Andronico

Simply fantastic work Blackdog ! Your first guitar was beautiful but this one will be better !

Are you transplanting an existing GT2 or building one from scratch ?? Is the schematic available ??

No, I built a GT2 close using the Tonepad information a year ago and works great. Here is the link :

http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=22

Is not an easy project but sound really good. I have to build another board to put inside the guitar.

I thought it was almost as secret as Cristina's plastic surgeon name...

AMAZING job for a first time !!! I find it really hard to believe this is your first metal working job !!!

Looks like an interesting design, I toyed with the idea of "getting" (it was not "building" at the time) a travel guitar some years back, when I travelled a lot for a week or two at a time to Bariloche, but never crystallized.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Saludos.

Thanks Blackdog ! (your name is one of my favorite songs...)

Bariloche, what a beautiful city ! Did you have to travel to that paradise a week or two frecuently ? I envy you !

Hey Blackdog, you have the skills to make a beautiful travel guitar, perhaps you need a little push to begin...

man, that step-by-step of the headpiece is amazing! nice photos!

i never worked with metal, only bought the hardware... maybe someday I'll try to make, it's really interesting.

and it looks really nice to me, but I don't understand much of metal working...

and about the carnival, well, I was here, but I don't like the party too much. I spent the holyday with my girl, and It's enough to me

waiting for the next steps!

If you are a beginner with metal like me, you need a lot of patience, make things slowly and taking measurement step by step. But it´s

Regarding the carnival, my wife said me (when she was my girlfriend) : you can see (the other girls) but not touch !

Can you not pop into it with a centrepunch or even with a nail and hammer?

Yes, I tried with a centrepunch but I haven´t the right tools to fix the brass bar under my drill. The pegs are 15mm long so when I start the hole centered in one extreme, it´s not centered in the other one...

My friend will make the pegs (with his lathe) next saturday morning.

Slow progress if anyone's interested.

Cavities and 1/2 inch round over routed. Finished the scroll, I cut it down quite a lot, but im pleased with the overall shape.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb154/T.../Woodcolour.jpg

Heres an idea of what the pickguard will look like.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb154/T...terh/pencil.jpg

I like the shape ! About the pickguard, I can´t see well if it´s one pickguard for all the pickups or a pickguard in two parts.

Wow, awesome! The headpiece looks good to me - nice work for a first time! Are you having a "guiding nut" behind the zero fret?

Thank you for your comments Prostheta !

Yes, I have to do a small groove in the beginning of the headpiece to accommodate a Fender style nut. Tomorrow morning I´ll buy the nut, take measurements and finish the headpiece (polishing, etc, before chromium plate).

Today, I was talking with a friend that has a small lathe in order to make the tuner pegs. Because is impossible to make a centered hole in a brass bar with my drill press.

Reporting more progress :

I was working on the headpiece. I used a piece of brass, my drill, metal saw, and files to try to make it.

This was my first time making metal parts, please be gentle...

Step by step pics :

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece01.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece02.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece03.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece04.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece05.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece06.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece07.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece08.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece09.jpg

More ¨almost finished pics¨ :

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece10.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...Headpiece11.jpg

I´ll use allen screws to attach the strings. Now I have to begin with the tuners...

After two months of illness I´ve finally got som work done.

I hope you are well now.

The neck is really beautiful.

Ok, finished the coverplate for the headstock (spare sanding and polishing) and also drilled for, and mounted, the tuners.

How the dot's turned out

Beautiful headstock ! Are the dots half on the fingerboard and half on neck ?

Really fantastic man ! (as ussual)

Or you could do something similar to the way Atomic Amps does their thang... make a standard-sized "housing" and then you can substitute whichever effects unit you want. Could be Pod, V-Amp, Gt2, whatever.

Great idea ! Perhaps the next build.

Hi,

Nice sanding station.

They don't sell sanding drums in The Netherlands so I might copy your idea.

Cheers, Peppie

Your welcome, if you have questions, please ask.

Che muy buen trabajo, pero que lejos te fuiste para comprar caoba! a menos que el finlandes ese viva en Argentina! jejeje

Hola vecino ! No, la caoba la compre a 2 km de mi casa, el amigo Finlandés me pasó las medidas tomadas de su propia guitarra. Realmente fueron una ayuda invaluable.

Saludos.

Hermosa guitarra, hermano !

Beautiful guitar, brother !

I like so much !

That's an awesome robosander, chabón.

In Argentina is difficult to get a router, that's the principal tool that we need. Then you need also a lot of things, like rulers that they are freaking expensive also. And a ton of more stuff.

Saludos!

Hi PTU´s, thank you for your kind words. About the router I bought a Skil one at Easy 6 months ago. About usd $ 100.00, and 12 payments with credit card.

I have to put the GT2 stuff in the following way :

The left part of the cavity will be used for the GT2 board, battery and front switches. The right part for the GT2 controls, front pots and output jack.

The right part have to be recessed Of course. The idea is fix the cover using small neo magnets.

You can see that the cover can´t be straight. What material you suggest to use for the cover : metal, plastic, wood, other ?

Any idea is welcome friends.

I still can't see how the tuners are supposed to mount?

Any possibility of placing the tuners there as a mock-up and taking the picture?

Sorry Aidlook I can´t take a picture as a mock-up because I´ll be begining with the tuners during weekeng (I hope). To clarify a draw a very simple sketch using Paint. Hope that helps.

You have to think about the tuners like a tremblock (as Mickguard did) but fixed.

Thanks for your interest.

Simply beautiful !

Yesterday I was working in the recessed cavity for the tuners, the GT2´s compartment and the front holes for switches and pots :

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...itar/Body11.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...itar/Body10.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a...itar/Body13.jpg

My problem is the GT2´s cover. I can´t be flat because the most part of it covers the board and battery but the other part (nearest the end of the body) must cover switches (2 toggle ones) and pots(4) that will be recessed !

I can decide if make a wood cover or a simpler plastic one. I don´t know, time to think...

i actually have the bridge system from a riverhead bass up in my workshop, might be time to break it out and do a bass version

Great !

If you need measurements, remember that Hande is a very friendly guy and he has an Unicorn bass too.

there is a newer version with a less pointy headstock and none of the cool retro vibe from the bridge and pickups like the originals. also has a cutaway which ruins the shape completely, almost shortens and fattens it.. but it is practical

i very nearly shelled out for a bass version of the old design in 1996 because it was the cheapest thing in the local shop but i think i splashed out on a teisco instead

anyway, always been rather fond of the design and its good to see one being built that promises to be a little more practical whilst still retaining the sleekness of the design... i like it!!

Wez, do you know which were the first to appear ? The Riverhead Unicorn or the Flyte ? Only to know...

hi julian... very these photos!

I saw you used that metal pieces to screw the neck (I don't know the name, here in brasil we call "bucha"). it's very goos, when you're making the guitar you have to set the neck many times to check millions of things, and put it off all the time (mainly if you are unexperienced).

I was afraid of overscrewing (this word exists?) my tele neck. i was advised to use one of these pieces, if there was any problem... but there was no problem =]

have you decided the finishing you'll make?

I hope you're thinking in let the wood appear, because that jacarand strip is so beautiful...

well, buen trabajo a ti amigo

(y perdona si no escribo bien ni el ingles ni el espanol...)

I prefer screws for metal and not for wood because my Gibson S1 uses them and think that are more reliable, specially for an unexperienced guy like me. And choose allen ones because they are very easy to obtain near my home and looks good too.

About the finish you are right, I prefer to see the wood.

Don´t worry about your english or spanish. My english is near to poor and my portuguese don´t exist !

Are you during carnival period ? How are the garotas ?

Nice pics, but I hope you don't have mounting ring problems on the neck pickup, with it being so close to the edge of the body shape.

No problem, the idea is to install the pickups without rings. This is one of the things that I change from the original design.

A little more progress to show :

I decided to put metal inserts to use screws for metal instead of wood :

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a.../NeckScrews.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a.../BodyNeck03.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/a.../BodyNeck01.jpg

Now I have to do the GT2´s compartment, the recessed for the tuner pegs, etc, etc...