Geoff St. Germaine Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Since I've finished one of my 6 string basses, it's time to add a new project. A friend of mine, who's quite the violin/fiddle player was over a few weeks ago and has been considering starting to play guitar for a while. When he saw the instruments I have in progress and completed he became immediately interested in having me build one (the price being the cost of materials probably contributed as well). After some discussions and looking at a bunch of guitars, he decided on a sort of hybrid hollowbody/electric with an arched top on it. Like my friend and the Jazzmaster, he'd like to be involved in the building. The specs we settled one are: 25" scale, 22 frets Hollow sapele body with carved curly maple top Curly maple neck with ebony fretboard Ebony bridge and tailpiece Ebony/maple/dyed maple veneers on both sides of the headstock Golden Age PAF pickups with nickel covers Amber burst finish top and neck, blackburst on the sapele back White binding on neck, headstock and body So far we've been working for 3 days and here's what we've done: Bought some maple and sapele: Cut out the body halves on the bandsaw and glued them up: Routed the body to the template: Hollowed out the body first using Forstner bits, my buddy was assigned the task of drill press operator: Cleaned it up with the router: Carved the top. I didn't get any shots of the router work, but we cut a series of ledges matching the desired contouring before moving on to gouges, rasps and a spokeshave: The top is rough carved enough to start the inside of the carve: The inside carving is being sped up quickly using a jig I built for the drill press. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it, but I can get one and throw it up if anyone's interested. It's just a 1" x 1" pillar about 6" long with a felt pad mounted to the top. This is mounted to the drill press and the depth stop was set to get a 1/4" thick top, which should be plenty to make it easy enough to get to the final depth of about 3/16". Here's a progress shot of the top: At first I was a little hesitant of getting too close to the edges where there was more curvature. I wasn't sure how well the jig would pull the body so that the outer surface would sit tangential to the felt pad. It turns out it worked very well and we were able to get most of the top drilled out with a 3/4" Forstner bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted August 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Here's where we ended yesterday: Hopefully we'll get some more progress soon. We're both busy flying this week, so we'll see how it works out. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi79 Posted August 11, 2012 Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 (edited) This is going to come out awesome dude! Very similar to something I'm getting started soon. Edited August 11, 2012 by Levi79 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diffidentia Posted August 11, 2012 Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 Looks awesome already! If it comes even close to that bass it'll be marvelous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted August 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 Thanks guys! The tricky part for me on this one is going to be the binding. I've never done it before, so I'm entirely sure what to expect. That's why there's scrap wood, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted August 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 Here's my scarf cutting jig and the neck blank with the scarf cut. I use the jig to prevent the headstock piece from sliding off the neck due to the non-parallel clamping surfaces. Here's where it's at now. The back of the arch is almost done... there's some tweaking to the front and back of it that we're going to do. The neck has the ebony headstock overlay glued on. The next steps are finishing the top, cutting the f holes and installing the top braces. The neck will have the truss rod channel routed next before the side profile is cut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted August 18, 2012 Report Share Posted August 18, 2012 This is gonna be awesome. That body looks very reminiscent of an Abyss/Pederson Doublecut. Will keep a close eye upon this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted August 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Thanks Anthony! Yeah, the Pederson DC, PRS McCarty and some of David Myka's work are what my friend liked and what the design came from. Here's some more work on the guitar. The truss rod channel is done. The tailpiece is mostly finished as well. Here's a shot of all of the string holes and end strap bits cut and drilled into the blank. Here's where it sits now: The top still needs some more clean up, then it will be bracing and lining the f holes, drilling the holes for the pots and switch and then the top will be glued on. The neck top profile and fretboard profile templates are next to be made for the neck, then once those are done the neck will be brought to final rough shape. Then the fretboard will be brought to shape and bound prior to gluing to the neck. One experiment coming up is trying to bend some ebony to laminate to the back of the peghead. It should prove interesting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Great stuff. I am doing something similar right now and I decided to make a wooden tailpiece. However I was so concerned with grounding issues (and to some extent strength) so I came up with a completely over engineered solution (can post a pic if anyone is interested). However (and that’s the point of my post…) I’m very interested in how you have solved the grounding with an all wood tailpiece and a violin/Benedetto style tailpiece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted August 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 As of now the intent is to not run a string ground. I have been able to do this in a couple of instruments by having a very well shielded cavity and pickup covers. The concern with this instrument is that the hollow body doesn't really lend itself to a shielded cavity, so I'll be building a box for the two pots and switch to mount into and push through the surface. If this is insufficient to get quiet operation, the fall back will be based around inlaying a brass strip into the tailpiece where the strings anchor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted August 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2012 Here's where it's at now. Did some more carving around the waist and upper horns as I wasn't happy with the match to the lower part of the body. I got more of a 3D effect with the carving now, so I'm quite happy with it. Made the parallel braces and glued them in. They're quite a pain in the butt. I used a technique with a pencil and a washer to transfer the arch of the top to the brace stock, but it still wound up being a lot of fussing with getting the curve exactly right. One one of them I took a bit too much off, so I used some veneer to build the small area back up and reshape it. In the end I wound up with a night fit that required very little clamping pressure to get a nice squeeze out of glue. After seeing the inside of a few archtops that were finished to near perfection, such as Ken Parker's work, we decided to have the inside look good in case someone decided to look in through the f holes. Probably a waste of time, but we weren't happy to close it up looking slopping and not finish sanded. Some danish oil was applied. After the bracing dried, the pot and switch holes were drilled and the top was ready for gluing. Fortunately the maple stayed extremely true and very minimal clamping was required compared to what I had envisioned and what I had ready to go. I guess because the edges of the inside aren't shaped exactly like an acoustic archtop's would be and the fact that the sides are quite a bit stiffer the requirement for a violin type clamp every few inches wasn't there. Anyway, the result was an invisible seem. Some more work on the neck was accomplished. The fretboard is bound and ready for the neck. The peghead has the veneers laminated on the back and the volute is rough carved as well. So next up it's getting the fretboard glued on, the binding channels and neck pocket routed in the body and preparing the frets (which I am pretty much dreading). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi79 Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Looking great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted September 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2012 (edited) Thanks Levi! A guy who has checked this guitar in progress is now asking me to do a full acoustic archtop guitar. It looks like I'm going to have projects to keep me busy for quite a while... and some learning to do. Edited September 2, 2012 by Geoff St. Germaine 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted September 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2012 I got the back binding channel routed. I was building a jig to route the top binding and figured the bottom part of it could be mounted to the router table rather than ordering a bit with a bearing that was 0.090" smaller. It worked quite well, though I may still order the as it would probably speed things up as it wouldn't require the testing that this method required (testing to set both height, and depth of cut) and it would be easier to route into tight curves. The setup: The result: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted September 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2012 Today we started binding the headstock and getting the neck ready to glue on the fretboard. Unfortunately on the LMI order we'd thought there were 5 pieces of white binding in the order, but what came on the shipping invoice was only one, so we're stuck here until the next order comes in with the rest of the binding and parts for 2 other guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 I'm thinking of setting up the exact same binding router jig as this one. How has this build turned out, by the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted December 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) I've been away for most of the past 2 and a half months. The only progress I've made is some work on the neck pocket. The only thing left on it is to get it all the way down to the right depth. After that I'll fret and carve the neck and then glue it in. Edited December 10, 2012 by Geoff St. Germaine 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 how in gods name did I miss this awesome build? I LOVE that shape man! It looks glorious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted December 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 Thanks a lot Bob! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walka Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 Nice job, but guitar building and booze isn't the best combination Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) Nice job, but guitar building and booze isn't the best combination I will politely disagree sir Now where's that bandsaw..... Edited December 10, 2012 by bob123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 guitar building and booze isn't the best combination Liar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 I don't even think this one needs putting to a vote. Obviously, moderation is important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redb Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 Im not sure about the Fholes. but its still a cool shape. what color will you be making it ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted December 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) The booze (and cigar) was post carving relaxing. The colour is going to be a burst. I'm not entirely sure what colour, maybe a yellow-amber or yellow-orange/brown. My other six string bass is turning out well, so the burst will probably be along these lines without the colour going all the way out to black. Edited December 10, 2012 by Geoff St. Germaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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