argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Hi y’all! This argytar from Greece. I am an ENT surgeon and it has been more than 15 years that I have been building guitars on and off. These days are very difficult since tha virus started spreading here in Greece and my practice and the decrease of moving back and forth ha brought me closer to my shop. Of course my phone is ringing almost every 15 minutes , but that is another thing. Anyways, I have recently tried a friend ‘s epi firebird VII and loved the feel. I had some hardware lying around and after some offset builds (like the Pimp-master) I decided to give a birdie a go with a twist. I will make it out of a single block of ayouz wood or obeche which is very very light!. I have found a somewhat old steardy dry piece and started working in my little nonetheless spare time. So firstly, I layed out the outline using a 1:1 printed firebird studio .pdf that a friend of mine printed out with his plotter. Then, I used a jigsaw to cut out the outline. After measuring and drawing on the wood the center line it was time to lower the body 2 mm. That is how much the Obeche part of the neck would have been protruding from the body should it was glued on. I want it at an angle so that is the first step I took. I used an old method, I got me router to make large grooves of 2 mm. The body was 52 mm thick. That means I had plenty of wood to work on. Using a small hand plane I flattened the surface. To be continued... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 ... right away. So afterwards it was time for me to give an angle to the neck. Firstly I used a fretboard template to rout the outline of the neck. Right after that, I used the power planner to give an angle to the headstock. Then, I put two steel rails and an elongated base to my router and I used it as a jig to bring the neck back. After some planing and sanding on a flat belt sander it was straight as an arrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Continuing with the build, it was time to cut for the truss rod channel. I want to use a traditional rod with a maple strip cap for added rigidity. I laid out the borders of the channel with a ruler. Then, I pressed a sharp chisel on the lines to separate the wood a little bit. That helped a lot because as I used the concave chisel the central wood strip started raising up real nice and clean! (-ly) A narrower router bit helped me lower the channel at about 8 mm and remain inside the borders of the channel. I drilled the central part to the depth of 17mm and used the chisel to make a contoured channel by hand. That was surprisingly easy because this wood is so soft... hmmm I cut the rod to the length I wanted it and toped it. Tried it out and it seems to fit nicely! After some time I decided to lower the body a bit like on the old firebirds. I measured and routed the body down with channels as I did earlier with the body front. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Some more pics of the truss rod procedure... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 I marked a contour to the bottom of the maple block and shaped it with the spindle sander. i then applied titebond glue and clamped it lightly on the rod without pressing too much and left it there to dry for a couple of days. When I returned, I used the hand plane to get it nice and level. After that, it was time to cut frets on the rosewood board. I used the guitar neck to route a channel to the sides of the boards for the cream binding. I installed the pearloid fretboard dots... And the binding is also installed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Side dots are ready. Started the fretboard radius. It will be 12”. Finished it with the aluminum beam. Designed a maple veneer for the headstock. Cut it with the dremel moto saw. ... and glued it on the guitar. Marked the back of the neck and I cut the excess wood with the jigsaw. Afterwards I thickness the back of the neck with the safeTplanner to 2mm. Some more shaping was done at the volute area with the spindle sander... Started bringing the back down to achieve 40mm thickness. levelled it well with the hand plane. Marked for the side steps. And there they are with the same channelling way with the help of the router. Did the belly cut too. Routed out the neck pickup. I want the neck pup to be a p90 and the bridge pup to be a minihum Neil Young style. I will add a bigsby... The guitar is very very light!!! 1.7 kilos withouth the board and hardware! That is the weight of a light strat body!!! Started installing frets. Hosco M1 narrow jumbo. The scale is 25.625” so I guess this will suit the high register nicely spacewise... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 So I would like some opinions! I want to paint her green metallic nitro. The neck pup is a black p90. Would you put a black or a metallic ring at the bridge minihum? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted March 22, 2020 Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Wow! It goes to show that even Lidl tools are good enough for a hobbyist. I'd vote for a black ring to match the black P90. Seeing that the hardware isn't too shiny I'd also sand the plastic of both the ring and the P90 matte. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 33 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Wow! It goes to show that even Lidl tools are good enough for a hobbyist. I'd vote for a black ring to match the black P90. Seeing that the hardware isn't too shiny I'd also sand the plastic of both the ring and the P90 matte. Hi! Well, some of them are on the cheap side but I got some good ones too like stew mac stuff , Bosch jigsaw, makita orbital sander etc. Anyways thanks for the input! I will try for a slight relic! I will make a black ring for the mini hum and try it out!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted March 22, 2020 Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 Don't get me wrong, for a hobbyist even market tools can well be good enough. I've had my Black and Decker hammer drill for over 30 years and the Johnswell cordless drill with original battery for about 25 years and they both still do their job. And I still kick my arse for not buying the Lidl/Parkside hand router for half the price, the reason being that I already had a similar one by another brand. For €30 the 12 bit pack alone would have been worth it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 24 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Don't get me wrong, for a hobbyist even market tools can well be good enough. I've had my Black and Decker hammer drill for over 30 years and the Johnswell cordless drill with original battery for about 25 years and they both still do their job. And I still kick my arse for not buying the Lidl/Parkside hand router for half the price, the reason being that I already had a similar one by another brand. For €30 the 12 bit pack alone would have been worth it! Yeap, especially in the early days I didn’t want to invest too much , nowadays I tend to buy better stuff but if the cheap old ones still hold up and do their job I keep them! Parkside has some descent examples as I can see!! The planer more than does its job (I only use it for that one thing) and the cordless screwdriver too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willliam_q Posted March 22, 2020 Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 I have the same Bosch router, it’s ok but when you see newer routers coming with the micro adjustment wheel I get tempted to change. a lot of my other tools were Lidl, the belt sander and random orbital and both do a decent job. they had a band saw for £70 I think last week, looked similar to the saw I have. If I didn’t already have one I would have bought as I don’t find any limitations with my own. (Other than I can no longer find blades any more) ive taken the view that as I’m not making any to sell (yet) I don’t need and shouldn’t be buying expensive guitar building tools. If I ever made a bit of hobby money on the side from building then I could probably justify the better tools. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 22, 2020 Report Share Posted March 22, 2020 This is a very ambitious build, and you seem to be all over it. Carry on, I'm enjoying this one! SR 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted March 23, 2020 Report Share Posted March 23, 2020 Me too Scott. Love how he just grabbed the damn guitar right out of the block of wood. You don’t see many one piece guitars. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2020 (edited) Thanks fellas! So I decided to draw the bridge pup cavity and press it down with the scalpels. Then with the help of the router it looks sth like the following pics.. Edited March 23, 2020 by argytar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayT Posted March 23, 2020 Report Share Posted March 23, 2020 Looking great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2020 So I do not have any large pickguard material lying around... I had a lot of plexi glass though. I have used it in the past ... So I cut one piece up as a pickguard for now at least... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted March 23, 2020 Report Share Posted March 23, 2020 The ring of the bridge pickup looks to be surprisingly similar in size to the P90 and knowing that the strings spread wider in that area as well I suppose it will follow the long wedge from the nut to the bridge closely enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2020 12 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: The ring of the bridge pickup looks to be surprisingly similar in size to the P90 and knowing that the strings spread wider in that area as well I suppose it will follow the long wedge from the nut to the bridge closely enough. Hope it will! No that is actually a TV jones humbucker adapter ring. I put it there to see how black looks like, compared to the black neck soapbar. I might have to make one and see what is up. I want to try an aluminum one too and see what fits better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 Frets almost done... i used a maple neck blank to install them with ca glue and the JAWS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2020 And the board is on the neck!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2020 So I got some more progress down today. I shaped the back of the neck with the shaver a little bit. I tapered the side winds to go from 34 to 30 mm like in the old firebirds. I use the hand planer and the orbital sander. I used the dremel to put a chamfer on the sides... Then I drilled for the pots and the input jack. Did a little cavity work. I like it even better now! Let us see how it turns out! It will be light!! Like 2.6 kilos!!! It has a nice bassy ring to her when you tap her , I believe the sustain will be extraordinary! I wanted to paint her green metallic but now I am having second thoughts... any suggestions?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted March 26, 2020 Report Share Posted March 26, 2020 Green sounds nice! For some reason I'm thinking about a deep translucent British Racing Green with a black burst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argytar Posted March 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 Installed the missing frets and drilled to connect the cavities with one another. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 very nice looking guitar. 1 piece is pretty cool and has it's own set of challenges - you are overcoming them well. cudos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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