Mr Natural

SWEET! Especially nice job on that binding on the redwood one. I am about to do a ES-355 (white with multi-ply binding) and I know I have to sit down and figure out how to make that. Nice work as always- hoping more pictures/details will follow

cool build. While I am not a huge fan of headless guitars- I am looking forward to your progress with this as I like to watch and learn- and you have always done a great job with documentation. I also dig you tempting the evil with that wood. I have a couple of evil pieces myself and will keep the west systems in mind.

"As for Bass players I like them strange as they are. They will willingly embrace new technology and innovation". I have never figured out why that statement is so true. "Guitarists are idiotic slaves to archaic voodoo traditions" +1 but it seems the youngins are only willing to step out of the box if their "guitar hero de jour" has already stepped out of the box for them and tried something new first- THEN they will follow the lead. PS- I am so jealous of that pic with the 5 guitars on your workbench. It would take me- literally- 5+ years to get that much work done. NIce work as alway bro.

Very cool build. I have a question about the Ghost bridge pickup. Are those saddles already slotted for 6 string- or did you somehow get 12 slots in there. I cant tell from looking at the pics or vid- I am curious about how you are approaching that if it is already slotted for 6 strings.

here is a Nordstrand Bass made of Red Gum. I wonder if this piece may have some sap wood towards the center of the bookmatch. http://www.nordstrandguitars.com/assets/images/gallery/andysbass/front123.jpg

Shielding paint in the cavitys

I am using 100grit on a neck blank of mahogany that I use to flat and true the scarf joint faces after cutting them with a backsaw. Here is the neck blank for this project after a few strokes with the 100- still a ways to go; clamping up the scarf-

wow. quite the change of face eh? wonder what the heck is really go on with all this. http://music.yahoo.com/news/gibson-guitar-acknowledges-exotic-wood-violation-154434875.html

twenty strokes back and forth and almost all the witness lines are gone underside of the maple top. I flattened this way back when- but its been sitting around for months- and temp/humidity changes over the months have made this suface uneven after 30 strokes across the sandpaper after another 40 strokes -almost there. another 50 strokes- the forearms are pumped and the sufaces are flat. This pic has some shadowing- but these sufaces are flat and well mated

finished routing out the body- left a bit over a 1/4" on the back wall. the router base rocked on that little ledge of an edge on the upper body- and I nicked into the wall on the upper bout (where your forearm rests)- no biggy- no one will see this- but still- rrrrrr marking witness lines on the body- I dont have a planer or thickness sander, so I use the base of my "David Myka" neck pocket jig (its flat)with some 50 grit attached to fine tune and flatten out gluing surfaces

I am pretty sure the last "flashcoat" i did was the cause of the laquer sinking -I had so much thinner in that last coat it just melted that laquer on the surface and it just sunk in. Figures this would happen- I hate grain filling- and after reading about people who dont grain fill- and just flood the pores with heavy coats and sand back- I have been doing that the last few times- well- this time it bit me. Probably not an issue on maple or similiar- but these pores were pretty big- and deep- and I should have known better- lesson learned. Here is a pic after sanding back heavy from the last pic above- 3 heavy coats- and just starting wet sanding with 800 grit. most of the pores are filled back in. The lines you see are from the paper clogging- at this point I am sanding the crap out of it and dont really care about it- just want to remove most of what I sprayed and leave the build up in the pores. I ended up drop filling that big old pore in the middle heres a shot after another 5 lighter coats. The force is in balance.Little bit of orange peel- and sprayer spit (I ran out on the last coat) Next time I will probably try the z-poxy that I am reading so many people are using to grain fill. I just REALLY hate grain filling.

OurSouls- you might be thinking of the high E tuned version. It comes in either 18.5" for D tuning or 16.3" for E tuning. From his website- "The Gryphon is available tuned to D (equivalent to the 10th fret of a standard guitar) or in a shorter scale version that is tuned E - a full octave higher than standard. The acoustic Gryphon's unique range comes from its short scale length (18.5" for D-tuning, 16.3" for E-tuning)"

I hear ya Wez- but what I dont understand as this guitar sat hanging in my basement since last November with a pretty much level finish (minor issues noted previously)- and now- just after light scuff sanding and re-spraying these last 3 coats back around June 25th or 26th- it appears to have sunk in where it didnt previously. I dont get that. It drank in those sealer coats- and the first few laquer coats- but those 9 or 10 laquer coats were basically sanded back/off to leave "filler" in the pores (I dont like grain filler). Anyway- i guess it doesnt matter- I will be sanding this puppy back hard once again- and starting it over. Maybe it was the last flash coat I used (30% thinner/70 laquer)-maybe that thinner did this. I dont know. Previous coats were approx15% thinner/85% laquer. I just hate getting THIS close to finishing the project and having to step backwards. Ah- such is guitar building.

so- i shot 3 more thin coats on this- and now I know something is not right. I started to sand this again- but thought I would take a photo and show the group. The laquer has definitely sunk in- but more now than before (how is that possible??) I am shooting McFaddens- check that- this last batch is Seagrave (last 3 coats)- I have never had this happen before. I swear to you people this was level- there were a few spots that had some minor issues- but this section of the body was dead level- now- its like -well- see for yourself. Anyone else ever had this issue? I used McFaddens sealer (x2 coats) and about 10 laquer coats ( heavy but sanded back) to fill. There are probably 9 or so coats (thin) on top of that. I was under the impression that Seagrave was just a name change- not a formula change- so I should be using the "same" product. anybody have this issue?

hogging out the body- this wood is so dense I had to use a smaller than usual diameter drill bit. I bought 5 or 6 boards from this batch and this board, while similiar in appearance to the others, definitely seemed to weigh more.

underside of the top after flattening body with output/piezo jack routed- cover is made of walnut

So after another 6 months of life getting in the way (again)- I went down stairs and found this still hanging up since Nov of last year. So I dusted it off- scuffed it and hit it again with some laquer. There were a couple spots where it looks like the laquer sunk in a little bit. Either that or I was just plain missed those spots previously. Hopefully I will have this one done by end of July. Who knows- maybe I will be typing this same paragraph a half year from now. Told the wife- when I retire- all I want to do is build. I just dont have enough free time these days it seems.

Thanks Scott. Let me start off by saying that I am not really a huge active pickups fan on guitars- I do like them on basses, but I prefer passive on guitars- so- keeping that in mind.... The rotating pickup doesnt really affect the sound too drastically on the treble strings- but there is a very noticeable effect on the bass strings. I would say my "prefered alignment" would not be as shown in the pictures- but rather the bass side of the pickup towards " 10-11 o'clock" and the treble side of the pickup towards 4-5 o'clock. When played clean- if the pickup is towards 1 o'clock on the bass side- it gets a little muddy/boomy on the low E, especially if you dig in or the electronics are turned down and not emphasising the trebles. You can somewhat "counter" this, if you will, by playing towards the bridge. I cant explain it- but plucking or finger picking towards the bridge cleans up that muddiness (a little bit). Distorted this guitar get can into some weird places. Using the "bass side of the pickup towards 1 o'clock position"- I got some absolutely narly sounds with overdrive/compression and such. I must admit I dont know how to "usefully" use those types of overdriven/narliness sounds effectively- but I got some squels/growls/farts and such out of this that I actually sounded (somewhat) like something off a 80s era King Crimson (Belew). Fun- but like I said- I dont know what to do/how to handle that stuff. Keeping the "prefered position" on this pickup- it sounds pretty good- but honestly its seems "limited" to me. A one trick pony if you will. But then again I dont have the same electronics that reside in a real Turner Model 1. This guitar does really "ring" though. Notes hold on before breaking up and I was really surprised- as I have always thought that one piece necks usually ring better-maybe I have read that more laminations = less (i hate to use this word) "sustain". Maybe the use of purpleheart had something to do with it- I dont know- maybe I just got lucky. I should have recorded this before sending it out the door- but I meant to have this to my friend- oh- I dont know- about 6 months ago- so I was a bit rushed to get it out and didnt think to record it. Plus- now that its gone- I can work on other guitars that have been started long ago and need attention.

Turner model one copy Mahogany body Mahogany/purpleheart/flame maple neck 5ply ebony/maple/ebony/maple/ebony veneer on back of headstock and heel cap black walnut control cavity cover Indian Rosewood fingerboard- 24 3/4 scale pickup housing (alder) and truss rod cover/battery cover/tailpiece ( all purpleheart) dyed black laquer finish EMG pickup and active electronics 25" radius on front and back of body This guitar was a present to my friend Tim Chapman- "Chapman" inlay on truss rod cover

Thanks Ponticat. as far as your question- I simply flipped the body over- and the only thing that held it down was a screw that is located in the middle of the pickup housing circle. I used a long 4 inch #10 screw (the screw on the finished guitar is a 3/4" inch long #12)- and if you look at the pics of the jig- there are blocks that are screwed down that keep the body from moving on the sides of the body. These were tall enough that they also kept the body from rocking on the radiused front. At first I thought I was going to need some shims- but the single screw really did the work- and those side blocks further reinforced preventing any rocking. The trick in cutting this was to take shallow passes and go slow. Took a good while to do- but I had no chip out on the sides- and with just a little sanding it worked quite nicely.

well- as usual with my builds- this one has sat in a corner while baseball season takes up all my time with my youngest son. Spring season end a few weeks back and I finally got this one finished. This was a fun build and I learned alot.

David- this is the solid body I was referring to earlier- solidbody with undersaddle. Scott

Veillette actually has an electric version too- its a solid body instrument- but the shape is more of a les paul type- which I didnt want to do. So- I am using the acoustic version shape- but I wont be bracing the top/back etc like a true acoustic. i wanted to try this and just hollow out that mahogany and see what happens. I am using an undersaddle transducer- I have an older Fishman matrix pickup laying around and a D-tar transducer as well. Not sure which I am going to use-I have used the Fishmans on fretless basses and they sound awesome. I run them at 18V which really seems to reduce the "quackiness" you sometimes get with piezo pickups. Veillette uses an undersaddle as well- at least on the first models of the electric version- they have since added magnetic pickups it looks like from their website. I have a 12 string acoustic bridge on hand- but I may end up carving one- having the strings go thru body and anchoring them at the back with a brass plate or something- not quite sure. I am sort of figuring this one out as I go.

Copy of a Veillette Gryphon, 12 string- 18.5" scale. Honduran Mahogany body Flame maple top Mahogany/ppl heart/flame maple neck template on top of maple- I have intentionally left a bit of margin on the template where the neck joins the body- this will be cleaned up (on the body) using a pilar sander. mahogany being clamped- going to try out a new router sled I made- see how it works for thicknessing/planing bodies. this mahogany is freaking heavy- I bought five 12'+ boards from my wood supplier-the last of this particular batch he had just gotten in a few days prior and this board- for whatever reason- felt way heavier than the others. Same color as the others- the boards ring thru but at just a slighter higher pitched "dong" than the other boards (if you know what I mean). I am saving some of this wood to try out as necks- seeing how it works out in this body as a semi hollow

as you guys can tell- I should proof read before posting- wes and prostheta- good ones- I left myself wide open for that. just to show you both that my photographic skills match my "excellent" command of the art of written english- take a look at this- this pic was taken after I glued the neck in place and applied a second coat of teak oil (wet sand with steel wool)-the guitar at this point has dried out for a couple days- the guitar body looks "orangish". I cant seem to take a good pic to save my life- pretty pathetic considering the camera is fully automatic. The "real" color is a nice deep rich mahogany brown- but you cant tell that from these pics. I really need to pull out the manual for this camera and figure it out. battery cover box (purpleheart dyed with fingerboard dye and then lacquer) and black walnut control cover that has been sanded to match the radius of the body Thanks for the comments rad and dave. the jig took less than maybe an hour to make- and after the last passes with the router on the body of the guitar- it took no time at all to clean it up with 100 grit on an orbital sander. after this pic was taken- I finally decided on tuners- so I drilled those holes let the guitar dry out for about a month and right now its getting its last few coats of lacquer. I will post more in a few weeks