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Sabre Body For Ibanez S-470 Neck


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Hallo. Thank all of you for sharing your skills here. I am a beginner in guitar building, so far made two bodies. One of spruce, one of sapeli that I want to show. I bought a nice second hand Ibanez neck and trem, so it was an obligation to make a decent S body for it. I tried to carve the body with a radius jig, to some extent successfully. I have not seen many S shaped bodies made by luthiers, so I wonder how others do it.

More photos here: http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_S

P1140836.jpg?ver=2
Ibanez S470 neck,
sapeli mahogany body, thickness 13-45mm,
thin shellac finish,
Edge Pro tremolo,
AANJ,
HH, Ibanez NeoZ pickups
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Sapele always has a ribbon figure when quartersawn.

Tone-wise, it's a bit darker than mahogany.

On the plus side, it's not only cheaper than mahogany, but there is only one strain, so you'll always know what you're getting. AND it works easily.

On the bad side, it's sometimes sold as mahogany, and is often harder to find.

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I am glad you like it, thanks.

Here in the Czech Republic you can buy only sapeli (if you are lucky enough), no other of the mahogany family.

This one is very heavy, hard, sounds pretty bright.

The jig is similar to the one for fretboard radius, with only half of the arc and a flat top. Works well, but needs three hands. I moved the router with my right hand only, holding and rotating the body with my left, it was no good, killed one router bit.

P1140582.jpg?ver=2

I am very happy that I made the jack hole and the switch slot quite nice clean, because the wood chips so easily.

My first one of wormy spruce was not clean work at all, though I tried hard. Photos: http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_GTR/

Edited by kmensik
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I am glad you like it, thanks.

Here in the Czech Republic you can buy only sapeli (if you are lucky enough), no other of the mahogany family.

This one is very heavy, hard, sounds pretty bright.

The jig is similar to the one for fretboard radius, with only half of the arc and a flat top. Works well, but needs three hands. I moved the router with my right hand only, holding and rotating the body with my left, it was no good, killed one router bit.

P1140582.jpg?ver=2

I am very happy that I made the jack hole and the switch slot quite nice clean, because the wood chips so easily.

My first one of wormy spruce was not clean work at all, though I tried hard. Photos: http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_GTR/

Very nice, definitely seems to be working.

I take it you're using cable ties (or similar) to hold your power on when using the jig... makes it a bit easier.

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Wow, you really nailed that. Totally looks like the real thing. I am a self-professed Sabre-lover also so if a reliable method of producing the radiused top and rear has been formulated, I am totally on it. How did you work out the radii for the jigs? I haven't even attempted to record or measure them myself yet so would be interested in how you managed it. I guess that I should really stop being lame and dig out the rasps! :-)

My number one is a Sabre plus I made a great fixed-bridge 26,5" 7-string which is a real player. Great work. I expect to see this one entered in Guitar Of The Month!

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The original S body radius ranges from 160 to 270mm, but the transition between the carve and the flat middle is sanded to a fluent curve, so it looks like the whole top is curved. As I had my body thicker (45mm vs 40mm) I made the radius 400mm, so that it looks slimmer overall.

body_radius_400.jpg?ver=2

Anyway, a lot of rasping and sanding after the routing, especially in the waist. The S carving is fairly complex to be done by one simple radius jig.

By the way I determined the radius of a Yamaha RGX520 top almost exactly 1meter, but that one is a plain cylider section.

Prostheta, I want to see your Sabre. I thought of making a 24 fret neck to another 22 fret body, adding the two frets to make it a longer scale (I mean it would be 648mm 2nd fret to bridge).

As for GOTM you are kidding? It is only the body I made.

One more thing: 400mm should be the radius of the fretboard, one more reason to choose that one for body.

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GOTM is open to all project guitars whether they are modifications, partial builds or full instruments. I guess the presumption is that the instruments need to be scratch built however Project Guitar was founded more on the basis of the full range of projects.

Yeah, I posted my Sabre over there too. I probably posted all the photography I have done on it in that topic. Mine was made using an overstock Ibanez body which I modified by blocking out the rear and front cavities using the tutorials I picked up on here for that purpose (http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/page/articles.html/_/tutorials/instrument-building/trem-to-hardtail-conversion-r48).

s7_21.jpg

I did some measuring of my S1540FM based on a body thickness of 40mm and calculated approximately a 875mm radius over the widest points down the entire guitar, plus a smaller radius of 600mm in the waist. These are of course approximate because the back and top of the guitar have flat planes where the pickups, bridge and rear cavity are located. I guess I could make arced templates to measure it but hey. I think the important point in any case is to maintain the slim edge profile at the correct points (18mm-23mm in the waist, 15mm narrow corners at the rear, 18mm at the rear strap button if I recall). I thought it strange how your radii were so much smaller than mine however then I read that you increased the overall body thickness to 45mm. That would do it!

Yeah, I'd love to make another Sabre at some point. Both of them are my favourite guitars by a long mile. Got a lot of other guitars and basses to exorcise first though.

The fretwire is Jescar EVO fretwire which is (as far as I am aware) the same as that which Warwick use.

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