what is your luthier bucket list?

[mistermikev]

it's good to have goals right?!  with that in mind I think a lot about my own build bucket list... helps me see in the short term what is important in the long term.  Basically a list of things I haven't done that I'd ultimately like to achieve.  Would love to see your list!

 

build bucket list:

1. study the masters: I've built a dano, tele, strat, p-bass... but in my mind there are a number of instruments that represent the "storyline" of building over the last 70 years (or more) and I want to learn by building them as close as possible to the original with some obvious deviations of my own.  for example... I really want to build a 59 burst.  other milestones -rick 4001, spector ns2, gibson les paul custom, gibson sg, gibson 335, flying v, explorer, gretsch white falcon or country gentleman, ibanez jem, alvarez scoop, guild jumbo, headless
2. build a semi hollow bass
3. build a 'one piece' neck with skunk stripe on back
4. build a guitar using a compression style truss rod
5. build a neck thru guitar
6. build a 335 center block style hollow body
7. build a "no center block" ie "true" hollow body
8. build an acoustic
9. build an entire guitar out of one piece of wood
10. build as much of the guitar as possible: diy tuning machines, frets and pots aren't practical... but I could see myself build my own truss rod, I could build my own bridge, pickups, pickguard/pickup-rings, knobs, nut, 

 

electronics bucket list:

- build my own pickups

 

other:

- build my own guitar stand

 

[Crusader]

On 4/2/2023 at 10:26 PM, mistermikev said:

9. build an entire guitar out of one piece of wood

 

[Professor Woozle]

I've got a whole load of things I'd like to build myself, when I've got some of the current pile of projects finished!

First up, I've got designs on building myself an 8-string Rickenbacker (already got a lot of the hardware for it) and a LP-style, but through-neck (again, got some of the hardware and wood). For the former, I'm probably going to have to machine myself a bridge but I do have a good MT2 pillar drill with cross-slide vice to do this

Swirling around in the list of other possibles are, in no particular order:
A strat - got an interesting figured bit of ash for a body and a nice birdseye maple fingerboard that would do for this
A 12-string baritone acoustic - I already have one of these but it has some issues I'm still trying to correct, and in the wood stash there's a back and sides of Amazon rosewood and a soundboard blank of red cedar set aside for this.
A tele with a stone body - yes, you heard that right, like any good mad professor I get the urge to do crazy experiments... I have a slab of the fine-grained limestone known as Ashford black marble in the garage and a set of diamond core-cutters,  I expect some serious weight relief would be necessary on this one.
A twin-neck guitar/cittern - I got given a gnarly yew stump several years back and the bits I've cut off the outside have been very pretty. Taking a slab across the widest point would give a single-piece body, hopefully with some really great figure. Hoping to get round to cutting later this year and finding out!

[mistermikev]

4 hours ago, Professor Woozle said:

I've got a whole load of things I'd like to build myself, when I've got some of the current pile of projects finished!

First up, I've got designs on building myself an 8-string Rickenbacker (already got a lot of the hardware for it) and a LP-style, but through-neck (again, got some of the hardware and wood). For the former, I'm probably going to have to machine myself a bridge but I do have a good MT2 pillar drill with cross-slide vice to do this

Swirling around in the list of other possibles are, in no particular order:
A strat - got an interesting figured bit of ash for a body and a nice birdseye maple fingerboard that would do for this
A 12-string baritone acoustic - I already have one of these but it has some issues I'm still trying to correct, and in the wood stash there's a back and sides of Amazon rosewood and a soundboard blank of red cedar set aside for this.
A tele with a stone body - yes, you heard that right, like any good mad professor I get the urge to do crazy experiments... I have a slab of the fine-grained limestone known as Ashford black marble in the garage and a set of diamond core-cutters,  I expect some serious weight relief would be necessary on this one.
A twin-neck guitar/cittern - I got given a gnarly yew stump several years back and the bits I've cut off the outside have been very pretty. Taking a slab across the widest point would give a single-piece body, hopefully with some really great figure. Hoping to get round to cutting later this year and finding out!

8 string... that's a good challenge.  a lot of pressure on that neck.  r u planning dual truss rod?  some sort of carbin fiber reinforce?  look fwd to seeing that thread.

12 string bari - another good challenge.  I love cedar... one of my fav acoustics is a cedar top.  

stone - I've seen a video of some guys at namm that do stone tops.  crazy stuff.  In my younger days I ran a lot of routers thru corian/solid surface and it's not quite as hard but many of the sm challenges.  need a big powerful router for that - used to use a 3.5hp.  Perhaps with stone/marble you need slower... I used to run that thing full bore to do a single pass roundover on sinks.  good times.

some great goals there.  appreciate you sharing.

[Crusader]

Thinking about it, building an entire guitar out of one piece of wood would probably need a fretboard unless its Maple you're going to use. But putting that aside, my ambition is to actually get something finished!

[mistermikev]

3 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Thinking about it, building an entire guitar out of one piece of wood would probably need a fretboard unless its Maple you're going to use. But putting that aside, my ambition is to actually get something finished!

finished - lol.  There is a guy on facebook john tuzukanaka or something-like-that (not sure on last name)... he builds all the time from one piece with a skunk stripe down the back.  I know he's built many out of maple but am not 100% sure if he's done any other woods.  I have also seen a guy do it out of purpleheart but that ended up heavy... but not to say you couldn't build it thin and get reasonable weight relief.  

I have also seen a brazillian who does these crazy hollow body guitars that are one piece.  he uses a fine bandsaw blade to cut them apart, carve them out, then re-assemble.  he does it somehow where the seam is invisible and that is something I'd like to try someday.  I've spent a lot of time making invisible seams using solid surface and feel like maybe I could pull it off.  It would def require a much better bandsaw than i have... and perhaps following the grain with the cut... and a very thin blade.  

anywho, thanks for the response!

[Professor Woozle]

18 hours ago, mistermikev said:

8 string... that's a good challenge.  a lot of pressure on that neck.  r u planning dual truss rod?  some sort of carbin fiber reinforce?  look fwd to seeing that thread.

That's something I have been turning over in my mind. I watched a vid on Youtube of someone who owns a 4008 playing and talking about it and he said it tended to flex around the  heel, which got me wondering if the standard Rick twin truss rods weren't giving enough stiffening. If so, maybe I should go for a single truss rod with two CF reinforcements either side going all the way to the neck pickup cavity. 

[mistermikev]

14 minutes ago, Professor Woozle said:

That's something I have been turning over in my mind. I watched a vid on Youtube of someone who owns a 4008 playing and talking about it and he said it tended to flex around the  heel, which got me wondering if the standard Rick twin truss rods weren't giving enough stiffening. If so, maybe I should go for a single truss rod with two CF reinforcements either side going all the way to the neck pickup cavity. 

my most recent builds - two 5 string basses... did carbin fiber reinforce on them.  they are also multi-lams of really rigid wood.  They most def are rigid.  amazing the rigidity two 1/8 x 3/8 strips of carbon fiber will add.  Other 5 strings I have seem like wet noodles compared.

[Professor Woozle]

Sounds like that's the way for me to go when I get round the build. I was  also considering using carbon fibre rather than steel for the neck reinforcement on my mandolin build, so I probably will.

[mistermikev]

43 minutes ago, Professor Woozle said:

Sounds like that's the way for me to go when I get round the build. I was  also considering using carbon fibre rather than steel for the neck reinforcement on my mandolin build, so I probably will.

well i dunno if you've sourced stuff yet... but I've found this place to be good quality and fair pricing: dragonplate.com

[Professor Woozle]

One non-guitar project I forgot to mention is recasing one of my amps, a Trace Elliot TA100R which currently has a rather tired looking plywood case. I want to redo it in solid timber (oak, mahogany or yew) but challenge myself and do hidden dovetail joints on the corners.

[mistermikev]

1 hour ago, Professor Woozle said:

One non-guitar project I forgot to mention is recasing one of my amps, a Trace Elliot TA100R which currently has a rather tired looking plywood case. I want to redo it in solid timber (oak, mahogany or yew) but challenge myself and do hidden dovetail joints on the corners.

right on.  dovetail is some challenging stuff... even with a jig!  Everyone should do some dovetail at least once... adding it to my bucketlist!

[henrim]

Stainless steel body. Not necessarily a resonator, but that is an option. I just want to build a large(ish) sheet metal container. Could as well be a motorcycle gas tank but the idea of steel guitar body has been in my head for a long time. Maybe more of a welding exercise than a quest in guitar tone. And when I say welding I mean welding, not soldering or brazing. 

[mistermikev]

3 minutes ago, henrim said:

Stainless steel body. Not necessarily a resonator, but that is an option. I just want to build a large(ish) sheet metal container. Could as well be a motorcycle gas tank but the idea of steel guitar body has been in my head for a long time. Maybe more of a welding exercise than a quest in guitar tone. And when I say welding I mean welding, not soldering or brazing. 

interesting.  as I understand welding ss is a much more rare skill.  love the idea of a ss resonator.... have always loved those national guitars.

zero welding skills here but you just reminded me that one thing I think I should try at some point is unconventional materials like carbon fiber cloth over wood, perhaps a carbon fiber neck, perhaps fiberglass wrap on wood... perhaps an epoxy/wood mix body and maybe a richlite fretboard at some point.

[henrim]

1 hour ago, mistermikev said:

as I understand welding ss is a much more rare skill

I have welded ss a bit but never a sheet metal construction. So I'm aware I may have to back up a bit and change the material to regular black steel or solder the construction together. If I really want to make that instrument. But the dream is to have a stainless steel unibody.

[mistermikev]

55 minutes ago, henrim said:

I have welded ss a bit but never a sheet metal construction. So I'm aware I may have to back up a bit and change the material to regular black steel or solder the construction together. If I really want to make that instrument. But the dream is to have a stainless steel unibody.

i made a rule with myself a while back and am struggling sometimes to stick to it - "don't back down just because it's hard or unknown".  it gets me into a LOT of trouble, but trouble is generally where I learn.  That said you have to also know when you've gone too far beyond your own boundaries!  Stainless... I get the sense you could pull it off.

[Professor Woozle]

Stainless welding isn't too different from mild steel, slightly different gas mix is needed  for MIG or TIG welding IIRC. I've done both in my time and if you've got a steady hand, stainless TIG welds can be pretty neat, especially on a corner.
The real issue with welding stainless is cleaning the weld area afterwards so that the oxide coat reforms properly - you can do it by sanding but if bits of grit remain they can interrupt the reformed oxide coat and allow corrosion to start, I've seen this on architectural stainless steel fittings. The recommended way to sort it is by cleaning with phosphoric acid. However, you could leave the welds as they are and treat the oxide colouring around the weld as a feature; lacquer over the black oxide on the weld to stop it going brown as it absorbs water.

[henrim]

5 minutes ago, Professor Woozle said:

Stainless welding isn't too different from mild steel, slightly different gas mix is needed  for MIG or TIG welding IIRC

Yes, you need argon. I have a TIG and an argon bottle. Heat warping is the thing I’m concerned the most as I have to use rather thin material. There are ways to prevent warping, like rolling beads on the material or what not. But then ss is rather difficult material to cold form.

[Professor Woozle]

Spot  tack welds around the whole piece holding it in position and stopping it moving when the main weld is done is the way I was taught to do it.I guess that would be easy to do when putting a front or back onto the sides with spots of weld say, every 5cm.

Forgot to mention, a guitarist I used to know had a fantastic LP - style resonator guitar (Beltona was the make, IIRC) which was chromed bell brass.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Professor Woozle

[Bizman62]

36 minutes ago, Professor Woozle said:

Spot  tack welds around the whole piece holding it in position and stopping it moving when the main weld is done is the way I was taught to do it.

Would a mould similar to building an acoustic guitar help?

[henrim]

3 hours ago, Professor Woozle said:

Spot  tack welds around the whole piece holding it in position and stopping it moving when the main weld is done is the way I was taught to do it

Basically like that. I have done a fair bit of automotive body work and such so I’m somewhat familiar with working with sheet metal. Tacking and leading a mild steel body would be relatively easy. With stainless I can see some challenge. 

[henrim]

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Would a mould similar to building an acoustic guitar help?

Most likely some kind of form or buck is needed to get the shape right but steel needs to be bent to shape before welding so that there are no tensions.

edit: maybe I start a new thread at some point where we can continue this discussion.

Edited April 19, 2023 by henrim

[Bizman62]

6 minutes ago, henrim said:

steel needs to be bent to shape before welding so that there are no tensions

Isn't that the case with the sides of a wooden acoustic as well? For the very little I know about welding is that the heat may twist even the most tensionless shapes of thin steel, tack welds or not. Then again, some faint memory tells that such overheating usually happens when the welder tries to make it all at one go instead of baby steps, cooling in between.

[woodfab]

When I was 20 I had dreams of building guitars for a living.

I was engaged to be married and I spent two weeks pay on wood to make 20 Guitars.

My feonsay was very upset thinking it was a wast a money.

Well, marriage, a house, and kids and 40 years later the wood is still here. 

I took me 10 years to get the shop I want.

Well I now have the tools.

I have Rosewood fingerboards, I hope I don't get arrested!

May be now I can make some Guitars.

[mistermikev]

1 hour ago, woodfab said:

When I was 20 I had dreams of building guitars for a living.

I was engaged to be married and I spent two weeks pay on wood to make 20 Guitars.

My feonsay was very upset thinking it was a wast a money.

Well, marriage, a house, and kids and 40 years later the wood is still here. 

I took me 10 years to get the shop I want.

Well I now have the tools.

I have Rosewood fingerboards, I hope I don't get arrested!

May be now I can make some Guitars.

well looks like some nice mahog.  rosewood isn't illegal to own... just not legal to transport in/out of the us.  at least... not without a cites doc.

so I take it your wood that was to become a run of pseudo mass produced guitars is now going to become "to hell with efficiency i'm going to build with no budget in mind and just build dream guitars?"  hope so!!