Rgt-7 Ql Rbb

[westhemann]

Don't understand why boiling water is anymore "silly" then using just your normal hot water, or steam.

i just mean that the rapidity of the heating is probably not a great idea....especially since just plain old hot tap water in the bathtub is hot enough...that's how i did mine.i just worry about rapid expansion and contraction causing splits in figured woods.

[RGGR]

Hmmmm....I will keep that in mind. It makes sense.

[RGGR]

The weather has been awesome these last few days (weeks).....a real Indian Summer.

Gosh, do I love this greenhouse effect. LOL!

With the weather being so nice, I had some time to sand the quilted maple tops flush with both body pieces. I do most my sanding work outside....so nice weather helps bunches.

Both inner horns still need to be done....but I'm getting there.

As all sanding is done by hand....it just takes a little time to get everything square and flush. But it's looking good. I'm pleased.

Edited September 21, 2005 by RGGR

[RGGR]

With seeing other builders use costom type backplates.......the seed had been planted. Somehow using simple back plastic backplates wouldn't cut it anymore.

Did anyone say peer-pressure??

I figured it would be cool to accomplish something similar with this build, therefor this morning I made quick pittstop at my local wood supplier, on the lookout for a nice 3-4mm thick Wenge sheet.

And oeps I did it again.....well almost. At the last moment I could resist myself.......but gosh, did they have an awesome spalted one piece blank limba waiting for me. It was on the expensive side......(it being nice one piece body blank)......but I could resist the temptation. (thinking I could always pick it up tomorrow.)

I must say it sounded awesome when tapping it.

Trouble is....I don't need anymore wood....I need to finish some guitars first. Can't have all these semi-finished projects laying around the house.

Okay......so I went through the Wenge pile....and this is what jumped in the back of my car.

Edited October 10, 2005 by RGGR

[Mattia]

Niiiice...

Oh, and the Limba: how much is 'expensive', and which supplier we talking here? Arnhemse Fijnhouthandel? It's not that I need more black limba, just that I want some more. You are in NL, right? Or am I confusing you with someone else...

Edited October 10, 2005 by mattia

[RGGR]

Niiiice...

I always say - you don't pick the piece, the piece just picks you. It's just too bad only very little of this will be used for the backplates.

Oh, and the Limba: how much is 'expensive', and which supplier we talking here? Arnhemse Fijnhouthandel?

125 Euro, and yes, the Arnhemse Fijnhouthandel.

It's not that I need more black limba, just that I want some more. You are in NL, right? Or am I confusing you with someone else...

I should have brought my camera.......to shoot some pics. It was nicely weathered wood. With nice coloring in the center. It shouted Telecaster to me.

[Mattia]

Yowza. 125 is a touch very steep, considering white limba in sizes for a body blank can be had for less than half that. Makes importing from Gilmer actually cheaper, which is all kinds of silly, really.

Also, black limba always seems to be calling me to build a carved-top semi-hollow instrument. Funny, huh?

[RGGR]

I'm a big sucker for Limba.......and one of these days I see myself build a guitar with Black Limba.

[RGGR]

When buying the original 1/4" book matched quilted maple, I had reserved an small piece for the headstock.

In the last couple of days I sanded this quilted piece down from 1/4" to about 2mm. I could have used a router for this......but I opted for sanding it down by hand. Yeah, I know....it took a while, but doing most things by hand ensures me that no trear-outs happen accidently.

Yesterday I have glued the piece to the headstock area and sanded everything flush again. Here quick pic of guitar so far.

From lmii.com I now can order a double action truss rod. And route the slot in the neck.

Being about halfway through the build I must say that doing a stained guitar is a lot more work then doing a solid colored instrument. With opting for a stained finish there simply is no room for error. (No Bondo on this baby). This simply means making extra sure I don't screw up. Being extremely careful where to put down the piece, as gravity is still working, and it's oh so easy to drop, ding, or bust the pieces while working on them.

Currently I'm working on getting the body wings down to specs. I still have to take couple of mm off the back to get to the required 1 3/4" thickness. Again... I'm not using thickness sander or planer for this......not even a router......With double sided tape I glued some pieces of sanding paper to a flush board, and started rubbing body over it.....

It's a long an tedious job.......but it's not the time to take short cuts. I still have 2 more mm to go.....and then I can concentrate on the neck. I'm looking forward to this.

Edited October 14, 2005 by RGGR

[Mattia]

Ouch...I've done the hand sanding before, but seriousl, it's worth making a router/planer jig, getting it to within .5-1mm, and finishing that up by hand. Mahogany's not too evil, but maple can be a right bitca.

[RGGR]

Ouch...I've done the hand sanding before, but seriously, it's worth making a router/planer jig, getting it to within .5-1mm, and finishing that up by hand.

I have experimented with router/planer jig before. I wasn't so happy with results. With this build I wanted to be on safe side. Ineffective, but safe.

(Gosh, hear me.......I hang an airplane upside down so once in a while. Ride my bike till it wants to explode.....and here I'm talking about being on the safe side.....huuuhuu!!!)

Yes, I should explore building a more proper planing/router jig. And I have been bitching at myself from time to time.....when doing it by hand wouldn't progress. But then again...doing it by hand is easy, and cheap.

And although time is money, I'm not working on the clock here......no rush, and I'm still enjoying it.......It's just you and the guitar.....in pile of dust. It is time well spend.

On the body I'm almost done. I think a stiff hour of sanding and I'm done.

Edited October 14, 2005 by RGGR

[GuitarMaestro]

Being about halfway through the build I must say that doing a stained guitar is a lot more work then doing a solid colored instrument. With opting for a stained finish there simply is no room for error. (No Bondo on this baby). This simply means making extra sure I don't screw up. Being extremely careful where to put down the piece, as gravity is still working, and it's oh so easy to drop, ding, or bust the pieces while working on them.

You cant have enough patience and be careful enough during building, but the occasional nick or dent is not as terrible as one might tend to think. I only built guitars that are stained and most nicks, dents, etc. could easily be steamed out of the wood again. Aside from that I think a good builder does not use Bondo or any other foul tricks even for a guitar that will be finished in a solid color.

The guitar looks great btw. Only thing that confuses me is that I lost track of the builds you started or thought about, but dont remeber a finished guitar. With some builders it's no wonder they never finish it, but your stuff looks flawless. Whats up?!?!?

[RGGR]

The guitar looks great btw. Only thing that confuses me is that I lost track of the builds you started or thought about, but don't remember a finished guitar. With some builders it's no wonder they never finish it, but your stuff looks flawless. Whats up?!?!?

It's true i can dream up these guitars faster then I can finish them. Currently I have 3 projects in the work.

JS-7 project

This project hit a bit of a snag in that I can't find a proper supplier that can laser cut some templates for me. Why lasercut acrylic, while I could make some good templates from MDF you might ask....Well, I thought it was easy route. Buy some 3-4mm acrylic at local hardware store, drop acrylic off at laser cutting company, send them my CAD files and week later hand over some $$$ and have nicely laser cut pup/backplates templates. Pup templates I also can use on RGT build. I figured hitting two birds with one stone.

In this I can be quite pigheaded that I convinced myself this is route I wanted to take.....and now hell or high water, this is route I'm gonna take.....even if it causes guitar to be in unfinished state for quite a while.

Wise move....not really........but that's just how I am. Penny wise, pound foolish.

LP Project

I have Limba LP body in half finished state......taking body out of Limba was just excerise in working with router......I'm now looking for proper top wood......

Every time I stop at wood supplier I have look at supply...but haven't found proper top wood yet. Project will not be finished soon. It's nio priority at moment

RGT 7 QL RBB

This is currently my baby. I really love working on this guitar. Slowly I'm getting all the parts in house needed to complete this build. Coming up I will have to order and source some parts and this will bring progress to a slow hold. In mean time I will try to finish JS-7, cause that guitar deserves to be finish.

I also think it doesn't look good on my record to give others all this half-ass advice while not having finished one decent guitar.

And I have made agreement with myself not to buy anymore wood until I have finish one of the 3 projects currently in the works.

Note to myself - Get these two projects finished before the end of next year, JS-7 hopefully before end of this year........

I probably never will be 48 hour build finisher.....but two years should also not be the case.

Edited October 14, 2005 by RGGR

[GuitarMaestro]

Hehe....great set of projects! I know what you are talking about. I have wood here for about 10 guitars, but simply not the time to build them. And I always HAVE to buy nice wood. Maybe its good to not have a finished guitar. Since building my 7-string went so well and I use it as a main live and studio guitar my motivation to start a new build has declined. Seems that proving myself that I am capable of building a nice guitar was enough....hehe

[RGGR]

I started building 6 months after I started learning to play guitar. The paint of store bought RG was hardly dry or I bought my first Limba body blank. ;-)

Guess, I still have a lot to learn in both departments.

Hehe....great set of projects!

Next project will be a Maxxas copy. It may be that I buy one sooner then starting to build one......but I love to have a go at a hollowed contoured type instrument.

I look at it as a next challenge. Doing the JS was test to see how complicated a complete ground up build would be. With the RGT I'm taking it a step further with staining and doing it more by hand. A Maxxas I see as instrument to bring everything together.

But the rule of the house now is.....finish one before starting new one.

[leod_74]

That guitar that you showed as a model for yours is a Hill, right? If it is, I played that guitar and was this close to buying it. Its one awesome piece of work. Hill is a local maker for me.

[RGGR]

That guitar that you showed as a model for yours is a Hill, right?

I'm not familiar with Hill type guitars. The model I showed in the beginning of this thread is a 2005 - RGT320QRBB

[leod_74]

Huh...

Heres the Hill. There are differences but still look similar.

Hill

[RGGR]

Same same, but different.

Also got writing back from Lmii.com. In their list of fretboard slotting options they don't offer a 27" scale length. I asked them if they could do this for me. This is what they replied:

"We can slot a bass fingerboard for you to a 34 inch scale. If you cut the board off at the 4th fret you will have a 26.986" scale. You would only have to make a tiny adjustment in your bridge placement or intonation compensation to make work."

I have to look into this. I would have to order a 28 fret?? 34" bass scale and cut it off at the 4th fret, so total will come close to a 24 fret 27" scale length fretboard.

With scale length calculator and AutoCad I have to look into this.

Edited October 15, 2005 by RGGR

[leod_74]

Wheres a good place to get an AutoCad program. I used it in school and loved it but can not find it anywhere?

[Duff Beer Man]

Well, there is turbocad which is free, but it u want a good autocad program u are going to have to buy one, or you could "borrow" one like i did lol

[RGGR]

For version of Autocad, you could look on Packetnews.com and use program called MIRC.exe to "illegally" download it from the net.

Note: Illegal downloading of software on the net is not allowed by law

I'm not promoting illegal downloading....just pointing out where one would download copy from if one would do so.

Edited October 16, 2005 by RGGR

[eddiewarlock]

It´s interesting to see your project, I am doing something similar, except it´s got south american mahogany wings, santos mahogany/ purpleheart laminated 5 piece neck, and i originally wanted to do a 27" scale 7 string guitar, with a bound ebony fretboard, but my neck blank wasnñt that long so, I´ll go with 25 1/2" bound ebony fretboard, single EMG 707 and fixed bridge BTW santos mahogany only looks like mahogany, it is DAMN HARD, harder than hard maple, and purpleheart is even harder, i think this guitar will be very resonant and will have a very defined sound

[RGGR]

it´s got south american mahogany wings, santos mahogany/ purpleheart laminated 5 piece neck

I have heard other people commenting (jemsite) on not using Mahogany for a 7 string, as muddiness of Mahogany wouldn't go well with the sound of a 7 string. I'm not sure how much merit is in these comments.....it's all what sound your after of course.....but I can imagine a Mahogany extended range instrument being even more effected by this. Using Mahogany neck would also amplifiy this effect. It would be something to watch for.....as your guitar is leaning in one direction.

I opted for Maple/Wenge neck through, as in neck through....the neck wood will have more pronounced voice in guitar compaired to a bolt on neck. I figured the Maple/Wenge neck would brighten up the Limba wings a bit. The Quilted maple top will have little effect on the total tone as top is relative thin (1/4"), but still bringing it in right direction.

This tone wood theory is part Voodoo, part science. I'm from the school of thought that you always look at whole picture. In the end....all woods in guitar will have effect on tone, together with pups etc. In that respect it's nice to have different guitars made of different combinations. Although realizing the quest for perfect guitar will never be over. With this guitar I tried to combine the best of both world. If I would have done a bolt on 7, I probably would have used a Alder body with Maple/Wenge neck, or total Wenge neck with Maple fretboard.

Definitely go for the showing neck-through option. That really gives guitar a very nice look, IMHO.

[Lord-of-the-strings]

Cool stuff man! That's going to be one sweet Rg