SD83 Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 (edited) Hi After browsing this forum for a while I finally registered... so here is my current project (second self-made): A 6 string electric baritone guitar, my own design, inspired by the shape of my bass (first project) which again was inspired by the "Hideous Claw" (just search the web for it ) Some facts: - 28 inch, 26 frets - Body 2 piece maple, separated by a piece of ebony - Neck Tigerwood, Mahagony (veneer), Walnut (veneer), Wenge, Walnut, Mahagony, Tigerwood - 1 Pickup only, EMG 81TW So here are some pictures, feel free to ask... bla The back of the guitar some weeks/months ago and another full view When I started, I started two of those at the same time, one for a friend of mine and one for me... too bad I messed up the neck for mine, otherwise it would be more complete than this: Walnut Body Edited October 18, 2008 by SD83 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Hi After browsing this forum for a while I finally registered... so here is my current project (second self-made): A 6 string electric baritone guitar, my own design, inspired by the shape of my bass (first project) which again was inspired by the "Hideous Claw" (just search the web for it ) Some facts: - 28 inch, 26 frets - Body 2 piece maple, separated by a piece of ebony - Neck Tigerwood, Mahagony (veneer), Walnut (veneer), Wenge, Walnut, Mahagony, Tigerwood - 1 Pickup only, EMG 81TW When I started, I started two of those at the same time, one for a friend of mine and one for me... too bad I messed up the neck for mine, otherwise it would be more complete than this: Walnut Body the natural woods would´ve looked great! why did you paint over it?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Well... it is for a friend and he said "black/green/something-in-between", I just did that. And that piece of maple I had looked kinda boring, too, and since I had to paint it it was a reason for me to buy it. I would never do that to Walnut, for example (the second body won't get any paint or stain on it. I tried just a little bit of black stain on the Walnut, and... no way, not unless someone pays me a lot of money for that and even than I would feel bad ruining the beautiful wood...), or any other great looking wood. But that piece just was... not ugly, but boring. In this special case, I like the current look more than the "natural" look. Looks more aggressiv, more "insect" like to me, and that's just what I wanted to have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElysianGuitars Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 why no fretboard taper? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 If I understand you correctly (I might be wrong, as English is not my first language)... 5cm (1.96'') at the nut and nearly 6,5cm (2.56'') at fret 26. I guess "no fretboard taper" was true when I made that picture, I cut it later. If you wonder about the size: the reason for that is rather simple... big hands Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted January 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Not much progress over the last months, but a little update: not much work left to do except for some fine-tuning and a cover for PU and electronics cavity. Oh, and poti knobs. And a new string/set of strings because I broke one when tuning the guitar "right" for the first time... The other pic is from my old Stagg-Bass... it didn't even have strings and only one PU for about a year now and it was horribly ugly (black with lots of scratches and all that...) so I decided to sand off the paint and change the shape a bit. I'm not sure about the color of back & sides but I think about staining them black. DARK black, so you don't see much of the grain... which doesn't look that bad, but it's a 5-piece body I got some pommele mahogany veneer here, so I will try to glue that on top of the bass. Im thinking about making a new neck also because a)the headstock is really ugly and b)it has a small crack near the headstock. On the other hand, I really like the look of the fretboard and the overall feeling of that neck... If I do make a new neck, it might be a fretless. Maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Nice work! Sure is an odd shape. I wonder though, how is the fret access on this thing? Doesn't look that good actually... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 That neck is huuuuge O.O Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 It looks bigger than it acutally is on that pic (4.8cm at the nut)... huge hands --> huge neck Fret access is good (seems good to me), at least up to 21st or 22nd fret. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wood is good Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 I dont think thats really good fret access. Thats 4 frets you cant reach, wich makes them really pointless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted January 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 4 frets which are rather pointless anyways because they won't be used 99,9% of the time. Honestly, the only reason there are 26 frets and not 22 or 24 is simply that I had exactly 26 frets lying around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted February 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 A little update: Poti-Knobs are still missing and the PU-cover is not really finished, first bumps are already there yet it's about 10.000 times better than the first instrument I've build, and I'm using that one for over one year, rehearsing, gigs, studio... in a first test with strings, it sounded pretty good, but I couldn't really test distortion cause I only tested it acoustic & played over a small bass amp. A 6-string bass I'm working on... no reason to start a new topic as the progress will be rather slow as always (I should think about changing the title... can you change the title of your own topic? gotta find that out...). Not much is done yet but glueing the veneers on the three pieces of the sandwich after sawing them out. Electronics- and battery-cavity are already there, as well as the neck-pocket and one PU-cavity (I just realised that this picture was taken before that was done). Wenge-Walnut-Wenge body with Makore-Ash-Makore(2x)-Ash-Makore veneers, PUs will be two EMGs. No idea about the neck yet, but it will most likely have a multi-piece neck. I wanted to try continious backplates on this one (as well as trying the veneer-stuff, which worked... OK but the mistakes will be invisible anyways due to shaping etc.), but I will try that again with another wood. Wenge looks great, but hard to work with Luckily I got some pieces left from sawing, so the back cavitys will get matching covers, I will also try to sand down to pieces to about 1mm or less and make PU-covers of them to have it look like it's pretty much one piece. A wenge fretboard would be great for continuing that, I will think about that at a later time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted February 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 (edited) Update on the 6-string bass: another view of the top And another full view Edited February 16, 2009 by SD83 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Guitar 1 update: Still has no strings and soldering has to be done (I hate that part, seriously, that's the worst part), but my friend visited me today , took it... "finally a decent sized guitar" (obviously, those were not his words, no reason to speak english here ). Guitar 2 update: Headstock and neck are now one piece of wood, the PU-cavity is ready. I just don't have any pictures yet. Bass 1 update: I disassembled my old ultra-cheap 4 string and sanded down the paint, changed the shape a bit... and now sand again to stain the back & sides black and put pomelle mahogany veneer on top. Bass 2 update: Cavity covers are done. Not perfect, but not nearly as bad as I expected. Changed the concept to a 7 string. Why will I build a 7-string bass? Because I can. Sunlight makes the colors seem... different The back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted April 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Bass 1 update: After my attempt to put a veneer on top of a non-flat bass, I decided to leave it as it was, attacked it with a sander to get a flat surface and called it "done". So "Experiment 1" failed, but "Experiment 2", the new tuners, worked perfectly, and it sounds great. So now I have my first 8-string bass, and the octave strings really add so much to the tone... I'm definitly building a better 8- or 10-string once I have the money for it. Tuning is kinda hard with these new "tuners", but they work great, totally stable, I'm really suprised how well they work Bass 2 update: Applying some more clear coats, screwing half of them, sanding, sanding, sanding well, not half of them, but some were rather bad... a small close-up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted April 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 Guitar 1 update: Electronics work, strings are on, tuned... I took it with me to my bands rehearsal today and the sound was... different. Very unique sound to me, "sounds like a Meshuggah guitar" our guitarist said and I'm fine with that. Definitly a cool sound. It weighs 3.3 kg (1 kg less than my bass, feels like a toy-instrument to me ), broad neck and very slim body, great balance both sitting and standing, I'm very satisfied. Pictures will follow soon, maybe I'll try and put it on the GOTM vote and see if I can get one or two votes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Some progress on all the instruments... the maple-baritone works great, the more I play it the more I love it, stays in tune, rings forever, amazing clean tone, great feeling, I can't say how proud I am The walnut-baritone is getting closer to being done, the cavities are done, the trussrod will be inserted during this weekend or early next week and: the neck-blank for the 7-string bass is finally ready. As the body is Wenge-Walnut-Wenge with veneers of Ash and Makore between the massive pieces, I decided to mirror this for the neck, so the neck is Walnut-Wenge-Walnut-Wenge-Walnut with Ash-Makore-Ash veneer between the pieces. The sound of this monster is in my ears far superior to that of all my other necks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 That's a mighty fine looking neck blank! Really like the veneers only wish I could get some in this part of the world! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 And I wish it would still look like that. I f***ed up the sawing for the scarf joint (is that the right word?) and lost too much material to use it as a 36-inch bass neck... and as if that wasn't enough, one of the sides just broke off. Gonna get me some beer, get drunk and when I'm sober I'll think about something new... but thank you I wish I could get some of the wood you use for your guitars... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Bummer! I really ain't a nice person be around when that kind of thing happens for me! :D Anybody can get some of the wood I use . . . they just have to ask me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 (edited) Guess the same would apply for veneer but the costs for shipping would be insane. Luckily no one was around when it happend. Just a poor door... but while I was on my way to get some beer, I had what will hopefully be THE idea to fix the whole thing without having to buy new wood (I'll have to get some new bright veneer). I'll just "disassamble" the whole thing, maybe use what is left of the headstock for something else in the future, redo the neck and use some left over piece of walnut from the body for the headstock. Doing that, I will also solve the problem of getting the headstock from 3 cm down to max. 1.7 (or less, because I wanted to put 3 layers of veneer on it, then shape it), because that wood is already at 1.5. Cheers! EDIT: looks like sending some veneer to any place via German Post is rather cheap... (I thought about ordering some stuff from the USA some time ago, UPS website told me it would cost over 100$, which is just rediculous) so if it is about the same cost in the other direction I might PM you someday I successfully disassambled the neck and now got 5 pieces of wood again. Still, this sucks! Edited May 11, 2009 by SD83 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted May 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2009 (edited) The prototype of the stopbar for my guitar (7 string walnut/ebony body & ovangkol neck) is kinda done... made of a piece of plum. it's rough sanded (120 grid) and a little bit to high right now, but you get the idea The final version will be made of ebony. What do you think of it? Edited May 15, 2009 by SD83 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted May 15, 2009 Report Share Posted May 15, 2009 I ain't a stopbar man myself . . . I like my ferrules! But I can imagine in ebony it will look rather smart! I have to say I am liking that body shaping and that ebony centre strip. On the veneer thing my one of my timber merchants is supposed to do it but I keep forgetting to ask him . . but that said it's probably something he used to do before and ain't take the sign down! I'll have remember ask him when I next call in for coffee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted May 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 (edited) I ain't a stopbar man myself . . . I like my ferrules! But I can imagine in ebony it will look rather smart! I have to say I am liking that body shaping and that ebony centre strip. Me too The ebony centre strip was not planned in the beginning, the piece of walnut just happened to be smaller than I expected. Right now I'm thinking about one question: Do I build a fretless baritone (with alternating veneers as fretmarkers) or not? Right now I tend to say "yes" and "because I can" and that it will be used for jamming and playing weird stuff rather than songs anyways (I guess I'll stick to playing bass and try to become a good bassist rather than being a mediocre bassist and a mediocre guitarist). Opinions? Will Ovangkol be hard enough as a fretboard for a fretless guitar? It won't be played that often, but if it looks like crap after some month that would be sad... it feels rather hard to me, not as hard as ebony maybe, but at least on the same level as rosewood or padouk. EDIT: Did I mention that I glued fretboard & neck together and that the neck fits perfectly into its pocket? Edited May 28, 2009 by SD83 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted June 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 "Frets" are done, I will have to fix some, but so far it looks pretty much as I expected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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