Zoltar

I had a really nice sanding fretboard IPA and a drilling pot holes porter last week, looking forward to a sticking-trussrod-in-with-a-blob-of-silicon whisky later.

That must've been the toughest GOTM in months! So many amazing builds. Well done for winning it, your guitar really is awesome.

Looking forward to both of these ones I'm particularly interested in how you get on with that Camphor Laurel. I'd seen a bit for sale and have been thinking about getting some (did you get yours from a certain supplier over near Stoke?), absolutely love the look of it, but I couldn't find many examples of it's use in guitar making so I wondered if there were drawbacks to its use? Hopefully it all goes well, please keep us all informed

Great video, I'm already looking forward to the next installment

Thanks guys I'm working on another big job at the moment (making interactives for a museum) and the client is taking an age to send the drawings I need, which means I had a few hours to crack on with the guitar. I finally got a chance to test out the slot cutting jig I made, I tested it on a bit of scrap oak first and it turned out great, so I went ahead and loaded up the ebony. I used the masking tape 'n' glue method for holding it down. It was really easy to use and the slots came out great. I sanded it up t0 600 grit so far, then put it aside to start prepping the frets. A couple of weeks back I made this little fret roller out of a few bits of scrap steel and a couple of spare bearings I had, I've been looking forward to seeing how well it worked. It went well, and is nice and smooth to use. You just turn the handle at the top to adjust the radius - I found that it works fine if I just turn it an eighth of a turn at a time. I'm chuffed with the result I also spent a while sanding the body and neck. I've still got a fair bit to do but I feel like I made a decent amount of progress, especially with smoothing out the body/neck transition. I was worried that there wasn't enough material left for it to be a strong join, but it feels rigid and I'm really happy with how it looks. I used the phone to take these pics, and it's on its last legs (broken screen, lens full of dust, etc) so they're not as clear or bright as I'd like. I'm hoping to get the sanding done this week. There's also a few holes to drill and hopefully I'll manage to fit the brass ferrules for attaching the cover/pickup mounts too. I also found a bit of black acrylic at the back of the scrap rack, so I cut the cavity cover, pickup mounts and headstock parts on the laser. So, that's it for now, I'm kind of hoping my client dawdles a bit longer so I can get more done. I've a feeling I'll have an email waiting tomorrow morning with the files I need though, so maybe I'll just stay for an hour or two I the evening to work on the guitar. It's taken a bit longer than I hoped, but I feel like I'm not too far off now

So many awesome details on this, I can't wait to see it finished

On the big screen at Glasters! Well done mate Looks fantastic, both in your pics and on stage.

Onto the plastic bits Our temperamental laser cutter has been gathering dust so I sparked it up, cleaned it off a bit and grabbed a bit of scrap Perspex to knock up a few testers for the cavity cover and headstock details. I haven't finished fabricating the Headpiece yet, I'll get onto that after the fretboards. Here's an idea of how the Perspex details will look though. The scrap of acrylic I had was light gathering orange, which is awesome (the photos don't quite capture the glowing edges) but a bit bright for this project. The plastic on the finished guitar will be gloss black. I also cut a tester for the cavity cover - Again, this will be gloss black acrylic, which I think will look nice along with the glossy black hardware against the matt black of the body. I was originally going to mount the pickups to the body, but the ones I'm using seem more suited to pickup surrounds. I felt that that might look a bit too busy, so I'll be mounting them on these little brackets - So, this is where I am right now. Hopefully I'll be able to spend a bit more time on it soon. Every time I get a chance to work on the guitar I get really into it, like the bug has bitten all over again. Then a big job comes up and I have to drop tools (and pick up other, usually much greasier tools) and as I build whatever Work has me making, I'll often glance to the shelf above my tool chest, at the 'V' gathering a fresh layer of dust, and think, 'soon... soon....' In the meantime, I still get to see all the awesome projects you guys are working on (much, much faster than me! *sob*) laters potaters, Z

I've also managed to get my teeth into the bit I've been fretting about most (apologies for the pun) I couldn't decide if I wanted to radius the fretboard by hand or with the CNC. I decided to have a go with the CNC on a bit of scrap oak that I had, and it turned out really nice, so I loaded up a bit of ebony and ran the file again. Dead chuffed with the results I've built this fret slotting jig, so if it's not too mental at work tomorrow I'll have a go at doing some slots. Nervous but excited I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to offcuts of nice materials. I hate throwing away nice little bits of wood, metal and plastic that could come in handy one day. Thinking of using the trimmed bits of fretboard to make massive chopsticks for particularly fat udon noodles.

So, it's been a while since I've posted any updates on this, but it's been ticking over gradually. The day job has been relentless (but fun) and I've also had to deal with the chaos of a house move so I haven't spent nearly as much time working on my guitar as I'd like, but it's constantly on my mind. I've just finished a big project so I've had a chance to blow the dust of it and get the sandpaper out. and make more dust. Despite the craziness of the day job, I manage to fit in an hour or so here or there to work on the V, and this is where I'm currently at: I've got lots of sanding to do and also a few slight modifications and changes which will mean knocking up a few jigs and firing up the router (changes to switch positions, changes to pickup mountings) but it's coming along nicely I'm really happy with how it's turned out so far. In particular, the neck joint has turned out nice. It might look a bit fiddly, but it seems to work well. Basically, I wanted a bolt on neck that had the look and feel of a neck thru, so I came up with this 'flared' joint design. The joint feels strong and stable and has a nice visual flow. It needs a bit of a tidy and sand to make the transition smooth, but I reckon it'll turn out nice.

Thanks guys I'm currently itching to do some work on my builds but I've got stainless steel bathtubs to weld, so my stuff will have to wait. When I do get a chance to spend a couple of hours making guitars I'm absolutely loving it and have already started designing a couple more. I just need to finish these two before I start making anything else. Its Interesting that you mention composite bodies StratsRdivine (yeah, I think carbon fibre with balsa would look great!), for one of my next projects I'm setting myself a simple brief - 'No wood allowed'. I love wood of course, but I'd like to see what I can do with Aluminium, Nylon, ABS etc. possibly even some glass. Maybe it'll be a success, maybe not, but it'll be fun to work out

The black and gold mix works so well with the warmth and richness of the wood. Really nice And really fast too! I need to pull my finger out...

Wow, this is looking fantastic

Just another quick one before I get back to the workshop... The stuff I'm doing at work involves a lot of welding and fabrication, lots of woodwork and CNC-ing but also quite a lot of sitting in a freezing office doing CAD drawings. I couldn't spare any time for building guitars, but I did get a chance to have a go on this... The workshop now has a 3D printer! And its a bloody good one too! so, while doing proper work, I set it running on a mini PG related side project. I had a quick practice on the software and it's so intuitive it took me just a few minutes to get it up and running. It did its thing while I prepared fabrication drawings and cutting lists and a couple of hours later... mini (1/10 scale) versions of my PG projects! I need to one of these things at home z

As usual, work has been crazy lately and has left me with very little time to do my own stuff. I can't really complain though, as a freelancer I appreciate anything that comes my way and the last couple of projects have been a lot of fun (building lots of stairs and a 30m long roof entirely out of Dexion - the stuff is like Meccano!) I'm currently building several sets of plywood stairs, which meant I had to work yet another weekend but it also meant that I had a good few hours in the evenings to work on the bass. As with the V guitar, I decided to use cheapo materials to make a prototype first. In my posts above you'll see that I laminated several pieces of softwood together as blanks for the body and wings of the prototype. I then planed these 44m slabs down to 40mm in the thicknesser, and got CNC-ing The program was fairly complicated and took quite a while to cut but it turned out well. There's a few little changes to make, nothing too big, mainly just making cut outs slightly bigger. As you can see in this picture, the join between body and wings is curved. The body part will be wenge with a couple of walnut laminate strips (you can see the blank in an earlier post above). This allows me to be a bit more playful with the join between body and wings, I decided on this flowing transition rather than just a straight edge join. The prototype has turned out nice, I'm really chuffed with it Now I'll make adjustments and get cutting the wenge and walnut. Also, I'll get cracking on the fret board - since day one, that's the bit that's been most daunting! So, the next step will be to make a fret slot cutting jig. In the meantime, here's a few pics with some of the hardware test fitted (the bridge pickup opening is too tight, and the truss rod slot needs opening up just a tad too) I haven't drilled the tuner holes yet, and I'd originally planned not to have a truss rod cover. I'm considering it now so I might rout an area for a recessed cover. That's it for now. I'll be in the workshop all week and weekend, so I'll try and put a few hours aside for myself in the evenings and see if I can get a bit further with this and the 'V' Z

While I'm at it, I thought I'd add a little update regarding the bass. Like the 'V', it's shape is inspired by faceted, dynamic vehicle designs such as the reference images at the start of this thread, but I've toned it down a bit. As I mentioned above, the design is still unfinished. I need to do some work on the headstock, the transition from body to neck and the end of the body near the bridge. Here's a pic of the front... ...and here's the rear. The bass will be a neck-thru construction, with alternating wenge and walnut laminations and walnut wings. All the hardware (except frets) will be black, including black strings. The fretboard will be wenge too. As with the V, I'll make a prototype, though this time it will be several lengths of softwood laminated together rather than a solid MDF blank. Here's the softwood being glued for the prototype: Although the design isn't completely finalised, the construction is, so I decided to prepare the hardwood for the actual bass. The laminations of wenge and walnut are not parallel, they are 'fanned' at the same angle as the strings will be, so over the length of the blank (1250mm) they run from 8mm at one end to about 22mm at the other. Gluing this thing up was a bloody nightmare, but it worked out pretty well! It's ever so slightly lumpy, but all the timber is oversized and I'll plane the bland down to 40mm from its current 44mm. As you can see, I've used the same technique of incorporating softwood pieces to limit hardwood wastage. I'll still be focussing on the 'V', but this one will be ticking over in the background too Z.

Wahoo!! I got wood! ...well, this lot actually arrived halfway through December, but as I've been intensely busy at work I'm only now getting to update this thread. I've been getting an odd hour here or there to work on it, but it's not moving as fast as I'd like, but that's life eh. We've got a lovely old planer/thicknesser in the workshop that doesn't get much use: I ran this lot through it and it was a real pleasure to use, though someone, at some point, has fed through a chunk of timber with a pin or broken nail in it and there's a couple of chips in the blades. I had to run a block plane over each bit of wood to get rid of the lines that were left. no biggie though... So, that's four nice chunks of sapele for the 'V', and some nice wenge and walnut for the bass. I've still got a few final details to pin down on the bass, so I've been concentrating on prepping the wood for the V for now. In order to use the sapele as economically as possible I decided to use additional sections of softwood to increase the 'footprint' of the blank - locating dowels for CNC routing both sides of the blank will be positioned in the softwood, lessening the quantity of hardwood wasted. I planed the sapele to 44mm thick, the same thickness as the pre-planed softwood (the final thickness of the guitar will be about 40mm), then glued two softwood lengths to the outer edges of the sapele. I sanded the blank and fixed it with a few brads to a panel of 9mm MDF at the correct angle for cutting into two parts on the table saw. Before gluing, to check the join: I attached a few angled block to aid clamping... ...and glued them together. As of Friday afternoon I've just finished a big project at work so hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more done on the guitar in the coming days. I've also got a couple of very small changes to make to the CAD model before I fire up the CNC - mainly tidying up the transition from the angular body to the neck profile. Hopefully I'll be able to post an update much sooner this time! Z.

The contrast of colours on that headstock looks awesome. lovely organic looking carving too

yep, I know that feeling - mostly get it on days that end in a 'y' maybe for fret markers you could use a thin sliver of Perspex Fluorescent, or a similar 'light capturing' acrylic. it'd look pretty much like a gloss black stripe on the fretboard, but would look similar to a dim LED where the 'dots' should go. Black strings too, yes? thinking of going for black strings on my build too

I really like the shape of this guitar. You've given it lovely flowing lines and a really nice dynamic but balanced look.

Real life has been getting in the way again so I had to down tools and do other stuff for a while (lots of welding, mainly). I've also had a bit of a delay getting hold of the wood I need, but hopefully that'll be sorted in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I got new stuff to play with from G&W I could have gone silly and melted my cash card on that site, as there's so much cool stuff I'd also picked these pickups and bass bridge from Thomann a couple of weeks back: I liked the fact they came in a kit with all the wiring as I'm new to that side of things. The instructions seem clear and most of the connections are solderless. Hopefully I'll learn a few things installing these. I also got these awesome individual bridges for the headless V. As an engineer I just love getting my hands on things like this which are so beautifully made. I still can't find a decent headless headpiece though (I can get one from the ABM website, but it's bloody expensive!). Are headless guitars not as popular as I thought? Any opinions or advice on that one? As I mentioned in a previous post, I can fabricate something but I'd prefer something 'off the shelf' really. While I'm waiting for wood and finishing up other stuff I won't get making the guitar properly, but in the meantime I checked to see how some of the parts (pickups, bridges, pots and knobs) fitted into the MDF prototype. Everything seemed to fit fine, though there are a few changes to make to the CAD file before I get routing. I'm pretty sure the knob layout and position won't be to everyone's taste, but they function fine and I like the aesthetics of it Here's another view. I haven't decided on black or amber knobs yet, so I tried one of each here. That's it for now, as soon as I get some hardwood I should be able to get building proper. Also I'll try and post a CAD pic of the bass in the next couple of days. Z

I'm usually extremely busy at work, but as we've just turned out a couple of big projects I'm getting a bit of workshop time to myself. It could be crazy busy again next week, so I'm trying to get as much done as I can now. The CAD file is pretty much there, so I loaded up a chunk of 40mm MDF and started building the MDF prototype. I'm doing this to pinpoint any weaknesses or design flaws before I start chopping up nice bits of hardwood. Here's the back of the body with the electronics cavity. I drilled holes for locating dowels and flipped the body to rout the front. Here it is, fresh off the CNC. The back, so you can see the cavity and neck fixing points better. and finally, the whole prototype with the neck attached - I didn't get pics of the neck being cut. ...that nice MAC is the firm's, not mine Next step will be to see how all the hardware fits this prototype, make adjustments to the CAD model (I've already identified a few changes that need to be made), then hopefully onto a block of hardwood In the meantime I'll be trying to finish the bass design so I can start making that too. laters potaters Z.

Thanks guys Hopefully I've worked out how to attach images properly now... I was planning on building the bass first but it's taking me a little longer than I expected to get the design just right. The guitar design is almost there though, so I'm going to make a start on that first. As I mentioned before, it's shape is inspired by the faceted and dynamic forms of jet planes and sports cars, such as these beauties: This is a Russian PAK FA T-50, though as an example of what I'm aiming for I could have also added a pic of an F22, as they look awesome too. And a Lamborghini Reventon. Gorgeous So, this is where I'm at right now. As you can see there is a kind of head, but it's more for aesthetics - it's far too small to add tuners. The headless tuners/bridges are individual ones by ABM. the plan was to use an ABM headless headpiece too, but I'm having trouble getting hold of one so I may have to fabricate something myself for now. Since this render I have added the pickups to the drawing - an EMG 81/85 set. The knobs are the white bits at the base - the top two for the tone and volume of neck pickup, the bottom two for the bridge pickup. there will be a small toggle switch, so all the controls/tuners are within a cluster. I haven't decided on a colour yet. the blue shown here is nice and I'm tempted by a deep matt green, but for this first build I think I might do the body matt black with gloss black panels/knobs. The fretboard will be much darker (wenge, I think) and the head will be the same colour as the body. yeah I know, maybe a bit TOO metal... The eagle eyed aeroplane buffs amongst you may also recognise the similarity to stealth fighters... I'll be making a prototype out of a chunk of 40mm MDF we've got gathering dust in the workshop, in order to see how the CNC files go. Hopefully I'll have something solid to show you all soon TTFN Zolt

Hello all, I've been a lurker here for a couple of months now, admiring (and often being absolutely gobsmacked by) all of your beautiful projects and I've finally found myself in a position where I can have a go at my own. I've always been a 'maker', mostly of furniture over the last few years, but occasionally stage sets, film props, toys and all sorts of other things. While browsing Amazon a couple of months ago, I saw a book about designing and building guitars and basses by Leo Lospenatto and decided to have a look. I instantly decided 'I need to have a go at this' which led me to search for lots of youtube videos and eventually Project Guitar. Seeing all your projects just made me want to make my own guitar even more! I messed about with bass guitars a bit when I was a kid, I never had a guitar though. As I'm new to all this I really had no idea about what wood to go for, what scale to use, how to do wiring etc. so I eventually decided to make both a guitar and a bass so I can try lots of different things, This project will be a bit of a steep learning curve. The great thing about that is it really doesn't matter if I make a few mistakes along the way. I've learnt many of my greatest lessons by screwing things up completely ....but hopefully some of you guys can point out silly mistakes I'm making, or if my decisions are a bit odd, why I should try something else. any help or advice will be hugely appreciated! I mostly make furniture and currently work in a small workshop as a freelancer. I trained as a metalworker, but over the years I've also spent a fair bit of time doing cabinet making. A few years ago I worked at a company making office furniture and the Guv decided to get a CNC, so I learnt how to use that and also learnt CAD in order to program it. So I shall be designing my guitar/basses in Rhino and doing much of the routing on the dodgy Chinese CNC we have in the corner of my current workplace. So, the guitar will be a headless flying V shape. After having a word with the guy in the local hardwood place, I decided on a Sapele body with a Sapele bolt on neck. The bass will be a thru-neck design, the neck made of Wenge and Walnut, with a Walnut body. Both will have EMG pickups. The guitar will be painted a solid colour, the Bass will be oiled (or maybe clear lacquered) I shall be making up a lot of stuff as I go ... The shape and form of both guitar and bass will be influenced by the multi-faceted design of jet planes and sports cars (I was gonna attach a couple of sample images here, but can't seem to get pics to work - don't worry, I shall work it out soon!) Ta, Zolt