2010 TDPRI $210 Challenge: We're there Dudes!

2010 TDPRI $210 Challenge: We're there Dudes!

I'm on this! Going into overdrive now! Go go Gadget Brain! Get stuff, make pictures, make guitar, make guitar work, show pictures, show working guitar... WOW! I love this stuff!


More soon! :twisted:

OK, down to the basement to see what we can come up with. Hmmm. Looks like we have a piece of wenge (neck?), some ebony for a fingerboard, some pear for the back of the body, a piece of plum (neck?), a piece of flamed maple with a large knot and two matched pieces of flamed spalted maple for the top. All of this stuff is ten to thirty years old so it should be OK. It's also all stuff that I either found or was given to me over the years. That makes the total cost so far $0.00. Time to start looking for hardware. Upward and onward!

Lookin good, dude!
However I think you still have to price things fairly even if you got it for free... dont mean to be a buzz kill, but you may want to check with the person overseeing the contest. But hey... if its not counted than that frees up some of my budget!

Goodluck and let the chips fly!

Ed

I was thinking about the pricing thing myself and I think you're right. I'll try and figure out a fair estimate for this stuff.

Wow. Do you live upstairs from a lumberyard? Nice.

Lovely wood! Good luck with the build!


Cheers,

Moggl

So I got downtown to my favorite guitar shop late this afternoon, went in and said "What are the cheapest Telecaster type parts you got here?" After showing me a herd of stuff that would have put us way over budget he finally said "Well, I do have a bunch of parts off an old Japanese copy, but they're so cheap you wouldn't want them." Little did he know just how cheap I can be. I got the whole bunch off him for fifty euros($67,90)! At this rate I may build two for under $210. Now it's time to get home and start turning this sow's ear into a silk purse.

This is what is commonly known as "A really good deal". :grin:

On with the build!!

So I got downtown to my favorite guitar shop late this afternoon, went in and said "What are the cheapest Telecaster type parts you got here?" After showing me a herd of stuff that would have put us way over budget he finally said "Well, I do have a bunch of parts off an old Japanese copy, but they're so cheap you wouldn't want them." Little did he know just how cheap I can be. I got the whole bunch off him for fifty euros($67,90)! At this rate I may build two for under $210. Now it's time to get home and start turning this sow's ear into a silk purse.

That's great wheeling and dealing CJ. I'm a jealous boy.

Get some tuners, volume and tone pots, tone caps, and a string tree and you're I'd say you're good to go!

That spalted maple looks wicked? The nicest piece of maple in my house is my wife's rolling pin.:sad:

Good morning! It's Friday morning 6:00 AM here in Sunny Southern Germany and we're up and ready to go. First off I'd like to thank all you wonderful people out there for being so nice and supportive. It really does make a difference, so please feel free to comment or ask questions or whatever.

I'd also like to mention that, although I've lived here in Germany the last forty plus years, I'm actually an All American Boy originally from the Great State of Idaho. (That's the one where the famous potatoes come from, and yes, they are something to write home about. I always bring a bag back with me when I go to the US.) But I fell in love with the Black Forest (and a beautiful blond German girl ;-) years ago and here I am. Mind you, I have no complaints. You may have noticed I'm standing next to my 1000cc Kawasaki Ninja in that little picture there. Germany still has open speed limits on the autobahns which means you can legally drive it at it's top speed of 186 mph on public roads. There's nothing quite like pulling up beside some Porsche at 150 mph and then leaving them behind like they were standing still. Sweeeeeeet!

But back to building guitars. I was looking at Amazon just now and came up with these two items:

a Tele style guitar complete for $109.00

http://www.amazon.com/STL-3TS-Electric-Guitar-Sunburst/dp/B000KI4J4A/ref=sr_1_41?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1267764961&sr=1-41

and a Saga Tele kit for $151.96

http://www.amazon.com/Saga-TC-10-Style-Electric-Guitar/dp/B000WEADEW/ref=sr_1_65?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1267765383&sr=1-65

So maybe I didn't get such a good deal after all. But for anyone else out there you might want to look in to these for parts. For the contest you still have to design your guitar, build a body and do the finish so I don't think it's going to give you an unfair advantage over anyone else.

Well, it's 7:00 AM now, time to take The World's Handsomest Dog out for his morning constitutional and then get off to work. Good luck to you all!

Nice deal on the hardware ;-)
I'm going to have to hit some pawn shops & see if I can find an El Cheapo to use for hardware.

Good morning! It's Friday morning 6:00 AM here in Sunny Southern Germany and we're up and ready to go. First off I'd like to thank all you wonderful people out there for being so nice and supportive. It really does make a difference, so please feel free to comment or ask questions or whatever.

I'd also like to mention that, although I've lived here in Germany the last forty plus years, I'm actually an All American Boy originally from the Great State of Idaho. (That's the one where the famous potatoes come from, and yes, they are something to write home about. I always bring a bag back with me when I go to the US.) But I fell in love with the Black Forest (and a beautiful blond German girl ;-) years ago and here I am. Mind you, I have no complaints. You may have noticed I'm standing next to my 1000cc Kawasaki Ninja in that little picture there. Germany still has open speed limits on the autobahns which means you can legally drive it at it's top speed of 186 mph on public roads. There's nothing quite like pulling up beside some Porsche at 150 mph and then leaving them behind like they were standing still. Sweeeeeeet!

But back to building guitars. I was looking at Amazon just now and came up with these two items:

a Tele style guitar complete for $109.00

http://www.amazon.com/STL-3TS-Electric-Guitar-Sunburst/dp/B000KI4J4A/ref=sr_1_41?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1267764961&sr=1-41

and a Saga Tele kit for $151.96

http://www.amazon.com/Saga-TC-10-Style-Electric-Guitar/dp/B000WEADEW/ref=sr_1_65?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1267765383&sr=1-65

So maybe I didn't get such a good deal after all. But for anyone else out there you might want to look in to these for parts. For the contest you still have to design your guitar, build a body and do the finish so I don't think it's going to give you an unfair advantage over anyone else.

Well, it's 7:00 AM now, time to take The World's Handsomest Dog out for his morning constitutional and then get off to work. Good luck to you all!

You can get them direct, here, http://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar.html , all day long. Even a 3/4 scale tele!
Or, you can get a kit, here, http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/392 , for 129$ and have all your hardware, just provide the wood.



Dave

You may have noticed I'm standing next to my 1000cc Kawasaki Ninja in that little picture there. Germany still has open speed limits on the autobahns which means you can legally drive it at it's top speed of 186 mph on public roads. There's nothing quite like pulling up beside some Porsche at 150 mph and then leaving them behind like they were standing still. Sweeeeeeet!

That's a bit fast for me... I've hit 150 before on a bike... No need for me to go faster... Problem is, I like to twist the throttle....

So, I'll stick with the dirt and my KTM 450EXC... It only goes about half the speed of your Ninga, but it goes anywhere...

And now back to the build...

My buddy in England has a KTM LC8 990 and I'd have to say it is one very nice piece of machinery.
I've always been a road racer type myself though. Not that I'm a very good rider in this life mind you, but if I ever get to be reborn I'd like to come back as Valentino Rossi.

Time to get building again! Today we're going to get our wood glued up for the body and while it's drying try figure out the design details. Not to mention taking a few pictures to show you all what incredibly talented woodworkers we are! ;-)

Pictures soon!

To crazydave911:

Yes, it's unbelievable that they can turn things out that cheap, and it's not even half bad stuff! Maybe they do it with PhotoShop....

Love your "No trees..." quote there!

OK, time for The Daily Show: What have we been up to today? Well, first thing we did was go over to the BMW dealers to have a look at the new bikes. They had had a big open house today with live music, food and the new S 1000 RR Superbike. All I can say is "WOW! Must ... have... new .... bike... now!" Okay okay, I know, we're not here to talk about motorbikes. I'll try and stick to the subject.

Got back home around two thirty and got to work on my build. Here's what I've been up to:

First thing I dug out the Tele drawing I had made from an original a number of years back. At the time I had no plans to build one but I had the guitar there and I thought "You never know..."

Next I dug out the plexiglass pattern I had made from the plan, then got my top wood and started laying it out to take best advantage of the nice figure in these two pieces of maple (this is where it really helps to make your patterns out of plexiglass.) Figured out where the horizontal and vertical center lines needed to be and drew them, then traced the body outline onto the wood.

I put a new blade in the saber saw, clamped the wood to my bench top and cut off the excess (which I put aside for later use).

The next step was to check my plane blade to see if it was still sharp enough to shave the hairs off my arm. It was. Then I clamped my trusty multi-purpose right angle jig to the bench, clamped the wood to that and planed the edges straight.

Hey man, that's one nice joint!

I don't remember where this device came from, but it makes glueing a treat.

While the top was drying I got started on the neck. My table saw is a super cheap stamped steel special, but I got a decent carbide blade for it and with a bit of care it cuts 99.9% as well as its more expensive brethren. The cut came out straight to within 1/64". A few passes with the plane tomorrow and the neck should be straight as an arrow.

Eleven thirty and time for bed! Lots to do tomorrow. Get the back glued up, flatten the top on both sides and see how far I can get with the neck.

Have to work a bit more on the design. I'm thinking of doing some kind of inlays on the neck but I have to figure out what the pearl would cost. Another thought I had was to build a tuning machine into it. Marshall has one for €19.95 that I could take apart and rebuild to fit into it. That would be pretty neat except for the fact that I don't like to have batteries in my guitars. We'll see in the morning.

To crazydave911:

Yes, it's unbelievable that they can turn things out that cheap, and it's not even half bad stuff! Maybe they do it with PhotoShop....

Love your "No trees..." quote there!

Well, most of those things come from China, draw your own conclusions but the guitars at Rondo seem to be above average considering that.The Agile series in particular.
Thanks on the quote, when your passion is wood and your job is network IT, it makes for a lot of funny quotes,sadly most not printable :mrgreen:

Dave

Nice to see someone using the old school handplane! :cool:

I'm still struggling to use mine properly - grew up in the age of machines, unfortunately :sad:

Now I find the sound of machinery to be somewhat distressing when I'm in the shop.

Well, most of those things come from China, draw your own conclusions but the guitars at Rondo seem to be above average considering that.The Agile series in particular.
Thanks on the quote, when your passion is wood and your job is network IT, it makes for a lot of funny quotes,sadly most not printable :mrgreen:

Dave

What a strange coincidence, my day job for the last twenty odd years has been Macintosh consulting, but I started life as an arts and crafts instructor for the US Army where I spent 14 years keeping our boys from cutting their fingers off on the table saw (not always an easy task mind you!). Woodworking has always been my main passion, but I like a lot of other things as well, including computers, and try to integrate them all into my work (as you'll be seeing as this progresses). You're right on there about the quotes...

That body is going to look sweet.

Nice to see someone using the old school handplane! :cool:

I'm still struggling to use mine properly - grew up in the age of machines, unfortunately :sad:

Now I find the sound of machinery to be somewhat distressing when I'm in the shop.

It seems to me that hand tools are mostly about teaching your hands and body to do what you want while power tools are more about understanding what you want and out how to achieve it. There's nothing quite as satisfying as watching as you make long beautiful almost transparent shavings with your hand plane. But there's also a very good feeling when you've planned a complicated procedure with your power tools and it works. I have about thirty or forty hand planes here in the shop and I use them all the time, but I also have a CNC machine which I use probably about the same amount. They compliment each other quite well. The real satisfaction comes from mastering them both and using the appropriate one for the situation.

Late at night and time for bed. Lots of new pictures tomorrow, stay tuned!

That body is going to look sweet.

Thank you! I just had a look at your pictures there. I hope mine's going to look half as good as yours do.

Before I get going on the neck again I thought I'd better glue up the back of the body. It's a piece of pear wood from a friend's orchard and has a nice quilted figure (he also gave me the wood for the neck but I have no idea what it is, just that it looks nice). Here I've planed one side of the back down flat with my trusty old Stanley plane. I'll be doing the other side a bit differently, but more on that later. Love those shavings!

Back to the neck. Planed one side flat, put some double sided tape on that and stuck it to a piece of MDF in my little computerized Router on Rails. A 30 mm slot cutter makes a handy bit for quickly planing the neck blank to the thickness I want. Stand back and watch the chips fly!

Got everything lined up and routed the slot for the neck reinforcement and the t-nuts. I'll be using a square steel tube for reinforcement like Big Mike Simpson does and bolting the neck down using M5 x 45 mm stainless steel bolts.

It was time to get the fingerboard ready. As I recall the guy who gave me the piece of ebony was a classical guitar builder who couldn't use it because it was too small. As you can see though, I did manage to get a Tele fingerboard out of it, albeit with a patch on one corner. After planing one side flat I taped the wood to a block of MDF and used my table saw as a thickness planer. Worked like a charm!

Next step was to super glue the t-nuts into the neck and cover the screw holes with cloth tape to keep the epoxy from getting in later. The fingerboard was lined up and little blocks of wood were superglued around it to keep it lined up during glueing. This is where the fun starts: the whole thing is glued together with 20 minute epoxy, no time for mistakes! But we did it, yayyyy! (Sorry I didn't get a photo of me covered with epoxy for you!)

After the glue had set up for a couple of hours the whole mess went back to the Router on Rails where the outline was cut out. Then I turned it over and rough carved the neck profile. The neck profile is a special one that I've developed myself. (I could tell you more about it, but then I'd have to kill you. Suffice to say you can play it all night without getting a tired hand and your fingering will be more accurate as well.) I turned it over once more, milled the headstock to thickness and suddenly it was time to go to bed! (We must be having fun!) -- To Be Continued --

Nice router! Is that a home made one or did you buy it complete?

A bought one. I had to save my lunch money a long time for it, but worth every penny! (I thought long and hard about building one, but in the end I decided I'd rather build guitars than routers.)

The neck profile is a special one that I've developed myself. (I could tell you more about it, but then I'd have to kill you. Suffice to say you can play it all night without getting a tired hand and your fingering will be more accurate as well.)

:cool:

Mmmmm, spalt! Looking great!

...you can play it all night without getting a tired hand and your fingering will be more accurate as well.

resisting.... urge... for obvious... dirty jokes...

resisting.... urge... for obvious... dirty jokes...

I'm playing your straight man, go for it!

When we last saw our hero he was just about to cut the curve in the fingerboard with his trusty Router on Rails. He set everything up, turned on the router and "Oooooops!" What in the Holy Moses ????!?!! His router cut 3.8 millimeters too deep! Right into that beautiful piece of ebony! (Long string of expletives deleted...!!!) Take deep breath. Pick up object thrown across work shop. Go for long walk in snow. Cool down. Come back and survey damage. OK, remembering that the difference between the beginner and the Master is that the Master knows how to fix his mistakes, he gets to work. Dig out some cutoffs from old fingerboards (that's why we never throw anything away here ;-) and cut them to fit. Mix up some fast epoxy with some lampblack and an hour later we're good to go again. Fortunately, this time it worked.

Finally! It's time to do some of the fun stuff, inlays! A logo, every good guitar needs a logo, and what could be better than an inlayed logo? ("Dinosaurs in F14s?") No, not Dinosaurs in F14s! Inlays, I love doing inlays! First we need a design and I am hit by a flash of inspiration! Something retro, like 1900. Let's get it drawn up and see how it looks. Hmmmm, just might do.

Way cool!

In The Old Days I used to route everything by hand with the little router I built myself and cut all the pearl with a jewelers saw. Now that we have a Router on Rails though we let it do all of that. Here you can see the old and new systems.

I wasn't sure what to use for the letters. At first I thought ivory would be nice (no elephants were harmed here, but we did rip the keys out of an elderly piano...), then some black MOP, but neither one had enough contrast. I finally decided to try some carbon fiber and that worked quite nicely.

Time to calculate the cost: let's see, a (1.05 mm thick) sheet of carbon fiber 15 cm x 30 cm equals 450 cm2 for €14.90 = €0.033/cm2. I used a piece about 2.5 cm by 2.5 cm which equals 6.25 cm2, times €0.033 equals €0.21, which, converted to dollars at 1.35804 to 1, equals $0.29. And we're still within budget! I like that!

The next step is to cut all the little letters apart (I don't cut all the way through with Router on Rails because the little pieces like to launch themselves into orbit on the last pass) and trim them up with some diamond coated jewelers files. The letters are then put into their holes and covered with superglue. At this point I use superglue accelerator from the model supply shop to set the glue and make sure it hardens all the way through. Sand it down carefully using a block of MDF for a sanding block and... I think that's going to work.

Beautiful work! I can't wait to see more!

I wasn't sure what to use for the letters. At first I thought ivory would be nice (no elephants were harmed here, but we did rip the keys out of an ailing piano...)

Well, no elephants were harmed this time around anyway :smile:

It is a pity you did not use the ivory. This could have been the "Ebony and Ivory Caster" :wink:

Love the build and your comments that go with it! Keep at it!

Looks great.

That inlay work is beautiful, and a nice classy style.

Dang, the inlay is really nice. Really nice.

I just drooled all over my keyboard !:mrgreen:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/tdpri-2010-%24210-tele-build-challenge/43271d1268311959-2010-tdpri-%24210-challenge-were-there-dudes-dsc11993-jpg
That is just awesome.

Amazing what you can program a computer to do......

The next step is to cut all the little letters apart (I don't cut all the way through with Router on Rails because the little pieces like to launch themselves into orbit on the last pass) and trim them up with some diamond coated jewelers files. The letters are then put into their holes and covered with superglue. At this point I use superglue accelerator from the model supply shop to set the glue and make sure it hardens all the way through. Sand it down carefully using a block of MDF for a sanding block and... I think that's going to work.

Nice one, Cab! Looks almost like you've been doing that kind of stuff on a regular basis since '78. Now you've got me wondering what the fretboard will look like. Dragons? :wink:

Cheers,

Moggl

Awesome!!!

Wow. Nice work on the logo. Way to recover from the router mishap.

So maybe I didn't get such a good deal after all. But for anyone else out there you might want to look in to these for parts. For the contest you still have to design your guitar, build a body and do the finish so I don't think it's going to give you an unfair advantage over anyone else.

IMHO, pillaging an SX STL for parts would be kinda criminal. They are darn fine guitars. I don't understand how the heck they do it because I'm gonna spend more on parts for my build than I spent to get my STL50 to my door...

Nice one, Cab! Looks almost like you've been doing that kind of stuff on a regular basis since '78. Now you've got me wondering what the fretboard will look like. Dragons? :wink:

Cheers,

Moggl

Dragons? Did somebody say dragons? What a great idea! I love dragons! Thanks Moggl!

Howzabout a more stylised dragon (think swoop across the fretboard), to reflect simplicity and dynamics all in one go? :-)

This is the workbench I put together a couple of years back for doing inlays and other small scale type work. It's modeled on a classical jeweler's bench. The one really handy thing I came up with is a v-block with a foot operated clamp for holding the pearl while you're sawing. This makes life a lot easier and reduces pearl breakage to nearly zero. On the far right you can also see my most important tool, coffee and lots of it!

Dragons? Did somebody say dragons? What a great idea! I love dragons! Thanks Moggl!

Hmm, “If you can't take the heat, don't tickle the dragon.”

Thank you all very much! It's one of the things I like best to do and your encouragement is greatly appreciated!

Managed to get a little further here. Using various rasps, files, sandpaper and large quantities of elbow grease I finished shaping the neck and got it sanded down pretty smooth.

There were a few small cracks in the wood which I carefully filled with superglue (I buy it by the quart ;-)

I had to take a break Telecastering and do some inlay work for my friends over at Antique Acoustics. This is a celluloid pickguard styled after a Martin OM-45. Celluloid is a little tricky to cut with the router as it's quite inflammable (see Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds") so I have an air hose aimed at the cutter head to keep things cool, as you can see below. I also put a little white LED down there so I can see what's going on.

I got some 2 mm carbon fiber down at the model shop and set to work making switch and a neck plates. I saw an angled switch somewhere the other day and thought that looked kind of cool (and maybe even more practical ;-) so I did that too. And I came up with a nifty dragon logo which I engraved into the neck plate. Starting to look even more like a bought one!

Checking the accounts on this: approximately 85 cm2 of carbon fiber at €0.06/cm2 equals €5.10 converted to USDs at $1.35804 to 1 equals $6.93. Also €2.00 for four stainless steel neck bolts from the boating supply shop. Makes another $2.72. Still within budget!

Wow!! The inlay and carbon parts are....just wow! I love homemade parts that look better than store bought.

Dude that is amazing work! Envious of the skills you have and the shop.

Wow!! The inlay and carbon parts are....just wow! I love homemade parts that look better than store bought.

Thanks for the kind words! I just wish my son were doing this with me like yours is with you. We have built Teles together in the past, but doing it for this Challenge would have been the best. He's thirty and has to worry about his own family these days. He does stop by often to see how I'm coming along with this though.

Dude that is amazing work! Envious of the skills you have and the shop.

Thanks! I love the tailpiece you're making, and I wouldn't say "No!" to a Shopsmith either.

'Hic sunt dragones' - 'nuff said. Thumbs up! :-)

Das is richtig GEIL Herr Fearn...If I ever need complicated inlays I hunt you down...

When this challenge is over I'm gonna have to build me one of them CNC router thingies.:lol:

Seriously nice work - that pickguard inlay is gorgeous and your home made parts are awesome (love the dragon).

Moggl - Thanks!

oigun - I would consider it an honor to do some inlays for you!

68thinline - The CNC router is probably the coolest tool ever invented by man! I got mine about two and a half years ago and I've never had so much fun in my life (a lot headaches too, but the fun more than makes up for it!). If you need any help let me know.

This is one amazing looking build.

Great stuff, but that pic' guard, man, nooooo!

Love the carbon neck plate, outstanding detail!

I'm speechless, this is awesome!!

kennyh - thanks for the kind words. The pick guard is for a Martin style acoustic guitar that my friends Rudi blazer and Willi Henkes at Antique Acoustics down in Tübingen build (http://www.antique-acoustics.de/en/index.htm)

jeremyb - thanks! I see you're in New Zealand. I've been greatly inspired over the years by another New Zealander, John Britten, best known for building a Superbike by hand and then going to Daytona and beating the world's best with it. And when I say building it by hand I mean he designed and built every single part from the wheels to the frame to the complete engine! What many people don't know is that he was that way about everything, having built his house himself even down to casting the brass handles for the cabinets. Here's a picture of John and one of the ten bikes he built.

Time to get some more pictures up here!

Time to get back to working on the body. Maple and pear are fairly heavy (though not quite as bad as concrete :wink:) so I'm thinking it would be nice to lighten it up somehow. On the other hand I would like to keep the regular Telecaster sound and not have this turn into an Acousticaster (not that that's a bad idea, actually we'll probably build one sometime soon), but today's objective is to build a standard Telecaster that's light but still has that great Telecaster sound! After casting about a bit I recalled that Boeing came up with the honeycomb sandwich for aircraft construction some years back. The honeycomb sandwich principle allows you to keep the volume and stiffness of an object while at the same time reducing the weight. I like that! And because the holes are pretty small it shouldn't have too much of an effect on the acoustics... maybe. OK, so back to the drawing board and here's what we came up with...

Before we get started with the honeycomb we have to stretch the top a little as it was an inch or so too short. I thought a wavy line would make it more interesting so off to the jigsaw and presto, it's longer!

The trick in doing this is to stack the boards on top of each other with a couple dabs of glue to hold them in place, then cut them both at the same time. Remember to go slowly and carefully!

So now all the wood is ready. It's time to start making shavings! Well, almost. One little thing before we fire up our good 'ol Router on Rails, we have to generate some G-code to tell her what to do. Notice I didn't say "what we want her to do". That's because the computer doesn't care what we want, but only what we tell it, so it's up to us to figure out how to tell it what to do in a way that it will result in it doing what we want. Two and a half hours and three cups of coffee later and I think I've got it all ready without having overlooked anything. Push the "Generate G-code" button, save it to the USB stick and we're finally ready to do some woodworking again!

Back soon!

Just a thought, Cab: If the weight allows for it, wouldn't it make sense to leave the middle portion solid (greyed out here)?

PS: Great idea with the jigsaw design. :-)

Just a thought, Cab: If the weight allows for it, wouldn't it make sense to leave the middle portion solid (greyed out here)?

PS: Great idea with the jigsaw design. :-)

Yeah, I originally had the same thought, but on further contemplation (and having a look at how airplanes are made) I discovered that it doesn't make it any stronger. Think about how an I beam works. The engineers here know a lot more about this than I do, but as I understand it the top and bottom surfaces are the main load bearing areas and the center is under relatively little stress.

We're off to see the Router,
the wonderful Router on Rails!
Because because because because...

OK, sorry about that, I just couldn't help myself. We clamped the wood down, lined up the router on the center of the wood and let her rip. The centers were hogged out with a flat cut bit and the edges were done with a ball end bit so that the bottom of the holes are chamfered 3 mm. We also used the ball end to cut a groove for some 6 mm aluminum tubing to run the wires through.
The tubing acts as electrical shielding as well as aligning the top and bottom when we glue them up. Saves having to use some kind of locating pins. After the top was done we did the same thing to the back but in reverse.

Just to clarify: I wasn't thinking in terms of load-bearing but rather in terms of sonic propagation. Too late now. :-)

The aluminum tubes were glued in with superglue (I got a little carried away with the superglue there, I'll have to watch that :roll:). Then I used a little paint roller to spread wood glue on the top and bottom. I hope I have enough clamps on there. Let it dry overnight and presto! A big block of wood! Are we ready for Tool Time or what?

Time to get to the day job here, but we'll be back, so stay tuned!

Just to clarify: I wasn't thinking in terms of load-bearing but rather in terms of sonic propagation. Too late now. :-)

Hmmmm, I'm thinking that would be the same as the stress vectors, but who knows? That's one of the reasons I'm doing this, so I can find out. Be assured I'll let you know how it works out (and put up some sound clips for your enjoyment as well). I heard somewhere that Thomas Edison tried out over 5000 different ideas before he got the light bulb to work. I hope we can get there a little sooner! :grin:

Yesterday we went to Frankfurt for the Musikmesse (music trade show) for the day. Wow! Lots of stuff!!! I should have probably stayed a week! More guitars than you'll ever see in your life! And... they had a display in hall 4.1 of classic electric guitars that was just outrageous! Every famous guitar ever made, one of every style Fender guitar in cherry red and both Eric Clapton's Blackie and Stevie Ray Vaughn's Lenny! On top of that they had a copy of the Beatles original stage setup from the Star Club (check those amps!). Now how cool does it get? I only had my cell with me so the pictures aren't the best, but here you go:

Thanks for the heads-up, Cab! :-)

Wow! It's been a long two days and I'm about to fall over, but here's your weekend report as promised.

I got started yesterday morning and between then and nine o'clock this evening got the following done:

1. went to the hardware store and got some nice looking stainless steel screws for the pickups and switch, brought them home and polished the heads :grin:

2. routed all the cutouts for pickups, neck, electronics etc. :twisted:

3. filled all the cracks in the wood with superglue :smile:

4. scraped everything flat :mad:

5. routed the edge with a 6 mm bit :smile:

6. sanded the body (took forever... :neutral:)

7. applied Tru-Oil to the neck and body and hung them up to dry until tomorrow when I'll steel wool them and apply some more oil :grin:

8. collapsed in total exhaustion :cry:

Here you can see the patient clamped to the operating table. On the left is my $25 special made in China variable speed orbital sander with dust sucker and dust bag. It works just like an expensive one (don't know for how long :wink:). I got some Abranet sanding disks in 120, 180 and 240 grit for it which work like a charm. The blue bottle is a large size superglue and behind it is a spray can of superglue accelerator. (These are probably my two most important tools :lol:)

It's ten o'clock in Central Europe, the neck and body are oiled and hung up to dry and we're off to bed. Maybe if I leave a bowl of milk and some cookies out on the work bench it will be all done when I get up in the morning... :wink:

:shock:

Absolutely Amazing!

:mrgreen: My builds like a VW Dasher compared to your Maserati

:shock:

Absolutely Amazing!

:mrgreen: My builds like a VW Dasher compared to your Maserati

Thank you for the kind words, but I really like your build! The idea with the tailpiece is pure genius! (I'm going to steal it soon. :cool:)

By the way, my friend Rocky wants to know if he can get Molly's phone number?

Impressive.

Wow!!!!!!!!!

looking great!

Stunning.

:shock: Thumbs up, all the way!

Anyone else get a little depressed when you get to the end of a work in progress thread like this - and others in the challenge? I always say 'Aw man...' then I just start refreshing the page. Anyhow, this is way too cool. I'm blown away.

I haven't peaked at this earlier, since I've been so busy myself, but I love the spalted wood and how you "extended" it - brilliant!

Absolutely outstanding!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You are all too kind!!!! (And you're doing some pretty nice work yourselves!!!)

That really is stunning, That piece of spalt and the way you hollowed it out really gives it an organic look if you know what I mean

The next step is to cut all the little letters apart (I don't cut all the way through with Router on Rails because the little pieces like to launch themselves into orbit on the last pass) and trim them up with some diamond coated jewelers files..

Where did you get the Router on Rails? I might have to get me one. That thing is cool.

Thank you for the kind words, but I really like your build! The idea with the tailpiece is pure genius! (I'm going to steal it soon. :cool:)

By the way, my friend Rocky wants to know if he can get Molly's phone number?

Easy Rocky! she's still a puppy ya perv :lol:
He looks like a gentle giant, what 110 lbs

You know, when i do a new build i pat myself on the back...then i look at a thread like this...the patting stops pretty darn fast! i feel like a monkey trying to have sex with a football comparing my build to this man's dynamic workmanship!! the inlays, the honeycomb, the neck, jeez louise...you should work for fender CS

Where did you get the Router on Rails? I might have to get me one. That thing is cool.

Check the CNC forums to see what you can get in the US. I got mine here in Germany from a place called cnc-step

http://www.cnc-router-routers.com/

but there are a lot of other people making them as well. You can also build your own. If you do a search on "CNC" there are a lot of websites where you can find out about it and all the parts are available there too, as well as on ebay. It's definitely worth it!

Easy Rocky! she's still a puppy ya perv :lol:
He looks like a gentle giant, what 110 lbs

You can tell Molly that Rocky is definitely a gentleman! He's six and a half years old and only 86 lbs.. And he's the best behaved dog I've ever met!

Rocky's actually a cross between two varieties of Swiss Mountain Dog (Sennenhund), a Bernese Sennenhund and an Appenzeller Senenhund. The Bernese are bigger and have long hair and the Appenzellers are a bit smaller and have short hair. They're all very good looking and great dogs! :grin:

You know, when i do a new build i pat myself on the back...then i look at a thread like this...the patting stops pretty darn fast! i feel like a monkey trying to have sex with a football comparing my build to this man's dynamic workmanship!! the inlays, the honeycomb, the neck, jeez louise...you should work for fender CS

Thanks for the kind words! Looks like you've done a pretty decent job on your builds there as well. And anyway, just building a guitar at all puts you above 99.99% of the rest of the people on the planet. You get a pat on the back from me too!

The Tru-Oil was dry and rubbed down with some 0000 steel wool so it was time to get some shielding in those body cavities (Hey Beavis! He said "Body cavities!" Heh heh heh! :mrgreen:). Since I'm hoping to build some more guitars sometime I thought it might be a good idea to make myself a template for cutting out the self adhesive copper foil. Unfortunately I had forgotten what setting I'd used to cut this particular plastic with so I ended up spending an hour reinventing the wheel. I finally had to slow the router all the way down to 5000 rpm as the plastic kept melting and balling up on the end of the bit. I finally got it sorted out though. I also took a piece of wooden dowel and cut and polished the ends for pressing the foil down . That worked really well, especially in the corners. That copper is looking mighty nice! Maybe I'll have to copy Big Mike Simpson and make an "El Rey De Cobre"!

The body is pretty much finished as far as the woodworking goes so I started on the hardware. You may have noticed I get a little carried away on the details and I wasn't too happy with the way the screws looked, so I got a bunch of stainless steel screws to replace them all. The chrome work on the parts I got was pretty nice so I polished the heads on all the screws to match. What do you think? I'm pretty pleased! I also like that I found some more cooler looking round headed socket screws in the boat supply department. ("More cooler looking"? Boy, yer English teacher's gonna turn over in her grave!) :cool:

Enough body work! Now it's time for something entirely different! Like neck work! Cut the fret slots, nut slot and the holes for the neck dots all in one go (we were on a roll there!). I decided it might be neat to make pearl dots surrounded with silver so I cut out the dots to fit inside some aluminum tubing which I also cut in short lengths to match (wait a minute! I thought he said "silver"?). (Ok ok, so it isn't really silver, but it is shiny and it looks just like silver. We'll call it LJL silver, ok? :wink:) Glued everything in with My Favorite Adhesive, sanded it down and called it a night.

Dang! If I didn't know better I'd say it's starting to look just like a guitar!!! (I don't think she's going to believe I'm working on that coffee table she wanted much longer... :mrgreen:)

Celluloid is a little tricky to cut with the router as it's quite inflammable (see Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds")

As a total aside, how was _that_ movie received over there?

Love your work by the way :)

c-

Hmmmm, I'm thinking that would be the same as the stress vectors, but who knows? That's one of the reasons I'm doing this, so I can find out. Be assured I'll let you know how it works out (and put up some sound clips for your enjoyment as well). I heard somewhere that Thomas Edison tried out over 5000 different ideas before he got the light bulb to work. I hope we can get there a little sooner! :grin:

Ah yes, the man who famously didn't invent the light bulb :wink:

But yeah, i love the idea behind this. Look forward to seeing it finished!

Maple and pear are fairly heavy (though not quite as bad as concrete :wink:)

I was just reading through and noticed the reference to my build :P

I like the honeycomb idea. It's different then the usual hog everything out idea.
That's a beautiful top you have on there too.

As a total aside, how was _that_ movie received over there?

Love your work by the way :)

c-

As long as it was made in the US and not here in Germany it's fine. Germans love America and Hollywood and especially Tarentino (it's "culture", and Germans love culture!). So if he wants to make fun of ****s, it must be OK. Go figure... :wink: Hmmm, look what just happened there when I used the word for a former German political party. Interesting. I suppose they have to. Oh well. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the compliment!

Ah yes, the man who famously didn't invent the light bulb :wink:

But yeah, i love the idea behind this. Look forward to seeing it finished!

You're right there! From the Wikipedia article:

"Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light."

Proving once again that it's the guy who can sell the better mouse trap that history will remember. :grin:

Thanks! Me too!

I was just reading through and noticed the reference to my build :P

I like the honeycomb idea. It's different then the usual hog everything out idea.
That's a beautiful top you have on there too.

I love your idea! How are you coming with it? I was wondering if you could do it like a ferrocement boat hull?

Thanks!

Great build CJ - can't wait to see how it turns out. Regards.

I'm thinking, 'more coolerer' would be more to the point. :-)

This gets my vote for most beautiful guitar, by a long way. Great stuff. :grin:

By the way, your build and a couple of others, such as Jack Wells', have given me great ideas for what's possible for next year's contest, so thanks for the inspiration!! Can't wait.....

Great build CJ - can't wait to see how it turns out. Regards.

Thanks! Me too!

__________________
A man's best friend is his Tele - not his dog.

Just don't let Rocky hear you say that! :wink:

This gets my vote for most beautiful guitar, by a long way. Great stuff. :grin:

Thanks! If I have to go up against you next year though, then I'm staying home! I just had a look at that lap steel you made. WOW! Let me guess, you're an award winning professional industrial designer and you just send your files directly from SolidWorks to the electron beam milling machine that you just happen to have out in the garage, right? :wink: Or is it just that everyone in New Zealand is like John Britten? :confused: How did you make that thing anyway? :grin:

Thanks! If I have to go up against you next year though, then I'm staying home! I just had a look at that lap steel you made. WOW! Let me guess, you're an award winning professional industrial designer and you just send your files directly from SolidWorks to the electron beam milling machine that you just happen to have out in the garage, right? :wink: Or is it just that everyone in New Zealand is like John Britten? :confused: How did you make that thing anyway? :grin:

Haha, no, I'm a 3D animator. I designed the body parts in 3D using animation software, not engineering software, remapped them in Illustrator and had them laser cut from 4mm aluminium plate. Other parts I moulded and cast. But I am in the process of acquiring bits and pieces to make a CNC mill at the moment (yes, hopefully before next year's challenge). Making the steel in 3D first meant I was able to road test it to a certain extent, but I was still pleasantly surprised when the thing worked as I wanted it to!
John Britten is still a great hero in NZ, he is the epitome of the "do it yourself" ethos. He lived not 2 km away from where I now type this. A sad loss, who knows where he may have gone from the V1000?

Time to do some more on the neck. First thing was to get the side dots in. At first I was just going to put in some plain dots, but then it occurred to me that it might be nice to make them match the larger dots. I had some 2 mm sterling silver tubing wandering around in the jewelry drawer which looked like it might work. The only trick was cutting some little teeny pearl dots to fit in there. We got it to work though and it doesn't look too bad.

Ah, frets! How do I love thee, let me count the ways! Or not... or anyway, I'd have to say that fret work is probably the one part of guitar building I wouldn't mind if someone else did! But we are honorable men and shall therefore do our duty with smiling countenance and a song in our heart! Onward, ever onward! OK, ok! Sorry about that! It's late at night and I'm just trying to get these pictures up before I tune into a pumpkin, or was it tuna fish? Never mind. :grin:

Where was I? Frets, we got some Jim Dunlop 6150 fret wire (sort of medium fat stuff) and buckled down to work. Got all my tools and stuff ready, including my handy drill press converted to an arbor press. Lots of little clamps courtesy of my girl friend Kacy, the Master Violin Maker. Nippers, superglue etc. etc. and we're off!

Very nice.

Once all the frets were all in place I place put the neck in my Super High Tech Fret End Filing Jig where I filed the ends flush and then chamfered them to somewhere in the neighborhood of 45º, give or take 2' of arc. :wink: Very important in this operation is not to forget the use of the manual blue-polymer particulate extraction device.

After that I mark the tops of the frets with a black marker and use carbide sandpaper attached to a precision machined level to grind them straight. I polish them up using 240 to 2000 grit papers and finish them off with some 0000 steel wool. Wasn't so bad after all! :mrgreen:

Very nice.

I agree, the rings on the fret markers are tres classy..

A serious guitar needs to have a serial number (and as you've noticed by now, we're nothing if not serious! :wink:). Under the neck somewhere seems to be the normal place for them, so I milled one in there 0.6 mm deep, filled it with cherry sawdust and CA, and then scrapered it flat. Now if that don't look like a bought one!!! :cool:

A serious guitar needs to have a serial number (and as you've noticed by now, we're nothing if not serious!). Under the neck somewhere seems to be the normal place for them, so I milled one in there 0.6 mm deep, filled it with cherry sawdust and CA, and then scrapered it flat. Now if that don't look like a bought one!!! :cool:

That's just it though, if it's yours then you don't want it to look like a bought one. Well, i wouldn't at any rate. It would be mine and i don't think i could ever sell it. Unless i made one to sell... which you guys probably could, a few a year for a couple of hundred [enter currency here] on the side.

Anyway, i deviate. Nice work ;)

Well, too long anyway. They're 50mm long and they need to be 47 mm. Now I could have just cut them off with a hack saw but... Does your girl friend have a metal lathe? No? Well mine does! And she lets me use it! How good does it get?!? (Pretty darn good! :wink:) So I put a couple of layers of masking tape around the screws to keep the threads from getting bashed, chucked 'em up and fifteen minutes later we had some very nicely detailed 47 mm screws. Try 'em out and...? Yup! They work!

Well, we're getting pretty near to done here! Just a few more things, let's see...

string trees
cut a nut
install the tuners
install pots and cap (not here, should arrive this week)
install the jack
make some knobs for Volume and Tone controls
put the strings on and tune it up!

About two days work (which means it'll take at least until next week :rolleyes:). But what the heck! We're having a good time, meeting lots of new and interesting people, and it just doesn't get much better than that!

One in the morning and way past my bed time!!! Goodnight folks! :grin::grin::grin::grin:

I love your idea! How are you coming with it? I was wondering if you could do it like a ferrocement boat hull?

Thanks!

It's been slow work as I took a pretty bad fall and messed up the back and leg, but it's going forward slowly. I'll be posting some updates in a couple days.

I could do it in a boat build style, but for ease I'm just going to pick up a bag of concrete,mix and pour it in. I was going to use the stuff we use to make septic tanks but it's to gravelly to get a nice finish on it.

It looks like yours is almost done, and it's looking pretty good. I guess I'll have to work a bit faster on mine.

Haha, no, I'm a 3D animator.

So that means you'll be here in Stuttgart for the FMX Conference next month, right?

http://www.filmakademie.de/aktuelles-veranstaltungen/veranstaltungen/fmx/

I usually go myself. My son is one of the technical assistants who runs the multimedia for the speakers. Would be nice to meet you! :grin:

Very nice.

Thank you!

I agree, the rings on the fret markers are tres classy..

Why thank you Mr. Kwerk! I got that from me Mum, being classy that is. I would of never come up with it on my own!

That's just it though, if it's yours then you don't want it to look like a bought one. Well, i wouldn't at any rate. It would be mine and i don't think i could ever sell it. Unless i made one to sell... which you guys probably could, a few a year for a couple of hundred [enter currency here] on the side.

Anyway, i deviate. Nice work ;)

Well, it is under the neck where you can't see it. And anyway, I keep building instruments and people keep distracting me by throwing large amounts of money at me and then running off with them when I'm not looking! Not that it matters 'cause I spend so much time in the workshop I never had any time to learn to play! :wink: Serious! But at least I get to meet some people who can play, which is kinda nice.

Thanks!!!

It's been slow work as I took a pretty bad fall and messed up the back and leg, but it's going forward slowly. I'll be posting some updates in a couple days.

I could do it in a boat build style, but for ease I'm just going to pick up a bag of concrete,mix and pour it in. I was going to use the stuff we use to make septic tanks but it's to gravelly to get a nice finish on it.

It looks like yours is almost done, and it's looking pretty good. I guess I'll have to work a bit faster on mine.

Ouch!!! I hope you didn't damage anything permanent there!

Contrary to what many people might think, I'm relatively certain that concrete has very good acoustical properties. The building I live in is made entirely of it and the acoustics are great! You can hear when someone at the other end sneezes! :grin:

I was wondering about the side-dots you put in, Cab: Do the silvery bits help visibility?


Cheers,

Martin

So that means you'll be here in Stuttgart for the FMX Conference next month, right?

http://www.filmakademie.de/aktuelles-veranstaltungen/veranstaltungen/fmx/

I usually go myself. My son is one of the technical assistants who runs the multimedia for the speakers. Would be nice to meet you! :grin:


Haha, sorry I should have clarified. I'm a penniless 3D animator (many of us are at the moment!).

I was wondering about the side-dots you put in, Cab: Do the silvery bits help visibility?


Cheers,

Martin

Actually they do! Originally I just thought it would be fun to see if I could do it, since the pearl dots are so small, but it turns out that the pearl is often hard to see, depending on the angle the light hits it, whereas the silver shows up quite nicely. "Serendipity" I think it's called.

Haha, sorry I should have clarified. I'm a penniless 3D animator (many of us are at the moment!).

Doggone it! I hate when that happens! I'll let you know how it was. They usually have some pretty interesting stuff. Hopefully things will pick up and you can come over next time! :cool:

Yay! I just got some new stuff in the mail! It's some black bone and some mother of pearl blocks to make nuts with. I'm going to try them both out and see which one looks better. :cool:

It's been a while since I last looked at this build. Looks Great. Interesting approach to "stretching" that spalted top.

Thanks sean79!

Well, there's a bit of a lull in activities since my pots haven't shown up yet so... I started thinking (this is always a "Bad Thing!") and I was thinking, maybe I could make some knobs and stuff that were a little different from the usual stuff? :mrgreen: Hmmmmm.... I'm getting some ideas here! Off to the Secret Laboratory! Back soon!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Before I got started on The Knob Project I thought I'd try making a nut from the black bone to see how it looked. A quick check showed that I should be able to get 6 nuts out of one of these blanks. First thing was to saw one in two, then saw off a strip a hair wider than the nut would be. Ten minutes of very careful sanding on the belt sander and I had a nut blank exactly 3.40 mm wide that fit the slot perfectly.

As a former Shop Instructor I have to add a word of caution here: using the belt sander for this is not easy and requires a good deal of practice. (I have over forty years :grin:) I would recommend that most people use a vise, a file and some sandpaper for shaping small parts like this.

Here's My Evil Twin holding the finished product. As you can see, the nut came out looking like a party dress (small and black! :rolleyes:)

My first, and best, idea was to copy the regular round selector switch knob, but to do it up in ebony and ivory (the "Ebony and Ivory Caster" idea, a big "Thanks!" to Mr. Gregorypause! :wink:) and some LJL silver. Here are the drawings...

OK, time to get started! First we pick out some ebony, some ivory* and some LJL silver (aka aluminum).

*Please remember that all my ivory comes from a dead piano and not an actual recent member of an endangered species!

Take the ebony and silver over to the metal lathe and turn out a bezel, a barrel and a ring. Glue them all together with... you guessed it, SuperGlue! Smooth it down on the lathe and then, ooops! I forgot to take pictures of the next steps! But basically it was cut out the ivory, glue it in and round it over on the lathe with a file and some sandpaper. Then I recessed the bottom with a 6 mm end mill and cut the slot for the switch lever with a 1 mm end mill.

The star was engraved with a 30º v bit and then the whole thing was polished up with a jeweler's wheel. I filled the engraving with block printing ink to make it black. The ink is really black and doesn't tend to fall out later like some things do when filling ivory and MOP.

Six hours work and it's done! Now is that a knob to be proud of or what? Now we go back to the Secret Laboratory and (try to) come up with an idea for some kind of volume and tone knobs that will look good with this. :rolleyes::cool::roll::sad::grin::cool:

Time to sit back, take a deep breath and see where we are...

Wow! Check out that knob! As Space Ghost would say, it makes me feel all funny down there in the icky bits! :mrgreen: :cool:

:shock: :shock: :shock: (Loss for words)

Wow!

Wheeeeew Weeee!

Wow, this is coming together beautifully...

6 hours on a switch knob? Wow. I haven't even spent that much time on my entire build yet.

It definitely looks good though.

Wow! And then Wow again.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/tdpri-2010-%24210-tele-build-challenge/46281d1270983451t-2010-tdpri-%24210-challenge-were-there-dudes-dsc12251-jpghttp://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/tdpri-2010-%24210-tele-build-challenge/46284d1270983888t-2010-tdpri-%24210-challenge-were-there-dudes-dsc12257-jpg

Never thought I'd be amazed by somebody making something as simple as a selector switch knob... Great job!

Jim

:shock: :shock: :shock: (Loss for words)

agreed...
Where do I have to sign up to learn to do those amazing things you show here? :shock:

Super GEIL!!

a-ma-zing!! love the knob, and the whole guitar ...

CJ that is some amazing work, very impressive!

congratulations on the imminent win! :wink:

Wow! Thank you guys! It really means a lot to me that you like my work! Especially when I see all the cool stuff you're doing!

Thank you, thank you and thank you!!! :grin::grin::grin:

I'm with everyone one else here, the devils in the details and that switch tip is up to no good :mrgreen: , the tilted direction seems so obvious cause the traditional horizontal just doesn't feel natural, and really, the carbon fiber neck and control plate? again :mrgreen:

oh, and you've found a girl with a lathe....ugh! :roll: :mrgreen: ...lucky bastige.

I finally found out what the wood was that I made the neck from. I knew I'd seen it once, many years ago, but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. It turns out it's yew, the wood they used to make the famous British longbows with in days of yore. It also turns out it's pretty poisonous, so I guess I better not eat any! I hadn't actually planned on eating any, but now I won't for sure. But anyway, I reckon if it's good enough for Robin Hood, then it's good enough for me! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen: <-- (that's me just before I keel over and drop dead... :shock:)

The wood is really nice. It's easy to work and has a nice smooth feel to it.

Here's some info about yew:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_baccata

And a couple of pictures of some yew wood:

Taxus! When i was young I learned from an old hippie that you can eat the berry's but never the seed that is inside the berry(POISON!!). He claims it was healthy and full of vitamins.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/YewSeed.jpg/220px-YewSeed.jpg
Isnt that yew a bit to knotty for a neck?

count me in - I love the star knob too!

i approve this thread.

Highly. Lovely design.

Bonus points for the carbon fiber stuff.

And more bonus points for the switch knob.

"A" for the pix.

However,








Where's the sandwich?

Taxus! When i was young I learned from an old hippie that you can eat the berry's but never the seed that is inside the berry(POISON!!). He claims it was healthy and full of vitamins.

Isnt that yew a bit to knotty for a neck?

That's correct, the berries are the only nonpoisonous parts of the yew. That's so birds can spread the seeds by eating the fruits and excreting the seeds somewhere far away. At least that's what it says in the literature. Personally, while I might try it once, I don't think I'd eat them on a regular basis. I know I'd miss a couple of those seeds sooner or later! :mrgreen:

The yew does have a lot of knots in it, but they're mostly very small pin knots and they're not loose or anything. Actually I think they look pretty neat. And they're a very strong purple color, which is the color of kings, so it must be A Good Thing, right? :grin:

count me in - I love the star knob too!

Thanks DrTom! I can't wait to see and hear your build when it's done!

I'm starting to think the star knob may be one of the coolest things I've ever come up with as well. Most of the time when you make something you always have a feeling somewhere that you could have somehow done it different and better. Once in a great while you come up with something where you look at it and say "Wow! This is perfect! How in the world did I do that?" This would be one of those times for me. :cool:

i approve this thread.

Highly. Lovely design.

Bonus points for the carbon fiber stuff.

And more bonus points for the switch knob.

"A" for the pix.

However,



Where's the sandwich?

Thanks Phaze! I'm all outa sandwich and need to get to the store, but I been workin' so hard I haven't had a chance! I promise you a sandwich as soon as I do! :mrgreen:

It's done! :grin: :grin: :grin:

At 21:23 CET yesterday I finished putting the string trees on, tuned it up again and it's done! Everything! Parts all on, nut cut, bridge adjusted, intonation, pickup height adjusted! Plugged it in and it works!!! And it sounds GOOD!!! Yayyyyy! And I finally get to go home and see my family again! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Have to go to Vienna today but I'll be back on Monday and get lots of pictures up for your viewing pleasure!!! :cool:

Until then, good luck to all and may the Good Fairy sprinkle stardust on your bippies! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Congratz, Do not eat to much "mozartkügeln" when you are in vienna:mrgreen:

wow...i knew you were good, but this is way beyond good!! now i need more pictures!! pretty please!! :!: :lol:

wow...i knew you were good, but this is way beyond good!! now i need more pictures!! pretty please!! :!: :lol:

+1000

OK. I'm back from Vienna! What a nice place! :grin:

But let's get this story started where we left off. One knob wasn't quite enough, so after some serious brainstorming I came up with the following...

Step 1: since they don't have them at the hardware store, we have to make a large ebony dowel

I'm going to use some 16 mm aluminum rod in the center so that I can put in a set screw. In order to hollow out the ebony I used a trick that I read about in one of the amateur machinist's magazines a while back. First thing is to drill a hole using an end mill. This gives a much cleaner hole that doesn't tend to wander like normal drill bits do. Now comes the real trick: take a straight fluted carbide router bit and use it as a lathe tool to bore the hole out to the proper size.

It worked like a charm, the aluminum fits perfectly! :cool:

Here you see various and assorted pieces needed to make a knob, including the first try (in the lower left of the 1st picture) which didn't quite make it, having exploded when I pushed too hard with a dull lathe tool. :rolleyes:
So I sharpened the tool and finally got two of these things glued up with My Favorite Glue.

I had the idea to make an ebony jack plate instead of using one of the usual metal ones. I turned this on the lathe and then tapped it so I could screw the jack into it directly. A little Loctite on the threads and it was good to go!

I used some gold plated computer plugs in the wiring so I wouldn't have to unsolder things if I wanted to change something later. I used heat shrink tubing on everything to make sure we don't get any shorts in there.

I don't believe it! He's engraved numbers into those knobs in 4 point Times Roman! Right in the abalone inlays! Holy mackerel! :shock::shock::shock:

Wait a minute! What's this??? Those knobs go to eleven! I don't believe it ladies and gentlemen! He's made his own set of legendary Spinal Tap Custom Knobs!!! This man will obviously go to any lengths to win this contest!!! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

Everything else is done so it's time to string it up. Will I be disqualified for using these I wonder? :mrgreen:

He made some carbon fiber and aluminum race tuned string trees.

Race tuned string trees??? Carbon fiber and aluminum??? This guy just doesn't have enough to do! :twisted:

Not just cool, it's Sofa King™ cool! :mrgreen:

AAAARGH you are killing me Cab...
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/tdpri-2010-%24210-tele-build-challenge/47208d1271784302-2010-tdpri-%24210-challenge-were-there-dudes-dsc12297-jpg

OK! Strings on, string trees on... Tune it up and pray the string trees don't go into orbit... Plug it in and...???? :shock::shock::shock:

:grin::grin::grin::grin: IT WORKS!!!! :grin::grin::grin::grin:


We did it! WOW! And it sounds GREAT!!! Yes!!! Wonderful!!!

Let's pack it up and take it to Vienna tomorrow to show our friends, they'll be impressed!

[QUOTE=CJFearn;2461020]

:grin::grin::grin::grin: IT WORKS!!!! :grin::grin::grin::grin:

QUOTE]

Thats gotta be one of the best moments of completing a guitar. I think none of us can truly know what it will sound like until we first plug it in!

You must be very proud of this. I know I would be if I could build this well.

Well done, SUPERB :wink:

We had a wonderful time in Vienna visiting our friends. Vienna is just really really nice! And our friends are really really nice as well! And they really really liked the guitar... in fact, they liked it so well that when I arrived back in Stuttgart and opened the trunk to get the guitar out, there was no guitar there! There was just an envelope with $2700 in small unmarked bills and a note that said "Thanks!", signed "Marcel"!

Now what do I do? :confused:

I'll tell you what to do, loan me that car. Evidently it's got a magic trunk!

I love the ebony jack cup. In fact I love all the materials you've used on this build. It makes a very classy-looking instrument. The knobs are just amazing.

We had a wonderful time in Vienna visiting our friends. Vienna is just really really nice! And our friends are really really nice as well! And they really really liked the guitar... in fact, they liked it so well that when I arrived back in Stuttgart and opened the trunk to get the guitar out, there was no guitar there! There was just an envelope with $2700 in small unmarked bills and a note that said "Thanks!", signed "Marcel"!

Now what do I do? :confused:


Well... sounds like you got until May 3rd to build another guitar to enter... better throw some more wood in that CNC Router...

Very NICE! I love me some german precision machining =). Well done CJ, really beautiful guitar!

Well... sounds like you got until May 3rd to build another guitar to enter... better throw some more wood in that CNC Router...

That's a day short of two weeks. Hmmm... lets see, I have all the design work done, I made a neck blank out of that piece of wenge while I was doing the yew neck, there's still a bunch of spalted maple and pear wood left in the basement (maple and fruit trees grow like weeds in this country so there's always lots laying around for free, at least in guitar sizes). Parts... I think I have enough parts wandering around, just have to watch the costs there...


OK Big Mike, you're on! A Telecaster in 13 days!!! :twisted::twisted::twisted:




*Actually the CNC router is slower than I am, it's just more accurate with less stress. :mrgreen:

Does that mean you're going for two winning guitars in one go? :grin:

That's a day short of two weeks. Hmmm... lets see, I have all the design work done, I made a neck blank out of that piece of wenge while I was doing the yew neck, there's still a bunch of spalted maple and pear wood left in the basement (maple and fruit trees grow like weeds in this country so there's always lots laying around for free, at least in guitar sizes). Parts... I think I have enough parts wandering around, just have to watch the costs there...


OK Big Mike, you're on! A Telecaster in 13 days!!! :twisted::twisted::twisted:




*Actually the CNC router is slower than I am, it's just more accurate with less stress. :mrgreen:


I was just kidding...

It is not hard to build a Tele in that time once you have built one. Last year we only had 30 days and I did a nitro finish.

I was just kidding...

It is not hard to build a Tele in that time once you have built one. Last year we only had 30 days and I did a nitro finish.

Yeah, but it'll be fun. And maybe I can win two prizes! :wink:

Leigh - It's definitely the most exciting moment. Major angst whether you got everything right like wiring and grinding the frets and all those other things that Murphy loves to help you with. And when it does work and there's no fret buzz and that incredible sound comes out of your speaker... Yep, that's what it's all about. :wink:

By the way, you're not too shabby yourself there as a guitar builder. Very nice design and excellent work from what I can see. :grin:

Actually there are just so many really good builds here, it's going to be almost impossible to choose just one, or even two or three! :shock::shock::shock:


Maricopa - :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:


68thinline and Fernder - Thank you guys! It means a lot to me that people here in the forum like my work!


Moggl - gee, I wonder if I could do three guitars and take all the prizes... :mrgreen:

We had a wonderful time in Vienna visiting our friends. Vienna is just really really nice! And our friends are really really nice as well! And they really really liked the guitar... in fact, they liked it so well that when I arrived back in Stuttgart and opened the trunk to get the guitar out, there was no guitar there! There was just an envelope with $2700 in small unmarked bills and a note that said "Thanks!", signed "Marcel"!

Now what do I do? :confused:

I wonder where I could go with my guitar in the boot and it would magically turn into $2700. :wink: Anyone got some ideas? It was a nice guitar by the way.

haha........ the rest of us may be in for a chance now, he's gone 'an sold it guys!!! :lol::lol:
Well done :wink:

You are the bomb fellow data pusher! That guitar was gorgeous and would like to have heard it...................hmmmm, or will we yet? You are one more kind of craftsman and very smart, which makes me smell a rat. Was this your dastardly plan all along? To have us drool over a masterpiece, then effortlessly pull a bait and switch at the last moment?

LOL, just kidding, good luck on number 2 my friend,

Dave

I should be in bed right now, but here's the progress report for Tele Number Two...

This picture was taken at 04:58 AM yesterday morning. The idea of doing a second guitar for the contest got me so wound up I couldn't sleep! :twisted:

Here's the stuff I had to start with. Most of it was stuff left over from the first Tele. The neck I had made at the same time as the yew neck from the piece of wenge, just in case I screwed up the yew. The ivory logo inlays were the ones that didn't work with the yew neck. The top and bottom wood was pieces of pear and maple left from the ones I used for Tele Number One. What looks like racing stripes on the spalted maple is mild burn marks from the router bit. I managed to sharpen it in the meantime so it's not doing that anymore.

This is basically going to be the same guitar as Tele Number One. Since I already did all the design and templates and stuff it should go fast enough to make the deadline. :mrgreen:

Since yesterday morning I've gotten the back planed, glued and routed out. The neck has been shaped and partially sanded. The ivory logo has been inlayed in the peghead. That was the one that I didn't use for the yew neck on Number One (three letters disappeared somewhere, I'll redo them tomorrow). The control and neck plates were cut out of carbon fiber and the neck plate engraved. New knobs were cut from some wenge left over from the neck, aluminum inserts made and ivory dots with LJL silver surrounds were inlayed into the tops. Aluminum blanks for the rings at the bottom of the knobs were cut out. A jack plate was turned out of ebony. Since the bridge and tuners are matt chrome I brushed the heads of the stainless steel screws to match. I cut out some of the copper foil for the internal shielding. I cut a set of dots out of abalone for the fingerboard markers, but I think I might make some out of ivory to match the logo and knob inlays instead.

In the morning I'll be off to a customer who's PowerPoint keeps crashing on their Mac (I love MicroSoft!) as well as a few other problems with email attachments and such, but after that we'll hopefully be able to get back to the shop to continue.

See you all in the morning! :grin::grin::grin:

Is
That
A
Schaller
Hannes
:shock:

Now I'm definitely following this build! (already was, just love the Hannes!)

Cool, way to go CJ. The excitement continues....:wink:

Good Lord. Those knobs are a sign of a truly sick individual!


And, this guy idolizes Britten!! Why can't you be my neighbor?

I can only imagine what could help me do to my motorcycle!

Thanks guys! :mrgreen:

That is a Hannes bridge you see there. It's probably too expensive for me to get the guitar in under $210 without fudging a little bit*, but I've been dying to try it out and I thought what the heck, since I already have one guitar done I'll see if I can pull it off. Also, I'm sure a lot of people are just as curious as I am about it.


*However, a little creative bookkeeping and who knows? :wink:


That reminds of the test question I heard about that you should ask your bookkeeper to see if he's the right one:

Q: What is one plus one?

The correct answer is:

A: Whatever you want. :mrgreen:

The other guitar was not part of the challenge?

Looks like you'll have a busy week ahead :shock:
Good luck, I'm sure this one will be just as amazing :wink:

Good Lord. Those knobs are a sign of a truly sick individual!


And, this guy idolizes Britten!! Why can't you be my neighbor?

I can only imagine what could help me do to my motorcycle!

Wreck it... He still hasn't managed to put the small piece of electronics on that I bought him n Christmases ago. That's why his avatar picture has him standing by the bike and not riding it...

Guitars and Cab, yes; bikes and Cab, hmm.... :roll:

Chris M

It's after midnight and I can hardly make myself stop and go to bed. This guitar building stuff is getting to be like speed! I just can't stop! :twisted:

Today I grafted the top to make it long enough, routed the inside of the top, glued the top and back together and then routed the body outline. Once that was done I got to looking at it and this idea came back to me that I had seen at the carpenter's the other day. Basically, if you have some knot holes or cracks or whatever, you melt some tin into them and then sand it down flush with the rest of the wood. It looks like the metal grew in the tree.

So what do you think? :grin:

CJ = Legend!

Really looking forward to build no.2

CJ = Legend!

Really looking forward to build no.2

You're just saying that because I'm old, right? :mrgreen:

Thanks Mr. Philcaster!!! :grin:

Wreck it... He still hasn't managed to put the small piece of electronics on that I bought him n Christmases ago. That's why his avatar picture has him standing by the bike and not riding it...

Guitars and Cab, yes; bikes and Cab, hmm.... :roll:

Chris M

Jealousy will get you know where Chris! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

Basically, if you have some knot holes or cracks or whatever, you melt some tin into them and then sand it down flush with the rest of the wood.
I had thought about doing that for fret markers... drill the holes and fill them. How did you go about melting the "tin" into the cracks?

Wreck it... He still hasn't managed to put the small piece of electronics on that I bought him n Christmases ago. That's why his avatar picture has him standing by the bike and not riding it...

Guitars and Cab, yes; bikes and Cab, hmm.... :roll:

Chris M

:lol:

I had thought about doing that for fret markers... drill the holes and fill them. How did you go about melting the "tin" into the cracks?

That sounds like a great idea! I just used my soldering iron, it worked very well. The tin itself is a little tricky as it has a lot of surface tension and doesn't flow into the holes very well. You'll want to play around with some scraps a bit to get it figured out.

Oh, and be sure to get tin without any lead in it! The one I used is 97% tin and 3% copper. It's sold here in the plumbing department for for soldering copper water pipes. Remember, lead poisoning isn't fun! :wink:

:lol:

Actually ChrisRM is just compensating for an inferiority complex brought on by the fact that he drives a large orange piece of Austrian farm equipment*, as opposed to an actual motorbike like myself. :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

But, to quote Lightning McQueen in Cars,

"My best friend, what are ya' gonna do?" :wink:




*KTM Super Duke

Thanks guys! :mrgreen:

That is a Hannes bridge you see there. It's probably too expensive for me to get the guitar in under $210 without fudging a little bit*, but I've been dying to try it out and I thought what the heck, since I already have one guitar done I'll see if I can pull it off. Also, I'm sure a lot of people are just as curious as I am about it.


*However, a little creative bookkeeping and who knows? :wink:


That reminds of the test question I heard about that you should ask your bookkeeper to see if he's the right one:

Q: What is one plus one?

The correct answer is:

A: Whatever you want. :mrgreen:

I dont know if the rules agree with mee but in my eyes yor budget is like -2500 now

I don't know if the rules agree with me but in my eyes your budget is like -2500 now

The updated rules mean everyone can remove VAT from the total which is a whopping 19% here in Germany.


That is a Hannes bridge you see there. It's probably too expensive for me to get the guitar in under $210 without fudging a little bit*, but I've been dying to try it out and I thought what the heck, since I already have one guitar done I'll see if I can pull it off. Also, I'm sure a lot of people are just as curious as I am about it.

I am officially a lot of people now. :mrgreen:

Actually ChrisRM is just compensating for an inferiority complex brought on by the fact that he drives a large orange piece of Austrian farm equipment*, as opposed to an actual motorbike like myself. :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

But, to quote Lightning McQueen in Cars,

"My best friend, what are ya' gonna do?" :wink:




*KTM Super Duke

Oh dear. I'm basically a kibitzer in this forum, watching what Mr. Fearn is doing out of a sense of self-preservation. His demonstration of guitar-building techniques when I last called on him (before Easter) was avant-garde, to say the least. The way he used a belt-sander to sharpen a towel will stay with me for a long time...

Also, it's an Adventure, not a Super-Duke, as any fule kno...

Chris M

It's after midnight and I can hardly make myself stop and go to bed. This guitar building stuff is getting to be like speed! I just can't stop! :twisted:

Today I grafted the top to make it long enough, routed the inside of the top, glued the top and back together and then routed the body outline. Once that was done I got to looking at it and this idea came back to me that I had seen at the carpenter's the other day. Basically, if you have some knot holes or cracks or whatever, you melt some tin into them and then sand it down flush with the rest of the wood. It looks like the metal grew in the tree.

So what do you think? :grin:
looks great!! but knowing you, it will be sold and gone by the time i come visit you in june!!

Haven't been taking too many pictures on this one as there isn't as much time and, besides, it's mostly a repeat of the last bunch as far as the work goes. Except for this...

(Blemishes and tool marks are intentional. :grin:)

Here's the back and you can see the Hannes bridge parts. Can you spot where Murphy stepped in to give me a hand here? No? I'll give you a hint, it was the result of conscientiously implementing Murphy's first rule, "Measure once, cut twice." The ebony design around the hardware is there because I was off by about two millimeters with my recesses. Doggone it! But it looks kind of cool so maybe I'll put it on the next one too... :grin:

Here's some closeups of the metal inlays.

Dang! I'm impressed!!! :shock::shock:

This is the famous Hannes bridge. It's a very nice piece of equipment. Good design, well built, good finish. I can't wait to get everything together and see how it sounds! Oh, and there's some more of that metal inlay there, nice!!! And spalted wood!!! :grin::grin::grin:

New knobs! This time wenge knobs with ivory inlays and brushed aluminum skirts! The plastic switch knob is just there until I get another ebony and ivory one made tomorrow or Saturday.

With a bit of luck I might even get finished by tomorrow. WOW! That would be ten days! (It must be the drugs!!!) :twisted:

It's after one in the morning. What the heck am I doing here??? Goodnight!! :cool:

The metal inlays are massive cool!!

Just wiring the $3000 to you now. Course, you realize you only have 2 days to make another one?

Man this is so cool. It seems like you're coming up with new little things here and there at every turn... and it's that uniqueness that I've enjoyed in following your build!

robt57 - Thanks! I like them too! In fact I think they have a good chance of becoming one of my trademarks! :cool:

kwerk - Two days?!?! Let's see...! :twisted:

TheZ - Thank you, thank you!!! Hopefully you'll be inspired to do some cool stuff as well!! (I can't do all the work here you know! :mrgreen:)

Lead free solder as filler... hmmm... thats interesting. Any issues with the metal sticking to the wood? (or not sticking to the wood)

Well, yesterday I only managed to get in fourteen and a half hours work done on the guitar due to the föhn*. Let's see if we can get a little more done today. :wink:

*Föhn is a German word for a certain kind of weather formation most notable for its strong effect on people's nerves. It makes you feel very irritable, heavy, uncomfortable and possibly very depressed. The föhn has actually been accepted in a court of law in Bavaria as being an excuse for murder. (I can hear you all now - "Pack your bags dear, we're moving to Munich!" :twisted:)

Lead free solder as filler... hmmm... thats interesting. Any issues with the metal sticking to the wood? (or not sticking to the wood)

That would be the not sticking one. :mrgreen:

You need to undercut the wood a bit and then, when the metal is liquid, press it down with a flat piece of wood and hold it for a second or two until it solidifies. After that you need to fill in the joint around it with CA. It's a little tricky, but fifteen or twenty minutes practice on some scrap should have you up and running.

If you'd like I could put up a couple of pictures and some "how to" once I get the guitar finished. :grin:

I must be getting old but I think the 'scrap' Tele is better looking than the the first. Given the declining amount of time you're taking on these things with so much practise, I estimate that #3 should take, say, 17.4 minutes exactly...

Chris M

That would be the not sticking one. :mrgreen:

You need to undercut the wood a bit and then, when the metal is liquid, press it down with a flat piece of wood and hold it for a second or two until it solidifies. After that you need to fill in the joint around it with CA. It's a little tricky, but fifteen or twenty minutes practice on some scrap should have you up and running.

If you'd like I could put up a couple of pictures and some "how to" once I get the guitar finished. :grin:

yes, please! :grin:

*Föhn is a German word for a certain kind of weather formation most notable for its strong effect on people's nerves. It makes you feel very irritable, heavy, uncomfortable and possibly very depressed. The föhn has actually been accepted in a court of law in Bavaria as being an excuse for murder.

Might explain 1938....

ChrisRM - I only wish! :lol:

telepunch - OK! First thing next week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. :grin:

Maricopa - You might have something there! It would definitely make sense! :mrgreen:

...


That reminds of the test question I heard about that you should ask your bookkeeper to see if he's the right one:

Q: What is one plus one?

The correct answer is:

A: Whatever you want. :mrgreen:

The way I heard it was a Philosopher, Mathematician, and a Lawyer....

Oh, I should ask if there any Lawyers in the house first.

The way I heard it was a Philosopher, Mathematician, and a Lawyer....

Oh, I should ask if there any Lawyers in the house first.

+1! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

Today got off to a rotten start. The föhn returned this morning with a vengeance. It was so bad my dog kept trying to crawl up under my desk and hide! It finally rained around three this afternoon and after that it was OK again. Some people are more sensitive to it than others, and of course you know I'd have to be in the "more sensitive" group! :mad:

In spite of that I managed to get the following done:
1. screws to hold the ebony jack mount put in
2. side dots put in the neck, 1.6 mm brushed aluminum
3. cut new "S", "i" and "7" out of ivory to replace the missing ones in the logo, glues them in and sanded them down
4. turned six 1.5 mm thick washers for the tuners as it turns out they were made for a thicker peghead :rolleyes:
5. touched up the neck shaping and sanded it down to the proverbial "Baby's Butt"

Still to do tonight:
1. install frets
2. make and install nut
3. apply Tru Oil
4. turn neck bolts to length
5. turn pickup mounts
6. screw it all together
7. put on strings and adjust intonation
8. PLAY!!!!

Hmmmm... maybe I ought to not rush here at the end. If I get it done tomorrow by I'm still a day ahead of the deadline and less likely to make any mistakes. (Not that I ever make mistakes mind you, actually I just sometimes choose to employ some more creative alternate techniques... :mrgreen:)

Hmmmm... maybe I ought to not rush here at the end. If I get it done tomorrow by I'm still a day ahead of the deadline and less likely to make any mistakes. (Not that I ever make mistakes mind you, actually I just sometimes choose to employ some more creative alternate techniques... :mrgreen:)

alternate techniques....my a**, sounds like screwup to me!! :wink: also kind of sounds like sounds like micros*** 'undisclosed features' too! you are a sly one, my little butterfly!

Okay, i must have missed half this thread and i just looked through it... it's like reading a fantastic book in one sitting then finding out somebody has ripped the last page out!

In The Old Days I used to route everything by hand with the little router I built myself and cut all the pearl with a jewelers saw. Now that we have a Router on Rails though we let it do all of that. Here you can see the old and new systems.

What can you tell me about that little router? As in, how does it compare and how much did it cost compared to the RoR? I'm looking for some options for the future for myself here... just a quick sneak, my dad and my brother have consecutive birthdays (20th and 21st of Feb respectively). They both play guitar and are a hell of a lot better at it than me. Thing is though, neither of them have any really good kit. My dad had tons but eventually lending it out to my brother only to have it 'stolen' every other time he went to a gig whittled it down to about three to share for each of us. Now my brother's at uni and i'm not even sure if he has a guitar to play. Anywho, thing is that it just so happens that next year will be my dad's 50th, and also incidentally my brother's 21st. So quite a big occasion, and since i've stumbled across this gold mine i just might have the perfect gift idea :wink:

I finally found out what the wood was that I made the neck from. I knew I'd seen it once, many years ago, but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. It turns out it's yew, the wood they used to make the famous British longbows with in days of yore. It also turns out it's pretty poisonous, so I guess I better not eat any! I hadn't actually planned on eating any, but now I won't for sure. But anyway, I reckon if it's good enough for Robin Hood, then it's good enough for me! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen: <-- (that's me just before I keel over and drop dead... :shock:)

The wood is really nice. It's easy to work and has a nice smooth feel to it.

Here's some info about yew:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_baccata

And a couple of pictures of some yew wood:

Isn't it used in longbows because of it's elasticity? Not sure really but do you really want that in a neck? I much prefer recurve bows though, just so much more efficient. And i know compounds are that much more efficient again but it's just not the same. If you ever fancy a break from guitar making then you might just find a considerable sum of money in your letterbox for something like this (http://www.patnorrisarchery.com/lightbox/martin_recurves/X-200.jpg) :p

I digress however, get finishing! Can you really not play at all? Seems such a waste... even if you were just to learn the basics so you could truly understand how much of a genius you are:

http://www.justinguitar.com/

It's done! Strings on, tuned up, intonation adjusted, one crossed wire resoldered and it works!!! All in twelve days!!! Not bad for an old guy, eh? :cool:

Off to bed now (if I can sleep with all this excitement!) Pictures and cost sheets tomorrow! I'm stoked!!!:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

OK! It's Monday the 3rd of May and Due Date for this project! I'm just putting up these pictures for the moment as I still have to do the cost sheet and get it up. As soon as that's done I'll get some more pictures up here for your perusal! :grin::grin::grin: