JoryNad Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 hey i was just reading around and was wondering how important templates and all that are, the reason i ask is because what im building hasn't been around since the 60's thus there are no templates/ dimentions of it, should i do something else or just make my own plans, thanks Quote
westhemann Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 make your own plans and use them to make your own templates Quote
Drak Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 Plans: Extremely important for starting out a project, but never be afraid to veer from the plans if your intuition tells you it's the right thing to do...but you have to have a plan to start out with. But then you have to totally geek out and break the plans all to hell by the end! Templates: Extremely important. Templates are like this...you have to go ve-ry ve-ry slowwww and be ve-ry ve-ry patient while making templates, they have to be ............PERFECT! So when you have a PERFECT template, you can zip around that bastard something fiercly fast. You can pop out a PERFECT Tele, Strat, whatever, in about 1/2 hour or less if your template was made PERFECT. Go slow -once- for making the template, and every time after that is zippety fast. No template, and every time is torturously slow and agonizing like Chinese water torture. These rules apply like stonehenge in my world, ...your world may be a whole lot different. Uhhh, do you live on Easter Island? Quote
Guitarfrenzy Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 Couldn't have explained it better myself Drak.. Nice analysis... I learned that it's much easier to sand out a 1/4" templates edge perfectly rather than trying to sand out a 2" thick piece of hardwood.. lol If you've still tried and can't get a good template you might want to buy some already made. Check out this site... Quote
guitar_ed Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 Hi All, Drak is 100% correct. One thing that he forgot to mention. It is does not break my heart to throw away a $1 or $2 piece of plywood. But a $40 piece of Ash or hard to find Walnut? Plus, plywood burns so pretty. Guitar Ed Quote
Page_Master Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 yup i agree, plans are extremely important. when i designed my first guitar, i didn't know how to use CAD. so everything was really inaccurate. i am talking really inaccurate. so i went and made the templates up before i knew how inaccurate it was, ruled some reference lines and i was shocked. so then it was back to the drawing board and i have redesigned my whole guitar in CAD - it took only a week and now i can use CAD. now it is accurate to the very 10000th of a mm. i ended up wasting about $12 on MDF due to my inaccuracies, but i still have my precious tone wood that i spent over $100 on - still untouched. Quote
Andreas Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 You cant go to an art gallery if your blind and you cant go to a concert if your deaf. The same stands for guitar...you cant make it without plans...You will try to shape it but you will not see it and you will try to bring it together but you will not understand what exactly you are doing. That said...Im making my plans for the templates now...(I have them on paper)..for a PRS. Basically I printed a straight-on-the-guitar photo and them measured 10-12 points on it and figured out its excact scale..(You can never get it right from only one measurment...I had values ranging from 244% increase to 236%). I enlarged it and printed it. I left a part of the neck to measure the frets to check my results. I was dead on the frets..it is a 25 in scale guitar and worked out the distances between the frets and checked it out. Does anyone else suggest another way I could check out the distances to see if they are correct? Quote
westhemann Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 .you cant make it without plans of course you CAN make it....it is just not the best way....i have made all of my guitars so far without plans or body templates,but it is much harder and you are better off with a set of plans to keep you on track Quote
diehardcrew Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 You cant go to an art gallery if your blind and you cant go to a concert if your deaf. Just to be a smart alec... Some deaf people do enjoy feeling the music, mostly the vibrations of the lower register, and blind people could enjoy the texture of art, especially if it's sculpture or 3D... (but it is true). Quote
Hotrock Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 You cant go to an art gallery if your blind and you cant go to a concert if your deaf. Just to be a smart alec... Some deaf people do enjoy feeling the music, mostly the vibrations of the lower register, and blind people could enjoy the texture of art, especially if it's sculpture or 3D... (but it is true). Yup, the girlfiend has just done an essay on Art Therapy. It's as boring as hell but you can let blind people play with some of the sculptures. And one of the best percussionists (if your into xylaphones) in the UK and indeed the world is deaf. Can't remember her name though. Right then thats enough of me being pedantic......... ...........back to the guitars. Quote
Andreas Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 well I was just seting a metafor....but ok. hehe I cant imagine being deaf...altho for a time period I was when I was too young to remember. Fortunately I was operated in time. Btw to set the meaning of my previous post right... You cant go to an art gallery if your blind and you cant go to a concert if your deaf. You can go..of cource you can go but it is obviously not going to be the same. So as making a guitar without plans...you will feel out of place, but yeas you can try and do it without plans if you feel you are a genius talent that can picture and translate perfect with his mind`s eye then go for it. Quote
bigdguitars Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 plans we don't need no stinking plans Quote
Dr. Jabsco Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 how much do CAD programs cost? and how the hell do you get a printer that big, or do you just tape the peices togeather... or am i missing somthing? -Dylan Quote
Andreas Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 tape the pieces...it usually takes 4 A 4 pages. It is pretty accurate. Quote
westhemann Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 how much do CAD programs cost? and how the hell do you get a printer that big, or do you just tape the peices togeather... or am i missing somthing? -Dylan take the plans in software form to kinkos or something similar,they can print it out full size for you Quote
weezerboy Posted June 8, 2004 Report Posted June 8, 2004 i see the use of plans like a map, you CAN walk the countryside without a map, but you're most likely to get lost Quote
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