2.5itim

I will make a bunch out of different types of materials and choose which ones I want to go with by quality, feel and sound. Now that pros has put 6061 in a class of Chinese and Thailand I really want to go throw all of my aluminum in the scrap bin, lol only joking! I do plan on making them out of different materials and I have set up getting a few out to a couple respected builders that I trust there opinion so I will use there guidance in quality, feel and sound also.

There are actually quite a few brides in production made out of 6061.

Yes I understand that. Metal is kind of my life, I spend 12 hours a day working with it, cutting it, machining it, melting it, welding all kinds of different materials. 6061's main purpose is aircraft and structural applications. It will have no problem at all with standing up to this task.

@Tekkelenburg There's quite a few advantages to going with aluminum over stainless. Aluminum rings out a bit better than stainless, stainless is nearly 6 times the cost of aluminum, 6061-t6 (which is what I'm using) is plenty strong enough for this, if it's strong enough for an airplane it's strong enough for me, aluminum is much nicer to cut and I don't have to waiste near as much on tooling as if I was running stainless, aluminum can be anodized so I can pretty much make any color bridge I want, I know I could powdercoat stainless but it would be quite hard with the saddles and the tight tolerances I have to hold to fit them in the bridge, aluminum is able to hold an amazing polish i do plan on making some out of brass and bell bronze but I can't see the point on making them out of stainless.

PsikoT thanks man, I'm hoping to get the saddles ran next week. I want to run about 100 at a time so I need to order a little more aluminum for that. Scott I think it would be cool and different, maybe a red bridge and knobs, I'll do one red and one black and if I think it looks tacky I'll go with the black.

Haha yep! I will be selling these in 6,7 and 8 string in single scale and multi scale configurations, out of aluminum and brass so keep me in mind if you find yourself needing some lol

My first bridge which will be used on this guitar just came off the mill, I couldn't find a 1/2" chamfer tool for the mounting holes in the whole shop so I'm gonna go buy one now and chamfer them tomorrow and I will cut the floor height when I do that. Then it's just off to anodizing, I'm kind of thinking about doing this one red to match the top and set it off a little bit! heres some pics!

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

Here it is in my shop lighting

Thanks Andrew, it has been a huge headache and I don't know if I will ever do it again but I am very happy with it. As for the "muted red" it's pretty dang cool, in my shop light you almost can't even see it, it just looks mostly black but in the sun it still pops.

I freaking got it!!! I got back from Arkansas around 10 this morning and got straight to work on this. It took me about 7 hours to get the red how I wanted but I think it is perfect!! So the steps that I took in case anyone else wants to do it are as follows, go thru the open grain with a wire brush and dig out the pores finish sand to 320 acrylic based primer Water based auto black base coat let dry over the weekend 2 coats of shellac let sit for 1 hour red water based paint applied by hand with a little bitty art paint brush this takes forever so start at one side of the body and by the time you finish on the other side the first side is dry enough for the next step "sand" the top with 0000 steel wool, I found it best to go against the grain because then it focuses more on taking the red off the black areas instead of pulling out the red from the open pores I didn't want this to stand out a whole lot so I did one last final coat with the black base coat, this coat I turned my gun way down to where it barely let any liquid thru. I didn't want it to completely cover the red just dull it down a bit. Spray the nitro as a finish. And thats it, here's the pics!

Haha Andrew I really really want to! I've been wanting to do a bunch with Damascus but it's so damn expensive, we will have to see if I can get it into the budget. I know Andrew has already seen this but I might as well put it on this post since the first one I make will be going on this guitar but I spent a little time yesterday with my programmer and we got the bridge designed and the cad drawing finished of my 6 string fixed bridge and the program wrote, I still need to draw up and program my saddles but I should be able to start cutting material on Monday. I couldn't figure out how to post video so I will just post some screen shots of the simulation running.

No I haven't just yet, I'm planing on getting a little farther along with the body before I start testing. Simpleone89, let me know how it goes for you if you get to it before me.

I agree man! I'm really liking how this is coming along!

Thank you andrew, Yeah I have got a couple ideas, the guy that this is for wants me to do something similar to this so I'm gonna see how close I can get to it.

There is one spot in the patched area that is still slightly showing the open pores, only slightly. You can only see it at certain angles, I'm gonna see how it looks after nitro and then decide if I want to put a pick guard on it to cover it up. I have had a bad urge to make some pick guards out of Damascus steel so this just might be one that gets it. Thanks andrew, I apreciate that!!

Yep, I'm super happy with how this turned out, I think the open grain look just gives it enough to look at over the smoothness of the other way I had it without being overbearing. Im gonna let this sit over the weekend while I go enjoy the awesome scenery of Arkansas and will spray lacquer when I get home.

I'm spraying the black, im actually really liking how it looks with the open pores all black. I'm thinking I'm going to leave it like this. Opinions?

I found it, it's 2015 page 2.

For a compound scarf joint you should have a look thru andrew's (knitroexpress) 2015 or 2016 post, he's got a really awesome setup that looks like it works really well made out of acrylic but it wouldn't be hard to do it out of wood.

Wow, that jig is super cool!! Thanks for that! Do you use the same radius for the front and the back? I guess I could examine one of my s bodies to find this out. As for the neck as it is I would find that extremely uncomfortable but that's just my 2 cents.

I agree, I believe the cabinet scrapers are my favorite tool that I've invested in. They are just a joy to use!

I agree pros, I was just sitting here last night looking at this thing and thinking about how it's pretty crazy how a carve on a top can completely change the look of a guitar. I'm definitely going to make another one of these things as a flat top at some point.

I agree, I'm intrigued!! Keep up the great work!

Thanks man!!! My buddy who this guitar is for wanted as close to a prs as I could get, he has 4 prs's so needless to say my work is really cut out for me here lol. I got the space cut out for the neck pickup on the neck also.