Scratch build 2 - Hollow body
- Thread starter Danuda
- Start date
DangerousR6
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Duuuuuuude, you are like Michelangelo with a router...
Danuda said:
No kidding, I have knocked out a few bodies now and its really not that hard, but getting a neck to look good is another story. I am gonna try it, but it will be a mix of the plan and a few of my own elements, I don't like the gibson style joint.
Neck pockets are scary:
Well I finally got around to it. There was no more putting it off. I routed the neck pocket. The last guitars I built were neck-through so I never have done it before. I was really nervous because if you mess up all your work on the body is ruined.
First up was making a template. I used a scrap piece of wood and drew a center line down the joined edge. Then I traced the neck out and used my jigsaw to rough the opening. After that I took three scrap pieces of acrylic and using double sided tape I taped them down snug around the neck heel and then pulled the neck out. That left me with this.
Then I just ran my router with a trim bit. I had to sand the heel of the guitar neck as I had it squared on the corners and my routing bit obviously won’t do square corners.
Now it was time to set up my janky jig. I saw lots of pretty ones online, but I don’t have stuff for pretty so I did mine up all jimmy rigged. I took a scrap piece of 1 ¾” thick maple and put another scrap that had one joined edge on top and screwed them together (I cut a curve for router access first on the ½” piece). The body and this piece were lined up on a table and clamped down.
Then I put my template on top square with the bottom piece and put a space at the bridge of the correct height. I used the pickup cavities as screw hole spots.
Routing was scary, but it turned out pretty good. Except for this…
It looks worse than it is. The binding snagged on the router and pulled off. All I needed to do was glue it back on.
While I had the guitar near my drill press I quick drilled out the humbucker routes.
Now the moment of truth. Test fitting the neck pocket.
Pretty good I think. It isn’t super tight, i.e, I can’t lift the guitar up by the joint without any screws. I read somewhere that the best joints are like that. Kind of like my Warmoth one. Oh well, not bad for a first try. It isn’t loose and doesn’t wiggle around so that has to be worth something.
After the stress of doing that I wanted to do something easy so I shaped the back of the headstock.
I like the triangle part. It is exaggerated but I like it.
Next I drilled holes for the Schaller Roller bridge. I did it on a test piece first and then used my drill press and did it on the body.
If you look at the picture you can see why you should always measure twice. The line on the bass side that goes up not down is the first “measure”. I wasn’t paying attention and instead of dropping the bass side back I brought it forward. That would have been bad.
Next up was getting ready to finish the neck. First some grain fill.
I used Timbermate this time. It works a lot better than anything else I have ever used.
I am doing the guitar in Tru Oil for the first time ever. I have always done lacquer in the past, but with a baby in the house and it freezing outside the fumes were a no no. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be happy with it, but I really am.
First coat. You can see how it already is bringing out the birdseye.
These two are after four coats so far.
While I was waiting for all of those Tru Oil coats I finished the pickup routes and also the rest of the control routes and the hole for the jack.
I don’t have pictures, but I sanded the whole body down to 320 then did grain filler and sanded down again.
Here is the body after one coat of Tru Oil. I really like how the walnut darkened out and the maple went to a golden color.
It is amazing how much you get done when you have the day off for Christmas break. At this point I am on the home stretch. The only woodwork left to do is to redo the tailpiece in ebony. After that I am just attaching hardware and wiring her up. I was going to use Roadhouse pickups, but the guy has not responded to my 2nd email going over what I am looking for. ??? I will probably just pick up some Seymour Duncan’s since I am pretty familiar with that brand if I don't hear anything back.
Well I finally got around to it. There was no more putting it off. I routed the neck pocket. The last guitars I built were neck-through so I never have done it before. I was really nervous because if you mess up all your work on the body is ruined.
First up was making a template. I used a scrap piece of wood and drew a center line down the joined edge. Then I traced the neck out and used my jigsaw to rough the opening. After that I took three scrap pieces of acrylic and using double sided tape I taped them down snug around the neck heel and then pulled the neck out. That left me with this.
Then I just ran my router with a trim bit. I had to sand the heel of the guitar neck as I had it squared on the corners and my routing bit obviously won’t do square corners.
Now it was time to set up my janky jig. I saw lots of pretty ones online, but I don’t have stuff for pretty so I did mine up all jimmy rigged. I took a scrap piece of 1 ¾” thick maple and put another scrap that had one joined edge on top and screwed them together (I cut a curve for router access first on the ½” piece). The body and this piece were lined up on a table and clamped down.
Then I put my template on top square with the bottom piece and put a space at the bridge of the correct height. I used the pickup cavities as screw hole spots.
Routing was scary, but it turned out pretty good. Except for this…
It looks worse than it is. The binding snagged on the router and pulled off. All I needed to do was glue it back on.
While I had the guitar near my drill press I quick drilled out the humbucker routes.
Now the moment of truth. Test fitting the neck pocket.
Pretty good I think. It isn’t super tight, i.e, I can’t lift the guitar up by the joint without any screws. I read somewhere that the best joints are like that. Kind of like my Warmoth one. Oh well, not bad for a first try. It isn’t loose and doesn’t wiggle around so that has to be worth something.
After the stress of doing that I wanted to do something easy so I shaped the back of the headstock.
I like the triangle part. It is exaggerated but I like it.
Next I drilled holes for the Schaller Roller bridge. I did it on a test piece first and then used my drill press and did it on the body.
If you look at the picture you can see why you should always measure twice. The line on the bass side that goes up not down is the first “measure”. I wasn’t paying attention and instead of dropping the bass side back I brought it forward. That would have been bad.
Next up was getting ready to finish the neck. First some grain fill.
I used Timbermate this time. It works a lot better than anything else I have ever used.
I am doing the guitar in Tru Oil for the first time ever. I have always done lacquer in the past, but with a baby in the house and it freezing outside the fumes were a no no. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be happy with it, but I really am.
First coat. You can see how it already is bringing out the birdseye.
These two are after four coats so far.
While I was waiting for all of those Tru Oil coats I finished the pickup routes and also the rest of the control routes and the hole for the jack.
I don’t have pictures, but I sanded the whole body down to 320 then did grain filler and sanded down again.
Here is the body after one coat of Tru Oil. I really like how the walnut darkened out and the maple went to a golden color.
It is amazing how much you get done when you have the day off for Christmas break. At this point I am on the home stretch. The only woodwork left to do is to redo the tailpiece in ebony. After that I am just attaching hardware and wiring her up. I was going to use Roadhouse pickups, but the guy has not responded to my 2nd email going over what I am looking for. ??? I will probably just pick up some Seymour Duncan’s since I am pretty familiar with that brand if I don't hear anything back.
bagman67
Epic Member
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Danuda, you're an inspiration. Watching you and a few of the other guys (Hi, Line6man!) put this stuff together has really got me itching to try some stuff out. Picked up a freakish bookmatched quilt maple guitar top set at Woodcraft recently for when I get the nerve to really go for it.
This looks seriously awesome. Great job with the neck pocket! That is exactly how I do my pockets, although I am not entirely sure how I will do it for a strat heel.
Really though it looks beautiful, I have recently really fallen in love with walnut so I love it. It looks huge though! :laughing7:
Can't wait to see it strung up.
Really though it looks beautiful, I have recently really fallen in love with walnut so I love it. It looks huge though! :laughing7:
Can't wait to see it strung up.
Bagman67 said:
Sometimes all it takes is a little inspiration. I got into it from seeing a post from Orpheo about Crimson Guitars. I saw his build logs and couldn't stop reading them. After a while I was looking at what he was doing and thought, hey I could probably do that.
Also, I love Woodcraft. It is dangerous to enter that store now though
Nando Vallart
Epic Member
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- 8,256
It's looking really well build! Congrats!
A little further along:
After waiting for the finish to dry for a few days (It isn’t completely hardened yet) I buffed the body with 0000 steel wool (synthetic). Normally you should wait to buff the body, but I am going for a more satin finish so doing it early doesn’t really matter. After that it was time to put in the tuners. The tuners have these push fittings and I kept thinking of ways to put them in. I saw some people used drill presses, but with the diamond cut on the back that would be tricky. Then I thought of my little clamp. Why not just clamp it in?
It went in really easy. I can’t think of anything being easier than this. No hammering, no lining things up and clamping things down on a drill press. Easy Shmeasy.
Next up was getting to work on the tailpiece. I mentioned that I did not like the maple and walnut one I did. The ebony I ordered showed up so I got to work. I used my handy dandy jig saw and cut the rough shape. Then I used my drill press to drill holes for the strings.
I arched them so they follow the curve of the bridge. I just put the bridge up against the wood and marked the holes from that.
Then I used my router and a drill press to make the access holes for the back of the strinsg as well as a depression of the hardware to connect the tailpiece.
I was a little sloppy here. I knew you would never see it really and I didn’t feel like building a template for it to make it all pretty. It isn’t bad, just not professional. I am sure this is one of those things that will bother me later
After that I used some of the same ebony to make an ebony base for the TOM bridge. I wanted the guitar to look kind of like an archtop and they all have floating bridges on ebony. Well mine isn’t completely floating. If you look at the pictures from the prior update you can see two holes for the bridge. The bridge piece is slightly thinner than the press fittings. When you set it on the top of the guitar they actually drop into the guitar about 1/8”. I am hoping that will keep it from sliding around so I won’t have to glue or pin it. I used the same template to route the holes for the press fittings as I did the top of the guitar.
Here is all is ready to go. The piece of wood at the bottom is to keep the bottom from tearing out in the drill press.
And done. Now I put the press fittings in. I used the same clamp as last time, but I had a small problem.
Ebony is really hard. I mean reaaaaaallly hard. The holes that I drilled were just a smidge to tight and since ebony doesn’t really displace like say maple or walnut I got a crack. Noooooo! Not too big a deal though. I just glued and clamped. Problem solved.
Now for some pictures.
Here you can see the bridge sitting in its holes and the tailpiece on. It looks like it sticks out really far from the back, but that is because there will be another piece of ebony over the top of the back. I could only find the hinge I wanted in brass and everything else is chrome or nickel and it didn’t match. I am actually going to make a strap lock kind of. The strap will go against the brass with the ebony piece over it. Should be pretty cool I think. I may get lazy in the short term and build that part later. Also, you can see the rounded over tailpiece. Sanding ebony makes a mess. You should where a mask, the dust gets everywhere. I didn’t…oops.
Top view. I really like it. The ebony tailpiece is definitely better than the maple one.
Side view. I started some fretwork but I don’t have pictures up of that yet. I am not doing any glue in this time. Ebony is so hard, I just don’t see the point. Plus it is less of a mess and easier clean up.
I was able to get a hold of Ken from Roadhouse Pickups. Super nice guy. We talked about what I was looking for and he said he can have some pickups out to me in a few weeks. I am really excited. I was hoping he would be able to do them for me. I saw that he had moved his shop so I was a little worried about him being backlogged. Guess I’m lucky
After waiting for the finish to dry for a few days (It isn’t completely hardened yet) I buffed the body with 0000 steel wool (synthetic). Normally you should wait to buff the body, but I am going for a more satin finish so doing it early doesn’t really matter. After that it was time to put in the tuners. The tuners have these push fittings and I kept thinking of ways to put them in. I saw some people used drill presses, but with the diamond cut on the back that would be tricky. Then I thought of my little clamp. Why not just clamp it in?
It went in really easy. I can’t think of anything being easier than this. No hammering, no lining things up and clamping things down on a drill press. Easy Shmeasy.
Next up was getting to work on the tailpiece. I mentioned that I did not like the maple and walnut one I did. The ebony I ordered showed up so I got to work. I used my handy dandy jig saw and cut the rough shape. Then I used my drill press to drill holes for the strings.
I arched them so they follow the curve of the bridge. I just put the bridge up against the wood and marked the holes from that.
Then I used my router and a drill press to make the access holes for the back of the strinsg as well as a depression of the hardware to connect the tailpiece.
I was a little sloppy here. I knew you would never see it really and I didn’t feel like building a template for it to make it all pretty. It isn’t bad, just not professional. I am sure this is one of those things that will bother me later
After that I used some of the same ebony to make an ebony base for the TOM bridge. I wanted the guitar to look kind of like an archtop and they all have floating bridges on ebony. Well mine isn’t completely floating. If you look at the pictures from the prior update you can see two holes for the bridge. The bridge piece is slightly thinner than the press fittings. When you set it on the top of the guitar they actually drop into the guitar about 1/8”. I am hoping that will keep it from sliding around so I won’t have to glue or pin it. I used the same template to route the holes for the press fittings as I did the top of the guitar.
Here is all is ready to go. The piece of wood at the bottom is to keep the bottom from tearing out in the drill press.
And done. Now I put the press fittings in. I used the same clamp as last time, but I had a small problem.
Ebony is really hard. I mean reaaaaaallly hard. The holes that I drilled were just a smidge to tight and since ebony doesn’t really displace like say maple or walnut I got a crack. Noooooo! Not too big a deal though. I just glued and clamped. Problem solved.
Now for some pictures.
Here you can see the bridge sitting in its holes and the tailpiece on. It looks like it sticks out really far from the back, but that is because there will be another piece of ebony over the top of the back. I could only find the hinge I wanted in brass and everything else is chrome or nickel and it didn’t match. I am actually going to make a strap lock kind of. The strap will go against the brass with the ebony piece over it. Should be pretty cool I think. I may get lazy in the short term and build that part later. Also, you can see the rounded over tailpiece. Sanding ebony makes a mess. You should where a mask, the dust gets everywhere. I didn’t…oops.
Top view. I really like it. The ebony tailpiece is definitely better than the maple one.
Side view. I started some fretwork but I don’t have pictures up of that yet. I am not doing any glue in this time. Ebony is so hard, I just don’t see the point. Plus it is less of a mess and easier clean up.
I was able to get a hold of Ken from Roadhouse Pickups. Super nice guy. We talked about what I was looking for and he said he can have some pickups out to me in a few weeks. I am really excited. I was hoping he would be able to do them for me. I saw that he had moved his shop so I was a little worried about him being backlogged. Guess I’m lucky
DangerousR6
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All I can say is WOW.... 
DustyCat
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Did anyone say "sinister?" :icon_thumright:
Maybe the next version could have "flaming "f" holes :headbang:
(Like still an "f" but slightly "on fire"). (And with a "lazy" flame like the one I saw at a campfire in the rain one time at a festival...like the water was feeding the fire, or like the fire was a cat or dog that the water from the rain stroked)
Maybe the next version could have "flaming "f" holes :headbang:
(Like still an "f" but slightly "on fire"). (And with a "lazy" flame like the one I saw at a campfire in the rain one time at a festival...like the water was feeding the fire, or like the fire was a cat or dog that the water from the rain stroked)
