did you used for the template? SO far I like the way it looks, but what is that square hole in the bottom of the neck tennon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 Man, this is going to be one gorgeous guitar! Excellent choice of woods, by the way. My concern is the same as Wes': what are you going to do about angling the neck for a Tune-o-matic bridge? You could recess the bridge, or you could use a different bridge.... Anyway, just wondering if you've considered that. Also, one other question: what are you doing for the finish? With such gorgeous wood, I hope you've considered doing a clear finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragman Posted November 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 What do you mean with a t.o.m, Westhemann? I am from Aachen in the west of germany. The templates are a chipboard, that you can sand easily. The sqare hole in the neck was just sawn off. Now it is a straight bottom. I have considered both possibilities. I will not angle the neck but recess the bridge, because i like those neck constellation and it is easier to build. You are right, skibum5554. Because I spent a long time on choosing the woods, I am going to give it a clear finish, or at least a trasparent finish with a litle colour touch like brown or red. I will test the finishes later. If you are interrested: Here is a comparison to the original gibson shape of the explorer. The white paper templates show my explorer shaping, which i have designed. How do you like it? At the End the guitar could look like this: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 What do you mean with a t.o.m, Westhemann? tune o matic bridge...i can see in those pictures that is what you have...usually on an explorer it requires a neck angle...but you can recess the bridge like you plan on doing...but personally i think recessing an explorer bridge is not nearly as proffesional as using a neck angle... but if that is what you want,go ahead....it is just that the extra height of the t.o.m. on an explorer enhances the playability by giving you a more comfortable picking position Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thoughtless 7 Posted November 28, 2004 Report Share Posted November 28, 2004 Love the shape and looks sweet d00d!! Keep it up =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Carl Posted November 28, 2004 Report Share Posted November 28, 2004 Hey Ragman, lookin' nice dude. I'm down in Stuttgart. I'm fixing to start on a V project myself. How are you doing to 'finish' it? Just curious, 'cos I have no idea where to go for finishing supplies over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill-Murray Posted November 28, 2004 Report Share Posted November 28, 2004 Yeah, tom's are like what gibson les paul's have. The 2 piece bridge system. Are you going to do a natural finish?? I noticed the 2 wings are different colored..... Your english is fine. In fact, it's better than most american's........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivin Posted November 29, 2004 Report Share Posted November 29, 2004 You don't happen to know Darryl Summers do you... an ageing Australian ex-TV show host? I think you two get your jumpers from the same place hahah Seriously though, you picked an awesome guitar to make, I absolutely can't wait to see your guitar completed. Good luck! - Dan Also, one other question: what are you doing for the finish? With such gorgeous wood, I hope you've considered doing a clear finish. lol, I just have to say this; but I don't think i've ever seen you suggest anything but a clear finish, or think a peice of wood is anything but too beautiful for a clear finish Nothing wrong with that of course, I just had to mention that. Nothing like a bit of oiled Basswood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 29, 2004 Report Share Posted November 29, 2004 Also, one other question: what are you doing for the finish? With such gorgeous wood, I hope you've considered doing a clear finish. lol, I just have to say this; but I don't think i've ever seen you suggest anything but a clear finish, or think a peice of wood is anything but too beautiful for a clear finish it's straight grained mahogany,for pete's sake! slap some paint on it...cover up that wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivin Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 lol precisely! haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 Well, excuse me for finding beauty in nature rather than in a factory. No, seriously. Jatoba and nice, iridescent mahogany don't deserve black paint. Alder, basswood, poplar I can understand. Even ash if you can still show off the grain (Voodoo, anyone?) But seeing mahogany and Jatoba painted would just make me sad. But hell, if you like it black just like every other goth explorer on the market, go for it. I just like seeing beautiful woods made into original-looking custom guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragman Posted December 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 First of all: Thank you for all your possitive comments and suggestions. I am very happy about it . Ok, next step! Because we noticed, we made a mistake at sawing the body, we had to laminate a piece of wood into the neck. I want the neck become thinner from the bottom of the body to the saddle, not just from the border crossing of body and neck. I hope you understand my explanation. The neck was just to small at the beginning. This is the piece of wood: My choice was Wenge (I do not know how it is called in english): The neck before glueing: Under Pressure: Now we have sawn all angles with the circular saw. Because Westhemann has convinced me, i have given the neck an angle of 1,5°. I think he is right with the comfortability reason. Here you can see the laminated neck and the sapelli mahogany head. The next step was a quite complicated work, because we had to glue a 13° bevel, but the result is amazing. You have to fix the screw clamps proberly, that the head can not displace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragman Posted December 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 Back home we dealed with the wings, which have to be glued on the neck. By the way I am the right guy, so it was not my lumber last week Laminating the Body and the neck. In the meantime we had sawn the Ken Lawrence headstock. I like it very much. Here is the result after 10 Hours work. No panic. The fingerboard is only fixed with double sided adhensive tape. The truss rod will be installed later. One thing to the finish. It will be a transparent one. I will not put a colour on it. greets from germany ragman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 5, 2004 Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 looks great so far. just to give you more options,keep in mind you can use transparent colors as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragman Posted December 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 Hi, there is not much progress to see this week, but some work had to be done. As you can see in the picture, we had to round off the neck. We used rasps for the job: We also had to install the trussrod. We made a template for a router and shaped the wood, that the trussrod fits: Here you can see, that we glued the brasilian rosewood fingerboard on the neck. After that we had to wait, so that we drank the whiskey on the left side of the picture This week i will do much precision work on the neck and all borders, as you can see in the picture. I will show you the result in a few days. Ciao Ragman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragman Posted December 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Hi, I'm back . I think it is time for posting some pics of the work within the last two weeks. Probably i will finish the guitar next week. The first pic shows the template for the pickup holes. Here is the self made radius sanding block. I made a radius of 12". I built it as it is shown in the book from Martin Koch . It works After I spent much time on the neck form, it was time to do my first fretjob. i wanted to save money and built may own fret bender. Here it is. 24 pieces for 24 frets. Nice on an explorer...don't you think so??? most of the time i am lead guitarist, so i really need this..........well i dont know, but i like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragman Posted December 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 In the next picture you can see how i put the frets into the fingerboard. i took glue for a better fit. I also save money by pressing the frets into the fingerboard with the radius sanding block and some scew clambs. Pics, pics.... Here is the result of it: I am so lucky about this Next time i think i will present the finished guitar with a lots of pictures. greets from germany, i like this forum very much. ragman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill-Murray Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Lookin cool dude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Carl Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Nice dude. Thanks for the pics of your fret bender. I was trying to figger out how to do it, w/o springing for the StewMac tool & couldn't think of anything & you just go & post the perfect (to me) solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genbloke Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 I'm not normally a fan of pointy guitars but I like this one, it's looking good! genbloke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slayer63636 Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 the home made fret press is awsome. yet it so simple keep up the good work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragman Posted December 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 @genbloke: What are pointy guitars??? I can't find a translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.