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more sketches

work in progress

starting my second guitar

After improving myself with the DIY telecaster, time to start the real stuff with my 7-string project. Decided to skip the OSB model, it's been six months that I want to make this guitar and I'm too impatient - and also I feel quite confident. That's the good with following no model, I reduces the risk of making a mistake, since the guitar will be what it will be!

As you can see, since I'm still in a learning and experimenting phase, I don't work from a massive wood block, but I will glue together two parts of reconstituted wood - it's birchwood, more frequently used for speaker cabinets and drums than for solid-body guitars but quite appreciated for its tone. After thoroughly studying guitar making in the last months, I'm still not convinced than massive wood is necessary, there are many examples of other less noble materials used for good guitars...

You can also see the chambers and the one neck pickup. I modified the headstock of a second hand neck - it will be plated with aluminum to reenforce it.

finishing my first guitar

So I finally assembled my modified tele kit and I'm quite happy with the result... It looks better in real than on the picture (but you can already have a better idea by clicking on the pic on the right to enlarge it).

The strings are still a little bit buzzy but I won't set it right now since I'm not completely sure about the mate finish - I will probably add a layer of satin varnish. Also I will start to build another one from scratch and I'll probably have to dismantle this one to check how to make some stuff...

The handmade metal pickguard gives it a rough look that I do enjoy - I don't want to make a guitar that looks like a factory product... I love the Artic Kelo finish of Amsfisound guitars and that's what I had in mind when I first started to think about making guitars - I'll see how it feels when I start the woodwork.

The yet unofficial name for this guitar is The teleVangelist - since I intend to use it for my next stage project called Angel Meat. And I'll probably use it for my next concert in a couple of weeks...

making my first guitar

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Finally I could start working on this guitar kit project - of course it would have been quicker if I would have just followed the assembly instructions, but the whole thing was of course about getting me started to build things myself - the kind of stuff I probably didn't do since my last pottery class back in 1978...

So I modified the bridge[1] to put a Bigsby clone[2], cut a new pickguard in aluminum[3], tried some different mix to get the right finish[4], redesigned and cut a headstock model[5, 6]... With this little things I already learned a lot and feel more confident - I think that tomorrow I can build most of the guitar...

more sketches

more sketches

more sketches