ESDictor

The weekend is here and the weather didn't suck, so I was able to do some work today

Here's where I wound up for the day ... tomorrow I'll do some rounding over

Rough cut done with Jigsaw, which is apparently the worst possible tool for the job. I'm taking a break until next weekend to do the template-following.

In 1999 I bought a book called Constructing a Solid-Body Guitar, by Roger H. Siminoff because I wanted to build a guitar. In the 12 years since then I've lurked around various forums, asking a question or two and buying more books. Finally, I've managed to acquire the tools, wood, and nerve to get started.

Style: Jazz Bass (from purchased template)

Body Wood: Poplar

Neck Wood: Most Likely Maple

Fingerboard Wood: Either Ebony, Rosewood, or perhaps Cocobolo

Finish: Paint

I've done a couple of mock-ups, one white with black hardware (my preference) and one blue with chrome hardware (everyone else in my life's preference - especially my wife).

A lot of decisions ride on which of those I choose, but fortunately I have some time before I need to make that decision. Between us, I think it's going to wind up being blue.

The first step came today when I glued up a couple of 24"x9"x7/4" Poplar boards.

Tomorrow I'll scrape the glue (ugh .. I guess buy a scraper first if I can), trace the template, and maybe do a rough cut with a jigsaw (don't have a better tool available for the rough cut).

Grabbed 4 pipe clamps yesterday, so I guess I'm good to go with that

Sorry .. I have a habit of going on and on when I'm anxious about something like this, so I'll just ask the questions from my above post:

What types of clamps should I buy to glue up a 2-piece blank (I have no clamps so all would be bought)?

I have some turning squares of Cocobolo and was curious what size I'd need for a standard bass fretboard?

Thanks,

Evan

While talking to a co-worker about my wood-woes on Friday, he said there's a local lumberyard that should be able to hook me up. My previous searches had come up with nothing, so this was good news. This morning I went there and the guy who helped me happened to be a bass player, so he went above-and-beyond to help me get what I needed.

I got 4 Poplar boards, each one 24"x9-3/4"x1-3/4", and 2 Mahogany boards, one 36"x3-1/2"x1" and one 48"x3-1/2"x1"

He was nice enough to plane down all the boards to the above size, and give me one very nice square edge. I can't say enough how pleased I was with the help (for people in Long Island, NY, it's Pete at Kleet Lumber in Huntington).

Turned out I should have gotten wider mahogany boards for necks, since the Jazz Bass neck won't fit. That's actually ok since I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the look of a mahogany neck on this bass, so if I'm making my own neck I'll need to still buy some maple (not carried at that lumberyard).

So at the end of that trip I have wood for the 3 guitars I have templates for (Jazz Bass, ES-335, and Tele Thinline) and necks for all but the Jazz Bass.

So now I just gotta buy glue and clamps (the other blank I have was pre-glued).

I'm assuming that Pipe Clamps are a good choice for gluing up the 2 sides of a blank?

Another question .. if I am making a fretboard myself (no reply from the Fretboard Extravaganza guy here) what size board to I need for a 34" scale bass fretboard? I have some old cocobolo that I bought a long time ago for wood turning projects, so assuming I can find some nice sapwood-free sections I am hoping I can use that (yes, I do know the dangers of cocobolo and have the proper protective gear).

Just requested a 15"x23" blank from the same source. Not sure what I'll do with this one for now.

Wood for body finally showed up, and it's exactly 14"x20" .. which is very tight for the template. Even at an angle there would be a few spots where I wouldn't be removing any wood.

Will having the body at an angle that doesn't match the joint between the boards be a problem?

Thanks for the advice/information. Guessing I'll just get a retail neck for now .. probably This One. After the bass is done I can consider adding some tools before I decide to do another build.

Evan

With the weather finally warming up, I'm getting ready to start building my first (bass) guitar. I have a Jazz Bass template from www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com, and have purchased a few tools for the job (workbench with router insert, router with template following bits & jigsaw). I have some wood ordered, but it still hasn't shipped (that's another story, but I'm not giving up on the guy yet).

Most of my concerns have to do with the neck. While I feel like I can build a body with the tools I have (maybe add a reasonably priced spindle sander), I feel like I have almost nothing I'd need to build a neck. I have nothing to shape the neck or fretboard, slot the frets ... I don't even own a drill press!

I guess my first question is ... to build a neck myself, what is the minimum tools I'd need to buy?

Assuming that the first answer is "more than I can afford" ... where can I buy a neck (I saw the one at StewMac, but the tuner holes are too big for the BML tuners I wanted)?

Thanks,

Evan

So ... it's been over a year since my last post, so here's why ... I went on vacation and came back only to get laid off from my job of 13 years. Wound up packing up the family and moving back to NY, where I've finally managed to get settled into a new job and new place to live. Followed up that by experiencing the snowiest month in Long Island history (after living 21 years in South Florida) and now FINALLY it's starting to warm up a bit. That's the exciting personal stuff .. now for guitar stuff.

Wife got me a Skil 3100-12 workbench for my birthday, and I just picked up a router insert for it along with a router and a jigsaw. Tomorrow I'll be picking up some 1/4" plywood to transfer the Jazz Bass template to it on the next nice weekend, and then I'll be picking up some wood to get started on the build.

Sent an order to "Fretboard Extravaganza" here, but no response and with the lack of activity on that thread I'm not so sure they're still around.

Hopefully more updates soon

Evan

It's a shame to cover up that wood, but the white pickguard gives a very nice contrast. The black one hides the wood without adding contrast, so I'd stay away from it.

If it were me, I'd go with the white pickguard.

Evan

the first two numbers are not the year of manufacture

You read the serial number like this

YDDDYPPP

Y = year, so the sirst and fifth numbers will tell you what year it was made

D = Day of the year, i.e 001 is the first of january

P = is the plant designation number. 001-499 are for guitars made in kalamazoo and 500-999 are nashville.

This isnt true for all gibsons but it should tell you exactly when your gibson was made right down to the day!! The system above was introduced in the mid 70's i think

Personally i would hang onto a guitar like this for a while - you may be able to get a fairly good price for it now but it should increase steadily!!. Its funny how old 70's guitars are so much more collectable than they where 10 years ago when everyone though they were all duds - the 80's guitars will be next!!

Thanks for the correction .. I guess the guitar was manufactured late 1980 in Kalamazoo. I'm thinking now that maybe I'll just put it back in A/C storage for another few years. The money would be nice - especially when looking at a few tools I'm going to need to buy in the near future building my first guitar - but I have a day-job, so I'll manage without it. As it is, I have an old Marshall 2203 and cabinet from the same time period that should get me $1500ish .. and while the E/2 is a viable guitar that I can still play and get enjoyment from, the Marshall might as well be the worlds' biggest paperweight. I can't get the volume even to 0.5 before the windows are shaking, so it really never gets turned on anymore. And to be honest, I use a Line6 POD and headphones 80% of the time when I play, and Amplitube when I record.

Thanks for the advice,

Evan

reviews and prices 80's gibsons arnt as desirable as older and is yours the active model? I read that even though theres a very small amount of active explorers left there still not worth much at all. All in all a nice guitar but not collectable.

Yeah, the reviews are all great .. and the guitar really does play and sound great (except for that horribly placed strap holder) .. but the prices are pretty low for a model that they made so few of. I guess the shape is a little "out there" for most. I mean .. even the normal Explorer isn't quite a mainstream model .. and this is a little different from that.

Evan

It's a Gibson Explorer E/2, bought in 1982 (first 2 digits of the SN are 82, so I guess manufactured that year as well). It's the Walnut/Maple natural finish, with gold hardware (bridge replaced with identical, but I still have the old one .. replaced the nut with brass .. don't have original, replaced the strap holders with locking ones because of the angle of the neck-end one) and an ebony fretboard. I restrung and fixed the intonation earlier, and it still sounds great. Has a few small marks, and some of the finish seems to be worn on the back in 1 spot, but from 6 feet away you'd never notice that it's not mint. The E/2 was only made between 79 and 82, so it seems like it should be more valuable than I guess it is .. but no such luck for me. This is not an actual picture of my E/2, but it's the same exact model/color/etc, except the one in that picture seems to have some sort of extra pickup between the 2 humbuckers: http://rfrocks.com/guitars/1%201979%20E2%20Explorer.jpg

Evan

QUICK NOTE: After re-reading the above, I just wanted to make it clear that *I* bought this in 1982 new .. well .. my parents bought it for me as a high school graduation present. There has never been another owner besides me.

I gotta admit .. my wife doesn't seem to be completely 'on board' with this whole luthier thing, so the less I can spend on the first build the better. After I have one done my first one, I figure I'll be able to convince her that it's worthwhile

Evan

I had never thought of doing that. Thanks for the tip (you should probably post that as a tip somewhere )

Evan

I guess it's all relative. To me, $1500 for an old, well-used guitar seems like a pretty good price tag .. but I guess I can also use the money. Last time I did a search (maybe 3 years ago) I got the impression that it was worth about $700, so I decided to hang onto it just in case one of my kids decide to play when they're older. At $1500+ ... to me its value has exceeded the threshold where I figure selling it makes sense.

Thanks again for the link though,

Evan

Thanks much westhermann, that's exactly what I was looking for!

Evan

Well .. it's very rare, so I don't see anything on eBay - either current or completed. The only references I've found with prices were here .. and the prices kinda caught me off-guard.

Evan

Well .. that seems like an option, but I'm hoping to find a forum more like this to get information. Assuming the guitar is worth more in cash than it's worth to me as "nostalgia," I'll throw it on ebay. Gruhn seems more like a place if I wanted to do some sort of consignment.

Thanks for the link though, it's certainly an option if better ones don't present themselves,

Evan

Ok then .. Basswood works for me. I have my fingers crossed that I can get it wide enough that I don't have to join 2 boards .. since I don't have access to a jointer.

Evan

I have an old Gibson that I used to use on stage a lot, and I noticed last week (when looking for a picture of one to show a co-worker) that the model I have seems to be pretty valuable. This morning I got mine out of storage (air conditioned storage of course) and took a look. The guitar, having been used as a primary guitar for a long time, has plenty of little (minor I hope) things to knock it off the "mint" or "excellent" condition bracket.

I'm thinking that this is probably the wrong site to ask about this, so I'm hoping that someone here might be able to point me to a place where I can ask about how these minor blemishes affect the value of the guitar, which ones I should deal with, and finally what I should be selling it for. The idea here is that I could use the money for some new tools, supplies for my first build, an HDTV maybe, and generally just some cash.

Like I said, I'm guessing this isn't the place to discuss this, so please don't crucify me for the misplaced post. Just point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Evan

A guy I attend church with has one. His wife had given him a Gibson for Christmas, he traded it for the VG Strat. He absolutely loves it. It sounds fantastic, too.

For me, that would be instant death. My wife has bought me 2 guitars .. if I ever wanted to sell those I'd have to make it seem like her idea

As a tech-geek, I love the idea of the VG and the Variax. I don't think it will be long before the guitars made by people here start having that type of technology inside.

Evan

I think it's important to note that I'm not looking for a lot from my first guitar. I'm hoping to learn a lot and come out with a guitar that sounds .. like a guitar. However, I have huge plans for my second guitar .. custom design .. exotic woods .. top end hardware - assuming that the first one works worth a crap

Evan