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My First Guitar - 8 String


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It's is looking but but I think that the volute placement is a bit too far down, like under the middle of the 1st fret were it should be under the nut.

It's a little further down than i originally wanted but i actually made a pretty serious mistake on the bandsaw and that was pretty much the best way to repair it. It's about 5 MM behind the nut and almost directly under the tilt. I'll grab another shot though. I think the picture makes it look a little off....

Thanks again for the comments guys!

Matt --> I haven't had much of a chance to start on the other necks. I figured that I would make my "learning" mistakes on this neck before i start going at the nicely laminated block.

(i love this place!)

Edited by Canuck Brian
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it's looking pretty good so far, just a question, isn't the headstock a little too thick? what kind of tuners are you going to use?

About radiusing, is there such a thing as a 12" radius scraper, i'm thinking that such a scraper would yield much better results than a sanding block, plus it would be much easier to check when the fretboard reaches the correct radius and taking out high spots

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Looks OK, a bit bulky, if you are to shape it, shape from the neck up, so it shapes in the place it should be, here is a link to warmoth neck, you can see the subtle volute and the placement. And a classic Perry Ormsby guitar volute. May this pics help you decide or better yet, guide you on the next neck that you mentioned you are doing!

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Awesome! Thanks Maiden!

I hope that the next project turns out a little better, but at least i haven't heard "that neck sucks" for my first project!

The headstock - it might look thick but it's the exact thickness of my Ibanez's headstock. The pics are deceiving!

Ibanezrocker - I did the tilt back headstock using a scarf joint. There's a tutorial on the tutorial section of the main page that i used as a reference. It takes a lot of patience, but take your time and it'll turn out great. I figured that since almost everyone here who has built a guitar before stresses taking your time and planning it out, it would probably be a good idea.

Edited by Canuck Brian
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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Ditto.  About a year ago, there were 3 or 4 threads on 8-stringers.  But Jeremey is the only one so far to make good on it.

It's been a while since I had a working digital camera or the proper tools to work on this project....

I've got the fretboard mounted and slotted (nice birdseye maple), the back of the neck roughly contoured, a bookmatched birdseye headstock cap, the taper, holes drilled for the tuners.... I'll try to get a pic tonight of it.

I've recently been unable to access any tools such as a drill press, drum sander etc... as i'm not in school until January. Big downer because i'm dying to finish this bad boy. I'll make good on this sucker, just you wait!

Edited by Canuck Brian
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I did the weird thing at the back because I play with guitars between my legs like a classical player would. My Ibanez always slides out of position. I played a Reb Beach model and a Steinberger GS model for a bit and the little cut out of the back really stabalized the guitar for me. I guess it's more of a functionality thing.... :D

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  • 3 months later...
Brian, did you ever finish this up?  I have a couple questions.  First, how do you like the bridge?  Does is intonate correctly at your scale length?  Would you recommend it?  And how does this bad boy sound with that EMG in it?  Thanks.

I haven't finished this guy yet. It was annoying because I was about to attend class again (complete with a big big wood shop) and they cancelled the course indefinitely because it wasn't "financially viable" to have a course where students buy their supplies from places other than the school.

That in mind, my dad and I went pretty nuts buying tools. I currently have a 16 inch bandsaw, 6 inch Delta joiner, a nice tablesaw, spindle sander, a large drill press and I have to pick up the planer this weekend. My dad snagged me a nice Makita router complete with 10 brand new carbide tipped bits which were the exact ones I needed. We did all of this in the past month. The bad part about all of this is that the shop is located far enough away from me that I can only do this on the weekends.

I'm hoping to get the guitar done before the end of February.

As for the bridge, I had a 7 string fixed bridge Ibanez that I swapped the bridge on. I put one of the hipshot bridges on there and I didn't really notice a sound difference. It was easy as pie to intonate though. I'm not sure how the low F# is going to be on the 8 string, but I'm chomping at the bit waiting to find out.

:D

Edited by Canuck Brian
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Thanks for the quick response. Good luck with finishing it, it looks great. I really want to build one as well, but I'm getting some simpler stuff done first. I just finished a 6 string, I have a 7 string that I'm working on right now, and then after that the 8 string. The only obstacle is money.

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  • 1 month later...

finally some progress on this thing! I've redone the neck pocket, done the inlays and radiused the fretboard. I mounted the bridge at the proper intonation spot and drilled the holes for the strings. Next weekend i'm hoping to get the pickup routed out and the control cavity finished

The gold neck ferrules look pretty swag too....couldn't get a photo of that though, had to jet back downtown.

I've got the guitar tilted in the photo to avoid glare, so the neck looks gargantuan...

19-02-06_2113.jpg

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Looks about the size of my 6-string bass. I still don't see gold working with mahogany, but it's looking amazing. That inlay design reminds me of John Myung's inlay on his fingerboard, I have seen this replicated a couple times on the boards. Always amazing looking. So you are stringing it F# for sure? Not B-A?

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