radrobgray

I've been itching to build a multiscale and I've never personally owned a 7 or 8 string. I decided to give them a go in one build. Some of the details are, as of yet, undecided. So far I have:

27.5"-25.5" multiscale
29 frets, Dunlop 6100
Seven Strings, I'll probably do the ABM single string bridges
Instrumental Pickups, some sort of custom set
Alder or African Mahogany Body
Curly Maple and Black Walnut Neck
Indian Rosewood or Birdseye Maple Board
Painted in some sort of Dayglo color. I have the neon green, red, or yellow.

First things first. I drew my full size plan. I also drew an additional 6 string plan that is not pictured. The "straight fret" is the 9th fret. The body is an offset dinky.

My apprentice and I picked up some quartered hard maple, flat sawn curly maple, african mahogany, and alder. Ran it though the thickness planer, ripped it on the table saw and got ready for some glue ups.

For the neck I ended up doing a seven piece laminate alternating curly maple and walnut. I rotated the maple to orient the grain to quarter sawn after I ripped it. Glue shot:

While the neck blank was drying I hand planed three alder body blanks and glued those up as well. Purchased that No.5 Stanley on eBay for $25. As far as I can tell that plane was made around 1910?

After all that jazz I ran the neck blank through the thickness planer. I have to make some big decisions. Birdseye or Rosewood board?

Later this week I'll build the compound angle scarf jig, the table saw slotting jig for the fretboard, and maybe get to my body template squared away. I'm still on the fence about the body material and if I want to order a figured top and do a burst instead of a neon color. Thanks for looking.

@Prostheta the body had some crazy cracks because I used some scraps. I filled said cracks with bondo. Then I did 3 coats sanding sealer, sanded p220. 3 coats primer , sanded p600. 2 coats base. 1 dust and 3 heavy full coats of clear and let it cure for 4 days.

It was hard foam blocked from p1000-p2000, then buffed with some meguires.

@Prostheta I am very impressed with how quick and how nicely the 2k worked out. I've actually had the system for a few years and never tried it because i was unsure about the skill level required. I am for sure going to make that my primary finish type. This time around I used a mask worth the proper carts,  but that's for sure not a long term solution. I need to upgrade to a air fed mask. 

@KnightroExpress and @djobson101 I'm so stoked to have a new guitar. I haven't built or gotten a new one in a few years. I have 3-4 projects that are ready for fretwork and paint that I'm going to buckle down and complete. 

Thanks for checking it out! 

Complete. I went with all black hardware. Did final setup and intonation today. The trem is hard to the body and the saddles are shimmer to a 16" radius. One of these days I'll post a video with nice audio. The pickups are custom wound by my buddy Ethan at Instrumental Pickups. 

I've been away for a few years building my business at the repair shop and getting caught up in life (house, wife, band). I'm finally to a point where I can get back to building! 

I haven't had a new guitar in a few years so this build is for me. It originally was to be a evh frankenstrat style build. As much as I like Eddie, with that paint job, I wouldn't have played it out. Here's the run down on specifications and the pictures so far:

25.5" scale, maple neck, 10-16" compound radius, with Dunlop 6100 frets and a two way rod. The body is alder and is routed for a bridge hum, volume control, and a non-recessed OFR.

I've been using nitro since I started building. This one is my first shot at 2k automotive finish. I'm done spraying and I can't kelp but think about why it took me so long to switch! Prepare your eyes for the blazing color! 

The neck is carved to an asymmetrical profile .825" at the 1st fret  and .925" at the 15th.

Did my feet work.  Pre radius the wire, hammered them in, and filed the ends. I did a full level, crown, and polish. The neck is finished with tung oil and wax. I'll snag sme picks of the completed neck tomorrow.

Full shot before the fretwork or paint. 

Here it is prepped, primed, base coated, and cleared. I used the PPG Omni paint line. Omni has a 2k high build primer, acrylic base, and 2k high solids clear. It was quite cold so I kept the paint and guitar inside before spraying. I also used fast hardener. The color code is PPG 2128. If you're into muscle cars it'll probably look really familiar  It'll have the bwb pickguard and all black hardware.

Tomorrow I'll cut, buff, and hopefully assemble. 

Thanks for looking. I could go either way with painted or oiled in terms of feel, but, I wore through the paint on the neck on that first build. I can really feel the trandition from paint to bare wood so I opted for oil on this one. It is tru oil and I put enough for a film finish, easier to touch up.

I will look through my camera, I'm positive I have progress pictures somewheres.

Alright so I haven't posted since '08. But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I got my start on this forum for my very first build back in '06, was inspired enough to persue further education through Roberto-Venn and now am doing repair and custom builds full time. It's basically come full circle as I finally had some extra $$$ and time to build essentially the updated version of the first guitar I built. This community is a great place to be a part of thanks to those who helped me get started.

So my very first build was:

• Nitro finish
• Alder body
• Soft Maple 3 piece neck
• Rosewood fingerboard
• 25.5" scale length
• 24 frets
• Stewmac 2-way trussrod
• Mystery tuning machines
• Original Floyd Rose
• 2x Bill Lawrence USA XL500 pickups

The new gutiar is essentially the same idea but using the best materials and parts. This culminated in the RIP Custom Guitars KV. There are more pictures on my web site: http://www.ripcustomguitars.com/instrument/kv

• Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finish
• Alder Body
• Maple Neck-Thru
• Oiled Neck
• 2-Way Truss Rod with Graphite Neck Reinforcement
• Asymmetrical Neck Profile
• 1 5/8” Nut Width
• 25 1/2“ Scale Length
• Ebony Fingerboard, Bound in Ebony and Red Veneer
• 27 Frets, Dunlop 6100 Jumbo Fretwire
• Locking Nut
• Gotoh 510 Tuning Machines
• Original Floyd Rose Tremolo System
• Custom Instrumental Pickups Set (he is on facebook and instagram @instrumentalpickups)
• 2 Volume and 3-way Switch
• Recessed Dunlop Straplocks

Reminds me of Rocko's Modern Life, LOVE that cartoon. I think if you use the same colors as his shirt (blue and purple) it would be even cooler.

WOW! reaaaalllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cooooooool! I do have a question aout the rhoades: How do you do the beveled edges, I can't find a book to show me and I'm doing an rr very much like that one.

i just drew 2 lines for the bevels and took a rasp and file to it, custom hand job!

Thanks a ton guys, means a lot. Tomorrow is graduation day, then I'm outa' here!

BTW the Tele and Exploder are for sale, gotta pay for school somehow right?

It was actually another entry i was referring to, the pink guitar from a single post count member... but do as you like.

While you have the spotlight (and i just checked your profile), lets look at the facts... 3500ish posts over five years from me, versus 40 posts from you in 12 months (and ive hardly posted in the last 18 months). The members know who helps out, and who doesnt. You are clearly using this forum for promotion more than i am. You cant deny that, and to be honest I couldnt care less. But, i didnt refer to you, you chose to withdraw your entry. No one asked you to. Especially me.

PS, might pay to use the quote tags correctly mate.

Don't be so quick to go on a witch hunt, I referred him here, so essentially its my fault if your going to point the finger. He's a friend, I saw his guitar and thought to myself "that would be a cool GOTM entry". If there were progress pics I'm pretty sure he would've started a thread. I'm gonna go out on a limb assume that the definition of "Pro" is a person that makes and sells guitars for a career. Although thats the goal (for many of us) he has not sold a guitar, thus (under the assumption of the definition of "pro") would not include him.

wow, that tele is awesome. a kahler, and an x2n, and scalloped, i'm in love.

its pretty different, i like it a lot. that x2n is a sick pup i love it! Troy sent some pics to kahler hopefully ill get to be in one of their news letters.

have you seen the D-Activator X? it looks like an X2N, with slightly lower output, and even has a lower output neck pickup version, i'm probably going to be replacing the dual x2n's in my 6 with the d-activators, see how i like them.

blasphemy! lower output i want more, MORE, MORE!!!! jk.. they might be a nice different flavor, i like that they make a specified neck pup tho.

Man, that's the most bitchin' Tele I've seen in a while. I didn't know it was going to turn out like THAT!

And an interesting TOM you picked for the ExploRer I've only seen those on Ibanez's. Where'd you grab that from?

The X2N is a good choice. The guitarist in the "band that I sang for that never got off the ground" replaced his stock Ibanez's with an X2N and a Tone Zone. He's a big Michael Romeo fan, as you can tell.

How do you like the Kahler? I'm going to put a hybrid on my next build, methinks. I want a trem guitar, and I DON'T want a Floyd.

I almost painted the tele Neon Green to appease the need for a racer xish guitar*spandex not required*. But, I didn't because someone pointed out that it had a very Jason Becker (peavy) vibe. It's just a schaller roller TOM/Gotoh Stop tail, they sell em at Stew Mac, nothing fancy. As for the Kahler its a sweet trem for, sure just different than a Floyd, I like them both. but out of familiarity I would still probably go with Floyd. We'll see as I'm really digging the tele it may convert me!

wow, that tele is awesome. a kahler, and an x2n, and scalloped, i'm in love.

its pretty different, i like it a lot. that x2n is a sick pup i love it! Troy sent some pics to kahler hopefully ill get to be in one of their news letters.

More progress, I finished the exploder. I also finished scalloping the the "tele" neck and assembled it. I still need to put my logo on the headstock.

The tele is finished with satin wipe on poly, neck and body. x2n in the bridge, vol/mini 3-way, random lipstick in the neck, gotoh minis, kahler pro.

Scallops

Exploder 1

Exploder 2

more/all pics @ Distorted_Frequency

any ideas what you'll be doing after RV? going back to utah? working for a manufacturer? any of that?

I'm going back to Utah, we had a reasonably big following for my band and I don't want to leave that. Hopefully I'll get a job at a shop doing repairs while building my reputation as a custom electric builder. I figure there are plenty of musicians/bands in SLC so I could someday do builds full time. i already have 3 more builds lined up back home so that'll keep me busy for a few months while I find a job.

although, i am really thinking about going to MI to get a AA-guitar. i have a friend who's there right now and hes having a good time.

looks like kris is still sporting the VW pickup

i actually talked to kris 2 weeks ago i think. i graduated spring 06. still not building yet though but i did 4 guitars while i was there as well, though i didn't do amp class. awesome to see someone doing so much building, when i went there were some who did 3 and 4, but not many, and it looks like subsequent classes didn't have as many do even a 3rd... if i had the money, i honestly would have done a 5th. i did do A LOT of repair work though to keep my busy, way more than was required, including a full rebuild of an Ibanez RG7421.

that explorer looks sick. and how do you like the neck through? i found it to be the easiest kind to build, my 2 neck through builds went WAY faster than the acoustic or the set neck build i did.

i also scalloped my V, i dunno if anyones given you any suggestions on setting the depth of your scallop, but i used the dremel router setup to do a strip down the middle of each fret, then used rat tail files and sandpaper wrapped around dowels to get final shaping done, did the final shaping after i fretted it.

yeah there are only a few that are actually building dedicated 3rds(not just finishing the tele form the tool seminar). if i had the cash id build my self a pair of neckthru king vees; one neon green w/ black bevels and one red w/ black bevels.

thats the 3rd neckthru i've built and i will agree they are quick and easy to build. that one only took me 5 days to build and get into paint, on Monday ill be putting the final coats on and hanging it up to cure.

how deep did you scallop? i was thinking 3/32 for mine, but, I have only played one scallop(fender YJM) before and its was brief.

Dude, awesome stuff, Rob! Let's see, where to start?

Exploder:

-Seems like everyone's building one these days. And also spelling them differently hahaha

-But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing either; I really dig the top!

-Reminds me of Hetfield's wood EXP a bit. I dig.

-Let me know how the Dunc's pickups sound.

-I've been really scratching my head lately, wondering why a lot of people are switching from EMG to Dunc.

Alexi RR:

-I almost pooped my pants. I really wish my V came out that well.

-And you almost made me want to go back home and recarve my neck joint, if there was wood enough left to do so. Nice carving!

-I might have just gone all the way and got an 81TW for total coil tapping. But that's just me.

Tele:

-I really am not feeling the Tele. Then again, I never dig teles to begin with.

-I do like the sharper lower horn and the bevel you'll put on it, though. I just wish that "racy" attitude were carried over to the rest of the build

Acoustic:

-I don't know what to say about the acoustic. They're not my field of expertise.

Amp:

-RV has an amp building class??? I need to fly me out there and build me an AC30!

PRS:

-I am so damn glad you didn't build a friggin' PRS like everyone else nowadays

So does RV have all the templates and everything to shape up the bodies with? Because all of those body shapes look dead on! And do you get discounts on materials, if you do their class and then buy some stuff in bulk? I've heard of a lot of people taking that class, but I've never got around to checking out the details of it.

Very sweet, man. Very sweet. You're building a veritable arsenal!

::EDIT::

If I come off like I'm rambling a bit, it's because I'm running on two hours of sleep and have been writing final papers for the past 4 days

RR, is going to have a 81TW so they will both be splitable.

They have an amp class but i did not take it. i ordered an amp from else ware and did it to keep busy on weekends. the amp class they have is a slightly modified 8x84 Hi-octane kit.

As for the body shapes i made all of them my self, the only templates they have are tradish shapes. The RR is slightly bigger, but not as big as the ESP ones. I built that RR in 5 days minus paint. The EXP is similar to a ESP lawsuit explorer from back in the day. Yes they give you some pretty decent prices on stuff.

you went to roberto?

wow 35 bucks. i wish i could find any kind of bubinga for guitars. i cant ever find any.

I'm still there (here?) i graduate in 2 months.

those look great! i especially love that rr v. its always been my favorite shape. where did you get that bubinga for that top?

Reuter...at roberto-venn, $35 top that is there.

i am currently enrolled at Roberto-venn spring 08. heres some of my builds:

Exploder specs:

Mahogany body

Mahogany neck (.850"-.950" neck carve), PRS style neck joint

Ebony head cap and fretboard, pearl inlay

1/4" Bubinga top

24 5/8 scale

24, Dunlop 6100 frets

Schaller bridge, Gotoh stop tail, all black hardware

Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaine set

Finishing up buffing this one out, then level crown and polish. done. ill post more pics after the weekend.

EXP, Before paint

EXP, Full

RR specs:

Mahogany wings

Maple neck thru,

Ebony head cap and fretboard, pearl inlay

25.5" scale

24, Dunlop 6100 frets

OFR, Gotoh tuners

EMG 81b/89n, Pa-2 boost

Black with yellow bevels

Flatsanding and final coats needed on this one. will get a full pic when clear is all done.

RR, Front

RR, back

RR, headstock

RR, Front Painted

RR, back painted

Tele specs:

Alder body

Maple neck, bolt on

Birds eye maple board

25.5" scale

22 scalloped, 6100 dunlop frets

Khaler 2300, Gotoh tuners

Possibly a Green Dimarzio X2N

need to finish carving, fret and scallop neck. then pick a color for the body.

T, Full shot

Acoustic specs:

Indian Rosewood back and sides

Mahogany neck

Sitka Spruce top

Ceder reversed kerfage

mossman back strip

ebony fret board and head cap

Walnut binding/wedge w/ maple purf

shaller tuners

Flatsand and finish clear, design bridge and what not.

A, Box

A, Wedge and mitres

A, Top Bracing

A, Back braces

A, Inside kerfed/side strips

Amp that is unrelated to RV:

2ch fender style clean, marshall crunch

2x6v6 power tubes

4x12ax7

fx loop

Oversized 112 lopo cab with V30

will be sitting in with amp class to build a head shell for it soon.

Amp, Guts

Amp, full w/ sick green cab

g'devening to all. remember more pics to come, comments welcome,

rob

i ordered one today and i just realized its going to have a 220/240v PT. I don't have it yet but when I get it can I just substitute the 220v/240v with a 120v PT with out a ton of trouble? Do they usually have the same specs short of the input voltage? i assume the fuse values will be different. I haven't received the schematics yet so i cant say whether or not the PT has 120V taps.

i have some electronics experience, but not a ton, I've built a few pedals, etched some pcbs, and can read Schematics. This will be my first amp kit build any tips for stuff i should read up on, especially safety.

heres the site Madamp its on the right side.

thanks for the help,

Rob

heres a pic of it with the wings attached and roughed.

soon i will carve the arm contour and then put on the 1/8" brazillian cherry top. after that i can then attach the bm flamemaple drop top.

Can you tell me exacly how you bent the top? You wrote that you used water and heat, how exaclty? How glued it on the body, did you use only clamps?

Thank you ;-)

P.S.: very nice work, I like it!

i used a spray bottle with distilled water and a cloths iron to heat it. while it was hot i bent it to shape (took about 1.5 hrs) and then i clamped it with NO glue. left it for a few days, unclamped, added glue and reclamped with a board on top to more evenly distribute the pressure. i used about 25 clamps, it was a pain and i probably wont try that again until i get a vacuum bag system.

BTW, i shortened the end of the fretboard and routed the pup cavities. i will probably fix the miss drilled tuning peg hole and rout the electronics cavity tomorrow. i also decided on just having a H-X-S pup config. then i'm on to fretting, final prep and paint!

I didn't ignore anything - I learned a lot from this thread thanks to you, guys.

Now I know what is best to do in future, but at present, I really don't have the time and patience to go through all this handwork again.

Six months of waiting really discouraged me and I am in a childish hurry to finish everything up and to start scoring on chicks by showing off my new hand-built guitar.

To be honest, I was 80% sure that i will be forced to use epoxy anyway because I knew from the very beginning that I don't have the time to learn how to do any precise squaring handwork.

But, as I stated above, I do like to ask for people's opinion, no matter what the situation is and take under consideration any possibility that may appear.

For example - in the other thread there were plenty of good advices on how to do the squaring by hand. But after all I brought the blank to a carpenter because I knew that this would be the best thing to do in my present situation from the very beginning. This didn't stop me from asking and learning new things that I will be using in future.

And thanks Satan (or whoever), I learned a lesson from this experience: Find a couple of weeks of free time and learn to use your hand tools and NEVER trust beer drinking lowlifes to do your job.

you say in your present situation you dont have time to learn to use a hand plane. if you dont have time for that how do you have time to build a guitar? if you going to build a guitar do it right. do it right the first time and it'll be alot quicker and more satifying then building nothing more than a few bits of random wood glued together. if you dont have the patence to learn to use the tools why have the patence to build something that may or may not play decent. as far as im concerned you have no place around guitars or asking for advice that you dont listen to.

Why did I use this scum's services?

Easy - because he's the only one in town.

I live in the middle of nowhere and, believe me, my guitarbuilding life is much harder that you can ever imagine.

All I have is will and passion.

The rest is troublesome stuff like driving for miles just to be able to buy a good rasp.

if you have so much "passion", why cant you learn to use the tools properly and take the time to really build something properly? i have no sympathy for someone that turns a cold shoulder to good advice with excuses like "at present, I really don't have the time and patience to go through all this handwork again." it's not like all these people are blowing smoke out their @$$3$. if its that hard for you and you arent going to be proactive about your situation (i.e. learning to use the tools properly, finding a way to get proper materials, being patient) then DONT build simple as that.

on the other hand if you'd listen to peoples advice there would be a much friendlier attitude twards you and your posts. i honestly would love to see you build a successful guitar, but if you refuse to do it right why bother?

in response to Fryovanni, its mind boggling to me as to how someone could blatantly turn a cold shoulder to great advice like that.

Or do both like the Suhr Badger. make a head and make a cab, then make a combo. then you could just put the chassi in watever one you want.

i know what preamp distortion sounds like. whats power amp distorion sound like? i would assume something similar to AC/DC or no?