the slowest guitar project in the world

So here it comes again, I could put a couple of hours into the 7-string guitar project, I finally assembled everything and it works not so bad, but a buzzing problem that requires that I rework the neck pocket - I need to remove 2 mm of wood... The lower horn isn't a problem as I feared once, and I really like how the pickup rails follow the frets!

the 7-string guitar come-back

On Friday my carpenter friend came to check the Doppelcaster, she looked pitifully at my chisel, my rasp and the mutilated tele bodies, and decided to take them to her workshop, rectify them with her machines, and glue them since she was at it... Lucky me! 

But since all my tools were ready for action, I decided to spend a little bit of time on this semi-abandoned 7-string project, and if I can find a few extra hours it can be finished quite soon - at least the technical work, then I'll do the cosmetics...

Finally

Finally, after an almost 5 months break, I managed to start to work again on my 7-string guitar project - in the last two days I spent about 10 hours filing the alu front plate to put the pickup, knob and jack input... Quite a minimal guitar indeed, but still the humbucker is splitable with the push-pull knob. And since on all my guitars I mostly play on the neck pickup with the treble on 11, why should I bother with extra stuff?

Anyway, tomorrow I should get a machine to polish the alu front and then I'll put the neck and the bridge...

wiring

Had my electronics wired at Nick Page Guitars (I really have to learn to do that myself - I'm a little bit shy about it... And I want to add the killswitch) who by the way just released a new version of their Baron... I must stop working on this guitar for a couple of weeks now, it will stay almost finished until then...

work in progress

work in progress

As I started cutting the pickup cavity, I decided to get another pickup and left the thing unfinished. I then ordered a dual-rail single humbucker that has the big advantage to be splitable (it's a 6-string one but in the neck position it should fit a 7-string). The aluminium plate will hide the wrong cut once it's properly modified...

Also the model that I made out of cardboard was thin and didn't reveal that the back of the lower horn is somehow a little bit bothering to access the high notes, so I will modify it too... But I don't shred so it's not a big issue - this part of the neck I use mostly with a bottleneck.

work in progress

7-string headstock

Today, I've been working on the aluminium plated headstock of my 7-string project. Since I modified the Ibanez copy design of the headstock by making it narrower, I decided to reinforce and rigidify it with aluminium - like the front of the guitar. I was not sure about the all thing and really not about the black tuners on the alu plate but I do like the result. Will make the trussrod cover out of alu too, and will glue the alu plate on the wood, but I don't know what kind of glue I should use.

Also started to file the body in shape but I should cut soon the neck socket - it's the main challenge, if I make a mistake I can throw what I did so far and start again from zero. But I've been reading some good things about glued birchwood for guitars that make me thing that I made the right choice.

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.

7 string in process

before making the guitar out of OSB, I spent some time looking at it and wasn't completely happy so I made a new model with a modified cutaway - still not quite satisfied though...

... so I've made this one, but still it wasn't OK...

... so now i'm working on this one...

how they should look like...

a little bit of paint and alu foil and I have now a rough idea of how these guitars are going to look...

next step will be now to build the seven string (on the right) out of OSB.

you probably noticed that since the last post the 7-string has been reshaped, it's now more compact and closer to the original sketch ; still it's a quite special design, a good combination I think of ergonomic and aesthetic, with inputs from 'modern tradition' (Japanese style long lower horn, like the prodigious Tokai Humminbird reissued by Eastwood Guitars) and innovation.
the OSB model will show if this design is as comfortable as expected.

more cardboard

more cardboard guitars, on the left and down, the two models I've decided to build (with bridges and pickups), and on the right, two new models I intend to develop later: a 14 string (2 x 7) baritone with effects included (fuzz, trem, chorus) - my very own ultra deluxe model - and an experimental neckless guitar.

This one should be both cheap and easy to build as I just avoid to make a neck and can cut it out of a 100 x 30 planck. No idea if this is a complete dead-end (well it's upseting that it doesn't exist already and I can't imagine that nobody had the idea before) but the concept is to make it thin enough to keep it light, but that there is enough wood for good acoustic, to keep the work on the neck minimal (it will still be round - and it fits to my playing style since I studied first classical guitar and kept the thumb-behind technic since).
the only real difficullty is to fret the fingerboard (why don't they sell pre-fretted boards? - anyway I at least found some precut), then tuners, string-through-body bridge, one splitable humbercker, a push-pull knob, a jack-socket and that's it! I'll work on it when I'm finished with the first projects...