Jester

The top is only 12mm thick? Are you sure? It sure looks thicker in the photos. I've been wondering about the top thickness too since I'm making a PRS style guitar at the moment. The top is 17mm and I've been worrying about it being too thin and I'd have to use real binding. Where did you get those measurements?

Not the same as on a telecaster I reckon, but here is one: Should be up to scale. It is 150mm from top to bottom.

The only problem I can think of is that it will be a bitch to sand. It is after all glued down to the mahogany. Don't worry about it. I can assure you that it will not fall apart when you play the finished guitar. We haven't seen end grain to end grain tops before probably because it is REALLY rare to find wide enough good quality wood for it (not that one needs to find). There will be NO strength issues. My 0.02€

Don't be! It's nice to talk about something else for a change. And yes, it is fun and kinda relaxing. Digging in with the chisel listening to music while all the shavings are either flying into your pockets or your mouth. Trust me, zebrawood tastes even worse than it smells. Sorry, can't help with the face plates and whatnot. I only know the part names in finnish. (btw. there should be a place where members could show other woodworking projects.)

Oh, really? I thought seetri was ash? Well, live and learn. And thanks for the info! Oops! I got seetri and saarni mixed up. So it is: Seetri = Cedar Saarni = Ash

On the little one: finding the pieces (all scrap), sawing and sanding the glueing surfaces, glued up = about 1 hour. Left overnight to dry. Turning = about 1 hour and a half. Oiling = three coats = ½ an hour and left over night. It is about 22cm tall with the cap. The big one: I have the outer surface smoothed out. It barely fitted in the lathe. After that, I was just about to start the hollowing process when I noticed that it still weighed a ton! Too much for the lathe to hold it straight without wobbling. And now I'm in a bit of a corner. Lesson learned. Always if you're turning something bigger than normal, make sure your lathe can handle it. Time spent on the bigger one was/is about the same as the little one. Turning process took a wee while longer. It will be about 50cm with the cap when (if) it gets finished.

Oh, really? I thought seetri was ash? Well, live and learn. And thanks for the info!

Turning can be a lot of fun. I like to turn some really fancy laminates. Another pic. I ran out of time with this one so the inside is not turned hollow, just drilled. Also i've been making a bigger one: Click Click Not anywhere near finished. Also I've turned a few mallets, plates, cups, candle legs, some 'jewelry', etc. etc. You could try turning some knobs out of ebony or wenge.

I haven't used cedar personally, but from what I've read here it is considered a soft wood. Since it's used for soundboards on acoustics. I guess I was wrong. Minkälaiset hinnat niillä siellä Hakalassa on? Oon tässä yrittäny vaan löytää suomalaista välittäjää mistä sais kelpo hinnoin soitinrakennus laatua. Onkos muuten Cedarilla suomalaista nimeä?

I see you're in a pretty good situation then. Sorry for the lecture, but you didn't say much about you or your situation (nor did really ask anything). Just do a lot of reading on the subject and you're good to go. Anyway... Stewmac sells some paddle necks: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,...itar_Necks.html http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,...uitar_Neck.html Rockinger probably has what you're looking for: http://www.rockinger.com/index.html?lang=ENG Hope these help.

Before you do anything else, buy this book: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/B...ric_Guitar.html Read it through like 4-5 times without touching any tools or wood. Since you haven't been playing for that long either you don't probably know all that much about how a guitar actually works (just assuming, correct me if I'm wrong). What you could do is take your guitart apart see how it is done. That helped me to visualize a lot better how much work goes on to a guitar in order for it to work properly. Melvyn will guide you trough the whole process in that book, so get it! Then comes the part which puts most people off; Money. You're talking a serious investment on tools and materials if you plan on doing more than one. You could always borrow some tools, but every tool has a learning process to it (power, hand, it doesn't matter) and every tool is different. So I'd say buy your own tools. Like Melvyn points out, it is possible to build a guitar using hand tools, but it will be A LOT harder than using simple power tools. Doing (ie) the neck pocket with a chisel is not advised. If you don't have at least a few years of experience using hand tools, then forget it. In the end you will NOT have a working instrument. Not meaning to sound harsh but that's the way it goes. Check this out: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=10353 I'm not really sure what your question were in the first place ( ), but this should answer that.

We had those same sets for sale at work a while ago. 2 euros per set. I got 2 but I should have bought like 6. Great set. And the inlays are looking great! Are they glued? I'll be attempting my first real inlay in a while too.

Looking good! What gauge of strings you're planning using on this? That neck might not hold up too well on heavier strings. Might I ask where did you get that top? Locally? Btw, I'm building a similar guitar too, check it out! http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...=25927&st=0 Jatkoa odotellaan.

That might seem like good idea, but the glue will be very visible under the lacquer, probably even more than the gaps. I say carve the crap out of it and install very wide binding. But if the gapping was caused by slightly rounded edges, you can always sand the edges untill the gaps are gone.

Wow! One of the nicest guitars I've seen ANYWHERE. You'll have my vote for sure.

Plus it weighs a lot less than your average tonewood. For an 8 year old a standard guitar could be quite heavy.

I thought I forgot something and sure enough I did! Forgot to rout a channel for the wiring before attaching the top. Oh well, gotta go and buy a loooooong drill bit.

As I said, if you can clamp it flat, you can glue it flat. Try clamping it to a flat surface. That should give you a good idea how much force you need to use on the clamps.

Looks really nice! Good job.

I would just go ahead and glue the top without worrying too much about warpage and whatnot. I see lots of people here worrying about their tops (or whatever) being warped like 3mm or so. It does not matter at all if your body is flat and thicker than the top. Look at this way, if you can clamp it flat, you can glue it flat and it will most likely stay flat. The few exceptions being that your body piece is thinner than the top (rarely), the body has a really uneven (not straight) grain. And probably if you use something like pine for the body and you try to glue a heavily warped zebrano top on it (soft, dense). And if you're ready to scrap the top if necessary then why do you even worry? Try it, if it doesn't work, then scrap it.

Never seen any Khaya in real life but judging from the pics I've seen, Sapele looks alot better. Thanks for the nice words. You too, NJD.

Got the top glued on and routed flush. Sides and back sanded to 100. Next up is routing the binding channel (if I havent forgot anything)

As far as I know (not much), that's sapele mahogany. I'm gonna check that with my teacher. He should know.

So far I've only used woods from the school. They buy wood in large amounts and there are pretty much always a little more special pieces. You just gotta find them. And curly birch is pretty common in the older ones, but the little ones rarely get cut down. So I can safely say that there is *always* flame in the lower part of birch. It's just really rare to find a good quality piece big enough for a top. I would have wanted a thicker piece, but my resawing took away more than planned. Apart from that, I got lucky, that piece cost me about 3 euros. Tonally, it's a tad warmer than maple and the color is a little darker. And that body blank. It would probably cost me around 50 - 70 euros from a local supplier. Cost me about 10 euros. Just recently I found a nice piece of flamed beech. I'm gonna use it as a top for some project in the future. What's Khaya?

Thanks! But, I thought thumbnails were allowed?? I'm located in Järvenpää.