Leaderboard

The lower edge, or "horn", kinda hits the "cutaway" at a little under 90 degrees. So it kinda does curve out, but only by a little. The paper design for this came out in 45 minutes and two beers, so the next day when I made the template out of plywood I left enough material to make a few edits if needed; I can't remember if I changed the design of the lower cutaway part, but if I did it would've been subtle. After I'd cut the template, I had something I could actually hold in my hands and lap, and figure out whether it'd be comfortable or ergonomic - I figured it would, so I started building the thing! And as it's turned out, it's balanced pretty well on the leg, and it goes okay propped up on the finger: Queensland Maple is definitely not a true maple - I find it looks and to some extent sounds much more like a mahogany. But much cheaper, in this part of the world! Did the truss rod slot with the router in the jig. Marked out all the carves on the body. Going off what I mentioned earlier, I did the paper plans with reckless abandon, so on the timber I decided to take my time and really visualize what would look and feel decent. Had at it with an angle grinder wielding a 60-grit flap disk, for the concave parts such as the lower edge leading into the cutaway. The top edge was entirely rasp and file work. I couldn't get the plane in there, for the risk of creating a "hump" where the shoe hits the neck, and I wanted a flat but shallow bevel, so I just went steady by hand. And the back end of the guitar was also slightly concave, so grinder and flap disk made an appearance again, Really starting to look more like an aircraft than a guitar, which is about the time I started calling it the "Valkyrie".

Everything in this post was done on the last day I had off before starting that big run of work. Six weeks ago. I was definitely rushing, definitely trying to just get it done, before the onslaught of sleep deprivation and stress and maniacal stage crew. I had a really, really good feeling about this part of the build. I'd overcome most of the "difficult" bits, and all I had to really do before finishing was the bridge, tailpiece and pickup routing, a ton of sanding, then job's a good'un, right? Well, got most of it right. And then, I had just one clamp on the template for the last one, and the whole thing slipped and went sideways by about 3 or 4mm. Honestly, the photo makes it looks a lot worse than it was. Funny how they do that. I was lucky in the fact that I noticed pretty quickly - another few mil and it would've blown sideways through to the chambering. I cut a piece of maple to size and glued it in with wood glue mixed with dust. Worked pretty well. Tried getting the corners of the pickup routes to size with a 6mm bit, but of course that bit lacks a bearing, and I was conscious of the risk of burning the template. It didn't come close radius of the pickups, anyway, so I cracked out the chisel. And with that, I packed up my tools, definitely did not sweep up quite all of the sawdust, and put the project upstairs for a month.

More two projects in progress. Two seven strings fanned fret (25,5 to 27'') almost twins, it have a little difference on the body outline. Basicly local species. Ceddrar for bodies, Freijó for tops, Pau-marfim for necks and rosewood for fingerboards. DHP 27 inox frets, Tesla AH71 pickups, Nova hardtail alluminum bridge. PU mate finish with black vertical burst. Sorry about a lot of pics!

Hi, welcome! Cool log-I love it when people start from the log. So primal. You should talk to @Bizman62 about that. He is currently using some poplar that came down on his property, I believe. My gut reaction is that your wood probably has not dried completely as it is still in log form, and wood is typically milled and then dried. But 10 years is a long time-I could be wrong. Try milling a piece and see what the moisture is like in the middle. As far as quarter sawn vs flat sawn go for an electric guitar body-make that decision for looks. It will be plenty stable either way.

Glued up some wings from Queensland Maple. I got a huge slab of the stuff for my Infinity bass build, before deciding to go with Walnut for it's body wings, so after taking a slice for the neck lamination I had almost the entire board left over. I had to router-thickness it to 34mm to fit my design, then plane all the ugly router marks away, and do a bit of creative board-planning before the glue and clamps. Before I go too far forward, it's important to address the fact that my neck-through is far thinner than my wings - the core is barely 23mm thick, while the wings are 34mm. Purely born out of the stock I had available, this is now a major focus point for the guitar, and I'm going to build a super-thin instrument that doesn't "feel" super-thin. And, a box-cove bit makes the transition much cooler. Gull wings. Ran out of acrylic, so I went with 6mm ply for the templates, with the edges splashed with CA for a touch of extra hardness against the bearing. The tips were dauntingly fragile, so I went for a lot of passes, and somehow still managed to end up with a fair amount of burning. After worrying about the fragile horns on the body, I somehow managed to tear-out the headstock nub. Damn! As seen by the pencil marks, I decided to go for a re-shape anyways - sometimes, and especially when a plan comes together so quickly, it really does take disaster for you to sit back and rethink your paper plans.

A while back I was carrying on a conversation in here and noted that my later build threads didn't have as many explanations as earlier builds did. I felt like I've been repeating myself over the years and started letting the pictures tell more of the story. And I got taken to task for that lazy attitude. Apparently many folks reading my posts haven't been around for all of them. And they'd like a chance to learn what I've learned. So This time I'll try to explain more about what is going on in my messy little workspace. What is one of the most important lessons learned in here? Test on scrap. This guitar is going to have a curly maple top and an ash back and neck. I want it to give the impression of being black, while still letting all the pretty wood show through. So here is a maple scrap sanded to 400. And Now to dye it very dark without using black, which tends to make things look dirty. For this I used Transtint dyes--Blue, Burgundy, and Mahogany brown--mixed in acetone. Once dry I wiped it back with a clean rag dipped in acetone, but apparently I found those wipe back pictures to ugly to keep and weeded them out. Then I sanded that back with 220, 320, and 400. Then I took some of the first color and added acetone, more blue and lemon yellow. And wiped that on. And sanded it back with 320, 400 and micromesh 1500. The idea is to sand back with increasing finer grits and add lighter more dilute colors each time. I'm working to create mid-tones to go with the shadow tones and highlights. and the finer grit sanding polishes and increases the chatoyance. Next I dilute the original color some and wipe that on. Wipe with acetone and sand back with 400, 1500, and 1800. And dilute the greener color likewise. SR

Ok, ok, here's a story of recklessness and restlessness. A few weeks before I started my last big run of work, I was looking at the pile of offcuts I had accrued underneath my staircase, and thinking about how I should really reduce my level of clutter in the household. That was really it, y'know, the whole thing is just a big clean-up mission, and definitely not because I wanted to build another guitar... First up, I had to figure out whether my offcuts were of the correct dimensions to start a guitar build. I had nothing wide enough, but several thinner pieces, so a 7-piece laminate neck it shall be. I've got Maple, Walnut, Oak, and Queensland Maple in there, and the whole sandwich should be long enough to do a neck-through. Got those bits all planed, trued, glued and clamped, and then sat down to draw up the plans. Now, I've never even owned a Flying V styled guitar at all, so we can mostly put this one down to curiosity. On the few occasions I've tried one out, however, I've always been seriously pissed about the inability to play sitting down. Not everything's a gig, man, and I practice seated! So I needed to shape the lower run of the guitar to accommodate for balance. The weird little arse-end was in part inspired by the LTD Arrow, but equally it just came about from the lines of the insides of the "V" coming together. If I'd just met them in the middle, it would've looked strange. The carves are penciled in at this point. I'm going for a single pickup, most likely an EMG 81 until somebody can convince me otherwise, and a single volume control. Wings are Queensland maple, fretboard will be Tassie Oak stained black, reverse headstock, and a 27" scale length for all that baritone badassery. Scarf jointing, by hand, with a tenon saw. With all the power tools and jigs available to me nowadays, I still feel most confident doing it slow and steady. Marking out all four sides and checking regularly is the way to go. Hate clamping up scarf joints though! I tried the salt trick, which helped a bit. And at this point, I'd like the drop the bombshell on thickness. Not body thickness, not neck thickness, but neck-through thickness....

Those who wish to cut down on some of my long-windedness, feel free to skip the introduction section. INTRO: Hello Project Guitar community! Today I move on from "lurker" status. I answer to many names but I suppose you can call me James. I've been wanting to build guitars for like 20 years now but haven't had tools/resources/space to do so yet. Parents even got me the great Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology book by Cumpiano and Natelson and a bunch of catalogues for Lee Valley Tools when I was younger. Getting closer now but a lot of renovations to do on the house before guitar building, and the only tools I have so far are typical screwdrivers, hammer, hacksaw, hand drill, a multi-meter, a table saw, and of course my own two hands. (My DeWalt table saw is still new in the box waiting for somewhere to set up). Well I guess I could build a guitar with just those, it might not be the greatest experience so I probably should get some clamps, chisels, planes, scrapers, etc., as well. The guitar building bug has hit me really hard again, so for now I am living vicariously through the awesome build threads here! I love wood (and trees and forests) and like sustainability/responsibility with acquiring tone woods. What's more responsible than using wood that was destined for refuse/chipper/fire? About 10 years ago my parents had to get some trees taken down on their property, and when I found out I tried to hold on to some to use towards guitar making eventually. Even had the ends brushed with latex paint to try and even out the drying process (though didn't get to them as quickly as I wanted so some checking already started). My dad and I believe this was the ash tree - not sure if white or green, but it's northern/hard ash (from central Ontario), not light swamp ash. Have a few branches (maybe could get some neck/laminates? Likely used for other artistic/practice carving). The main pieces are a 15-inch diameter by 32-inch long log and a wide 29x33-inch "diameter" by 15-inch deep log (wish it was deeper but that just means I can play with unconventional designs). The 30-inch diameter does have a nice big crack but I will work around it and/or do some resin [river table] stuff. Haven't seen them in person in a while (live 2 hours away from my parents' place) so not sure what/if any other cracks are like, but can play with CA/resin/epoxy filling too. Got my sister to take some quick pics and measurements for me today (photos below). Figure this free wood would be better to practice carving and building with before buying expensive/exotic "dream" woods. So all that said, onto the reason I am posting.... TOPIC: Was interested in some input from the community regarding quarter-sawn or flat-sawn wood for body blanks. I know quarter-sawn has better stability (and what I would be looking at for necks), but as far as bodies go, what are your thoughts? I like wood grain and would be finishing natural and/or dying so the grain still shows (and maybe even accentuated), thus flat-sawn might be more interesting. Of course, you never really know what you're going to get until you cut into it and see what surprise awaits. Here's the 2 logs I'm looking to cut up, and trying to pre-plan what to do with them so I get the most out of them for crafting. (Not worried about the bit of waste if it was most/all rift-sawn & quarter-sawn) Again, we believe this to be northern/hard ash, about 10 years since cutting. The 15-inch diameter by 32-inch length piece. The 15-inch deep 29x33-inch "diameter" (not quite round...) Thanks! ~ James

I got in a bit of progress on the Big Les Paul before my little holiday at the dream hotel. I've routed round the edge of the top so it sinks into the body 1/4". A couple of reasons for this I want to take advantage of the 7/8 thickness and instead of having a centre block it will be incorporated into the top. I kind-of did this with myES but I didn't think it through well enough. This time it will be wider and I might extend it to the back The other reason (apart from extra strength) is so the effective thickness of the top is a normal 5/8. When its thicker you can have a bigger belly but it alters the neck angle and throws all sorts of spanners in the works An explanation of why I find the balance line on the body, I theories that its the best place for the Bridge because that's where my solid LP bodies seem to balance (before the neck goes on) 252mm from the neck join Something I also consider is an Es175 It is fully hollow and joins at the 14th fret, Es137s join at the 16th fret which has a mahogany block that extends only to the Tailpiece which would shift the point of balance forward My thinking is If a guitar is fully solid or fully hollow it shouldn't affect where it balances, but start messing around with semi hollow and things will change By the way the neck block as you see in the photos will get removed because I messed up and there is about a 1/16th gap, and I don't want to reduce the top any further. A shame really because it took a lot of effort to make it fit Not sure where I'm going with this one at the moment. I might make another neck specifically for it in the style of an accoustic without a long tenon. In that case the neck I've made for it I will use on another project I don't want to put f-holes on this one. I want it to look just like an LP, and want to avoid all the f-problems

Deepening the channel in the nut section with a normal size router all OK generally, but in that previous specific case when I had taken all the apparatus away it would have been a lot easier and quicker to do it with the Dremel. I find the phrase live and learn applies especially to guitar building. You know I am surprised more rods don't get snapped or stripped from people having a go at adjusting their truss rods Cheers Scott, I did the maple neck tonight and the truss rod is sitting in nicely now, Rounding off the corners at the heel and knocking off those barbs at the base of the headstock are the next jobs before the fretboard gets glued on.

Aye. Imported species down here (ie, pretty much any of the 'standard' ones used in guitars) are massively overpriced for us too. In many cases it's cheaper to buy a finished instrument than it is to buy the raw timber to make the same thing! Having said that, 110 quid is (seems?) outrageously good value for the ebony pair. I don't think I'd have a snowball's chance in hell of getting those for a quarter of that price, notwithstanding even managing to import it here through CITES in the first place.

Welcome, @JAK! As @Charlie H 72 said, my current build has a bookmatched body made out of a trunk I got when they fell some trees in the yard of a block of flats- not my place but close enough. The 100 (39") cm long, 70 cm (27") diameter trunk stood on my yard for about half a year or longer, winter and summer, snow and heat. When the bottom started to build mould I raised it on bricks. Finally, when I couldn't find a place to get it sawn I took my chainsaw and butchered three >10 cm (>4")thick quarter sawn blocks from bark to center. I then laid the three planks on the beams of my firewood storage - dry, airy, dark, what's not to love? After some five years I took one of them to the workshop and resawed it to see how it feels. The fine sawed planks then sat at the attic of the workshop for some months with slats in between which really made them significantly lighter. That's true, wood can be cut to longitudinal slices with bark on both sides and then laid outside with slats in between and stones or other weight on top of the pile to reduce warping. And of course some sort of a roof against rain and snow, with a gap to ensure good airflow. That way you'll get a couple of quartersawn waned planks, the rest being more or less slab sawn.

Awesome, thanks for that. Very cool seeing how you did it. It's a little detail, but makes such a difference to the end look of the back.

See what happens, but always go with open eyes if it's both feet!

Adding something new to my skillset or reinforcing existing skills is key. I do need the practice for spraying. Thanks for weighing in!

Les Paul style guitars sit near the top of my list, and, in correlation, prefer guitars with carves over flat/slab bodies. Since you like the burst but maybe find it a bit daunting, it might be an argument why you should build the Aria. Get better at finishing and bursts by doing more finishes and bursts, right? That said, my initial reaction even before seeing the breakdown of each was "ooh, Mockingbird - don't see those as often, that would be interesting." Then adding in the Firebird-esque raised section, I would like to see what that turns out like. So personally/technically my vote is to see the Mockingbird build, but logic(?) points a little more towards the Aria. (Though of course, could also apply finish/burst to other designs...)

Thanks! Perfectly good question. Yes - I added a stick on rebate cut from some scrap walnut: They are La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass Flats - Standard 45-128T Short Scale. They sound great and my standard guitar tuner picked up the B fine (always a good check of the strength and clarity of signal)