Leaderboard

I put the blank together last year and intended to start work on it properly today but my sander needs a new belt. At least by posting it here I'm committed to it! Rough cut body blank, it's made from 7/8 bits of piano and will have an interesting finish applied to it eventually. 7/8 bits of piano in three layers, I'm trying to stay close to the original Gibson body thickness. But why has he titled this thread "TT" Flying V?

https://projectguitarcache.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/monthly_2020_12/IMG_2508_comp.jpg.102034f04205cac3c8ff25c15de712fc.jpg Check out my dads first guitar build. Already put order in for #2

Nice work!

The resin leaked out from the cardboard dam around the test blocks so first job of the day was to remove them from the workbench with a hammer and chisel. One of the reasons for the test piece was to try out the router template. Note the extra bit of plywood the angle the cut . It's the wrong way round in this picture. You can rout through epoxy and cloth. This is a trial for the neck joint , it slopes to give the correct neck angle.

I've never seen a 2 way blade switch, only 3,4 and 5 way, one option might be to get a scratchplate without the switch hole and fit an on-off toggle switch, or maybe use the 3 way and have 2 different on options and an off option, i'm not totally sure exactly how the connections work on the 3 ways but i have one in a box somewhere that i could check with a meter if you want to know how the connections work. Matt

I've been working on the neck today. It's made from oak (100 year old ex piano) I glued the angled headstock on last week and did some shaping today. A jig I made to hold the neck while I rout the channel for the truss rod. The two bits of wood allow me to use the outside edge as a guide and keep the routing central regardless of the shape of the neck or headstock. Truss rod in situ: This is where it get's weird....I'm going to cover the body and headstock with tartan encased in resin. These are for testing purposes. I'm planning on using green poplar to make the fretboard with yellow shell dots. TT stands for "Tartan Terror"

If that had been my first guitar, I’d have been well chuffed.

Hi, I've got a few things planned for next year, notably a flying v build. I'll be starting a new thread for it and going into a bit more detail. It should be a bit different if the finish I have in mind works. It's not something I've tried before and I'm not sure if anyone else has either! Anyway , that's for next year. Meanwhile ...I took an opportunity to use up some spare parts to make this Frankencaster for one of my partner's grandchildren's Christmas present: An old strat body that I re-sprayed + the best fitting of the three necks I had gathering dust. The hardware and pickups are all things I took a punt on to see what they were like but decided not to use on a full build but perfectly good for a first guitar. I'm really pleased with it , hopefully the new owner will be too.

Oh yeah, I forgot that bit!! It's a laptop stand. I'll be honest, I'm not sure why she wants one like it, it doesn't bring the screen up to the correct height for your eyeline but it's too high to use the keyboard comfortably. Still, she asked for that height off the table so that's what she's got.

Yeah, I know I'm just copying and pasting from the mother forum. You'll live. A tablet stand, or picture stand if they so wish, for my parents. Softwood, oak and mahogany. We talk to them over Skype every week and for some reason known best to my dad he insists on having his iPad in portrait orientation, so the stand at the back can't be used, They prop it up on a book. This started out life as the prototype for my sister's Christmas present. It showed me how not to to do it . I couldn't think of anything sensible to make out of two wooden triangles so bashed this together. The finish isn't great, the chip outs are quite ugly in places, but it works and as a design/functional mechanics I like it.

I keep forgetting to update this forum, soz. An advent(?) star sort of commissioned by MDW. She sees things, and then drops hints about how easy it would be to make. In this case, she wasn't wrong. It's got process imperfections, but it's all a learning curve. It's also the first thing I've put my makers mark on, thanks again @Fishman. The decal paper didn't have enough varnish on so it's a bit fuzzy on one edge.

And the two together

Now that’s done, I’ve ordered a tremolo pedal kit. Watch this space for more soldering shenanigans.

Wired and tested the main board today, it works! Still awaiting some smoothing caps, so no sound clips as yet.

Kit arrived today. I was hoping that I might be able to stretch the build over a few days, but it looks very much like a one session affair. I’ll start tomorrow.

Fitting new pickups to a semi-acoustic! If there’s a job that’s more of a faff, I don’t want anything to do with it. Anyhow, I replaced the pickups on my Epiphone Casino Coupé. Nothing fancy, just a pair of Artec do gear P90s, for a mere £30. I much prefer the black covers to the Epi chrome ones and they sound much clearer too. The only drawback has been that the bridge pickup sits too low (5mm) and the outputs are wildly different, so I’ve ordered a couple of shims. However, all in all, I’m very pleased. Oh, what’s that I hear you say? Very well then... In terms of the work, I attached thick, cotton threads to each of the pots and then pulled them (one at a time) through the bridge pickup hole (they were too big to get through the f holes!) soldered the new neck pickup on, then repeated for the bridge pickup. Pulling on the attached threads, plus a little wiggling re-sited the pots. The shallowness and compact size of the body made manoeuvring the pots very fiddly, plus the original pickup leads were run through bendy cable clamps (releasing these was an additional PITA). If Epiphone had used mini, Alpha pots, instead of full size, it would’ve been so much easier. The new Artecs are so much more powerful and clear than the originals, I’d definitely try some of their pickups in the future.

All done, although I've gone back to cream selector switch tip (just too much black). I've also quickly lashed up a recording, excuse the dodgy notes and timing. P90.mp3

The Acoustic Black Widow had one...