Leaderboard

Hello everybody! Just for some quick background this will be my 4th build. They've all been a little less than straightforward and range from a 70's era Martin acoustic kit to an entirely 3D printed Les Paul Jr. Anyway onto the concept for this build. I've seen several guitars throughout the years with built in amps but they've all been low quality or gimmicky. That being said, if you look past the shortfall of what's commercially available the concept seems solid. Theoretically speaking there's a lot of common ground between what makes a good solid guitar body and speaker cab. I'm in the tube amps are better camp so to hedge my bet and fulfill another long time project itch I'm going to try and package a tube amp in a Telecaster. I wanted to keep each element as simple as possible since I'm trying to mix a lot of things. I've been brainstorming ideas for the last few weeks and settled on drawing inspiration from an Esquire for the guitar half and a "champ" for the amp half. The body is going to be wrapped in tweed and the pickguard will be black grill cloth. The amp is going to use space-charged tubes; near the end of the vacuum tube era they made a few tubes designed specifically for car radios where everything ran off of 12 volts. Specifically I'm going to use a 12U7 pre amp tube and 12K5 power tube. It is going to be powered with a cordless drill battery, I did a quick breadboard test and got a little over an hour of play time with a 1.5Ah battery. It was pretty noisy being on a breadboard and all but I think it's got potential to sound great! Theoretically you can coax ~¼ watt out of the 12K5 In an attempt to set myself up to actually finish this I've ordered pretty much everything I need. Should be a fun winter project. Since I've got most of the parts already here are the tentative specs: Pine Body With ¼' Plywood Top and Back Fender Standard Series Telecaster Neck (Left Handed, Maple Board) McNelly A5 Signature Bridge Pickup Kluson Tuners All Parts Bridge (surprisingly hard to find left handed options) Quam 4" Moisture Resistant Speaker 1/4 Watt 12U7 & 12K5 Tube Amp (probably point to point but haven't got that far yet) Here's a pile of parts picture and a rough idea of what I think the layout will be. [img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50557119662_10d116159d_b.jpg[/img] [img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50556990956_92e6af4914_b.jpg[/img]

Annie: "My eyes are up here, Wally!" Wally: "No they're not!"

Before I glue the bridge I want to camouflage the areas around the bridge area where some of the finish came off through the finish to bare wood when I took the old bridge off. I made some stain out of instant coffee and water and used another piece of wood, about the same color as the bare wood, and used that to test the color matching process. Before After Ron

@Mistermikev seems like if you have a cnc machine you would be able to build guitars much faster than some one like me who can only build one at a time.

@mistermikev you have a cnc machine. Right?

@mistermikev I have a hunk of the walnut left. I think I might cut fretboard blanks out of that. I still have one rose wood fretboard to use for another build.

So very true!

@mistermikevit must be easier to get certain hardwoods in Arizona than it is here in Louisian.

@mistermikevwhere do you live? If you don't mind me asking.

@Mistermikev The poplar that I bought from my local lumber yard was about $85.18 for a 8/4 x 8 ft blank just about wide enough to do a one piece body.

well, $20 seems pretty reasonable esp when you look at the stew mac equivalent (I'm sure). They look nice. perfect thing for the job. anywho, rawk on.

@mistermikev, they aren't that hard, just open them up all the way then close them down to just where it will clamp. That way I was ready to apply them right after I put the glue on. I got them on Amazon, but they weren't cheap, almost $20 each. But that's a small fraction of the cost to have a luthier do it. I made some cauls for the top of the bridge but these clamps wouldn't open up enough to use them, with cauls on the inside,so I just used some leather to protect the surface of the bridge. I also super glued some small wooden cauls onto the bottom of the clamp so they wouldn't dent the bridge plate. I probably didn't have to do that, but I did anyway just in case. That's the reason the clamps didn't open up enough to put wooden cauls on the top. Thank you. Ron

@mistermikev poplar will make a much nicer body than the homedepot construction lumber that I made it out of. The problem with that pine is its not dried good, so it's too soft to hold the neck on with string tention.

note to self - if you ever do an acoustic... def buy THOSE clamps. can't help but wonder how the heck you got them in there! looking good.

@ScottRha ha Yes! Well after a 100+year's I would think that the wood had time to stabilize and probably hardened over time. I think I will only use yellow pine to build lap steel guitars with.

Nice job with the color matching. SR

Sorry, this is my first time posting in this particular forum and everyone seems to handle pictures differently. Hopefully this one comes through!

@RonMay you're doing a phantastic job on her! Are you going to address the minor cracks on the clearcoat somehow? I recall having seen a video, either Rosa or Crimson (potentially https://youtu.be/knyE1Vgv39w) IIRC some kind of bleach was used for cleaning the cracks but if you Google for cleaning cracked lacquer or wood you'll find out that there's many opinions and options. Oxygen bleach for laundry seems like it might do the cleaning without changing the colour of the wood, hydrogen peroxide being another option. However whichever chemical you choose study it properly so you can neutralize it when needed. Also try in a non-visible spot first.

Today is the big day when I glue on the new bridge. The bridge is made of rosewood and it has natural oils that need to be neutralized before spreading the glue on it. So I used some fingernail polish remover which is basically acetate for that on the bottom of the bridge. I then, using an artist's brush, spread the glue all over the area making sure that I had 100% coverage and did the same to the bottom of the bridge. I then positioned the bridge to some pencil lines I made for this. Next came the clamps. I've put the guitar in her case to wait for the glue to cure. I'll wait for at least 24 hrs. , most likely 3 or so days before doing anything. Then it will be time to string her up. Next, I'll check the neck angle and string action to see if that needs attention. I'm pretty sure it does. If the bridge is angled down too much then I'll have to adjust that with a neck reset. But that's another day. It's getting closer with not a whole lot to finish to let her sing again. http://www.whip-basics.com/forum/img/smilies/smile.png Ron

Not much done today, routed the binding channel, bent the rosewood offcuts of the sides of the acoustic of a fellow builder and glued them in place. The horny side bent smoothly but the upper side cracked a couple of times. You can see it on the upper bout. Some wood dust and glue is required on the top, the sides succeeded better.

Well we can't have Mike going unchallenged I present to you "African Bass Fula" made for my friend and gauntlet thrower, Tom. ("Fula" is the Mandinkan word, the local language in The Gambia, for 'Two') In short, Tom does a lot of work in The Gambia and knows one of the leading drum makers there. A few years ago, they unexpectedly presented him with a 'bass body' made from traditional African drum wood. Against all odds I built a playable bass from it. Everyone was delighted. So delighted that they presented him with another one at his last visit... As a post-script, the build and strength challenges with the original one taught me enormous amounts about what matters and what doesn't with guitar and bass design and led to my series of slim-bodied and lightweight builds Spec: Body wood: Unknown species African drum wood Neck: Maple with Panga panga fretboard Headstock plate/Pickup rings: Wenge Scale length: Multi-scale 33" to 31" Pickups: Artec Humbuckers in series, direct wired to jack Bridge blocks and Tuners: Hipshot Jack socket: Rear mounted, carved walnut Finish: Osmo 1101 Weight: 7lbs 11oz The build thread is here: And here it is: And I'm no bass player, but here's a soundclip: Thanks for looking!