-martin-

Thanks

The skull is actually jakaranda/rosewood with some modeling clay as touch up in some spots.

The hardware is reliced with Hydrochloric acid and being stored for 4 years in an old barn

The paint is some cheap automotive paints

Just finished this bad boy up, it only took 4 years

basswood body, sculpted skull, tonerider vintage bridge pup and an Epiphone humbucker in the neck position. Currently missing high E string

Progress pics

headstock sketches:

Not too shabby being built without template, and painted with regular aerosol cans

Now i've cut the contours of the main template but I'll need to get to my parents and borrow a drill before i can cut the f-holes and the hollow template.

@ToneMonkey:

Yeah, i'm going to put another pick up on there. So SwedishLuthier expect an order soon

Finally got some time for this one.

Started drawing the templates today, and will cut them out tomorrow.

Main template

Hollow

And this is the pickup i bought from SwedishLuthier

Pickup

The wood i got were mouisture damaged during shipping so the wood a little bent, any tips on how i should straighten it again?

Can i dampen them, clamp them toghter with osome straigt metal pieces and put them in a drying cabinet?

I dig the color. I´m not a fan of pointy guitars so I´m not sure, but isn´t the upper horn in the way of your arm? I suppose balance won´t be an issue with the lower horn that size. Also, I see three pots and no switch, are you going for a rotary switch?

Nice mockup!

Thank you

I dont think it is inte the way of the arm since the ESPs has a slightly bigger horn than mine.

Yeah, push/pull pots with volume/tone (if possible) and a rotary switch.

That's metal! Colour combos are great, you've really "struck a chord" with this design It is going to have 24 frets isn't it??

Thanks dont know yet, 22 or 24 maybe scalloped from 12.

Hi!

Just finished a mockup of an ESP style explorer with some minor modifications. Must complete my other projects before starting this one though

What do you think?

//Martin

I've decided to try to make my own neck for once

Going for a carbon fiber rod, seems simple.

Forgot to mention the woods in the body. the middle part is rosewood(jacaranda) and the outerparts is scrap wood i found lying around. Probably Spruce.

the neck will be maple with a rosewood fingerboard (maybe skull inlays or something like that).

could always build the neck yourself

Thats an option, i've never made a neck though. Guess I can use a mandolin truss rod.

Hi!

Just wanted to share the project i started the weekend, its a 19.7" scale guitar for my 4yr old son (one wasn't enough for him ).

Borrowed some design elements from METAL MATT

Anyone knows where to buy necks in this scale and other small parts?

//Martin

Very nice

Are the graphichs drawn/airbrushed or dekals?

This is a Bass I carved a few years back

If we could find a drummer that played on skulls we would have a hell of a band

Hehe, that would be cool

Nice bass btw

How much for that wood, and were did you get it from (always trying to find alternative sources here in Sweden...)

$97.50 (≈650 SEK) from ebay including shipping.

Bröderna holm skulle ha 2000.- för en lönnplanka på 200x2500x52 mm

BTW, your pickup is done, just waiting for the cover to arrive in the beginning of next week.

Great

My Yamaha semi has an Alder body with a Maple top. Sounds great. The top is only 1/8th of an inch thick. I noticed you intend to make yours much thicker. I'm curious because I plan on copying mine this winter. (first build) How did you come up with that thickness?? By the way I love the body design and the colour.

Thank you

I wanted a little thicker guitar for more acoustic feeling (sound) and wanted much carving. added some more to the wood i ordered for sanding and smoothing

another update, smaller f-holes and added white bindning and knobs/switch

Hehe, i'll be taking orders as soon as its finished

Just got a great deal on woods for the body. 1 set (2 pieces) of alder 1 3/4 x 7 x 21 and 1 set 1/2 x 7 x 21.

Is alder as good as maple? know its good for solidbodies but how about hollowbodies? the dave grohl 335 is all maple.

Also have an idea of putting the battery and eq for the piezo in a stompbox type of thing if its possible... dont wanna put ugly things in the beatiful body

I like it a lot, I'd buy it too.

Although, I can't see the need for the additional bracing at the heel end now that you've routed them through to each other.

As for recessed TOM's; dunno why, but I just don't really like the look of them.

Thank you

Yeah, i removed them.

They do for sure not look as godd as ordinary TOM's but i think it would save me some headace

here comes a quick photoshop mockup

i thought of yamaha when i saw the f-holes but i can see they are not the same... i like them either way

They served as an inspiration

link

What do you think of this setup?

i'm kind of nervous about doing a neck angle. So this setup would be perfect

link

Also made some minor changes to the sketch. gretch/tv jones style pickup and steeper carving on the bass 'horn'.

EDIT:

Is a tune-o-matic angle of 2.79 degrees correct?

Nice, a lot like the guitar I'm doing. Don't forget to have a block under the bridge and leave some wood around the neck pocket so it doesn't wobble

The top will be around 10mm thick - the carving.

I'd buy it! It looks like a nice project, and a very balanced shape. I would go for a Firebird headstock personally, seeing as it already looks a lot like a Tele.

Metallic blue? Channeling Dave Grohl a bit? What pickup are you thinking of putting in?

Hehe, yeah. I'm a big fan of Grohl

Don't know... yet. SwedishLuthier here on the forums might have a pickup that may fit. The tune-o-matic bridge vill be piezo loaded.

Seems like you only have a couple of 1/4" wide pieces of wood holding up the elipse between the to partial F holes on each side. Seems pretty fragile? ? ?

The inner outline is the carving

This is how i planned the routing (think it will be strong enough, 10mm thick on the edges):

I couldn't find any tele plans in the download section.....anyone know where a guy looking to make his first tele might find some quality plans to make templates? thanks, Matt ps. what do I need to open the cdr files?? forgive me if this is elementary but that's my basic level of education with regards to this stuff.

CDR files are Corel Draw

I have a couple in pdf and ai format. if you'd like

I like it. Particularly the differently shaped f-holes. The right hand end (as you look at the drawing) reminds me of a tele, but the left hand, with the more curved sweep, looks a bit es-335'ish.

Thank you

hehe, thats exactly the mix i was looking for

Hi!

Just wanted to show a sctech of a hollowbody im planning.

I think the body will be all maple, with a babyblue matallic finish

Dimensions are 340x424x55mm, with a 25,5" scale length. Not sure if i want a tele style headstock or a reversed firebird headstock.

Comments and critics are welcome!

//Martin

Ok, bummer :/

Think im gonna go for the idea with putting screws trough the eyes. gotta have that strap there

Or is it even better to have screws though the nackpocket into the skull?

the suspending over hydrochloric () acid thing works quite well for chrome.. its not really needed for nickel hardware though as etchant eats it quite well all on its own

i wouldn't have relied on wood glue to hold that carving on there, even with really strong wood glue you still have the issue of gluing it onto the end grain of the body... which is not advisable. you might get away with it if it wasnt for the strain the strap button is going to put on that join

is the skull carved on the back, if not i would add a splice in the back to connect the two bits of woods in a more secure way... or i would try drilling through the eye sockets of the carving into the body to pin them together with a dowel or something

The skull is carved on the back. but i don't think it's a problem, the skull sits quite hard. But i will do some tests to get it off... just to make sure it stays on there. :S

What'd you do to rust the hardware? Is it just old, or did you go through some process?

First I put everything i a bucket along with some other bolts av screws and abrasive papers and then shook it for about 10-20 minutes.

Then I layed it in a large bucket with a bowl of Muriatic (Hydrochloric) acid. Put a lid on and let it stand for about a day, then i put the parts in the kind of acid you use when making PCBs for abuot a minute (to speed up the process for heavier relic) then in to the large bucket again for about half a day. Then i sprayed some WD-40 on them to stop the process

interesting. Muratic acid is meant to be used to clean rust off of parts. so i think you just added a step. it cleans off rust.

Yeah, but the fumes penetrates the chrome/nickel and dissolves it, and speed up the rustinc process of the metal beneth the chrome/nickel.... or something like that