Junior64

Other oddities:

Those were done a while back. I'm always looking for something interesting to build.

Thanks. That's my indoor bench where all the finish work & wiring happens; all the dirty stuff happens out in the garage: I would encourage anyone to try building a Danelectro style guitar; they're remarkably simple to build. I used a router for the neck pocket and rounding over the edges; the rest was all done with a jigsaw, a sanding drum in my drill press, and some files & Forstner bits. I glued the body together using a cutting board and cat litter for weight: The most difficult part for me was locating the cutouts for the lipstick pickups; that's a little tricky. Otherwise, easy peasy.

I had posted this build on a couple other forums before I found this site, so I thought I'd share it here. I found an NOS Japanese tremolo on reverb, a really simple top-mount piece, and wondered what kind of guitar it might look good on. The simplest guitar I could think of was a Danelectro, so I did some research on their history and came up with a plan. I built it similar to the way they were built, in this case 1/8" masonite front & back over two layers of a 3/4" plywood perimeter with a central spine, painted with 'hammered copper' paint and a textured vinyl band to cover the edges like they did. And I moved the switch to the top horn like an LP; I like that location better. NOS Japanese whammy from the 60's: Full size sketches: Edges cut & sanded to shape: Plywood halves cut out: Masonite rough cut to shape: Determining pickups location: All glued up & edges rounded over: 'Tone Ninja' roasted maple neck; I shaped it to be similar to and old Silvertone shape: Setting up all dimensions: Paints: Body primed & painted: Vinyl edge banding applied: Done:

Thanks, and yes, this is the second version. Here are both builds over at squier-talk.com: https://www.squier-talk.com/threads/astrocaster-2.184955/

Thanks to all who voted for my AstroCaster as Guitar of the Month. It's very rewarding to know that you enjoy my idea. I thought I'd follow up with some of the build photos to show how it was made:

I'm a new member, and not totally familiar with this site, so please bear with me. I'd like to enter my guitar in the February GOTM contest, so I'm giving it a try here. I'm an amateur designer/builder, starting with hand-drawn sketches and using the most basic of tools. All my finishing is done with an LVLP gun and a small compressor under my covered patio. This is a guitar I designed & built called the 'AstroCaster'. The body design is based on two opposing, stylized guitar picks, with a nod to a classic acoustic shape. Here are the details: • body is Spanish Cedar • neck is a WD Music PHNTM maple neck, 25.5" scale, finished in amber-tinted nitro • Gotoh GTC 101 bridge • vintage-style staggered height tuners • Lollar P90 pickups • CTS pots • Orange Drop cap • Switchcraft jack • 3-way rotary switch • Dupli-Color "Sublime" pearl nitro paint I hope you enjoy it.