Bygde Posted September 13, 2007 Report Share Posted September 13, 2007 I've recently started my new project. It's a 27" Baritone 7-string guitar, and I thought I would post some pics. The speclist looks like this: Explorer style body made from birch 27" Scale birch neck with birch fingerboard, and a Ken Lawrence style headstock (not a direct copy, will draw this myself) 24 jumbo frets Hardtail bridge Dimarzio Evolution 7 pickup, with coil split Allparts Keystone (tulip shape) tuners Schaller straplocks I got all the parts today, but problems ocurred. I only got 6 ferrules, but I specified 7, and they didn't have my string bushings in stock. I will however call the guys tomorrow and see what they can do for me The body is sawn and roughly sanded, and the neck blank is planed. Not in the pics though, but I planed it after those were taken Pics were big, so... The body, planed, before drawing from the template http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1212_1189722995.jpg The body drawn out http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1214_1189723079.jpg The body after sawing, before sanding http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1216_1189723291.jpg The body after rough sanding http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1218_1189722883.jpg Don't know if you guys can see the pics. If not, let me know! Yes, the gluelines are wider than the Grand Canyon, but it's my second project, and I'm not superskilled with a handplaner. I left a lot of material around the neck pocket, since an Explorer doesn't have much material in that area. This is to make the routing easier, but that will be cut down when the neck pocket is routed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 well it looks good,but im also on my second project and ive found you should have inginuity i assume you done have access to a jointer so this is what you do get an iron, and seperate those 2 peices of wood. scrape off the glue, or not its your choice then, take a peice of glass, from your local hardware store or if you have one laying around, manage a way to get sandpaper to it, and take your (glu joing) and run it back and forth across the sandpaper covered glass. it just works as a VERY slow thickness planer but that should get you an invisible glue joint. hope this helped and if not, i suggest maybe a solid finish. hehehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted September 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 well it looks good,but im also on my second project and ive found you should have inginuity i assume you done have access to a jointer so this is what you do get an iron, and seperate those 2 peices of wood. scrape off the glue, or not its your choice then, take a peice of glass, from your local hardware store or if you have one laying around, manage a way to get sandpaper to it, and take your (glu joing) and run it back and forth across the sandpaper covered glass. it just works as a VERY slow thickness planer but that should get you an invisible glue joint. hope this helped and if not, i suggest maybe a solid finish. hehehe Okay, will give it a try! About the colour question, what's the international colour for metal? BLACK! It will be finished in black, well at least the body. Black paint and a birch fingerboard will probably not look very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 Man...if i was you i'd start over....as much as it sucks to tell you this, you better do it... something like that happened to me with some projects and the body started to fall apart...the wood joints need to be tight, and aim for an invisible glue linetry taking it apart, and take it to a wood shop maybe where you had your body cut and run the halves of the body over a jointer, if you paint that guitar black the glue linmes will show right thru. I build this really nice guitar, and i had the sides jointed, but it wasn't perfect and i have a very visible glue line, i didn't care much about it and continued, painted the guitar black...and you can clearly see of many pieces the guitar is built, even has raised pieces of wood...not cool...so try to fix that now that you're on an early stage. Also, you might want to see if Birch is stable enough for a neck, maybe you'd want to laminate it and improve it's stability... Good to see someone else building a metal axe, good luck bro! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 if your doing a birch neck id laminate it with like bubinga or walnut for stability (add stringers) that requires a planer and jointer aswell. if taking the body apart doesnt work, think of it as a "life experiance" that didnt kill you, so you were able to learn from it and makes you all the wiser and dont feel bad on my first guitar i got to the 17th fret and couldnt go any further. mistakes are natural!. plus i just say im innovating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted September 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 Man...if i was you i'd start over....as much as it sucks to tell you this, you better do it... something like that happened to me with some projects and the body started to fall apart...the wood joints need to be tight, and aim for an invisible glue linetry taking it apart, and take it to a wood shop maybe where you had your body cut and run the halves of the body over a jointer, if you paint that guitar black the glue linmes will show right thru. I build this really nice guitar, and i had the sides jointed, but it wasn't perfect and i have a very visible glue line, i didn't care much about it and continued, painted the guitar black...and you can clearly see of many pieces the guitar is built, even has raised pieces of wood...not cool...so try to fix that now that you're on an early stage. Also, you might want to see if Birch is stable enough for a neck, maybe you'd want to laminate it and improve it's stability... Good to see someone else building a metal axe, good luck bro! Is it that bad? I'm not really worried about the body falling apart, since it's epoxy glued, but the finish issues did seem to suck pretty bad. How did it see trough? Was it low spots, or the finish not covering the glue? Don't know if that made any sense but... Kenny: Unfortunally, birch is the only wood i have lying around. A local builder told me that birch will make a good neck, but recommended me to laminate it from several pieces of birch. As you might see, it's a 3pc, and it has the pieces flipped 180 degrees, so the grain from the same piece is pulling against one another. Don't know if that made any sense either, but that's what I did. Another idea I've had is to inlay some 4mm cold rolled steel just beside the truss rod to help stiffening the neck. I have free access to a lot of steel at my school, so that's not an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 Ahhh if it's epoxy glued, then you're safe had you glued it with regular wood glue....regular wood glue tends to creep if there are temperature changes and if the pieces to be glued weren't jointed properly. You could see the pieces that formed the guitars the paint covered it very well, it was a very good paint job, but you could see where the pieces were, you can see it on some production guitars, specially if they a black and older...mostly cheaper guitars...but it was a learning experience I guess regarding woods, since you're in Sweden maybe you could also get easily beech as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted September 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 Ahhh if it's epoxy glued, then you're safe had you glued it with regular wood glue....regular wood glue tends to creep if there are temperature changes and if the pieces to be glued weren't jointed properly. You could see the pieces that formed the guitars the paint covered it very well, it was a very good paint job, but you could see where the pieces were, you can see it on some production guitars, specially if they a black and older...mostly cheaper guitars...but it was a learning experience I guess regarding woods, since you're in Sweden maybe you could also get easily beech as well... Haha yeah I'm glad I epoxied it! But it probably will be the last guitar glued with epoxy! To messy, and stinky, and I got it on my arm twice. Do I have to say that the hair still haven't grown back? I glued it a week ago! Didn't have anything that would dissolve the epoxy, and I tried a soap we have at home that removes anything! Well, except epoxy that is. It was VEERY painful to pull that epoxy (with hair of course!) from my arm! But now to my (maybe?) finishing problems. Will the epoxy cause any trouble? I don't have much experience at all (wich the topic may tell you), but the epoxy feels like it would sharpen my plane in no-time. I had to break out a chisel and a hammer to get the gluing residue off from the joints! My orbital sander (don't know the english word, just a guess!) didn't want to bite into the epoxy very much, and I didn't have the power in my little fat arms to muscle trough the epoxy with only a chisel. The hammer and chisel combo was a winning concept though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 If the epoxy hasn't dried up when you get it on your skin, you can remove it with thinner, once it sets you're screwed, and yes it is messy and stinky and EXPENSIVE but i am using it a lot and it works very well.... If i was you i'd ran the top and bottom of the guitar blank over a jointer a big ass jointer and it'll be more than fine or just try to use a hand planer it works but epoxy is hard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 (edited) I'll need to verify this, but I believe what you want to use to clean up epoxy is acetone, before it has fully cured. Again, I'll need to check, but I am fairly sure. I've heard people mention alcohol, but I tend to use that for shellac only. If you do decide to use epoxy for other parts of the build try west systems, use the resin(105) with the slow hardener(206) and get the pump set for it. The 206 will give you a good 20-25 minutes to work and it is nice and thin, you'll be surprised how thin. It is also crystal clear. I tried a few other types and they were all miserable. Keep that in mind if you like epoxy, oh yeah the pump set is designed so you use one pump from each can to get a perfect 5:1 ratio everytime. Very nice and easy. Great stuff. Best of luck. J EDIT: You can use diluted ammonia and water or other detergents to clean it up off your skin or alcohol (denatured alcohol). I read soap and water works somewhere but that hasn't worked for me either. I believe there are products specifically made to clean up resin off your skin, but I don't know any off hand. I knew I had read acetone works well for epoxy as someone here mentioned using it to thin epoxy and for other reasons. I've used it for cleaning up little drips/runs of epoxy and it works fine. Acetone isn't a good idea for skin obviously, try the detergent type stuff including ammonia and water, if not working well for you, go to the denatured alcohol. That should take care of it. Hope that helps. J Edited September 16, 2007 by jmrentis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted September 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 Okay thanks for the tips! Actually, now that i think of it...this pieces ARE run trough a jointer. How could this have happened? It was my girlfriends grandfather who did it...Feels so wierd that the jointer would leave a curved edge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 maybe he didnt joint it enough i always cut large blanks from my wood to leave extra room for mistakes and i alwys run it through about 5 or 7 times the the jointer so theres no doubt, even more if its a warped peice! since you used epoxy, which is my least favorite thing in the world....cleanup wise your fine but strength wise its never failed me, and i use it to fill my inlays and i havent felt any rising. i do feel rising with wood glue tho. as far as the steel goes, i wouldnt do it... that is going to add thickness under the fingerboard that you dont need. the only way i could see that working is if you cut a peice of steel routed a cavity in your fingerboard (the bottom of course) that fit the steel exactly and kinda inlayed the steel in. but tonally i dontknow how that would sound. oh AND BYDGE - orbital sander is the correct word in english, good job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted September 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 maybe he didnt joint it enough i always cut large blanks from my wood to leave extra room for mistakes and i alwys run it through about 5 or 7 times the the jointer so theres no doubt, even more if its a warped peice! since you used epoxy, which is my least favorite thing in the world....cleanup wise your fine but strength wise its never failed me, and i use it to fill my inlays and i havent felt any rising. i do feel rising with wood glue tho. as far as the steel goes, i wouldnt do it... that is going to add thickness under the fingerboard that you dont need. the only way i could see that working is if you cut a peice of steel routed a cavity in your fingerboard (the bottom of course) that fit the steel exactly and kinda inlayed the steel in. but tonally i dontknow how that would sound. oh AND BYDGE - orbital sander is the correct word in english, good job Now I got a little confused...I planned to do like Warmoth does their reinforcements in the bass necks: http://www.warmoth.com/bass/necks/necks.cf...tion=truss_rods Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Posted September 17, 2007 Report Share Posted September 17, 2007 oh, i was mistaken, this idea seems like ti would work perfectly fine, minus the small added weight i was picturing a standard truss rod a steel laminate and then the freboard ontop of the horizontal steel sheet which is a bad idea your idea will work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted September 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2007 oh, i was mistaken, this idea seems like ti would work perfectly fine, minus the small added weight i was picturing a standard truss rod a steel laminate and then the freboard ontop of the horizontal steel sheet which is a bad idea your idea will work fine. Haha but it would be unique :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted September 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2007 Got some work done last night. I've started to hollow out the body a bit to save weight, but I'm not done yet. I've hollowed out at the lower part of the body, and it did make a difference, but now it might be too front heavy, so I'm planning to hollow the horn a bit too, and maybe behind the bridge as well. This will be laminated with a 6 or 7mm birch top (no point in pretty woods since it will be black!). Marked up and ready to go http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1223_1190752024.jpg Routed roughly (the edges will be taken care of later) http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1225_1190752129.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted November 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 I've gotten more work done, but haven't updated for a long time. Sorry about that! Some pics are taken with my phone, and honestly, the quality sucks. Take a look at my blog to see more pics. It's in swedish, but i think you guys can look at the pics anyways My blog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted December 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2007 Unfortunally, problems have occured. I tried to rout the trussrod slot today, but i failed miserably. So miserably that I am forced to rebuild it After that i tested how strong the scarf joint was Luckily I have a birch board lying around that I can use for a new neck, but for now it'll be Guitar Hero, chips, and dip The neck build will have to start when I've calmed down a bit.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted January 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 (edited) Time has passed, and progress have been made! After my miserable attempt at making a neck, I finally got sick of handplaning, and I am now a proud owner of a jointer! My new neck is 10 times better than my old one so far, and the jointer cut my work time down to a quarter of the time it took with a hand planer. Gluelines are completely invisible, and everything is strait. The scarf-joint also turned out better with much help from the jointer. The body have gotten a little more work as well. The contours is better sanded than before, and the holes for the pots are drilled. I've also started to sand the top down (didn't have the jointer when I made it), but the body progress is slow. I've got about 3-4mm left to sand, so it'll take a while! The blank http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00172_1200153386.jpg http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00173_1200153487.jpg Before sawing, trussrod channel routed http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00174_1200153510.jpg http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00175_1200153533.jpg Roughly sawn http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00176_1200153559.jpg before tuner drilling http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00177_1200153599.jpg Mockups http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00178_1200153630.jpg http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00179_1200153653.jpg http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00180_1200153675.jpg Headstock before sanding, tuners drilled http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00181_1200153698.jpg Headstock after sanding http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dsc00182_1200153760.jpg Edited January 12, 2008 by Bygde Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted February 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 This project is starting to look like a guitar, and not just a pile of wood This week I've cleaned up the neck and the pocket so these two fit together. I've also fixed the body outline a little better, the electronics cavity is re-routed to a rectangular shape, the neck is a little tapered on the backside, and the pickup hole is fixed. These are the results: http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1362_1203542117.jpg http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1365_1203542245.jpg http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1368_1203542315.jpg http://jonasbygdemo.blogg.se/images/dscn1369_1203542338.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 looks good. personally i wouldnt have routed the neck pocke until the fretboard was glued on and fretted, buecase you might lose some width sanding the sides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted February 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 looks good. personally i wouldnt have routed the neck pocke until the fretboard was glued on and fretted, buecase you might lose some width sanding the sides. Thanks! I'm going to have a fretboard extension, so I thought that it would be harder to get it right with the board on. Could be wrong though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 Great work! I'm considering building an extended scale neck for my black LTD EXP-200 although i'll probably go for either 27.5" or 26.73" (30" minus first two frets). I like the modified KL headstock - it suits the seven nicely! I see you've marked in a volute already....can't wait to see this one develop. Are you sticking with just the one pickup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted March 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 (edited) Great work! I'm considering building an extended scale neck for my black LTD EXP-200 although i'll probably go for either 27.5" or 26.73" (30" minus first two frets). I like the modified KL headstock - it suits the seven nicely! I see you've marked in a volute already....can't wait to see this one develop. Are you sticking with just the one pickup? Thanks! Will be a seven- or a six-stringer? Yeah I think the headstock turned out pretty good, but I ran into a problem. The guys who supplied me with the hardware sent the tuners in 3+4 when I requested 4+3. I didn't think it was necessery to complain though, so I just reversed the headstock. Haha no volute Just the way I'm going to carve the thing I don't think that there is enough material for a volute, otherwise I would have tried. Regarding the pickup; yes, I will only use one. I rarely use the neck pup anyways, so why bother? I have another 7-string guitar planned in CAD which will be more versatile, with a doublelocking trem and a neck pickup as well. I've actually got a little more done. The top is sanded down, a hair from final thickness, and the bridge is drilled, and the ferrules at the back as well. Will be posting pics when I've rounded the edges, and gotten more work done around the electronics cavity. Also I need to fill in the neckpocket a bit as well, since it was a little bigger gap than I wanted. But with an opaque black over it, one wouldn't be able to tell it was ever routed too big Edited March 16, 2008 by Bygde Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 I do all my work in CAD first of all. Your headstock looked like you'd worked out the string pull properly, so I kind of guessed you did it in CAD first! I think you could have quite easily made this build a set neck, but without a neck pickup, the tenon would show of course. With the 27" scale, are you popping a full 24 frets on? Mine is going to be a six-string still so I can always go back to using the "standard" neck. Just an extension of the scale length with an identical headstock to increase tension slightly on open C tuning. Whilst i'm at it, I may cut an EXP template from the body as a good friend in Arkansas is wanting me to build him one. Ett bra jobb! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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