Fish On
I try to push myself beyond my comfort zone on every build. For this build I had planned many milestones: first time doing a scarf joint, first time doing a channel around the fretboard/headstock with veneer, first time doing a piezo bridge, first time building a bridge myself, first time doing a 5 string and reinforcing a neck via carbon fiber strips. This build is a "sister" to a purple heart version that is similar but fretless. I frequently build two because I use one build as sort of "lab rat", and anything that I'm unsure of myself on I attempt on that build first so that I can limit the risk of throwing away more expensive wood.
These two builds took forever. I had so many issues I can't even recall them all. I had cut the body on both of these thinking I was going to use a hipshot "Type D" bridge, and then made a mistake on cutting the studs too wide and decided I would take the opportunity to build my own piezo bridge but could not reconcile how I would get a ground wire to the strings. Fortunately, the forum was here for me, slapped me and said, "why don't you just do EMG and you don't need a ground". One of those, "why hadn't I thought of that" moments for sure (thank you all for your continued support!!).
I also realized after the fact that I had no wire channels for either the piezo or the magnetics, so I had to do a dangerous drill from the neck pocket all the way to the bridge, then connected that hole to a straight down hole from the bridge, then used "sanding cord" to soften the 90-degree transition.
This was my very first CNC build. Right off the bat my CNC broke down and screwed up the neck pocket on this version. If you look very carefully you can see just to the left of the fretboard where I spliced a piece back in to fix. Turned out to be an issue with a bad driver board that @curtisa and @MiKro were instrumental in helping me solve.
Initially I had planned to use fretboards that I bought but being a glutton for pain I decided to cut them out of oak/purpleheart on my machine. Problem is my machine is only 24" max, so I had to struggle with figuring out how to cut a 28 1/2" fretboard on it with acceptable precision. Again, relied mostly on an old thread I saw by @curtisa to manage that.
As usual the forum here gets 50% credit for my build. Always some member there to encourage me when I feel like giving up, and slap me when I think I know something. @Bizman62 and @curtisa also gave me a lot of feedback on my camera work, so I hope that help shows in the photos. Many of you have stopped into my thread with a word of encouragement and I very much need and appreciate that.
With that in mind, I stand here on your shoulders screaming "in your face guitar!" to this build... having barely survived it!!
SPECS:
- 27 Frets
- 35" scale length
- 10 deg headstock angle
- 1 11/16 Nut Width, 16mm String Spacing at the bridge
- Profile is a thin "C": .834" thick at the nut, .945" thick at the 12th fret
- Compound 6" to 8" radius fretboard
- 8lbs 8oz Weight.
MATERIALS:
- 3/4" Flamed Red Oak Carved Top
- 1 Piece mahogany body
- Multi-lam neck: Mahogany/Oak-Veneer/Sapele/Red-Oak/Sapele/Red-Oak/Oak-Veneer/Mahogany
- 24" LMII dual action truss rod and 1/8" carbon fiber reinforcement on either side
- Fretboard and headstock overlay are Flamed Red Oak
- Inlays are Maple and Gaboon Ebony
HARDWARE:
- Frets are Jescar Stainless Med Jumbo
- Gotoh Tuners
- Graphtech Saddle
- Graphtech Nut
- Bridge is Oak/Ebony has locking studs and grub screws for forward/reverse intonation movement
- Truss rod cover and control cavity covers are all secured via magnets
ELECTRONICS:
- EMG 35P Active Pickup wired to 18 volts
- Controls: Vm (volume magnetic), Tm (tone magnetic)
- Artec PP-537 under saddle piezo
- Handmade Active Bass/Treble Piezo Preamp
- Controls: Va (volume acoustic), Ta (treble boost/cut acoustic with push/pull preamp bypass), Ba (bass boost/cut acoustic)
- Switchcraft jack
Link to my project thread:
I would normally do a vide, but my office is a disaster area that I am not going to clean until I finish the purple one, so some sound demos will have to do for now...
Piezo:
Magnetic:
