Guitar Project numero 5 - General

It's that time of the 3 month period again. After a few suggestions for my next project in the last thread, I did some thinking and decided on a more "Ibanez S" styled body. First off, It's chambered. The lower part of the body is made of basswood and a padauk center, and the the top is a padauk cap. I've gone very padauk happy because It looks awesome, It's got a powerful midrange attack, and cheap in comparison to most exotic woods. The Neck will be made out of maple, and I plan to try and make my own fretboard out of padauk. If the padauk fretboard fails, I'll use a rosewood one I have. It will have a chrome hard tail bride, a stewart macdonald "golden age," High output bridge humbucker (12k ohms), and a 1-mega ohm volume pot. I'm hoping that all this will give the guitar a very loud, complex sound. The 1 mega-ohm (1000k) pot will eliminate the built in sound rolloff you'd normally have with a a 250k, or 500k pot, so the pickup will have a crystal clear, but high output sound. I chambered the body to soften up the annoying overtones and unwanted twangyness you'd get with that combo. Considering the padauk will have dominant influence over the sound, the body is quite light due to the basswood sides on the back piece. I may put some sound holes in place of where other pickups would normally be, so the guitar can be played acoustic. here's some pictures. Before gluing, notice the chambers [URL="http://img27.imageshack.us/i/image573k.jpg/"][IMG]http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9510/image573k.jpg[/IMG][/URL] More recent: [img]http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3401/1000334.jpg[/img] The white line running through the center is the outer wood of the padauk tree. the core of padauk trees are that intense orange, and the outer wood is a pale yellow color. Obviously this piece of padauk was cut near the outside of the tree, so I decided to take advantage of the color difference and laminate the yellow strips towards the center. More to come as I do more work on it.

Sweet

That should look pretty awesome when it's done. I love your guitars.

Sweet you took my suggestion :) Will you be tapering the body like the S series?

Yeah, I can't really taper it quite as much as the Ibanez model (because I'd cut into the chambers) But enough that's it comfortable.

I think this guitars gonna be nice man.

Lets hope the buyer thinks so :v: I'm probably going to try and sell it, because I'm off work for 3 months and will need money soon D:

You should totally try to make a semi hollow body guitar.

No thanks. I like chambered bodies, but semi hollows really get rid of a lot of sustain. Aside from that, the materials are fairly costly, and to make them myself would involve wasting a lot of wood.

I love the look of the top, the light stripe looks great. Good luck with the build!

I contoured the top and most of the back today, as well as route the humbucker cavity and most of the neck joint. Should be able to have the body ready for lacquer within the next day. Will probably make the neck before doing that, though (to make sure everything fits together well). [URL=http://img704.imageshack.us/i/image578.jpg/][IMG]http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/1444/image578.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

The contours look nice, what is your headstock going to look like?

I was thinking of having a 4-2 tuning peg style, a few points on it, and curvy on the way down. Basically, the first four tuning pegs on the top half, and the last two tuning pegs on the bottom half, closer to the nut. Sort of a take on the PRS style headstock, but modified and a bit less pointy.

[QUOTE=hypno-toad;18722033]I was thinking of having a 4-2 tuning peg style, a few points on it, and curvy on the way down. Basically, the first four tuning pegs on the top half, and the last two tuning pegs on the bottom half, closer to the nut. Sort of a take on the PRS style headstock, but modified and a bit less pointy.[/QUOTE] Sounds good, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be an Ibanez style one, because that totally ruins the overall look of the S body shape for me :v:

[QUOTE=TheGuru;18722214]Sounds good, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be an Ibanez style one, because that totally ruins the overall look of the S body shape for me :v:[/QUOTE] Yeah, I usually like Ibanez body designs, but I'm not really a fan of the basic slant iBanez headstock. Kinda like this one, though. [img]http://resources.ibanez.com/resourceservicehost/images/Ibanez/web/eg/products/JTK30HBK.gif[/img] The PRS idea will likely be subject to change. I usually doodle it out on the wood and find what looks best.

[QUOTE=TheGuru;18722214]Sounds good, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be an Ibanez style one, because that totally ruins the overall look of the S body shape for me :v:[/QUOTE] Dude, the Ibanez S headstock is sick. At least in my opinion. Oh boy i love dat headstock

[QUOTE=TurtlePower;18723075]Dude, the Ibanez S headstock is sick. At least in my opinion. Oh boy i love dat headstock[/QUOTE] It's a great headstock on an RG and other body shapes, but it just doesn't suit the rounded S shape at all in my opinion.

[QUOTE=TheGuru;18723249]It's a great headstock on an RG and other body shapes, but it just doesn't suit the rounded S shape at all in my opinion.[/QUOTE] Maybe I'm just in love with the S series then. I just think it suits perfect! Looks best if it's not a reverse headstock on an S but reverse is sick on RG I think.

Finished the neck joint, and finished up the control cavity. Body seems exceptionally light. Maybe about 3.5 - 4 pounds. [URL=http://img46.imageshack.us/i/image581.jpg/][IMG]http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/4892/image581.jpg[/IMG][/URL] I'm thinking of adding a single coil for a neck pickup. I fear that an un-tapered high output bridge pickup might sound too harsh. My plan is to add a second 1 meg ohm volume pot the the guitar, and wire the two pickups separate from each other, then straight into the output; then two pickups can be blended together at the player's discretion. I am a bit worried about hum canceling, though. I'm not sure how I'd wire it in that sort of situation for the humbucker to cancel the single coil pickup's 60 cycle hum. I think I might just have to live with the slight hum.

You should really get a half decent camera, I don't think it's doing your work justice. So far my favourite build of yours from what I can tell.

Yeah, this cellphone one is awful. There's a nice cannon camera in my household, but the memory card seems to be fucked, and we have to buy a new one.

[URL=http://img26.imageshack.us/i/image583.jpg/][IMG]http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3865/image583.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Decided on using my last headstock design for the neck; I tried a few pointier ones, but a smoother one looks better with the body in my opinion. The rough shape of the neck is cut out, will do all the sanding and carving tomorrow, I guess. I also got new potentiometer holes and pickup cavity cut out. It's sunny for the rest of the week, but it's going to start snowing soon which will make work fairly cumbersome.

A Carvin 7-string style but in 4+2 woulda suited quite nicely now that I think of it. Looks quite nice though.

I'll be doing contours on the headstock as well. Comes out pretty wavy looking.

Watching these come together is so cool. Great job.

Dude this build looks gorgeous, what kinda pickups are you gonna put in it?

Looks very sweet toad...

Where did you learn to do this? I mean, surely there is a lot you have to know about spacing, dimensions etc before you can build one. I would love to do this sometime, and I'm not bad with woodwork.

I'm liking the look of this!

[QUOTE=nos217;18817842]Where did you learn to do this? I mean, surely there is a lot you have to know about spacing, dimensions etc before you can build one. I would love to do this sometime, and I'm not bad with woodwork.[/QUOTE] Learned all the measuring, carving skills, machine experience and gluing techniques and all that crap in 5 years of highschool woodcraft. Guitar making in specific I taught myself in the last year of highschool, and via talking to luthiers on other forums.