Travel Electric (Warmoth)

[Steve St.Laurent]

Started this over in the general discussion area but now that I'm actually building I thought I'd move it over here (here's the original thread: http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=21442.0 ).  I've spent a couple years working out different designs in my head to be able to build a nice compact travel guitar that is still full sized as far as the actually playing (the scale length and the body size top to bottom).  Also want to be able to use quality Warmoth components because I'm now spoiled rotten with my Warmoth and am unwilling to compromise.  After going through at least 7 different design ideas I settled on the one I'm building here - I was asking for input on it in the first post on here.

Right now I'm assembling a prototype to prove out the concept on a cheap $100 SX Furrian guitar that I'm going to put back to the stock hardware and give away when I'm done with it (it'll have a few extra holes).  So this first post will show the 3d design that I did to mock up the spacing, etc.  Also a rough photoshop of the guitar as I plan to build it.  The photoshop isn't the actual woods or finish that I plan to use and I haven't finalized the headstock design yet.  The gray image in the background is a full sized telecaster for reference.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

So I've made a good bit of progress on the prototype.  I have an extremely rare auto immune disorder that I came down with in December that severely limits how much work I can do.  after 4 months I'm only just now able to do anything physical and I can only work for about 15-30 minutes at a time and even at that only a couple times a weekend - so progress may be kinda slow on this.

This weekend I finished up the body portion and I have the TOM bridge mounted and the tuners mounted in the body.  Only thing left at this point is drilling and mounting the ferrules in the headstock and then assembling it back together.  I won't be cutting this body or neck down at all - it's just to prove out that the hardware will work the way I expect it to.  Here's some progress pics.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

and here's the rest of tonights pictures.  I'm pretty exhausted tonight after doing this today so I'm not sure I'll feel up to anything but sleep tomorrow but I'm really hoping to get the neck done tomorrow.  Then I can order the body blank and neck from Warmoth  arty07:

 

[DangerousR6]

Pretty cool idea, I like it... :icon_thumright:

 

[Updown]

Nice work and interesting project  :icon_thumright:

Is the body still a full size  ? or a smaller version of. 

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Nice work and interesting project  :icon_thumright:

Is the body still a full size  ? or a smaller version of.

Look at the second picture in the first post.  The gray image in the background is a full sized telecaster.  The body will be the same thickness and height as a full sized body but the length will be cut down.  That way it will still feel exactly the same as a full sized guitar when it's resting on my leg.  The only thing that will feel different is where my right forearm is resting will be different but I think that will be an easy adjustment.  The total length of the finished guitar will be 30 inches - which is 8 1/2 inches shorter than a regular tele.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Finished the prototype tonight!!!  Had to split it up into 4 sessions to get through it but I just couldn't let it go another week.  It works!!  arty07:  I'm glad I did the prototype because I do want to have a little more room around the knobs so I'm going to put more space between the two rows.  Other than that it's perfect.  Now it's time to order a body and neck  :headbang1: .  So here's some additional pics.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

and a couple more - the last one is a real poor photoshop just to show about what the size will be and how it'll be cut down.  I'm going to be modifying the cutout and horn for the high frets because I plan on putting a 24 fret neck on it as well (didn't do that on this pic).

 

[stubhead]

What ARE the tuners?

 

[Kuro Uma]

I'm guessing these: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,_solid_peghead_tuners/Steinberger_Gearless_Tuners.html

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I'm guessing these: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,_solid_peghead_tuners/Steinberger_Gearless_Tuners.html

Yep, those are the ones.

 

[LushTone]

That's awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.  :headbang:

 

[stubhead]

This may be a little late, but I just looked at the mock-up with the gray image in the back. I'm not sure what "travel' uses you envision, but I spend a fair amount of time playing in chairs of various sorts and one area that can feel cramped is the distance behind the bridge. It's an obvious length-saver, but if you're playing in a chair with an arm on it and the bridge is crammed way down into the crack, your right hand is quite hampered. You might want to look at it, and if you can spare an inch or two at least think about something like a Jaguar or Jazzmaster shape where the lower bout is longer on the bottom side, or even some heavy metal "X" shape extension.

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

I'm kinda in awe here - this is looking great.  I had the same idea on the ferrules in the "headstock", but bass ferrules are way too deep for that, so I'm thinking I'll have to get some washers or a strip of metal across the back to anchor the strings.

So what's the plan for the "real" one with Warmoth stuff?  Are you going with a paddle headstock, or something else that you'll just cut down?  I suppose depending on the shape you're doing, you could proably grab a neck with the right neck profile & wood from the showcase.  Still going with a Tele style body?  Just eye balling makes me think you could slim down the side by almost an inch on either side & still keep the shape.

I'm going to have to get mine done before you: don't want to have 2 headless instruments going head to head in the GOM.  :icon_biggrin:

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Thanks,
  Well I'm starting with a body blank but generally I plan on a tele shape.  The horn below the neck I'm going to cut down.  I'm going with the Tele shape because I'm thinking about mounting one of the small headphone style amps (like a vox amp) in that large upper area and possibly a small speaker (not 100% decided on that yet).  One I form the body I'll play around with it for a while and see if I want to cut down further.  The big thing is that I want the position of it to be exactly the same as a full sized tele when I'm playing it sitting down.

On the neck I'll be buying a strat neck with no tuner holes cut in it.  The paddle head necks are very limited in their wood choices and I want an exotic unfinished neck.  A blank strat headstock will give me plenty of wood up there to finish off the neck like I want to.

 

[TBurst Std]

On the neck I'll be buying a strat neck with no tuner holes cut in it.  The paddle head necks are very limited in their wood choices and I want an exotic unfinished neck.

Call the W on that. I know they can do exotics on straight paddles. Some of the exotics they can not do on angled paddles.

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Straight paddles should have all the same options as the Strat necks, since Warmoth Pro Strat necks are made the same way.  Call 'em if the wood you want isn't in the neck builder.  Kinda odd since the bass paddles are all available in the same woods as the regular ones.  :icon_scratch: They might need to fix the site.

FYI (and braggin' a little  :glasses10 my Purpleheart Deluxe 5 paddle came out beautifully, as seen below.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I did call and they said that on the guitar necks that the angled paddle had a greater selection of woods than the straight paddle.  Didn't make sense to me either but that's what they said.

 

[TBurst Std]

I did call and they said that on the guitar necks that the angled paddle had a greater selection of woods than the straight paddle.  Didn't make sense to me either but that's what they said.

Someone got it backwards there I think. By definition in talking with them, some woods will not glue up for a angled neck. IE: Pao Ferro

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I placed the order (along with REAL sweet second custom Tele body/neck for a full sized Tele) today and they were able to do it with a paddle neck.  The body is swamp ash and here are the neck specs:

Warmoth pro paddle
Padouk
unique choice Kingwood fretboard
No inlays
Mother of pearl side dots

Going to take a while to get here because of the custom finish on the other body and they'll ship together.  It's going to be a long couple months wait!!!