My GGBO2022 Community build

[Greplington]

I'm still at the designing-fifty-times-and-continually-changing-my-mind stage of the build, but after many, many sketches and much revision, this is what I'm planning to build...



Fleor Alnico-V humbuckers, 2V2T pots, with push pull coil splits on both pickups, string-through hard tail bridge and 3 way switch (not sure where the switch will be going just yet). Body will be spalted Philippine mahogany, with a top of figured Australian Red Cedar. Neck will be a multi laminate of hard maple and... something (either walnut or more of the mahogany, or both). Headstock will be angled, with 3x3 tuners and a matching cedar headstock veneer. Fretboard is a piece of Australian native olive I've been holding onto for about 16 or 17 years... Chrome hardware. Cup style socket.

Feedback is, as always, very welcome.

 

[Greplington]

I have made some actual progress on this one (finally) over the weekend.

I sketched out the full-sized template...


...and rough cut it out (needs some refining with sander/files).


Also sketched out my headstock design and laid out the tuners to make sure they'll fit and work as planned.


I milled all of the timber for the build on my table saw and bandsaw, and ran everything through the thicknesser to get the dimensions I needed and clean things up from the saws. Next, I glued up the blank for the body, which is spalted Phillipino Mahogany...


...and the blank for the neck, which is rock maple, black walnut, and Phillipino mahogany.


I also added extra maple to the headstock area to give me enough width for the "wings" of the headstock. I clamped the body blank and neck blank together in my big sash clamps, and added extra clamps for the rest of the neck blank, and some cauls to keep the body blank nice and flat.


Next step (and final one for the weekend) was to glue up the top cap for the body, which is some nicely figured Australian Red Cedar. I taped the joint and applied glue, then used the sash clamps again, with a couple of cauls to stop the joint from popping under compression.


I also prepped and thicknessed the headstock veneer, which will be in the same Aussie Red Cedar as the body cap (no pics yet). While I was working on this I finally got around to making myself a shooting board which I used to joint the edges of my body and cap pieces with my trusty Stanley number 5 plane before glue up. I like using power tools, but there is just something special about using sharp, good quality hand tools...

More pics to come soon!

 

[Greplington]

I kinda forgot to post any updates for a while... But there's some progress!

Top glued up and checking layout for the controls... (silver knob is just a place holder for the 3 way switch)


Body marked up from the template and ready to go on the bandsaw...


And cut


Cavity template made and marked onto the blank


Switch how and pilot holes for the cavity drilled out


Cavity routed, and channel for switch wiring (and pickup wiring) routed into the body before gluing on the top.





Body routed to template (missed the photo opportunity...) and cavity covers rough cut


Glue time again!

 

[Greplington]

Couldn't add any more pics to that post...

Yes, I do have more clamps, why do you ask?

Cut the headstock angle on the bandsaw while the body was clamped up...

And cleaned it up with the trusty hand plane

(I think I've mentioned how much I love sharp, well set up hand tools)

And once the glue was dry, routed the top to match the body


Really happy with how this is turning out.

 

[TN Tele]

I like your body shape, kind of futuristic, kind of Jetsons. Very nice. Please keep us all up to date.

 

[Greplington]

I like your body shape, kind of futuristic, kind of Jetsons. Very nice. Please keep us all up to date.

Thanks - I started with an idea that was somewhere between an offset and an SG and kept sketching until I found a design I was happy with. There will be some quite substantial profile carving as well when it's done, which should take some of the sharp edges away!

 

[Greplington]

Body carves mostly roughed out. A little more to take off in some areas before sanding, but I may leave that until I have routed the neck pocket and the pickup cavities, and drilled for the controls. I don't want to carve too close to anything or make things more difficult for myself!

Front


Back

Side

Also roughed the cavity covers. These will be magnetised and flushed up with the back of the guitar (pic was taken before I started the carves...)

 

[Greplington]

More progress - this time on the neck.

I had enjoyed and installed the truss rod a while back, but never posted a pic...

After this, I cut and routed the neck and headstock shapes, and cut the neck to slightly over final thickness on the bandsaw, then used a sanding drum and a jig on my drill press to thickness the headstock and bring the neck closer to final dimension, with the area of the neck joint brought all the way to final thickness. (no pics, sorry!)

And this past weekend I got the neck pocket routed out.

I started a little shallow to check the alignment, and make it a bit easier for myself if I needed to tweak anything.


Once I was comfortable with the position and alignment, I took shallow passes with the router and crept up on the final depth.


Shown here with the beginnings of the fretboard...


I have also tidied up the carves (except the cutaways and the back area around the neck - they're all up next) and rough sanded the body front and back. I cleaned up the sides on the belt sander too.
This one is moving slowly, but it's moving! I'm hoping to get a solid chunk of time this weekend to get more done...

 

[Greplington]

Fretboard radiusing first today. On the jig, ready to go...


And router ready to start...


Finished, and abalone dots ready to install. Fretboard is Australian native olive with great 2 tone grain.


Did a quick mock up of the hardware to check positioning for the humbuckers (and to see how it is going to look...)



And with pickups and properly spaced with fretboard end etc

Just missing the toggle which will be on the upper horn.

With the position of the humbuckers decided, I pre-drilled and set my template up (and forgot to get pics of the body routed for pickups)


Then I carved the curves into the cutaways and around the neck joint, then marked and drilled for the neck screws.


With the clearance holes for the screws in place, I used a step drill bit I modified just for neck screw ferrules to drill the rebates. I used the depth stop on my drill press to make sure they were all at just the right depth.



I got a little bit more done, but there are no pics yet...

Thanks for looking!