jammy

Thanks everyone I'm so happy with the way the guitar's turned out, and I can't wait to see it under finish. Projection and balance are great, if I can work out how to play it properly I should be fine The fanned frets feel good too, very intuitive.

As not everyone ventures into the acoustic section I thought I'd post a pic up here too. The guitar's had it's first string up today and I'm really happy with it - sounds great The tuner buttons are miss-matched as some of the ebony ones were slipping, will be sorted soon.

The tuner buttons are miss-matched at the moment due to some of the ebony ones slipping. It will be sorted soon.

It's got a bridge on chaps! Strings tomorrow

Thanks everyone! Wow - lots of questions! Back bracing: The reason the lower brace is there running along the centre of the top is to try and maintain it's dome shape. At that point the upper X can't really hold the radius any more, and that brace takes over. The scarf joint... Even easier that that to be honest! I did a straight scarf but with a reasonably thick neck blank, I then sanded the headstock face unevenly on my linisher to swing the break angle round to where I needed it. The headstock was then thicknessed on the pin router using it's front face as a reference. Hence the guitar's got a twisted headstock! erikbojerik: Interesting stuff indeed!

Some pictures from a couple of days ago... click click Some new pictures click click click

Thanks guys The back bracing pattern is a weird one on this, but it seems to have worked really nicely As for the scale lengths, it's 29" on the bass side and 25.5" on the treble.

Thanks The back and side wood is an especially nice bit of European walnut. The bracing's somewhat of a difficult one, because of the fanned frets (and therefore angled bridge/bridgeplate) the bracing is of a strange pattern to start off with as you can see in the picture below (an in-progress picture of the soundboard). But as a general rule, it was left a little stiffer than normal.

I've attached the neck and fretboard this week, and will finish work on the headstock soon. It's coming along Sorry, the pictures aren't fantastic http://www.darkmatterguitars.com/siteimage...g/210607/01.jpg http://www.darkmatterguitars.com/siteimage...g/210607/03.jpg http://www.darkmatterguitars.com/siteimage...g/210607/04.jpg

Wow! What a space! One day....

I do the same thing with all my headstocks (and necks, for that matter) but using my overhead router. Perfect for the job!

Hi! Nice to have you around. That's some great work! Where abouts are you from?

I've been working on this guitar for the past couple of days, and finished it off today. He had a highway one strat neck lying about and wanted a tele body for it with a HH pickup arrangement. For build pics see the links below. I'm real happy with the guitar, colour's great and it sounds brilliant. And before anyone cracks any "it's the wrong way round" jokes, he's a lefty! Build 1 Build 2 Build 3 Build 4 Build 5 Build 6 Build 7 Build 8

That dragonfly is drool worthy! Well done that man. Amazing work as always Myka

Cheers The bars apply loads of pressure like that - no problem!

I'm blogging my progress, so keep checking back http://www.darkmatterguitars.com/blog/

I'm just on my way through my first guitar built in radiused dishes, and there's a couple of questions I've got for guys who've done it before. Prior to using dishes I used to add arching to the top by measuring the curvature on braces. My previous guitars have got 3mm curvatures (the mid point of the brace is 3mm higher than the ends) meaning the tops are pretty flat. The top I've just braced and started to voice was done in a 25ft radius dish - and I'm finding it pretty stiff (I expect due to the extra arching). For you people who've experimented with top arching - is this normal? I'm also having the normal fretboard extension queries. Prior to dishes my tops would go on after planing the neck block to an angle where, if a straight edge was put on it along the centre line of the guitar there would be about a 1.5mm gap between the straight edge and the top at the point where the bridge lies. The increased arch on this instrument means the gap is nearer 1cm, not a problem - as I've decided to do an archtop style fretboard extension with a wedge. But for future instruments I'd like to know what to look out for and a way to stop this happening. Sorry if that's not worded well - it was a late night last night, and it's not the easiest of stuff to explain! Cheers for any help

An awesome project Godin, well done! I'd love to hear the guitar recorded with a microphone, but the soundclips posted are nice Congrats

A great post mate! Some interesting links there

I've made a baritone which required moving the bridge somewhat. To support it in it's new location I ended up using a combination of shifting the X a little, and a bigger, thicker bridge plate. It sounds great and there's no sign of any problematic lumps appearing.

I'm more than happy to adjust bracing through the soundhole as I feel the practice should be useful. The access panel idea is one I've thought of often, though. Removable/replaceable tops would be the ultimate though

I glue my backs on first for a simple reason. When you look through the soundhole you'll see the back - and I like to be able to clean up any glue squeeze out inside the body. If glue squeezes out round the top it doesn't matter as much - I won't see it!

It'll work fine. Someone (reasonably famous) has done it before - but I'm having a hard time remembering who!

I beams - what a weird design. I still have a hard time accepting that removing material in that way actually strengthens the beam! Clever stuff indeed. I feather the edge of my soundboards in the same way Myka, just on the lower bout too.

That's about what i thought - straight edge along the neck and mark it off there. there's currently maybe a 1/16th showing, so it'll have to be increased and I'll see what difference it makes. Now to sharpen the block plane!