Thread: recent progress- post yours

Originally Posted by addo

OK, a few pictures. The lone neck is my brother's present for the festive season. I'll be scalloping it this week with the round Microplanes, as I've done with a couple of other necks he already has (Blackmore obsessive). It'll actually be installed onto a vintage 1986 Ibanez Roadstar that runs two DiMarzio "PAF Pro" humbuckers (red ones, at that - it was the era!). Nearly done; about three hours in the scallop, a couple on the resand plus topcoats then install time.

Ah, the Roadstar. Best guitar Ibanez ever made. Well, I like them a lot anyway, I own three. I don't really understand how they are considered vintage though, compared to a 50's or 60's Fender for example. Ibanez didn't even really build an electric guitar of note until the mid 70's when they started putting out what most people call the 'lawsuit' models. I have a '74 Les Paul goldtop as well.

That will be one nice guitar with a scalloped neck. Is it the Roadstar you are putting it on right? Why did you go for the Jazzmaser headstock? I thought the original Roadstar headstock was pretty unique itself.

Vintage is usually a word appended to things as justification for a pricetag that's otherwise unjustifiable!

The Ibanez head was never something that really grabbed me, and - remembering we're catering to a Blackmore fan - the other option of a late '60s Strat head would have looked a little common. Besides that, I'm making it and he gets it for nix, so the detail's my call!

Some of the things done by Ibanez at the time of Roadstar production really made them stand out - like hardened screws for the bridge mounting, and decent alloy steel for the bridge baseplate. This one came with a sort of UHMW polymer nut, too.

You do lose longevity of the bass frequencies with a scalloped neck. The gain is neck flexibility. I know of one that flexed so far in a moment of er... "artistic expression" the skunk stripe popped out - no cracks, though! Can't wait to wrap this one up (will be nice if the rain ever stops...).

Cheers, Adam.

Just thought I'd post my favorite guitar, I've had it nearly 10 years now and It's always played well, I can get any sound I want out of it from twangy blues to hard as nails metal shred. This thing is so versatile I can hardly ever go to anything else.

Lookin good Adam. I reckon your brother will be a happy camper in a couple of weeks

My recently completed '59 Junior
Brazilian mahogany body and neck, macassar ebony fingerboard, gps dogear P90

Originally Posted by addo

Vintage is usually a word appended to things as justification for a pricetag that's otherwise unjustifiable!

I would have to agree with you on that. I guess many people are using the word vintage to convince that the guitar is rare, or at least not just another guitar you can find anywhere.

There's always something to get in the way. A bit like the car-shuffling saga in The Castle, I wanted to scallop that lefty neck but found another stale job more pressing.

Nearly finished this one about three years back, but at the last minute had an "un-co" attack and dropped the bridge/pickup assembly on the painted and polished face. It dinged the wood up and caused the Lake Placid Blue paint to delaminate. Rather than get annoyed, I sighed and hung it up to wait for when I felt more like fixing things...

Anyway, it's back on the front burner and I will get the neck tidied up over the next few evenings. That's due for a factory-style satin finish so after the first couple of coats I'll dress its frets and fit the nut, then lightly scuff the lacquer and topcoat. Brazilian fingerboard, clay dots, Stew-Mac 149 fretwire and single action (authentic) 10 gauge truss rod.

Looking forward to getting it out the house - giving it to a mate in Taylor's Lakes ASAP.

Cheers, Adam.

well ive just got the walnut guitar strung up. no electronics yet (need to make the bridge pup still and drill the holes in the pickguard for the pots and switches) but it sounds great acoustically and looks great. love the danish oil finish on the neck, gives it an extremely smooth feel.

the neck is quite thin (around 19mm at the first fret) but seems to be very stiff. i havent needed to adjust the truss rod at all, in reality i probably should have more relief than i have at the moment. the neck is quarter sawn maple with a wenge strip down the centre. with an striped ebony fretboard. its strung up using 10's, but might pick up some 11's to get a bit more relief from the neck. ill let the neck settle to the tension before i do anything though.

as for the (acoustic) sound, it is much brighter than the first guitar i made (a mahogany body and a neck i bought which was maple with a rosewood fretboard) sounds very snappy with a nice sustain.

i need to level the fretboard as there are a few frets which make a bit of buzzing.

the guitar almost needed some major work, as i seemed to have drilled the bridge post holes (a tom bridge) a tiny bit too wide and couldnt get the bridge on. i ended up getting it on by putting the posts into the bridge and then screwing them into the bushings a bit on each side at a time, and eventually got it down there. probably good for sustain as they are now more firmly coupled.

got any pics of your walnut guitar?

Peter

Originally Posted by peterbrown

got any pics of your walnut guitar?

Peter

see the first page of the thread. looks better with the pcikguard imo

I do find the body shape of your walnut build very appealing, BlackLabb.

The other thing that really interests me is your reverse neck screw set-up.
It's very unique and you're in a great position with that build, to do a bit of R & D on the positives of such a different style of bolt-on (and glue).

Considering that the string tension pull is wanting to lift the neck out of the neck pocket when under strain, I wonder if your way of screwing from the top of the neck and into the body is inherently stronger than the standard fashion ?
These are questions for ya , Blacklabb. After all, you are an engineering student, right? If anyone's gonna nut it out, it's you.

I'm also interested in how it effects the characteristics with the pick-up mounted directly onto the neck is also worth some serious analysis.
I'm all ears with what your thoughts are , once she's got a few hours under the belt.

'Outside of the square' ideas and very interesting too.

cheers, Stu

I too was interested by black_labb's neck construction. It reminds me of the Invisibolt BC Rich guitars.

http://www.bcrich.com/learn_necks.html

thanks for the good comments stu
the idea behind the tennon shap was to get more of a longer join into the instrument. its all levers. imagine holding something long with 2 hands and having them close together. it takes alot of force to hold it firmly, but moving the hands apart makes it much easier. this is the same with screws or glue holding a neck on. effectively the idea was to give it a longer area to hold the neck with.
i was originaly going to make it a bolt on with 6 screws (the 4 that are there and another 2 coming from the back where they are located for most guitars. i decided on gluing it when i realised that it could work just as well if not better as i had made the joint nice and tight. the 4 extra screws were in there as i wanted to make sure that the joint held, but in reality they are barely tightened as i stripped the first one out (think the wood was softened from the wet glue as i put them in when gluing). id say the screws wont do anything.

as for testing, it will be pretty hard to do much testing as there are alot of things that are fairly unique. it might feel more solid, but that may be because the maple is quartersawn as opposed to flatsawn like most every maple neck.

i will deffinately see what i can tell with it as i get it properly set up.

will also take recent photos of the build once i get the electronics finished and in.

Originally Posted by Hammered

I too was interested by black_labb's neck construction. It reminds me of the Invisibolt BC Rich guitars.

http://www.bcrich.com/learn_necks.html

didnt see that last night, must have posted at the same time as me.

havent seen that before, it seems like a good idea. i dont know if my idea is particularly useful as a commercial design. i did it because i wanted the sustain of a neckthrough and not lose the effect on tone that the body wood had to offer.