shorterthanrich Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 This is my first build - Jason (wwwdotcomdotnet) got me sucked into it. So awesome. We got pretty much all of the wood from Curtis Lumber in NY, but I got the quilted maple top off of ebay. Curtis had no quilited, unfortunately. I can't complain about the piece I got, though - it's beautiful...just expensive. The shape is one I came up with kind of on accident. I was drawing a generic shape to start making modifications to for a more customized look, and as a freehanded it really quickly I drew almost the exact shape I'm going with. I made a few changes along the way, but I'm pretty happy with the initial design. Doing a mahogany body with a quilted maple top, neck through design. The neck is flamed maple and zebrawood, with 3 veneers in between each piece of wood. Dyed black poplar, anagre fiddleback, and dyed black poplar again. Kind of like an oreo... I plan to do a stain black sandback and then green for the maple top. The neck will be natural all the way, including through the guitar. I think this might be kind of a challenge, but completely worth it. It will be a quilted maple green and just totally natural finished wood in the middle. All gold hardware. I'm pretty excited for that! Got most of the hardware from guitarfetish - man I love them! Still need the truss rod, ferules, a nut, fret wire, and maybe some binding (not sure). I'll link some pictures to where I'm at now! I'm trying to get as much done as possible in the next week before I go home for summer and no longer have access to an awesome woodshop... this is the initial drawing. it was just a sketch - the neck is way too fat Here's the overall shot and another separated gluing the scarf joint sweet cocobolo fingerboard and veneers mahogany base and maple top Pickups and bridge laying on it older pic - gluing the body - and lots of hardware! Any suggestions or comments? I'm pretty new at this but I'm way sucked into it and want to learn as much as I can. Jason has been helping me a ton, and I've been trying to read up as much as I can. sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 Looking good, is the neck angled back to suit the tune-o-matic bridge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screwdelulu Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 Looking great man, I just love laminated veneers necks. Maybe you should resize the pictures so it would be easier to watch... Itai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 It's not really my thing shape-wise but the woods are nice & I like the fine-line neck laminates. It all seems to be going well so far, good luck with it. ...& welcome to the boards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwwdotcomdotnet Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorterthanrich Posted May 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 I don't plan on angling the neck back for the bridge, but I will be cutting the neck down where it is on the body to make sure the bridge will be low enough. It's adjustable so I'll make sure to leave room for error so I can raise it or lower it as needed. Is that what you meant? Talking to Jason and my other guitar building buddy, they say my plan solves the problem, but other opinions? Hah, yeah I'll resize them next time! Mozilla automatically makes them fit the window for me so i didn't notice. I'm loving the veneers in the neck too. I'm gonna do the same thing between the body and the neck, and also put it in the scarf joint. Can't get enough veneers! Thanks and I'll keep you all posted! Monday I route the truss rod cavity, bring down the neck where it meets the guitar a bit, and taper the neck down. Possibly also route for wiring. we'll see! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwwdotcomdotnet Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 you could probably do at least a 1-2 degree neck angle still by angling the body when you glue it to the neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Trepagny Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 I don't plan on angling the neck back for the bridge, but I will be cutting the neck down where it is on the body to make sure the bridge will be low enough. It's adjustable so I'll make sure to leave room for error so I can raise it or lower it as needed. Is that what you meant? Talking to Jason and my other guitar building buddy, they say my plan solves the problem, but other opinions? You can route a pocket to house the tune"o"matic bridge (à la Godin) It's clean and fully adjustable! Good luck! Philippe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTU 7's. Posted May 6, 2007 Report Share Posted May 6, 2007 Sweet dude, i like the wood configuration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted May 6, 2007 Report Share Posted May 6, 2007 How does the quality on that bridge look? I'm planning on getting the same one in black, it looks beefy and nice Is it intonatable on single strings, or just the bridge as a whole? I've been trying to find schematics or diagrams on the bridge, but no luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted May 6, 2007 Report Share Posted May 6, 2007 Looking nice! Interested in seeing how the scarf joint with the veneers looks when it's carved down - I'm debating doing that on my next build. Are those firebird style mini-buckers in there? What brand? I'm a huge fan of the mini-buckers, I'm curious as to folks opinions on the different ones available. I've been using the Dimarzio minibuckers on my latest builds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorterthanrich Posted May 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2007 How does the quality on that bridge look? I'm planning on getting the same one in black, it looks beefy and nice Is it intonatable on single strings, or just the bridge as a whole? I've been trying to find schematics or diagrams on the bridge, but no luck. As far as I can tell, the bridge quality is awesome. wwwdotcomdotnet bout one for another project he's working on too. It's intonatable on each individual string. The construction is flawless as far as I've seen. I havn't used it yet, so I can't really make any judgments in that regard. It is beautiful, seems well built, fully intonatable, and adjustable height-wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorterthanrich Posted May 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2007 (edited) Looking nice! Interested in seeing how the scarf joint with the veneers looks when it's carved down - I'm debating doing that on my next build. Are those firebird style mini-buckers in there? What brand? I'm a huge fan of the mini-buckers, I'm curious as to folks opinions on the different ones available. I've been using the Dimarzio minibuckers on my latest builds. The scarf joint with the veneers was such an odd thing! I helped Jason glue the scarf joint on the hallow body he is working on, and it was a total pain. It kept sliding. It came out good, but it just was NOT easy. I decided to put in the veneers for a few reason. 1) To hide the fact that I KNOW I won't be able to line up the neck veneers perfectly, and that would totally screw up the continuity of the neck. 2) It's gonna look sweet. So, we were worried it was going to be a total mess between the veneers curling, adding more glue, etc - it really looked like it was going to be a glue sliding nightmare. But in reality, it was SO much easier. We got the first clamp on and it sunk it down just as much as we had wanted, and from there on every clamp didn't budge it. It was kind of strange and hilarious. Jason was kinda pissed that he didn't do it on his, . Late tomorrow I should have some pictures of it. I sanded the top down for routing, and it looks pretty good so far! As for the mini-buckers. Heh, when i got them, I didn't realize they were minis. I got them from guitar fetish, so they're GFS pickups. I tested them out and they sounded really great. They sounded a little bit warmer than I expected, which I was actually really happy about. My friend James (who's helped Jason and I with our builds) is addicted to DiMarzio pickups, and I doubt the GFS ones will be as nice. I suggest going to guitarfetish.com and looking through the different mini's they have there. You can't really beat em for the price as far as I know, and they sound better than I reasonably expected from them. Thanks guys! (and girls?) Edited May 6, 2007 by shorterthanrich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorterthanrich Posted May 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2007 Such a good day! Routed the truss rod cavity and the wiring cavity (is there a more technical name for that?), cut the neck down where it goes through the body to raise the fingerboard, and tapered the back of the neck a bit for shaping. Tonight I dremel the neck where the fingerboard ends, sand it down, figure out pickup templates, glue on the headstock ears, and get the body ready to be glued! Tomorrow I taper the rest of the neck, cut the headstock shape out, and glue the body. SO GOOD! Such a busy few days I have a head of me... Pictures tomorrow most likely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 So, when are we going to see an update on this build? I was really loving the neck woods/laminates on this thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIRS Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 This looks to be like a fantastic first guitar, but i have one little suggestion, make the area for your left hand down by the lower horn bigger, otherwise it will be hard to access those frets easily. Other than that, excellent work so far, and where are any recent pictures or developments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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