Thread: lil' mongrels build!

just skimmed through this entire thread. thanks so much for posting a progress-thread, i've learned more about luthiery in 20 minutes than the last 14 years of playing guitar. and amazing to see a family project this practical and fun. i can't WAIT to have kids, and when i do, believe me they'll be making stomp-boxes and percussion with me as soon as they can hold the hammer. i'm a little while off attempting something as intricate as luthiery, but reading threads like this is a huge inspiration. thanks.

bradlee

It is amazing how much you learn yourself, by having to explain it to someone else. Things that you thought you thoroughly understood are suddenly a little off or vague...
great fun too.

Mind you, I had to put my guitar on the back burner to build this one, but its worth it...

Damn, I hadn't looked at this thread before late last night......absolutely awesome to see this guitar coming together...........I can only imagine how much lil' mong has learnt along the way. Probably the greatest thing, is that as a player, she will have a far greater appreciation of not just this guitar but any future instrument she has in her hands.

I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of the "build".

Oh.....and there's nothing wrong with girls making guitars, just have a look here http://www.manzer.com/web/ especially at the "custom" page.

I have found a lot of lady luthiers (luthierettes- sounds like a brand of cigarettes) on the net, but the deJonge website was really inspirational...(http://www.dejongeguitars.com/about-myfamily.html) There are a hell of a lot of worse things that we could be doing.

The de Jonge's are certainly a family affair. As an old guitarist, as time allows what do I build............................drums , something which threw up a whole new set of challenges but if the dust ever settles from real life, a guitar is on the drawing board. Actually, I envy you and lil' mongrel as my son's focus is on playing (primarily Les Pauls) rather than making although we do spend time in the studio together.

A drum is just a banjo without strings, hahahahahahaha
look, I think any time together building something with a tangable result at the end is brilliant for parents and kids. Be it a guitar, or doing up a car the principle is the same, even music, you can stand back and say, "we did this" and its all good!

Originally Posted by HiString

Damn, I hadn't looked at this thread before late last night......absolutely awesome to see this guitar coming together...........I can only imagine how much lil' mong has learnt along the way. Probably the greatest thing, is that as a player, she will have a far greater appreciation of not just this guitar but any future instrument she has in her hands.

I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of the "build".

Oh.....and there's nothing wrong with girls making guitars, just have a look here http://www.manzer.com/web/ especially at the "custom" page.

the main response ive been getting at school is omg, a girl building a guitar!? thats wierd!! but girls dont have to act "girly girly omg i broke a nail all the time!!" im a bit of a tomboy which is lucky

Had to do a bit of non-woodwork for the guitar today. My poor little ryobi drillpress does not have a deep enough throat to let me drill the holes for the string thrus, so I did a bit of "remodelling". Think I might've voided my waranty...



Seems to work fine.

we also started the faux binding, bit of quality time with the cabinet scraper.



I think it'll look very cool with the nice gloss, it'll bring out the figure in the binding.

Work on the neck tomorrow.

Jason

Originally Posted by mongrel

so I did a bit of "remodelling". Think I might've voided my waranty...

"A BIT of remodelling"

Well...
I don't have the money at the moment to get the press that I want ($600), so out came the chop saw and the welder. Looks ugly, but stick welding thin tube onto thick plate isn't easy. Hopefully today I'll use it to mount the string thrus and the bridge holes. Lil' will be finishing off the neck.
The good thing is that it still fits the retrofitted drill table I built, so there wasn't any other buggerizing around to do. It went from a 100mm throat to a 165mm throat. The angle of the cut created the most surface area for welding and dispersed the downward force along two axis to help avoid flex (not to mention the 1/2 inch plate its welded to)
Not a bad "upgrade" IMHO

OK guys, an information question.

I remember the string break angle on a TOM bridge to be between 12-15 deg. This is just some arcaic memory I have, but I think its right.
If, as etheral has pointed out before, the headstock can happily be at 10 deg, do you think a TOM bridge could handle a 10 deg string break? or less?

Comments? Theories? Experiences?

The bridge can handle whichever break you throw at it, it's just a matter of what degree you installed the neck at and if there's enough space for the TOM to be lowered enough on the body (how thick is the TOM). Put a straightedge to the neck on top of the frets all the way to the TOM position and measure up how much space you've got between the straightedge and the body. Hopefully you've got more space than the thickness of the TOM or you're screwed

I have always intended to recess the TOM, which is why I am so concerned about the string break angle. Because of this recess, we went to string thrus, so I think there will be enough break angle if the holes are within 2 inches of the bridge. I'll redo the math at 10deg and work from there. In hindsight, I probably should've used a hardtail bridge, but I wanted to make it a little simple (until I made it more complicated) for Lil'.

Godin have a recessed TOM, but they also seem to recess their ferrules to maintain the angle and length.
look at this one:
http://www.harmony-central.com/Produ.../000001015.jpg

Maybe I could do this???

Dunno

Here is a side view for you Mongrel . Cheers Mark