I've always like the idea of making a guitar from recycled wood, and particularly Zachary's cutting board tele - that also fit with my idea that solid bloc wood for guitar making is more a tradition than a real sound issue... Anyway a few days ago I saw a cool cutting board in a shop and the idea came back, so I sketched some compact designs that would fit in a 50 x 35 x 4 cm piece of wood.
Also lately I drew several guitars looking like the blending of a Les Paul and an Eko 700 (inspired by some vintage Russian guitar) - there's something to dig there...
I've also been considered making a guitar body from a butcher's block (chopping board) - I've seen how cheap they are to buy in Sainsbury's.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what puts me off is my inexperience when using a router.
Didn't use my router yet, I keep it sight to get used to it... I guess that the whole point is to work very slowly...
ReplyDeleteI will start soon my neckless guitar, I'll tell you how it feels...
I should get my router out and practice. I had a look at the prices of these chopping board yesterday - just £12.99 - not bad for a guitar body!
ReplyDeleteI too noticed that the dimensions were slightly too small to make a Tele-style body, for example. Perhaps something more Danelectro U2 -like would work better. I also wondered about leaving it rectangular or would that look too naff?
the boards I can find here are 50 x 35 cm, a Tele is 45 x 35, it fits, but I think that keeping a roughly rectangular shape is not bad, not Bo Diddley style though, more Dan'o pro...
ReplyDeleteI haven't used my router much either. I've had it for a couple of years now and I bought it looking forward to all the guitar bodies i was going to make.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what's keeping you back from using yours, but my problem might be that I'm a little frightened by mine. 20.000 revs per minute is a lot.
Another problem is that those bits with a bearing on the top are expensive and difficult to get (at least in Denmark... if you know of good European online sources of those bits, please let me know). I think I need one of those to do template routing. Though my router has an attachment for template routing, it is different from the bits' diameters, making it impossible to use a true template.
Cool idea with the chopping boards, btw. Do you know what wood they're made of?
Speaking of those, it could be nice to use a "relic" chopboard... one of those which are hollowed out in the middle from years and years of chopping.
/Alex
Ikea's butcher block used by Zachary is birch - the same wood I'm using for my current 7-string project (my bronchitis should be over in a couple of days so I can soon finish the sanding and finally assemble the parts). An used one would indeed be cool, and if you can read through Zachary's ranting, you'll find interesting statements about alternative woods (pine, birch, recycled wood, etc...)
ReplyDeleteI'll try my router on some old planks before I try on a guitar, the template I'd do myself out of... laminate I guess. But I work for the next months in a place with a wood workshop, that should do a lot of good to my guitar making!