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  #16  
Old 02-15-2021, 09:30 AM
printer2 printer2 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Arnold View Post
The pitch can be cleaned up with turpentine. In a worst case, you can rout it a bit larger.
In general, I like to see the pitch solidiified before I consider spruce to be seasoned. It can be done with heat. On most of the red spruce I have cut, the pitch sets in 2 or 3 years just from normal air drying.
I think I will try the turpentine and then splice in. If it does not go well I can always cut it out. I have some other wood stashed but I did not want to blow any of it when I was unsure where I was going with this. I never expected the pitch pocket though. The Mark II version of this guitar will most likely use a piece of poplar or Spanish cedar I have. But that one will be after a few of the projects I need to finish first. This was more to fill an immediate need. I will have to decide if this will be an acoustic or electric, maybe a silent guitar.
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  #17  
Old 02-15-2021, 09:45 AM
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So are you making a neck through acoustic guitar? If so what is your thinking on that?
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  #18  
Old 02-15-2021, 11:36 AM
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So are you making a neck through acoustic guitar? If so what is your thinking on that?
I was unsure where I was going with this one. The bevel and belly cut complicates things. So I put off the decision and carved the neck. I could cut it off which makes it easier to mess around through the sound hole later if need be. But I don't know how well the structure will end up. Also I was unsure whether to just go electric also. Something I need to figure out pretty soon.
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Old 02-15-2021, 04:26 PM
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Made an executive decision. Going to do a Yamaha styled (sort of) silent guitar. Can actually make TV time productive.

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  #20  
Old 02-23-2021, 09:35 AM
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Stumbling forward with no plan in sight. I would not have built it like this if I knew it was going to be an electric, but here we are. From this point the idea was to maybe use hardwood strips to sandwich the pickup openings. The shape will be made up of glued together 2x3's. So measure twice and cut once right? But if you change your mind not wanting the long horn of the Strat and decide to go Tele after you cut it? Sigh, who ever said my life would be easy? I glued on two pieces then changed my mind





Rout out the rest of the area needed for the pickups. Cut out the shape, used a pattern and a pattern bit to get the shape close. Sadly a cheap Chinese which seems like they did not bother sharpening. A file and belt sander has things looking more promising.

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  #21  
Old 02-23-2021, 09:56 PM
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Did the bevels and did a generous round over. Now I have to decide to chamber from the front or back. I am leaning towards the back but the rib cut complicates things. Mind you, the bevel in the front complicates things. Not sure why I do these things to myself.

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  #22  
Old 02-24-2021, 07:35 PM
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Just because I planed down the back and took more off on the bevil side. then I routed out the naughty bits. I forgot I had less meat on the bevel side and broke through in a few places. going to have to repair that yet. But as it sits it weights roughly two pounds. With the back covers and hardware I think it is in the range I can live with.



See, I am taking this forum heading to heart. I am both Building and Repairing.



Did a quick repair on the body. we will see how it turns out tomorrow.

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Last edited by printer2; 02-24-2021 at 09:36 PM.
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  #23  
Old 03-02-2021, 09:24 AM
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Routed a ledge to mount a spruce plate on. I need to refine it a little more.



I decided to forgo the steel bridge plate and back pickup. The two increases the guitar weight by 50%, I did like the idea of hum cancelling but we will see if I can live without it. I can always open it up again.



Part of the reason I went with making this a semi-solid body was the cheap guitar that I hacked up and put in an arm bevel and rib cut. I found the comfort level is great with it. The only downsides with it is that it is only 24" scale, wide and flat fretboard. Then there is some fret buzz as you go up the neck. I did do a California neck reset on it but it could have used a hair more angle. Not going to bother with it, it is fine for the short term for which it was modified for.

Which brought me to the point of making the thin acoustic. There was not as much need if I put in the arm and rib cuts. So it can have a greater internal volume and there will be less praying things turn out right. I still want to try a thin body acoustic to see what is possible but that is for another time, I am backlogged as far as projects go right now.
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  #24  
Old 04-18-2021, 05:41 PM
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You know how you are suppose to stick with a plan? Well that is not me. Mind you I never really had one.

I picked up a neck mounted pickup for $20. Filled in the neck pickup slot. Two steps forward, one back. Now I can rout away most of the middle section of the inside lightening up the body. Because of the width of the original pickup I left more material than I can get away with now. I will leave a block where the bridge sits and glue the back to it. This one has been on hold because I weighed an acoustic about the same size I made and it came in a fair bit lighter. I will eventually do a built up guitar rather than hack away style.

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  #25  
Old 05-04-2021, 03:18 PM
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Darn it. I was going to make a bridge plate and position it so I would know how much more wood to hog out. I was just going to leave a section where the screws anchored in and take away all but a section in the middle. Just never got around to doing it, today I said I would get in and work on it. Of course the plates of wood I was going to use to fill in the back originally were sitting there and I wanted to see which Ones were usable to me now. Being squirrel-like, I focused on one piece and started shaping it to fit in the one side. By the time I got it close to where I wanted it I realized I was going to route where it fit into away. (Insert swear word).



So now I can use this one for a pattern or leave the ledge where it sits on and make a new one to fit what I envisioned what I was going to do or just leave it as is, forget about the extra ounces. Mind you I can do the other side now and once it is done hog out a section in the middle with the ledges the two are on to hold a middle plate. And who said my life was going to be easy. I do it to myself though.
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  #26  
Old 05-09-2021, 07:58 PM
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One step forward, two steps back. Or was it the other way? I decided not to hollow out any more of the middle, I spent the time making the plates I might as well just say good enough. Which brings me back to the pickup. Since I was leaving the material I might as well put in a Tele neck styled pickup. I will keep the neck mount one for a archtop. Good enough reason to build one, right? "I had the pickup already." Works for me. So the cutout for the neck pickup that I filled in? Routed it out again. This time I am going to use a cheap pickup that was intended for an acoustic. They just copied the Tele shape more or less.

Already had the one back plate glued in, made an aluminum plate for the bridge and volume control and jack. No tone, I will only be a couple feet from the amp. After I figured out where the holes for the volume and jack went I cut a hole for back access. Once that was done nothing stopping me from gluing it in. Had to get creative clamping it all together. Tomorrow I will have to do some bodywork on the body refining some curves and filling in some boo-boos. Drill the tuner holes and then prep for paint.

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  #27  
Old 05-11-2021, 07:17 PM
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Knew this was going to be a hack job but I even exceeded my expectations there. Because of the complex curves and the booboos among other things I mainly cared about the neck, the rest is just an interface for the strings and me. I did touch up some spots with filler and knew I could sped a few more hours getting it paint ready, well this is not that kind of guitar. Not like the guitar will rust with the rust paint, thank you Tremclad. I was just going to do the orange but saw I had a yellow, not rust paint though, did a poor excuse for a sunburst. But it is in keeping with the concept of the guitar.

Just wait until you see the bridge and control plate. I used some aluminum from hard drives when they were rated in kilobytes. Or whatever. Need to put some dots in the fretboard. Drill the tuner holes, frets, figure out the pickup mounting. Coming along nicely. To put it in perspective, to play I will have to use a towel or something between the guitar and me while playing. Won't be spending much time admiring it. Maybe the acoustic one. Already thinking of it. But I have to complete a guitar and a neck for other people first.

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  #28  
Old 08-16-2022, 12:56 PM
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Going to do the acoustic version now. I have a top with a rosette already glued up with the type of spruce I wanted to use, glued up the back with the same type of set. I found a piece of lumber that had a grain pattern that looked like it will sort of match the top and back. I bent them and then decided to go for a cutaway.



Not pretty but got the job done. A real pain thinning the section down, should have went back another inch but it is what it is. Not the smoothest curve but I am not one to be too heartbroken if it is less than perfect, it is just a tool so I can practice with.



Debating on what piece I will use for a neck. Have a pretty special 2x4 that looks to be Engelmann and is very light in weight. Would be good to have a single action truss rod, again for weight, want the guitar balanced as well as can be.

Waiting for the humidity to get into reasonable percentages before I start gluing things together. In the meantime I thought to make a form to build dreadnoughts. What to use for the form? Grabbed a couple of side pieces from a 50's organ. Cut it out and was disappointment. Who the heck would think under a walnut veneer there would be solid mahogany. Could be a few neck and tail blocks in there. Or I can just close my eyes and pretend it is just poplar.



Oh right, the above guitar worked out well. Could use a little relief on the bass side but it fine as long as you don't windmill it. Anyone that picks it up is surprised at the weight. Just bent a piece of aluminum as a bridge plate.

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Last edited by printer2; 08-16-2022 at 01:04 PM.
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  #29  
Old 09-04-2022, 01:41 PM
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Doing things backwards. Gluing on the top before bracing it. I am going to try and bend the top down where I want the arm bevel. How much and where the bevel will bend would have to be determined first if I did the bracing and I am not sure how much or where it will want to bend. Have done it before with a reverse fan brace, might try a reverse fan yet. I just jumped in feet first as I have a narrow window of reasonable humidity, running the dehumidifier in my shop area also. I used my gobar rods to put pressure on the linings as the glue dried. With the center piece of lumber in the body I had to get creative gluing the linings in and could not get in to clean up the glue. Normally I would use hide glue doing the lining this way but read Titebone has enough tack to do it also. I am not in agreement of that.


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  #30  
Old 09-05-2022, 10:06 AM
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Man oh man I love your attitude and approach!
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