Prostheta Posted September 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2007 I've not been able to make much progress the last couple of weeks, although the body blank is now glued up and ready to plane before I rough out the locations of the GHOST system, the pickups and the internal cavities. I'll post more this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 (edited) Apologies for the delay in updates on this one. My router decided it wanted to chew open the grain on my first blank so i've had to start from scratch on the second set which I had in backup. All past now, so time to work onwards.... The ziricote fingerboard is all I have for you, ladies and gentlemen. I've been spending a lot of time at Muay Thai training so guitar building has taken a back seat a little. Still - result: The taper is actually the wrong way up....the 22nd fret will be up there at the top, and the nut at the bottom of the red trapezoid.... Edited October 5, 2007 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGman Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Nice looking ziricote you have there! Hehe...Mash All. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Beautiful piece of zircote!!!! Sucks that you had some router trouble with the first one. Can you at least save some of the wood for headplates or maybe a truss rod cover(if adjustment is in headstock). Hopefully, you can find some use for the scraps. I think the reverse of the taper shown is probably better as you said, but I also like the taper as it is too. Either way really. Well, keep us posted on that neck/fretboard, that is one of the coolest looking woods to me and that piece you got is spectacular. I can't wait to see how it looks on the finished project. I just went back and re read the thread, to get an idea of how the whole project will look. I bet this is going to be a very cool guitar. My project is a little similar in that its a zebra body and maple cap, but thats the extent of the similarities. I believe you said you wanted a matching back cap. It took quite a bit of effort to do, but I did on mine when I started. I had to thin the body blank a bit and at the time didn't have a bandsaw, otherwise it would have been much easier. Instead, I had to route off the wood, while leaving an area that I would later saw off and use as the cover. It's epoxied to avoid warpage and it's laminated with some jatoba and figured maple on the bottom. Cavity Cover. I used magnets to attach it instead of screws, which I think makes the grain matching even cooler. When you do it, leave a big piece for the cover because it will make matching up the grain easier. Best of luck, can't wait to see your project finished, the woods you chose were some of my favorites. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 (edited) Thanks for the support guys. Larry at Gallery Hardwoods did a great job with the ziricote. A gem of a guy. Well, i'd better update the "spec" both to answer a couple of questions and to bring it up to speed: - Carved flame maple top/zebrano back/wenge pinstripe with three body cavities a la BiliousFrog's singlecut - Swineshead Runaway bridge/Condor neck pickups with Zebrano bobbin tops - Graphtech GHOST Tonepros TOM bridge - Waverley 4067 nickel tuners with 4062 engraved pegs - Zebrawood neck (with two wenge laminates if I can source them) scarfed with a headstock tilt between 13° and 17° (not measured my scarf jig yet....might make a new one to get 17°) - Ziricote fingerboard with custom vine inlay and flame maple binding - Flame maple headstock binding with black purfling line - Ziricote backstrap sappy matched same as the fingerboard (see notes) - Ziricote heel cap - Ziricote topped knobs (see rant below) - Dual action allen truss rod I would love to cut a purfling line around the body, and may consider making a router jig (similar to Setch's carved top jig) to do so. Not sure of the entry point of the cut however....it may have to be started by being plunged and lifted at the end of the cut....risky....alternatively, a purfling cutter would do the job but I would need to practice cutting with one first so the grain doesn't take it's own direction.... Nina decided against the P90s because they look too small and "Gretsch-sized" on a Les Paul. Due to the steam/heat required to bend wood, I think glueing up the backstrap wood to be sappy matched will just come apart so i'll have to think on this one. It's possible I might just use it as a headplate instead, but I prefer the idea of using a light body wood, dark fingerboard and light headstock and hiding the scarf with dark wood. I have some macassar ebony veneer I could backstrap with, but it's adding another grain/colour to the mix which I want to avoid. Alternatively, I could pre-bend the ziricote before glueing as a matched set and match it on the headstock, but this is quite risky I guess. I would like to continue the chrome/nickel theme by using some of these capped dome knobs, heating them up and removing the acrylic to replace it with ziricote instead. Lovely! If I think I can get away with it before I run out of ziricote, a rhythm/treble toggle plate would do the trick also. Using three woods is good for bringing the theme together in my opinion, and the wenge should look so similar to ziricote that nobody will notice the difference between the two ;-) J - i'm going to trace the shape of one of the inner cavities with a template insert so the resulting template will be around 1/2" smaller, then flip the body over and use a v-groove bit to scribe a bevel, then as small a straight cutter as possible to cut through the bevel to the inside of the cavity. Zebrano has a very wild moving grain, so rather than cut around the back plate and saw under it to remove it, this will maintain the grain 100%. I'll glue three overhanging posts with recessed epoxied nail heads around the cavity access when everything is complete otherwise it'll be a pain to rout posts using this method of extracting the cover! The cover will then just need small neodymium magnets epoxying in. Thanks all. Edited October 6, 2007 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuntinDoug Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Wow Carl... This project is turning out nice! I'll shoot you an email about the inlay... Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 Sure thing Doug. I've got a fair amount of work other than just the fingerboard to sort first of all of course :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielM Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 that is going to be great looking Lester! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 I thought it would be fair to bring this thread back up to date, being over a year since the last post and all. I don't rush projects, as I believe that getting them perfect, or as near as damnit is better than rushing them to completion. Okay - so the body has hollowed out with wood remaining as supports around the pickups, bridge and tailpiece positions, and the maple cap glued on. The zebrano back is 1-1/2" thick, and the maple 6/8" thick (1/8" grace for carving). The neck blank was crafted from zebrano with a 19mm wenge central lamination. The scarf was done from the same piece, with the lamination aligned and the join being hidden behind the backstrap (yet to be done). The headstock and fingerboard are being bound in 0.06in cream binding, as will the body with a 0.02" black lamination. The GHOST system has been dropped in favour of a plain straightforward LP setup of two SD APH-1 pickups with nickel covers, cream toggle and four controls in the "normal" configuration. Tuners settled on were vintage keystone style Klusons. The fingerboard currently isn't glued up as the rod trench needs cutting, and the plane of the neck/fingerboard surface needs a brief final levelling. Oh, and i'll be dressing the heel with a piece of bookmatched sappy ziricote for detail :-D Headstock Headstock closeup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guerrilla Radio Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Man... I always see these pictures and read the stories of how people build these guitars and it makes me jealous because I want to be able to do that, but I don't the money for it. lol, well it's very good looking. I love that fingerboard, and the neck wood... well, all the wood, really, looks amazing. I can't wait to see the finished product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 (edited) Don't let money get in that way of what you want to do. This project is already at least a year in the making, and the underlying motives is to make my wife her first custom electric. I kind of kidnapped her acoustic which perhaps means I owe her one :-D Washburn EA20SDL back pic Edited October 20, 2008 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guerrilla Radio Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Haha well I suppose right now I really wouldn't have the time for it either... I'm in college at the moment. But, I guess if I get a good job by the time summer comes around I could get the money and work on one with my pepere. We'll see though, when the time comes. I'll probably make a four or five string bass, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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