Original

Hello All, I'll call this one The Tomato. I like tomatoes. I've built around 30 guitars in my little home shop, but this is my first multi-scale project. I've been wanting to make one for a while, so I built this one as an learning experiment. 

The body is poplar. It features a one piece hard maple neck with walnut fillet, jumbo fretwire, and abalone dots. The scale is 25.5 / 24.7  I went with a retro-vibe because I haven't seen many done that way, and this being my first, I wanted to keep it simple.

The bridge is a top loading six saddle strat style hardtail. I swapped out screws , and springs to achieve the needed compensation.

I built the over wound F spaced AlNiCo V double slug humbucker specifically for this guitar. I used 500k Alpha pots with a poly capacitor.

I'm a pro woodworker by trade, and I began making guitars about ten years ago. I was inspired to make this one by curiosity. I had never even seen a multi-scale in person, so I had to build a guitar just to get my hands on one. 

It's a simple little guitar that was really inexpensive to put together, but I'm thoroughly pleased with my results, and I plan on doing more like this.

I rarely use my surface planer, but my router sled is busy all of the time. I used 1.5" square steel tubing for the rails on mine. I think it's a good idea to make the jig long enough for fingerboards, and truing neck blanks. I thought about using bench dogs, but that's as far as it got. I use tape.

Nice work, both of you.

Renk, It really looks solid. I like the carve.

funkymann, Cool guitar. I'm anxious to see more of your work.

Disaster has struck yesterday

Wow, I'd say. That's a bummer for sure. I know the feeling. It's sort of like being a human lightning rod. I've got a guitar that I started about three years ago. I'm convinced it was cursed as well. I finally tired of fighting the demons, and set it aside. I could finish it easy enough as I've fixed the problems, but I'd rather work on other things.

Natural Blonde

This guitar has a book matched maple top over an african mahogany body with a sapele neck, and a cumara fingerboard. 24 5/8 scale, 22 frets, and a vintage style truss rod. I went with all cream colored trim for a simple balanced look. For the hardware I used a generic adjustable wrap tail bridge, and grover roto's. I wound the pickups to vintage specifications with AlNiCo 5 magnets. It's tinted with aniline dye, and finished with nitrocellulose lacquer. Thanks for looking.

Off the back of this I imagine it should be eminently possible to develop a "how to design a compound scale" article. The underlying theory is deceptively simple....

I would like to see this. I plan to do a MS project soon.

Didn't see that coming.....

SR

Surprise!

It's the same process as the black Junior with a solid color base coat, and contrasting grain filler afterwards.

Sorry 'bout your leg. That stinks.

I'll be watching this one!

I'd avoid using MDF. It's not very stable, and has a tendency to warp. I used birch plywood for mine.

Once you have one, you'll find more uses for it than you ever imagined. I use mine WAY more than I do my thickness planer.

Don't be surprised if that maple warps when you run it through a table saw. Be ready with a shim to stuff into the kerf to spread it as you go.

It looks good so far. Nice big shop you have there.

Pushing that curly maple through your thickness planer might prove to be challenging. Tearout's are common with highly figured material. I like to use my router sled for such things. It gets used more than my thickness planer. Here's a picture in case you're not familiar.

In living color.

This sounds like a fun project. I've got some mystery pallet wood from Colombia that I rescued last year. I don't know the species, but it's hard and dense.

One of these days...

But the massive amount of switches and chrome is half the fun!?

Looks great though so far!

Chris

Thanks Chris, I could never figure out what they were for.

Depending on how it sounds, I might incorporate a push/pull pot for series/parallel switching.

Original Titebond is the only one that won't creep. Never use glue that you don't know the history of. If it's been sitting on your shelf for a while, throw it away, and get some that's fresh. Extreme temperatures in either direction, and sitting on the shelf will degrade the adhesive.

Congratulations. I bet it has a sound that's all it's own.

I always advise people to start simple. So many new builder's try to put way too much into a guitar. Expensive parts, and materials don't 'make' the instrument as much as the craftsmanship involved. If You're not comfortable with an easy project, a complicated one could be very frustrating, expensive, take forever, and not be what you want when you're done. There's nothing wrong with simple guitars. A project that's not so complicated will give you a chance to establish some skills with your new tools, and get familiar with the tolerances that you're dealing with. It's just natural enthusiasm that makes you want to build a dream guitar on your first try, but it might be wiser to take a step back, and hone your skills on something that has less room for failure. If you're overwhelmed with your first one there might not ever be a second. The skills that You learn on a simple project will be apparent on the more difficult endeavors down the road.

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket. Just sayin', Build an easy, cheap one first, learn some skills, and your 8 string thing will come out way nicer.

Be careful with that jointer! I think more woodworkers are injured by them than any other shop tool.

If that guitar sounds half as good as it looks...

Thanks!

Meanwhile, I moved forward with this offset. One piece body and a one piece neck. One pickup, one knob. This is my retaliation for all of the jmstrs, and jags that are covered with hardware, and switches. The pickup won't be a clone, but is based on a Fender XII.

Nice work! You learn a bunch on the first one. I sure did.

Thanks Peter, The next time that I make a few I'll do a little tutorial for everyone here. It's really pretty simple. I hadn't seen the white covers from mojo. Wolfe sells white dogear's, but as pickups only. I've seen them on ebay. No covers, and they resemble the injection molded ABS that are common from most suppliers in black.

I don't know how that link ended up there. I had surfed across that, and shared it with my Daughter.

Thanks everyone, I dig the way the finish turned out. That was my first attempt at that. The contrast of the white plastic really makes it pop. This one has a look all it's own. White P-90 covers don't exist unless you make them yourself. The one on this guitar had to be extra tall to work with the adjustable wraparound bridge. I put camber on the bottom of the cover t make the top sit parallel with the strings. The neck angle is steep. It would have looked funny otherwise.

double post

This one's about done.

Wow, that's a shame! Now that I'm forming my own covers, I've begun researching epoxy potting, and encapsulation. I don'[t like seeing this.

I can't wait to see what you are taking to the show.

I mocked-up the Jr. today so I could make a template for the pick guard. The silverfox finish with the white plastics really give it a tuxedo vibe.

Ouch! I feel your pain, and we've all been there. Sometime's it's hard to stay focused. That's when my mistakes generally happen. That or when I'm trying to hurry.

The more work that you put into something, the more frustration you feel when things don't go as planned.