MzI

update: body is cut out and routed. top is level.

and another Click me

The body is a touch thin a 1 1/4" due to my wonderful bandsaw so now I need to figure out what to do whether or not to leave as is or put a back on it.

MzI

I concur^^^^ I use it fairly often as it is readily available at my local supplier. I personally use it for fretboards and it sounds good to my ears, not quite as bright as ebony but thats obviously expected.

MzI

That I actually see.

Heres another one not nearly as nice of figure but the top wood came from the same tree.

MzI

I think when I get stain or oil or whatever happens to be the finish that some nice figure will pop out.

Specs:

Spalted Maple top, 3 piece Northern Ash Back

22 fret, Set Neck, 24 3/4 scale

2 hum

T.O.M. w/strings thru

Vol, Tone, 3 Way

G'luck swimming across the pond, may take you a couple days. I still dont see a llama but I shall keep looking.

I actually think I can get one maybe two more sets out of the same chunk of wood.

MzI

Ive actually made a purple heart neck thru with roughly 1/2" of black walnut in the middle. Its not too bad weight wise because the body is solid purple heart flying v. As far as sound, purple heart is very bright, but it also has a ton of low end.

MzI

I actually see two eyes and some evil looking fangs.

MzI

Been working on a number of guitars as of late. Mainly soloists. This batch as of right now is all bodies mainly for the purpose of getting more practice and to learn etc. Most of the wood being used is stuff I had laying around. Specs for each one I am working on will come in later posts when I get a change to update my website and what not. Also I havent really set a time frame as to when these will be finished due to the fact that I got my first tutition bill this month. So it may be a while. Anyways heres the most current one I am working on.

MzI

Also feel free to check out my new website www.MzIGuitars.com. Im new to the whole website creating so be nice.

Spalted Maple top with a Honduran Mahogany Back. My bandsaw is currently giving me problems which is why there are still some saw marks in the one side, I need to run the whole thing through the thickness sander to clean it up which will be soon.

Spalted Maple top, Honduran Mahogany Back

22 fret, Set Neck, 24 3/4 scale

2 hum

T.O.M. w/strings thru

Vol, Tone, 3 Way

The way I do it is I bought the the radius caul from stewmac that goes in there arbor press and I put it in my drill press. Made a neck support outta scrap 2x4 for underneath the neck and away I go.

MzI

Another option is a thickness sander or better yet turn it into a carved top.

MzI

Zakk Wylde's Camo LPC has mop blocks and the Jason Becker Jackson that didnt make production has multiple colors in it.

MzI

Check out Tobias Bass guitars made by Gibson and also MTD Guitars.

MzI

It looks like the outisde edges of your fretboard are in desperate need of a straight edge.

MzI

I have some info for ya send me a pm

MzI

Cant say that Ive worked with it, but in terms of density, Ive made a pair of guitars out of solid purple heart, so unless its that much more dense and heavier then purple heart I wouldnt worry bout it and just use it.

MzI

Looking at your plywood mock up it appears as if you are missing a crutical element to the overall shape of the King V, the bottom half of the V has a decent curve to it unlike the BC Rich version where the wings are just straight similiar to what you have. Go take a look at the Jackson website and youll be able to see it. Personally I think it is far more appealing with the curve there and thats why the King V I am building has that shape to it.

MzI

YAY 1,000 posts

I live for snow. I honestly wish it would snow all year round and then I could ride my snowmobile every freaking day. Some may say, O but with cold weather you could never see girls in mini skirts, fine by me cuz I dont much care for that type of woman, Id rather see one in tight jeans with engine grease all over em and a wrench in her hand. Haha, dont ask.

MzI

Take a look at the Gibson Les Paul Smartwood series, they used a bunch of different exotic woods from managed rain forest other then there usual run of the mill eastern maple top and south american mahogany back

MzI

The best way to I found to hold the material to the table is to leave extra and just leave an 1/8 to a 1/4 inch from going all the way through the blank. Then afterwards just take a router with a pattern bit and clean it up. 9 degree neck pocket angle seems beyond excessive, you may want to recalculate that or draw a section of the neck pocket along with your bridge in autocad. For finding the dimensions of the pocket your best bet is to have the neck sitting infront of you and draw a full plan version of the body with all the frets and bridge etc, that way you can see where everything sits in relation to each other.

For the AANJ. I would do the profile of the pocket on the mill and then just carve it by hand. Its alot faster then trying to draw the thing in 3d.

MzI

Dave- I generally use Rhino and Maya for my 3d work which always has surfaces and edges when I export to IGES. As for the pickup routes, I also do them in profile cuts its so much faster because I generally use a 1/2" router bit on the mill so its two quick passes for the pickup and thats it.

I sort of made what you are shooting for. The guitar is a semi strat shape, bolt on maple neck with rosewood board, 25 1/2 scale. The body is mahogany with a 1/2" eastern flamed maple top, pair of duncan 'buckers and strings thru for my personal preference.

In all reality id consider the body wood combo and your pickup selection as the most important. You can make the guitar any shape as long as you have that wood selection.

MzI

What I did was draw in Autocad and just save it as a regular dwg file and just open it in mastercam. What you will be doing is creating a profile cut, no carve tops here, your just following lines and setting your depth cuts. This is where having a cnc mill is so great when you are doing flat top bodies because you can crank em out in like 5 mins for a full body. When you do want to do a carve top your going to want to do your drawing in autocad and then bring it into rhino or maya. Then export the 3d drawing as an .iges file, basically creating surfaces.

For test materials I recommend 2" rigid insulation from home depot. It comes in 2'x8' sheets they are like $15 each. Super easy to cut and no tool ware, plus its pretty damn close to the thickness of a guitar.

MzI

AutoCad. Thats all you need. Its just a simple line drawing and then use master cam to set your depth cuts. Just a word to the wise. It takes a lot of trial an error before you actually cut a guitar on the mill. Dont think you can just jump into it. It took me a good month and a half to two months of learning the program, the mill capabilities, and cutting in foam playing around with the actually drawing file before I even though about milling wood.

MzI

PS also take a look at the Pinned CNC vs Handmade thread at the top, that will give you a lot more insight into cnc milling

you could also use something like minwax satin polyurethane just brush it on and it levels itself. Id personally stay away from the gloss though. I had good success with soloist that had a flamed maple and purple heart lam neck. Decent speed too.

MzI

You have to wait until you get the advanced pass and then it will appear in the forum area.

MzI