The Deluxester Prototype - Sonic's foray into repeatable scratch builds

[Sonic Mountain]

I knocked up a slightly better mitre box using the first mitre box. Its also the same wood as the fret board bit so it's an interference fit in the channel with zero slop. I think I might cut another 'truing' slot. This ones not bad.. but its a little wide so the saw has more opportunity to wander.

So these pics are where I'm at. I dunno. It's a bit rough. Some of the goofs will disappear with radiusing, and the cuts are reasonably square. but I don't know that it'll cut the mustard as a finished board. I'll keep going to see if I can improve my technique a bit, I think I'm rushing.

I take it that it is fairly normal for the board to start flexing once it has a few cuts in it?

I'm also thinking I need to find a way to take some of the thickness out of the board before I start another one, I need to take off the radius plus around 2 mm to make it similar to my other guitars.

[FrankenWashie]

I think you need to start way thinner SM. Most of the blanks I get are normally about 8mm tops.
i have the board centered on a slide, that is a neat fit into the mitre box, held down with the good old superglue and masking tape trick.
i have toggle clamps to hold the whole thing down while I’m cutting, this also means that im locking out some of that flex you might be getting.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah I agree, but glad I went with this bit as a tester. It's not flexing while I'm cutting, it's a nice snug fit in my mitre box, just when I get it out. I have about a million other things going on at the moment, but I might make up a small skid and see if I can take a couple of mm off one of these boards with the router.

[Sonic Mountain]

Some more goodies rocked up today.

So this is a total experiment - I bought these of Wish around $50 for the pair delivered. They are allegedly Alinco V magnets. Not sure how I'd confirm that. The only markigns on them are N and B on the back I assume for neck and bridge. It took 4 weeks for them to get here and I have to say, they look pretty good!

I'm getting just over 8ohms out of one (N) and 14ohms (B) on the other which seems promising



Also looks like I could coil tap them very easily, so I'll probably do that just add some extra features to the guitar. I've also been informed that my neck blanks are in the post. Exciting times.

[FrankenWashie]

Yeah I agree, but glad I went with this bit as a tester. It's not flexing while I'm cutting, it's a nice snug fit in my mitre box, just when I get it out. I have about a million other things going on at the moment, but I might make up a small skid and see if I can take a couple of mm off one of these boards with the router.

One of the best decisions i made was the thicknesser. So very helpful for such work.
You might strike trouble between the high frets with pullout as you thickness, as from memory I think your test board is Tas Oak? Did i read that in an earlier post?
I don't know anymore, i have a case of baby brain.
I like the look of your new pups as well, not bad for $50!

[Sonic Mountain]

Literally researching thicknessers right now.

Yeah it's Tas oak, just cause it was cheap and dressed pretty close to what I wanted. Will be much better if I can true it up myself as even these bits aren't perfect.

And yeah, worth the gamble on those PUs. There are some really wacky ones available on there as well which I might try down the track.

The real test will be how they sound obviously.

[FrankenWashie]

If you can spring for a spiral head, 15”/380mm one then you can thickness whole body blanks. I have a 13” and it’s just that little smidge too narrow.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yet more goodies. My neck blanks are here! These have come from Australian Guitar Timbers in Malaney and are Queensland Maple.

https://guitartimbers.com/

They took a little while as I had them cut a bit wider than normal, but David was extremely helpful. He actually milled and sent them to me before I'd even paid for them. I think I'll grab some fret boards off him as well and save myself some stuffing around. His prices are pretty reasonable - these 2 were just under $100 delivered.

Also got my pickup surrounds via Wish.. I think they were about $5 for the pair? they look pretty nice, but did take over a month to get here.

[RocknRolf]

Looking great Sonic! Thank you for the link, have been meaning to pay that shop a visit.

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Those blanks look great Sonic, can't wait to see them shaped