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Travel Electric (Warmoth)

The attached pictures at the start of the thread were lost or corrupted for some reason so I fixed those tonight.  I also realized that I hadn't attached my latest photoshop of the planned finish and look for the guitar.  Here it is:

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Thanks guys, I'm starting to get real excited!  Made some more progress tonight.  I finished up the repair and got a good start on some contours and a contoured heel.  Between the contour on the body and the heel access to the 24th fret is going to be REAL easy!  Feels awesome already!

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More to come later this weekend . . . .  Also going to post some headstock ideas to get some input - and if you have any ideas PLEASE throw them out there.  I'm not really happy with what I've come up with so far.
 
Yamaha GX-1 had a nice solution, I think, to the "How do I make the headless guitar not look like an amputee?" question:


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Mmm... that strikes me as a little too teeth-ish.  I'd personally go for something asymetrical; vaguely Telecasterish but much, much smaller.

I have a a bit of time & MS Paint at work, I'll see what I can do.  :laughing7:
 
Maybe something a little more subtle like this Strandberg one: http://strandbergguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_4759.jpg

I also really think this would look great if the entire body was rounded. Much more sleek-looking like a headless guitar suggests. Or, you could sculpt the edges of the body to be at an angle.

I really like your ideas, keep it up!
 
Dang.... that Strandberg is NICE.  I'm guessing that pic is of the back side of the headstock, so I'm imagining the shape would be not terribly unlike the Warmoth 3+3 headstock.

Here's my very rough attempts, was thinking something not unlike the Peavey/Van Halen Wolfgang headstock, but much smaller. Also, I've long been a fan of the Fender arrow shape, and I think a smaller variation on that might work well.

Sorry for the low quality, but this is MS Paint.  :-\
 

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I don't have the patience for graphics programs, so I'll just try to describe what I think should be some basic requirements. I'll leave the art to you.

First, you want a straight string pull. That is, there should be no angling off to the sides on the headstock side of the nut. You're begging for tuning problems otherwise.

You're almost certainly going to be threading the strings from the back of the headstock through ferrules, like you see on the back of a Tele. You'll also have smaller ferrules on the top, so the string has something solid to bear against. So, you can place those as you will. A "V" would work, or an angled line, or a line parallel to the nut. Have your way with that, as long as the holes line up with the slots in the nut.

It seems like a neck without an end barrier would feel weird. Like without some tactile indication of where you are, you'd lose track. I don't know; I've never played a headless neck. But, if that's so, then you'd almost need a sorta small "T" up there, so you could maintain the feel of having a headstock without one actually being there. Maybe as if you took a regular headstock and just took a chopsaw after 80% of it. Round off the edges, of course, so you don't take somebody's eye out. Or not, if you play places where traditional weapons aren't allowed...

Just some thoughts.
 
Cagey - I've got all that covered - look at reply 6 and 7 on page one of this thread and you'll see the prototype that I did.  The ferrules will be exactly like that.  I'm just deciding how to finish off the top of the headstock past the ferrules.  Thanks for the input guys but I think I've decided to go with the design above - it will look a little different than that though because it will have the same contours as the cutout on the high e side of the body.  Probably this weekend I'll be cutting the excess of the headstock off and doing a practice finish so I can see exactly what it will look like with this wood.  I'll post a pic when I get that done.  Here's a photoshop using the top edge the body that will better show what I'm planning.

I had originally planned on finishing off the headstock with a duplicate of the top line of the body but it just didn't do it for me.

Headstock2.jpg
 
Had another medical setback this week and ended up in the ER in the middle of the night wednesday with difficulty breathing and swallowing (complications of my polymyositis) - but my rheumatologist was able to get right on it and changed my meds and I'm doing ok.  Did a bunch more work today.  Finished up the contours on the body and rounded over the edges, etc.  The only things left on the body are to route the control cavity, drill for the controls, and then final sanding and finishing - I LOVE how it came out.  I also did a prototype headstock and I like it too.  Here's a picture of the guitar with the prototype headstock photoshopped onto it:

(PIC removed - see below for better pic with headstock finished)

Here's the guitar laid next to my Tele to give you an idea of the size difference (note the scale length and how the guitar lays on my leg is EXACTLY like the Tele so it feels like a full size guitar).  Note the headstock will actually be about a cm shorter than it is in this pic - I left extra material there just in case:

(PIC removed - see below for comparison pic after the headstock was finished)

and here's some closeup's of the body and the contours, etc:

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Finished the headstock tonight and got the ferrules mounted.  Took new comparison pics against my tele and close up pics of the headstock (going to remove those pics from above since these are better):

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I know I wrote the screaming mee-mee alert about no-butt guitars and the way guitars get swallowed by upholstered chairs, but you got enough of a lower-bout bulge there to lift the strings up out of the hole. It ought to be just fine... I poked around the Strandberg site and he's making guitars with no-butt AND no-dangle (so to speak) and grandma's puffy pink chair would be hard to negotiate with a Strandberg.
 
This thing is looking mighty fine  :icon_thumright:
Great work !!

Love that neck.

What Dot inlays are they, on it ?
I'm Guessing ..... Bloody Basin Jasper
Love those too  :icon_biggrin:
 
Yes they are bloody basin jasper dots.  They really don't photograph well - at least I haven't been able to get a good picture of them.  They look incredible in person!  Thanks for the positive comments.  I'm getting really excited to have this one done.  Feels much more like MY creation than any of my other guitars for sure.
 
I strung it up tonight to see how high the tuners are going to stick out because I'm going to make a guard to protect them and I didn't want it any taller than necessary.  Played it for a while to get the feel of it - LOVE IT!  Can't wait to have it finished now.  Finishing supplies are supposed to arrive tomorrow.

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