[Silvertone]

Hello all. I'm new here and relatively new to guitar building. I normally hang out in the MLP forum but just found this Canadian forum and am pretty happy about that, as I am Canadian. I live in Hamilton ON.

I've probably built 6 or 7 full guitars and 8 or 10 guitar kits in various forms. I am a hobby builder and build for friends and people I meet online mainly to finance my addiction for wood working equipment and guitar building.

This is a custom build for a fellow forumite on MLP. As the title suggests, his name is Archey. He contacted me with a design in mind and we worked together to complete a kit guitar for him to finish up.

Here is the design -

We played around with this for a while until it was to Archey's liking then went straight to 3d in Fusion 360, which is my CAD / CAM software of choice lately.

top -

back -

I had some help with some of the advanced 3d modeling but once that was done creating renderings, drawing files, and CAM toolpaths are actually quite simple. Here are the related construction drawings from Fusion 360.

Cheers Peter.

 

[Budda]

Interested, but no pics!

 

[Silvertone]

Signed up for the Gold Membership - so they should show up now?

Regards Peter.

 

[cboutilier]

That looks really neat.

 

[Sneaky]

Wow, I think that is the first time I have seen a guitar with the grain running diagonally. Looks really nice. You should put the output jack right where the circle is in the woodgrain on the lower bout.

 

[vadsy]

will the grain stay diagonal or is that just the way the digital rendering came out?

 

[Silvertone]

will the grain stay diagonal or is that just the way the digital rendering came out?

That's just the rendering. The grain will be parallel to the center of the guitar and neck.

Regards Peter.

 

[Silvertone]

Here is the rough lumber I purchased for this build. This is the upside of having a decent workshop. I can buy cheaper rough cut lumber. Although the wenge was anything but cheap.

I will slip match the two piece body and book match the wenge for the top.

Jointed, Planed, thicknessed and glued up the body -

resawed the top -

quite yellowish on the inside fresh off the bandsaw. This should darken up or atleast turn more brown with the air getting at it, or light, can't remember which?

Same procedure for the top glue up - Joint, plane, thickness and glue up -

onto the neck - this will be a 5 laminate neck with wenge skunk stripe. White limba neck.

Apparently I am only allowed 7 images per post so the rest will have to wait until the next post.

Cheers Peter.

 

[Vally]

Here is the rough lumber I purchased for this build. This is the upside of having a decent workshop. I can buy cheaper rough cut lumber. Although the wenge was anything but cheap.
View attachment 228014

I will slip match the two piece body and book match the wenge for the top.
View attachment 228016
Jointed, Planed, thicknessed and glued up the body -
View attachment 228018
resawed the top -
View attachment 228020
quite yellowish on the inside fresh off the bandsaw. This should darken up or atleast turn more brown with the air getting at it, or light, can't remember which?
View attachment 228022
Same procedure for the top glue up - Joint, plane, thickness and glue up -
View attachment 228024
onto the neck - this will be a 5 laminate neck with wenge skunk stripe. White limba neck.
View attachment 228028
Apparently I am only allowed 7 images per post so the rest will have to wait until the next post.

Cheers Peter.

Darn

 

[Budda]

Cool! The body reminds me of the EB bass currently in our jamspace.

 

[Silvertone]

Cool - I think it is modeled a bit after a PRS with the sharp horns added. We will not be recessing the knobs though.

Cheers Peter.

 

[Silvertone]

So I've glued up the neck laminations using all the clamps I have. ;-)

Planed the fret board face flat and checked the glue up - looks good.

I have a little jig I use to cut head stock angles on my band saw -

I'll start using some CNC machining now. I cut the truss rod slot and truss rod access on my CNC machine.

Cheers Peter.

 

[Silvertone]

So while I have the neck in the CNC I cut the back neck profile and the taper. I'll use a template for the headstock shape.

neck profile. No carve on this one just a profile as Archey wants to carve it himself. It's a great starting point because it gives you a centreline that is the right thickness right down the neck. You just have to carve the shape keeping that straight line and your golden. ;-)

Then cut the taper and out pops the neck.

So then onto the head stock. I cut Archey a head stock template out of hard maple so he can use it for future builds. It gave me a chance to test out my tiny fret slotting bit on his head stock logo as well and also placement of the truss rod access route.

I actually did a little video for the last letter to show Archey how the machine works -
VIDEO

Cheers Peter.

 

[Silvertone]

I cut out the head stock veneer which is made of wenge and CNC'd it. I made it slightly larger around the outside so I can glue up and trim to the edge with the template that was created.

I glued it on and then affixed the template using some small screws through the tuner holes to affix.

Then I use a template bit in my router table to follow the template taking light passes to minimize tearout possibilities.

Once that is complete I can drill for tuner locations.

That's about as far as I am going with the neck. It will be up to Archey to carve the neck and smooth out the transition from volute to back of head stock.

Cheers Peter.

 

[Silvertone]

Back to the body and top. I planed and thicknessed the white limba body and will put it in the CNC machine to cut the wiring channel before gluing on the top.

index holes were drilled in the back of the body that match up with holes in the spoilboard, so I can machine things on both sides and have them lined up perfectly.

Glued up the top -

back in the CNC machine and index holes but in the top and then flipped over to machine the back.

back carve -

flip over and carve the front -

I made a little video showing the CNC machine work through all the toolpaths on the front carve. Here is the link - TOP CARVE CNC

Cheers Peter.

 

[RBlakeney]

If I had a cnc machine I can't imagine how many guitars I would have. Looks great btw.

 

[knight_yyz]

If I had the space I would own an x-carve by now

 

[Jaxty]

Peter - that looks awesome! I think we met at Exotic Woods on Saturday... man, that CNC machine is really the way to go long term, eh?

Is it getting that nice fretboard wood that you were looking at?

 

[Silvertone]

Thanks Ty - No this one is a kit that does not include a fret board. The Ziricote is for a friend, actually the guy that helped me with the carves. He is really good at solid modeling so he helps me with most of my needs and we just exchange services. Yeah the CNC is great. Especially for repeat-ability. Unfortunately I do a lot of one offs on it currently but I'm getting a bit of a library of guitars I can cut on it now. Just working on an SG, LP, Strat and Teles.

Cheers Peter.

 

[KapnKrunch]

Are you interested in semi-hollow designs or strictly solid body?