Mr Natural Posted October 18, 2010 Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 Mahogany Body Mahogany/purpleheart/flame maple/purple heart/mahogany neck Ebony veneer on front of headstock 5 ply ebony/maple/ebony/maple/ebony veneer on back of headstock Indian Rosewood fretboard my attempt at the rotating pickup- not sure what I will use for the pickup yet-it will have active circuit. This is a build for a friend and co-worker. He is a huge Lindsey Buckingham fan. This build is on my tab, so certain decisions along the way may be based on economics, vs what I would do if someone was paying me or if I was building for myself. here is the Mahogany blank. Gotta a deal due to the knots- the wood is clear outside the lines- and I gave myself plenty of margin to avoid any potential issues with cracks etc due to the knots. These model ones are 2.5 inches thick in the middle- so the plan here is to cut from the same board (8/4), flip one piece so backsides are glued together and then thin down from there. about 30 minutes with the safe-t-planer and it was down to size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 neck woods underneath you can see large print outs of a picture I blew up and used as a template- "the ghetto method" of doing templates. ghetto method: 1)- snag a picture of the guitar you want to build. its best if you know the scale legth of the instrument. The picture needs to be as "straight on" to the guitar as possible- no angle shots etc. 2)- import the picture in MS paint. crop the picture if there is any background "stuff" going on. Hopefully your picture doesnt haven any. 3) - under the IMAGE option- go to RESIZE/SKEW and adjust the horizontal and vertical percentages (ALWAYS EQUALLY) to increase the size of your picture to be as big as possible while fitting onto a standard piece of printer paper. You may want to view your picture in "print preview" first and then gradually increase the vertical/horizontal (use 120% and see how big it gets). once you find the right spot- print out a copy of your picture- dont close out of MS paint yet. 4)- measure as accurately as possible the distance between the front edge of the nut and roughly the middle saddle of the high e string. divide your scale length by that number- and you come up with the percentage increase for your horizontal and vertical resizing- example- if your measurement is 5 and 11/16ths inches. Say you are doing a PRS 25" scale- take 25 and divide by 5.687 (11/16ths = .687 inches) and you come up with 4.395. Rounding to 4.40-this number becomes the factor to increase your picture with- so enter 440% in the horizontal and vertical resize fields. If you come up with greater than 500% to increase your drawing- you will need to increase your picture a little bit and then remeasure as MS paint cannot take greater than a 500% increase in resize mode. 5)- print out the new version, carefully (temp) tape together the pages and then measure frm the front edge of the nut to the middle of the high e saddle again and see how close you are. you should be pretty darn close. if not- adjust. Also take the time to clean up the now pixelated lines, clean up your curves, and also check and make sure that things like pickups or bridges appear to be about proper size. Sometime pictures on the web can be skewed before your grab them- and those will become obvious at this stage- if it happens to you- find another picture to use. if you are building a commercially available guitar- check the dimensions on the mfg web site or perhaps even distributors sites. remember- the pic you find on the web may be of a one off- so check all your measurements and use your head. 6)- if your pic is good to go- save the file- print out a couple more copies- glue to mdf and cut out your templates. it aint pretty- but it works when you dont have those fancy laser/cnc cut templates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 one of the interesting things about the turner model 1 guitars is that they have a 25 degree radius on the front and back of the guitar body. Here is a picture of the jig I will be using to accomplish this with. Its not set up yet- but you should get the idea. The router sits atop the jig. The legs of the jig have a 25 inch radius cut out of them. The tubing will be attached to the outside edges of the base (the base is my version of David Myka's neck pocket jig upside down). The router jig with then ride atop the tubing, and I take it back and forth (side to side) slowly cutting the radius into the face and back of the guitar. Turner uses a planer with a radiused blade to do this- I dont have that luxury unfortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 on my body template, I needed to cut a perfect circle in the middle where the rotating pickup housing will be. My circle cutting attachment for my router wasnt small enough, the attachment for my dremel router base was too large as well. Ended up drilling a small hole in the dremel router base itself and tapping in a pivot nail (you can see it here)- perfect. I would route a full rotation, vacuum it out, lower it a bit, repeat. about 8 rotations later- a perfect circle I ended up not liking the thickness of the maple in the neck, so I thinned it out- glued it up and I made sure I got 2 blanks out of this, incase I want to make another of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2010 One of Turner's employees drew up an artistic depiction of how a model one is built. It revealed to me that many of their necks have a solid mahogany headstock. This makes sense- the outside mahogany laminates in my neck will "flow" into that headstock, and any other laminate woods would only be covered up by the front and back headstock veneers. nothing fancy on how I do my scarf cut. Going old school: I clean up with a block plane and sanding board headstock attached. using a hotrod truss rod as I happen to have a couple on hand. The headstock picture (glued to the mdf) didnt reproduce so well- I will be re-working the final template for that one after using graph paper to "even things up a bit"- there is shadowing from the original picture and the headstock angle, once blown up for my template, made it unuseable. It did atleast give me some reference to use to attempt to keep things in proportion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akula Posted October 19, 2010 Report Share Posted October 19, 2010 Rotating pickup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2010 Rotating pickup? yeah- the pickup is in a housing that rotates like a clock face. I am not sure what the "travel" is on a real Turner model one- but I will be allowing this pickup to turn from roughly 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. The pickup housing is connected via a screw in the back of the guitar- which runs thru the body in the exact middle of the hole in the front of the guitar. The pickup can be positioned straight up and down (vertical to the strings), or you can have the top of the pickup more towards the bridge or neck. Kind of like how a tele or strat pickup is angled, except you can line it up towards the bridge or towards the neck. Not sure how much difference it makes sonically, just copying how they are done. This guitar has a lot of those little things I have never seen on other guitars, so this will defintely be a learning experience. (part of why I wanted to build it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim37 Posted October 19, 2010 Report Share Posted October 19, 2010 (edited) this may help btw akula i had to look to see what was going on with this build lol intresting guitar im sure its gonna be a fun build. Edited October 19, 2010 by Tim37 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2010 this may help Tim37- is that your guitar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2010 gluing up the front veneer, the back veneer was already glued at this point. here is the body cut out with the pickup mounting hole routed as well. I had to cut around the body outline with my router cause the 9" ryobi bandsaw I am pimpin wasnt doing well with that 2.5" mahogany chunk o wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IPA or death Posted October 20, 2010 Report Share Posted October 20, 2010 I always thought those were hollow bodies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2010 (edited) I always thought those were hollow bodies. The newer "featherweight" models have chambers. The old original MB1 models were solid from what I understand. Take a look at this- (I found this after I started this project)- according to this from Turner's site- with the exception of the control chambers- its solid. http://www.renaissanceguitars.com/pdf/MakingTheTurner.pdf also- I am basing this model after the "basic model"- nonbound, no top or back wood- like the guitar in this video- there is no upper control knob like the illustration on the turner site, so with the exception of the pickup cavity, the battery compartment and the control cavity on the lower bout- this momma's going to be solid. when it is done I expect this to weigh about the same as an old les paul. maybe a little less since the body on this are rather small. Peace- Scott Edited October 20, 2010 by Mr Natural Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2010 control holes drilled and battery compartment routed. I free handed the battery compartment, I will tidy that up a bit before putting the radius in the front of the guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2010 a bit more work on assembling the jig to cut the radius in the guitar body-at first I was going to try to glue down the pvc pipe- and realized that wasnt going to work- so instead I used a brad point bit large enough to create a hole that my screw bit would fit in- and then screwed down the pvc pipe that way. This keeps the pipe nice and straight, and didnt alter the surface the jig would ride on. I also added some blocks to keep the body from shifting- keeping in mind the body will have one screw thru the middle of the pickup hole holding it down. Once I cut the radius in the front, I will need to put in some "shim" type blocks to keep the body steady when I go to cut the back since I wont have an outer edge on the body once the radius is cut (an edge that will rest against the jig anyway) I will post pics along the way to show what I am talking about I plan on doing some test runs this weekend with it- cant wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IbanezDudeCK Posted October 23, 2010 Report Share Posted October 23, 2010 Interesting guitar to say the least. Good idea for getting the top radiused. How much is it going to weigh? Looks heavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponticat Posted October 23, 2010 Report Share Posted October 23, 2010 I thought I'd add these images illustrating a possibly easier method creating large circular holes: Here's where the parts wound up: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2010 ibanezdudeCK- this little buger is going to weigh about 10 lbs I estimate. I should get a better reading once I radius the body Ponticat- I had thought about getting a "flycutter"- but the nearest rockler/woodcraft store is about 50-60 miles away and I figured I could whip something up with what I had-(I had checked homedepot/lowes/ace- none had these) good to post though so people can see that tool if they are not familiar This weekend I reworked the headstock template- the original from my "ghetto template" printout wasnt going to work- I used graph paper to clean it up-cut out the headstock, started working the neck pocket here you can see the single ebony veneer on the front and the 5 layer ebony/maple veneer on the back. The volute will have that "alembic" style look (rick turner after all was one of the priniples behind alembic guitars) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim37 Posted October 25, 2010 Report Share Posted October 25, 2010 this may help Tim37- is that your guitar? no i had to google it to find out what was going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 I am using the gibson les paul templates I have for the neck on this one- I didnt take a very good picture-but I routed the neck and will need to clean up the tenon with chisel. I also got rid of the excess veneer on the back of the headstock- showing the layers for the veneers. If you have ever seen the back of an Alembic bass or guitar's headstock- you get what will be going on there, it will round up once I carve the neck. I am a bit nervous about that ebony chipping out when I carve. Its extremely brittle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geckoboy99 Posted November 12, 2010 Report Share Posted November 12, 2010 Looking forward to updates - always liked the Model 1. Wondering how/what you're going to do for electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted November 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2010 Started on the neck tenon with this one- I will be starting up on this again as the lap steel I am building is in its final stages- I am using the les paul templates I have for the tenon. I put painters tape on the underside of the template- and then a super light smear of glue to hold it tight. cleans ups in a couple passes of sand paper. The les paul template doesnt extend all the way to the pickup cavity- (you can see where the end of the tenon hasnt been cut out cleanly yet- but I still need to introduce the neck angle on this, which will clean up that end. I only took out 1/4 inch depth of this tenon. I need to re-assemble my (david myka style) neck jig to finish the tenon on it. I am finishing up the lap steel I am building before moving on with this one. as far as electronics- not sure yet. I was thinking active electronics and pu- I dont know yet- the guy I am building it for said "surprise me". Ok- the turner's have a high output pickup- I may just slap a high output passive in there- not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted December 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2010 So I started taking some of the vacation I have built up, only to have my back go out on me. UGH- I have been hobbling around the last few weeks- it hurts too bad to stand for too long- so I have been slow making any progress lately. Please excuse the mess in the shop- I cant bend over to pick up anything even if I wanted to!! I ended up getting the neck tenon on this finished up- shaping the fingerboard taper and getting it ready to have frets put on. I usually fret when the board is attached to the neck, but since the neck is not supported fully by the neck black (tenon area)- I would feel better fretting off the neck so I can fully support the fretboard while pressing in the frets. In this picture- I have the fingerboard temp attached to the neck blank- only to get the taper on the button - and check fit with body/double check angle to bridge, etc . I will remove the board from the neck, fret it and then attach. I am dying to put the radius on the body but that will definetely have to wait until my back is better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted November 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2011 so after a long time away (bad back, work, kids travelball baseball (spring and fall))- I started up on this again. here is the body radius jig and the end result. This was a lot of fun- took a while to cut- as I was taking very shallow passes- but my scrap mdf jig worked a charm. looking from the butt end of the guitar top almost complete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted November 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 so- here is the body with both side radiused and a coat of teak oil- which is basically danish oil with a uv inhibitor added. The pic is darker than what it looks like - I cant seem to get a good pic unless I go outside starting the rotating pickup housing- used a cut off from a strat body (alder)- so this will be pretty lightweight- but strong enough to hold/screw pickup into Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 Awesome! I don't have much else to say... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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