J_48_Johnson Posted May 15, 2007 Report Share Posted May 15, 2007 (edited) My fist one came out nicer than I thought so I am starting the second guitar. This time instead of copying a design I am designing my own. I am making a semi hollow body. Since I didn't have my camera with me, I'll tell you what I've done up to this point. When I was buying material for the first guitar I bought enough wood to make a second one because I knew I would mess something up along the way. Since I didn't, I have enough for a second guitar. The mahogany used in this one started as three boards that I needed to cross cut and glue together, making two boards just larger than a guitar body that was too thin. After I had these, I had them planed them down and flat sanded to 180 so they were flat. Once this was done I face glued them to one another so they were now one big piece of mahogany. I designed my body style by drawing about fifty different desgins, throwing away what I didn't like and keeping the ones that showed merit. Once I had that done I narrowed them down until I had the one I was going to build, scaled it up from a one inch square drawing to a full sized body on posterboard. I cut my template from that. I marked out the outline and the chambers inside the body and rough cut the body on my bandsaw. After this it was over to the drill press to hog out the chambers using a forstner bit. Once it was looking like two big cavities, I used the template and my router to smooth everything up. I left a lot of wood down the middle and around the edge for glue and body strength. I glued the bookmatched maple cap on, cut it to rough body size, and then cut the f holes in. At first I had just the two in the lower bout, but I like it better afterI put a third one in, up in the upper bout. I did the neck pocket with the forstner bit to take wood away, then routed to size. I screwed the neck in place to get the alignment of the TOM and tail piece. I have some sanding to do before I drill the holes for them, so this is where I'm at now. http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1000879.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1000878.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1000890.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1000898.jpg Edited May 26, 2007 by Maiden69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BNichols Posted May 15, 2007 Report Share Posted May 15, 2007 looks good so far. i love that fingerboard. looking forward to seeing it progress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernova9 Posted May 15, 2007 Report Share Posted May 15, 2007 That's a lovely neck, but those f-holes are bizarre imo. They just look like you added them as an afterthought, and don't fit the design. Shame, the wood looked quite nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petrol Posted May 15, 2007 Report Share Posted May 15, 2007 Yeah, that finger board is beautiful! Very nice, can't wait to see it progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_ado Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 man u have a habbit of finding nice wood tops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 This maple is the first top that I bought. The maple that I put on the first guitar I built, I found after I had bought this one. The grain in this top is psychedelic to say the least. It goes with the wild grain of the fretboard very well. The grain there has a lot of natural color variation and should compliment the grain in the maple once I have the maple stained. As far as the f-holes being afterthoughts... they weren't. My original drawing had three and looks pretty good. Once I had the first two in the lower bout cut out, I thought that those two alone may be good enough. I kept looking at the body for a few days and then decided that the upper horn was too pronounced. In the picture I had drawn up it wasn't so I went ahead and cut the third f-hole. I'm glad I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 As long as you like it, that's what's important after all I can't say that it does anything for me personally, the main offender I think is the neck. The neck looks really nice & the body is, well...a completely different style. It looks a bit like a thunderbird with a PRS neck, it doesn't seem to balance very well visually. I think that I'd be more inclined to go with a Fenderish style neck & keep that one for something more LP, PRS, Hamer'ish. At the moment it looks more like a parts guitar than an original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BNichols Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 i agree about the neck. it would look really good on a darker-wooded body that compliments the shape of the headstock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElysianGuitars Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 to me, the body has a lopsided feel to it, it doesn't flow really well, and the f holes don't help any... the neck also doesn't work well with this body, and the fret access above 15 is going to be pretty terrible... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOAMdude Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 ^ honestly, cut some o that out for your own mental sanity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Kudos for challenging the status quo. The one true criticism I think is the fret access. Personally, I would have made the straight lines in the f-holes curved. But obviously, the main thing is that you like the design and build it well. I think the neck works fine with the body. And the fingerboard wood is sweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Thanks for all of the positive and negative comments. I can only do so much with the neck pocket depth as to where it contacts the fretboard since the body is already hollow, I'm almost to the chamber in the body now. I've left enough wood to round over the edge. I know the colors don't match, and that's okay. The body will be stained, and it will have a tortise shell pickguard. I'm going to mix some stains that I have at the house to get a light medium to medium brown stain to highlight the grain in the maple. I kinf of understand what a few of you were saying about the body design as compared to the headstock design. I've seen guitars that I thought about them along the same lines... the headstock is kind of traditional looking with a body that didn't quite match because the body style wasn't traditional. The look kind of grew on me so I went with it. Once again, thanks for the comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2007 (edited) Neck plate pocket... http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...neckpocket2.jpg Here's a picture of the stain I mixed up. I think I'll try to lighten it a bit more. What do you think? Does it need to be lighter? http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...two/stain32.jpg Edited May 26, 2007 by Maiden69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted May 19, 2007 Report Share Posted May 19, 2007 (edited) Lookin' good man. As stated by some it is not my style, but nobody else likes my style, so I say right on man! lol Seriously though I think its looking good. I really like how the neck attachment area is done on the back there, really cool stuff! As for the color, I am not qualified to give an opinion really, it is up to you. It might be good to have it lighter as you mentioned so that you can see a difference in color between the neck and body, but again it's probably up to you. I am going to go find your other build as I have been away from the site a while and must of missed it. I believe I also missed what the neck was made out of it, I would venture to guess coco fretboard and neck, but not sure. I have a similar fretboard I will be using soon, I really like that look. J Edited May 19, 2007 by jmrentis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2007 Here's the links to my last build: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...aster&st=15 http://www.fender-talk.com/message-board-f...pic.php?t=11145 The fretboard is bacote and the neck is made of avankol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibanezlover Posted May 19, 2007 Report Share Posted May 19, 2007 Wow, I love your last build. Your new one's going good. It's not my kind of guitar, but I think that it will look good and be very unique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted May 20, 2007 Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 Here's the links to my last build: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...aster&st=15 http://www.fender-talk.com/message-board-f...pic.php?t=11145 The fretboard is bacote and the neck is made of avankol. Yeah, that first one did turn out very very nice, good stuff! I actually am unfamiliar with avankol in general, I have seen it used before, but just know little about it. It looks good though for sure. That fretboard is awsome, as I mentioned I have a cocobolo fretboard with very similar figure and the bocote looked darker than other pieces I had seen which made me think of coco, I think though it might be more common to have bocote with that good of figure than it is with cocobolo. All coco pieces I have seen that look like that are usually called figured or highly figured, whereas most bocote I have seen looks all figured like that and isn't considered figured. I have a local place with a ton of bocote, I might have to get some for the next project, although there are so many woods that I want already, lol. Anyhow, excellent stuff and keep us posted, can't wait to see how this one turns out. Best of luck to you. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 (edited) I worked with some cocobolo once before many years ago. The wood was wild! It looked like someone laminated several different died woods together. Blue, yellow, deep red, brown, very nice, but heavy! Edited June 17, 2007 by J_48_Johnson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 (edited) I'm working on pickguard designs now. Here are a couple I'm kicking around. http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1000977.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_.../pickguard3.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_.../pickguard2.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_.../pickguard1.jpg I think I have it narrowed down to the first two, but what do ya think? Has anyone out there ever tried to design one of these darned things? It is way harder than I ever thought. The lines have to be just right to flow with the body design. I bet I've cut out 20-30 to come down to these few. Edited May 26, 2007 by Maiden69 TOO MANY PICS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 (edited) Also, on the wood, I made some other colors of stain, see what you think.... http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...0two/Stain5.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...0two/Stain4.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...0two/Stain3.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...0two/Stain2.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...0two/Stain1.jpg Edited May 26, 2007 by Maiden69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElysianGuitars Posted May 21, 2007 Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 first off, too many pics per post, make them links... and i think the last pick guard design looks the best with your overall design... and it looks much better now with the roundover... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_ado Posted May 21, 2007 Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 are you binding the holes?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 I'll cut down on the pictures per post Elysian Guitars, sorry about that. I don't think I'm going to bind the holes Tim. I used a 1/4" roundover bit but needed a little wood at the botton to let the bearing roll on. I'm thinking of cleaning it up by hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmarlin Posted May 21, 2007 Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 The pickguard is covering my favorite part of the wood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted May 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2007 (edited) It's going to be front routed so I need to put a pickguard on it. I know, I know, I'm covering up a lot of the grain, but it needs to have a guard on it to hide all of my unsightly wiring. It may work, (my wiring), but it's ugly! Should I work with a red tinged stain to go with the pickguard or should I stay with the brown to go with the neck? http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/J_...wo/P1000979.jpg Edited May 26, 2007 by Maiden69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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