First Build

So it's not a tele (sorry!) but it is my first build. I've learned quite a lot so far, both from this site and from experience, and I will admit... I'm hooked. I'm catching myself thinking about my next builds, but I'm trying to keep myself on track on this.

Anyway! First picture is what I had in mind when I was designing it. Now, I designed that body shape myself. I really did. But after looking at it, I realized it looked very... familiar. :oops: My cursed subconscious. :mad: At least the headstock is (to my knowledge) completely original.

Second pic is a huge slab of maple tree. Yep. 4'x2'x3" of maple. Yummy. I knew that it would make for a heavier piece, but I don't mind a little heft:razz:

Pretty soon, I was at pic #3, showing the black walnut neck.

Pic number 4 is showing off the sweet fret markers. (They might not be great, but I'm proud of myself. Allow me this :wink:)

And finally, pretty much where I'm at now is the fifth picture.
Picture number 5 has a somewhat profiled neck, un-filed frets, and no bigsby (which should be arriving in about 2 days.) The body will eventually be dyed blue, with white binding. Pickguard/control cavity cover will be a white paisley.

Like I said, it's definitely been a learning experience, and I can't wait to tr again! Though I see myself building many a geetar in my future, I feel like this one will always be "my baby." Just bare with my while I finish this, huh? I might not be no Buckocaster or Preeb yet, but I'm learning.

That's a good start. I expect it will be pretty bright sounding . I thought of a Guild S-300 solid body at first glance.

Damn fine start. I'll be watchin'.

Is it hard or soft maple? If you kept the 3 in. thickness and didn't chamber it, it has got to be heavy. What does it weigh at this point?

Is it hard or soft maple? If you kept the 3 in. thickness and didn't chamber it, it has got to be heavy. What does it weigh at this point?

Whew! No way! I don't want to kill my back at the tender age of 21. It's at 1.75" now, and weights about 9 lbs. (that's weighing everything shown in the last pic.) Definitely on the heavier side, but not too bad, I don't think. There's still some wood to come off the neck, and off the body for the body contour. It's soft maple, by the way.

Thanks for lookin' and commentin'

Match that up with some dark pickups and you could have a sustain machine. I have had trouble keeping frets seated in walnut fretboard though. You may want to make sure you are very accurate when prebending the fretwitre and epoxy them in. I like the inlays. Good job so far!

Mate, looking good. A trans blue finish on the way? Keep it up.

By the way, my ol' '74 LP Custom weighs in at 14lbs - 9lbs is kinda like a lightweight compared to that old anvil

Benny Mac

Interesting inlays on a nifty looking FB; there's just something about walnut...

Whats going over the control cavity route?

Whats going over the control cavity route?

Here's an earlier pic that has a paper mockup of the control cavity cover.

(Yeah, funky controls.)

Also, I forgot to mention, the fretboard is rosewood over the walnut neck. I read about the troubles of getting frets to stay in walnut. Anyone ever notice that cutting or sanding rosewood kind of smells like BBQ?

Working overnights has been killing me this week.:cry:
I did manage to get some little stuff done, though.
[X] side dots on the neck
[X] Cut out control cavity cover
[X] Brought the neck contour to final shape
[X] Fabricated a neck plate out of plate steel

I hope this measly picture satisfies y'all for now. I'm planning on big things on my weekend off of work! (Binding channel, drilling neck plate holes, maybe even dying the wood if I'm feeling brave)

P.S. here's a pic of the blue dye on a small chunk of maple from the same slab of tree. In between the red lines is the target color. To the right is 3 coats, to the left is 1.

Update:

Just routed the channel for the binding, drilled for and installed the tuner bushings, drilled for the neck plate screws, and I applied some teak oil to the walnut neck.

Holy COW! that stuff really makes the black walnut look unbeLIEVable! I'll hopefully have some good pictures for you all tomorrow.

More progress.

Glued the binding in, dyed the body, bursted the top, went back and scraped the binding and touched up some spots on the body.

Here's a picture of everything dryfit. (except the nut.)

It still needs a clearcoat, and will probably be done tomorrow. I don't want to jinx it, but we've been having fantastic weather here for painting/finishing, and it's supposed to continue for a few days at least.

It is a very eclectic looking guitar.

Custom shapes, old style looking neck, new style body. Hardware is all over board.


Paint looks good in those pictures!

If you could define what looks old about the neck and new about the body, I'd really appreciate it. I have a hard time understanding what defines each, but I know it when I see it. Any explanation that transforms quality to quantity would help.

Thanks! It's my first time trying a burst on something that isn't scrap, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out!

EDIT: Forgot to add, I got the belly cut in. The pickups are GFS fat pat, and Vintage '59. I'd heard good things for their price, so there's that.

Pretty cool looking:cool:

If you could define what looks old about the neck and new about the body, I'd really appreciate it. I have a hard time understanding what defines each, but I know it when I see it. Any explanation that transforms quality to quantity would help.

Thanks! It's my first time trying a burst on something that isn't scrap, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out!

EDIT: Forgot to add, I got the belly cut in. The pickups are GFS fat pat, and Vintage '59. I'd heard good things for their price, so there's that.

For me, visually, when I look at the neck, the colors and textures remind me of older fralin banjos, and the body, with its shape, color, binding, and pickup looks like a modern rock guitar. No offense intended.

I like it. The burst looks great! The whole thing reminds me of an old Surf Guitar. The binding really brings the burst out. Congrats!

That thing is other-worldly. Like something the Mad Hatter would play. Very original, and that is good.

No offense taken, Colt! I really appreciate all of your comments, guys, thanks a lot.

I've been spraying nitro on the body, it really makes the blue dyed grain pop a bit, and subdues the black in the burst. Watching it all come together is a fantastic feeling. I know this isn't going to be the last build of mine. (And I'll know what to look out for on the next ones. Hah!)

I was thinking of a more traditional build next. Perhaps a telecaster with a humbucker. I'd like to make it either butterscotch or surf green. Who knows.

I like a pastel colored tele with a hummer in the neck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdsRppc86uI&feature=related

Well, here's a video. Excuse the nervous, crappy playing. I've been spending my time making my guitar, not learning to play it. I realized after recording that it was clipping real bad. Oh well. But...

SHE'S DONE!

Apparently I'm a silly guy and posted the wrong video. I still recommend you click that one up there, but this is the real thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gETt8QSiZMc

Its got a 4001 ricky kinda upper bout to me, I like it though. Wow thats a big chunk-o-maple, thats a lot of necks, tops and bodies.

Regards,

Don

that's amazing... you look and sound just like Frank Zappa :shock:

Nice guitar.

that's amazing... you look and sound just like Frank Zappa :shock:

You've no idea what a compliment that is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdsRppc86uI&feature=related

Well, here's a video. Excuse the nervous, crappy playing. I've been spending my time making my guitar, not learning to play it. I realized after recording that it was clipping real bad. Oh well. But...

SHE'S DONE!

You posted a video of the song Uncle Remus from Frank Zappa.

You posted a video of the song Uncle Remus from Frank Zappa.

Amazing. My guitar's made a trip through time.

Well allow me to post a more recent video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gETt8QSiZMc

That finish is AWESOME! Especially with the binding :grin:

Rear mounting the controls would have allowed you to show off the top more, but if you like it that way, that's all that matters! Great job!

I like the originality. I can never satisfy myself when it comes to putting origianl ideas to paper. I like the white binding with the blue burst.
The only thing throwing me off is that control cover. To me it's too much of a definite shape compared to a much more abstractly shaped body and together kind of clashes if that makes any sense.
Nice work for tackling a 1st build from scratch.

I like the originality. I can never satisfy myself when it comes to putting origianl ideas to paper. I like the white binding with the blue burst.
The only thing throwing me off is that control cover. To me it's too much of a definite shape compared to a much more abstractly shaped body and together kind of clashes if that makes any sense.
Nice work for tackling a 1st build from scratch.

+1

I like your body shape and the binding too, but that control cover should be a little more sympathetic to the body shape IMHO. YMMV. :cool:

I'd agree with that as well although it could easily be tweaked to look right.. That is a very cool body shape though, especially with the bigsby. Good job.

Fibonacci. And you're thinking mathematics, but the mathematics relate to proportioning and curves that people define as pleasing to the eye, balanced and natural.

Take the Tele, and a woman. The measure the ratio of a Tele's hip to waist. Now do the same to your ideal woman. Yup - same ratio. It's the Golden Mean and it's everywhere in nature and architecture and musical instruments and pretty much everything with beauty. You might say it is beauty.

Check ot the way the curves of a Fibonacci spiral relate to the curves of epic guitars. There's a gazillion ways to design a new shape, but if you want classic beauty you'll find a little research into the mathematics behind it will have great results.

I really like the shape of your guitar, but it just needs a couple of tweaks to go from interesting to beautiful. We're suckers for proportion and balance, that's all.

reminds me of the Ric solid produced in the 80's to match the 4001 bass, not a bad thing I actually have one cut out ad sittin in the "someday" stash