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A Kind Of Rg'ish Build.


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I dunno if you'd even want to try and fix that gouge, mate. Think of the effect on the TONE that trying to repair it, or even having it there in the first place, would have. I can't play many of my guitars because of the horrible squealing they make after putting a dent in the side. I'm sorry to say, but in my experience, a mistake like that... the guitar is basically ruined. I'm really sorry to say it. Might I suggest starting over? Or perhaps shipping the body to my address, and I'll see what I can do with it.....

:D

PS. Seconded with the dust/epoxy, or wood filler if you're color coating it.

PPS. Send me the project, I'll fix it :D

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If its getting a solid finish on the sides then go with dust and epoxy method. If its having a clear finish i would tidy the gouge into a uniform shape and splice a new bit in - it you get a good grain match it will be nearly invisible

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Thanks fellas, I am aiming for a clear finish all over so i will try WezV's method. If that doesn't look good i'll probably do a solid finish on the back, i'm not too worried either way.

Ha Xanthus, thanks for the offer, I think i'll hold onto it though. Maybe i'll be able to trademark that ToneGouge™ and get rich. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update time.

Last week I got the fretboard glued on, trimmed the neck to shape using the fretboard as a guide and finished by installing the frets.

I haven't put the bevel on the ends of the frets yet.

IMG_0812.jpg

A couple of days ago i decided to try and patch the gouge in the side of the body.

Here's how it turned out.

Today I drilled the holes in the headstock and promptly filled them all again. I thought they were fine but a couple were out of position slightly.

I've had a veneer of something laying around for a while so i'll cover up the plugs with that.

And I also carved the neck mostly to shape.

I have a week off now so hopefully lots of progress in the coming days. :D

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What a busy week!

Ok I put a veneer on the headstock which turned out well i think.

Veneer

The rest of the week was dedicated to final sanding and finishing.

I wanted it to look kinda like a piece of furniture so I didnt grainfill the top and i used a wipe on finish which actually

ended up being glossier than i expected. It sure feels smooth.

Well here are some shots i just took of it, they are pretty dodgy since its night time, i'll grab some good ones tomorrow.

Whole front

Whole back

Headstock front

Headstock back

IMG_0846.jpg

Ignore the red strings, it's all they had left at the guitar shop.

Now i've just gotta learn how to setup a floyd. :D

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I read the post and I didn't see anything about a neck angle. Is the neck flat to the body wings or did you build it with a neck angle? If you built it with an angle, how did you position the wings to get your angle, and what angle did you use?

The reason I'm wondering, is that I am in the early stages of designing an LP neck through build, and I'm having a hard time getting my head around what neck angle to use, and how to position the wings to the neck while gluing to get the angle I want.

Any help would be great!

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I've been trying to wrap my head around an LP neckhrough for a while, seeing as I have an unused neckthrough blank just sitting downstairs. What I would do would be to get a plan such as

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/P...es.html#details

or

http://www.guitarplansunlimited.com/Gibsonish.htm

because they both have side views of the design. Take a piece of tracing paper or something you can see through and trace the headstock, neck front and back, and then the mahogany body (note: not the maple top). That will be the shape and angle of your neck blank. It will obviously need to be thicker than usual because of the neck angle. You'll also need to slap on some wings first, then do your routing, and glue on a maple top. You'll want to have your bridge pieces and a good straightedge in hand when doing the carving, and a set of calipers doesn't hurt either. So long as you get the right thickness maple top you should be able to place your bridge on the body and put your straightedge across the fret tops and you shoudl get a straight string line from A to B. I myself got my Rhoads plan from guitarplansunlimited and it was a great quality, but if you need the extra info, the stewmac plan is chock full of it.

And anything from a 1.5 to 3 degree neck angle should be good for TOMs in general.

PS. Stewey, the guitar looks amazing! I want one, hahaha. Good luck with setting up the Floyd too *snicker snicker* If I build a trem, I'm getting a Kahler, no doubt.

How did you go about shielding the electronics cavity? Is it particularly noisy, being a hollowbody? And what kind of pickups did you put in it?

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Yeah there is no neck angle, i just set the trem a little lower by recessing it. I think Perry explained neck angles pretty well in the solid body section(?), maybe seach for that.

Thanks Xanthus, I dont think i'll be using a floyd again anytime soon, good old curiousity killed the cat.

I wired it all up quickly yesterday without putting the copper lining in the cavities that I was going to and she is dead quiet.

The pickups are vintage ones from stew mac, they sound nice and old school rock and roll'y to me which is what I was going for.

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Here's some better pics as promised. You can see the figure in the top in these shots.

I can't seem to get a good shot of the back though. The Qld maple has a sort of holographic effect to it where these shiny bits seem to

change depending on what angle you look at it. :D

IMG_0854.jpg

Front

Headstock 1

Headstock 2

Back

Back 2

I think i've finally got a hang of the floyd after a couple hours googling. :D

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Hey Stewey, I had another question: I've been doing a lot of reading up on semi-hollow/jazz boxes, and for my next project I'm thinking of making a build very similar to yours. I need a traditional shaped guitar in my collection! I didn't know if you had taken some thickness off the inside of the top wood before you glued them together, or left them the same thickness all the way through. I've been reading a lot of tutorials and that's one of the steps jazz guitar makers always do. I'm thinking that you'd have to mark the edges of the bevels on the top before you started carving away at the underneath, because I'd hate to poke through the top when carving it out. Thanks!

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Traditional shaped guitars with a bit of a twist have always appealed to me.

Yeah I did take some thickness off the inside of the top, i took off enough so that the electronics mounted easily and so that the f-holes looked

a bit more graceful. They dont look so good with a fat profile to them.

I did it the other way around, i took a tracing of where i had routed underneath and then traced it onto the top. I used this to design my bevels by keeping about 5mm away from them at the closest points.

You can tell from the carve shape that i routed quite close to the edges at the bottom of the guitar and not so close to the edges at the waist.

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I've been watching your build with much interest and I must say congratulations on

the outcome. Very nice indeed and yes, a bit of a twist at that.

Gotta love that little twist on an original :D

Now it's finished, that top really does scream out ' tassie myrtle'.

HAMMERED, I got a Floyd original from Warmoth with black tuners and chrome finish.

Well done Stewey :D

cheers, Stu

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Thanks Stu, Aussie power :D

Thanks also TripleFan. The fretboard is new guinea rose wood that was smuggled out of Papua New Guinea and into Australia in the 70's by a friend of mine. It was a floor board if i remember right.

I cut it up and got 4 fretboards out of it. It smells simply amazing when you are working with it.

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Traditional shaped guitars with a bit of a twist have always appealed to me.

Yeah I did take some thickness off the inside of the top, i took off enough so that the electronics mounted easily and so that the f-holes looked

a bit more graceful. They dont look so good with a fat profile to them.

I did it the other way around, i took a tracing of where i had routed underneath and then traced it onto the top. I used this to design my bevels by keeping about 5mm away from them at the closest points.

You can tell from the carve shape that i routed quite close to the edges at the bottom of the guitar and not so close to the edges at the waist.

Ah, I get what you're saying, now. That's an interesting way to do it, yeah. How thick was the myrtle top you put on?

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The top was 16mm.

I did it that way to make sure i had enough room to mount all the electronics before i did the beveling. It would suck to have done an awesome bevel but then not

be able to route out the top for your electronics because you did the bevel too deep.

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  • 4 months later...

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