Strandberg Guitarworks

Melvyn, your book is what got me into guitar building. Thanks! You have done this community a huge favor. Credit where credit is due - hope your situation is sorted out. I have no investment (besides joy) to reclaim, so I have published my own materials under Creative Commons licensing. Cheers, Ola

Cool stuff Volverine! I am building tuners of the exact same principle: Check out this company J-Custom who also have a store on eBay called Headlessresearch. Do you have a good source for CNC work? If this mini-series turns out well, I will need to get hold of someone who can make a larger series at a decent cost.

Here are a couple more pictures of how the neck is set into the body. I have written up some more details on my blog.

One of the bridges that I am constructing will be a direct drop-in replacement for an FR, using the existing studs and springs. However, some clearance towards the rear will be required in order to be able to use the tuners. It is possible to use the locking nut to lock the strings in place and cut the headstock off altogether if you're adventurous! I am intending to do so on one of my guitars and post "before" and "after" sound samples and weights. This is my first "0" series production run of 2 bridges and if it turns out well, I will have more made for sale.

Bridge progress: Carbon fibre mould progress: Little more verbose on my blog :-)

Some more progress on my site Finishing off a second styrofoam prototype that is looking good (it really does :-)

Just got back from getting some threads done on my tuners. More progress pictures on my site, but here are a couple:

Theoretically, the same truss-rod as always, since the bending moment is essentially the same. Having said that, the profile of the neck is different from that of a straight neck, so the tension in a given point will differ. Also, it might be a bit tricky to do the routing for it. With a carbon fibre neck, there should be no need for a truss-rod methinks.

Hey carousel, check out this or this clip of Routing the back of a guitar neck.... I am a mechanical engineer turned software engineer, so I'm itching to do it, but I'm afraid that it will take much longer than doing it by hand. I am more inclined to make a duplicarver type setup so that I can do scratch prototypes and then duplicate in tonewood when happy. Will post some more progress pictures tonight. I have completed to base plates for the bridge. I was supposed to get the knurled knobs done today but my friend with the special tool that it requires got a strep throat. Edit 30 seconds after posting: Hmmm, just re-read carousel's post. Is there a way to do it with _no_ CNC? There ought to be, but time will tell. I can think of two ways to do it: either from a solid/glued slab that is rasped/planed carefully, or creating a jig that has the right curvature and then gluing thin laminates and pressing them into shape. The third option (which is my plan A) is to create a mould and vacuum bag epoxy and carbon fiber like

Ok, have published what I have! Spread the gospel...

I have uploaded complete plans for everything I have done so far on my site. Feel free to donate if you like them!

Cool - very nice and userfriendly site too! I will need to hack into my Wordpress templates, but will try and get to it over the weekend.

I am tinkering with the idea of making all my materials and plans available under Gnu Public License (GPL) or Gnu Free Documentation License (GFDL). What this means is that anyone is free to use them and adapt them, but that I can enforce that anyone who does has to Refer to me as the original copyright holder, and Make their own additions/enhancements/use public under the same license These are examples of copyleft, as in . What do you think? There are some examples that make me laugh when I look at their sites and "TM" is the most prominent phrase along with "Patented".

I have posted a couple of progress pics on my site. The bridge is the most tangible and straight-forward piece at the moment and it will turn out really cool once it's finished (finished as in the surface treatment) if things go according to plan. In the meantime, here's my acrylic router template. The first attempt broke along with my saw, so this is very hand-made :-)

I was following the Cool Luthier Links topic and suddenly I found a picture of this piece of wreckage that I have had in pieces in a box since 1992 (the 13th of July exactly - I remember wrapping some pieces in newspaper at the time and it was still there). I thought I would post it here to see if anyone knows anything about it, or possibly even want to take it off my hands. It comes with most of the pieces except the logo that is supposed to be stuck on the pickguard. At least one of the pickups is broken. This is the three pickup version, which is what makes it rare. I have put up a bunch of pictures in my gallery.

A bit of progress on the tuner/bridge:

This guitar was the result of many builds... One of them started as a Swamp Ash body that we gradually replaced the center with thicker and thicker pieces of maple until it was a maple center and ash sides. Several designs later, we ended up with this. What is not shown in the pictures is that we actually "tuned" it by drilling holes in the back. This was for sound purposes rather than weight purposes. What I am trying to say is: get a big ol' drill and go to work until you are happy :-)

Hi there! I scanned some old photos today and created a gallery on my site and thought I would be so bold as to enter an almost 20 year old instrument for this month. It's at least the first time it's shown in public... Sadly this particular instrument was stolen when it was on display at a shop. Neck: 3 pieces of quartersawn wenge with cherry veneers in between Fingerboard: Wenge Body: Cherry Pickups: Ibanez LO-B5 Bridge: Schaller Tuners: Gotoh It's called Kebbon Bass V as it is a 5-string sibling of Kebbon Bass IV, which was commissioned by Andreas Kebbon. Enjoy! Here's a progress picture as well. FYI, the knight stuff is my little brother's.

So cool! I had no idea it was possible to do these things as DIY with good results. I built my own amp once upon a time and included a slaughtered Chorus box inside. It sounded OK, but I couldn't get it to look nice enough to be any fun to use.

I did start making the two first bridges yesterday... I brought my camera to work today to snap some progress pictures but forgot to bring it home again, so I will post an update tomorrow or so. The company I had planned to make them for me are just too bogged down with paid work to sneak in a job like mine, so I will make them myself. It's more fun anyway :-) These guys are supposed to come out with a Steinberger style trem soon. Here is the original Steinberger patent. It's locking as you can see! Haven't seen a one on the market though...

Hi! I am going to set myself a personal guitar building goal for this year to make enough money to make it to a fun trade show and exhibit a guitar or two. Which show is best/most fun/etc. for a small shop in your opinion? There seems to be quite a few. Just as an example, I have found http://www.texasguitarshows.com/ShowInfo.htm, http://www.ducksdeluxe.com/ddevents.html and http://musik.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en/home.html Then there's NAMM of course. Both Europe and the US are interesting. If it's in California or somewhere where there is surfing, it's a plus :-) Cheers, Ola

Ah - as it happens I tested playing positions earlier today on a cardboard mockup! I have posted a series of pictures on my blog http://guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com/ and in particular the classical position (guitar resting on left leg) was incredibly comfortable. This is not the position I normally play in, so that was interesting. I have milled a groove in the "plunger" that the string runs through and have a stop-screw extending into the groove to keep it from turning. It's a slight area of concern that this might cause problems in the future, but there might be safer solutions.

I definitely don't want to rain on your parade, but I would make it a maple top and put something like honduras mahogany, cedar or swamp ash in the body. You could make the top portion quite thick if you want... I just don't have very good experiences of all maple. The sound level when played acoustic is almost zero and it tends to be dull sounding. But again, that is just my experience. There are stunning pieces of maple out there and I am seriously contemplating a quite thick carved bookmatched tiger maple top on my next build (after finding out that lacewood wasn't great for carving with bookmatching).

Actually, I have access to a metal workshop but not a wood one at the moment, so the bridge build is the most accessible one for me at the moment! And, I think it'll be a pretty cool piece of machinery... It's obviously inspired more than just a little by Atlansia http://www.atlansia.jp/ATG.05.JPG and the really cool thing is that it is entirely modular. Just use different base plates for tremolo/fixed, 6-string, 7-string, 8-string, fanned frets, etc. The original plan was to have it made in stainless steel, but I think I will try Aluminum and see how it goes. It will require hardened inserts for the fulcrum edges on a tremolo version, but I'll work it out in one way or another. Next challenge is to make it locking like the Steinberger bridges (i.e. lock into place like a fixed bridge, not the strings)

Thanks for all encouragement! I am so looking forward to moving this one along.