colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397 
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Post by colins on Jan 19, 2019 16:22:15 GMT
My give away draw prize guitar for Halifax this year is going to be a CS336/356 style electric guitar, somewhat different from my normal acoustics, but at least it is a hollow body with 'F' holes , so sort of acoustic.
These are a couple I made earlier.
The body is carved from a solid block of mahogany, with a curly maple top. It'll be fitted with 'PAF' style humbuckers, and a 3-way switch. Guitar players IQ is of course found on a continuum, with electric players at the bottom thus they need dots all over the place, steel string players in the middle needing at least side dots to find their way around the board and classical players at the top, who of course shun dots completely as being of no use to them. As it's an electric it will of course have fingerboard marker dots.
These 336s give a crossover sound between the classic sweet 335 'Lucille' guitar and the more intense growl of a Les Paul.
Anyway, I went over to see Bob Smith and came away with a big lump of mahogany so I thought I'd better get started.
The body is in two pieces so I glued them up with some maple and red as a centre line.
When the glue was dry the body was run through the sander to its near final thickness.
Now this is my most used tool when making an acoustic, but it will hardly get a look in for this build.
This however will get a lot of use.
The body shape is roughly sawn out on the bandsaw, then the template is screwed to the top.
A pattern router bit is used to trim the bodies outside profile.
This body is what Gibson call tonally carved, which really means hollowed out. The bulk of the wood is removed with a large Forstner bit on the drill press.
The template is screwed back on and the pattern router bit used to clean up the inside, at least to a first approximation.
I'm waiting for a big Stew Mac order to arrive with the pickups in it, so I'll hold off routing the pickup pockets until I have them in hand to measure.
Colin
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jan 19, 2019 16:26:41 GMT
I thought you might like to see the top, this is curly maple, and will end up about 6mm thick.  The pattern should really pop under finish. Colin |
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jan 19, 2019 20:22:55 GMT
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007
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My main instrument is: 1965 Hagstrom H45E
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Post by 007 on Jan 20, 2019 16:47:19 GMT
Wow
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jan 20, 2019 18:03:16 GMT
Just a quick job done today, well it's supposed to be quick but took forever as it's quite fiddly routing, and you need to measure at least three times then measure again. The access in the back to the switches was cut in two stages, first an access hole is cut right through the back, then a ledge is cut half way through the back for the cover plate to fit onto. Then I cut and shaped a piece of curly maple to make the cover panel, getting this to fit was a pain!
Anyway all done, just got to sand the plate to thickness now.
They do sell plastic plates that fit this, but heh, you guys are worth all of the farting around getting some maple to fit!
Colin |
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jan 20, 2019 19:13:12 GMT
Lovely stuff Colin. Keep on farting!
Keith
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francis
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My main instrument is: Whatever I'm building...
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Post by francis on Jan 21, 2019 3:40:03 GMT
Looking good - and only four nails to hold it in place  |
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Post by Onechordtrick on Jan 21, 2019 6:40:32 GMT
Looking good - and only four nails to hold it in place That’s what I love about the build threads: seeing the secret methods of talented luthiers.  |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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Post by colins on Jan 21, 2019 9:57:40 GMT
Looking good - and only four nails to hold it in place Well Francis it is an electric, so no sense in getting all high tec. |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jan 21, 2019 9:59:32 GMT
I do hope you are all rehearsing 'Smoke on the Water' ready for Halifax.
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Post by earthbalm on Jan 21, 2019 10:17:13 GMT
oh wow! Just that... Wow!
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leoroberts
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My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jan 21, 2019 12:05:02 GMT
I've never been in the least bit interested in pluggy-in stuff. Until this build was announced |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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Post by colins on Jan 21, 2019 12:48:42 GMT
I have thinned the cover plate and was going to nail it on as Francis suggested, but then I realised I only had four nails left and I need those to nail on the fingerboard, so I was forced to use dome head pick-guard screws. See how I spoil you all.  |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jan 21, 2019 12:50:44 GMT
I've never been in the least bit interested in pluggy-in stuff. Until this build was announced Leo, I want to hear at least one person playing Stairway to Heaven on it at HB10, it should really be you so get practicing.
Colin
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Post by andyhowell on Jan 27, 2019 10:40:54 GMT
colins the last thing g you have to worry about is whether somebody will play Stairway. I suspect Smoke on the Water will also be there!
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Jo whoever he is.
