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Ben

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Posts posted by Ben

  3. First (serious) Build.

    in In Progress and Finished Work

    Posted

    Turned out awesome!

    The fretboard has a little more 'bling' than I would have gone for, but thats just personal preference, and the guitar still looks great in my opinion.

    6 or 7 string sax? :D

    Sidetracking is OK. It's the only moments we'll ever get to stop and smell the roses. Let me know what you decide on. By the way (now I'm really going to try and screw you up), just saw a one piece korina Explorer body blank on Ebay. Hee Hee....

    Cheers

    I forgot about the auction and went to a houseparty that evening- it ended up selling for something ike £175...

    Ah well. I ended up getting a bass, a saxophone and a few more effects pedals. cost a lot, but it should make a good christmas present to myself :D

    I guess I can live without another guitar anyway, I do have quite a few now... B)

    And I would normally be tempted by the korina, but I have nowhere near enough spare time for any building at the moment (nor do I have anywhere to do it). My next project wont be till next summer at the earliest.

    Hell, I've barely had time to check the forum recently.. although that should change by the end of the week (woo, Christmas Holidays!!)

  6. First (serious) Build.

    in In Progress and Finished Work

    Posted

    Very nice!

    Makes me want a V...

    Well... whatsha waitin' fer. Go get one! :D

    Hah, there's actually a cheap tokai one on eBay that I have my eye on. Provided the price stays low, I might even bid...

    The Korina? Yup, I hope it stays low for you. I'm assuming the korina, it's the cheaper of the 2 there. Unfortunately, my experience has been that these items have a tendancy to sky rocket in the last 30 seconds of the auction, or the seller has a shark in the water to boost the price. It's done constantly at estate auctions, so I don't see why it can't be done on Ebay. Anyhow, best of luck to you.

    Yup. I should be in when the auction finishes so if its still low and I do decide to bid (still not sure :D), I'll probably wait till the last minute and see if the price is still low (i.e. do a bit of 'bid sniping' myself B))

    I do anticipate the price increasing.

    The question is do I want another guitar, or do I want a bass (been meaning to buy one for ages) or a saxophone...

    Anyway, should probably stop sidetracking your thread :D

  14. Bookshelf Special

    in In Progress and Finished Work

    Posted

    Nice work!

    To post images like marksound did you can either copy the code underneath where it says "IMG Code - Forums & Bulletin Boards" on photobucket (the code should look like this: {IMG}http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/saxonmarsh/IMG_1056s.jpg{/IMG} but with [square brackets] instead of {curly ones})

    or you can copy the direct link to image URL, then click the insert image button next to the smiley face, above the box you type your reply in on the forum, then paste the link in there and the forum will add the %7Boption%7D tags for you.

    The first method is obviously the easiest for photobucket photos, but the second will work for photos from any source.

    Also the forum rules state that you may only post one picture per post, and the rest of the photos must either be thumbnails or links.

  15. Aeroplane Inspired Build

    in In Progress and Finished Work

    Posted · Edited by Ben

    The only thing I dont like much is the cutaway... it doesnt look to flow as nicely as it perhaps could. If it were me I'd just tweak it a little to make the curve a bit smoother. But if thats what you're going to stick with then it doesnt really matter, its just a minor point, it still looks pretty damn cool as it is!

    I'll definitely keep track of the progress on this one.

  25. Guitar Build

    in Solidbody Guitar and Bass Chat

    Posted

    I was not just thinking about the guitar build, we all know that 15-16 yr olds that put the effort in can really suprise us and produce great guitars. The issue is that the practical side of the course is most likely worth a lot less than the paperwork side, Building the guitar from scratch will be a hell of a lot to learn and do before march, but not only that you still have to write up the coursework - - - and i bet you have a hell of a lot more coursework to get done this year as well.

    I teach so i know what these courses are like, i guess its in the UK since you said year 11 rather than what grade you are in but could be wrong on that. If i am right, with uk courses you get very few marks on the practical side - most will come from the portfolio work

    My guess is the project will revolve around improving an existing design somehow to meet a customers needs - the best way to fulfill requirements like that is not to copy a strat or tele. It doesnt matter how well you do it you wont get marks for just copying an established design.

    my guess is you need to make changes to the design that you can argue are "improvements", the easiest way to fulfill these requirements is by adding some "ergonomic" shaping and reducing weight somehow. i have just had to talk a kid out of making a pine guitar because another teacher had told him how the weight loss would be a real design improvement, they probably would get really good marks for doing that but no point if it will sound cack

    you have to balance the need to make a good guitar with actually passing the course and the best way is to just make a new body design and use existing parts - if you do that well you will probably be marked higher than if you do a guitar from scratch that has some issues (like most peoples firsts do)

    +1

    I did GCSE design and technology, and what Wes says is probably good advice if thats what you are doing. The course seemed more about ticking boxes on the marksheet than it was actually about the quality of the product in some ways, which was annoying.

    Ergonomic improvements seemed to be a big thing when I did it and so did mass production. Its a while since I did the course but my teacher seemed keen on us all explaining how we would adapt our designs so they could be mass produced. For a guitar that should be easy... just talk about CNC machines, or maybe watch that godin factory tour video on youtube for ideas.

    It may not be impossible but it would be ambitious to do it completely from scratch if you are completely new to this. If you already have most of the knowledge of how a guitar works and some fairly decent woodworking skills then it may be worth a shot, but it will be time consuming, and you may have to put in some time outside lessons.

    I'd also suggest an oil finish, because a decent lacquer finish is hard and time consuming with spray cans.

    Whatever you do, I'd advise you buy "Make your own electric guitar" by Melvin Hiscock. Its a really useful book.

    And while it would probably be good advice for a beginner doing this as a hobby with limited tools, I'll have to disagree with the suggestion of ditching the arm carve and belly cut in this situation. Those are just the sort of ergonomic improvements that will earn you marks (make sure you mention them in the written work), and they shouldnt be too hard to do when you have a school workshop full of tools at your disposal.

    Good luck!

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