NJD Posted September 24, 2006 Report Share Posted September 24, 2006 Ok, first of all Hello!! So I’ve been playing with guitars since my early teens, making the odd plywood guitar here, re-spraying the odd Encore strat-copy there… and for my GCSE’s in Design Tech just under 10 years ago I finally made a guitar from stock and from scratch and boy was it bad! At the time of building this beast I truly knew Squat it’s a semi acoustic Les Paul/Rick-esque creation that once had the electrics out of a £10 Columbus ES-335 copy, and the truss rod out of the afore mentioned Encore’s Neck it is made from quilted maple front and back (A grade) and the neck and body sides/bridge block is joinery grade Sapele. The fingerboard is rosewood and the radius is… well… who knows! I basically took a plane to it and eyeballed it– it is left-handed too. Neck Joint Sufficed to say when it was once ‘playable’ (term used loosely) there were a few playability issues – it had no tone just twang. It did for brightness what Phil Mitchell’s Head does for the contrast on your TV (for any UK post readers). The fret slots were sawn free hand and I had no concept of fret levelling, dressing, crowning and the like. But still, I personally love the shape! And the original concept in my eyes has a lot of meat on the bone, and in as much, I decided some time ago to re-master the idea and build a refined educated version. so in the time between then and now I have become a qualified cabinet maker (not my profession though) and read a whole load of literature on guitar building, acoustic, electric and archtop while also sponging info off of the net on the subject and carrying out the odd guitar project here and there. This guitar has been sat on the drawing board for a long old time and a number of alterations have arisen: It will have the arched top I wanted for it in the beginning but didn’t feel anywhere near confident enough to attempt. It will be a solid body guitar The heel joint has been redesigned so the neck sits in to the body much like an SG only with more gluing serface (somewhat like David Myka does). The materials have been completely rethought As has the hardware and electronics So basically same shape body – different guitar I suppose! I have cut a lot of the necessary templates to make a start and have a few tools, specialised and non specialised Templates I have also collected all of the hardware and electronics including 2 Seymour Duncan Humbucker pups Hardware and along with the fingerboard and a few choice veneers for the headstock, I have the body back and neck ready to be jointed/face n edged and bandsawed/routed etc… lovely bita Walnut Body Blank Neck Blank I do also have some Bubinga that was originally intended for this guitar (around 2003 before I bought my own house and became a very poor man with no time on my hands for hobbies) until I realised that unless I had kryptonite tipped router bits and toothed saw blades, and arms like Popeye I was never going to make a decent wearable instrument out of it without bankrupting myself with replacement tools and bits. Also in the 3 years it’s been ready to go one ‘wing’ on the body blank has warped slightly and the guy I knew who worked the blanks to the stage they are in now, no longer works as a joiner – what he had to go through to work this wood is yet another story.. Bubinga Body Blank Bubinga Neck Blank I am going to order in some maple for the cap once I have a guitar shaped body back to glue it to – as I have never carved an arched top before I am going to order in the cheapest 1 inch maple blank I can find as well as the flamed maple I am planning on as to have a ‘trial run’ before tackling such an expensive piece of wood. So that’s pretty much the story so far! Watch this space for developments – I’m planning on taking a few WIP shots and will post them up in the interim should anyone be interested. The final word on this guitar is that I don’t have the room or expertise to apply even a half decent finish my self and I really do want the best for her, so I’m gonna cheat and stain the top myself, take it up to finishing standard (possibly seal and grain fill myself) but then take it to a guy in Swansea of SGL guitars to shoot a professional shiny lacquer finish onto her. Well, if you’ve truly read this far congrats to you! And also, thank you kindly once again for an awesome forum! Nathan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trann Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 It looks like it's going to be very cool. You should be fine if you just pick up some literature on guitar building; the tutorials on this site are pretty good but aren't as thorough as they could be. I love the sound of walnut. You should reconsider the wraparound bridge though, IIRC it can make for some lost vibration transfer and plus it falls off when the guitar isn't strung.. If I were you I would do a string thru. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 I do have the odd book on guitar making lol, My Collection I can see where you’re coming from on the string thru front… I will no doubt be building a sister guitar next to this one, as I do want to test a few methods (namely top carving) on some less expensive wood before potentially butchering a very good piece of maple. I think I’ll test a few different techniques and go a few different routs on that, now including string thru. I’ve been paying some serious mind to using that lovely piece of bubinga I have to make a 12 string neck – I think the stupid level of rigidity with the added ‘insurance’ of some CF rods would lend itself well to going quite thin. Thanks for the feedback!! Nathan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 Whereabouts in the UK are you based, Nathan? I'm doing exactly the same as you in doing a practice run on non-figured woods for one of my basses. Keep us informed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 I'm down in Pontypridd, near(ish) Cardiff in South Wales Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 (edited) Just got back from my local and friendly joiners, my neck blank has been rough profiled and my body blank has been faced, thicknessed and jointed!! Can’t wait to get home from work to glue up!! The anticipation is now physically killing me. As I haven’t got a home bandsaw anymore so I’m planning on using my laminate trimming router bit to take a number of shallow passes on my body blank with an over-sized bearing following the profile of my body template, and take it down to almost final size on my belt and disk sander, finishing off with my scrapers and sandpaper. The joiner also put me in contact with a spray finisher, so I’ll have a chat there and see if he’s willing to shoot the nitro for me. All in all a more productive than usual lunch hour (Pics tonight) Edited September 25, 2006 by NJD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 You should reconsider the wraparound bridge though, IIRC it can make for some lost vibration transfer and plus it falls off when the guitar isn't strung.. If I were you I would do a string thru. Tran, I'd disagree with that statement. It's fairly widely acknowledged that wraparounds are good at transferring vibrations, since they have minimal loose components, and a good direct coupling to the body. IMO, both positions can be argued, but they're both really matters of opinion, not authoratative facts (ie: wood with lots of runout is bad for necks). If you don't care for wraparounds that's fine, but it would be appreciated if you avoid appearing to state personal opinions as fact. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 BTW Thanks for the archtop tutorial Setch, i'm looking forward to putting that into practise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logical Frank Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 You should reconsider the wraparound bridge though, IIRC it can make for some lost vibration transfer and plus it falls off when the guitar isn't strung.. You can get a wraparound from Tone Pros that has locking studs so it won't fall off. It supposedly also helps w/ vibration transfer as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 Here’s the pics I promised Neck, rough cut – for some reason the cut on the front of the head stock isn’t square, it’s the only cut that isn’t but it’s nothing 20 careful minutes with a block plane won’t sort out! Body blank, glued up (clamps coming off in 10 minutes) http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/humbuck/image003.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 Oh yes Nathan - when you're clamping up to glue, if you put a strip of greaseproof paper under the scrap used to true the edges top and bottom either end of the join, you don't end up glueing the scrap to your blank :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 (edited) Very true, the blocks nearest the camera just came away due to one pice of walnut getting stuck in the thicknesser (that did all 4 side at once... I WANT ONE) it had about 2 mil missing from the gluing surface - it's away from the area that's going to form the body anyway. The top one had stuck though... Edited September 26, 2006 by NJD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 Hammer 'em off :-) Ka-CHUNK! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sambo Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 WELSH PEOPLE ON HERE!!!! WOOOOOOOO! Sorry... National pride and all. ahem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 (edited) Hah!! never takes long for us to mount up does it mate?? where in cardiff are you?? Edited September 27, 2006 by NJD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 (edited) Tonight was a night of scraping and sanding, but my headstock face and neck face is level, and damned pretty. As my sandpaper wore down and a finish began to form I realised just how nice a piece of walnut I have Fron another angle with truss rod and CF I also cleaned up my body blank only to find FIGURE on ONE side of one of the planks! The sad thing is it has shown on the worst side! Where I have a gash from a slipped blade on the joiners thicknesser on the adjoining plank... So I have a dilemma on my hands - do I go for the uniform grain of the better face or show this figure off but only on one half?!!??! Damn... Edited September 27, 2006 by NJD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted September 27, 2006 Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 Dude, tell me that isn't your headstock glued on, end grain to end grain? It's deceiving in the second pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 (edited) It's ok you can breathe now, there is a light spot at the mo (that’s emphasized by the flash and the por lighting in the dining room) where the angles change, but no - it's a 1 piece Edited September 27, 2006 by NJD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted September 27, 2006 Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 Aaaaaaghhh!! Make the photo stop!! It gives me the fear!! I've not done a scarf yet either. Mine are all one-pieces too, especially the five-string project I have on the go. I really have to explore Setch's tutorial further on say, the Dinky build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Now I have so many pieces of lovely wood lying around, scarf jointing is my next move. I can get a scarf jointed neck out of the rest of my walnut blank, and even get a decent heel out of it. I also have designs on ripping down the middle of my bubinga blank to squeeze 2 necks out of it: I have a sharp low angle block plane that should lend its self well to facing up a scarf joint; I’ll saw it by hand with my tenon saw because I can keep far greater control of the cut in each direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted September 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 (edited) Well, it’s been a long hard day in the shed/workshop today but we finally have guitar shaped wood!! I have to start by saying my 2 favourite pieces of kit right now are my Safe-T planer and my disk/belt sander. Safe-T Planer My neck and headstock are thicknessed perfectly (even though they’re still in the rough) with only one slight slip up when I accidentally tilted the neck under the blade taking it off the drill press table. Headstock My guitar body was a bit of a challenge, and almost cost tears, I started by routing the body shape with the plan of routing all the way through but my router bit was slipping in the collet, so I took over with the jigsaw. A small amount of reshaping, and a few prize minutes spent over the belt sander and all was well!! Body all shaped Tare-out I had plans to rout out my CF rod and truss rod cavities today and glue in too but I realised that Stewmac sent me the wrong sized bit for routing my CF cavities!! They are oversized (unless they are meant to have a LOT of play!! Aargh!! So it seems work is on hold and the overseas taxman is going to be rubbing his hands together once again EDIT: I couldn't have been paying attention at the time - it seems that stewmac don't do router bits for the narrower CF rods, can anyone suggest how i make channels for them? Edited September 30, 2006 by NJD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted October 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 Tonight I have further shaped my body back and drawn in the rough position of the bridge and humbuckers (that I cocked up and have rectified after taking the pic) ready for the delivery of Forsner bits for cutting cavities and voids, plus a good selection of sandpaper for good measure I have also got one of the stages that had scared me slightly out of the way – I have routed the trussrod channel. Neck with rod Detail of top end block positioning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted October 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2006 So far so good… I’m almost at the point where I can shape the radius into the neck once my headstock is shaped! I’m not particularly looking forward to cutting my pre-fret slotted, pre-radiused fingerboard, but once those 3 things are done it’s time to blow some mega bucks on maple from my supplier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJD Posted October 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2006 Another productive afternoon: The fingerboard is no longer a blank and the ebony binding is glued on (awaiting drying)… The neck and headstock are now both shaped, and I can understand when people say it is the most enjoyable and rewarding bit (save playing it once it’s finished) So here goes: Another one of the neck The fingerboard all glued up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester Posted October 8, 2006 Report Share Posted October 8, 2006 The fingerboard all glued up At first glance I thought I saw a maple fingerboard with some seriously messed up slots and shoddy ebony inlays! Keep up the good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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