Myka Guitars Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 It's been a little while since I had the time to post anything from start to finish lately but here we go. I have two projects underway that are happening side by side. The first is a simple yet killer combination of Korina (white limba) and Brazilian rosewood like the old V's and Explorers but in a 15" single cut shape. I got a great set of Korina from Marc at Gilmer that I made the body and top with. Here's a pic of the top prior to carving: Korina topy The body is chambered quite a bit to open it up. I made the material thick in between the chambers so that it still responds with that heavy chunk that I like so much in a fully solid guitar. Chembered body Body and top before vacuuming the top In the vacuum press The neck is pretty simple. Korina neck with Brazilian fretboard and binding. I got the Brazilian from an old barn beam in Brazil. After cutting away the rot I got several fretboards, headstock veneers, knobs, and bridge parts. And it is the old chocolate brown Brazilian. Love it! I was jamming on the neck build when verhoevenc was here so I didn't photograph all the steps (there's more detail to the next build). The front and back of the neck contrast so nicely with the Brazilan fretboard and Korina headstock veneer on the front and the Korina neck and Brazilian headstock veneer on the back. Headstock front Headstock back Here it is so far: Next post the Walnut guitar... ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted October 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 This next guitar is for a good friend of mine from WNY where I grew up. I saw him playing and I wanted to build him a guitar. I lent him my #001 and it was all over. This one has the body made from the same board as #001. Curly black limba body The top is a great piece from the Woodnut in California. It has a nice subtle curl all the way through: Curly claro top The body has a cool little detail that I came up with as an offering for my clients who want binding but don't have the budget for full on wood binding and purfling. I call it simple binding because it is very easy to do, takes very little time, and looks amazing. First I route a ledge in the body edge (pics are from #070): Simple binding ledge and binding Then it gets glued into place. I make the binding taller and wider than I need it so I can just bend it and glue it in quickly without fussing over it. After gluing I send the body and binding through the drum sander to flush it up prior to gluing on the top. Then the top is glued on and the binding and top is routed to shape using the body as a template. The result is a fine black line on the edge: Simple binding complete This guitar needs some neck work to catch up to the other but here is it so far: More to come in a couple days. ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Thats a great combo with the black limba/walnut top. I cant wait to see it finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted February 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Whoa, forgot about this post. Things have been very busy since my last post. These two guitars are part of a batch of 4 guitars that I am finishing up (3 shipped, 1 to go). The walnut/limba guitar is finished. It was a very cool project in that it was a close copy of my own personal #001. I loaned my guitar to a good friend of mine Michael for a couple of months so he could try it out. He was hooked and a couple of years later he ordered one based on that. It just so happened that I had a piece leftover from the body so it was a pretty good match. He's very happy and plays it out a a couple times a week ever since. His old Tele is a backup now since this guitar gets all those tones and more. Oh yeah! Here's a pic of the finished guitar: For the rest go here: #077 web gallery. And for the rest of the progress pictures: #077 progress gallery. ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted February 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 The second Brazilian/Limba guitar is still in process. It actually is quite close to being finished. I have some knobs coming and I need to rewire a control but it is pretty much ready to roll. The thing I love about this guitar is the simple wood choices. We chose a great tonewood: white limba (korina) and matched that with a great fingerboard tonewood: Brazilian rosewood. All of the details are Brazilian as well: knobs, pikcup rings, pickup veneers. We decided to use some Joe Barden pickups for this one due to their TwoTone humbucker pickups. These are supposed to be able to split very well because the split happens in a different way than a usual coil cut. These have a tap in each humbucker coil so that when you 'split' the pickup you are actually tapping both coils to produce a single coil voiced humbucker that is, according to Joe Barden, 95% there in comparison to his single coil pickups (which are also hum canceling). I concur, these are awesome pickups and the bridge/middle combo is a Strat killer. Here is a great shot of the pickup veneers: The Brazilian knobs will match these. It is going to be beautiful! They were made with a super thin veneer that I made with my thickness sander (it only chopped up 3 out of 7 pieces). I then cut the slots out with some seriously cutting edge technology: a straight edge and a razor blade. They were super glued to the pickup bobbins and cleaned up with a file and steel wool. I think they look great. Nice and sleek with a modern pickup under the hood. Here is the progress gallery so far: #078 progress gallery. This one will finish up this week so final pics will be ready sometime next week. ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick500 Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 (edited) Beautiful work as always. The walnut/limba combination is really nice. Isn't limba the coolest? [Edit: I stuck a pic of a black limba body blank I glued up in here, but then realized it was kind of thread hijacking... I'll start another one.] Edited February 3, 2009 by Rick500 De-hijacking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 send it to me *drools* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foil1more Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Amazing work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Beautiful! Although it looks like mission control on the lower half with all those controls... Twice on the build page, you mention a "blower" for the pickups - what's that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 David, I've been looking at your pickup covers for the last couple of days so I can figure out how to make my own. These are gorgeous! Do you just cover the top of the pickups or the side too? And did you sand off some of the plastic on the pickup to make room for the veneer? Crazy cool stuff! -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hey David! TWO 5-ways?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hey David! TWO 5-ways?!? I saw that too. That type of lunacy is for folks who actually LIKE doing the wiring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted February 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 I've been looking at your pickup covers for the last couple of days so I can figure out how to make my own. These are gorgeous! Do you just cover the top of the pickups or the side too? And did you sand off some of the plastic on the pickup to make room for the veneer? The Bardens have a single blade polepiece built into the bobbin. There really wasn't a way to take it out to sand the tops of the pickups to make room for the veneer. So I made these by taking some thin wood that I sanded as thin as I could possibly get it. Then after cutting out the slots I glued it on top of the bobbin. I did not veneer the sides at all, just left it black. TWO 5-ways?!? Actually it's a 5-way and a 3-way. The way this guitar works is simpler than it looks. I have distilled some of the basic wiring into components that can then be strung together to produce some extremely versatile setups without being overly complex under the hood. To explain the 5-ways I will describe the whole thing. 1. Each pickup has a separate volume/tone stack 2. Each pickup also has a 3-way toggle for capacitor1/tone-bypass/capacitor2 3. Each humbucker has a 2-way toggle for humbucker/single mode (Barden TwoTone specific) The humbuckers then run into the first 5-way (independent of humbucker/single setting) which offers the following: 1. Bridge 2. Bridge and Neck in series 3. Neck and Bridge in parallel 4. Bridge and Neck series out-of-phase 5. Neck The output of this runs into the 3-way switch that controls the middle pickup like this: 1. Adds Middle to current setting (of the 5-way) 2. Middle pickup bypass (or 5-way only) 3. Middle pickup only (5-way bypass) The output of this switch then goes into a Master Volume. The output of the MV goes to the blower switch which works like this: 1. No change 2. Bridge pickup only (with humbucker/single setting) no volume/tone In order to get the 3-way and the blower to effectively bypass the signals (in Middle only and Bridge only modes) the system needed to be modular with a simple output wire from each stage. Then the output could be interrupted. I hope this makes sense. And yes, I do like wiring! It is one of the most fun aspects of doing the custom work. This particular guitar has the most amazing array of tones available. My client uses these guitars in the studio and out gigging. He assures me that once you get the hang of the setup it become second nature. ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 I had the pleasure of being there to see the claro partway in person, as well as a majority of the building of the other! Twas a blast! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted February 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 It was a great time Chris. We'll have to do it again! Got a pic of the knobs I had made for the limba Brazilian guitar: The line marker is white limba from the body wood. Totally cool!~ These are made to order by David King of King Bass in Portland. Knob's order page. ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narcissism Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 David King's a good guy! He sold me the pickups that i have in my old fretless bass, taught me how to wire it up, and even sent me a new pot when one of them started crackling. He also makes some interesting headless basses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ae3 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Those are some intense knobs! Must've taken you ages to fit the limba and etch the sides for each one. Knobs are usually an after thought for me, but you've made me re-think the way I look at them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmth Builder Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Awesome work as ever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted February 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 OK, the Korina Brazilian guitar is done. Man, this is one of my favorites. It was really hard to let it go. I was actually depressed after I dropped it off at the post office. I need to make myself one similar to it and it has to happen soon! This guitar blew me away. The simple woods and the vast array of configuration make for an extremely versatile tone machine. You'll notice that the pickup rings have changed. We decided to make all the covers look the same so form a distance the negative space isn't so weird. I really like the new look. This guitar played great. The larger chambered body with a substantial amount of wood leftover is a great recipe for a lighter weight guitar that still has the thick chunky tone of a solidbody. And the woods are so resonant. It was a joy to play. I miss it. Here's a pic: Here's the rest of the gallery: #078 main gallery And here's some more: #078 second gallery And the process pics: #078 process gallery I know, I took an insane amount of pictures but I couldn't help myself. Enjoy!~ ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 That's a lot of volume buttons for only 3 pickups... Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted February 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 That's a lot of volume buttons for only 3 pickups... Chris Not really. A standard LP has a volume and tone for each pickup. This one is identical except that it has a master volume. Each pickup V/T module is wired so that when turned all the way down they do not ground out the signal of the others (only the master volume shorts the signal). What this does is allow a precise and otherwise unobtainable configuration that is something like an onboard mixer. Now you can turn the mix up or down without affecting the mix ratio. This is essentially a studio guitar. This setup is ideal for that environment. ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ae3 Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Epic win Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Epic win... and the dry humor passes completely unnoticed hahahaha. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boundsteelblues Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 I agree about the pickup cover change. Looks incredible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Epic win... and the dry humor passes completely unnoticed hahahaha. Chris I got it Chris I agree, this build is epic win, and looks like a complete treasure to play. I would lose myself in the controls themselves, so maybe not for me to play just yet! On a side note, Dave, my girlfriend bought me the book Hand Made Hand Played, this past Christmas. I flipped the book over to the back cover, saw a picture of the Sungazer, and exclaimed, "I know that guy! I've talked to him online!" Definitely felt like the biggest geek that Christmas, lemme tell ya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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