Reply With QuoteFantastic idea and thanks for sharing, really looking forward to seeing how this develops and the stages involved :)
Just wish my attempts at playing guitar justified having one made.
Cheers,
Gary
Given we WIS types like the finer details and have an unhealthy obsession with knowing HOW stuff is made, I thought some of you may enjoy following this. I'm having a semi acoustic guitar hand made. The luthier is a friend of mine. Hopefully by the end of this thread in a month or 2... I'll have his website finished and can post up the link for you to have a nosey at his awesome work.
I've played guitar for many years, but being able to have such a hand in choosing the wood, the inlay, the tuners.. everything... its quite an experience. I'll start at the start. The wood. Its 'Bocote' from the South American forests. I fell for its hypnotic grain :shock:
I'll add pics over the next weeks. The build started last weekend - so I've a bit to catch up on, but this will start you off!
Fantastic idea and thanks for sharing, really looking forward to seeing how this develops and the stages involved :)
Just wish my attempts at playing guitar justified having one made.
Cheers,
Gary
This will be good! Been strumming again lately on my 10yr old Simon&Patrick SP6 which belies it's price, and had a plink on a pal's custom built Fylde recently.You will have a beautiful instrument shortly!
F.T.F.A.
The Bicote looks fabulous, looking forward to future updates
Fantastic! I'd love to build my own guitar but I fear it'd be good only for fire wood!
What tonal properties does bocote have?
Oooh can't wait to see this develop!
I've been saving up my pennies for a while now to have a Lowden acoustic made. Still a few years off at the moment though.
Hold on to your money! I cant reveal too much until his website is finished (which I'm 75% done) - but the luthier making mine has 25 years experience with Lowden.Originally Posted by will852
With one of these, all are unique. You pick the wood from stocks - choose EVERYTHING. I've even done my own design which will be inlaid in abalone on the 12th fret.
More pics later tonight!...
Heres the official line on it:
Bocote (cordia gerascanthus) is from the same family as Ziricote and is found in the same regions of Central America. Bocote features a tobacco brown color with distinct, parallel black lines and occasionally landscape figuring. It has a distinct tap tone similar to what you'd expect with most rosewoods.
8)
Looking forward forward to updates even more now. Please let us know when the guy's website is up and running too.Heres the official line on it:
Bocote (cordia gerascanthus) is from the same family as Ziricote and is found in the same regions of Central America. Bocote features a tobacco brown color with distinct, parallel black lines and occasionally landscape figuring. It has a distinct tap tone similar to what you'd expect with most rosewoods.
Fantastic. I'll be watching this with interest. What a beautiful piece of wood to use too. It will look stunning when it's finished.
I've also started building my own guitar. Mine will be Electric and made entirely of Mahogany. I've done the easy part and bought all of the parts I need so it's just the difficult wood cutting part left to do.
I'll post pictures of mine when it's done depending upon how much of a mess I make of it :D
Very intriguing!Hold on to your money! I cant reveal too much until his website is finished (which I'm 75% done) - but the luthier making mine has 25 years experience with Lowden.
With one of these, all are unique. You pick the wood from stocks - choose EVERYTHING. I've even done my own design which will be inlaid in abalone on the 12th fret.
More pics later tonight!...
I adore Lowdens, so 25 years experience with them is certainly not a bad thing in my book! :lol:
I'll be watching like a hawk!
JOINTING THE BACK
OK. Here we go. The back is made up of 2 halves - spliced from 1 piece of wood so that they are "bookmarked". i.e symetrical in their grain. You have the choice of any combination of inset/inlay to place up this join line. You can have ebony, maple, pear, rosewood, ziricote (etc etc) - its up to you! In my case, I like this grain so much and its perfect symmetry that I wanted no inlay. I want the grain to meet without distraction.
First - the 2 halves must be planed square:
Next, adhesive is applied to the join and the 2 halves are clamped down in a custom made jig
Once its bonded, its time to cut. The previous chalk lines were from the tonewood supplier, Now, the REAL lines go on. Here are the dimensions of the guitar. By the way, I've opted for a cutaway to the body.
For my guitar though... Bocote, despite its good looks here, is a rather weedy looking thing. Not the biggest of trunks. This will present itself a big issue - but one that my luthier is ready for!
OK. You see the issue?
Here it is a tad closer. Time to work some magic and splice in some wings. Note the pencil lines, where the best match lines up
And here we have the complete back. Theres excess adhesive drying in....
But when all is done... its an amazing piece of work!
Finally, it goes into the mother of all belt sanders :lol: It really is some bit of kit. Conveyor belt draws the piece in as the drum does its work.
Next time, we'll start to brace the back.
Hadn't spotted the extra bits on the end. Great job!
Last pic for tonight... a glance at where the guitar will live next - in a custom made cradle. The foot of this cradle (left of bench) is concave. The roof is solid. You can see many struts of wood in situ, bent under pressure. Here, the back will be held firmly in place as it becomes the gently curved back of the guitar. As it stays here, the sides will be built around it.
More tomorrow :wink:
Excellent thread - I'll be following it with interest.
Just commissioned Jon Shuker in Sheffield to build me a bass to my exact specifications, and I also get teasing photos like these of progress. What's the ETA on yours?
Good stuff - I'm sure you too can't wait! ETA on mine is undiscussed... because that'll raise an expected ETA on his website from me :lol: In saying that, I'd say March/April.
He also builds bass and electric guitars. He has been commissioned by Red Bull F1 to build a one off for them. The body is a solid bull... quite the ticket. Cant reveal any pics on that one yet until it gets an official handover.
Heard of Goodfellow's bass guitars? Well, my luthier was one of the 2 chaps who built them. His work is amazing... heres a sampler for you. Walnut. Oh... and its got a matching semi acoustic, made from the same cut of wood 8)
Beautiful through neck
Detail of the neck from the back
View of the back. Check out the electrics!
On show 8)
The matching pair
And the backs
Interesting thread.
Must be great to be able to build something so lovely from scratch.
Cheers,
Neil.
I built an electric from scratch but they're relatively easy as most of the sound comes from the pickups and the amp. An acoustic is in a whole different league as you're at the mercy of the sonic properties of the bit of tree you picked and the skill of the luthier to make the most of it. I'm not sure I'd have the bottle to order a custom made acoustic I couldn't play first, the suspense would kill me. I'm really looking forward to seeing the results though.
Yes - even though I have more access to his workshop than a normal customer (because I'm building his website) its still a nervous thing :? I got to try 2 guitars that he's made and they were beautiful things to play. I'm not so much concerned with the feel and sound - but that I get the combination of woods right and don't make a pig's ear of it. When he has the neck carved, I have the chance to have it profiled to suit my feel. I come more from a lead guitar background, so will reflect that in the profile of it.
On his site, there's an "example builds" page where you can see all his previous builds. That has helped steer me immensely, being able to see others and get ideas.
Nice! I had a Les Paul made by the late, great Sid Poole years ago, and was able to choose the wood from his stock myself. He showed me the mother-of-pearl blanks he was going to use to cut up for inlays as well. Hope yours turns out as well. Already off to a good start.
BRACING THE BACK
Now its time to strengthen the back via braces/struts. First, a central spine is created from off cuts, bonded into place and then given a rounded profile by hand. The lower portion is chiselled away (you'll see why later in the build).
Next, slots are hand sawed away to allow the horizontal struts in. Every time I look at this, I'm sure I'd leave a dirty big stripe in the wood :roll:
Here we have the struts in place
And now, bonding into place in the cradle. The back is pressed down hard into the bowl.
Really enjoying seeing this come together. 8)
If only I could play... :D
This is such a good thread. I love hand made things (after all it's my line of work, not guitars) but to see somebody else's craft through various stages is so interesting.
I'm getting workshop envy too :roll:
Roger
SHAPING THE SIDES
I'm nearly caught up to real time now! This was done just 2 days ago. Cutting and shaping the sides.
Here they are, alongside the template. The sides of the guitar are 100mm deep at the neck, tapering up to 120mm at the lower bout.
Carefully, the 2 halves are taped together and a pencil line drawn.
Cutting time.
And back into the drum sander. Down to 2.2mm this time.
Here we have the sides with the inner back. I'd asked to have the busy half of the grain next to the back - allowing the finer grain to meet the soundboard. This IMO carries the grains well - blending from mad to uniform (if that makes sense to you :lol: )
And finally, a closer look at the grains.
Hope you are enjoying the installments. I'm going to be calling over to help bend the sides next week :bounce: That will be fun... and I'm bringing an HD camcorder on a tripod! From straight (as you can see above) to shaped and bent in under 5 minutes! Thats not what I'd expected. I thought you'd have to take it easy.. take your time. Not so. Wet the sides and use a custom made bending tool. Here's a sneak peek at one of the website images to help you get what I mean!
Fantastic project, look forward to following with interest
Fascinating thread. I would be very interested to hear the guitar when complete. Any chance of posting a clip or a sample perhaps?
Choosing the woods
Well, yesterday was a FUN day :lol: I got to pick and sift through the racks and REALLY make my choices. This is where your personal taste gets to be indulged. Its also where you could create the most expensive basterdised guitar known to man :bom: So..... here's what I matched up.
Soundboard: Adirondack. The best of tonewoods for response and so it should be. £200 worth (and that's the cost price). This one has some lovely features to it - with "bear claw" figuring in the centre. You cant see it in the pics, but when its lacquered, it'll be lovely.
Bindings: Maple.
Rosette: Clara Walnut. I tried nearly 20 swatches and this worked for me. A sample was wet with white spirits to show the finished look.. and I loved it. It will be in laid with paua shell inlay.
Headstock facing: I tried and tried combinations.. but I dont want to over do it. Less is more. The makers logo will be on the headstock in shell inlay. So, I went for ebony. Its a PERFECT match for the dark grain lines in the Bocote back n sides.
Machine heads/tuners: Its teh Gotoh 510's. Best there is. I was able to pick and choose from 5 colour combos. These antique gold just clicked with me. They are gorgeous.. and match the yellow hue of the wood.
So there you have it chaps... my guitar in bits. Hoping you like my choices...
Well, you're in luck. Its being fitted with a Fishman Eclipse acoustic pickup system and I've a Boss BR-800 home studio. So, if you can excuse my duff notes, of course. I'd love to share that with you guys.
Thanks for the update! :thumbright:
Adirondack is the perfect top for tonal depth and harmonic complexity. I have one on my Martin and that is 68 years old now. Just gets better with age, more mellow but with great depth and tonal development.
Best thread in ages and dont even play 8)
I just love good things especially custom made ones.
Cheers,
Ben
..... for I have become the Jedi of flippers
" an extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife "
Great to have that confirmed with someone who's got one! Thanks :wink: I'm in the middle of editing a video for youtube - the cutting of the soundboard and rosette.
I've now discovered that a £450 laptop is NOT up to the job of editing 1080p HD video :evil:
Cutting the soundboard
Next the soundboard gets shaped.
After drilling the pilot hole for the rosette, the template is dropped into place and a pencil line drawn
Pencil line done.. ready for the saw
And we're done. Took all of about 2 mins.
Making the rosette
I always thought a rosette was just glued into the soundhole by its edges. Not so... think about it - it would snap off if hit. So, watch and learn :wink:
The soundboard gets clamped down
and the router gets to work. Its SO sharp that the chipping was soft as cotton wool. The cut is made deep enough to create a base onto which the rosette will click down onto.
No, its not on fire!! :lol: We held it to a light bulb to show the sliver that was left
Now, the clara walnut gets the same treatment.. with a different bit of course
Again... not QUITE cut down. Just a sliver left for now so that it can go through the sander in 1 piece
And here we are. I even got a free coaster! lol.
The rosette will be grooved later and hand inlaid in paua or abalone shell
And to finish... I made a video of the whole process and its on Youtube. The web links to the website and build blog are not yet active (2 weeks max left before it goes live!!) but please, have a watch and enjoy. Its my 1st attempt at a Youtube video so go easy on me
http://youtu.be/kSe54q7g7XA
Interesting vid!
Hmmm, perhaps I should learn...
No wait!
Watches, cameras, cars, bikes, gadgets, etc.... budget couldn't take it... :shock: :shock: :D :D
I'm sensing workshop envy any time.. now :lol:
You've got it!
Roger
That looks like fun! Something to do when I retire! Thanks for sharing.
Great thread, fascinating to see.
Enjoying the thread, keep it coming :)
Fantastic thread, keep them coming! I'm fascinated by people who have the patience and skill to build something like this. Wish I could play the guitar.
Agreed.
I'm such a sucker for hand built products; especially where this level of craftsmanship is involved.
Really looking forward to updates.
The guy is a watch lover too chaps. You want to see the watch boxes he can make! Must get a pic of his next time I'm over. Looks like solid rosewood. Velvet lined.... Very very nice.
Fascinating to watch a craftsman at work ... following this with interest and looking forward to the end result ..
INLAYING THE ROSETTE
Now that the soundboard is set, it returned to the router again to have a single channel cut into it.
And here is one of the many paua shells that will click in:
Heres what a Paua shell looks like in its natural form.. they are truly amazing:
All in, lots of glue to sand off later
and the big weight again.
Hand built instruments must have taken a lot longer before the advent of routers.
Cheers,
Neil.
just caught up with the thread - it's really coming together, can't wait to see this progress
Been a while... so its time for a mini catchup on my build for you chaps...
Now that the rosette is inlaid.. time to sand off that excess glue
How nice is that? Less is more dont you think?
Pop over to youtube at this point.. I've made a video of the rosette being inlaid. http://youtu.be/5pn1yGUoOl4
Now, at this stage, that soundboard isnt stiff. Its a thin piece of fine wood remember. So, time to start bracing it. Now, you'd think that strengtheners are just that but its not the case. Their profile and shape determines the tone that gets caught and transmitted to the body of the guitar. Too thin a profile = not enough bass tones. Too thick = too muddy!
The bracing begins...
This next step is just great. Bending the sides. I dont have any pictures yet of this stage - I was too busy videoing it!! :D
Maybe like me, you thought that bending wood from straight to half a guitar body must take days. Slow.. slow work? Well, how does 5 minutes sound?! Really. Heat + a little water. The one thing I cant convey to you here is the smell of that lovely South American wood hissing and sizzling. Something else. Hope you enjoy this one:
http://youtu.be/a41G6cPDq_w
Another great update Johnny!
As you said, I'd have expected the shaping of the wood to take a lot longer.
Posting Permissions
