albertop

Thanks boys, I also love my "girls", I played them everyday, that´s the most important thing. I sure want to build my own design, just wanted to finish this "Guitar Building 101" kind of thing I had going and now I feel ready to give it a shot. Here is extremely difficult to get figured wood like in the States, I´m doing a research in rainforest tonewoods, here in Peru there are a lot of different woods (the Amazon is right here ) but I don´t now yet what would work. I remember the Gibson Rainforest line, probably I use something like that. The piece of mahogany for the Tele cost me $20 and is top quality. I would love to build a LP kind Matt, but this time I'd like to use maple for the top; just to learn how to carve that wood, sadly I can´t get that wood around here. Hey jay5, I have some in progress pics, I´ll post them pretty soon, I promise. Well now I´m gonna enter the GOTM, whish me luck!

Thanks for the kind words guys, well I´ll see if I put in it for the GOTM, but really, everytime I put a guitar there somebody else puts a really cool one Oh well, I think I´m gonna jump in. Thanks John, yeah, that SG sounds really cool with the JB and the Jazz in the neck (like you I think those pickups sound great on a mahogany body), my goal was trying to make the cheapest guitar I could and I can say that I acomplished that. Both pickups sound really good, I can´t complain; in fact I´m very happy, very clear and articulate. And the shape of the pickguard came for the thinline Tele orgmorg, in case you were wondered. Cheers Alberto

Hello all, it´s been a while since my last post; I have previously built a Lp copy and a SG neckthrough guitar: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...topic=11328&hl= http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...topic=13666&hl= I built this one thinking on building three kind of guitars, a set neck, a neckthrough and a bolt-on neck, kinda like a study where I get to learn about different kind of construction and setups. This one have a one-block mahogany body (it´s a cheap tonewood here in my country, and its easy to get) and a maple/rosewood neck that belonged from a Squier. The hardware is 1 Stewmac Golden Age single and 1 Stewmac G.A. humbucker, 1 1 tone, 1 volume and 1 miniswitch for the humbucker (to go from humbucker to single coil) and a fixed bridge. Almost all of the hardware came from Stewmac. The finish is nitro on the neck and poly on the body. I have to say I´m very happy with this guitar, I think it´s the best I built and I feel like I have learned a lot from building the three guitars. I know it´s not a unique design but I wanted to learn from the masters first and then try to improve what I´ve learned. I would love to hear your input, cheers. Alberto http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/tele2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/tele3.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/tele4.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/tele5.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/tele6.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/tele7.jpg

I also use a angle grinder, I use a Lancelot disk grinder; it´s a disk with a chain like the one the chainsaws. It´s pretty dangerous to use the grinder, I´ve seen some nasty cuts with the grit disks, so please protect yourself. My suggestion will be to try to go very slow, don´t rush and always check what you´re doing. Like Curtis said, you better make your pickups cavities first, that way you can use the flat surface with your router and THEN you can make your carving. Good luck.

You forgot Peru! Congratulations on both winners, those guitar were awesome. I really like the Nandi Devi, when I saw it I told myself "I so lost this competition" Really, Erick that is a fantastic job, I truly like it, it´s superb. And the DropTop, my god I whish someday I could build something that beatutiful! Congrats JFC. And I have to say the polka dot is flawless (as usual Perry), the Bocaster so original I love it!, and that Bass wow pretty good for been your first one Phil, hope you build more. Overall I feel lucky to be part of these candidates to GOTM, I promise I´ll work harder to build excellent guitars like all of yours. Cheers Alberto

Thanks Southpa, it has NEW frets so that´s why I wondering if this repairman isn´t trying to do an expensive job at my friend´s expenses. I see the neck with a very little depressions but nothing radical, that´s why I´m asking. I think it can be done without removing the frets.

Hello all, I have a question for you: my friend have an electric guitar and he´s having trouble with some frets and intonation; when he tries to pull a bend around the 15th fret on the 2nd string the note "dies", I mean it doesn´t ring and sounds dead as he rises the string and also around the 5-7th fret it buzzes. He took it to a luthier and he told him that he probably needs a refretting and also that his fretboard was slightly twisted. He says that the fretboard have some depressions around the 3th-7th and 14th-17th frets. The action is low to high: 6/64" -4/64" and that if he´d try to lower the action it will buzz like hell. So my question is: does he need a refretting? I´m wondering why, because we´re taking about two surfaces: the fretboard and the frets, why don´t he level the frets with a large leveler instead of taking off all the frets? I don´t want to take the easy road, just an idea I have and the luthier didn´t answer it, he just told me that you don´t do that. Now I don´t have much experience refretting so I´m asking to you, maybe you have a better solution or tell me that a refretting is needed. Thanks, Alberto

I almost forgot again! Now I posted the pics, but I don´t think I can win, it seems that the polka dot flying V is very popular. Now whish me luck for real, I will need it Zeppelin rocks, I´m such a huge fan, best regards Alberto

Finally after a long time I finished my second guitar; it´s a neckthrough SG and it took me about 2 months to make it and like 5 months to get it painted, but it came out great and I really like it. The specs are: mahogany body and neck, rosewood headstock and fretboard w/medium-tall frets, 24 3/4" scale, chrome hardware and Gotoh tuners. The finish is polyester and the color is cherry red. The pickups are Seymour Duncan JB on the bridge and Jazz on the neck and the wiring came from StewMac. Here you can see the neckthrough: and finally the headstock: I always love the SG´s and I read somewhere that the Gibson intention was to make the SG neckthrough; I really don´t know if this is true but it seemed like a good idea and I just went for it. It´s a mix between a 61' and the P. Townshend model. It´s a very light guitar in comparison with my other ones and it sound really cool, I really love it. If you wanna see more pics check this link: http://photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/

I use a 14 degree angle at the peghead; I have read that the 17 angle may cause some problems so I´ll do what Gibson is doing now. Good luck man, you can be dumb if you´re a Zeppelin fan , finally I could listen How the West Was Won, awesome concert, truly amazing, cheers Alberto

Yeah, I put the nails on the part that later was planed so the wood wings where intact. About the channel, do it just before you glue the top, it would help a lot because I imagine you´re not gonna use a pickguard. If the neck blank is too expensive for you maybe you can use a slim blank and glue another wood where the body is gonna be, you wouldn´t notice because your using a maple top. Your neck blank can be a little more thick than what will be your neck so you have room to carve and then you can do a scarf joint at the headstock and add the wood at the body like I suggest. It´s the easiest way I can think of. I´m in Peru and here the mahogany it´s cheap, the problem is getting maple and other hard woods.

Wow, that´s really impressive, great work Maiden69! It´s a beautiful guitar and some of the best I have seen around here. I love the carving, the features, the finish; such a clean work, you must be really proud, cheers Alberto

Yeah you pretty much nailed it. The SG body is pretty easy really, specially when you compare it to a LP. The only thing I can think of is that you can route a line between the two pickups and then you can glue your top, this way you´ll have a way the cross the wire without routing your top. About glueing the wings, well it´s tricky you know; but what I did was putting some nails so they won´t let the wings slip in any way. I put the nails just above the drawing line, this way they´re stopping the wings from moving and let you clamp them. I think I did one wing at a time, trying to glue the both of them would be really messy.

Well, I made a second drawing with the LP neck angle, there are several factors for these two aproaches, for example on the LP the body and neck angle blend together to make it work properly because the fingerboard is flush with the face of the body. The top influences on the neck and viceversa as my friend J. Catto always says. You´ll see that the angles start at different points, one at the end of the fretboard (LP) and the other at the end of the body (SG). http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cue...LPneckangle.jpg I took the drawings from Melvyn Hiscock´s "Make Your Own Electric Guitar", so if you can get one you won´t regret it; it´s an excellent book with a lot of tips and lessons, he teaches how to build a bolt-on, set neck a neckthrough guitar for instance, and many other things. I´m really glad that you understood the drawings, and don´t feel bad for not understand it at the beginning, sometimes a drawing is needed to explain something difficult or something difficult to visualize (besides my trouble with the english ). Cool you understood the "neck blank" thing, that was really important, I totally forgot about the word "blank". And I exagerated the neck angle so you could understand it easily. And also I guess you now know how to do the bevels, right? is not that difficult as you see, the best thing you could do is practice on scratch and begin building your guitar; that´s the only way to learn. I´ve learned a lot on this forums and it´s cool to share the little I know now.

Check these links, I made two drawings: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cue...neckthrough.jpg The first drawing is about the neck/body issue, I hope this clarifies it. With "the bottom line of the mahogany" I meant the line of the bottom of the body (on the drawing in your wood) or the back of the guitar. Sorry to confuse you, I should have said the guitar back. You could see that the top of the neck wood or where the fretboard would be glue is in the same position, you don´t need to make it 1/2" thinner, you´ll only make the BODY thinner (to glue your wings and have room for your awesome top), not the neck. You also see the part where you should saw VERY carefuly, it´s at the fingerboard end, so you can fit your maple top. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cue...SGneckangle.jpg I did this in case you don´t know how the neck angle works on a SG, it´s different than a Les Paul, and it´s fairly easy to figure out. About the carving, you lost me really, I don´t understand what you´re talking about, please try to explain it better; remember your talking to a latino that doesn´t have a perfect english http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/cuervo77/bevels.jpg Here´s a quick drawing of how I made the bevels, now I wanna see if I made myself clear please let em know. See ya A.

Yeah, you need to make your mahogany wings 1/2" less thick and you need to align them with the bottom line of the neck wood. I mean, when you draw the neck angle of the body (remember that I use the flat surface of the neck wood to glue the fingerboard and planed (?) the body) you´ll have two lines representing the body thickness. You need to glue the magohany wings with the bottom line. Then when you plane the mahogany top part to put the maple top. You probably will need to use a saw very carefully and saw the the fingerboard end so you can have a flat surface for the body and still have your neck angle in the fingerboard. About the carving of the horns do you mean the bevels right?, you can use a rasp, a spokeshave or a chisel, whatever you have in hand, it isn´t that difficult really, you mark where is the depth of the bevel and start slowly, always check if it´s straight from top to side line and then just sand. Hope I answer right, I have a little hard time with it trying to explain in English, have some patience and if you didn´t understand ask me again, I don´t mind. Alberto thanks silvertonessuckbutigotone for the luck I haven´t post on the GOTM page yet, I´ll do it soon.

You could take the excess on the neck by cutting it with a bandsaw, it´ll took only a few minutes and you be set to glue the body wings and carve the neck. I don´t know but the SG took me a lot less longer than the LP I´ve made (the LP had a set neck), it was so easy and it took a few weeks to get it done. Probably it will take you longer because of the maple top, but still I think it´s a cool project. Now I´m gonna post on the GOTM thing, whish me luck, bye Alberto

I use a 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" x 40" slab, you should be fine with that, and don´t think it´s too thick, trust me About the carve depth, in fact it's a little bit less than 1/2" so your idea will work perfectly. I have seen maple top Sg's and I think they look awesome. One thing before you start the neck, draw a full size plan of the guitar; be very careful in the measures and try to understand the neck angle well before you start to cut anything. It will save you a lot of trouble, it just took me a little while and that drawing helped me till the very end. You can try one with a 2 degree and other with 2,5 or 3 so you can see and understand the little nuances(?). The headstock is cool isn´t it? thanks for the cheers; man when you´ll finish yours you´re gonna love it, I konw I love mine. Alberto pd- will you buy a pre cut fingerboard or you´ll do it from scratch? Remember the fingerboard needs to be perfect. Best regards.

Hey Bill I´m gonna give you the measures of my guitar, please take it as a reference because I haven´t measure one SG. I asked on the everythingSG forums and one pal were kind enough to help me with it, he even sent me some awesome pics whith great details. Maybe that´s why I feel compelled to retribute a little on these forums: Body length: 16" from bottom to upper horn, 15 3/16" to lower horn body width: 12 3/4 bottom of the body (widest part), waist: 8 7/8", between horns: 10 1/2" body depth: 1 5/16" I think that the guitarbuild plans measure 13 5/32" width but I didn´t feel right when I looked at the plans, it was too wide for my taste, maybe a little similar to the ESP model I guess. Don´t worry about the questions, I like to answer them and to me it´s cool to know that someday somebody will use the info I have. I´ll love to see where you at, have you started? Thanks orgmorg, it´s nice to know that somebody like the headstock for a change , and about P. Townshend you´re so right, I can´t imagine him trying to break mine! It doesn´t feel weak at all , cheers Alberto

Hey Bill check at the Catalogs section: http://www.everythingsg.com/catalogs.htm at the bottom you´ll see the body and neck specs. I found the neck angle from a thread at the MIMF and in these forums. Trust me about the angles, now that I have done one I know it´s right the measures I gave to you if you have another question just shoot, cheers Alberto

daveq: I was lucky enough to have a good friend helping me with most of the finish. I really think he is the best here in my country, you should see his work, truly amazing indeed. Well, he has a little shop where he works and we use his equipment and the polyester was applied with a spray gun and a little compressor in a paint booth. I really don´t remember the brand of the polyester, I can´t recall it, but I know it was imported. The process is exactly the same as with nitrocellulose, you just are using different materials, that´s why I wasn´t very specific but if you have any other questions let me know, cheers Alberto Cool to know I´ll have two votes I just noticed that they won´t allow more entries maybe next month, what do you think?

Well, I use like four plans... but I paid for no one. See, I use the MIMF plans, the guitarbuild.com plans, ebay plans and one I did it using pics and enlarging it using Photoshop. I´ll try to explain this, it´s a trick my brother taught me: First I choose a good pic of the body or just the one they use as a demo version of the plan (use the little jpg file, it´s better and faster). Then I cropped the pic just the exact amount of the guitar body, just touching the sides. When I have done that I resize the image pic with the measure I have of the body, like Body: length-16", width-12 3/4" (with photo editors usually you can put a number for the widht an another for the length). When you have done this you´ll have a big jpg file of the guitar body just the exact size (you´ll have a pixelated(?) image; it´ll have little squares around the outside lines). Then you can print this image in four A4 sheet papers and you´ll have an idea of what the body will look like. I have done this with a lot of images, the best part is that you´ll only need two measures or maybe you can do it by guessing, you can enlarge pics you found on the web and use them for your plans or for reference. I found for instance that the guitarplans plans where too wide in comparison with the original, have another scale and a couple of things that I didn´t like. I hope this helps, and I hope you can understand me If you have any question please ask me, I´ll try to answer the best I can ( I´ve noticed that for me it´s easy to answer a question than trying to elaborating in english) cheers, Alberto

I would say it was applied after the wood was sealed. When you see the guitar you notice that the bottom (where the strap button is, near the bridge) is not darker than the actual top of the guitar. I mean it´s a bit darker but is different like when I apply stain directly on wood, then you can see that some parts are deffinetly darker than others. When you don´t seal the wood and then you stain it, the parts perpendicular to the wood grain (where the grain cuts and is like little pores) absorbs more stain. I hope you can understand me, I´m having some problem trying to explain it right. cheers

Bill-Murray: the wings where already in the proper thickness (1 5/16") and the neck/body wood was thick enough to allow me to draw the diagonal of the angle and to put the body wings diagonally and still have room to plane it. Hope this explain the process. If you are going to use a tuneomatic you definetily need a neck angle. Here are some measures that I took from a Gibson ad I found in everythingsg.com, the measures can vary here and there: Body: length-16", width-12 3/4"-13 5/32", depth-1 5/16" body/neck angle: sg special 2° sg standard 3° sg reissue 3,5° neck: peghead pitch: 14-17° length: 6 25/32" w:3 1/16" thickness 1st fret: 0.818 12th: 0.963 heel length: 0.625" peghead: thickness-5/8" peghead veneer: 3/8" You can get other measures in the Gibson webpage. Johnsilver: thanks for the compliment, I did the painting with a friend, he´s awesome and he uses the Stewmac color; I think it was cherry red and mahogany. You need to experiment a bit to get the color you want.

Thanks for the info silvertonessuckbutigotone, I ´ll post my guitar there then. Bill-Murray: yes, I put a neck angle because I didn´t wanna recess the bridge. I use a 2- 2,5 angle degree, I know that´s the neck angle Gibson uses on their Sg´s. What I did was draw the neck angle on the sides of the neck/body wood and then I glued the body wings following that angle. I choose to angle the wings because to me it was easier to use the top of the wings as a reference to get flat both the top and bottom. I flatten the surface with a plane and then sanded to get everything right.