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Revisiting an old design


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Was messing around with ideas a couple of years back. Been wanting to attempt something that is more my own body design. Current plan is to extend the bout on the bass side so that it looks more balanced. It will also be a single pickup design and unlike  the guitar it is inspired by (you can probably guess) it’s going to have a headstock. Going to try and use what I already have...so it’s going to be either 3x3 or 6 inline.

Got some really cool spalted beech for the top. 

Suggestions welcome of course! 👍 Noticed if you click on the image it’s better quality, worth doing so so that you get a better view of that wood 😉

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22 minutes ago, henrim said:

That is some wild looking wood! Is that top flat? It looks like there is huge impact craters on it 😁 If it’s flat that is an amazing 3D effect. If it’s not that’s cool too. Either way it will be a nice fit with the body shape!

Yes, it’s flat 😎 Needs a bit of time to acclimatise mind you. I think the cold journey to my house during the delivery has messed about with the moisture content slightly. Hopefully it will be within the right levels over the next couple of weeks. 

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Really cool wood!

Just as a reminder: When acclimatising wood, make sure there's good airflow also under the piece. A friend just had a body blank cupped just because he had stored it on the table instead of having a couple of slats underneath. If possible, having slats on both sides and a weighted board on top will ensure straightness.

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9 minutes ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

maybe if it did cup slightly it would stay on the top anyway with the titebond holding it?

If you can close the gap by pinching between your thumb and just one finger the glue should hold it.

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I had 7mm maple boards that I had stored carelessly and they were pretty badly warped. I put them under weight for a long time. Months, maybe a year. That didn't make them perfectly straight. So I moistened the boards from one side and used hot clothing iron to press them straight. As I followed the progress I sprayed more water and heated again. It's pretty amazing how easily they leveled. Then I stored them under weight for a couple of months and now they have kept straight. In the attached photo there is the other one of the concave boards before ironing. Not the best shot but shows that the board was warped to more than one direction.

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Edited by henrim
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20 minutes ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Just out of interest Henrim, how long had you stored it before it warped? 

Those boards are at least 10 years old so I don't really know when that happened. Although I believe it must have happened shortly after I got them, tossed in the shelf and forgot there. No proper care was taken to let them acclimatise.

Edited by henrim
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2 hours ago, henrim said:

tossed in the shelf and forgot there.

Exactly that. If you lay wood on a flat surface the bottom side is isolated from the humidity changes of the room. More often than not it means that there's some moisture at least on the surface of the wood. If the wood is colder than the room it's brought in - which often is the case here in wintertime if we've had it in the car for transport - any moisture in the room will accumulate on both surfaces and if it's then tossed on a flat surface the moisture can't evaporate from the bottom side.

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a top around 7mm with some cupping will probably conform anyway  then the glue joint will hold it flat, but you can do the heat gun trick something I used with success the day before yesterday. Place the wood hump side up and go over it with a heat gun for a few mins, focussing on the middle where the hump is, get it hot but don't scorch it and you will see if start to flatten itself out after a few mins, then leave it under heavy weight for a couple of weeks and it will remain flat or close to flat. 

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The wood has settled in perfectly now. Did a bit of work this weekend. Drew up a plan and I found out that the design did not quite work visually with a standard hard tail design and also didn’t give me masses of room for adjustment, based on the small scale length I’m using (23.5). I also figured that due to the short scale length I may as well make the body more parlour sized. Will be sanding a gradient in the forearm section so that it goes down to the walnut underneath. Will probably finesse the shape slightly as I’m working on it.

Not glued up yet, just roughly lining things up so I have a general idea. 

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So I’ve done a rough contouring on the body (still a couple of very minor alterations to do). Also took off the ziricote board from an earlier build. Repurposing that haha. Laid everything out for a rough idea. Will be continuing the spalted theme on the cap of the headstock, the veneer is just there for show. 

For some reason everything looks Amber in the living room. Must be the lights. 

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17 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

So I’ve done a rough contouring on the body (still a couple of very minor alterations to do). Also took off the ziricote board from an earlier build. Repurposing that haha. Laid everything out for a rough idea. Will be continuing the spalted theme on the cap of the headstock, the veneer is just there for show. 

For some reason everything looks Amber in the living room. Must be the lights. 

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I like this very much :)

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The last couple of days have been spent routing the oversized control cavity (a tiny bit of weight relief), angle grinding a belly cut and installing some inlays. Yes, it’s the spalted beech in there 😉 Still need to do up the 21st fret ofcourse. Will probably put some superglue on top of them, although it’s really not too bad in terms of hardness to be honest.

Looking like this build will be around 6.5 to 7 lbs when complete. Not bad.

The headstock is going to have a spalted beech cap on it too, completing the look. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Slight dilemma about the output jack. I’m considering putting it on the top of the guitar. Because when I put the body in my playing position sat down,  due to the smaller size of the body I can imagine the lead getting in the way if it was in the standard location. Seems a good a reason as any, although I know that some people turn their noses up at the top mounted jacks.  My personal opinion is that it looks fine if one uses a right angled lead.

Not sure if the strat style output plate would suit it to be honest; so would probably just be a basic SG type affair. 

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1 minute ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

I know that some people turn their noses up at the top mounted jacks. 

Way back when I didn't know much about guitars at all I thought that most electric guitars have a top mounted jack. Was it because of Strats? I can't remember. Anyhow it's an option among others. And even on full size bodies the jack is in the way if you play in the classical position with the guitar between your legs (like I do)

What other options do we have? Well, if you can mount a jack on the top, you can as well mount it on the rear. A Strat type boat will work in the rear as well as on the topo and it can even be put upside down. Or just carve a slanted hole in the style of the S-boat. Someone did that not too long ago.

Similarly you can insert the jack into the side, even the S-boat if thickness allows - and it most often does. A jack facing upwards on the side would put the plug more comfortably and the cable would continue naturally behind the strap which a common way to prevent accidental pull-offs.

Through the strap button is yet another option but that would have required a channel being carved before gluing the top.

Other than these? My imagination/experience doesn't tell but that doesn't mean there aren't more.

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