kmensik

Hallo, this is my second attempt at a complete guitar build. I like the RG, but most basswood pieces lack the bite I want, so I chose sapele. Also because I had some of it left from my previous S body build, I'm making her a sister. Neck is three piece maple with a thin 4mm zebrano fretboard. I want to keep the back cavities uncovered, to stress the mechanical engineering look of the body. Whatever you might not like or have an advice how to do better, please tell me or kick me. Here is my gallery. http://www.rajce.net/a10845499

Hey, I reallly like the body and headstock curves, a nice clean build, except the neck heel. Is it not possible to refine the transition? Than it would be perfect from all viewpoints. Congrats, looking forward to see next build.

It can be done both ways. 1. The more common asymetrical way: the shield is also the ground, carries the return of the signal. A coaxial cable shield connected to a volume pot on one side and to an output jack on the other is a typical exymple. 2. The other way is the symetrical one (more common in pro audio than in guitars). That way you would have two wires in a common shield leading to the output jack - one signal hot, one signal ground, one shield. All shields should connect at one end only, at one point, and in a guitar to the signal ground too. More on guitarnuts.com

Found some of Prostheta's S at Sevenstrig, much more advanced build. Looks like bronze frets of Warwick.

The original S body radius ranges from 160 to 270mm, but the transition between the carve and the flat middle is sanded to a fluent curve, so it looks like the whole top is curved. As I had my body thicker (45mm vs 40mm) I made the radius 400mm, so that it looks slimmer overall. Anyway, a lot of rasping and sanding after the routing, especially in the waist. The S carving is fairly complex to be done by one simple radius jig. By the way I determined the radius of a Yamaha RGX520 top almost exactly 1meter, but that one is a plain cylider section. Prostheta, I want to see your Sabre. I thought of making a 24 fret neck to another 22 fret body, adding the two frets to make it a longer scale (I mean it would be 648mm 2nd fret to bridge). As for GOTM you are kidding? It is only the body I made. One more thing: 400mm should be the radius of the fretboard, one more reason to choose that one for body.

I am glad you like it, thanks. Here in the Czech Republic you can buy only sapeli (if you are lucky enough), no other of the mahogany family. This one is very heavy, hard, sounds pretty bright. The jig is similar to the one for fretboard radius, with only half of the arc and a flat top. Works well, but needs three hands. I moved the router with my right hand only, holding and rotating the body with my left, it was no good, killed one router bit. I am very happy that I made the jack hole and the switch slot quite nice clean, because the wood chips so easily. My first one of wormy spruce was not clean work at all, though I tried hard. Photos: http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_GTR/

Hallo. Thank all of you for sharing your skills here. I am a beginner in guitar building, so far made two bodies. One of spruce, one of sapeli that I want to show. I bought a nice second hand Ibanez neck and trem, so it was an obligation to make a decent S body for it. I tried to carve the body with a radius jig, to some extent successfully. I have not seen many S shaped bodies made by luthiers, so I wonder how others do it. More photos here: http://kmensik.rajce.idnes.cz/DIY_S Ibanez S470 neck, sapeli mahogany body, thickness 13-45mm, thin shellac finish, Edge Pro tremolo, AANJ, HH, Ibanez NeoZ pickups