Thread: recent progress- post yours

Very interesting stuff HAMMERED.
let's see pics of what's been haunting you for all these years


This one's out of the clamps and then hit with the not so ancient
no.5 and no.4 plane. Now I'm happy.



I probably should start a new thread for this one.


cheers, Stu

Originally Posted by black_labb

would you not have been able to use the bridge holes for a tailpiece and then put a tunomatic bridge in at the right spot. if youve already pluged the holes then you dont have to worry about it. sounds interesting none the less.

That is basically what it was already. I probably shouldn't have called it a stoptail bridge when its infact a stoptail and tune-o bridge. If I just had a stoptail an inch too far down, then yes I would do exactly what you suggested (even though it's kind of weird on a guitar this style).

Anyway, I have basically decided that I will plug the holes and put a fixed bridge in it.

And yes, some pics...


That is the neck I am going to use on it. Fantastic old neck from a late 70's or early 80's Suzuki SuperSounds Strat copy. It's in A+ condition (although I have removed the decals and laquer from the front).


This was the bridge and tailpiece that was originally installed in it many years ago. I'll keep these for another project now. That pickup is from a 1976 Ibanez Les Paul copy. They are really nice pickups, and I doubt it will live in this guitar forever (I have a 99% original 1974 Ibanez Les Paul as well, goldtop copy)


Just an angle to show the carve on the body. I might do just a little more work on it to even out some bits.


Shot of the back. It's not so carved on the back as the front.



And, here is a scaled down version of the plans I have been drawing up for my first serious build. The plans are more details than this jpeg, which is only basically the outline. I am considering having a template laser cut from the drawings, but I have access to an A1 plotter, so I may just print it and glue it to a board and cut myself.


I will probably do a test run all from ash to begin with (ash is probably the easiest to obtain for me besides mdf or pine ). It's going to be a neck-thru job.

Anyway, that's all from me for now. Check this space in another 10 years, I'll probably have the jazzy finished by then

great projects guys - lookin good

most of your tone comes from ur amp
a great guitar will sound cr@p through a cheesy amp

so to help get me to heaven tone i am working on this



its a 5E3 clone [1956 fender tweed deluxe] chassis built by jim nickelson [little dawg amps] - i am currently getting this cabinet around it and a jensen P12Q speaker - it do sound very nice

Nice pics there Hammered.
The V looks like a fun build. Especially the keyhole headstock. Nice.

And Ray........It's good to see your Kregg jig is getting used to it's full potential.

I definitely want to hear this when you've finished it.
I'll have to pop on around when you're done.
Wish I could make it up to Ruby's in Belgrave on Sunday arvo, alas I'll
be driving back from Lakes Entrance during your gig.
You guys sounded great at rehearsal and no doubt will
give the punters a rollicking time.

cheers, Stu

Originally Posted by old_picker

great projects guys - lookin good

most of your tone comes from ur amp
a great guitar will sound cr@p through a cheesy amp

so to help get me to heaven tone i am working on this



its a 5E3 clone [1956 fender tweed deluxe] chassis built by jim nickelson [little dawg amps] - i am currently getting this cabinet around it and a jensen P12Q speaker - it do sound very nice

thats a nice big chasis, wish i considered that a flat chasis would be easier to work in. i just thought that a nice volume inside the chasis would make things easy, but having a big surface area of the opening would be much easier to work with, instead of trying to solder between wires. i really hope i dont have to fix anything in my amp.

ive just bidded on a 100watt ashton viper head (4xel34 amp) with a dead output transformer that i plan on pulling all the electronics out and using the power transformer and tubes aswell as the chasis and head to make a hiwatt style amp. its going to be for bass as well as guitar. might make a master volume style preamp but using ef86 (pentodes) for the tubes that are to be overdriven, hoping that they give a sweeter overdriven sound (not a big fan of the high gain sound of 12ax7's being overdriven in just about every master volume amp)

ill be in my summer holidays from uni in a month or so (really long holidays for me!!!) where i will be making alot of guitars/basses. a friend wants to make one with me so i will have an assistant for the other builds, as he wants as cheap a guitar as possible (hes also interested in making one, not just a cheap guitar) then ill have alot of things to post then

that head will be soooo loud man

not a great fan of master volume amps myself
i tend to crank the master to 100% and run the pre at whatever is needed
i like the sound of the amp with the master full open as you can feel the power underneath....and after about 3 they start to to sing ...after 5 your taking off and after 7 mmmmmm ears are hurting

i am getting out of the pcb valve amps and replacing them with handwired tweed clones. the 5e3 will replace my trusty blues junior and the tweed deluxe will be superceded by a 5F4 coming in a few weeks. the traynor ycv40 is up for grabs right now. the pcb amps sound great but as time goes by they will become harder to repair. my fender blues deluxe is 14 years old already.

btw its good to talk amps - thers another dude on the board who is into that stuff as well umm black lab??

Originally Posted by old_picker

that head will be soooo loud man

not a great fan of master volume amps myself
i tend to crank the master to 100% and run the pre at whatever is needed
i like the sound of the amp with the master full open as you can feel the power underneath....and after about 3 they start to to sing ...after 5 your taking off and after 7 mmmmmm ears are hurting

i am getting out of the pcb valve amps and replacing them with handwired tweed clones. the 5e3 will replace my trusty blues junior and the tweed deluxe will be superceded by a 5F4 coming in a few weeks. the traynor ycv40 is up for grabs right now. the pcb amps sound great but as time goes by they will become harder to repair. my fender blues deluxe is 14 years old already.

btw its good to talk amps - thers another dude on the board who is into that stuff as well umm black lab??

that sounds like a good idea, maybe making a few tweaks to the circuit. i know what you mean about not liking master volume amps, im trying to get a similar sound to a non-master-vol amp being overdriven by using pentodes in the preamp. im hoping that getting them to overdrive will give a similar sound to power tubes overdriving. the reason being that i wont be getting anywhere near the volume levels needed to distort on such a big amp, and id like to have a bit of dirt without pedals. im not a fan of pedals (atleast distortion pedals, id quite like to make myself a wah pedal at some stage)

Originally Posted by black_labb

ive just test strung up the bass after making the nut (it does need 2 of the slots deeper, but im having too much fun playng the bass without any electronics atm) its feeling great. that crack is holding up perfectly, i was going to tune it and used the tuner because i thought id see what it felt like when tuned to the right tuning, but i didnt know that the tuner plays the octave above (ie guitar frequency), which is fine when tuning in most cases. i however knew i was most likely off. i started winding the tuners to get to that note, and then thought i would check to see what a guitars frequency was, as this sounded very close to guitar frequencies. i didnt quite get to the guitars E but i was probably half way there, so i know that the crack is going to be perfectly fine. the bass is nice and loud with some nice sustain without the electronics. very happy with its sound (but thats not going to stop me from fitting electronics)

Good to know that NG Rosewood sounds good, might have some high figure stuff on the way for a project of mine

According to Ellis here are it's properties, how did you find it to work with?

"COLOURS: Like Koa, golden tan to cinnamon brown, to deep brown red
CHARACTER: Mostly straight, can be interlocked or wavy grain, can be mottled. Moderately fine texture
COMPARES: Koa, only harder. Honduran Rosewood
TONAL: Good for fingerstyle playing"

Nice looking builds btw

Starting some major timber hunts (Got 4 builds going at the moment...one High Figure NG Rosewood build, Hopefully a fully aussie timbers build with Blackwood and QLD Maple, my v and single cut as you know)

Though my Blackwood hunts were fruitless (wish i lived in Melbourne!)

I hope to pick up some guitar timbers from Otto's here in Adelaide, i wonder what they have in their over priced stock?

Nick, That's a disappointment that there's nowhere in Adelaide you can get Blackwoood from.
Have you contacted Dayvo off this forum as to where he get's his stuff from? He's out your way.

cheers, Stu

Yeah there will be somewhere (though, in the sizes i want...probably not), Dayvo knew of nowhere here in SA, If I'm ever up your way i will probably buy a fair bit and take it back and store it for later use.

I'm not too sure what other Aussie timbers work well, look nice and have mahogany like tone.

Apparently N.G. Rosewood has a warm tone, not an Aussie native though so it won't be used in my Aussie timbers build (i was originally planning a blackwood body/neck with 16mm figured QLD Maple top )

How about Qld walnut ?
Dunno about the mahogany comparisons though.



cheers, Stu

Whoa...nice timbers, Qld Walnut looks nice, what sorta weight are we looking at? Also, what size roughly are those blanks and what's a rough price estimate per l/m for that size from a timber yard?

Thanks for the help Stu, i envy your wood collection!

Originally Posted by RGM

Whoa...nice timbers, Qld Walnut looks nice, what sorta weight are we looking at? Also, what size roughly are those blanks and what's a rough price estimate per l/m for that size from a timber yard?

Thanks for the help Stu, i envy your wood collection!

You haven't seen anything yet. Consider it the tip of the iceberg.
The problem is I keep buying more than I build!!!!!

This gear is q/sawn 38x175mm 3.1 metres cost me a whopping
$45 per l/m. ouch !!! 3 chambered guitar bodies worth. Fairly heavy too. It'll get used for sure on a few projects already started.

This neck in the pic is also Qld walnut.is


cheers, Stu

$45 per l/m isn't so bad, in all reality i would need 2 metres of the same sized stuff, which would yield two bodies and two necks. (plus, 3 metres would certainly not fit in my car, unless it was cut into bits first i guess)

I used to have a lot of QLD Maple, African Mahogany, figured Victorian Ash in a pile that resembled yours, but i'm slowly becoming a reseller to my next door neighbour...Making a nice little profit too!