I'm building a new guitar

muttley600 said:
:thumbs up:

What did you finish the neck with?
Click to expand...
It's tru-oil on the whole guitar. I'm stuck on this organic thing lately. The first coat on the neck I'll thin by 50% and get better penetration on the fingerboard to harden the surface. Applying the finish is still the most difficult part of construction for me. It seems it should be the easiest.

Your work is good enough for a decal on the headstock... Own up to it man..;)
Click to expand...
Thanks Man, that means a lot coming from the Maestro. I bought a kit to make waterslide decals a few years ago, but always felt it was a little pretentious. I've yet to build one to vend, but should I decide to, I've had the offer to sell on consignment in a local shop that's rather renown. I've sold pickups there in the past. I just don't feel I'm ready to make that step. My stuff is pretty simple, and doesn't look all that remarkable in the context of a fine guitar store. In the meantime though I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

Chili said:
That's awesome right there!! :)
Click to expand...
Thanks! I think it's awesome that so many people have visited this thread to see what I'm building in my garage.

3 of these are from the last year.
 
The bass, and the telething are both done except for a little touch-up. I'm real happy with the way they came out.









 
Not Again:facepalm:

Here's the one that I'm working on now. It'll be maple over magogany with a sapele neck and cumara fingerboard. It'll have cream covered P-90's, with cream binding, and dots.Gold speed knobs. Grover Roto's, and an adjustable wrap tail bridge. 24 5/8 scale with 22 medium frets.


 
JCH said:
Ya think? lol

I did a little last night. It's out of the clamps and cleaned up. I planed it down to 1 3/4" on the sled, and here's a bench shot with all of the parts and pieces.
Click to expand...

What do you use to plane it with? The pic shows what looks to be a router. (???)
 
Chili said:
What do you use to plane it with? The pic shows what looks to be a router. (???)
Click to expand...
I use the router in a "router sled" jig that was inspired by muttley. They're pretty easy to rig up, and invaluable for some operations.
 
Not an original idea I'm afraid. I got the jump on it from an old antiques restorer I shared workshop space with 20 years ago. He used it to rip the guts out of warped table tops. Essentially many old table tops would warp beyond purgatory putting them back and he would remove the lipping, slice the top off on a big resaw and rout out the centre and put ply in them and glue it back. Astonishingly when he was done you'd never know. He need a way to remove precise amounts of timber quickly and used a big sled. It still amazes me that there are 16th century tables out there with 20th century ply in them...:o
 
As a matter of interest can you post what you intend to wind the p90'with? Specifically the bridge. I have some generic info but would be interested as the LP build;d I'm doing is also p90 and I'm putting that CC recipe on the bridge and want a go to point for the bridge. I'm dithering.
 
JCH said:
I use the router in a "router sled" jig that was inspired by muttley. They're pretty easy to rig up, and invaluable for some operations.
Click to expand...

muttley600 said:
Not an original idea I'm afraid. I got the jump on it from an old antiques restorer
Click to expand...

And that's not a lot of work for the router bit?? Heat build up? How do you gauge router speed, cut depth, etc. Can you use it to contour the body??

I love the concept and I have a router. I have been looking around for a planer, but there is nothing wide enough to accommodate a guitar body without spending a fortune. This might work for me. I can build a sled easily enough. :)

My next project I want to build the body myself and I want it to be really thin. :D
 
Chili said:
And that's not a lot of work for the router bit?? Heat build up? How do you gauge router speed, cut depth, etc. Can you use it to contour the body??

I love the concept and I have a router. I have been looking around for a planer, but there is nothing wide enough to accommodate a guitar body without spending a fortune. This might work for me. I can build a sled easily enough. :)

My next project I want to build the body myself and I want it to be really thin. :D
Click to expand...

You have two options. Get stock close to what you want and plane by hand. Build a router sled and use that. Either is a good way to go.

You don't need to work about the router bit getting hot. Just let me know what you are cutting and what bit you have and I'll set you going with the speed. Assuming you have an adjustable speed router. If not just take rip stuff off til you get to within about a mm and then take the last bit off a whisker at a time and keep the router moving past the cut and don't let it stop in one place. Most times routers will burn when it stands in one place with a dull cutter.

I think I posted some shots of the sled itself a while back. If not I'm sure one of us can post some up to get you started.
 
muttley600 said:
As a matter of interest can you post what you intend to wind the p90'with? Specifically the bridge. I have some generic info but would be interested as the LP build;d I'm doing is also p90 and I'm putting that CC recipe on the bridge and want a go to point for the bridge. I'm dithering.
Click to expand...
This guitar is for my Daughter's Gentleman Friend, He's a pro recording engineer. He loves my Junior, and the tone from it, so the bridge pickup will be the same as that one. I'll use AlNiCo 5 magnets fully charged, and 10,350 turns of single build 42AWG poly coated wire. Hand wound with medium scatter. It's a slight overwind. In my Junior, It's a LOUD pickup with really good picking dynamics. For the neck I'll experiment some with the magnets. I'm going to start with a baseline of 10,000 turns, and AlNiCo 2's.

Chili said:
And that's not a lot of work for the router bit?? Heat build up? How do you gauge router speed, cut depth, etc. Can you use it to contour the body??

I love the concept and I have a router. I have been looking around for a planer, but there is nothing wide enough to accommodate a guitar body without spending a fortune. This might work for me. I can build a sled easily enough. :)

My next project I want to build the body myself and I want it to be really thin. :D
Click to expand...
It sounds to me like the router sled is exactly what you need. The concept is simple. It works like a gantry that allows you to move your router on a X and Y axis while keeping a constant depth. I built mine out of scrap material. It will accommodate a work piece that's 14" X 24". I added something on mine that I hadn't seen on others. I made the supports adjustable. This allows me to adjust the jig, and also mill on a taper if I wish. It comes in quite handy. It's not necessary, but worked out well for me. I use heavy double faced tape to hold the work pieces in place. I did a google search on router sled planer, and found hundreds of examples. I also saw links to plans https://www.google.com/search?q=gantry+framework&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS430US430&espv=210&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ycnSUs32JdL7oASbkIH4Cw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=1016#es_sm=122&espv=210&q=router+sled+planer&tbm=isch
Here's a picture of mine that shows most of it.
 
I made some progress today. The binding and the fingerboard are done. To pre-shape the plastic binding I tape it tightly to my template then heat it. After it cools the tape comes off clean, and the binding is formed perfectly.

I'll carve a slight bevel around the edge of the top.

The top is nearly done, and the dot inlays are installed.
 
The neck is almost done. Today I leveled the fingerboard, installed the frets, cut out the head stock, and did the neck profile.

 
I like that router sled. Does the router move freely? I see that the platform it is on rests on wood so I was wondering if you do anything to keep the friction of wood on wood from catching.

I really like building things and working with wood. Just that no matter how hard I try not to I always have at least one measurement that is off somehow. Someday I would like to try to build a guitar body. Just finished building a toybox (larger than I envisioned!) for my granddaughter. Of course the measurement of one side was about 1/8th inch off from the other! Pissed me off, but it worked anyways.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top