Retrosonix

Wishing i had made the neck block bigger but i’ ll make it work, probably.

Started the neck. 24” inch scale. The sycamore is quartersawn and lovely and dry. Working on bracing for the back.

Thank you for the positive feedback, here is another soundclip. Plucked and bowed this time. The scalloped frets really do aid vibrato.

On 9/2/2022 at 7:06 PM, nakedzen said:

That sounds amazing. Bravo.

Thank you nakedzen.

it took some time getting the intonation right and making it ‘feel’ right but i am pretty happy with it, the original strings were chrome flats 56-13 or something like that. Like telegraph wires, i put some 10-48 flats on and it is soooooo much easier to play and the tone didnt suffer.

i loved it so much i made a 6 string version. The neck angle is quite a bit less acute and the fretboard is radiused to 65mm and it does feel more guitary to play. I will post some more  sound clips of both soon.

one photo seems to want to be upside down for some reason that i cant fathom.

41 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Sounds just like a cello indeed!

I guess the deep scalloping helps create the typical vibration violin players do with their fingertips.

I wonder how silent that is acoustically - or rather, does it create structure-borne sounds?

All in all, yet another reason for me not to participate the GOTM...

Thnak you. Acoustically it has reasonabl volume but quite thin, plugging it in gets a nice deeper body sound, ijust have to get my head around  playing it! 

here is a sound clip - just a pinch of reverb. i am NOT a string / cello player! never ever used a bow before - except for hunting! 

Test fitted the neck, it needs some fettling to get the angle just right but it shouldnt be a problem. Neck / fretboard is roasted sycamore. I am going  to scallop the frets just a little bit.

Context!

The complete guitar is a short scale guitar i made for holiday, that inspired this build. i havent started The neck on the bowed guitar yet. 

Started building this after i built a little 4 string short scale guitar to take on holiday. Its going to have 4 strings and be bowed, reading up on cello fingerboard radius at the mo, may be a challenge! Wood is poplar and cedar, it will have roated sycamore neck and board.

Looks good, sounds good, a bit moretweaking and it will play good (i hope!)

New name for this guitar : retrosonix firecaster.

Test fit,  i like it. There are some things that bug me, skewiff logo / trem back cavity is a bit too deep / i should have  made the tuner spacing a tad wider and few other things but i wont let them get me down! The next one will correct these little niggles.

Better pic

Level sanded and first polish, it turned out ok considering it was breezy when the laquercoats were going on and i got a streak or two on the front but they sanded out nicely.

Body is painted and laquered but not level sanded yet. Neck is pretty much done apart from a little more oil

I did see a post where someone was asking how to get rid of the grain / pores in poplar, i use 400 grit paper to apply shellac, it does the trick.

Two coats of primer, now the boring waiting for paint to dry bit.

Lovely sunshine today, i got to use my custom spray booth - primer time! Not sure why i cant upload the image the right way up though.

23 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Ooh! That Zig-Zag effect with the figuration and frets just blew my mind!

It looks even madder now that the frets are in, if the weather is ok tomorrow i can get the neck shaped

On 4/7/2022 at 2:06 PM, avengers63 said:

I'm really digging the headstock. It was a clever idea to use the V router bit to make the channels in the body. They should really pop once it's painted.

Thanks, the headstock has evolved over about 3 different builds, i  like the channels too, they add a nice definiton to the shape.

the fret slots are cut so i will be fretting tomorrow

Managed to get the pup cavities routed and a bit of shaping done.