Scratch body experiment

[Oby]

Before I start messing with real timber I decided to do an experiment with MDF just to see if I can make a body from scratch. I knew MDF was going to be heavy so I made hollow and then got a bit creative. Here's the result.


I was expecting it to still be a bit heavy and possibly unbalanced but I got lucky. It feels very similar to my favourite guitar, a factory-made Fender Strat.

The purple finish on the back is a DIY candy I made using liquid dye mixed with clear acrylic lacquer. Worked out to be about $30 per litre and I only used half a litre on this guitar.
Heaps cheaper than the $140 per litre I used to pay for candy paint from the shop and now I can mix'n'match my own colours. The liquid dye is dirt cheap at $1 per 10ml and you only need a few drops per litre of clear paint.

Finally after giving up trying to find a cheap drill press big enough to fit a Telecaster body I decided to make myself a jig for drilling the string-through-body holes by hand. I think it turned out okay.

[Bakersdozen]

This looks mint. I presume your spaying the candy with a gun? And what's your ferrule jig?

[Sonic Mountain]

Awesome job, I really want a laser cutter so I can build body’s using acrylic and mdf. I like your approach, I’m going to chamber the middle layers and have a solid too and bottom piece. I’ll probably do one outsourcing the cutting at some point.

[JimC]

Near where I live there's a Laser cutting shop associated with the film industry. I got them to cut up a sheet of mdf into a jig for making a Tele shaped hollow body.

Its a very slow project because my serious workshop is 60 miles from where I live at my mothers house, but I have some ribs now...

[Sonic Mountain]

I use them all the time for work and it’s a reasonable cost. I’d just love to have my own so I could experiment more freely.

My tooling wish list is extensive.

[FrankenWashie]

I use them all the time for work and it’s a reasonable cost. I’d just love to have my own so I could experiment more freely.

My tooling wish list is extensive.

The Marthter ith always adding to the withlitht for the Lab. Although he did veto my propothed Nuclear particle acthelerator. I can't underthtand why he thought it wath a bad idea.....

[Oby]

This looks mint. I presume your spaying the candy with a gun? And what's your ferrule jig?

Yes I'm using a spray gun and compressor. The jig was just a block of wood I drilled in a drill press using the bridge plate as a guide. The drill press made sure each hole was perfectly vertical. Then I put the bridge plate on the guitar and drilled 2 pilot holes just a couple of mm deep, put the jig on top and poked 2 spare 3mm drill bits into the holes to line them up with the pilot holes in the guitar then clamped the jig in place. Then I used my hand drill with a 3mm auger long enough to go through the jig and the guitar body. I didn't want to rely on the clamps so I left the spare drill bits in the pilot holes while I did the 4 inner holes first then moved them to do the 2 outer holes.
I checked a US made Tele in a shop today and I was surprised the ferrules weren't perfectly seated. Some of them were flush with the body but a few were sticking out slightly. So I think I actually did a better job than the US factory with the string holes.

As for laser cutting... I never thought of that. Actually I thought laser cutting was mostly done with sheet metal.
Anyway I did it the hard way using a jigsaw to cut the rough holes then a router to tidy it up a bit and finally hours and hours (literally) with a piece of sandpaper wrapped around my little finger. I got the inspiration after watching a Crimson Guitars build I'm sure most of you are familiar with... the 90 hour build.

[Fretworn]

The

The Marthter ith always adding to the withlitht for the Lab. Although he did veto my propothed Nuclear particle acthelerator. I can't underthtand why he thought it wath a bad idea.....

Igor, when Frankie finds out you’ve been using his login again he’ll confiscate one of your left hands. Please be more careful.

[McCreed]

Oby, that is truly inspiring... but I have a heap of questions for you!

What is the finished weight?

How does it feel to play? - I ask because I'm so use to having a "solid" body under my right palm, I'm wondering if it would do my head in.

What did you use to seal the MDF? Shellac?

What type of dye did you use in the clear lacquer?
I've thought about playing around with tinting clear lacquer but haven't done it yet. I'm still new to gun spraying.

Lastly, what clear are you buying for $30 a litre???
I think even the SCA clear cost me $43/L last time I got it.

Thanks,
Mick

[FrankenWashie]

I got the inspiration after watching a Crimson Guitars build I'm sure most of you are familiar with... the 90 hour build.

I would have said that "The Complication" was the build that drove poor Ben Crowe crackers, But I feel he may have been well on the way to crackers long before that build took place.
He's a constant source of inspiration and WTF's for me.