Prostheta Posted April 9, 2007 Report Share Posted April 9, 2007 (edited) Props have to go to Doug on this one as he made a Warwick Vampyre styled guitar and did it way better than I can hope for at my stage of experience(LINK). But hey! It's all good. I got together some spare unallocated mahogany from my stash and laminated a bookmatched camphor burl set on top. I've decided to make the instrument fairly thick to work with the "slow" mahogany sound somewhat. The build type will be set neck, string-through body over a good old TOM bridge. I've not decided on a pickup set as i'll probably road test a few in it to see what works. The neck may be a mahogany/purpleheart Les Paul neck I have already made or I may make another one specifically for this project. I'm not too happy with the headplate on the existing neck as it has a small chipout on a corner. So anyway. I'm going to shape and carve the body first before cracking on with the neck. The top will have a slight radius carve with relief in the recesses but will finish up at the bottom of the laminate. I am going to bind the body with flame maple have have a red purfling strip between the camphor burl and maple. Niiiiice. Body blank clamped up. I thicknessed and planed each half of mahogany and camphor burl before glueing up into two body blank halves, and replaned the joint by hand. I then glued each mahogany/camphor half and sash cramped 'em up today. <edit> Oh yes - I may use the scrap from either side of the body blanks, rejoint them and glue them up to use as a scarfed headstock on some "normal" mahogany and wenge I have laying around. Edited April 9, 2007 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travismoore Posted April 9, 2007 Report Share Posted April 9, 2007 WOW!!! That top looks amazing cant wait to see the final product! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted April 9, 2007 Report Share Posted April 9, 2007 What he said ^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoochild32 Posted April 10, 2007 Report Share Posted April 10, 2007 it looks like a badass violin or something with the sides ..if thats even possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2007 I fell in love with the shape when Warwick released the Vampyre bass and actually made one of my own. The shape easily adapts to guitar proportions. I've even considered the possibility of buying a purfling cutter tool to inlay some fine black purfling line around the body but patience has never been a strong point of mine so I can't see that happening :-D I think i'll go down the route of maple binding with a black purfling accent line to seperate the camphor wood and maple. (incidentally, the neck angle on the bass I made wasn't 100% satisfactory and I wanted to rebind so i've removed the fretboard and put the project on a back burner before I complete it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis Posted April 10, 2007 Report Share Posted April 10, 2007 The shape and the wood work great together. That's gonna be a wicked machine. Can I ask what I am sure is a really6 dumb question - what is a TOM bridge? Thanks Denis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielM Posted April 10, 2007 Report Share Posted April 10, 2007 Tune-O-Matic bridge, it's the style most Gibsons use. so a bridge and a stopbar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2007 (edited) No stop bar, Daniel. I'm going for the string-through-body thing. I've got an idea which i'm hoping to use for that one too....top secret till I do it (or fail). Bandsawed the body (nice cauls!), routed pickup holes and shaped to the template before final shaping on the spindle sander. Routed a 45° chamfer, purfling ledge and binding channel. Started purfling and binding! Decided against the flame maple binding as the corners are a PITA to head and bend around. This is mostly because of my patience or lack thereof. The chamfer depth gives me a nice "stop" point where I know not to chisel, sand, gouge, drill, recess or otherwise *go* lest I run out of camphor top and hit mahogany. The carving can wait. <edit: i know that I accidentally set the depth of the drill press a little too deep when roughing the pickup cavities. trust me, i know!> Edited April 10, 2007 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travismoore Posted April 10, 2007 Report Share Posted April 10, 2007 Wow quick progress =) Nice work, keep it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted April 11, 2007 Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 very nice,but in the future you should have the outline completely finish sanded and all the lines finalized before doing the bevel...it saves a ton of sanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Indeed. I've actually taken that binding off as I wasn't 100% happy with it, and I there's no reason for me to BE happy with it if it's not 100%. I've taken your advice, resanded, rechamfered and re-cut for the binding. I just need more binding now.... Any advice on what tools to use to bend figured maple binding? I guess that using a soldering iron and plenty of wet tissues to buffer the heat and something to support the outside edge whilst bending.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 (edited) Looks very nice so far! If your binding is thin enough, and you were able to bandsaw off the body edges in one piece (or a few pieces you could glue back together...), you could use the offcuts as bending forms and bend the bindings over them. Wet them with water and use a heat gun to form them, tape them in place and let them cool/dry out for a few days and they should be really close to your final contours. You won't be able to bend maple binding around the corners as they're too sharp, you'd have to miter them. It's not too hard to do, David Myka does this to nice effect on some of his headstocks. The miter joint isn't totally invisible, but if you run the joint parallel to the grain or any flame, it will be almost. Then after you're done using the offcuts as bending forms, they make great stock for turning matching knobs. Edited April 14, 2007 by erikbojerik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Very much a craftsman's job then Erik, which I don't consider myself to be at the moment! I was wondering whether something like say, sheet lead would be useful as a mouldable caul for the outside of the maple after steaming and heating it up enough to becoming pliable. Obviously fibres can only stretch/compress so far before breaking so i'll have to rethink this one on your advice. Perhaps if my maple binding was a little thinner? I've got a boatload of the Stewmac maple binding and I would love to get it wrapped around this body! I might try to knock up a jig to thickness sand this binding to say, 0.04" thick instead of 0.08" thick as i'd like to see if I could try and get this wrapped around the curves. I have a load more dyed black poplar veneer which I use for pinstriping, so I reckon this would work nicely as as maple/poplar/maple bind. The thicknesses would be a lot more forgiving in that respect I guess! I suppose that it would be an exercise in teaching myself the limits of woods and bending if I mocked up a simple bending jig using a soldering iron and a malleable caul....aluminium foil between the lead and the maple should prevent the lead marking it up.... I didn't bandsaw the edges off, I merely ran the router back through the binding to remove it, and cleaned up the channels with a blade. I wouldn't want to distort or change the general outline of the body in any way just because I decided to redo the binding! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 you should try it like erik said...don't think of it as a craftsman job,think of it as painstaking... you just have to be patient and willing to redo what you are not happy with. personally,i would use ebony or bubinga binding with that top,but that is because i like offsetting colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Thanks Wes - wouldn't ebony or bubinga be so much more harder to use than maple? I'm going to offset the colours using the black poplar and the maple. I think i'll go and re-thickness some maple now.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 I would imagine both being difficult to bend, but that does not make the job impossible! Just need to be more patient with the more dense woods. I also agree with Wes, Bubinga and Ebony would look sweet as binding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 wouldn't ebony or bubinga be so much more harder to use than maple? for sure..but like jon said,that doesn't mean it can't be done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 I'm going to do some reading and searching on bending binding well. I'll refine the technique before I commit to the build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted May 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2007 Update (as much as I can without pics!): I've removed all of the binding and resanded the edges, and hand-sanded them so there will be no more "shaping" work to do from hereonin. I've also cleaned up the binding channels of glue etc. Nice and clean wood. The next step is to wait for this cocobolo binding to come through....the dark look when it's polished up should suit the camphor burl nicely with judicious use of black purfling top and bottom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielM Posted May 13, 2007 Report Share Posted May 13, 2007 that's going to be pretty cool, 'specially with the string through body design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted May 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2007 There isn't really a huge amount of originality in the design, but it should be a nice (albeit slow) build with the woods etc. Do burled woods sound similar to the "normal" woods? Camphor seems fairly resin-y and I have no idea what it will sound like as a cap. Resin-y makes me think "dark" for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 UPDATE: (of sorts) I might be going back over things i've already said, but i'm too lazy to read my own posts in the thread so here's where I stand :-D - waiting for some cocobolo binding to be delivered - binding channels cleaned up and realigned with the finish-sanded outline (thanks Wes) - bloodwood fingerboard and veneer in the cloud, ready to be delivered Specs update: - mahogany/bloodwood five-laminate neck - camphor burl headstock cap with slight soft carve and recessed tuners - bloodwood backstrap (good luck, me) - passive pickups (what what what?!?!?!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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