newtherapist's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

Boots and all.

Congrats and good luck!

Thanks gitlover. Hoping for lots of the latter. You too.

Good luck! The experience is going to be awesome

Welcome! Good to see ya' & good luck! :grin:

Dave

Here we go. I've got:

- Purple heart neck blank
- Purple heart laminating strips
- Sapele mahogany body blank
- Pau Marfim laminating strips
- Two-piece african blackwood fingerboard (this stuff is worth its weight in gold)
- African blackwood for headstock veneer
- Tamboti slab for top
- A handful of small bits of Ming dynasty porcelain gathered on a beach near the wreck of the Sao Bento, which went down on the eastern Cape coast of South African in 1554
- Two zebra teeth found on the same beach

I'm piling right in.

Very cool materials! This will cool to see...

First, I split the headstock veneer, body blank and neck blank.

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Then I jointed them for the big glue up.

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Then did the big glue up

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will that neck weight a metric ton?

Dude, I've never heard of most of the wood you just mentioned! This will be awesome! Good luck!

That looks great. Good luck with the build.

More glue

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will that neck weight a metric ton?

Dude, I've never heard of most of the wood you just mentioned! This will be awesome! Good luck!

Thanks Alex. Might well weigh a ton. I'm needing a super strong neck, so figure I'd over-engineer at the outset and then turn it into a skinny C profile neck if the materials allow.

Sweet, love the wood selection :wink:

It’s not because they were short of names that the coast of the southern tip of Africa has for centuries been called the Cape of Storms. In 1554, the Portuguese ship named the Sao Bento joined hundreds of other hapless vessels when it ran aground on a rocky island just off Mkambati on this treacherous coast. Some 150 of the Sao Bento’s passengers drowned and 322 scrambled their way to shore. A day after they ran aground, the dazed adventurers made their first encounter with the generally friendly, but rather fearsome looking natives and decided to head north in search of more familiar, paler faces. Of the survivors, all but two set off for Mozambique, more than 500 km north of their landing spot. Only 31 made it to their final destination after suffering the formidable rigours of uncolonised Africa. Reports tell how some resorted to eating the leather of their sandals to compensate for their poorly developed hunting skills and the absence of boy scout traditions in their native Portugal.

But of greater interest is that only two survivors didn’t make the trek northward. They were a ship’s boy and a female slave, both of whom had broken legs.

So imagine, if you will, that said ship’s boy had a secret little soft spot for finely made musical instruments. A little rock ’n roll in his castaway soul. A fella with a belly for an ergonomic tele? Imagine, if you will, that the lucky couple won the hearts of the locals, mended their orthopaedic woes and cast about for something to put a little beat into the heart of Africa. In short, there are worse places to be shipwrecked if you like turning fine wood into fine instruments. Might this have been the humble origins of the Telecastaway. History, being what it is, will never tell us for sure, but it sure makes a good story.

What we do know is that the ship’s boy wasn’t as badly off as you might think. For there was an abundance of wood in dem woods. Endemic hardwoods number in the mid thousands in southern Africa alone. Plenty of them would make fine candidates for a spot on the guitar stand of history, although less than half of them are really known enough to say.

Perhaps the ship’s boy started with a slab of Sapele Mahogany, gathered further up on the ships journey down the coast of Africa and salvaged from the wreck. Maybe he found a couple of pieces of the exotic purple heart in the smashed residue of his abandoned vessel. And if he took his leisurely time in the abundant, generous grasslands of Africa, he might stumbled upon the odd twisted, small, but obviously old Dalbergia Melanoxyon (African Blackwood) tree in the savanna. Now one of the most rare and prized tonewoods in the guitar kingdom, the African Blackwood would not have been big, but would have more than made up for its small size in its exceptional beauty. Our ship’s boy would not have had to look far for a nice bit of top wood. Tamboti (Spirostachys Africana) is relatively abundant in these parts and well worth the effort of carving one up with the ship’s equipment. If he was observant, our aspirant African luthier would have noticed that the latex of the tamboti tree is used by locals as a fish poison, is applied to arrow-tips and is never used as fuel for fires because of the poisonous nature of its smoke. But if he took care not to inhale when sanding his top down with a block of sandstone, he’d have been rewarded with a truly beautiful top for his telecastaway.

And there’s no shortage of other decorative goodies on this rough coast. Shell abounds and, if you’re a little more adventurous, there’s the large quantity of ming dynasty porcelain that was dashed with the Sao Bento, but has been washing up on a little inlet a kilometer up the coast for the past 450 years. Pay it a visit now and, if you’re patient and methodical, you’ll find yourself enough shards of Ming porcelain for the inlays in at least one humble, 7-string, multiscale, baritone guitar neck.

The Lacey Act be damned. If porcelain’s not your thing, help yourself to a little Zebra tooth for exotic measure, even though you’d be hard pressed to produce a certificate of origin when the bureaucrats start poking around the telecastaway.

This should be good. Another themed guitar... with a backstory even:grin:

My better half was away for a few days, so full-time childcare kept me out of the workshop. But I got a few good hours in today.

Neck blank thicknessed to 19mm and truss rod routed.
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Baritone neck template attached to blank and rough cut on bandsaw and routed to final size on router table.

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Then sliced off the top section of the headstock on the bandsaw and cleaned it up with the finger planes and a few files to prepare it to receive the headstock veneer. Final thickness of headstock is 12mm pre veneer.

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Then positioned body template on thickness sanded body blank and got ready to put it on diet.

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Administered the diet with a drill press and a router.

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Cut the body out on the bandsaw and routed to final size on router table.

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Getting the top plate ready for action.

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Had another look at the body. Its still well over 1kg, wouldn't mind getting a little more skinny, so expanded some of the rout cavities. Here's a quick mockup.
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Am planning a little adventure with the binding on this build. Tired of the standard binding BWB purfling and solid wood binding. But I don't want to go too far away from it to lose the classic look of all-wood binding. First thing is to lay down the bottom layer of purfling around the side of the body before gluing the top plate on. This requires that I cut the arm bevel now, before the top is on. For this I use the amazing, magic arm bevel jig and a bandsaw.

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Then I rout with a binding bit 1mm down and 2.5mm deep into the body to accommodate one strip of BWB purfling. I finish the job with a trusty three cherry's 3mm chisel where the binding bit and the devil feared to tread.

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Purfling on its own bends reluctantly when it's deeper than it is high. So I pre-bend it on the bender to avoid conflict with it when it comes to sticking it in place.

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Dry run with the bent purfling and leave it there to dry out properly.

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Wet run.

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Wet turned to dry and binding tape removed.

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Now have purfling flush with body and can start thinking about getting the top on. Feeling some anxiety about finishing up by May 13 cos I'll need a full three weeks for finishing and have a few trips out of town before then.

Now that is cool... I like forearm cuts, binding and figured wood tops. I didn't think I could have them all (the old project management saying… price, quality and speed - pick two!). :shock:

I’m watching and hope to learn a bunch of techniques. :grin:

Cheers

Murray

Nice work.

Thanks Murray and jkingma. I'm hoping I can pick speed also. Two months sounds great but turns out to feel very short.

Um, wow! :eek:

Nice execution there!

this is looking really nice

Cool! Not sure I've seen a forearm cut with binding before!

Very nice work :smile:

Thanks adirondak, jimdkc, abracadabra, rogerc, rcole. I've made a handful of teles with the arm bevel interrupting the binding. Like this:

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But I've always thought the bottom purfling should surround the bevel, as if to suggest the binding expanded into an arm bevel at that point and the purfling was pushed to one side. I'm hoping this approach allows me to get that effect.

Wow I wish I wasn't browsing with my phone so I could see this better. That is beautiful.

Planned and cut the headstock laminate from the bookmatched african blackwood veneer. African Blackwood has density of 1350kg per cubic metre, making it one of the most dense woods and a remarkable wood to work, despite its brittleness. When routed, its shavings look similar to those of plastic more than they resemble wood.

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Then I bent the laminate on the bending iron and clamped it in place on the neck to let it cool there.

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Got back to work on the binding on the body.

This is the ultra refined, patent-pending experimental binding template, constructed from limited edition scraps of perspex.

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This is the channels it cuts as a guide for the 3mm router bit. One of the channels has the binding in as a test fit. The other is empty.

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Binding after being glued in and tape removed.

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Now to the arm bevel. First cut the bevel from a 4.5mm piece of african blackwood.

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Levelled and cleaned up the body where the bevel will go.

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Glued the bevel in place

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Planed and scraped and filed off all of the overhang and cleaned it up with some sandpaper.

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Just beautiful work and a beautiful guitar body :smile:

Because these bevels always have a rough edge where the taper joins the body, I inlay another strip of binding, this time ebony, and a strip of purfling to join the two ends of purfling chopped off when the bevel is cut. Here I routed the channel for the binding and purfling along the edge of the bevel, glued the binding and purfling in with superglue and scraped it off to finish the bevel.

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Had a good, long, focused day's work. Cut the multiscale fingerboard fret slots using my home-made multiscale fretting template and mitre box. It uses perspex templates for different multiscale options. The templates are fixed to the fingerboard blank like normal templates, but the holes in the templates are drilled so that the fingerboard rotates slowly around the pins as the neck passes from one fret to the next. Pretty rough, but seems to do the trick.

Here's the gadget.

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And the fingerboard after cutting, mounted on the neck to trim it to size on the router with the neck as template.

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Then carved the neck, shown here in romantic shavings shot.

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And in more clinical, is-it-symmetrical shot.

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Sanded the fingerboard using 12, 14 and 16 inch radius blocks for a compound radius fingerboard.

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Then dug out a logo, positioned it...

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And routed its pattern, stuck it in and sanded it flush.

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Just beautiful work and a beautiful guitar body :smile:

Thanks adirondak.

Now I'm going to bed to contemplate the neck inlays from the wisdom of the unconscious.

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Beautiful work, NT. I really like how you took the binding down into the body on upper horn.

Wow, this tele is looking great. It almost looks like the tele version of one of Michi Matsuda's guitars

http://luthierscollection.com/gimages/mat3.jpg

Definitely different and very nice!

Wow, this tele is looking great. It almost looks like the tele version of one of Michi Matsuda's guitars



Spot on Henderson. Matsuda ranks as my number one acoustic guitar über builder. I think his lines are the epitomy of tasteful and restrained while still being very experimental.

That is looking spectacular man! Love that top. Keep up the good work.

This thing is turning out to be so gorgeous I want to turn my build into firewood.
Loving it!

Amazing work. This is gonna be outstanding. True craftsmanship right there.

Great job. This looks fantastic. I'd like to see some more picture of the multi-scale fretboard template and miter box. What scale lengths are you using?

Thanks for generous comments, all.

Tehcnalp, the jig is a little primitive, so I have to make a new perspex template for each new scale length. So far, I have used 25.5 to 26.5 inches and this is my first multiscale baritone and is 26.5 to 27.5 for six strings, a little wider for seven. But the nice thing about the jig is that once its cut for six strings, it can be used for any number.

It works much like Stew Mac's mitre box and templates, but has three locating pins rather than Stew Mac's two - the additional one being along the centre line of the template.

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The mitre box is just four angle brackets mounted on the wooden base, with an epoxy moulded head on each of them to keep the saw blade straight in all directions.

I stick the fingerboard blank to the template with the centre lines aligned, then put the template over the three panel pins protruding from the mitre box using the three lines of the first fret I'll be cutting. And then go on, etc.

The only real schlepp with this was drilling the holes accurately on the template.

Hope the pics make it clearer.

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good stuff. i like the arm bevel idea, never occurred to me to do that.

Ha, an other one with a multiscale neck.

I like your mitre box, I still do it by hand ...

Not sure if I understand the working of it, but it seems logic to me.
Curious what you will do with the bridge !


s.

Hey stijnkenens, speaking of the bridge, I went through a few ideas. What I'm going to try first is this:

A 2mm thick piece of african blackwood left over from the headstock laminate and a similar thickness piece of Mopane, a popular, indigenous South African and rather pricey wood used increasingly in high-end acoustic guitars.

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I designed the organic take on a traditional tele bridge in Adobe Illustrator, and printed out the full-scale template.

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Then I stuck the two laminates together with grain running opposite to each other and clamped really tightly for a few hours.

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The result was a slightly bowed 4mm slab of wood that needed to be pressed flat for a few days, which I have left bowed in the opposite direction under a sturdy bridge since Tuesday.

I'll be adding another slab of blackwood for the back end of the bridge through which the bridge saddle screws will pass. The rest will be pretty much the same, design-wise, as a normal tele bridge with strings through the body at an angle.

I'll post updates as the bridge progresses but I'm away for a few days so hope that time will cure the bowed bridge plate.

After mulling the various neck inlay options, I went for a minimal approach in blue paua abalone, with a slightly fancy treatment of the 12th.

Here they are glued in

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... and sanded flush

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... and cut down to 400 grit paper on my first ever bookmatched fingerboard

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Cleaned up the headstock laminate.

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Fretted the board without too many problems. Bent the wire in the trusty stew mac fretwire bender.

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Here's the fretted board with its characteristic bow, which I think helps slightly to counteract the pull of the strings when its stuck to the neck.

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And the trimmed frets from the top.

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that looks incredible, nt! I'm anxious to see how your bridge turns out.

Stuck the fingerboard onto the neck. Here they are just prior to the always nerve-jangling operation.

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Then routed the neck pocket using a new template for seven-string necks.

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The routed pocket with a seven-string Kent Armstrong neck pickup rout.

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And another romantic shot of the build so far in the evocative and gritty sawdust on my workshop floor.

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that looks incredible, nt! I'm anxious to see how your bridge turns out.

Thanks RogerC. I'm as anxious about the bridge but have a fallback plan to an archtop type bridge if the wheels come off.

Began making all the necessary orifices in the body and neck.

Started with the seven tuner holes, using a standard Adobe Illustrator template.

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Holes drilled

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Electrosocket jack plug socket is done first with a 25mm bit for 3mm depth.

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Then a 22m bit all the way through.

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Then a trial fitting of the socket. Provided the drill bits are in good nick, this orifice comes out relatively reliably using this method.

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Very cool!

Some sublime craftmanship there my friend.

I'm not a big fan of the forearm cut revealing the secondary wood, but otherwise I really like your design work.

Thanks RCole and maricopa.

Some sublime craftmanship there my friend.
+1. Beautiful instrument.

I'm not a big fan of the forearm cut revealing the secondary wood, but otherwise I really like your design work.

It seems people either love this or hate this. There's no in-between. I'm firmly in the "love this" camp. I think it looks great.

Hey stijnkenens, speaking of the bridge, I went through a few ideas. What I'm going to try first is this:

I designed the organic take on a traditional tele bridge in Adobe Illustrator, and printed out the full-scale template.

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Ha interesting ... A wooden bridge.

I did it twice with a lefty tele bridge, because otherwise the pup is to close to the first string saddle.
I have to order it first, so give me a week or so, and check my topic !



s.

Ha interesting ... A wooden bridge.

I did it twice with a lefty tele bridge, because otherwise the pup is to close to the first string saddle.
I have to order it first, so give me a week or so, and check my topic !



s.

Great idea on the bridge adaption stijnkenens. I hadn't thought of using a lefty to sort out the distance between the saddle and the high strings. What scale lengths are you using on your tele fan fret fingerboards?

Wow, the craftsmanship of this build is blowing my build ideas right out of the water...

Very impressive. Would love to more detail on the fret slotting jig and how that works for multi-scale fretboards!

Great idea on the bridge adaption stijnkenens. I hadn't thought of using a lefty to sort out the distance between the saddle and the high strings. What scale lengths are you using on your tele fan fret fingerboards?

For the lefty bridge, it looked obvious to me :mrgreen:

scale lengths:
63,5mm to 66,5mm
(it was a little miscalculating: 25" to 26,2")

The perpendicular fret is n°7


s.

Wow, the craftsmanship of this build is blowing my build ideas right out of the water...

Very impressive. Would love to more detail on the fret slotting jig and how that works for multi-scale fretboards!

Thanks ugly. Very generous of you.

Um, WOW!

The guitar is going to be stunning! I love the headstock.

After a week's work out of town, I got back to the business of building bridges today.

Cut and drilled the bridge from the laminated blackwood and mopane using the printed template and cut another piece for the back of the bridge through with the saddle screws will pass.

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Then glued them together.

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Cut another piece from a 3mm slab of blackwood for the neck pickup.

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Here they are roughly in place.

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More shots of the bridge and neck pickup cover in mockup.

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And with the saddle holes and countersinks drilled.

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And with a sample saddle in place.

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Am half interested and half worried to hear what the effect of a wooden bridge is on the sound of a seven-string baritone. Trying to comfort myself with the knowledge that african blackwood makes great acoustic bridges because of its huge density. But will have to wait and see whether this transfers to electrics or whether this will be a sustain killing adventure.

Beautiful project. I really like the details in your bridge and neck pup ring.

Beautiful project. I really like the details in your bridge and neck pup ring.

Thanks Roger.

Want to try an African blackwood tone bar on this build. First made Perspex templates of the bar and the routing shape from an adobe illustrator design.

Then cut out the bar and routed the channel in the back of the guitar body.

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Those shots in #71 (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/4062601-post71.html) look like they came out of a Luthier magazine centerfold!

This is the first time I've taken a half-built guitar on holiday with me. I'm needing to finish sand this guitar post haste if I plan on finishing by May 14. To be fair, the beach is not the worst place to finish sand a 7-string baritone tele. First sanded to 150 grit, then used grain filler on all mahogany, purple heart and pau marfim.

Really nice work! Every detail is executed so well it's almost unbelievable. Beautiful guitar.

Thanks nosmo

Such beautiful use of wood - the guitar is really knocking my socks off. It looks like something from American Woodworker magazine. Super well done!

Thanks for generous comments deepsouth

This is great , the neck pickup ring , bridge and tone bar are really adding to the elegance of this guitar , very impressive wood work there , newtherapist :smile:

Thanks adirondak.

I finished sanding the body and neck to 320 grit after grain filling and gave both a couple of coats of clear shellac. Then knocked them back again with 320 grit, gave one more thin coat of shellac and they ended up like this, pretty much ready for a nitro finish when I return home from holiday.

Sweeet! Nice treatment on the back bevel/belly cut.

I think Herb used the perfect adjective for this build: Elegant. This thing gets nicer
everytime you update and I thought it had already reached the pinnacle.

Thanks maricopa and Emoney. I think the primary reason that my first build challenge participation is so fulfilling is because of the immensely generous encouragement people offer one another here.

It really is thrilling to return to the forum once or twice a day to have fellow challenge participants respond with such an open, engaging interest in one another's work and growth as a builder.

This forum has really taught me a thing or two about the value of mutual interest and encouragement. So thanks!

Very tastefully done, nt. And I'm going to give a big +1 to your comments above.

Well NT,

If I wasn't in the competition you'd be on my short list for the vote, I am a fool for a fancy purfling job. You might want to check your square though, something is amiss with that fretboard. :smile:

Steve

Well NT,

If I wasn't in the competition you'd be on my short list for the vote, I am a fool for a fancy purfling job. You might want to check your square though, something is amiss with that fretboard. :smile:

Steve

Looks okay to me. Maybe you should have your eyes checked.

Thanks maricopa and Emoney. I think the primary reason that my first build challenge participation is so fulfilling is because of the immensely generous encouragement people offer one another here.

It really is thrilling to return to the forum once or twice a day to have fellow challenge participants respond with such an open, engaging interest in one another's work and growth as a builder.

This forum has really taught me a thing or two about the value of mutual interest and encouragement. So thanks!

Couldn't agree with you any more!

In other news, I've finally let the cat out of the bag that I'm doing a 7 string as well. No fanned frets, but straight 26" scale. You're gonna have to share some details with me about how you made your fret slotting jig because fanned frets are absolutely in my future!

Just stunning work. Great to see.

Thanks adirondak.

I finished sanding the body and neck to 320 grit after grain filling and gave both a couple of coats of clear shellac. Then knocked them back again with 320 grit, gave one more thin coat of shellac and they ended up like this, pretty much ready for a nitro finish when I return home from holiday.

I think I saw Jesus in that top.

You're gonna have to share some details with me about how you made your fret slotting jig because fanned frets are absolutely in my future!

Hey ugly, this is how I did it.

In adobe illustrator, I set up the fret distances in a drawing of two scale lengths, 26 and 27.5 inch. then I offset them to make one fret the vertical and placed them the same distance apart as the bass is from the treble string and joined the first fret of the bass scale length to the corresponding fret point on the treble side and so on until all are drawn. Then I drew a line exactly down the middle of the two scale lengths, parallel to them, and printed the life size drawing at the local plan printing shop.

I cut a piece of rectangular Perspex about 700mm x 85mm and pasted the design onto it, ensuring that the centre line of the drawing aligned perfectly with that of the Perspex.

Then I used a drill press to drill 2mm holes along the centre line wherever the fret lines intersected. Using another piece of Perspex, I made a template with three holes drilled in a perfectly straight line, one to correspond with the centre line of the main template, and one each on either side, corresponding to the position of the top of the bass side fret line of the vertical fret and the corresponding treble side fret line.

Using this three hole template and a panel pin to align the centre of the small template with each of the centre line holes of the big template, I drilled the outer holes on the treble and bass sides of each of the other fret lines with the aid of the template that is still stuck to the main template.

The result is a main template with three holes for each fret: one on the centre line and one to mark a point near the treble and bass ends of each fret.

To make the mitre box, I used a couple of angles for each saw guide, onto the top of each I put a large blob of inflexible epoxy. Once the epoxy had dried I cut through it with the fret saw to give a guide exactly the same kerf as the saw and high and wide enough to hold the saw perfectly vertically during cutting.

Then I drove three panel pins into the mitre box base, one in the centre of the mitre box cutting line and another two exactly in line with the cutting line which are exactly the same distance apart as the holes i drilled for each of the frets on the Perspex template. I cut the heads off the pins to leave the resulting alignment pins protruding about 3mm above the mitre box base.

To use the contraption, attach the fingerboard blank centrally on the template with double sided tape, put the template onto the mitre box so that the holes for the first fret go over the three pins, cut the fret, and do the same for each successive fret.

You can see the template on the mitre box here.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/2012-tdpri-tele-build-challenge/120756d1332693310-newtherapists-2012-challenge-build-thread-multiscalejig-1-jpg

I think I saw Jesus in that top.

Jupiter, you did. But that was shortly before he vacated my top to take up residence in Scatter's alligator build. Even Jesus has a soft spot for exotic black leather, it would seem.

Masked off the body and neck in anticipation of the finishing process

Then remembered to serial this build

And put on a first coat of nitro, hoping that our subtropical moisture won't spoil the party.

Wow , gorgeous !

Truly impressive , Great selection of wood. Looks like the finish line is in sight for you.

This is one of the classiest builds I've ever seen. Not the kind of thing I'd build at all, and that's meant as a compliment.

Thanks Herb, Steve and Picton. :grin:

I love that sap wood in the top - beauty. Nice tutorial on the variable scale length frets too. I'm gonna have to try that one day.

Are you really a therapist? Cause I'm suddenly feeling like I need to come to your shop for some, you know - therapy :wink:

This build is amazing.

Are you really a therapist? Cause I'm suddenly feeling like I need to come to your shop for some, you know - therapy :wink:

This build is amazing.

Muzikp, I really think you need to talk to somebody about this. How about you come around, settle into my workshop 'couch' (see far right in attached pic) and tell me about that time, as a child, when your mother wouldn't let you go down to the guitar shop?

Doc

Pic

:lol::lol::lol::lol:^^^^ oh I'm feeling much better already, I wonder how long it would take me to drive from California to :shock: just saw where you were...oy!

Seriously that is a cool shop, if there were a couch like that in my shop then I would never build anything except my waistline.

Man!
That is immensely aesthetically pleasing.
(The guitar... not so much the workshop... though it is nice...)

Thanks Anyone.

Opted for a nitro finish, which means I spent the week spraying to get 9 coats on in total. Not much to show for the effort except these images of my less-than-expert spraying abilities. In wet sanding we trust.

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I can count on one hand the number of variations on the original Fender headstock that I've ever liked, and yours is now included. Very nice build so far!

Muzikp, I really think you need to talk to somebody about this. How about you come around, settle into my workshop 'couch' (see far right in attached pic) and tell me about that time, as a child, when your mother wouldn't let you go down to the guitar shop?

Doc

Now that's good stuff right there, I don't care who you are, that is funny.

Oh yeah, that guitar, well it's stunning. But I won't talk to you about how it makes me feel.

I can count on one hand the number of variations on the original Fender headstock that I've ever liked, and yours is now included. Very nice build so far!

Thanks Chillman. I went through various iterations of headstock design before I settled on this one as a standard. I think what makes it work is the laminate, without which it tends to look rather bland.

Now that's good stuff right there, I don't care who you are, that is funny.

Oh yeah, that guitar, well it's stunning. But I won't talk to you about how it makes me feel.

Thanks for generous comments axedaddy. As regards your feelings, any shrink worth his salt already knows what you're feeling. We just like you to say it out loud so you can hear yourself demonstrating the insight you've gained from this session of guitar therapy.

Thanks for generous comments axedaddy. As regards your feelings, any shrink worth his salt already knows what you're feeling. We just like you to say it out loud so you can hear yourself demonstrating the insight you've gained from this session of guitar therapy.

Well when I first saw the material I was curious about what you were going to to do. But when you decided to do fan frets and explained how you did it I felt confused. But once it was in the finishing stage it made me feel a little inadequate.

Wait a minute.....doh!! I said I wasn't going to talk to you about my feelings!! Darn you guitar therapist and your perceptive powers of insight!

Well when I first saw the material I was curious about what you were going to to do. But when you decided to do fan frets and explained how you did it I felt confused. But once it was in the finishing stage it made me feel a little inadequate.


Damn, Axedaddy, all this feeling stuff is making me feel a bit vulnerable. I was hoping you wouldn't be so emotional. Freud spoke about p*n*s envy, but he never mentioned the less obvious but crippling affliction of neck envy, which is something I'm suffering in unmanageable doses since checking on your build and the way you got that gorgeous hunk of timber into such irresistible shape. It wouldn't surprise me if I suffer an hysterical conversion to my own neck. And no, that doesn't mean I'm feeling suicidal (yet).

Damn, Axedaddy, all this feeling stuff is making me feel a bit vulnerable. I was hoping you wouldn't be so emotional. Freud spoke about p*n*s envy, but he never mentioned the less obvious but crippling affliction of neck envy, which is something I'm suffering in unmanageable doses since checking on your build and the way you got that gorgeous hunk of timber into such irresistible shape. It wouldn't surprise me if I suffer an hysterical conversion to my own neck. And no, that doesn't mean I'm feeling suicidal (yet).

Wow, did I just out shrink the shrink with some Birdseye, flamed, roasted maple??????? SWEEEEEEET!!!!

Seriously, your guitar is magnificent, one of the best I have seen and your skill set is phenomenal. Congratulations, I can't wait for the movie, oh, ah, I mean video :-)

It's not altogether on topic, but in my quest to use as many African hardwoods in my build as possible (of which my challenge build is one example) I stumbled upon this today. It's Wild Olive, a typically small local tree with poor recovery rates for its timber. When I found it piled in the back of a local timber merchant's warehouse, I knew I had struck gold. I whipped it back home and split the 2 inch plank like I would the envelope containing notification that I had won the lottery. In short, it was better than winning the lottery.

It's not altogether on topic, but in my quest to use as many African hardwoods in my build as possible (of which my challenge build is one example) I stumbled upon this today. It's Wild Olive, a typically small local tree with poor recovery rates for its timber. When I found it piled in the back of a local timber merchant's warehouse, I knew I had struck gold. I whipped it back home and split the 2 inch plank like I would the envelope containing notification that I had won the lottery. In short, it was better than winning the lottery.


WOW ! That is stunning :shock:

WOW!!!! That is STUNNING!!!! The second pic is looking at me!

It's not altogether on topic, but in my quest to use as many African hardwoods in my build as possible (of which my challenge build is one example) I stumbled upon this today. It's Wild Olive, a typically small local tree with poor recovery rates for its timber. When I found it piled in the back of a local timber merchant's warehouse, I knew I had struck gold. I whipped it back home and split the 2 inch plank like I would the envelope containing notification that I had won the lottery. In short, it was better than winning the lottery.

That is amazing, what a score!. Olive is very oily wood, maybe epoxy is the correct adhesive. In my experience with olive, it also has a tendency to cup, but I have only used thin pieces. You could do a book matched carved top with those.

Olive is very oily wood, maybe epoxy is the correct adhesive. In my experience with olive, it also has a tendency to cup, but I have only used thin pieces. You could do a book matched carved top with those.

Thanks Axedaddy, I'll haul out the epoxy when the time comes. I'm hoping its dry enough to not do any more cupping, but I'll pin brace it just in case until I use it. Yes, the one plank is 190mm wide, allowing a couple of really beautiful bookmatched tops.

So what are your thoughts on purpleheart? I have stacks of it and have not really used it. Seems really hard. What about tone? You seem to pletty of experience with it.

Damn that sure looks femiliar... :mrgreen:


Lovely build btw.


http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/2012-tdpri-tele-build-challenge/124302d1334852999-newtherapists-2012-challenge-build-thread-image-3556019543-jpg

So what are your thoughts on purpleheart? I have stacks of it and have not really used it. Seems really hard. What about tone? You seem to pletty of experience with it.

I've found purple heart quite brittle but very hard, stiff and stable, so I like it for necks and fingerboards. Go easy with the router and fill the grain before finishing. They sat it goes brown with age but mine have stayed purple under nitro.

Lovely build btw.



Thanks 59

Finishing with nitro always feels a bit like a dark art - and one for which I do not have a natural affinity. This was no exception. Having given it about 10 coats, I let it cure for a couple of weeks and then began the sanding job. But I had failed to take account of the unusual textures I was getting with some of the coats. Varying humidity and temperature had been making it difficult for me to get a consistent finish. The body turned out just fine with the wet sanding, but the headstock had too many heavy coats on and they had left a million tiny bubbles that only appeared when the sanding uncovered them and deposited fine dust into the resulting craters. I should have expected this when the finish looked like this:

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So I sanded the headstock back down, breaking through in some places and redid the spraying, adding another four coats of more heavily diluted nitro.

So that's all curing for the second time around, but here's a few pics of the body in its wet sanded, hardwared equiped form. Mostly its coming together in a very satisfying way.

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Wow, that body is gorgeous with all the textures. I really love how you did the binding too. Cant wait to hear it!

Whew! Beautiful!

Wow, newtherapist, this has got to be the most refined
build in this year's challenge! The details are lovely;
very thoughtful. I like how the stripe down the body is
reflected in the headstock.

How did you do the neck inlay? Do you use a jeweler's
saw and router freehand?

Also nice to see your choice of woods. LMII lists
African Blackwood, but last I checked they are out of
stock, except perhaps for headstock veneer.

I'm sure this thread will become a resource for me and
many others. Thanks for sharing.

ps where are you in South Africa? When you mentioned
the beach on the eastern part of the country I was thinking
maybe Durban.

Thanks RCole, Ugly_Guitar_guy and FlatFive for very generous comments.

I did the neck inlay using a dremel freehand with good carbide spiral bit, powerful head torch and magnifying glasses. Since I passed the 40 year mark, inlays are a real challenge without significant artificial vision enhancement.

Yes, African Blackwood is increasingly hard to come by. I'm lucky to be around 1000km from the biggest reserves of blackwood, in the north of Mozambique, but its still in short supply as the Mozambican government clamps down on the unsustainable logging that has run blackwood closer to endangered over the past few decades. I have a mad scientist friend who helps me source unusual local woods.

I'm doing a lot of work to incorporate other southern African woods in my builds and finding them endlessly exciting. I'm now using Wild Olive (exquisitely figured, lighter coloured wood) and tamboti, as on the top of this build, which has magnificent and unpredictable figure (see http://jgsguitars.com/AfricastersPublishToWeb/ for some examples of African woods)

ps where are you in South Africa? When you mentioned
the beach on the eastern part of the country I was thinking
maybe Durban.

I'm in PIetermaritzburg FlatFive, about 100km inland from Durban. Subtropical, hot, humid, but full of lovely wood.

I love all the builds on here, but this one is a piece of art. That bridge - I'm just staring at it. What vision.

I love all the builds on here, but this one is a piece of art. That bridge - I'm just staring at it. What vision.

+1

Hey Newt,

This is a beautiful build. There is a serene quality about it. Have you thought about your demo song yet?

Barncaster

Thanks for such generous encouragement. Hey Newt,

Have you thought about your demo song yet?

Barncaster

Yes, I heard a version of John Lennon's Julia, on a relatively new album by John Scofield, and thought that would be nice to be able to play on a 7-string baritone tele. Now I've got to see if I'm up to it or not.

My, my, my... this thing would look just right on the cover of one of those high-end collector's magazines. That's a real work of art, Newt.

Do you have access to black limba?

Do you have access to black limba?

It seems to be in short supply at the moment. It comes from central Africa mostly and supply sources are always inconsistent there. I'm also keen to get my hands on some so if I find a source I'll post it here.

That's a real work of art, Newt.

Thanks Picton.

Beautiful , simply beautiful .

It seems to be in short supply at the moment. It comes from central Africa mostly and supply sources are always inconsistent there. I'm also keen to get my hands on some so if I find a source I'll post it here.

That would be awesome if you could let me know. I have only been able to find the one board that I am using for this body. I do have 3 more body blanks out of it, but I really like it and would love to use it more.

Very nice. I will refer back to this many time for my next builds. Thanks for sharing.

My, my, my... this thing would look just right on the cover of one of those high-end collector's magazines. That's a real work of art, Newt.

+1!

Looks fantastic, nt.

She's beautiful

Wow this is absolutely incredible!! I missed it all the way till now....wow.

Very satisfying way indeed. I'd rock that thing all night. Looks incredible.

You are truly a master craftsman! Beautiful work!!!!

I'm in PIetermaritzburg FlatFive, about 100km inland from Durban. Subtropical, hot, humid, but full of lovely wood.

I got some droewors there once! Beautiful country.

Thanks all for affirmations. I finished her off today, but had a few troubles to negotiate in the final stages, including a machine head screw that broke off and a few chips to the finish of the guitar while I was mounting the hardware. Nothing that wasn't manageable. Will post guitar p0rn pics tomorrow.

Most satisfying is the effect of the multiscale fingerboard, which leaves me with rich, three dimensional bass strings and singing, tight trebles. I was most surprised by the benefits of the multiscale effect on a baritone. Based on this build, I'd recommend trying a multiscale to anyone who's even remotely contemplating it.

This is beautiful. Incredibly well done art. It really leaves me lacking for words that express sufficiently my appreciation for the artistry and ingenuity in this build.

Excellent!

Wow, BR06623, that's very generous of you. It really is so encouraging for me to hear that. Generally, I'm just overwhelmed by the encouragement that is exchanged on this forum.

Wow, BR06623, that's very generous of you. It really is so encouraging for me to hear that. Generally, I'm just overwhelmed by the encouragement that is exchanged on this forum.

That's ok, I learned in marriage counseling to keep the Doc on my side!:rolleyes:

Ya know, I think there are really quite a few kind and generous people on this forum. I have been lurking on here for a while, and have seen many examples of people genuinely caring for each other's hardships, and willingness to share experience in a kind manner.

I like it here.

Thanks for such generous encouragement.

Yes, I heard a version of John Lennon's Julia, on a relatively new album by John Scofield, and thought that would be nice to be able to play on a 7-string baritone tele. Now I've got to see if I'm up to it or not.

What a beautiful guitar!

I'm looking forward to hearing your Julia, my favourite Beatles song. I just learnt to play it. I love that Scofield version too.

Finished her off yesterday. First, cut the nut, using a very oversized tusq acoustic saddle, since no other tusq nut was wide enough to use on this 7-string fingerboard. The nut is spaced at the equivalent of 1.5 inches, but proportionally wider for the seventh string:

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Then I set the neck in position using a clamp and drilled through for the threaded inserts onto the neck. I use threaded inserts from Roy Bullis of Onyx Forge and have grown to trust them over the years. Makes any neck servicing and adjustment significantly easier and doesn't weaken the neck to take it off and on endlessly.

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Then I installed the tuning machines. One was a bit off but it was nothing a minor resculpting of the hole couldn't fix. Now they're not perfect but it takes some effort to spot the problems (I hope!)

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Then a full fret dressing. First set the neck as close to flat as possible using the truss rod. Then used a flat bar to sand them all to the same height. I keep going until they're all producing about the same amount of metal dust.

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Then used a fret crowning file to round them all over again.

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And finally, taped off the fingerboard and finished the frets all with 320 and 600 grit wet and dry paper and polished them with a dremel and some buffing compound.

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Here's a pile of pics of the finished product. It's strung with 12 to 70 gauge strings, so the bass provides a deep rich low end which makes me feel like Charlie Hunter when its plugged in.

It's tuned, low to high, A, D, G, C, F, A, D, which is just normal tuning minus a tone and with a low fifth in the seventh string.

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Wow, a striking beauty!

Thanks Glen

Incredible guitar! Beautiful finish. You should be pretty darn happy with that!

Thanks Nosmo. Yes, very happy. You probably know how it is: Some builds just seem to be kissed by fate, others not so lucky. This one really went smoothly for me, I made relatively few foolish mistakes and am really thrilled at the sound, which is the most satisfying since it is my first baritone, my first seven-string and my first wooden tele bridge. Serendipity smiled on me.

Just plain amazing. It looks great, you are no doubt proud. If still to close to the project, you will be soon.

Just plain amazing. It looks great, you are no doubt proud. If still to close to the project, you will be soon.

Thanks VT

Here's the video. A somewhat ham-handed version of John Lennon's Julia.

Thanks to all for most generous encouragement on my debut build challenge. It's been fantastic fun.

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Sounds great! Congratulations on a job well done.

The guitar looks and sounds fantastic - proper job! Congatulations!

That is absolutely stunning.
Congrats.

Beautiful, and it sounds fantastic. Outstanding job!

It plays almost as good as it looks. But you'd need a master to play it, before it played as good as it looks. That guitar is a work of art.

Kinda kidding, that is a really good video and some nice playing.

Thanks Picton, JP, DeepSouth, Nosmo and RCole. Yes, I'd have loved to get a real pro to play it. If I do, I'll post a second vid.

Beautiful job, nice playing too.:cool: Well done.:grin:

Awesome job!! That guitar is sweet. Nice tasteful playing and good use of a looper. CONGRATS!

Hyperbole fails me! :lol:

A original design and great execution. You're working
at a very high standard. Congratulations!

I don't think I've seen a chord melody challenge demo
video before, and extra-cool with the looping.

Fantastic job on the build. That's a beautiful guitar!

Thanks emoney, flatfive, axedaddy and junkmutt. Much appreciated.

Great job on the guitar. Love all the little details you added.

Cheers

Thanks GN

Hey Newt,

Just beautifully done. Loved the demo, then you switched to the bridge pickup and I got chills. It has twang! :-)

Barncaster

Thanks BarnCaster. Yes I was thrilled that it could still twang through the african blackwood bridge. I think the bridge pickup is a tad too close to the bridge on the treble strings, but that twang sure made my day.

Awesome! It really is a beautifully functional piece of art. Great playing too!

This is such a amazingly beautiful guitar! Outstanding work! Nice job on the video too. I would be very proud to own it as im sure anyone who sees it would be. Congrats!

Very nice! Great tone and playing too.

You have a lot of reasons to be proud of this build.
It's a great looking guitar.

baie goed gedoen kerel !

If you handed me a guitar that was tuned like that, I'd have nothing to show you. Cool guitar, cool playing, cool tuning. You are doing something so far outside the box (or boxes) I play around in. Nice job.

Thanks a lot, guys.


baie goed gedoen kerel !

En baie dankie dat jy die gitaar gekyk het, Ike57, en dat jy die moeite gedoen het om die ordentlike afrikaanse groete to stuur.

Thanks a lot, guys.
En baie dankie dat jy die gitaar gekyk het, Ike57, en dat jy die moeite gedoen het om die ordentlike afrikaanse groete to stuur.

It's nice to see how the "old Dutch" evolved in two languages, Dutch and Afrikaans, and still have so much in common.

(Dit is pragtig om te sien hoe die "ou" nederlands hom ontwikkel het in twee tale, die nederlands en die afrikaans, en tog nog soveel gemeenskaplike het.)

Beslis.

Fantastic build, great sound, and lovely playing. Well done, man, that's an awesome result. Congrats!

Thanks kwerk. Yours is really looking very striking and impressive. Looking forward to your vid.

I'm the guy who found the tamboti log and helped Newtherapist to mill the pieces. The next time I saw it was when he brought the finished item to show us. My entire family was blown away by the beauty of the guitar. Wow!!! I have never made a guitar, but am a woodworker, so I appreciate the loving care that went into this guitar.

And he turned that log into a thing of true beauty!

Thanks RCole, Ugly_Guitar_guy and FlatFive for very generous comments.

I did the neck inlay using a dremel freehand with good carbide spiral bit, powerful head torch and magnifying glasses. Since I passed the 40 year mark, inlays are a real challenge without significant artificial vision enhancement.

Yes, African Blackwood is increasingly hard to come by. I'm lucky to be around 1000km from the biggest reserves of blackwood, in the north of Mozambique, but its still in short supply as the Mozambican government clamps down on the unsustainable logging that has run blackwood closer to endangered over the past few decades. I have a mad scientist friend who helps me source unusual local woods.

I'm doing a lot of work to incorporate other southern African woods in my builds and finding them endlessly exciting. I'm now using Wild Olive (exquisitely figured, lighter coloured wood) and tamboti, as on the top of this build, which has magnificent and unpredictable figure (see http://jgsguitars.com/AfricastersPublishToWeb/ for some examples of African woods)
Mad Scientist Indeed! My interest in wood is, of course, purely academic and I have absolutely no emotional attachment to the specimens I collect. Newtherapist, on the other hand, has some serious addiction problems and I have it on good authority that his better half is an addiction therapist who has given up on him (as in the plumber always has leaking pipes). You should see the man salivate and shiver when I present him (dispassionately of course) with a new specimen. Rumour has it that his website speaks of intimate realationships with pieces of wood and finished guitars. Oh - well, every village needs its nutter!

Serieus als de hele wereld zou alleen engels spreken we zouden veel beter af. Dat is natuurlijk nog net mijn stereo typisch amerikaanse houding doorheen schijnt :razz::lol::mrgreen::shock::wink::roll:

Jaw dropping!

Beautiful , sounds great , congrats on a beautiful guitar :smile:

Mad Scientist Indeed! My interest in wood is, of course, purely academic and I have absolutely no emotional attachment to the specimens I collect. Newtherapist, on the other hand, has some serious addiction problems and I have it on good authority that his better half is an addiction therapist who has given up on him (as in the plumber always has leaking pipes). You should see the man salivate and shiver when I present him (dispassionately of course) with a new specimen. Rumour has it that his website speaks of intimate realationships with pieces of wood and finished guitars. Oh - well, every village needs its nutter!

I don't know Barry, Newt seems to think that you are passionately attached to your wood...... in a madly scientific way of course :wink:

Barncaster

Beautiful , sounds great , congrats on a beautiful guitar :smile:

Thanks Herb, and thanks for the encouragement from the outset.

I don't know Barry, Newt seems to think that you are passionately attached to your wood...... in a madly scientific way of course :wink:

Barncaster
Barncaster - I am never a regular participant in any kind of discussion group, preferring to spend my time talking to trees rather than talking to computers (are you real people out there?). I really only joined the group because I was fascinated with the build process that Newtherapist went through, but if any of you guys want to join in our somewhat obsessive quest for exceptional wood, keep in touch with Newtherapist. He can never resist a phone call from me when I return from my travels. My primary source of income is working as an environmental/wildlife consultant, but trees and wood are my passion and I scavenge (legally) whenever I get the opportunity and I am doing a PhD on South African wood. An example of my sources - some of my pickings come from elephants pushing trees over on my client's game ranches.

Hey Barry,

I would imagine that your conversations with trees might be a little one-sided or do they actually talk back to you? :shock: Your PhD sounds fascinating. I would love to check out your scavenges but here in the U.S. there have been some very unclear laws written about the importation of some woods. Gibson in Memphis actually got shaken down by the Feds not too long ago. Can you believe it? Evidently on some imported species there is a mandate that some processing has to be undertaken in it's country of origin and that amount is not clear and in question. Can you imagine an armed marshal coming in and yanking you off your pick-up winder mid-PAF? Or yelling "Back away from your ebony" in the neck shop? I'm all for protecting endangered species but this seems over the top. Anyway, nice to meet you Barry! :smile:

Rob

Ah a real life "Tree whisperer". Not sure if that joke translates to South Africa though :mrgreen:.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: we meet some fascinating people on this amazing forum.

Welcome, Barry!

It does indeed. Newtherapist is actually a closet tree-whisperer himself. In terms of legality, I have the blessing of our conservation authorities and can trace everything to its source and provide paperwork to back everything up. Keep in touch with Newtherapist and I'll go back to talking to trees. You know the song "I talk to the trees but they don't listen to me......" When I was doing my MSc I spent so much time alone in the forests, that I started to imagine that they did talk back. Oh well I hope that insanity is not contagious, otherwise I may need to go and see Newtherapist's wife.

Sweet looking and sweeter sounding - well done!

Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!

Thanks PaulMarr and BR06623.

Paul, my official picture for the build is this.

Thanks for running a really educational, stimulating challenge. Its been a great ride.

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