SJE-Guitars

Well this is more of a remodelling job opposed to a totally new build - well once it entered the workshop it ended up being basically a complete new build the only thing that remained was general outline of the body! Otherwise it's was new neck, new pickup rings, new control knobs, a bit of a relic effect, reshaped around the edges etc etc. All it needs is the nut shaping, wiring up and of course some strings! The body is a solid figured and part flamed Burmese Ironwood the neck is my favourite Afzelia Xylocarpa - quartersawn gives it a lovely grain - the fretboard is Laos Rosewood aka Burmese Blackwood aka Dalbergia Cultrata. The pickup rings and control knobs are also matching Dalbergia Cultrata. The front inlay and neck side inlay are abalone dots. The pickups are a SD SH-3 Stag-mag in the Bridge and a modified APH-1 in at the neck. Modified that I swapped the Alinco 2 for a Alnico 5 - I really didn't like the sound with the Alnico 2 far too muddy although I've not heard it yet I expect it will now be more akin to the SH-2 Jazz model. Tuners are Schaller compacts and the switch is a Schaller Megaswitch - the standard one which does a coil tap for the Stag Mag. Anyway I think it looks far better now and the headstock looks pretty good with it (cheers for the votes! ) More coming up below. . .

My way is: 1) Bandsaw a fretboard blank 2) Square up and true all sides on jointer - for 12" radius I make the blank 7mm thick so after radiusing it'll be 5mm at the edges. 3) Cut slots in blank 4) Cut to shape (taper) 5) Radius - I currently do this using the sanding blocks - using doublesided tape attach board to a piece of granite to which I then clamp a straight edge. I mark a centre line on the board then place as sanding blocks on the board with has centre lines I move the straight edge so the marks on the block are inline with the line on the board. Now get rubbing! The good thing about this keeping the block held flush against the straight edge ensure you don't end up taking one side lower than the other. Occasionally checking fretboard height with steel ruler as I go. 6) Once the board is basically the right height I recut the slot to the correct depth and finish using fine paper upto 1200. 7) Attached board to neck fully shaped and sanded neck. 8) Fret and dot inlay (if I was going to do any fine inlay I'd do it before attaching) 9) Fret job, shine up, oil neck, and polish. Something like that - when I get some of my router radiusing bits next week I also will be radiusing before slotting. Just mid-point on another neck at the moment.

Yes you can but you can but you have to compensate by setting the saddles forward then drilling the holes based on the front of the saddles. So basically giving you more lee-way - but it's hit or miss depending on the strings you use whether you will get good intonation. There is a reason why virtually all manufacturers and custom builders place them on an angle.

Nicely finished - however there is one quite major flaw - your ToM is straight so your intonation is going to be out on the lower strings. Also judging by the picture I think you're bottom E ferrule is so close that the string will rub on the body of the ToM (could be wrong just looks that way on the pic). In terms of the spokewheel truss rod install - how on earth did you get the spoke wheel that far into the body of the neck? This is how I do mine: Obviously it also removes the need for hole in the last fret.

All saws vary . . . just look for one with the right size kerf for your needs!

I've been waiting for you to show off some of your work! Very nice . . . but I expected nothing less . .. knowing what you told me before!! Just noticed you seem be missing a strap button from the front of the top one.

As I've never considered doing a fanned fret guitar I'd never considered that! The scales should be measured on the actual tapered board since they will naturally narrow/widen on a rectangular blank, so say if it was a 27 - 25.5 cut on a rectangular board the 27 and 25.5 would only be at the edges which is cut away and what is left is a board with scales somewhere between 27 - 25.5. Is my logic right?

hmm well I think I should really say if you have a certain requirement in a SE Asia timber such as B&W Ebony, Amboyna or Afzelia burls, figured afzelia, numerous rosewoods etc. let me know. Since my supplier here supplies most of the supplier in the US with these timbers. I obviously have the advantage as I can look around in the stock room and cherry pick - also these are tree sized logs not just tops!

Never saw the original thread . . . didn't know there was one. Fair enough on that score - however I think a bit of patience to remove the neck correctly in the first place would of been a good learning step!

If you're are interested in B&W Ebony let me know - I am going to my supplier tomorrow for a chat and a browse of what he's got in the B&W Ebony top size for myself. If you your customer is after something particularly special how about an Amboyna or Afzelia burl top or a heavily figured Afzelia. All available and very top grade.

Can I have some of that popcorn! But seriously where that headstock is worn it looks like the grain is just a veneer opposed to being the solid wood so going at it with sandpaper probably isn't such a wise thing to do (I obviously might be wrong on the veneer as I can't see that well on the pictures). Your neck removal 'procedure' needs improving! Just smashing the body off ain't really the best way to start! To clean it up your gonna need lots of steam, a razor blade, scraper and plenty of patience . . . Then you need to find a 'cigar' box that is big enough to accomodate the scale of that neck and that would need one huge cigar box! What you really needed to do before you went smashing the original guitar up was read up and understand what you were trying to make! Quite probably testing out you skills in making the '****' original guitar into something approaching acceptable! Anway pass me the popcorn . .

Ok - first small batch ordered. I am going to take orders as they come now - the interest shown in the initial thread unfortunately hasn't followed through to the purchasing part . .

How about black and white ebony?

I've never made a guitar that weighs less than 9.5lbs . . . in all honesty it's pretty much impossible to make one weighing less with the woods available in this part of the world.

I am surprised it's on a tonewood list . . . but then again in reality any wood is tone wood as they all have some tone. Personally I've never used it - but some people who I know who have in general rule is clean the excess oil off with Acetone and then use an epoxy opposed to wood glue.

Steaming off fret boards with a steam iron is a doddle . . . just follow the tutorial on the project guitar home page with a razor and a sharpened scraper and once you get used to doing it you'll be getting a board off in about 20 minutes.

Chad, You do know that teak has a very high oil content (it doesn't last 100 year underwater for no reason!) is very difficult to join due to this. Over here it costs less than $20 per 1m of 10cm x 10cm. Carvings and furniture definately . . . as for guitars there is a reason why there ain't teak guitars everywhere!

Ahhhhhhh this is what was said in the UK where the imperial measurements originated from - however these days it's virtual all metric. I could never imagine using inches for fine work - 0.5mm increments are so easy to work with!

It's just his facial expressions when he plays that bug the living crap out of me!

Nice bit of surgery!

So cutting to chase - the whole thing currently looks like this: Abalone side inlays: Headstock down: Everything still in the need of a waxing yet but that'll be down before the final build it. Hopefully I can get the coil wire today or tomorrow and get it finished.

Update time! Well the winding of coils is currently on hold until I source the right size wire . . . I didn't realise they had SWG gauge wire over here so duly purchased size 42 thing it was AWG42 . . to quickly discover something wasn't right - when a full coil only read just over 1k! Sure enough SWG42 is the equivalent of AWG38. So I've got to source the right sized coil wire before these can be finished! So anyway on to the pictures: After 3 coats of oil the body now looks like this (poorly lit picture!): As many folks don't use spoke wheel trussrods I thought I include a pic of my style of installing them - completely recessed into the neck opposed to modifying the body to accept it: Which then looks like this from the top: Photo limit used up . . . next post . . .

I used an 18" hot rod in my 27" scale baritone - no problems in the slightest in terms of operations. In my opinion any scale over 27" is when may need something more than 18" - I will be using 22" rod in my 30.5" scale build.

I would assume that it would work with any ASIO driver so try ASIO4ALL. Asio4ALL It work great with Guitar Rig 3.

Me too. Also the base of pickups are normally made of non-magnetic material.