Zeta-style "biohazard" Eight-string

[Jon]

Time for me to move out to Ohio!

[Prostheta]

Wow - that's great news Doug! Good to hear that business is good and that your services are in demand and indeed expanding. You'll wonder what to do with your mornings till 2:00pm now ;-D Perhaps play guitar? heh!

Thanks for the idea about the parallelogram side markers in the binding Wez. It's do-able, although i'm not sure if it would look right where the binding reveals at the top next to the fretboard. I have some spare inlay pieces from the original fretboard work (thanks again Doug!) so it's possible I could perhaps re-use some of these, although the look may not be correct. Best to offer them up to the semi-finished neck before I start binding and make the decision from there.

Doug - would you be willing to run a quick turnaround job on a 5mm tall black strip of black acrylic with side-marker spaced 3mm parallelograms? I'm not sure on the resolution of the laser cutter (similar to the learning we made on the board!) but it would be something like this:

[WezV]

Thanks for the idea about the parallelogram side markers in the binding Wez. It's do-able, although i'm not sure if it would look right where the binding reveals at the top next to the fretboard.

yeah, i thought of that.. i did large square markers on a bass recently and i liked the fact they were slightly visable from the front

but it might not quite work in this case.. contructing a binding strip with a black top edge will get around that

i like how you have drawn them - they should be very functional but still fit the theme

oh, i should be picking some of dougs inlays up from the post office this afternoon - quite excited

[Prostheta]

If I could get ahold of some thin yellow binding or similar, I could make an edge binding and line the top and bottom with thin strips as you say. Almost like marquetry....i'll think on this one....no rush!

[WezV]

i think you should be able to find something thin and yellow but if not . . . make it!! You only really need short strips of the yellow so dye some good quality epoxy the colour you want and pour it on something flat the epoxy wont stick to with a mold around the edge and trim it down to size when you are done!!

[Prostheta]

I bought an A4 sheet of 3mm yellow perspex off eBay which I can splice into the black binding and bond using acetone or CA. I'll use it end-on so we're looking at 3mm side markers, or at least 4.2mm across the top and bottom edges if they are angled at 45°. Fiddly work, but hey - challenges are what it's about!

[WezV]

should have enough for plenty of practice attempts - although i would be tempted to do the real thing on the guitar neck to make sure the yellow bits are spot on

[Prostheta]

It shouldn't be a problem. I'm going to wait until I have shaped the neck taper angles before I do this one as the slight change in geometry will alter the marker distances marginally, so a straight 30" scale calculation will be slightly wrong....almost like intonation for side markers :-D

[Prostheta]

Unfortunately, we are in the process of moving house and I won’t have much opportunity to have a permanent workshop for luthiery. That and we currently have no connection to the internets. Anyway.

The last bit of major work I did on this project left the neck blank scarfed up and ready to plane off on the top and side as cleanup, the body shaped with the horrendously large (and dangerous) 19.1mm roundover bit with a partial arm contour, and drilling for the string-through ferrules.

Last night, I planed the top of the neck and routed a truss rod channel. Again, I’m using a single double-action rod from LMII as they’re nice and low profile compared to the Stewmac Hot Rods I’ve used previously, plus I used a custom length halfway between the “standard” guitar and bass rod length. The headstock and neck taper were rough-cut on the bandsaw to leave 2-3mm for the router to remove for final “coarse” shaping and to reduce the wear on my (expensive) router template bits. I made a separate headstock template (slender Ken Lawrence-esque) and screwed this to the headstock through the tuner mounting points rather than clamping. All good! A little shaping on the bobbin sander finished this off nicely.

The headstock has been drilled with 10mm tuner mounting holes for the tulip-style tuners I have. I first drilled the centre points using a 1.5mm bit. I then sunk a 16mm Forstner bit into the headstock by 3-4mm using the centre point as a guide. Slowly and carefully!! If I decide, or need to recess the tuner bushings further then I have a good locating point to start from. I then drilled the 10mm tuner mounting holes through the entire headstock using the Forstner bit’s central mark as a guide. Perfect! Once I have the full headstock shaping on the top finished, I am planning on binding the headstock in black to match the fretboard as previously discussed.

My next job to tackle is mounting the fretboard, cutting the excess off the sides using the bandsaw and a bottom-bearing template cutter. Before then, I do have to make the decision as to whether or not I’m installing a zero fret in addition to a nut mounted flush to the end of the fretboard. Has anybody got any opinions or advice on zero frets in terms of practicality, problems, benefits etc?

[Prostheta]

Sorry for the lack of photos during my updates as I’m posting this at work until we have our interwebs installed in the new house…..

I’ve finished the shaping of the headstock with the upwards-curved triangle thing (see my other eight-string for pics) but left the tuner recessing a little higher than previous. I also shaved off 3-4mm from the back of the headstock using a quickly knocked-up router thicknessing jig I brought this back to around where the volute starts to curve in.

I carved a volute by firstly marking on the neck thickness taper on the side of the neck, marking where the volute ends (neck-side). I then bobbin-sanded a semi-circular dip into the back neck centred on that point down to within a millimetre of final neck thickness. I had marked both sides to make sure it’s symmetrical, although this isn’t hugely important as long as the centre is the correct thickness of course. I then bobbin-sanded another “dip” neck to the first one behind the headstock/nut area, but blended this one into the headstock thickness, ending nicely at the peak of the adjacent “neck dip”. I drew a nice curve from the outer corners of the headstock, over this dip outlining the volute and “peaking” where the two dips meet. I then removed wood with the bobbin sander to create the neck profile in the first dip and smoothed this up into the curve drawn in the headstock. Very very easy with a bobbin sander – easier than with a rasp, but I guess also easier to make a mistake.

The fingerboard was glued up also. Pop in the truss rod, cover it with masking tape, spread on the Titebond, remove the masking tape and clamp on the fingerboard. Wonderful! I’ve also decided to go with a zero fret and guiding nut. After the fingerboard dried, I cut a binding channel on either side. I’ve decided not to bind the headstock as it just won’t look right in my opinion, and would be a pain anyway. I’ve introduced a lot of curves and changes in plane height and I think it would ruin the effect and the work put in.

Tonight, I’m going to bind the bottom and back end of the fingerboard and get to work making a binding strip with yellow diagonal fret markers. That should be an adventure….if it doesn’t work, I’ll pop some brass tube into the drill press and core out some yellow Perspex plugs from the sheet and go for dots instead. I have a backup plan at least! If all goes well, I’ll dry fit the neck to the body and measure where the heel will sit and carve out the neck profile at the back end. I can’t wait to get the back profile done to reveal the flaming in this maple :-D

[rob_tart]

any news on this one... its nearly 2months since the last post

[Prostheta]

You're very right. We've moved house and i'm in the process of setting up space for working. I have less dedicated space now, so things have slowed down somewhat. The current status is that the neck pocket is complete, and the fingerboard has been bound in flame maple and black. I'm going to delicately dye the maple a dirty black/yellow, bring back with steel wool, dye yellow and seal with a paintbrush.

The large space beyond the zero fret area is for a guiding nut which will be made from yellow Corian. I may change tack on this, as i've found that the strings resonate on the headstock and may require some form of dampener, like a string bar with soft rubber underneath.

back of headstock/rough volute

[PTU 7's.]

Prothesta, that's going very well. Those inlays are SICK!

[HuntinDoug]

Looking good Carl! When you get it finished, please email me some good pics for my website: doug@parableguitars.com

Thanks man! Doug

[Prostheta]

Thanks Doug - i'll definitely do so! Good to hear from you too. It's been a while.

[HuntinDoug]

Thanks Doug - i'll definitely do so! Good to hear from you too. It's been a while.

Yea... Been super busy. The papers on the CNC will be signed next week. Six weeks of build time, and a couple weeks of intense training, and I'll be ready for anything I will have the Pro ver of ArtCAM to work with....cant wait!

[Prostheta]

Sounds like you've got good reason for being quiet recently then.... :-D

I'll be needing a bunchload more rod covers and possibly inlaid boards soon....will discuss this closer to the time!

</mystery>

[Xanthus]

Damn, I could go on and on about those inlays.......

Anyways, why would you not be able to use the corian guide nut? If your strings are vibrating the headstock (something I don't think I've ever run into) couldn't you use both the guide nut and a Floyd-style dampener?

Or maybe I misunderstood, I dunno. Good luck with staining that binding, it's not often someone does that after it's on the guitar, methinks Lookin' good!

[Prostheta]

Sorry Xanthus - I was a little vague in that respect. Yes - the nut material is (heh) immaterial in that the Corian works great for guiding and is easy to work, but the resonance beyond the nut is a little annoying. The string length from the nut to the tuner is the issue - I always record with tape over the strings on my Explorer or sponge underneath, as staccato playing is ruined by the sustain of the remaining resonating string length.

I didn't want to stain the maple all the way through before binding as it would eat loads of stain. It's easier to stain the face when mounted and radiused rather than the entire strip unless you're doing a shedload in a vacuum dyeing setup as described on the instructional by (Fry?).

I'm not going to be able to pick this project back up until sometime in March/April as I have a new workshop to set up. In the downtime I have designed templates, jigs, processes and custom tooling to make several of these two eight-strings. These really were prototypes, this one being a refinement of proto 1 "put into practice" which it had done admirably.

[Metallion]

I'm waiting on some M5 threaded brass wood inserts which i'll set into the neck.

Where can you get those wood inserts?

[jmrentis]

I found a few different types those included at my local Rockler. Not many Rocklers around, but you could always order them from Rockler. I've seen some threads at home depot I think, but I don't know what the selection looked like, but somewhere along the hardware isle I saw allen bolts and inserts. Just a little fyi the brass is fairly soft and I actually busted the slot on a couple of these and had to back them out and use a fresh one. I eventually got them in and they work great, it just could have gone much more smoothly.

[Prostheta]

Plenty of places, for sure. It's difficult getting them in small quantities from most manufacturers however, so you can end up paying a lot for just six!

I'm going to test out the headed and headless varieties for size. I think the headed will be nice. I might even recess them slightly a la back ferrules :-D

[ngaa]

Come on lets see some progress on this guitar

Looking very nice so far and it would be nice to see more 8 strings on this site.

[Prostheta]

Okay, not exactly a progress update as such but at least a better idea of my plan of action over the next couple of months. I'm fitting out the new (smaller) workspace and setting up a few new tools for future work. The main tasks still to perform on the body of the Zeta are a deeper forearm contour, yellow side dot markers (still not sourced usable material yet) and the control cavity. The neck needs fully shaping (chair and spokeshave job) and finish sanding. I'm negotiating a deal with a local auto painter to get the body painted black when he next has a job in the booth that colour. End of pot job rather than whole new batch. I may order a single EMG-808 pickup, although it's entirely possible I may be getting passive eights custom wound, after which I can make a custom PCB-based preamp and EQ stack.

Work starts again end of March.

[WezV]

yellow side dot markers (still not sourced usable material yet)

epoxy + yellow stain

for the side dots i would be tempted to get something like thin brass or aluminium tube and fill it with yellow epoxy - then cut the dots from that with the metal ring still in place.

or i would make a sheet or yellow material by sticking some kind of square mold to a sheet of somehting flat and prefereably shiny and pouring the yellow epoxy in. If you did it onto a sheet of some kind of plastic you would be able to flex the plastic enough to release the epoxy easily. probably not the best way if you needed scratchplate size but it should give you enough usable material for side dots