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Who doesn't love getting a guitar for Christmas?
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My wife custom ordered this for me last year, but I wasn't allowed to touch it till Christmas. There are no electrics (yet), and no route for pickup or knobs as I want to try a few crazy things with this guitar.
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Curiousity is killing the cat? Can you give us some hints as to what you have got planned for this build Andy?
Cheers, Waz
The neck looks straight, and has a really good, tight fit in the body. I can lift the whole guitar from the neck without movement. Not everything is perfect, but I will enjoy the challenge of trying to fix what can be fixed, and trying to hide the rest.
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The fret dots on the side of the neck are far from straight. 12 th fret markers show because they are so close together and the 19th fret marker is almost touching the front of the neck. I'm thinking of scrounging some fretboard wood from somewhere on the guitar (rounding the ends off?) and using it to cover the worst of these.
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There is a bit of a gap on the heel, but nothing I shouldn't be able to fix, and it may come in handy.
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The plastic nut is sitting on top of the fretboard wood. I'll fix this when I get a bone nut replacement.
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For those thinking of building one of these for acoustic playing, you may want to rethink your plans. The soundboard is supported by a block of wood from back to front, instead of tone bars like most full hollow-body arch tops. This is probably to stop the feedback usually produced in these guitars. Having said that, tapping the top sounds ok. It would probably sound fine if all you want is to practice while the kids sleep in the next room.
It's companion on the bench?
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I need a guitar prop for Comicon 2017. The requirements state it must be soft, so it's being carved out of foam
Score for Xmas Andrew!
they are surprising loud acoustically Andrew, you might be in for a pleasant surprise :D
Tone foam?
Andy40: It is a great present. Dedman: I'm planning on an archtop scratchie a few years in the future, I'm going to attempt to replace the block with tone bars. There are a few other things I need to do while it's open anyway.
Weirdy: mattress foam. Full scale body, slightly shorter neck (because the mattress was too short)
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Nice looking kit Andrew. I had the tone foam out today...Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2017...a7dda243f7.jpg
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That's just lazy Ponch, what's wrong with palm or finger muting.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewdosborne
I always pulled the fixed mute out of my basses so I had the unmuted ringing string option
Should add, nice looking JB
I've softened up Dave... my reggae thumb/palm mute technique cumulated in a large thumb blister lol
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As a disciple of Carol Kaye I have always played bass with a pick and as a consequence palm mute, left hand finger mute and also fret mute ( finger right on fret and slightly over hanging rather than muting with a free finger on the fretting hand )Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewdosborne
I used to play bass with a pick/palm muting/anything goes, but haven't played in a band/live for years.Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
I sometimes use tone foam to mute guitar strings when recording.
Update pics:
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The back has come off, it was almost a shame to start by pulling a perfectly good guitar body apart. The inside bridge reinforcement block has come off, and some of the ply with it. It won't be seen, but I've partially filled the hole with sawdust/super glue to stop any further delamination.
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The back had a few chips that needed re-glueing. The big key to getting it off gently is heat. Sometimes it pays to live somewhere that has 40 plus degree days during summer.
And foam guitar!
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Shaping is nearly done, then it will need some sort of grain filler before painting.
wow Andrew first time I've seen a semi hollow the back come off the body !
Good to see what the inside looks like. Looks like you have it nicely glued/clamped.
Love the foam mini strat, has it been cut out of a block of foam ?
Hi Wokka, I need to replace the support block with sort of brace, similar to an acoustic. The "mini" foam strat has a 60cm scale length.
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Its not often you see a kit guitar build thread start in reverse on purpose! Thats some balls of steel to attempt to take the back off a new hollow body kit, Igor and I in the FrankenLab salute you sir!Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewA
This prompted me to look for the construction methods used in archtop guitars. I came across this page http://www.acousticfingerstyle.com/ArchtopGuitars.htm which has some interesting facts about the different speeds of sound in wood along the grain vs across the grain, and the reason archtop guitars normally have f-holes at the sides (to decrease sustain), rather than a round sound-hole.
Now a lot of that design philosophy doesn't apply when you are using laminated woods, as you've got plies running at approx. 90° to each other, plus the glue holding the plies together. So I'd assume the result is a guitar with less acoustic projection and a longer sustain.
I presume you are going to go for a Gibson archtop style simple parallel bracing?
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Hi Simon, thanks for the research. That's a good link with lots of info.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I'm still undecided about parallel v X-brace, but yes, that is the general idea of what I'm going for.
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It's weird looking in there and seeing no bracing at all. This is probably where we need Gavmeister to jump in, as he actually makes acoustic guitars.
It's mainly down to the arch top removing (or reducing) the need for bracing. An arched surface has far more strength under load than a flat surface has, as it is able to spread and re-distribute a lot of that load to the sides.
I was previously told by a friend that knows about these things that linking the back and front with a post was a good idea, but so far have failed to find any examples in archtop construction (maybe I need to look at violins & cellos etc.)
Yes, I believe the violin family uses the "sound post". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_postQuote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Interesting Fretty. The difference between the violin sound post and the one that was in my ES5 are the violin still has braces, the ES5 post was a 1cm x 2cm T-piece rather than dowel and it was glued in dead centre of the bridge, rather than held by friction on the treble side.
It would be interesting to hear the difference. I might have to try cutting some dowel and seeing what it does to my Epi archtop.
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Well my curiosity is piqued with this. I am going to go home and get my inspection camera out and see what is in the depths of my Casino and my Eastman.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewA
I would imagine it's a T-piece in the PB kits because the top is normally drilled for a tune-o-matic bridge, so needs a wide block under the bridge area to take the post holes. It's probably then just easier for the factory to use the same sized wood to make the rest of the post. It certainly isn't placed properly to tune the acoustic response. Maybe it is simply there for some added structural support, or maybe it increases the sound level at which the body starts to resonate and goes into feedback.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I agree Simon, I think this is purely for bridge support rather than any type of sound / resonance transfer.
I have a Harmony archtop with very similar construction. It has a floating bridge, and no such support. It has two parallel supports that run the length of the top at about the same width as the bridge
I never bothered to look in the Harmony archtop I restored in that amount of detail, and it's in someone else's hands now. Wish I had looked harder!
Basically like a flat top acoustic with less bracing
UPDATE. I haven't posted for a few weeks, but have been doing stuff when I get the chance. Working in a tin shed isn't fun when it's 43 degrees outside. The photo below shows what I'm currently working on, but can you tell what is happening here?
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Looks like its pickup time....
What's going in?
What Colour are you going to paint it???? SeaFoam green???? :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewA
It's a bit of an experiment. There are 2 pit bull humbucking that I've wax potted that will be hard-wired together. Can you find them?Quote:
Originally Posted by stan
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This:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobastard
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...00b35a7d68.jpg
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Pore filling with vinyl glue, then gold on black. Just finishing up the shaping now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobastard
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Time for headstock design.
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I haven't done inlays before, so I'm leaning towards the simpler ones. It's all a learning experience. I like the first one.