the top is glued on now, I made the f hole thinner so that it looks better from the front, and coloured in the middle section with pencil crayons to give it a similar look to the final guitar.
here's another update:
- routed the pickup cavities
-routed the back panel slot
the top is very slightly off from the centreline not by much but enough to annoy me so for the real one I'll use screws to line it up before gluing it down, now there are only a few jobs left.
I carved the comfort carve and glued the fretboard on, using mark's clamping caul, it's just a piece of 4 x 2 with hardboard strips on the edges, hopefully you can see how nice the curves look on the left side, I might carve the right side as well to make it symetrical for the topbut there's less wood to take away, could do with some opinions on this before going ahead, regards, Ben.
it's sort of finished now apart from testing it with strings, I found out one of the tuner threads also doesn't work which was annoying, now I need just a single tuner to replace it,still better to find out now on a prototype, I should have checked it all when brand new though, lesson learnt.
@brie I would do that if I knew the exact size thread it is, I can't find any info on thread type or pitch e.t.c even though there's load of info on dimensions, I'm going to guess that's imperial with it being american. It seems to be the very start of the thread it can't latch onto it, I tried using the bushing on other tuners and it works just fine.
I contacted sperzel so it looks like I might be able to get a single tuner either from them or a uk distributor, I simply couldn't resist stringing the guitar up today with some spare strings, it makes a sound! and is quite loud acoustically, now I've got to do it all again, this will be an entry for the great guitar build off scratch build competition, so for now that's it, prototype is finished, a lot learnt in a short space of time.
@tyreman I’ve somehow missed this until now. Nice work man, I’m loving it.
I especially like the input socket bit, I’ve thought of doing that myself. Was it Charvel or someone like that that first did it?
I did a pine prototype of a Kramer Floyd Rose Signature type guitar, hardtail to start with, a while back. It’s on here somewhere and I’ve yet to make a proper one and with an actual Floyd in it.
Im loving your choice of music by the way. Winger are one of the most underrated rock bands of their era, 80s and 90s. I’m still considering making a Reb Beach Ibanez copy.
I love that whole era of rock and there are so many iconic guitars for me to make that I always wanted as a teenager.
I was listening to LA Guns earlier. 🔥🤘😝🤘🎸🔥
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Not another 12 string semi-hollow thru-neck Tele-esque build ...
😆
What a great build thread, and a few interesting design ideas that I might well pinch (sorry, "be inspired by") on a build of my own one day!
Be interesting to find out how it sounds and compares to a guitar made with more traditional materials. I realise that this is "just" a prototype, but if it works and sounds good, there's no reason not to keep it. Though finding a similar guitar to compare it against might be difficult!!
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on the body I carved in another curve on the right side, also the replacement tuner has arrived today, thanks to northwest guitars for the great customer service, I'd highly recommend them.
what do you think of this headstock design? compared to the other one? this one is designed to have dead straight string pull and there's a bit more space for a decal or logo.
I like the first one better. I think the second headstock looks a bit too long compared to the body. Or maybe the perspective makes it look that way.
what do you think of this headstock design?
The camera angle probably exaggerates it further, but the headstock now looks very big (long) compared to the size of the body. I realise that it's always difficult to get 12 strings on to a headstock, but I think I'd go with your first option.
Unless you fancy having a go at something like this ...
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