Nearly ready to start - guitar kit has arrived - the wood looks lovely.
Why Arthur you may ask? The guitar will hopefully be chambered so is sort of semi-acoustic - semi = half - half a guitar - sounds like Arthur Guitar........
My mate Martin has a mandola called Nelson.....
Stop groaning.......
Mahogany body and neck with Ebony fretboard and Ovangkol cap - Wilkinson hardware with a Freeway 6 position switch to give a few extra sounds.....
All being well will kick off on Saturday.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
The workshop - a bit of my garage - going to get cold in the middle of winter but was a reasonable temp just now.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Making a start - routed a test slot for my truss rod into a bit of kitchen work top - only worried about the width at this point...
Hope to get up courage and cut real truss rod slot later this week.
Started to mark up neck blank.
Neck blank had been sat on the bench with the headstock template resting on it - can just see the pencil mark round the proper headstock position. Blank is about 85mm wide so will fit through my cheapo Titan bandsaw.
Mahogany body blank and one half of the Ovangkol cap.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
I do need to keep a clear work space!
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Started......
Baileys now supply a 6mm truss rod - it needs the slot making a bit wider at the nut end as the adjuster is slightly more than 6mm.
Headstock angle cut and truss rod slot widened at end
Side shape cut
Top shape cut - a bit rough....
When you are in the workshop on a course Mark keeps track of what you are doing and that is reassuring. Found it quite daunting working on my own, was checking everything several times. Also found that after I marked up the side shape that my bandsaw is too close to the wall so I had to mark the other side or I couldn’t cut the heel.....
Very happy with the headstock face!
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Woohoo - looking great! Don't forget I am here to answer your Q's if you need any help...
FYI: Don't worry - It will be fine... but for next time: The wider part of the truss rod slot should go right to the end...doesn't make a lot of difference - it will be hidden anyway...as long as you can get the allen key in to adjust....
Measure twice, cut once...
Headstock thicknessed and tuner holes drilled - tested holes with tuners.....
Extended/widened the channel for truss rod at nut end and tested that I can adjust truss rod with Allen key.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
The old iMac in the ‘workshop’ was scrapped from work because it couldn’t be updated to the current operating system - it is now running Neverware the Google OS so I can watch the Guitar Making videos as I build.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Change that to I will have sash clamps by tomorrow - Rutland Tools sent me an email with details of their clamps and two minutes later a £20 off voucher in another email - also ordered my Liberon Finishing Oil to save postage....
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Rumbling on here in sunny (was today) Frocester - profiled the neck - was a bit of a coward at the nut end and stopped and started a bit short of the mark but otherwise OK.
Will get in there with my ‘up and downer’ and tidy by the nut as well as round the rest of the headstock.
Hope, if you are following this, you realise that every step will be posted here - will also be keeping a build diary as I did for my workshop courses.
I must thank Mark for the online course - really enjoying it - only worry is how many guitars I could end up building.........
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Hi Bill
Many thanks for posting these pics. I do find it interesting to see other people's builds, and their very tidy workshops. So the more the merrier please.
I was rather timorous and didn't upload anything until I had finished my Bootlegger. Then I realised that I had forgotten to record many of the important stages. Still, I now have another guitar and am really chuffed that I actually managed it in the end. So all praises to the Musical Maker Magister Mark.
I am still extolling the virtues of Mark's videos to all and sundry (and have been amazed at the number of people who fancy having a go).
Can one have too many guitars?
I’m trying not to miss taking pics of stages - I totally missed taking any pictures of the cavity routs on my Tele - I had glued the cap in place and put the clamps on before I remembered....
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Fillet glued and clamped.
Planed - used nice new Luban block plane...
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Thought I would start the body.
First bit was to rout out the cavity - the mahogany blank is about 41mm thick so the cavity needs to be 29mm deep.
I created a pattern the edges are 15mm thick.
https://flic.kr/p/2hTjwZu
Transferred the body outline and the cavity onto the blank for checking.
And the screwed the cavity pattern to the blank and started to rout - removed pattern when the hole was deep enough. Happy with it - one slight nick to the left of the bridge pickup where I twitched the router power switch by accident......
Will have to position the body template accurately once the cap is in place - centreline and scale length line should help....
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
re gluing the body: I've used ratchet clamps before and even tape in a pinch - you don't need massive clamping pressure if you prepped the surfaces well enough...
Measure twice, cut once...
I have glued the two pieces of the cap together.
What is the best way to cut the not f hole - it is a back to front Rickenbacker shape - a curved triangle - will post a picture in the morning..
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Shape of hole nearly right - what is the best way to cut it?
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!