My Gotm Entry- Walnut Guitar

[black_labb]

thought i should make a thread to see what people think of my build that i just finished. ill paste the writeup from the gotm entry writeup, as i spent way too long writing that to write it again. feel free to skip the writeup, as it goes into alot of detail.

oddly, i wired all the electronics up, but couldnt find the cap for the tone pot. i soldered the rest up and left that connection free. the pot actually still works as a tone control even though none of the connections go to ground, it just adds some resistance from the 1m pot. it gets plenty of control (probably has 3/4 of the travel that a tone pot with an actual cap would do). my theory is that the pot has some (a huge amount considering it shouldnt be there) capacitance between the resistance within it and the pot casing (which i have grounded). adjusting the wiper determines how much of the resistance the signal travels through, which changes the capacitance. im going to leave it like it is as it has plenty of difference between the brightest and mellowest.

The body is a 2 piece American walnut body. I got the piece discounted as it had a knot and was not the full thickness in many parts of the board. It wasn’t a big deal for guitar building as I ensured the knot was where a cutout was. Also meant I couldn’t put the join along the middle point. There is a small elbow cut on the front and tummy cut on the rear, similar to a strat but not as much.

The neck is a laminate of rock maple (quarter sawn) with a wenge centre. Using the quarter sawn wood meant I could get the neck fairly thin. I wanted a thinner feeling neck as opposed to my last build, which was a bit fatter feeling. the maple ended up having a bit of figure to it which is a nice surprise.

The fretboard is striped ebony with mother of pearl inlays (I couldn’t believe how long simple block inlays can take, i think its worth it though).

The headstock was a scarf joint with walnut veneers i made from offcuts of the walnut body wood.

The neck joint was originally going to be a bolt on, but with the bolts coming from above (hidden by a pickguard) into the body, with another 2 coming from the back of the body into the part of the neck behind the fretboard. The neck pocket was made the weird shape I had to ensure there was plenty of strength and leverage for the neck, so that I could avoid the neck pocket sticking out from the body. This way I could get better upper fret access, and having the points of the neck further apart to get a wider stance and a more efficient grip on the neck. After making the neck pocket and seeing how tight it was, I thought about gluing the neck in to avoid seeing the last 2 neck screws, and improve the mechanical connection. I ended up keeping 2 screws in as they were hidden anyway, and i could only get one clamp to hold the neck in place. i am extremely happy with the design, as the shape of the necks end means it is held from all sides but up. i actually got it stuck in there a number of times and spent a while getting it out each time.

Regarding the shape , it was originally going to have a butt similar to a fender, but i accidentally cut too deep when trimming some of the template with the router (was feeling too lazy to sand) and thought it might look good with the cutaway in the back, matching the angle of the front. I’m happy with the way it worked out.

The hardware I bought on ebay, as I don’t have too much money being a university student. The bridge is a roller tunomatic with ferrules as opposed to a tailpiece. The tuners are the same as many around with a somewhat unique shape that I quite like for this build. I made the pickguard from a blank piece of material. I made the truss rod from 10mmx10mm U channel aluminium and a ¼” rod. It is adjustable from the heel under the pickguard, to give it a cleaner look. I have barely had to adjust the truss rod, probably due to the quarter sawn neck wood and ebony fretboard. Having such a big rod and u section probably means it gives a lot of support itself.

Regarding the Electronics

I made the pickup bobbins (from offcuts of wenge) and wound the pickups myself. I was looking for the look of a p90 (or any larger single coil) but kept the actual size of the coil fairly tall and thin, and in reality they are pretty similar to strat pickups. I used 5mm alnico 5 rod magnets (same as fender single coils) on the neck, and used some 6.5mm alnico rod magnets for the bridge. I wound the coil 8200/ 6.05 kOhms (neck) and 8500/ 7.4 kOhms (bridge) times to get fairly bright pickups as I was intending on putting a switch in to put the pickups in series and didn’t want that setting ending up too boomy, and could always use that setting to get more output and a fatter sound. (Putting 2 singlecoils in series makes a humbucker pickup, when they are out of phase electrically and magnetically, which I did). I also added a switch to invert the phase, to get out of phase sounds as well. There are 3 switches, the black switch is the same pickup switch you find on a Gibson (neck/parallel/bridge). The mini switch is the series/parallel (single coil/humbucker if you like). This switch bypasses the pickup select switch, as it must use both pickups. The third switch is a push-pull on the volume knob (closest to the bridge), which inverts the phase to give a thinner, hollow sound.

The finish of the guitar is Danish oil with some beeswax rubbed in. I love the feel of the finish on the neck, it so smooth and along with the fairly thin neck makes for a fast playing guitar with great upper fret access.

I’m very impressed with the sounds I can get from the guitar. It is quite versatile due to the different electrical options. The humbucking mode gives a thick sound, where the single coil modes are a nice fender tone. The bridge pickup seems to add more mids to the tone of a bridge single coil, due to the larger magnets. The out of phase sounds are actually pretty useful when used in humbucking mode, but the parallel out of phase sound is a bit useless as it has lower output compared to the rest. I have just finished my second amplifier build (based loosely on the normal channel of an ac15) and it sounds great through it, ill do a little recording when I wont annoy anyone too much (the only cab I have is a 4x12 which carries sound a little too well for home use, especially when trying to crank an amp to its sweet spot)

only downside is the weight, its unchambered and 50mm thick with some of the heaviest woods commonly used. i dont mind, but its the first thing people comment about it when they put it over their shoulder.

Thanks guys

here are some photos, the last is there to show how the neck tennon is shaped.

Edited February 11, 2008 by black_labb

[Inisheer]

Nice! Looks pretty cool, and that body shape with the contours actually looks really comfy to play. Also, what is that instrument on the top in that last picture? The alternating wood inlays looks cool.

[black_labb]

Nice! Looks pretty cool, and that body shape with the contours actually looks really comfy to play. Also, what is that instrument on the top in that last picture? The alternating wood inlays looks cool.

that is the bass that i started half way through this build, as i am teaching my girlfriend to play bass, and didnt have one. its not actually a wood inlay, it is a 1 piece neck in the sense that it has the truss rod installed from the back (like fender one piece necks) but it has multiple laminates (so a 5 piece laminate one piece neck). the centre laminate is zebrano and i stained the frets instead of markers to make it quick to build, but still look good. i love the look of it (its not finished, but has been used for a few months now, i need to finish sanding it and make a few covers). i should have a build thread on it in the near future (once i do the last things on it)

[TemjinStrife]

Very cool. Has a nice quirky 60s vibe to the shape, and looks pretty comfy. How's the neck joint work, in terms of ease of construction and general "usefulness"?

Edited February 11, 2008 by TemjinStrife

[black_labb]

the neck joint was pretty dificult to make, as you cant put 2 boards either side, and one at the back like most people would do to get a good tight fit. i used the idea, but wasa screwing multiple little pieces into a bit of plywood around it. once i got the template i used that to transfer it into another template which i put an angle into to get the 2.5 degree angle i needed for the tunomatic. once that was done it was easy, but i wasted alot of plywood and time getting the first template to be a nice tight fit.

reguarding the feel of the neck joint, it feels great. you feel that the limit for where you can comfortably play is where the fret spaces get too small as opposed to things getting in your way

[Geo]

Fabulous guitar. The neck joint is very interesting. And I LOVE that bass!!!!!

[black_labb]

Fabulous guitar. The neck joint is very interesting. And I LOVE that bass!!!!!

thanks geo, most people ive shown them to like the bass more, it tends to be a bit more traditional looking in the shape, but is still quite unique with the neck laminates being the fretboard. ill try and get some photos of the bass up soon.

[Geo]

Yeah, watch that your guitar doesn't get angry. Your bass is hijacking this thread!