Hi builder buddies
Novice here; I’m not building per se as yet - I’ve been given an Eko Ranger VI which I’m ‘customising.’
So far I’ve reprofiled the neck, radiuses the fretboard and refretted with Evo Gold fret wire.
I’ve put veneer on the headstock, front and back and french polished the neck.
I’ve sanded down the soundboard and practiced my french polishing on that in advance of removing it to replace it with a Lutz Spruce top.
I put it back together at this midway stage and it plays ok but I want a bigger warmer sound so next step is to remove the top.
So far, I’ve glued my bookmatched spruce together and have roughly thicknessed it with my router them I’ll sand it smooth to around 3mm.
Once I’ve got the top off I’ll make a start on the bracing, taking into consideration the current bracing and Mark’s advice & tips on the best way to go about designing and fitting X-bracing.
Wish me luck!
Michael
PS I suppose I better put a sound hole in as well lol!
Welcome Michael.
For me, repairing/customising is a more daunting task than building from scratch so you're a brave man to be taking on that job first. Hope all goes well. Post us some pictures of your progress.
🎸🙂🎶🙏
🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
I’ve been given an Eko Ranger VI which I’m ‘customising.’
@michael-oconnor Welcome to you and I think it’s a great way to start, customising. I started doing that, then building kit guitars before finally learning how to build guitars from scratch. It’s all good fun and so long as you are enjoying it, there are no rules.
Good luck with everything and enjoy yourself. 👍
Boo
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Is that all inlaid veneer on your headstock, thats impressive work.
@michael-oconnor that is some nice work ! welcome to this great community
Hi Darren, yes it’s Consett 👍
Mmm - this is getting a bit stalky mind Darren!
I’m native - born 1953
Pls elucidate your curiosity…
🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
@michael-oconnor It’s all looking good Michael. Do you work on electric guitars too or is acoustics your thing?
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Never actually built a full guitar Boo - just dabbled so far.
My son recently rescued my first electric guitar for me - a Futurama 3 which cost me 25 guineas in 1967. (It's lost the middle pickup) I sprayed it black about 30 years ago and it orange-peeled - yeuk! Thanks to Joe for the restoration back to red, though he's kept the black pickguard I made cos the original white one is long gone. We've made a few cigar box guitars between us as well and I've done a couple of mandolin soundboard repairs over the years. This is my first serious venture into acoustic guitar work.
a Futurama 3 which cost me 25 guineas in 1967.
@michael-O’Connor Yeah, nice paint job on the Futurama and great looking box guitars. I am half way through making a box guitar but it’s taken a back seat right now as I’m moving house.
You are going to learn a lot here using Marks video tuition and have fun talking to us all here in the forum. Good luck and enjoy yourself.
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸