I feel like building another guitar

[guitarslim101]

Yeah, I've seen those, but I've heard some questionable things about the reissues. I'd like to find one to play around on, though, they do look nice.

[guitarslim101]

Well, finally made some progress. Got it roughly cut out today and did a bit of shaping. I'll get some pictures up later when the camera charges. I ended up just using a hand-held jigsaw, which worked out quite well. I figured it'd be less of a headache than trying to maneuver the whole chunk around on the band saw. The rest of the shaping will be done the good, old-fashioned way with rasps, files, chisels, sand paper, a good bit of cursing, and some liquor...after the work is done, of course. Safety first, and all that. I'm hoping to have it pretty much fleshed out by the end of the week, then get the fret board put on.

[guitarslim101]

Picture time (terrible cell phone pictures, but still something)!

I don't have a picture of the chunk of wood before I started attacking it, but just imagine a large piece of walnut. Here is what it looked like shortly after being jigsawed:


Here is after a bit of filing to bring it closer to the actual lines:



Here's a side view of the neck without any contouring done yet:


Here's the front after being sanded:


And the front again with some mineral spirits to show the grain a bit better:


I'm hoping to get the headstock angled and get the fret board cut to size and glued on tomorrow, then I'll start working on contours and all that jazz. After looking at the grain now, I'm definitely not going to do the copper color. I just can't cover this up. I am toying with the idea of a hand-rubbed sunburst, though. Maybe just an inch or so of translucent black around the edge. If I don't do that, I'm thinking of doing black binding.

[birddog]

Nice looking piece of wood Slim.
Are you making the body and neck out of one piece of wood, never seen that done before ?

Wally

[guitarslim101]

Yep, it'll be one piece with a separate fretboard. It isn't necessarily an ideal way to build a guitar, but I think it'll work out alright for this one. This piece of wood is pretty damn sturdy.

[guitarslim101]

I've made a decent bit more progress this week, but I can't seem to find the card reader, so no new pictures yet. But I got the fretboard on, neck carved, the body is shaped, and the headstock is almost down to the right thickness. I'm hoping to get the pickup route and control routes done this weekend, and get the headstock shaped and finish sanding everything down. Then Monday I'll probably get going on the finish, which will either be tung oil or shellac, depending on what my mood is when I start. If I can keep going at this pace, I'll hopefully have it done in the next week or two.

Oh, and I decided to just use a pickup off of my old Airline Town & Country. It's just a beefy single coil in a humbucker sized enclosure.

[guitarslim101]

Think it'll be getting a Bigsby, too, but I'm not 100% sure about that yet. A trapeze tailpiece would be nice, too.

[leftyguitarman]

Think it'll be getting a Bigsby, too, but I'm not 100% sure about that yet. A trapeze tailpiece would be nice, too.

Get a Bigsby. I want to put one on my Les Paul so bad.

[guitarslim101]

The bigsby would certainly be fun, but I already have 4 guitars with Bigsbys, and part of me wants this guitar to be as bare-bones as possible (since even my tele has a ton of bells and whistles...well, sort of). However, I have the Bigsby, and it would fit. I'll probably put it on and just switch to a trapeze tailpiece when ever I feel like using one.

[guitarslim101]

Found the card reader, so I have some more crappy cell phone pictures. It shows what I accomplished up to today, though.

[guitarslim101]

It's getting pretty close. I still have some work to do on the headstock and the body, but I'm hoping to get it all worked out tomorrow and do a ridiculous amount of sanding so I can get the frets in Wednesday and start the finish on Thursday. Will it happen that fast? No. Can I hope? Yes.

I'm trying to decide between using white pickguard material that I'll darken down a bit with some brown shoe polish, or if I should dig through the box of veneer and find some nice looking wood for the pickguard. I'll probably just do both and see which I like more.

[leftyguitarman]

It's lookin really good! Looking forward to seeing the rest.

[guitarslim101]

Thanks Lefty. I'm getting really excited now that it actually looks and feels like a guitar. I pretty much have all the major work done now, so it's just a matter of sanding like crazy till it's all smooth and what-not.

I'm now pretty much 100% sure that I'll be doing a hand-rubbed sunburst with shellac, but I want to try it out on a piece of scrap to make sure it'll look alright since the walnut is already going to be so dark. I think it'll look good, though, and I've been wanting to try my hand at a sunburst. I've also decided that I'm going to have a volume knob and a 5 way tone switch (the settings of which will be: Very bassy, bassy, kind of bassy, not so bassy, trebly) for the controls. I have a rotary switch sitting around that needs a home, and I think it'll be nice having some options for a few different sounds since it just has the neck pickup.

Couple more weeks and it should be ready, though. I can't wait. Wish I had more time to work on it.

[leftyguitarman]

A rotary switch would be way cool! What kind of humbucker is that one?

[guitarslim101]

It's actually a big single coil put in a humbucker sized cover. I took it out of my old Airline that is currently in a state of rest, we'll say. It's the same pickup that Jack White uses in his main red guitar. Real bassy, but still has some sparkle to it. Sort of a cross between a P90 and a Teisco goldfoil. And since it isn't wax potted, it is decently microphonic, which is perfect for what I go for sound-wise.