I've made a start at build #003 while waiting for lacquer to harden on #002. I've sawn a 60mm slice from a 150x150 chunk of mahogany, I think this bit will be a neck. Made a router sled to level it. Now that know my leveller works I think I'll cut some thinner bits and make a three piece body blank. I've started a drawing, It's going to be a semi hollow body, I'd like a light coloured carved cap on it, but still to source wood for that.
Oh yeah! That looks nice, both the design and the wood. A semi hollow body is something I am going to build soon, I’ve not done it before.
My first build was a kind of semi hollow, but not much hollow in it, only two pockets behind the f holes. This one is going to be more hollow, loosely based on a gibson 356, I'm going to attempt to put the controls in through the f holes, so no cover on the back.
This one is going to be more hollow, loosely based on a gibson 356, I'm going to attempt to put the controls in through the f holes, so no cover on the back.
@robin That sounds very tricky. Is that how 356s are done?
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You're on a role Robin. That's some chunk of wood. Looking forward to seeing this one.
That chunk of wood took a bit of cutting.
It wasn't all with the handsaw, I used my handheld circular saw as deep as I could from each side and hand cut the 40mm that was left in the middle.
I cut up some more mahogany today. Visited the workshops where I used to work and borrowed their industrial size bandsaw. I've got enough cut now to make my three piece body blank. While I had the chance I cut a couple of thinner pieces for some future experiments with bending sides for an acoustic.
I cut up some more mahogany today. Visited the workshops where I used to work and borrowed their industrial size bandsaw. I've got enough cut now to make my three piece body blank. While I had the chance I cut a couple of thinner pieces for some future experiments with bending sides for an acoustic.
@robin Oh that’s more like it, if only we all had access to that kind of machinery. I need to make some friends and contacts in these circles when I move to Scotland. Do you think I will be able to make friends easily? 😁🏴
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Oh that’s more like it, if only we all had access to that kind of machinery. I need to make some friends and contacts in these circles when I move to Scotland. Do you think I will be able to make friends easily?
Next time I need to use their saw I'll take a wood cutting blade with me, it took a while with the fine tooth metal cutting blunt blade that was on it. But can't complain, its good of them to let me in. Technically, I never worked for the company that own it, I was transferred out to another company in the group just before the current owner took over, but a few of the people I worked with are still there.
@boo I'm sure you'll make friends easily, were a friendly people up here.
Dang @robin, look at you go! That’s some fine work you’ve done there.
What a progressive design: a headless semi hollow! 😉
Installing the electronics into a semi is a great way to waste an afternoon. Like anything it gets better with experience and there are some nice tricks to doing it without actually wanting to throw the guitar across the room after you’ve pulled all your hair out…
One thing that can be a big help is leaving room for the loom in the bottom of the bridge pickup cavity, bypassing the f holes. Otherwise make sure that the holes are big enough to allow installation without chipping up the edges.
Pratice on scrap...
What a progressive design: a headless semi hollow!
@mattbeels Just not got around to drawing the headstock yet, I should've known that you would spot that one.
Thanks for the tips on the wiring, I'll need to keep that in mind while I'm making the body. Luckily, there's very little hair left to pull out.
Very keen to see how this goes robin. Did you get a nice even thickness?
@russ Yes, I got an good flat even surface, I hand planed one side roughly to have flatish face to lay it down on before surface routing. I've still to take another 5mm off it, but I'll glue the blank together and take a bit off each side again.
Excellent!@robin“Clamp it, Jed”
Thanks @mattbeel us hillbillies just got to make do with what we got.
That the neck blank glued up now. Planing and scraping the joint faces is time consuming and sore on the fingers, but strangely satisfying. Mahogany/Maple/Mahogany, cut from bits left over from first two builds.
The cap for this build is going be oak, courtesy of a whisky barrel lid. What I didn't know is that the pieces are held together with dowels. It needed some strategic positioning to hopefully avoid carving into dowel holes. I've also just got a cabinet scraper from Axminster, so much better than using a stanley blade.
