Nic James

hehe I actually never finished it which sucks because I think it'll be great but trying to mount pickups has really slowed me down. It'll get there

Dave thanks alot! I don't know how I could have been reading up on guitars for months and not found this but you sir officially rock for this.

Hey chris I actually had your same exact concern about the braces dampening the top form vibrating. I have read up alot on acoustics and know that a top that can't vibrate is an awful start to a guitar. This fear was however laid to rest after seeing a breedlove guitar at my local guitar center. I we say that my braces from the bridge to the sides would be severely detrimental to sound than I assume that your saying any bracing from the bridge to the side would do the same. If this was true it would be very strange if a leading guitar company would use such a method. Here's a picture of the system used by breedlove It seams to me that my method of putting two rods from each side of the bridge to the bottom sides of the guitar isn't any worse than this method but I may be wrong. As for spoke I understand your concerns. I don't really have any way of knowing what this instrument is gonna sound like but in my defense the carbon fiber inside isn't really random and the carbon fiber sandwich bracing sounds like a good idea. hopefully my ideas will work and if not at least I tried. Also I just finished gluing the back so I thought I'd upload that Once again thanks for the posts, the more questions that are raised the more I'm forced to analyze my design

Hey thanks for the interest guys. verhoevenc, im not actually gonna brace the top (I know it sounds scary) but I am going to run support rods from the bridge to the sides (hard to explain but I'll get pics eventually) so no matter where the hole is I'll brace it the same. ihocky thanks for the concern but I'm well aware of the stubbornness of carbon fiber, I actually i did it on my electric as seen here Its not very hard using half inch wood and half inch carbon fiber jay, traditional double tops are supposed to be about the same thickness a regular guitar tops but this calls for both pieces of wood to be about veneer thickness which my planer can't do . Mine will instead be a little thicker than that but hopefully it'll still be about the same. As for the vibrationyness I was also very worried about this but the double top has been around for many years now and are used in some high end classical guitars so for the most part I trust them. What have you "sandwiched" if you don't mind me asking

For those of you who love the acoustic guitar and consider anything but a traditional built one to be pure blasphemy I suggest you navigate away from this page quickly. That said lemmie get into the guitar stuff (thats what its all about right?) Ok so I have make one electric and am working on another one but now I'm starting an acoustic so I figured I'd post pictures along the way. As you may have figured out I'm not one for tradition so these are some of the things I plan to put into this guitar: - Double top (hollow top, sandwich top, whatever) - Offset soundhole - Sound port - Access panel - Stainless steel frets - A bolt on neck with skunk-stripes of carbon-fiber - An unbraced top with carbon-fiber rods supporting the bridge ( this one's really hard to conceptualize, I know, but hopefully I'll get some helpful pics up) - Mahogany top and neck with curly maple sides and stripe down back Now I know this seems like a lot but bear with me, I'm pretty confidant this'll all work. Here the wood I've got so far the cool mahogany for the top Here's the basic shape although I'm not happy with the bridge shape Alright so this is a good start and for anyone out there who thinks anythings is seriously flawed with my plan or has any questions then please post. Thanks - Nic

Anybody around here ever tried a hollow top. I'm planing my first acoustic steel string and the hollow top (double top, sandwich top) idea caught my attention. For anyone not familiar its a thin layer of nomex which is a honeycomb material that is sandwiched between two pieces of wood. -peace

I thought about screws and I will have them , they will just have magnets on the ends of them. As for worries about a truss rod and magnets I'm just going for it, after all there is a whole thread on there about how a skunk-striped carbon fiber guitar is impossible so I can't listen to everybody

Sup guys. Prostheta I'm with you, I hope it can take the strain too but the carbon fiber seems really strong so it should hold. I'm also worried about the magnets. I couldn't think of any better ways and hopefully nothing will be effected but I'll keep you posted. As for the fretboard its maple from lmii if I remember correctly. I've been working on smoothing it all out and making it flow better and I have actually been thinking about what finish to use. I want something strong that brings out the figure in the grain and I was leaning towards a dull coat so I'd love suggestions. About the neck when I compared it to my brothers ibanez it seemed thinner than the wizard. And no there isn't carbon fiber between the neck and the fretboard. I would have liked to but woven carbon-fiber like that isn't cheap so I decided against it. Thanks guys peace out.

unfortunately I can't even leave the ball end out to keep the strings there because the winding near the ball is longer than the nut if that makes sense. I'm just gonna put the strings in there and clamp them down as hard as possible and maybe solder the bare ones if need be. As for the magnets its kinda hard to explain but I plan to have magnets on the body which will stick to the screws on the pickup (I'll get pictures of this setup once it works). finally yea dude there isn't a truss rod anywhere on this guitar, hopefully i wont have to adjust any bow. Keepem comin I like questions.

Well thanks for the replies guys. The pups are actually going to be some Dimarzios that I bought but I'm going to use magnets to hold them in instead of the traditional ring so thats why the routes look weird. I must say that EMGs would be wicked but I decided against them . As for the lower horn I'm actually with you guys, I don't think it turned out quite like I wanted but I slapped more carbon fiber in each horn so the design is pretty set in stone. And with the hardware hell yea I'm going with steinberger gearless, there sooo cool, and a tune-o bridge and I'm still praying that the locking nut will be enough to hold the strings at the other end. Keep askin questions and I'll try to get some more pics up as I get farther along.

Hey guys I figured I'd upload some images and see whatcha think. I want a really thin neck so I opted for carbon fiber, although this forum warned against it I'm still working on contouring it more and making it look all pretty but I'm excited for it to be done. Also I'll have a detailed thread when its done but I'm happy to answer questions or whatever.

Hey man I actually just bought some carbon fiber which I'm gonna laminate into my neck. I got mine from Dragonplate.com but the widest strips you can get are 1/2 inch so that kinda sucks. I just cut it to length with a hack saw and it cut finebut I don't know about sanding.

Ok guys I was just wondering why necks are thicker at the 12th fret than at the 1st. Does this difference in thickness serve some purpose or could a neck be a uniform thickness all the way down to where it meets the body? Thanks.

For my first guitar I radiused after gluing the fretboard to the neck and also after tapering it but I'm don't think it matters if youve tapered it or not.

Alright thanks guys I was rather worried about this but I'll take these things into consideration. I'll post pictures of the guitar when its done, I think this ones gonna be sweet.