J_48_Johnson

He wanted the body chambered so I made a template for the chambers, cut it out and then started working on the body. I used a 1" forstner bit to take away most of the material in the chambers, then the router to clean everything up. I didn't get a picture of the last route I made which was the second half of the wiring route. Once it was ready, I put glue down, put the maple cap on the mahogany, and clamped it up for the day.

Once we had the design down, I started getting the wood and materials together.

I've started a build for my nephew. He has played all four that I've made so far and wanted to ask me about making him a guitar. Little did he know that my sister and I had already talked about me making him one for a Christmas present. After talking to him for a week or two, with him thinking I was just gathering information on a wish list so to speak, I talked my sister into telling him that I was going to build it for him as a gift. This way, I wouldn't get half way through the build and have him change his mind. He was excited to say the least. The body style he picked out was a Reverend Guitars Sensei. We talked about everything and he wanted the headstock changed. He gave me pictures of headstocks he liked and it was a PRS style. It goes with the body style so it was fine with me. I started out with a small picture from the website and went from there. I made my body template from the little drawing. As for the headstock, I did pretty much the same thing. I changed the design a bit and it looks pretty good.

I'll step up to the plate and be the first for July. I just got this one done. I don't have a name, so let's go with Lois. Body: Hondouran mahogany capped with black walnut Neck: Flamed maple with blackwalnut stringers 24.75" scale Fretboard: Ebony Abalone front and side dots red LED side dots vintage bone nut Finish: Tru-oil for neck and body Misc.: Planet Waves locking tuners solid string through bridge S.D. Vintage Staggered SSL-1 pick-ups one volume, one tone, 5-way mega switch

I did quite a bit of work yesterday, but for some reason only one picture came out. I got the neck pretty well finished, the holes for the pots. and switch are drilled, the bridge is done, string through back retainers are in.

Carved out the neck today. I used the trusty old spoke shave. I rough sanded it in as well, down to 400 and it turned out pretty nice I have to admit!

Today I sanded that mess down and bend some fretwire in my handy dandy $4.00 bender

Since I am going to front mount the pickups without a pickguard, cutting/routing the neck pocket and moving everything down is not an option. The neck pocket will be where it is. I did shorten up the pocket a bit but I did it so my short fingers could get to the upper register. I was going to lay the walnut back inside the lower horn like a PRS, but once I cut the arm relief, I didn't do the route at the lower horn. Pauliemc, what you said has me scared now. I hope that everything works out here... Stay tuned.

I worked on the neck today. I got it out of the clamps and flush cut the fretboard to the neck, sanded a 12" radius into the fretboard, and installed the front abalone dots. For what it's worth... Ebony dust is NASTY. I don't know the toxology (sp) of it, but it is nasty. There really isn't a smell to it, if there is it's slight, but the dust itself, even just sanding with 150 grit is fine and it plugs up your nose. I need to take my mask over when I work on it more. Sanding to 12" radius Abalone dots installed and black epoxy put in the holes and on the dots

Man! You guys are good! I'm not using a standard Fender scale length. Wow, all of that from the picture. Nice guys, I'm impressed! I'm using a Gibson scale length. And as far as the pickup placement, check this out... http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/ You have to mess around with it for a while but it is WAY handy! You guys will love me for posting that I'm telling you. (I hope I'm the first to post it but I've never seen it here). As far as the knot/crack below the bridge area, I snapped a picture from two diferent directions to show you what I meant about the knots being tight and no problem...

..."That looks like a knot and a crack towards the bottom off the bridge pickup. What is it?" It's just the grain and the angle of how the picture was taken. There are two very small tight knots there, but they are not a problem at all, and there are no cracks. *** Pukko, thank you very much for running the picture through photoshop. Of the three, I like the first one the best, but I think I'll leave it alone because it looks better than all of the "burst" options you've posted.

I've been working on my fourth guitar and I have a question for you all. Here's a picture of the body I made, but the arm contour where the mahogany shows up, I'm not sure if I like it or not. Take a look...

When I made my neck-thru, I got my angle with a spokeshave, scrapers, and sand paper. I drilled holes in the body "wings" and in the neck and glued everything up using dowels as the alignment pins. Once it was dried I used the hand tools to cut away the remaining wood. As you can see I built the angle in before I glued it up. I used one dowel at the back at the very end of the guitar body, and used a dowel at the top up by the fretboard. Then I cut away the unwanted wood. The results were very good.

What I was thinking of doing until Vinny posted that was to mount the pickups from behind leaving nothing on the front at all. Would it look a bit odd to have nothing between the neck and bridge? Maybe, but not as bad as the picture above. That looks all mechanical, not organic at all. Like the body wood is there just to support the electronics. Not my cup O tea.

Those are crazy! (I thought some of my ideas were off the wall).

That site is crazy Vinnie. Thank you for posting that. If you follow the link at the bottom of the page; Response Effects of Guitar Pickup Position and Width And from there go to the patent; US Patent: 3,911,777 You'll see that Gibson is years ahead of me. Oct. 4, 1975 is when they applied for the patent to do what I was looking to do. Oh well. An intersting thought though... A Fender Stratocaster pickups are (neck) 6.375, (mid.) 3.875, (bridge) 1.625 from the bridge. The bridge pickup distance is averaged or to the center with a 25.5 scale length. By using the page you gave me with the application and comb filter, and using a 24.75 scale length, (what I'm using), my distances came up at (n) 6.321, (m) 3.841, (B)1.19. How I came up with it is by using the application on the page you have provided, changing the frequency of each string, and choosing each pickup. Moved the pickup up and down the body until it landed on or closest to the higher points along the line staying away from the "comb points". Once each string was done with each pickup I crunched the numbers and found the "sweet spot" for each pickup in its own location. Since the magnetic field of a single coil pickup is 1", (humbuckers are 2.5"), the numbers I came up with don't have to be exact, but closer the better.

Vinnie! You da man! That is what I was trying to figure out all along. Where along the points of interests are the best places to install pickups. I'll mess with that some more and figure out where to mount.... from the front! Thank you so much for that. BTW... Where did you find that?

After a layoff from building I've just started building my next guitar. I'm now at a crossroad and want your opinions on an idea. About a year ago I started thinking about pickup placement and the sound the different positions could give you. I'm not talking about neck, middle, bridge, what I am talking about is the location of the neck, the location of the middle, and the location of the bridge pickups. If you could move each pickup around in its location to find the sweet spot or best position or whatever you want to call it, would it be worth the time and trouble? My idea is pretty simple; back route a swimming pool, and instead of loading the pickups from the front as on a strat., load them from the back. The cover they would be loaded onto would have grooves instead of holes to mount them in. Once the guitar was finished with tuning, intonation, the whole thing, you could loosen the mounting screws just enough to slide the pickup, (lets work with the neck position first), and play it until you found the best spot for that pickup in that guitar. Once you found that spot, lock it down with the mounting screws and move to the pickup in the middle, then to the bridge pickup. Once they are all right where you want them, mark then transfer their locations onto the real cover, drill the holes and then mount it in the guitar. *Positive You could insure that the guitar would sound its very best by being able to lock in the best tones with everything together on the guitar. Three pickups would not be in your way while strumming/playing. *Negative Since the pickups would be behind the wood on the front of the guitar, they would be further from the string and adjustment as to the height would be limited. By cutting, (routing), the wood very thin on the front under the strings but above the pickups, you could get them very close to the "normal" height position. It may look odd. An electric guitar with no pickups showing from under the strings. From the end of the neck to the bridge there would be just wood and strings, nothing more. What do all of you think? Is it a feasable idea? Is it worth the time and trouble? Do you think the placement would make that big of a difference? I guess worst case scenario would be if I try it, and it works out well, but the pickups still sound weak, once I had them locked into thier respective locations, I could route through the front and move them up through the wood into position under the strings. It would be more work, and the idea of having a guitar with no pickups showing is kind of interesting. So is the idea of being able to move the pickups around until I find the perfect location for each.

How did I miss this thread?!? You came up with some of the sickest ideas I've ever seen on a guitar. Congrats are in order. Also, the clear topped diamond plate case is a great idea! Now if you can find something to etch the diamond plate case to match the radioactive waste mess on the neck....

I'll agree on the truss rod cover, and already have plans to thin it down as it would look better, but the pictures don't do the pick guard justice. I went back and looked at the picture but it really doesn't show it very well. The pick guard is tapered from the bottom edge to the top edge that's against the pick up rings. You can see it a little, but the pick up rings are about a 1/4" tall, and the pick guard is thinner than they are tall at that side. It turned out very well. Good eye picking up the thick truss rod cover though.

My newest creation doesn't have a name yet so I'll just get down to the specs. and let you decide on the name. Planet waves tuners Dr .11 strings Stew. Mac. Hot Rod dual truss rod roller stud mounted bridge (from Stew. Mac.) Bigsby B-7 vibrato Dunlop Strap-lok's Gibson Classic '57 pick ups Gibson 500k pots. Switchcraft 3-way and jack standard Les Paul wiring Hoveland Musicaps vintage bone nut ebony fretboard abalone inlays and side markers flamed maple thru-neck construction flamed maple hollow body wings Fender Vintage Cream color coat (ReRanch) white primer (ReRanch) Deft nitrocellulose lacquer clear coat over color coat Tru-oil for back of body and neck rare earth magnets for holding covers on back cream binding for covers hand made flamed maple truss rod cover, pick-up rings, and pick guard Of the three guitars I've made so far, this is the first neck construction I've done. I don't think I'll buy a neck again. It gives you the freedom to do what you want. I made the body end of the ebony fretboard into an open book design as is found on the top of the headstock on Les Pauls. I also used a gold trimmed garnet as the 12th. fret side dot marker instead of a double dot.

All right, the final pictures are in! I got the nut slotted, sanded, and lubed, fretwork done, intonation, tuning, truss rod set, and the pick-ups adjusted, (more on that in a minute). It is as quiet as a church mouse when plugged in, playes very well, and sounds smooth with the Gibson Classic '57's and the electronics I put in. The sound is fat and round especially when in the middle position with a bell like ringing harmonic. Beautiful indeed. What I liked about building my own neck was the freedom to do what I wanted. The open book design at the body end of the fretboard, and the gold trimmed garnet as the 12th. fret side marker were just a couple. Choosing the wood I wanted for the neck and fretbaord, using the truss rod I wanted, the style and design of the neck profile and nut width are a few more. I need to be able to adjust the pickups so they are away from the strings more. The springs that come with the pick ups are long, too long (I thought), so I cut about 1/3 of the off. WRONG! Now the pick up tension is too loose and it lets the pick up become sloppy in the ring and it sometimes hits the strings. I got onto Stewart MacDonalds web site last night and ordered springs the same length as mine were before I cut them. After I get them, I'll tear it apart and put them in. As most of you know this was my first neck build. Although it came out very well, she's a little chunky. It is going to take some getting used to going from an Ibanez Wizard II neck profile to a Louisville Slugger neck profile. In the bottom of the ninth with two men out and one man on, I'll take this Les Paul log every time! 8) 8) 8)