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.

I know that there are usually issues with the bridge height but I'm routing out a place for my tune-o so that isn't a problem. For my last guitar I stepped the neck up above the body so that the strings were plenty high for the bridge. For this guitar I wasn't planning on doing that, just the fretboard and the frets would account for the height that the strings have to be, is this ok?

-Thanks everybody

Ok before you jump on me about how this is too thin let me explain myself. My plan was to make a neck-thru with the neck (not counting the fretboard) measuring half an inch thick. Normally this would be crazy but I plan to laminate 3 2/3 in. pieces of mahogany with two pieces of 1/8 in. by 1/2 in. between the mahohany running the entire length of the guitar. This would get me the 2 1/4 inches I need for the width of the neck and I think it would be strong enough. Plus a 15/64 in. fretboard it would be about the thickness of a wizard neck. Think this would work guys? Also has anyone used any carbon fiber from Dragonplate.com?

Thanks

Alright guys first off thanks for the imput and wow that blackmachine is one sick guitar, I'd never even heard of it. Now I wanna clear a few things up. For tuning at the body end I was planning on using the gearless Steinberger tuners from stewmac I'd put past the Tune-O-Matic I got. Also I did a little bit of testing with my brothers Ibanez. It has the same kind of locking nut I was thinking of using and so i tightened it down, let the tension off between the nut and the tuners and then played it some and left it aroung for a few days. It didn't seem to to detune any but my concern is that if the strings were cut off after the nut the larger ones may unravell if that makes any sense. For the top horn it occured to me that it might be a bit weak and so I was planning on using the excess rod (probobally about 5 inches) to strengthen it since I am planning on adding about a quarter inch of maple on the top of the "body wings" so it would be simple to put in under that. As for the fingerboard problem, I was worried about that also since I'v heard about problems with scalloped fingerboards. So do you guys think that Exoxy would be better for securing a fingerboard, has anyone worked with it before. I also plan on contouring it alot so "really thin" may have been an exaguration if I can make it look thin and keep weight down. My main goal with this guitar was to make a really playable neck, kinda like a parker fly neck but scalloped. Also is it better to have the carbon rods right next the neck or not (I was thinking about half an inch away on either side might be good but I'm no expert).

P.S. Up here in the state the ACT is a standardized test that high school kids take to help colleges make acceptance decisions and I have to take mine in a week.

See ya, rock on.

Ok this is only my second guitar so I'm still new at this but here goes. For this guitar I'm thinkin really thin and really light (I hope). This presents some serious problems with strength that I was hopin you guys could help me with. I was planning on doing a neck-thru headless guitar but I've got some questions about the neck. I want to make it about as thin as an Ibanez wizard neck if that helps but I'm also going to scallop the fretboard. I have a piece of mahogany for the neck which I plan to laminate to get the thickness I want. What kind of neck strengthening would you guys suggest (I was thinking one truss rod and a carbon fiber bar on either side but I'm open to suggestions). I obiously don't want the neck to warp and with carbon fiber rods supporting it the bow shouldn't be a problem but I am concerned about it twisting. I also want to know how you everyone feels about steel frets since that was what I was planning on using. Finally I was planning on securing the strings to the end of the neck using an ibanez locking nut and just clamping them down, think this'll work?

This is the plan I have drawn up so far. It's in pencil so it's kinda hard to see.

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer them quickly, I'm sure I missed some things I'm supposed to be studying for the ACT.

Thanks, peace boys.

Ok here guys i got a video put together for you. It's quality is kinda bad (sorry, crappy camera) but you can see the guitar pretty well and you'll be able to hear what it sounds like. I'm using my metal pick so tell me how you think it sounds since there's been some controversy over that or whatever.

I REALLY like the paint job and the guitar as a whole is very nice. This is wayyyy better than my first ever could have been.

How does it play?

How did you go about doing the scalloping?

How did you paint it (paint types, # of coats etc...)

Hey thanks dude, I appreciate the comment. I really like playing it and the scalloping feels great although the neck is a little thicker than I like normally . I gotta say scalloping was a pretty horrible experience lol. First I put tape on all of the frets and then started with a round file on the smaller frets. I used a rasp on the bigger frets and then hand sanded with sandpaper to get everything lookin nice. I think overall it took almost 8 hours start to finish to scallop the whole thing. As for the paint I used car paint and then laquered over that. I did one color at a time and taped off the others each time I painted. I used way too many coats I know that and I had to fill in alot of little places to make the lines crisp.

Rock on man

i too would like to know why the area under the bridge looks like that. also, why the heck would anyone use a metal pick? that would shorten your string life by about 75 percent! i cant imagine wanting to do that.

I actully haven't broken a string yet so although its prolly not great for the strings, it doesn't seem too bad for them. It helps that I get every pick I make awesomly smooth before they even touch a string.

P.S. You have a killer quote dude, inspiring.

I kind of like the paint work...I think it needs to have the colored buttons along the first five frets though to look "authentic".

There are some unusual things going on here that really undermine the thing in my eyes but you got to learn along the way. The long area between the nut and tuners, a little odd; the pained pickup, strangely odd...what's up with the bridge...

looks like it's glued on or something...odd...

Still...an interesting idea, art imitating art, imitating life imitating art, imitating life imitating...

Some things you appeared to do pretty well, and then others...not so...but a very good first go and with difficult wood and features like scalloping that would trip up even more experienced builders

pete

First off thanks for the comment bro. To clear things up thats actually a piezo pickup I made under the bridge. I saw an article online about using the piezo elements form buzzers to make pickups (I can't remember where exactly but I'm sure y'all could find it). I decided to try my hand at making my own so thats what that is glued onto the bottom of the tune-o. Incase your wondering it works pretty well unless you are close to a really loud amp cause you get some killer feedback.

Colored buttons would have been a nice touch I gotta say but owell, there's always next time.

i agree, it looks like there is about 3" of flat space above the fretboard, like it was positioned way too low. you took a huge chance using oak for a neck. oak is the most wild unpredictable wood ive ever used. did you get any splinters?

Haha ok, I'll adimit I kinda messed up there. It's actually about half an inch between the end of the board and the start of the angle on the neck but that was just poor planning on my part. As for the oak I didn't have any problems with it but I gotta say it's way too heavy and for any future guitars I'll use something better, got any suggestions??

I like the look of this build. The scalloping looks very textured because of the grain of the wood. It's a nice effect.

Genius on the magnet placement, btw What kind of pickups are in it?

Thanks X I love the texture to. It looked pretty radical before I scalloped it too, LMII has great fretboards!

As for the pickups, I think there crappy old hammer pickups lol. Honestly since it was my first build I figured I'd ruin it before I even needed pickups so I bought some cheep ones.