shad peters

I use a spindle sander as well, they are the best money you can spend for that type of work and super handy for other stuff as well. that in conjunction with an edge sander or disc sander work wonders. I used a drill press spindle sander kit for a year or two before I got an actual spindle sander, those work really nicely for the money. spindle sander wont work well for the upper and lower bout though, you can either sand those by hand with a block, or if you don't have access to a disc or edge sander but have a hand held belt sander turn it up on its side and rig yourself up a little edge sander. I have done that a couple times in the past as well. what type of blade were you using with the band saw that you weren't able to get through the cut-away.

Semi-hollow vixen Who doesnt love some blue quilt? as over dont as this combo is I really like the way this one turned out and had fun making it. The carved top is solid quilted maple with creme binding, and the back and neck are both mahogany. fretboard and other wood appointments are EIR, the headstock veneers are quilted maple and the logo inlay is silver wire. its got two tones and a master volume coming off of two fralin pur paf's. The bridge is gotoh with an archtop style base and tailpiece, and the tuners are grover sta-tites. The blue stain is analine dye under the nitro finish. I'm going to put up some more photos on flickr of the carved heal, the back and neck, and just the guitar in general in the next day or so on flickr. these photos are kinda washed out and don't really show the figure or color very well, but they are all Ive got at the moment. the new photos will be here when I get a chance to post them. http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/ DSCN4866 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr DSCN4869 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr DSCN4863 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr DSCN4864 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr DSCN4862 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Just found out about this stuff the other day from a wood working freind. GOOD LORD! best tape I have ever used for binding by far. If you haven't had a chance to try it you have my humble suggestion to give it a shot, its really helpful. I'm sure I'll find lots of other uses for it around the shop as well. Just a PSA.

I say if you want to do a carved top then go for it, just be patient in learning the technique and don't try it on expensive stuff at first. I did a couple of practice runs with pine and poplar before I started working with burls and stuff. Quilted maple is not particularly easy to carve, from my experience its quite a bit trickier to work with than just curly maple. Would it be impossible for you to use on your first build: no. Would it be extremely risky to try on your first build: absolutely. Do some test runs first and see if you are able to get results you are happy with. BTW for a bookmatched carved top 4/4 is way to thin to resaw. I prefer to start with 8/4 before resawing, but you can get away with less, 6/4 would probably be alright.

like other have said as soft as it is poplar might not be the best choice, but if you are up for experimenting a little bit you might try empregnating it with something. Maybe z-poxy thinned way down with alcohol or something like that. With a couple applications you might have something hard enough to use if it penetrates deep enough. I've never done it, and im not sure it would work, but you might try it on a scrap piece of poplar and see what happens.

Chris what are you doin with fillipo's guitar? great video, I have been currious about this for a long time. I am not really sure that I will ever use the technique, but its very interesting to know. The the thought did occur to me however, is there any particular reason for not using a one piece veneer? would it simply be to many complex curves for one piece? it just seems like if you could use one sheet it would be a lot less work that trying to get a perfect seem in the middle provided you could keep it from buckeling or having big air pockets and stuff.

I actually find this to be true for myself. I steeper angle like 3 or 4 degrees does see to "hug" the body a bit. Personally that is what I prefer, but its all subjective though.

wow, there are some great looking guitars this month. This one has been almost done for a long time but I have just been putting off the final touches for a while. It finally came all together about a week ago. This guitar is a full hollow-body carved top with parallel bracing. All the wood is around 100 years old or better, except for the fretboard and some of the smaller wood appointments. The top is old growth fir salvaged from a hardware store that was built around 1890, the back and neck are walnut and maple respectively, and are both salvage woods that were locally harvested and used in barns many years ago. The fretboard, tailpiece, bridge, and knobs are all made from EIR. The binding and purfling are curly maple, maple, and black fiber. The Inlays are pearl and silver. It has a p-rail in the neck and bridge, and an LB6 piezo with a fishman pre-amp. You can see more photos here http://www.flickr.co...ersinstruments/ vixen 3 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr vixen 3 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr vixen 3 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr vixen 3 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Scotts guitar was very cool, a clean build and I loved it. However I dig the distressed vibe of Notyou's stuff, it got my vote. I can apreciate doing things unconventionally, I don't think I would ever take a torch a guitar, but I give you props for doing so. Honestly the main thing I dont care for about that guitar is the body style which just doesn't agree with me aesthetically other wise I think its pretty cool. there were some other nice builds, but those were the only two worth talking about from my end.

Offset Avenger: This guitar is based off my avenger design, but as you might have guessed, its an offset version to make it a little more comfortable to play while sitting. specs: carved top neck-thru design with a 5-ply of curly maple and walnut for the core alder body wings a walnut burl top full round edges contoured heal volute at the headstock walnut veneer on both sides of the headstock ebony fretboard with split block inlays and creme binding sperzel tuners bone nut gotoh bridge and tailpiece seymor duncan jb/jazz in the bridge an neck position. Electronics: master volume/ pushpull for neck out of phase bridge tone/ pushpull for bridge coil split neck tone/ pushpull for neck coil split blend pot DPDT as a series parallel switch avenger (30) by Peters Instruments, on Flickr avenger (2) by Peters Instruments, on Flickr avenger by Peters Instruments, on Flickr avenger (8) by Peters Instruments, on Flickr more photo's here http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/

The Nomad. This is not really my normal style of guitar, but it was a fun build though. I sketched up the concept, I think during my freshmen year at Purdue, as sort of inspired by Garcia's guitar. It had never been more than just a sketch until last spring when someone expressed some interest in the design. As a result, here it is, the first Nomad. The top is buckeye burl, and the back and neck are both Honduran mahogany. Its got a ebony fretboard, with abalone dots, and the headstock veneer is also buckeye burl. Its a pretty simple guitar, the scale length is 25", the PUPs are from GFS, bridge is a Schroeder wraparound, the binding is curly maple, 1 vol 1 tone and a 3 way toggle, and I think that's about it. Enjoy. Some of the photos came out overly saturated with red for some reason, I tried to adjust for that to get a more realistic representation but they are still a bit on the red side. you can see the other photos on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/ Completed Nomad by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Completed Nomad by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Completed Nomad by Peters Instruments, on Flickr Completed Nomad by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

It was between the dueling dragons and green zebra for me. Honestly I think I like the green zebra better but the dueling dragons got my vote. Its not really my style of guitar at all, but but it was executed very well and there is ton of hard work wrapped up in that guitar. The green zebra I love, I always lean to the side of let a woods natural beauty speak for itself and this guitar does than in spades, simple and classy. Also I am a sucker for bronze hardware. lots of graphics this month, and I really dont like graphics... at all... that being said I think that the voyager was pretty cool, it probably has the most tasteful graphics of any guitar I've seen (although I think the concept would be way cooler in wood burning). the new crow design didnt do much for me, is it a carve top or not? I would like to see it go one way or the other. Cecer had some cool wood, but overall I am just not diggin it... I think that one just comes down to personal tastes in body style and all that.

This guitar is called the Hell Cat, as named by my lovely wife. The hell cat design was the cumulative result of many different things. The body was something that has been on my mind for some time, and in many ways is the refined and distilled version of my very first guitar. It is actually closer to the sketch that inspired my first build than my first build ended up being. I first sketched up the unique bridge shape this time last year. It was originally intended to be used for a fanned fret 8 string I was designing but the customer ended up backing out. I really liked the general shape though, so I changed for use on a mono scale six string. Later that fall I saw a tailpiece on a guitar by David Myka that had a similar curvature to it and decided try matching a similar tailpiece with my bridge design. The top is carved buckeye burl. The tailpiece, bridge, pickup covers, knobs, and truss rod cover (not in the photos) are made from claro walnut burl. the body has a soft maple core, with eastern black walnut wings. The neck is curly eastern black walnut. Headstock veneer is buckeye burl front and back. Peters logo is in copper, and the nut is buffalo horn. The fretboard is EIR with abalone set in copper. All the binding is curly maple. It has a master volume, master tone, 3 way selector, and series/single/parallel switch for each pup. Pickups are GFS soapbar 180’s and tuners are grover locking. The hell cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The hell cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The hell cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The hell cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The Hell Cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The Hell Cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The Hell Cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The Hell Cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The Hell Cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr The Hell Cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Yupp that helps quite a bit.. but I assume that you mean a round nose bit and not a bull nose bit, I dont think a bull nose would be much good on a duplicarver... Did you machine your stylus yourself? If so any tips would be appreciated cause I will likely be doing it myself. i do have access to a metal lathe, mill, and quite a few other metal working tools if there is a really precise way to do it.

topic pretty much says it all, i recently procured a duplicarver setup and i am trying to figure what type of bit I should use. I was planning to use just a plain 1/2 straight bit since that is my guide diameter. I was thinking that a triple fluted bit would probably be best, but other than that is there any particular style or brand of bit that works best? I'll be cutting some pretty heavily figured stuff and want to do what i can to avoid tear out.

wood moves across the grain, that thing will go in and out of intonation sparatically depending on what day it is.

this is my first experience using z-poxy, i have been mostly happy with it, but it does seem like it takes A LOT to get the bigger voids filled in. i guess i'll just have to see how it turns out on the finished product.

Thanks everyone Ricky I think I'm to selfish to sell wood, if I had enough to sell I think I would just hoard it all to myself. Mr. osoria, those dots are actually set in copper and not in MOP, but you may still feel the same way regardless. I have never done that before, but I personally think that copper and abalone go pretty well together. RestorationAD, I am in the process of sealing the burl top right now, nothing fancy, just a lot of z-poxy to fill in those big voids. I'm not sure if will do the same on the pickup covers and stuff or not. I'll be interested to see how the covers hold up as well, I think that for what I do they should be fine, but in a really harsh gigging environment they might not hold up as well.

scratch that, i didnt realize that the piezo was running through a completely separte volume control.

hey everybody, i was talking to a fella today who was interested in a wiring scheme similar to the prs hollow body 2. i have never used piezo pickups before, but from what i understand they are similar to magnetics to work with (at least the passive ones). the dual outputs are what have me a little bit confused. from what i have seen from a demo clip it seems logical to me that both the magnetic and the peizo would run through the mini 3-way toggle where you can select magnetic/both/piezo, it would then go to your volume and tone and then to the output. so that leave me wondering how the second output works. i am not very familure with dual outputs so i know i must be missing something here. it seems like once you combine the peizo and the magnetic into one signal theres would be no way to separate them again. is it maybe some type of stereo wiring? any help would be appreciated.

lol, maybe next time.

here is one that i have been working on for the past few months. i have been documenting the build on another forum, but only because i just joined here recently. had i known about this forum then i would have done the docu-build here as i think there are a lot more people who would take interest here. i have included some of the most recent photos, and you can see the whole build process up to this point here. buckeye burl build. hope you enjoy! http://petersinstruments.com/ by Peters Instruments, on Flickr the hell-cat by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

you could definitely do a three piece top, but for me that would be to much waste. by the time you glue all three peices together you have an 18" wide surface. might not produce all the much waste if you are making a wider guitar body, most solid bodies seem to be around 13". if it were me i would probably use it for necks, but thats just a matter of preference. i'm cheap so i like to get the most that i can out of a piece like that.

+1 on chris's comment.

Robert Benedetto made a pretty freaking awesome archtop acoustic from flatsawn construction grade pine. he says that appart from the cosmetics you cant tell a difference between any of his other guitars, its sounds and plays just as well. that being said if you can make a great sounding archtop acoustic out of construction grade pine i have no doubt that you could make a pretty great sounding solid body electric with the stuff.