Hitone

I was inspired by thegarehanman to build my own case. I designed & built a few guitars that don't fit into a standard case. I actually scaled down my body size on my last build just so it would fit into a standard case. This has always bugged me since what we do doesn't have to be standard at all. In fact I enjoy it when it's not standard. I ramble! Here's my case and my new semi-hollow body. I'll try my best to descripe the materials I used. 1/4" Poplar boards (the cheap ones from Home Depot) I bought (2) 2 1/5 and (2) 1 1/2 boards Masonite for the top and bottom The outer black material was something I had bought from Joann fabric store. I think it's just plastic material. It looks like fake leather. The green was just some sales item that Joann had and I thought would work. since my guitar has a green head stock. The edge material was another fake leather material. I would have used something heavier duty if I would have bought it myself. I have several build pictures HERE and also on my BLOG I want to post images of the guitar when I get it finished. I still need to set it up to call it done.

Okay guys, I have a question about installing string ferrules. I bought a set from Stew Mac that have the flanged top. Does the flange sit flush with the body or does it sit on top? I have never done this and have already chipped my finish installing one of them. I was also going to try out the Stew Mac instructions. An thoughts?

Very Nice. I'm planning on building a jumbo for my next guitar. I have a million questions: Do you have any build pics? What scale did you use? Did you make the rosette? It's very nice! Great Job.

Thanks Frank. The satin finish I think will work best. I'll add a few more coats. I don't want the finish to easliy rub through. When I said "as much the body" I should have been more clear. As clear as the clear coat of nitro I'm adding to the body .

I am finishing my first Maple fretboard and I shot some lacquer on it. I'm wondering how much lacquer I should apply. Should I add a much as I do on the body or should I just lightly finish it? Need some help

My bad. Hughes yours is still a compression rod, but I do like the idea of the holders. Did you make a straight channel? Benedetto makes one similar.

Yes, the curve goes down and the rod needs to be free in its cavity. The fillet will be pushing rod into the curved position. The idea is that it's curved in the neck and when you tighten the nut the rod is straightening its self. Thus correcting any neck bow. That's the idea at least. I'll document the next one I do. Hughes - You have made a two-way compression truss rod. Do you have any pics? I like the compression rod, but it would save a step not routing the curved channel.

I make all my truss rods and it's even easier than example shown. Note that John's example is for a rear access nut only. You can't use that style for a headstock access. What you can use is a straight bar that is bent on one end and tapped on the other. Koch has an example of this in his book. Also stew mac sells it this way. Traditional Truss Rod Kit Compression Truss Rod 3/16th steel rod propane torch 10-32 die 10-32 nut I buy these 6 for 6 buck, cheaper than the local hardware store. You take the torch, heat up the end and put a bend or hook about 3/8" long on the end. Then thread the other end about 3/4". Add the nut and washer and you have a truss rod. Installation You have to make a curved truss rod channel channel. I take two boards and cut a curve, in both, that is 1/4" in the middle. Here's a shot of my set up. Make several passes to get a depth that is about 5/16" at each end. Drill a hole at the butt end for the hook to sit. Then route or carve your nut access on the headstock. You'll also need to make a convex fillet. That's the piece of wood that goes on top of the truss rod. It will be the same curve at the boards you used to get your curved channel route. I usually make this out of left over fretboard wood. Glue in the fillet and remove excess when dry. It really isn't hard and costs almost nothing.

Very nice work. I can't wait to see it finished. I wanted to ask about the laminate top and back. It looks like it went on pretty easliy. Did you have any issues with the curve? The Mahogany is cool. I had to use birch on my last guitar. It works well. People just look at me funny when I tell them it's birch. The HiTone Classic Does any know where we can get Mahogany laminate in the states? Or even Maple laminate?

Is anyone else dying to see a full-on shot of this guitar? You might have talked about this, but are you going to seal in the wiring? Nice work!!

I was the opposite. My first looks awesome, but is way to heavy, won't stay in tune and I think I was off on the scale. I just made sure that I paid more attention to those issues on my second guitar. It plays awesome and even made GOTM. I want to know if Myka still has his first guitar! It's sounded pretty interesting.

Really nice work. I noticed that on your blog you added the frets to the fretboard before you glued it to the rest of the body. I just did two fret jobs like this and I got a little bowing of the fretboard (my luthier book said this would happen). Yours looks really flat. Is there any trick. Do you always do your fret jobs like this? http://home.asparagine.net/ant/bloguploads/fretting.jpg

Very nice job! Love the color and the pearliod pickguard. Nice! How do you like that tremolo? I've been wanting to put one of those on a vintage guitar.

All I can say is thank you! THANK YOU!!!! I went out and bought the parts and in an hour I had me a fret bender! It works really well! Next up building the fret arbor!

I use a similar piece on my dremel, but I purchased the stewmac Piloted Binding Router Bit to use. I'll take a picture and post it. It works really well. Also, Benedeto has a simple technique. He uses a homemade guide on his router that has two bearings to set your distance. I'll scan the image and post it as well.

Here's another press from Northern. Has anyone tried to fret the fretboard before they attached it to the neck? I have a book on building acoustic guitars and that how they show it being done. This way you can press the frets with a bench vise. Comments!

I am personally very interested in crazy old guitar designs. Harmony, Teisco, Decca, Hagstrom, and Kingston are some of the brands I search for on eBay. I get off on the crazy details they use to add to guitars. Right now, I am working a semi-hollow body that I saw in an old picture. The influence can come from anywhere. It's our job to make it a reality. Hey PerryL when are we going to some finished picks of that guitar? It's a killer body. Holy Cow! This site has every odd guitar!

I am glad you put up this post I am working on a similar project. The Bill Side bender light worked really well for me. I ended up with a 300 watt lightbulb and an aluminum tube used for venting the clothes dryer. It worked! You can adjust the heat by moving the bulb closer or away from the tube. The same way you would do it with a torch. In Jim Williams book A guitar Maker's Manual he suggests using a copper tube. I might try that later. My issue is with the angle I'm trying to bend. I am making a semi-hollowbody with double cut-away horns. The horns are such a tight curve that it's breaking the wood trying to bend them. I'm placing the sides in a mold and clamping them. I think I'll make a couple of male molds to get a more defined horn. Anyone know any tricks?

Thanks for the great comments. I don't want to geek out, but it's so awesome we have a forum like this, filled with all you guys (and gals?). skibum5545 I am a huge Bigsby fan. I intentionally wanted to build a straight forward guitar. I had issues with my first guitar going out of tune. While I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Bigsby. I wanted this guitar to be free of all the issues I had the first time. Now I'm ready to put then on! Godin SD I bought the pickups from Custom Shop Parts. They sell a bunch of stuff on eBay. The pickups sound great. jay5 I used a router to cut a stair step for the arch. Then I went and carved it smooth with a spoke knife and a barrel sander mounted to a drill. I'm hoping to get a drill press or even a router copier for my next ventures. WWW You have an eagle eye. I had a slight angle misalignment between the neck and bridge. I compensated with notching a new set of bridge saddles. A tip I took from Dale Erlewine. It plays really well and most people don't notice when they are looking at it. idch Thanks for tagline. I am working on a more original design. I usually look to cheap old for inspiration. I think the next one will have more of that. Kyle Cavanaugh Thanks for the comments on the site. I hope to someday to be a real company. As for the name. I said it before, I'm still working on it, but if it gets you thinking I might just leave it. Hitone - pronounced Hi tone, not hit one You wouldn't say ram ones! You would say Ramones. Or Silvert one! It's Silvertone. But you can just call me Rob!

Hey Guys, I just caught your posting. I have posted some images in the In Progress and Finished work You can also see more picks at Hitoneguitars.com Thanks for the great comments!

Fatboy, this is projectguitar. Projectguitar, this is Fatboy. Let me tell you a little something about Fatboy. He's fat for a reason. He is entirely handmade. I even handmade the truss rod. Bent the metal and tapped the nut! The top and bottom archtops were hand carved. The center section consists of a mono-frame made from ash. An ivory binding was added to the body, neck and headstock and the guitar was finished with a translucent orange. The last image is the tag that went inside the guitar. SPECIFICATIONS Semi-hollow body archtop Top and Back - 2 piece Poplar Sides and Center - mono-frame ash Neck - 3 piece maple Fingerboard - Rosewood Truss Rod - Handmade steel truss rod + 2 carbon fiber rods Scale length - 24.5 scale Number of frets - 21 Tuning machines - Grover Tuners Bridge - Tune-o-matic Pickups - Chrome "Open Face" Custom Humbuckers Finish - Polyurethane Color - Trans Tint Orange Inlay - MOP neck and Headstock Logo

I finally finished my second guitar. Color & Finish I messed up the orange the first time. So, I had to sand it down and find another way to finish it. I found a spray from Mohawk call Block-IT Toner that came in orange and translucent orange. I used the Translucent orange till the can ran out. When I purchased the second can the color wasn't the same! I took it back and had to go with the regular Orange, which came out better than the translucent. Pickguard Not wanting to spend a lot on my pickguard, I cut a piece of plexiglass out. I was going to make the hardware, but it was pretty cheap to purchase it. I did add a frosted glitter vinyl to the back. The kind they use at sign companies. It was free from my father-in-law. I've set it up and have been playing on it a lot. It sounds pretty good. Especially through my buddies Fender Bassman! I have some video I hope to have on my site soon. fatboy_img_01 fatboy_img_02 fatboy_img_03 Check out www.hitoneguitars.com I'm a graphic designer so I might have gone a little overboard on the site. Do you think the thongs a bit much?

I am looking at doing a semihollow body and I was wondering if anyone has ever made one that the neck is through-the-body? I seems odd to have to make a center section, make a neck and then either set the neck or bolt it on. Couldn't it all be one thing? I've never seen this, but maybe this isn't such a wild idea. Anyone know of anybody doing this? Anyone know of a reason why it would or wouldn't work? Anyone object to this union, please speak now or forever hold your peas!

Thanks for all the feedback. I've taken a lot of notes. Rick, I did the Reranch (Transtints) Alcohol Based Dye. The dry power that I mixed with Denatured Alcohol. It looks like my downfall was in sealing the wood first. A costly mistake! I tested the dye on some scrap raw ash. Check it out HERE. It's the looks good but... ...when I saw Guitarfrenzy's pics, I reconsidered my approach. I used Tone sprays on my Mosrite and it came out awesome. I have stripped my guitar down and am ready to refinished it. I went to my local hardware store and lucked out when the Mohawk rep. was stocking the shelves. He showed me the Orange transparent toner that they sale. I tested it out and it's the way I'm going. I will post picks on how it turns out soon.

I am having some major issues and I need some friendy advise. I am trying to use Orange Aniline Dye (from Reranch) on my guitar and it's not turning out well at all. I'm trying to get that Gretsch orange look. What I did • I sanded the guitar to 330 grit • Taped off the binding • Wood Filled • Shot a light laquer coat (instead of sanding sealer, advise from Martin Koch's book) • Mixed the orange/let it sit over night/strained it • Added a small amount of shellac (like the instructions said) • Sprayed the dye on the body What happened • The spray went on way to dark. I was trying to get it even. • Splotchy! There were spots of wood that wouldn't take the dye. • It was very uneven after dring overnight. What I did Next • I used a rag with denatured alcohol on it and tried to remove most of the dye. • I did a little sanding and used sanding sealer • After it dried I reapplied some stain. • It looks better, but still a little uneven • The hardwoods (Ash sides and Maple neck) still have areas that the dye wouldn't take. My issue now is that the dye is not even and there are still areas that won't take the dye. I'm not so concerned with the color being darker, I just want it even. Has this happen to anyone else? Should I sand it down and try again? Can I try to add laquer and spray it again? Thanks for any advice.