Myka Guitars

True, the Safe-T-Planer is a great too for exactly that type of thing. Thanks for the idea. One thing I forgot to mention is to take multiple passes with this jig. The half round bit I used was 1" radius and you don't want to take off more than 1/8" each pass. If you use the same type of router base you can start of with the bit raised up so the first cut is minimal. Slowly work your way up to full cutting depth. Don't try to take the whole amount on the first pass, that would be asking for trouble and probably cause major tearout anyway. Just be careful, go slow, and keep your fingers out of the way. Routers are powerful tools. We all need our fingers for playing.

OK, I know I have promised a more detailed account of the neck pocket jig that I made. I have a few guitars getting to that point very soon and I will photgraph it more in use and come up with a parts list, etc. To make up for the wait I have another new jig I just made today for rough carving the neck shape. This thing works very well and the design is very simple. It involves the concept of an overhead router and a round over bit with a bearing. Here is the overhead router base made of plywood. If you have a table saw and screws you can make this very easily: Here is the cutter head: Here it is up against the neck to see how it aligns: Here is the jig that clamps the neck in place: Notice that the hold-downs are angled plywood blocks with sandpaper on the face that the neck sets against to hold it better. They also swivel so that the headstock angle can be a variable. The fingerboard is set level with the hold-down jig so the cutter comes right the edge of the fretboard. To use this you have to cut the neck taper on a bandsaw or whatever since the bearing rides along the back of the neck. This can be a rough cut but the smoother you make it the smoother the neck will be and the less work you have to do. I designed this to rough out the necks but it seems to work very nicely and the carve is very close to what I would do by hand. This tool is a real time saver.

A lot of Strats and Teles were made with flatsawn wood. You want the wood to be straight and without warp. A good truss rod will correct for the string tension but the neck needs to be of a wood that will bend stright and not twist. A good flatsawn board will work as well as a quarterd one but it will not be as strong. Is it anything to worry about? With the small amount of tension of an electric guitar, no.

There is some good advice in this thread (and some good laughs!). Most important is patience, and more patience. Archtops are not the easiest type of guitar to build because of the complexity of the arched surfaces and then matching the angles of the neck, fitting the bridge to the curves, etc. You have to develop the feel for this architecture. Gaining experience is necessary but I always have to differ with the concesus that building a more 'normal' electric solidbody will get you that experience. You will come away with the basics of guitar building (you can't get more basic than a strat) but you won't learn how to do arches unless you do arches. A carved top electric is closer but a sem-hollowbody is closer still. The best way to learn how to build an archtop is to just build one. It is so different from any other style of guitar that you really have to just jump in to learn it. If you have watched the Benedetto videos for the last 5 months then you are way more prepared than I was. I assume you also have the book so just follow that closely and go for it. Get some cheap spruce or pine and test out the carving if you want to save yourself some grief before you commit to the nicer stuff. Other than that I would suggest mahogany for easier carving. I made this with nothing but hand tools as an experiment: archtop1 , archtop2, and archtop3 (check out the tailpiece height). It turned out much better than I expected (although still not very good) and was way easier than anyone told me it would be. After going painfully slow with the carving of the back I got the hang of it and carved the top out in a few hours. Expect your first one to be an experiment and just don't stress about it. Unless you are going for a production model just have fun and learn. You can't get good until you build up your woodworking chops and there is only one way to do that. Just don't waste all the mad koa on your first archtop. Get some paint grade mahogany and cheap spruce instead. I did and the guitar sounded really nice and warm. And if you have anywhere near $2000 for tools just get a pair of these: carving planes. I use the larger one more than the other but for smaller guitars the small one comes into play a lot. There, now you still have $1790 and some sweet carving planes.

You don't need a carver to make the top. Check out the way I carved out the inside of the top with the drill press. If you plan it correctly you can drill out the arch and finish it up with a gouge or chisel and orbital sander. Some people do their rough carving with an abrasive disc grinder, an electric chainsaw (Tom Ribbecke), or just some coarse grit and a lot of time. It can be done in a number of different ways. Just go slow and check your arches many time in the process. If you can get some pine to make a test piece it will save you some major headaches.

You go very slow making sure to put pressure both down onto the top and against the side. Basically it is a guide and you become the machine. All the guide does is set the maximum depth the cuttar can make. It is easier than it seems.

To lighten the guitar up you can also try chambering the body before glueing the top onto it. Here is a pic of an older chambering design: Anything will work really as long as you keep enough wood to router pickups and neck slots into you should be fine. Using this technique I have made some pretty lightweight mahogany guitars that still retain the mahogony tone.

You can use any wood combination that you want to really. There is no right way to build a guitar (in my experience) unless it's either too light or too heavy. If you you want the classic Les Paul sound build a set neck guitar with mahogany body and neck, maple top, and ebony or rosewwod fingerboard, 24.625" scale length and go with a pair of humbucker pickups. The bridge will be a stop tailpiece and tune-o-matic. If you don't really care if it sounds like a Les Paul then use whatever strikes you. Try an alder body, maple top, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard. Or black limba body, top, and neck with a brazilian rosewood fingerboard (killer tone combo). Or try african mahogany body and neck, koa top, ebony fingerboard. How about a redwood body, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard. Or perhaps a padauk body, african mahogany neck, and a rosewood fingerboard with a 25" scale length. Will you use a tremolo? What pickups will you use? P-90s, humbuckers, or single coils? A possible pickup combination would be cool like H-S-H or H-S-S. How about 3 P-90s? What about scale length? This will affect things quite a bit. A Les Paul is usually 24.625" or thereabouts. Try 25" or 25.5" for different feel and tone. How about a semi-hollow design or a chambered body. That changes things a bit. What I am getting at is that there are so many factors in building a custom guitar that you really need to know what you are looking for first before you start picking woods. That is unless you want to experiment entirely. Either way is still pretty fun.

This website has some strange woods. There is Northern, Southern, and Eastern but no Western (that almost covers it all, but wait...). They have Blackbean and Blackbutt (?). Never heard of those before, very unique. Brush Box and Pencil woods for specific usage I assume. There is also Silky, Curly, and Spotted wood. They also have American wood for the 100% made in the USA guitar. Nice!

I have used it before with the carbide cutter that they also carry. It works pretty well. Just go slow and make at least 2 passes, the first one to rough out the ledge and the second one to clean it up.

I like the TonePros, although they are pricey for what you get. It is an OEM tune-o-matic with tapped set screws. That's it for the extra $50. You are paying for the patented idea. If you are making your own guitar (not to sell) then you can add set screws to a regular TOM bridge. Since I am selling most of the guitars I build I get the TonePros. It not only adds sustain but the transfer of vibrational energy is enhanced because of the elimination of excess slop in the bridge/post joint. I tested this and setup my first TonePros wihout setting the screws and played it for a bit. Then I locked the screws. There was a noticeable increase in sustain and the overall harmonic content of the guitar. I use the TonePros all the time now.

I use Titebond to glue in my carbon fiber tubes. But I also route a round bottom slot and then a rounded fillet to cover the tube and hold it into the neck. The result is that the round tube is completely surrounded by wood. Because of this I use Titebond. As long as you don't need it to fill in large gaps you will be fine. Like Scott says the stuff is quite strong when cured.

Yes there was. You can do it all with a hammer and chisel. If you keep them sharp and take your time it will come out good. Also don't use a hammer, use a wooden mallot or a 2x2 of some hardwood, preferrably rounded. The hammer will be too heavy and you will dull your blades quickly. You want to cut the wood not smash it.

You can certainly get away with using a chisel and hammer to do any of the routing that a guitar requitres. Whenever you think that it is impossible remember that there were very fine guitars being made before the industrial revolution. That being said a router (hand operated or CNC) is the way to go if you have one. You can use strictly hand methods if you want to though. The pickups cavities, neck pockets, etc in my first few guitars (16 years ago) were made using one of those auger type drills that were used in a hand drill (precursor to Forstner bits and a drill press for me) and then cleaned up with a chisel. You can get pretty good results with it. Of course for ease of use, accuracy of cut, and accurate replication of your work nothing beats a router and template or the superior CNC router (if you can afford or are lucky enough to have access to one).

That is an awesome idea. I think I may go with it. I was trying to think of something that would go with the wicked nature of that veneer. The Chinese dragon is perfect. Thanks!

I would too. Anyone know of a place that sells the black/white/black in sheet form?

Check out the next batch of 5 of these semi-hollows: #017-#021 These will be pretty cool to hear the differences in a few of the same design guitars. I don't often get to compare this many at once. #021 will be the most experimental as the woods are totally different than most semi-hollow guitars. I have been cranking and have't taken too many more since this thread covers everything I have done already, but let me know if you want anything else detailed. jay5, I will be doing a neck route in the next week. I will post more pictures and a parts list for the neck jig.

I have made a guitar like this before. It is not unlike the PRS hollowbody way of doing things. The top was carved on the inside but I left a block around the neck pickup area to glue the neck into. The rest was hollowed out with a side and back thickness of about 3/8". PRS guitars and the like have the block running all way to the bridge so they can use a tune-o-matic style. I used an archtop bridge. Here is a pic of the inside of my guitar. The 335 style does use a laminated top and back, both arched. The sides are made like an acoustic guitar but there is a block that runs the length of the body connecting the neck and tail of the guitar. The advantages of having a solid block in the middle would be a decrease in feedback, more structurally stable body (less susceptable ot moisture, string tension, etc), and the tone, if you perefer it. The advantage of the way I made mine is the jazz tone of the archtop bridge and tailpiece. You can't really get it without the tailpiece since the strings go over the bridge putting downward pressure on the top totally changing the way the top behaves. Each style produces a different character of tone. Add in wood differences and the tonal variation increases again. It is a matter of personal preference as far as which is better. They all have good tone if built well.

Yes, that would look pretty good. Walnut is one of my favorite tonewoods to work with. If you went with a lighter weight mahogany neck or even walnut I think you would have an awesome guitar. That top looks killer! And that fingerboard has perfectly stright grain. This will be a stunner. Keep us posted with pics.

Wow Jehle, I am really liking that guitar. Nice choice on the satinwood for the veneer. With the burst or whatever you choose to go with that will look kickin'. You can tell you are taking your time with this too, your work is very clean. Looking forward to the finished product!

If you haven't done it already check The Musical Instrument Maker's Forum. They have a couple archived discussions about piezos as well as a design with a parts list and thread describing how to build a preamp.

I was looking into an amp project myself. I can't answer any of the questions since I just started my research. I would like to share the resources I found though. Here are some links: Ax84 Cooperative Tube Amp Project Torres Amps - Build your own amp Another build your own amp page And you can't forget the schematics: Schematic Heaven There is also another site that is specifically information and mods for the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp. I have one and had a small problem with static and crackle. I searched this site out and found a fix that required replacing 5 resistors. It was easy to do and it worked. Anyway there is a lot of good information here and if you do have one of these (killer) amps there area few mods that you may want to try. The Unofficial Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Owner's Guide This thread makes me want to get into this again...

Yes, it is the same thing.

Hopefully some of the more knowledgeable painters will chime in here. First thing is that you probably do not want to use sandpaper. Especially on an acoustic guitar you run the risk of sanding the top too thin. Use a paint stripper of some sort. Tthis is where the others can help since I don't know what to use. You can also paint over what is there if you don't want to strip the paint but if you go too thick you will deaden the tone. Same goes for the inside. If you go very thin or perhaps just wipe some color on the inside it may work better. The action can be lowered by adjusting the truss rod and/or lowering the saddle. Measure everything first before you start sanding the saddle. Also be sure to accommodate for string tension. If you are going with different strings put those on before you start adjusting anything or you may have to redo the work for the new string guage. For strings of all kinds try: Just Strings. Hope this helps.

This is the truth. Quilted maple has nothing but grain runout, that's what all the waves are about. Looks great but structurally it is lacking. If you don't want to use laminations then use some serious graphite. Get some 1/8" x 3/8" stock and put 2 of them down the length of the neck. It works for 5 and 6 string basses so it will work for an electric guitar neck with much less string tension. Personally I would go with a combination of the laminates and the graphite. Overbuild with a wood like this or don't use it at all. You don't want to end up with a warped neck which is very likely with a quilted maple neck without reinforcement.