SJE-Guitars

I've read these kind of comments about teak a few times and to be honest I find them kind of confusing! Living where teak is a native tree and can be bought for a fraction of the price compared to the rest of the world I see it around everywhere but the facts about teak is it's only a medium to heavy density timber, weighing in around 620 - 750kg/cu.m much the same as the dense Maples. Also it's Janka rating is just over 1000 which softer than any oak, compared to Rosewood or Ebony it's positively a softwood! The main thing with Teak is it has a very high oil content which is why it's so durable to water exposure and which if you want a good joint with it you need to clean off the oil with acetone and use an epoxy rather than a wood glue to get a good joint. It's favoured with the hand carvers over here due to is being good for handworking - but it seems to have some strange reputation for being super heavy and hard something I cannot fathom out!

Yes of course glue doesn't create a mechnical bond however doing this does raise the wood fibres allowing the glue to 'fuse' the fibres together which does create a less visible glue line. From my experience the joints I've done using this method have been far better and from my perspective stronger than using purely plane or jointer . . . and my dad who has been a trade joiner for the past 45 years would never do anything different.

Well you know I've been thinking about the gold thing and I MIGHT just consider gold . . seeing as I intend also to put a burl laminate on the headstock the gold might just work! In the morning I intend to cut the top to shape and I'll place the chrome parts on it and see how it looks. I can't believe I am even considering gold parts!

I use this method all the time even when a piece has been over the jointer - the roughing up of the edge improves the joint strength. I generally use my jointer to get the piece quickly to a level then use this method along with the squiggly pencil line to get the piece absolutely true.

Ah fair enough - to be honest I don't really know much of LPjr . . . never being a big Gibson fan . . . The sandbag really does make a big difference - a doubled up piece of denim filled with sand and sown up is all you need.

Bummer! I really ain't a nice person be around when that kind of thing happens for me! :D Anybody can get some of the wood I use . . . they just have to ask me!

That's a mighty fine looking neck blank! Really like the veneers only wish I could get some in this part of the world!

Humbucker all the way!

One sweet looking Explorer! I do love the Explorer shape also . . I was nearly tempted to make one with the burl top I got the other day but realised it wouldn't of been big enough!

if you take a look on the Project guitar home page in the tutorial sections you'll find it. It's basically a piece of wood cut on a radius which then has a slot cut in it - you then insert the tang of the fret wire into the slot and bend it to the radius. Personally speaking I tried it and didn't think it was very effective - I knocked up one of the Stewmac type fret wire bender with 2 bearings, 3 bolts n nuts, a piece of plywood and a piece of wood cut circular using a door knob installer bit - it's a bit more effort but for me it makes a far better job of bending the wire. Nice looking neck there - are you going to shape the top of the headstock more or will it be left as is? When you did the hammering of the frets with you use a sandbag to cushion the neck? It makes the hammering of frets so much easier as the neck doesn't bounce the impact of the hammer is absorbed fully. If not try it next time and see the difference!

LOL Like the fish! Strangely my wife always describes that wood as looking like a fish! Anyway this morning I took the JFDI line and did this: I didn't do the bottom cut as a I wanted see how the body looked in the flesh before making the decision and I am of the opinion now that I will be make the cut! The top as I now had a template I placed on the burl to basically keep as many of the eyes as possible so this is the proposed cut: Hmmmmmmmmmm gold . . . hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm erm no! Sorry but I can't stand gold hardware - rosewood knobs matching the fret board are a certainty however! Chrome is the way forward here! I have considered the wrap around and I'll have a look at some as I was thinking T-o-M with tailpiece. Yes I know the pictures are crappy . . only had my phone at hand!

No one got an opinion on which body blank? Here's another question for you all - do I keep the tail cut in piece or not - personally I like the tail cut piece but due to the top being used it seems a shame to cut it out! Without the tailcut it would look like: Just I want do a straight cut rather than following the curve around . . ignore the string ferules etc this is just my old body design I've modified for this purpose. The 8 string version of this body with the cut out in tail looks like this: Thoughts please - cut or not to cut!

I think there must be something in the air for this problem! I had a neck do this last week - however I discovered once I removed the fretboard the neck actually straightened up alone. I can only assume then when I clamped the fretboard in place during glueing I somehow bowed the neck so when the glue dried it held it in the bowed position. I steamed off the fretboard left them settle over night and hey presto all was straight again, cleaned up the old glue and reattached fretboard and it's perfectly straight.

Ahaaaaaaaa someone who experiences the exact same thing as me!!! The knob placement below the line of the bridge and the picking hand is something I always do (view any of my builds)! This stems from owning a Peavey Wolfgang - not a bad guitar by any stretch - but with any kind of aggressive picking action I was forever unwittingly nudging the volume pot downwards which in the middle of a tune is annoying to say the least! Being a tad pished from attending a friends wedding today the nut and wiring will have to wait until I've sobered up somewhat!

Nice looking piece of Purpleheart that! Sorry didn't get time to visit the shop today - I had to attend a friends wedding and consume lots of beer (oh the stress!) I'll get over there in the coming week to provide pictures . . . in the meantime here's the kind of quality I can get in Amboyna burl from my new build thread (if you ain't seen it already!) This is a single piece top measuring approx 60cm long x 45cm wide x 2cm thick:

I have photos to prove my innocence!

Just the kind of the effect I want this guitar to have - especially as all being well (if I can swing some booth space) it'll be on display at an exhibition here in a few weeks time! So what's the thoughts on which body blank? I think the first but maybe the grain is a bit busy when it's having such a busy top? Or am I thinking about it too much and should JFDI! The other thing is the grain on the neck is basically the same as the second one . .. . hmmmm decisions . . .

...my thoughts exactly Just fancied something different and a eccentuate the grain a little as it has a the kind of arc in the grain. It'll look different with strings and the control knobs polished up . . hopefully I'll get chance to finish it completely today. Cheers all for the comments so far!

How big do you want?! Basically all this age of wood is air dried since it'll of been either laid on the forest floor for several years or been cut a long time ago - as has all the B&W Ebony. I know of a timber shop I use who has a block measuring 60cm x 50cm x 12cm. Of that particular block about 40cm wide of it for tops is useable. If I get chance tomorrow I'll visit the shop and get pictures - otherwise I can basically request it in whatever size I want.

Up to the top . . Perry have you found a supplier for Macassar? I've realised during a trip to one my of timber merchants it is available here! I just knew the local name and didn't realise it was Macassar - I actually thought it was a rosewood . . . Let me know if you're still looking.

Welcome to the party! Yeah I still look at that piece everytime I'm in the workshop and think. . . damn I need still need to slot it and radius it!

ermm hmmm not as much as it does in the US . . that's about as much as I can divulge! I can do a good deal on several similar sized Amboyna tops . . . or even a chunk of asian padouk the size of my Afzelia chunk.

Righty! As I have posted several times about the availabilty of lovely timbers around this part of the world I have decided to make something special and different (well for me anyway!). So far I've built purely solid body guitars i.e. on big hunk of would cut in half and jointed - mainly since the timber is available to such things over here. In my mind however I have hankered to make a topped body. So I decided now is the time! However with the kind of timber available at my disposal I couldn't just do something 'standard' - I mean why bookmatch - just get a single chunk'o'wood big enough to do top and for the back obviously a soild 1 piece chunk is required! So today I visited my every so friendly timber merchants and return with the following: 1 large square of 3.5 cm thick Afzelia Xylee - I love the all-round tone of this wood it really has a fantastic tone - the tap tone of it is great: Big chunk'o'wood You can just about make out where I marked out the shape of 2 bodies and a squiggly line which is my cut line so I can get two bodies whilst avoiding the cracks and big split So after a few cuts on the bandsaw and resorting to the jigsaw for the centre bit as the wood was to big for the bandsaw, then a numerous trips over the jointer and some sanding I end up with two chunks looking like this: So my first dilemma is which body to use . . . the first is my initial thought but I like both . . . what d'ya reckon? Ok well for the top I wanted something special, very special, something that really shows off the wood from Laos. In the timber merchants I looked at Pink & Black Ebony (yes there is such a thing!) , White & Black, Brown & Black (Macassar) nothing really grabbed me. Then hidden on a shelf I discover the following: Right then - I make no apologies for the next picture - extreme wood porn time! For the unaware this is the Rolls Royce of Burls - Amboyna - call so because Rolls Royce started out used it for the dashboards in their cars. It really is stunningly beautiful. Now as I am building my 8 string single cut my main thought is to make the 6 string version: The neck will be a matching Afzelia Xylocarpa with a Laos Rosewood fretboard - no pickup rings mount them direct into body and will have a tailpiece rather than ferrules - I think give it a more classic look more suited to the burl. What d'ya reckon?

Woah - over a full month and I ain't updated - well not that much has changed! Other than I now have the Bareknuckle pickups which allowed me to route and drill the body accordingly and it currently looks like this: (yes I know there is two gouges at the top . . caused by the chuck on the drill as a drilled out the cable run between the pickup cavities - but obviously these will disappear when the neck pocket is routed!) Still waiting on the bridge before I can shape the neck for the string spread . . . . . . sometimes things are just a bit to laid back over this part of the world! ps Also the line you can see down the middle ain't a glue line it a pencil line .. as I couldn't see the joint properly when I aligning the routing templates!

and a sneaky 4th I'm done . . .