Sort of a Tele Style Baritone.

[jkingma]

Now I mark where the neck screw holes need to be drilled. I seldom make two guitars the same so having a template for this is a bit useless for me. I just use the plate to mark it out.

[jkingma]

Now I determine my bridge placement. This is the bridge I'm going to use.

[jkingma]

I've shown this in other build threads before so this might be a condensed version. I draw a pencil line marking the scale length of 28" perpendicular to the center line of the body. Then with some fine string running between the temporary nut and the bridge I move the bridge around until I get the strings in the correct position. Again, since I seldom build 2 guitars that are the same templates for this are a bit useless.



Then I marked the bridge mounting holes, drill them and then temporarily mount the bridge.

[jkingma]

Control plate and neck pickup are positioned and marked.

It's starting to look like a guitar.

[jkingma]

With a 1" forstner bit I hog out most od the wood from the control cavity.

[jkingma]

And then finish it up with the router.

[jkingma]

Now before I rout the P90 cavaity I want to point out that Ancient Kauri and double sided tape don't like each other. I generally hold my templates in place with double sided tape, but imagine yanking duct tape off balsa wood and that will give you an idea what I'm talking about.

So this guitar is also NOT going to have a pickguard so I've got limited places where I can hide screw holes for templates. So I made this longer template from MDF and I screw into the neck pocket and into the area of the bridge.

[jkingma]

If I was using double P90's I could flip the template 180 degress for the other pickup cavity and still catch the neck pocket and bridge area.

[jkingma]

P90 cavity all done.



I'm knackered. That's all the work I'm doing today.

[jkingma]

Time to rout the bridge pickup cavity. I start by hogging out most of the wood with a forstner bit.



Then attaching my template...



...and using my stubby template bit...



...until it looks really nice.

[jkingma]

When it comes time to drill the holes for your pickup wires its nice to have a good long bit. I got this one from HomeD. It's 3/8" x 18" long.



I go thru the neck pocket and pickup rout at an angle all the way to the control cavity.



The one from the bridge pickup is a bit simpler.

[jkingma]

Now for the "string thru" holes...

I mount the bridge in place and use it for a drilling template.

[jkingma]

I dril the two "E" holes all the way thru taking just little bites at a time. This prevents the drill bit from wandering. The other 4 holes I only drill about half way thru the body.

Then I remove the bridge, flip the body over and line up the bridge over the two "E" holes and carefully screw the bridge down again. This allows me to use the bridge again as a template to drill the other half of the 4 remaining holes.

[jkingma]

When I'm done everything is nice and straight.



At this point I am not sure if I'll be using 5/16" or 3/8" ferrules so I won't finish off the drilling until I decide on that.

[hackworth1]

You are a craftsman. I must have gotten my bridge placement /neck alignment technique from your earlier thread b/c that's how I did mine. I used two lengths of thread down each e string and some scotch tape. The nut was already installed on my purchased neck. So that was easy.

Very ingenius use of the bridge area and neck pocket on that pickup template. You made a couple of special holes. Using the bridge mounting holes might expand them too much. IMHO, its good to use beefy countersuck flathead wood screws to secure templates. Also have to be sure to avoid the string thru holes area - which I know you did.

Because of your demonstration, I'm going to use my forstner bits more. They are a lot easier to control than a router. And you don't dull your router bits as much if you don't horse them thru a lot material all the time.

[jkingma]

Originally Posted by hackworth1

Because of your demonstration, I'm going to use my forstner bits more. They are a lot easier to control than a router. And you don't dull your router bits as much if you don't horse them thru a lot material all the time.

I find it's quicker as well. You can hog out a lot of wood with a 1" forstner bit in a pretty short period of time.

[jkingma]

I've completed the rest of the drilling and rounded over the edges to a 3/8" radius. Now I've got a $h!t load of sanding to do. I hate sanding and Kauri takes forever!

[hackworth1]

Nice work, Kingma. What is the length and width of that body at the widest point? How does one determine the scale length of these baritones? They are still an enigma to me.

[jkingma]

I don't recall the exact body dims but I believe its about 20" long and 14" wide.

Baritone guitars generally have scale lengths between 27" and 30" give or take. Most of the ones I've seen have either been tuned down to A-A or B-B.

This one has a 28" scale and will be tuned A-A.

[jkingma]

The entire body has been sanded to 400. Now I put on a coat of shellac sealer... for two reasons... 1) protection from the atmosphere 2) it accentuates some of the little nicks that I missed in sanding. Sometimes with the Kauri its hard to see some of these things until you start applying some sort of finish.

The top looks great, but the back needs to get under the sander again. I'll let the sealer dry a day or so before I do that. Then once all the scratches and nicks are gone I'll sand it to 1000.

The sealer really brings out the rich brown colour.

[jkingma]

Well I've done all the sanding I can bear to do. The body has been sanded to 1500. The neck have been sanded to 400. I've applied tung oil sealer to both. No more scratches have shown up on the body so that's it for that.

Both the body and neck will be done with tung oil. The face of the headstock will be clearcoated after I apply a logo decal.





The tung oil process wil take a while and there won't be much to see so that will probably be the last update here for some time.

Cheers.

[Weazel]

Wow! That Kauri body is freakishly close in colour to my mahogany tele (also tung oil finished)! NICE! Can't wait to introduce them to eachother:-)

[jkingma]

Originally Posted by Weazel

Wow! That Kauri body is freakishly close in colour to my mahogany tele (also tung oil finished)! NICE! Can't wait to introduce them to eachother:-)

It's been darkening up a bit as I apply additional coats of oil. You okay with that?

[Weazel]

Totally!

[oramac7891]

I cannot wait to see this finished. It is turning out absolutely beautiful!!!
I love that neck/fretboard color combo

[jkingma]

I've been picking away at a couple projects and have another update on the Baritone. I have just done a dry fit on all the major parts and tooks some pictures.

The neck has been finished with Tung Oil over a few coats of a shellac sealer. It looks and feels great. The body has been finished the same way but doesn't look as good. It has turned out a bit uneven and blotchey. After discussing this with the customer we have decided to try a semigloss poly finish and see how it looks. I've done one other ancient kauri body this way and it looked really good.

Here is a full length shot.

[jkingma]

Once I get the body finish looking better, all I have left is to make the nut, wire it up and then do the set-up. Not really a lot of work to do, but with everything else on my plate it's likely going to take a couple months or more.

Here are some close-ups.

[jkingma]

The more I look at the pictures, the more I love how the colours of the body, neck and fretboard all work so well together.

[hackworth1]

Looks great! Did you apply a poly finish or apply more tung oil? Looks nice and even in the pictures.

[jkingma]

These pictures are just with the Tung Oil. It looks not too bad in the pictures. The uneveness doesn't really show up. But in person it doesn't look very good.

[jkingma]

You can kinda see it in the flash area of this picture.

[jkingma]

Well it's been a while since I updated this build. The finish has been curing and I have been picking away at some other projects.

Anyway, today I got the nut roughed out. I'll finish shaping and polishing it over the weekend and then I'll be close to ready for assembly.

[jkingma]

Looks like I'll be wiring this baritone up this week and then I should be getting some strings on it real soon as well. I am really looking forward to plugging it in and seeing how it plays and sounds.

[tonyw]

Fantastic job, and thanks for tip on the tape and the Kauri.

Looks like we are going to finish our Baritones about the same time.

[tgfmike]

Very cool JK. A fantastic piece of workmanship.

[mgdesigns]

As soon as you get it doen, please make a few sound clips. I have been noodling a bit with my Boss BR1180CD recorder in a cosm I made with my tele dropped down to D-D. I love that lower sound. I cannot imagine A-A or B-B tunings.

[jkingma]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Originally Posted by mgdesigns

As soon as you get it doen, please make a few sound clips. I have been noodling a bit with my Boss BR1180CD recorder in a cosm I made with my tele dropped down to D-D. I love that lower sound. I cannot imagine A-A or B-B tunings.

I don't really know how to get sound from my guitar onto the internet. I might have to get one of my kids to help me out with that. I've always wanted to do it, and it would be particularly helpful with this one since the customer is in Norway.