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Something A Little Different


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Fantastic...but you are getting close to steeling my ideas with the composite fretboard.... :D

I often wondered why someone hasnt made a composite fretboard like this with truss rod channel built into the mold in som devious way...and the fret slots, or even the frets some how molded into it! Now theres something to put your formidible design skills onto!

Otherwise, the high tech front and low tech gonzo graphic back makes a great contrast. All those LED's and no sustainer though...tch, tch. Anyway, perhaps a little too much graphite on the front of the guitar for my taste, but a fantastic application of innovation...wish more people would go out on a limb like this and make something unique and approach things in new and interesting ways. Combining materials is wonderful as who knows where it will lead....inspiring, thought provoking and all that...

So, you know I'm a fan...now someone hire Tim, I need a knew toaster.... B)

Best of luck with the job searching and keep on keeping on... pete :D:D

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I really like how the 'grain' of the carbon goes in opposite ways going from body to fretboard to headstock. Gives it just the contrast it needs in my opinion. That's definatly a pretty damn wild guitar. It's just that the thread title should have said: And now for something completely different. 'cause this isn't a little different anymore.

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Hot DAMN that is one awesome looking guitar! Awesome job so far, it's turning out to be quite a piece of work! That body... That's one body I'd love to run my hands over.

...Did that come out the wrong way? :D:D

You get what I'm saying, though. I'd love to get a hand on a template for that one, it just looks like it's going to be amazing to play.

Con-GRATS!

-Xanthus

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Thanks for all the comments, guys

It reminds me of a Joe Driskill guitar I recently saw. It's a guitar he made for a quadriplegic player.

Good work on the carbon fiber

that's where i got the idea! Carbon fiber layup is actually pretty easy. I'd say it's even less troublesome than working with glassfiber if you take your time with it. i wouldn't mind having driskill's vacuum setup though..

I often wondered why someone hasnt made a composite fretboard like this with truss rod channel built into the mold in som devious way...and the fret slots, or even the frets some how molded into it! Now theres something to put your formidible design skills onto!

mmm I can think of an easy way to make a mold for an integrated-fret-fretboard, though the real problem is finding a suitable material for the fretboard. Carbon fiber may be strong, but it's not very resistant to abrasion. Most likely you'd be looking at some sort of ceramic material..not exactly DIY. I'll look into it, might be fun. B)

I really like how the 'grain' of the carbon goes in opposite ways going from body to fretboard to headstock. Gives it just the contrast it needs in my opinion.
Heh. Actually...that was a "foutje van de firma". Didn't pay attention to the orientation during lay-up. Well, as they say, mistake=upportunity.

Originally I had even planned on laminating the body and fretboard with a one-piece carbon cloth. Unfortunately, part of the cloth had an unkind encounter with the vacum cleaner :D

here's more progress:

22.jpg

so this was all just to hide a few chips and dings. Think i overdid it? :D

this is the front and headstock finished and sanded to 1000 grit

A view of the compound radius fretboard

let there be light

bigger pic of the back. The back of the neck was painted with lot's of swirls and paisley-ish stuff at first, but I figured it didn't fit the rest of the graphic, so I started over. It'll probably stay this way, apart from some filling in the neck-body transition.

even bigger picture

to do list:

filling

clearing

order hardware

drill tuner holes

fretting (that'll be fun!)

mount hardware

sustainer :D

almost there,

Tim

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that design on the back looks fantastic!

rest of its cool too :D

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I am amazed (as I have been before) at how many ideas you are able to incorporate into a project without overwhelming it...extending the graphic up the neck turned out to be a great idea...you may even start a trend with that one...

Sustainer you say? With all the carbon fibre you may have so much natural sustain you won't need it, but if ever a design deserved one to make those out of this world effects, this one is it...hope that fretting works out ok (no chipping the glass or anything).

It's almost tempting to suggest you slap in a sustainer and keep it fretless (or half fretted), hehehe... keep it up... pete :D

mmm I can think of an easy way to make a mold for an integrated-fret-fretboard, though the real problem is finding a suitable material for the fretboard. Carbon fiber may be strong, but it's not very resistant to abrasion. Most likely you'd be looking at some sort of ceramic material..not exactly DIY. I'll look into it, might be fun.

Oh no...I didn't mean carbon frets but some how make the fret slots in the mold of the board or use the epoxy to hold SS rod or frets like Parker's glued on frets in one process with a perfect compound radius...well, it's a thought...p

Edited by psw
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  • 4 weeks later...

updates..

30.jpg

It's my 2 new best friends, Component a and Component b. Together with mr Carbon Mask.

oh I think I know this guy

Now how did we get this far?

we chuck some poly on the back

spray some on the front

looking neat, huh? Let's take a closer look...

aah!! pinhole galore!

should have used vacuum when I did the carbon fretboard layup

Could'nt let those pinholes pass, so after a spot filling-sand-spot filling-clearing session the body is drying as I write this .The fretboard is in a much better state now, I'm hoping another round of sanding and final clear should take care of the problem. My biggest concern, however, is the fact I probably won't get the fretboard completely flat (not unless I want to sand onto the carbon or spray 2 kg's of clear). Then there's the fret slots...I can only do this AFTER clearing and there's no room for the fret saw on the last frets. Overall there's quite a few things I'm not happy with and should have done better, even though it's a first for me ( well, second really, but I'm not yet ready to unveil my first build to the world, besides it was years ago :D )and not a very orthodox build either. So I'm not sure what to think of this one... I do know the next one 'll be totally kickass :D .

comments an critics welcome, Tim

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36.jpg

Ahh...I so much enjoy your posts...you know if you had a sustainer on there the upper frets could be fretless!!! A kind of hybrid fretless if you know what I mean... (might scratch up the board playing it of course)

I really like the shape and the construction...that back graphic is neat and does a fantastic job of covering up the neck fill problem...the graphic up the neck (possibly inspired by it) is so unique, I have never seen anything quite like it.

A fantastic mirror finish that would look amazing on stage! What's not to like...

As a first go at just about all of these techniques it is a work of art, and a work in process. If you were to do it again, there are so many lessons learn't from it...

Your fan from downunder... pete :D

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Ahh...I so much enjoy your posts...you know if you had a sustainer on there the upper frets could be fretless!!! A kind of hybrid fretless if you know what I mean... (might scratch up the board playing it of course)
Hey thanks Pete, I really like the idea of a hybrid fretless.. a see through vinyl could take care of the scratching. That's the cool thing about these forums, having input from others really triggers the inspiration. It's like a massive group brainstorm!

what kind of resin are you using??

the carbon is more of a cosmetic thing right??

how many layers of carbon did you use??

how did you saturate the carbon??

It's epoxy resin and only one layer of carbon (so no, that doesn't provide any real strength an is just cosmetic)

to saturate the carbon cloth you just brush the epoxy onto the wood then lay the cloth on top of it, finally you keep on brushing the cloth, effectively 'pushing' the cloth into the resin and removing any excess air. The trick her is to keep everything fairly dry and not use to much resin. It's no different than working with glassfibre mat, really.

Tim

Edited by onelastgoodbye
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Hey thanks Pete

No...thank you!!!

I really like the shape and the construction...that back graphic is neat and does a fantastic job of covering up the neck fill problem...the graphic up the neck (possibly inspired by it) is so unique, I have never seen anything quite like it.
31.jpg

I just like to see more pictures...hahaha... pete

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some ideas bout smoothing out the epoxy resin hold plastic or a sheet of PVA over is with not wrinkles in the sheet. no vacuum needed just a few hands. and you can see the air spots and work them out. we do that in the lab i work at. the reason i was asking about the resin was i know there are different type of resins for lamming up carbon. looks good tho.

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  • 8 months later...
....

A thick layer of epoxy. I taped off the sides so it wouldn't run off, but build up nicely instead. It actually evened out a lot better then you can see in the picture

...

What I suggest you is to apply a couple of coats of laquer with a UV-filter because the epoxy resing tends to become yellow.

Nice job!

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