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I'll freely concede that it's not the most original shape in the world. On the other hand, I don't think I've seen anything that looks exactly like it. I think there are more blatant copies in the guitar world, eg., how many Ibanez's, Kramers, and Jacksons look almost exactly like Stratocasters. I'm also amazed how many amature guitars are variations of the Telecaster (which was criticized by Gibson as being a plank) -- actually, one of the demo guitars in one of the guitar building books (and one that emphasized that you should make *your* guitar and not copy) I've read was a Telecaster variation. Also, the only unusual looking guitar I really like the looks of is the Gibson Explorer, and that only looks right playing heavy metal. I think the Parker Fly looks as ugly as sin. Then the other trend for "original" body shapes today is to have really angular stuff (like some Dean guitars), and I don't like that, either, and it too is something that is only for heavy metal. Maybe I'm just not seeing anything that is both unusual and inspiring to me. Are there any unusual designs that anyone is aware of that still looks good?

It's also possible that I'm too conservative.

As for how the shape affects sound, the consensus seems to be that you can't predict it exactly. But like I said, common sense says that a larger volume will lead to more acoustic volume. No Steinberger minimalism here.

One thing that body shape *DOES* affect is how easy it is to build and balance. And, also like I said, everyone recommends for a first guitar build to do a two-horn (the two knobs at the top of the guitar on the sides) with cut-away (how the right side is lower than the left) design. Within those parameters and limitations, everything might look kinda generic.

I think I might at least try to come up with a crazy paint job to be a little less conservative.

Next time I get a chance to work on this -- and I don't know when that may be -- I think I'll just try the horizontal bandsaw.

(It took Brian May 2 years to build his guitar, so I don't know, maybe I'm not behind schedule)

So I can post something of substance, here's my bridge and nut:



Yeah, our webcam kinda sucks.

I played around with the pickup flatwork material. It's not terribly expensive, and I should -- if I don't waste an insane amount -- have more than I need, so I should be able to screw around and screw up a little.

I ended up cutting some with the metal cutters after all. It worked okay. The edge of the cut is wider than I'd like. I had an idea for clamping some straight edged guides to a little saw here that just goes up and down. Then I should just be able to push the flatwork along between the guides and get a perfectly straight cut. I'm not sure what the saw is called. It might be another type of jigsaw, but it works and looks completely different than the hand-held jigsaw I was using. Anyway, someone took that saw apart! So, that's out, for now at least.

I then tried using a drill press to drill the magnet holes. The magnets are supposed to be 0.195", and the holes, I've heard, are supposed to be undersized to give a snug fit, maybe by as much as 5 thousands. A number 11 drill bit has a 0.191" diameter, so I tried that -- fortunately, while some of the drill bits are a mess, that one was where it was supposed to be. I think it's the right size.

One thing I learned is that I probably should drill the holes before cutting out the smaller pieces. I had to hold a small piece (10 x 14 mm for the prototype) of flatwork still. I used a couple of vises (one to hold it, the other for added mass so I couldn't move it if my hand trembled), with wood buffers. It worked, but not very well. Well, actually, the first hole I drilled really did work out pretty well. The second one, though ... I don't know.

I think even if I don't use the laser for any real cutting, I should at least use it for marking stuff (the edges of where I'll cut, the centers for the drill holes, maybe even the spots for the eyelets), because I don't think any other method of measuring will work as well.

Today being MLK, Jr. Day, I had several hours undisturbed in the shop to work on the guitar project. I decided to put the pick up temporarily on hold, and gave making a body template a try.

First, I earlier enlarged that drawing I posted by some 516% with Microsoft paint (which doesn't allow enlarging by that much, so I had to do it by SQRT(5.16) = 227% twice), then printed it out in 6 normal sized sheets of paper, and taped them together. This gave a life sized drawing of it on paper. Then I traced THAT by putting it on the kitchen floor and using large paper (supposedly, its sold to grade school teachers for billboards) which was fortunately transparent enough that I could do a decent job. I tried using FO's light desk, but it just wasn't nearly large enough.

Then I had to double check the proportions of the drawing. Somehow (minor inaccuracies made larger by enlarging by a factor of 5; slight misorientations of the pieces when combining), there were a few mistakes, and the "center line" was no longer straight. I also noticed at the widest part, the right side was wider than the left. I wanted a quick solution to that, and I liked the curves and didn't want to redraw the whole thing. So, I traced the lines there with a thick marker. On the side that was too wide, I cut the inside of the line, and on the thinner side, I cut the outside of the line. That might have helped a little.

I cut the thing out just using scissors. I thought about using an X-acto knife, but the scissors worked fine.

I am not very confident in my ability to use a bandsaw, so I made another line about 0.2" around the desired shape and tried to cut that out. My thought was, I could cut out that shape with the bandsaw, and then clean up that with a rasp (the equivalent of a cheese grater for wood) (a guitar making book suggests something like this, though they might have suggested a surform rather than a rasp -- they look almost the same to me, and I'm not quite sure what the difference is).

You know how some cartoons show what children think things will be like?

Imagination: Bart gets a package of dinosaurs that grow when wet. He imagines ambushing Lisa, turning the hose on them, and it grows into a terrifying beast, and grabs her with its mouth.

Reality: When he turns the hose on the dinosaurs, they swell negligibly, and float down into the sewer drain.

Or

Imagination:



Reality:



For me:


Imagination: I take the rasp to the wood, and it cuts through it like a knife to butter, and I get the template shaped in a few minutes.

Reality: I scrape the rasp against the wood. Nothing. I scrape harder. Nothing. I scrape harder. A minuscule amount of wood is removed. I put the wood in a bench vise and scrape harder. There's some wood tear out.

So, I put the thing back in the bandsaw, and removed the excess wood by about 75%.

Here's the resulting rough cut (emphasis on ROUGH) template:



I'll try sanding down the edges. If that fails, I can get more coarse sandpaper. If THAT fails, well, one book suggested making a master template out of 1/8" plywood, which should be easier to work with, and using that to make a working template out of 1/4" plywood. I just so happened to have 1/4" plywood, so I tried with that straight off, but I might have to go back to 1/8".

I wonder about that rasp, though. Another book says that you can rough carve the neck with a rasp, and it should only take minutes (maybe 30 or something, but not hours and hours). But now I don't know...

I tried sanding it, and it does work, insofar as it does remove noticeable amounts of wood and ultimately looks to give nice, smooth, flowing curves. It will, however, take a hell of a lot of elbow grease.

The question is, do I want to bother? Or do I think I could do a better job if I started over? When I did the top of the neck join, I hadn't really thought about it, and free-handed it at the last second. Of course, this is always a bad idea, and it turned out lopsided. I later tried to fix it up by making it symmetrical with FO's light desk. I'll have to check with a square if I really got it right.

Facilitypro wrote:

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Thought about doing a sunburst paint job? It wouldn't be "wild" but they look nice. Either (from in to out) natural stain-red-black or gold-red-black. These look nice and are pretty easy to do. One way is to make templates that are raised off the guitar and spray the edge (airbrush works better, but spray lacquer will do). The paint will "mist" under the template and give a soft edge.

So, you've done something like this before?