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Its been dust day today. First things first though, trying to reinvent the wheel. I was going to try an go for something distinctive but ended up being quite conservative.

After twiddling thumbs until it was a decent time to make some noise, I got the neck and fingerboard thicknessed and levelled. I'm very surprised how well this thing worked. Why did I ever think doing this by hand was a reasonable idea?

Swapped out the rails in the jig and cut a compound scarf. This was definitely a first for me, but all seems good. Just a small bit if cleanup before gluing.

This is where I went a bit leftfield. Had a few bits of ebony left over from cutting the fretborads, so I made a laminate to go in the scarf joint. Looks more like rosewood in this pic...

So here's where we are now. One bent stick with a massive paddle

I got the top for this thing glued yesterday, but on reflection I'm not happy with the join. Betting that a dyed finish will pop any gluelines just as much as any grain so I'm now thinking really hard now on cutting apart and regluing - they're plenty wide enough. Best to sleep on it I think.

I do have a horrible feeling is going to be a vote for out.

Oban would top the list for me I think but I tend to get a bottle of Laphroaig at Christmas from the folks - this ones still on the go. Don't know what that says about 2016

Do you know we've had so much in/out talk in the UK with this EU referendum thing, but nobody's mentioned the important things like beer. Truth be told though we've got a couple of really good breweries down the road if IPA is your thing.

that makes sense Pros.

Well time moves slowly in my neck of the woods. Not much time for building over the last week, but I hope to get a bit of bench time in over the few days.

 I built myself a jig for levelling, thicknessing and scarfing necks. Ideas pinched from a few souces and majorly built to last.

I've got angled and straight rails to slot into the channels for guiding a sled. Both topped with worktop edging left over form the kitchen we had last year. I've test driven with a pine board and it works a treat. I'm going to build a larger jig for bodies, but will have to think on reinforcing the sled I built to stop any flexing

Build wise I jointed a glued the body today. Must be out of practice as these did not want to joint for some reason.

 Its a real shame the board wasn't just a bit wider. On to the top. I'm now wondering whether to use the flamed ash top Ive got instead of the maple.

Decisions, decisions. Either way time for a bit of down tools.

.... Tim, that's the thread I've been reading and re reading haha

I was just thinking that.

Could i ask what the channels set into the plywood base are for? Is it a way of letting the neck be moved to and from the bit.

With space being at a bit of a premium, I'm thinking of a flat bed with channels let into it to accept either flat rails that can be used to thickness, taper and maybe cut truss rod channels or angled movable sections for cutting scarfs.

I'll sketch out later when my heads together.

cheers gents.

well I think we've had the fine weather for the year here. I suppose a couple for fine weekends is par for the course.

Pros, I'm going to take you up on that. I don't mind admitting that I'm having a bit of trouble visualising how compound scarfs work. I'm reading and re reading a couple of threads on here, but I think I'm just going to have to dig out some scrap and play about.

The neck blank there has been hanging around for ages. Cant remember what it was originally meant for but really hoping to be able to squeeze two necks out of it. Thinking that's not too much of a task, especially if I can get out of the habit of thinking that 7 is king.

Hello guys

So it's true. I'm hooked on this guitar building lark. Now the weather is a bit more clement in Wales there's no excuse not to jump in again. Plenty of lessons learned from the first build and cant wait to start making dust again.

This is what I'm shooting for this time

I'm going to go with a headstock this time while I think on a consistent way to diy string locks that I'm happy with. Plenty of ideas so little time.

Specs for this will be a mahogany body/maple top combo. carve top if I hold my nerve. Multiscale double octave neck for which I'm thinking of using a piece of maple which has been hanging around for a while with a Macassar board cut from a billet I inherited from my dad. Lovely billet that gave up 6 boards with enough for acoustic bridges an a couple of headplate veneers.

I'm still not sure on the carve contours. I've sketched them out as below, but I'll need to think further on them I think.  Also wondering about whether I want to go with natural fax binding, but that thinking just gets me thinking colours and finishes..... That's the XTC blue/red I built hiding in the corner. Best thing I put in the shop to date. Sits quietly under a dust sheet when the dust if flying, but always around at the right moment. Certainly beats trekking back to the house.

Slowly does it for this one I think. I rushed a couple of things with the last build and ended up with something I wasn't wholly happy with. First things fist - I'm going to make myself templates, a routing bed + sled and a scarf joint jig.

Thanks for reading

Matt

I wasn't sure whether to enter as I'm such a new member, but I'd like to present 'Rooster'. It's my first guitar of the month and the culmination of quite a few months of head scratching and pencil chewing.

At the end of last year I went on a guitar building course and came away with a very nice acoustic. The whole experience was a massive confidence boost and I came away champing at the bit to build an electric. Those of you in the UK will know that it wasn't exactly woodworking weather here in November and December. Anyway fast forward a couple of months and here we have it - a playable plank built in the shed and the need to build another. I've learnt a huge amount on this build most notably not to rush things

Specs

two piece black limba body and zebrano drop top & ebony binding

neck is a 7 piece ovangkol, padouk and zebrano sandwich. ebony fretboard radiused to 16 inches.

ABM bridge saddle/tuners

Lace xbar pickups.

DIY brass string lock.

Scale lengths from memory are 670/640mm

Finish - not proud of - Danish oil followed by some wiped varnish knocked back by steel wool (note to self. steel wool and pickups don't mix).

Currently no strap buttons - not an issue at the moment, but I may add them if this thing is likely to be used out and about.

I now wish I'd gotten a couple of pics of the finished back before I leant it out. This is the only one I have - apologies for the quality >

from the shiny side >

Thanks for looking guys.

Matt

Very much so. I found with the amps that I started to enjoy building more than actually playing - hence a house full of un cased chassis'. I now want to build a fretless 8 with a high a....

Hello gents

Scott, I took a file to the lower cutaway and pared it back a bit and you're right, it does look a bit more balanced. As for comfort though I try to steer clear of the meedly meedly notes at the dusty end. I'm shocked by how comfortable multiscale is.

Its now strung up and actually playing nicely. Since this pic, I've taken the bridge saddles back to the brass to match the string lock. Think I'm calling it a day on this one bar a couple of bits of touch up and some oil for the board.

Already thinking about the next one. I'll try to do a proper build diary next time.

The SLO was a shame because I really wanted to like that amp. Maybe I should reassemble and fiddle about with it.

One of the things that unnerved me a bit about the xtc is the high power amp voltages I ended up with. Its stable enough and I've been running and pushing the same tubes for ages in it and it hasn't complained once. This is the amp that talked me out of messing around with diode clipping.

Cheers gents.

Ive spent this morning drilling for the string locks. Really regretting not sorting this out before gluing in the neck. Lesson learned.

I've only a few potato quality pics of the amps. Here are a couple of mine

a heavily modded xtc blue and red channel that got cobbled into a slo style chassis. Nice sounding amp if you stay away from the extremes. plenty of chewiness.

This is a dumble 183 type circuit and my first build. nice cleans with some really sweet harmonic sustain but the drive isn't really my thing. cant really describe it very well and I know its not the amps fault. The amp in the second pic is an SLO clone that I built from a kit. That ones currently in bits. didn't get on with it - too fizzy IMHO, but as far as construction goes, I'm sold on straight heaters and bus wiring.

I'm far too easily distracted my new projects. Only one of these is currently in a headcase.

Well, I'm a long term lurker I guess so thought it may be about time to share what I've been up to. Having spent a month on a course building an acoustic guitar (and then finding out I suck at playing acoustic), I thought I'd see if I could build an electric. Its a really nice change of pace from building amplifiers, but I've found it a very steep learning curve. I've approached this in totally the wrong way as I've pretty much changed everything along the way.

Black Limba body, Zebrano drop top and an Ovangkol neck. This is what I was shooting for, but some pretty horrific tearout has led it to be a bit more pointy that originally intended. I was kind of unprepared by how many cracks were in the billets I had.

Ebony bindings gingerly bent with an iron. not quite ready for bending rosewood sides on my own yet.

This is where I'm at now starting to look a bit like a guitar

Badly made string lock

Not really happy about the lower horn at all, but pleased that the binding went on gapless. The biggest boob on this which got be really kicking myself was not cutting the fret slots deep enough before binding.

I'm hooked and am already planning the next build - though I'm trying to tell myself strings on this one before starting the next.

Cheers

Matt