My First Guitar Project

[schnarf]

I finally have all the wood I need save for the fingerboard and a possible veneer for the body (still considering my finish options). The neck will be maple, the body consists of two pieces of basswood which I glued before taking any pictures (the seam is perfect) and the fingerboard will be rosewood. I based the body's design off the JEM777, because I'm going for an RG/JPM/JEM sort of body shape. 25.5" scale length, 24 frets, and I'll have two humbuckers rather than one. Also, I won't be using a Floyd; I'm going to use a Wilkinson with Sperzel locking tuners and a graphite nut. Sixteen inch radius on the fretboard, jumbo fretwire. Here are some pictures of what I've done so far. You might find more here.

Tracing out the body:

Bandsawing:

At the moment I have some sanding work to do on the body, then I'll be routing the pickups and perhaps bridge. Does anybody have a routing template for a non-gotoh Wilkinson? Does anybody know why, on the JEM template, the pickup routing templates have different widths on each side for the screw holes? Thanks!

[SguitarM527]

looks nice for a first project. im on my first project right now. its a tele, and its comming along ok. sanding is a btich thougth.

[ThePlague]

is that the 9" delta bandsaw? i've been considering getting it. is it any good? (if it is the 9")

[guitman32]

Sweet progress man...keep us posted. How thick is that body? It looks pretty beefy ( and beefy is good).

[schnarf]

Sweet progress man...keep us posted. How thick is that body? It looks pretty beefy ( and beefy is good).

It's about 1 3/4" thick.

[Guitar1Jesse]

How do you do those cutouts with the bandsaw? i'm guessing they're too tight of turns to just cut along, so do you just cut out chunk by chunk or what?

[american_jesus]

it's roughin up pretty nice. need to take some sandpaper to it and get it all done well.

how you gonna do the routes? and what kind of bridge you usin?

[Dr. Jabsco]

Anwsering bandsaw questions--

I have the 9'' delta and it works great! i deffinatly recomend. it was a great price as well i think around $120

and with the cutouts, yes a bandsaw can do that in one pass if your really good at using it tho, for me I had to cut through the acces wood and go back in.

the only problem is that somtime the body wont clear the 9" margin if you are trying to turn it a certin way, but that was with a bass, a guitar body should be easyer, and also if you just plan out your cuts around it then its not a problem.

I think the turning diameter on it is 1" so you can get real tight cuts if you practice.

[ThePlague]

thanks. i'll probably end up getting that one.

[schnarf]

I did that all with the bandsaw; I had some trouble with the horns but I'm just sanding that out. The sanding's looking good, I'll have some pictures soon. How much do those cylindrical or belt sanders run? I might get one if they're not too expensive.

I'm going to use a non-Gotoh Wilkinson bridge. For all the routing, I'll be, uh, using a router, I was lent one of those that can do both plunge routing and the other kind. As you can see, I'm an expert on the use of a router. I need a bit of help with the pickups and bridge. Any tips?

[SguitarM527]

i have a belt sander itt works really well. you can get a combination belt/disc sander for about 100 USD. anyways the belt sander is realy helpfull for sanding out all those annoying bumps that you cant get anyway else.