Mattia Posted August 8, 2007 Report Share Posted August 8, 2007 I'm currently absurdly busy; med internships, translation work on the side, 2 electrics and 2 acoustics on the side that need finishing by October, plus four more guitars in the pipeline and/or requiring some finishing touches. Upside: I have an actual sorta-kinda shop now, a big-ass bandsaw that works (and how I ever got on without one is a mystery to me now...), ergo: space to work on multiple guitars at once. And the lack of anything watchable on TV helps in the 'TV or guitarbuilding' decision making process. I should be working on a presentation, but I'm all academic-articled out for now, so I figure I need a bit of relief, and can share a few pics on the two latest builds. I'll start with the left pointy metally guitar, based on a Kelly, modified lower horn, 2-piece African mahogany with flamed maple drop top, 1 piece african mahogany neck with maple head veneer (scarfed), CF rods, dual action truss, ebony fingerboard that's due to receive silver wire 'barbed wire' inlay (to be designed, silver wire to be ordered). Ibanez Edge trem, still futzing about with the locking nut issue (have a righty, need a lefty), building it for my girlfriend's brother. Colour: red-to-black burst. Didn't take pics of jointing the body or top, or gluing it together (I mean, no that thrilling), but anyway, standard fare. Cut, template route, sliced off back bits a la setch to make matching covers later, did the bevels with rasps, sort of eyeballing it as I went, routed trem cavity with some help from the pinned cavity dimensions topic, rough-drilled out the control cavity (seemed crazy!heavy as a block of unrouted body), weighed it, currently: 3lb 11oz. Not bad. Pic: Other shot, shows bevel a little better: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/kelly/kelly2.jpg And the back, current state of affairs, semi belly bevel cut: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/kelly/body04.jpg Neck's been rough carved, to let any desire the neck wood has to move work itself out (tip from Rick Turner), and indeed, it moved a fractional mm over its length, which is one fractional mm I won't have to sand out of an ebony board. So I'm calling that a win. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/kelly/neck03.jpg The lefty thing still screws with my head, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted August 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2007 (edited) Then there's project number two, a dragonfly-esque sort of thing (Set neck, carved and braced spruce top over chambered mahogany body), my first singlecut design, one that's been on the drawing board for years. Also special thanks to David for letting me bounce ideas off of him! Getting built for the winner of the student singer-songwriter comp. Was supposed to be done ages ago, but a broken arm sort of screwed with those plans just a tad. Khaya body and neck (laminated 2-piece, CF rods, hotrod, the usual), EIR headplate/backstrap/bridge/pickup covers/tailpiece/binding planned, european spruce top, carved, 2 f-holes. Ebony board with inlay I'm still trying to change the guy's mind about (wants his nom d'artiste emblazoned across the board in true Johnny Cash style, which is way, way OTT for my tastes. But still). Anyway, pics. Starting with the back, carved inside and out, belly cutout as well. Back view: Inside shot of the back (yes, I went a touch too deep with the Forstner. I'm calling them 'tone divots'. Totally intentional, honest!): http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6...er/chamber4.jpg Top, pre-carve: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6...mber/carve1.jpg Template routing: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6...mber/carve2.jpg Finished carve. CURSES! Pitch pockets! Pesky things. Will have to do some spliced hot hide repairs. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6...mber/carve3.jpg Gratuitous carve shot (avec giant scars from arm breaking incident. Whee!) http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6...mber/carve4.jpg Then drill out the inside to depth, and angle grinder all the way home to finish the inside (same way as I carved the top, pretty much; clean up with an orbital sander): http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6...mber/carve5.jpg Next up: F-holes! Drilled out the hole bits, cut between with a jigsaw (Slow, fine blade), and still make little dents by the treble side hole. DAMMIT. More repairs. This top = not my bestest friend. These are tiny and shold be easy to fix, though. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/chamber/top01.jpg http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/chamber/top02.jpg Did the same thing with the neck as with the other one, result here. Still futzing about with the rear headstock veneer, so that's not glued on yet (or quite bent to shape yet, in fact): http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6...mber/neck02.jpg Edited August 8, 2007 by Mattia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted August 8, 2007 Report Share Posted August 8, 2007 Hell?! When Can III write a killer song and have you build a guitar. I do that all the time anyways!? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inisheer Posted August 9, 2007 Report Share Posted August 9, 2007 Looking great so far. It looks hard enough carving the top of a guitar, but carving the inside looks even harder...I'd be worried about sanding through. Keep us posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted August 9, 2007 Report Share Posted August 9, 2007 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted August 9, 2007 Report Share Posted August 9, 2007 Looking forward to more progress pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted August 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2007 Thanks guys! Chris: methinks you'll need to get a little lucky. If I ever do this sort of thing again, it'll be my choice of design (or a selection of my choices) with a few customizable options. But to be fair, I'd wanted an excuse to build something like the semi chambered archtop thing for quite a few years now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 Wow, I'm really loving both of the builds, but the second one moreso. Lefty's just confuse me, just nothing about them looks "right" if you'll allow that pun to slide I like how the bevel carve goes through into the back wood, I hope it was intentional! I'm digging the tone divots, too, Mattia! Let us know how she sounds! How does one go about fixing pitch pockets? Or rather, what's the paint scheme going to be? I dunno if the pockets would mess with how an opaque color goes on. If it's going to be a dye/natural, then I dunno... But your work is awesome anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing these progress (seeing as my own aren't getting anywhere ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted August 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 Thanks! And I know what you mean, the only wat for me to make sure the template looked 'correct' while building was to look at it from the back! The carve-through on the kelly was predicted/semi-planned (ie, those were the materials on hand. Don't have many maple billets that wide to slice things off of) and isn't a problem since it's getting a subtle burst finish anyway. Either way, if if it wasn't, I think it actually looks quite nice just like it is, although I would've put a contrasting (black) veneer between the layers if it was getting a full-on natural finish. As for the pitch pockets, I'll be slicing them out (tiny spruce wedges) and replacing them with matching slivers/wedges of spruce, off-cuts from the top, lots of it available, so I should get a very close match. Glue with hide glue, and it should all be invisible. Also, the big pitch pocket by the tail is going to be semi-obscured by the tailpiece. Plan for this one is a natural finish, may warm it up just that little bit more, and go for a richer, vintage-y amber-y vibe, although of course the top will yellow over time anyway. (and you do realise 'tone divots' just means I drilled a touch too far with the forstner, and don't want to risk a back that's too thin, right? Right.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 (edited) I've seen that type of repair (sliver inlay) once before and it is amazing how well it can be done. I have no doubts that even holding it and scouring the top up close you could not find the spots where it was done. It is quite amazing how well it turns out. I will definitely be watching these closely, both are extremely cool especially that hollow body, wheew one wicked looking project. I definitely hope that you can steer the customer away from the inlay, it is OOT, but even more so on this style of guitar IMO. Anyhow, cool stuff thanks for sharing and keep us posted on these bad boys. On the tone divots theme, I'm on board! Definitely should have that in your options, lol. You can also go even further and use some really thick, glow in the dark grain fill on the holes. Then once you have the top on, you can tell the customer you did a "Outer Space" theme on the inside of the guitar, which they can view via f-holes. Call them "Outer Space Holes" or "Deep Space Black Tone Holes". Or if they really are gullible, you just tell the customer that it's the woods ears. J Edited August 10, 2007 by jmrentis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 (and you do realise 'tone divots' just means I drilled a touch too far with the forstner, and don't want to risk a back that's too thin, right? Right.) Yes On the tone divots theme, I'm on board! Definitely should have that in your options, lol. You can also go even further and use some really thick, glow in the dark grain fill on the holes. Then once you have the top on, you can tell the customer you did a "Outer Space" theme on the inside of the guitar, which they can view via f-holes. Call them "Outer Space Holes" or "Deep Space Black Tone Holes". Or if they really are gullible, you just tell the customer that it's the woods ears. I love you guys sometimes, hahahahahahahahahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 Oh, I don't blame you. Last time I built for a friend (that neck through bass awhile back) it was a nightmare dealing with people and what they want, etc. In the future it's all me, or people can deal with what I wanna build hahaha. I couldn't survive in the luthier for a job world. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Tiny update from the land of the far-too-busy-for-his-own-good-medical-intern-almost-a-doctor-sorta-soon-honest-guv! Kelly progress! Neck's fitted, solidly, no angle, just slightly proud (about 1 mm more than fingerboard thickness), finished shaping the headstock, neck, and volute. I think I completely nailed this neck carve (IMO); playing the neck right-handed, it feels fairly comfortable, but bigger/less sleek than playing it left-handed. Definitely cements my love of the slight asymmetrical neck carve, and I hope the guy I'm making it for agrees. Also ran the body through the thickness sander a few times to ensure perfect flatness all the way across, which can be a bit of a pain to do by hand, with a plane or a sanding board. Anyway, basically, I need to make and fit control covers on the back, level the board, do some inlay (logo on the head, barbed silver wire on the board), some fretting, drill some tuner holes, glue the neck, finish off detail shaping (heel transition, smooth and final shaping of the bevels), then a whole boatload of scraping and sanding, pore filling, all the 'fun' finish prep stuff. Have next week off, so hopefully it should be ready for the finish line by the end of this month! Some progress has been made on the archtop thingy (more to be made this coming week), mostly neck shaping (and the body's closed. Been closed for a while now, actually), but no pics yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fookgub Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Nice to see some progress on the Kelly. It looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Aye, it does at that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 A touch more progress, and a bad sketch of the inlay it'll probably get! Been spending some time on the other projects as well, and a fair number of hours futzing about with a binding routing setup (williams/fleishmann style jig, tried a variant using stuff I had, didn't work, so I'm going with the 'standard' design at a little extra cost - good drawer slides don't come cheap!) and my bender, so it's not going quite as speedily as planned. Also seem to have lost the little wrenches for my shiny new die grinder/inlay tool, which is annoying me. Guess I'll use the dremel on this one, then... Right. Progress! Carved the bevels a little deeper all around, and cleaned them up with the scraper. The neck's been glued in and carved, but that sort of speaks for itself: Shot of the back. Again, slightly deeper bevels, and the 'belly cut bevel' sort of blends from a soft roundover by the belly in a nice, sharpy defined line at the pointy end. Still need to smooth out the belly cut though, since it's not exactly where I wanted. Sides all got cleaned up, most with a scrarper, although my new Festool ETS 125 random orbit sander (with 150 grit paper!) did an absolutely awesome job of clearing up some minor tearout in the loooooong piece of endgrain at the but. Needed minimal scraping to get perfectly flat again (came out a little crowned from the sander alone), but I'm terribly impressed with this. No discernible scratch pattern either. Then we have the two matching cavity covers, technique a la Setch (route down, slice off), inlaid using one of those brass 'inlay template bushing' sets. Except I screwed up when sanding the trem cavity cover to size (the inlay template set gets it TIGHT, not just snug. And no using the disc sander to knock off a fraction of a mm next time. Stupid, stupid, stupid!), so I've made a new matching (2-piece) cavity cover from a body offcut. It's currently drying, so I'll send it through the thickness sander tomorrow and make a new cover. The back's getting the same finish as the front (red to black burst), and it's mahogany, so I don't foresee any real problems with grain matching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 Post the Second. Next up: inlay! I discovered my 'signature V' (Which looks good at 12th, and is annoying long, but looks good on headstocks, too), well, won't work so well on this. Because it's lefty. And the headstock is therefore pointing the wrong way for the V to go where it normally does. And I'm not sure this'll work out well: I'm considering simply doing only a V on 12th, and extending the barbed wire up to the tip of the headstock. Pencil drawing of what the inlay's roughly going to be (it doesn't need to be much more detailed than this, not the wire, because I'm using actual wire and bending/filing it to shape. Silver's great to work with that way): Basically, the V at 12th (either white MOP or black MOP, probably white though) will be wrapped in silver barbed wire, barbs as fret markers as above, wire end 'fraying' on the headstock like it does at 24th. Hopefully I'll get things rolling this weekend, so I can finish sand next week and start staining and filling and that kind of fun stuff. Also, the whole thing's come out wonderfully light! Right now, no pickups and hardware (which will probably add about a kilo, I'll wager, maybe a touch more - gotoh minis, an ibanez edge, pair of humbuckers, a switch and a push/push pot), the whole thing weighs 2.15 kilos (about 4.75 lbs), and balances perfectly: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 That Kelly looks GREAT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 Kewl! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_tart Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 << that will be you sooner or later!!!!! .... lovely work!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Heh. Not with this guitar, since it's wrong-handed...no, wait, left handed. That's the term. But yes, my girlfriend's little brother will turn into a small yellow ball with a mowhawk playing a guitar. Verily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted March 30, 2008 Report Share Posted March 30, 2008 Wow, another March Bday, so many this month! Next year I think I'll just start a March Bday thread,lol. Happy BDay Mattia! Have a great Bday and many more! J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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