Charlie H 72

Turned out so good. Love the shape, love the finishes and love the clean look. Nothing extra! Beautiful wood, some nice hardware, and 4 strings.

I need to make a bass…

Nothing wrong with some good looking screws!

also-looking so good. That top is gorgeous and the pine back is as well

I read through this thread by Curtisa - 

I have been doing cuts in one direction only, taking just a little at a time. Doesn't seem to help in the places where I'm "cutting uphill" so maybe I need to get a bottom bearing bit as well and be able to flip the thing when I need to. Next time! For now there is filler and sandpaper

Here's a render of the new bridge design - it will be much thinner than the last guitar with a cavity under it for the rest of the pickup.  There will be a slope from bridge to pickup to make a little more room for picking. The brass saddle will have hex slugs for height adjustment, and the string thru holes will be seated in an elongated recess. Think these are mostly going to be CNC jobs - probably will cut the taper by hand though. No need to screw them down to the body- they will sit tightly in a recess and string pressure will hold them down. 

On 2/25/2022 at 1:44 AM, curtisa said:

You could always do something heretical and go out an buy one of those crappy old organs.

glad you got your hands on one! Sounds like fun. I don’t have the space for it right now though-living in an apartment. I think I’m going to go with push/push for pickup switching and see where that leads. I’ll try it on my own guitar first. Seems more workable than having an infinite number of settings on a blend knob.

got some work done today -all 3 bodies roughly at this point. J with the blu guitar has been helping out which is really fun.

struggling with some tearout   It’s a sharp stewmac straight cut bit that I’m using. Thankfully these are painted and I can use filler, but I’d prefer for them to come out cleaner. Any tips?

On 2/26/2022 at 10:46 PM, mattharris75 said:

I had them cut by a service called Send Cut Send. I think highly reflective metals require more power, but they do cut a variety of metals. I've also had them cut titanium before.

Cool! I’ll have to keep that in mind - maybe a laser cut metal logo in my future who knows. This continues to look amazing- the carve is just right and the top is gorgeous

Awesome! You really crank em out & make it look easy-very cool

Ok you just said “laser cut brass” so nonchalant but I have never heard of a laser being able to cut metal - something about reflecting the beam back into the machine? How did that go?

Cool! Do you find that blending is intuitive & easy to use in a live/band setting?

Here are some thoughts on switch location -- If I decide to use switches at all. Thanks for entertaining my rambling!

9 hours ago, curtisa said:

They should be available at most electronics component retailers. Try searching for 'latching pushbutton' or 'alternate action pushbutton'.

I was looking for something like these (the "custom voices" switches) but most of the latching pushbutton switches I could find are a little too sleek for this application. I could make my own switch caps though.

The more I think of it more I want to keep the minimal look and use push-push pots. The options with push-push would be:

Volume selects neck/bridge, tone selects one/both.

OR

Volume is bridge on/off Tone is neck on/off  (I saw an old TDPRI thread where someone diagrammed switching like this w/ push push pots but also included a series/parallel option if both are up or down - that might be cool?)

I could also do an M/N blend pot instead of a tone knob. 

Does anybody have experience with either blend pots or push-push pots for switching?

12 hours ago, curtisa said:

I'd go for option B. If you're using a CNC you don't trust to make a small run of identical guitars, the last thing you want to do is blow one of your body blanks if the CNC decides to have a brainfart. MDF templates are cheap and easy, and it won't be a total disaster if the CNC makes a mess of one.

Thanks - thats kind of where I was leaning, and a little reassurance solidifies that. 
 

11 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

You mean rocker switches? There's lots of variations available, supposedly an on-none-on switch would be best for that based on the photos of Teisco switches. The local automotive store might be a good source!

I like those! I was thinking of a similar looking plastic rectangular button that you push in for "on" and then push in again for "off" - one for each pickup. They have them on crappy 70s solid state organs, too.

Maybe I could use two push-push pots? could be nice - very minimal. Going to rout for a normal switchcraft slider and see if anything else comes my way. There's also always the option to make a cap for the slider. When there are so few elements on the face of the guitar these little things make a big difference!

Drooling @ this headstock and the whole look in general here. Awesome. Makes me want to do an open headstock one day too. 

Thanks biz-your input is always appreciated. I might stick with a 3-way slide switch for now. I really wish I could find push-button switches like vintage teiscos… maybe there is a reason they stopped making them?

I have neck and body blanks all glued up and dimensioned - ready to turn blocks into guitar shapes!

Ooooh poplar! 

now here’s a question

I could either

a) cut everything on CNC 

b) cut templates on CNC and then proceed like a “normal guitar”or 

c) combination 

I’m ruling out A because that will take 3+ hours per body and I think I can do better. And I may be making more of these in the future so I don’t want to get attached to a slow process. Plus the CNC I have at my disposal is temperamental and I don’t enjoy hanging out with it too much.

B-not so bad, rough cut blank, then profile w/ template, then forstner cavities, then rout w/templates. The usual.

Or C - CNC all cavities and a .25” outline carve for the profile of the guitar, (90 minute cut) then use the template bit on the router to clean up the edge accordingly.

note that I will have to rout the control cavity from the back using templates the traditional way no matter how I build the guitar.

thoughts? Which is likely to be faster & cleaner, given that I am repeating 3x-possibly more? How long does it take all you pros to rout a body using templates? 

Looking good! Am I reading correctly that you drilled the truss rod channel? Starting from the heel? 

That’s awesome. So much character! What do you have planned for the restoration?

These are looking awesome - especially love the all ebony one 

This could also be an ok switch layout? (Also note longer neck, neck pickup placement)

Hey all

I'm posting a lot! Making up for lost time or something. But I managed to twist a few arms and get some friends to let me build something for them. Three similar T-Types, with different colors & configs. Budget for the three guitars is $1200 total. (for materials - not paying myself, just funding the habit!)

Looking forward to making myself do things the right (repeatable) way and being thorough with templates and jigs. I always seem to go the "fast way" and chisel out a control cavity or something, but having to do everything three times will be a good argument for taking the time to set things up.

Here's a quick render -
 

Orange is for H and is going to be a hi-vis SS 8 string (with doubled D&G using banjo tuners), maple board & custom bridge. Maybe mirrored pickguard too.

Blue is for J and is a HS with a push-pull coil split, a standard hardtail bridge & rosewood board,

Green is for E and is a SS with ebony board and custom bridge. 

All poplar bodies & maple necks, 1 vol 1 tone. Orange and green going for Wilde microcoil pickups, blue undecided.

I might make one for myself too - oiled ash body, walnut neck, ebony board, custom ebony bridge, black or ebony hardware. Could be really hot but also hard to justify.

I have to figure out the best spot for a switch (or two) on these. I'm thinking mustang/jaguar style slide switches on the bass side of the strings, but open to other ideas. (Any exp. with mini switches for pickups?)

Also anybody have an idea for what to name this model? Preferably without "tele" or "caster" in the name

Hey all

Been keeping up with everything, just not posting. You’re all busy doing great stuff! Since we always get the shiny new pics, I thought it would be cool to see how people’s old builds look after some time. A relic thread of sorts? 

here’s my entry - quarantine build subject to a raging case of mod-itis, ham fisted playing, some beer spillage, and a few too many trips without a case. Here for a good time not a long time, but it still plays and sounds great. 
 

Oops

Forgot to update this! Finished it months ago and immediately starting playing the you-know-what out of it. So fun. Loving the simplicity. Needs a little bit of setup here and there as it has a few minor quirks but it’s close enough for rock n roll. Didn’t really take good pics but I have a few snapshots. Thanks for following along! 
 

Hoo boy! Holy buckets this looks good! All those details really came together 

I see nothing wrong with option 1! I have a guitar I keep on modding (fated for death by mods, it seems) and it has a cover on the back for similar reasons. Doesn't bother me one bit. 

another option: Locate the switch (color on the back with a soft pencil and place the pickguard where it belongs to get some graphite to transfer) and just rout that spot deeper. 1/16" would be ok in a small area, I bet. 

Love the Corvus shape - so weird. Dragon inlay goes great with it too. 

32 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Let's try that again......

I agree with the goal, but in my case I find that my first version of any design concept ends up being closest to that goal  Reiteration tends to create mud in my case. I find that one of the toughest things to identify in the creative process is when it's done.

SR

Knowing when to stop is the hardest part! I find, similar to you, that I often end up circling back to the original concept, but in the iterative process I usually add, remove, or modify a crucial part of that design. So the final product may be quite similar but there is something important in there that I picked up along the way. Often the crucial change is only tangential to the reason I started iterating in the first place.

Either that or I don't change anything and I know exactly why I'm doing that version instead of the others that I came up with along the way, which has got to count for something. 

Ooh the concave heel! Cool! I love "sprung" joints like that.  It's worth googling "Gibson tenon gap" and see what's out there - Here's one. I think its an epiphone but same idea. Though this guitar has more tenon north of the neck pickup

 I