# Pulling from the archive



## frankp (May 31, 2016)

So I am in the process of reworking a guitar I made almost 7 years ago and had a request for pictures. Instead of just doing pics, I figured I'd repeat the build thread (originally on WWT) here for posterity and because it might generate some discussion, which I like.

So, for those still affiliated with WWT the original thread username is frankp the thread is called "A couple works in progress".

For those not affiliated, here's the thread from WWT, minus the comments by other users.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 11,2007

My daughter decided she wanted to learn how to play guitar. I've been piddling with one for many years (still can't play a whole song but lots of song snippets) and always wanted to build one.

Let's kill two birds with one stone, I thought, so we started making plans to build some guitars. The key was she had to do at least some of every aspect of building the guitar, from design

, to plan drawing, to wood selection, cutting, glueing, you get the picture.

So here are the stats so far. 

Her guitar is the "extreme" body shape. Body is a basswood core with quilted maple top and back. Neck is a through neck with three layers of laminated purpleheart. Fingerboard is macassar ebony bought on ebay pre-slotted for a standard 25.5 inch scale.

My guitar is a big body chambered guitar (mostly because of weight) with a red cedarbody and a quilted maple top. 3 inch wide 3 layer padauk neck (very heavy) with a macassar ebony fretboard. I'm making it a 28.5 inch baritone scale so it has a cooler "growlier" sound.

We attempted to bookmatch the tops for each guitar, and they are close but not quite perfect (hers had to be offset a quarter inch or so due to her body shape and mine wasn't quite wide enough so I had to add some "wings" on the outside edges.) Plus, you can definitely see the seam on each guitar.

And here are some pics... her guitar front/top, both guitars front (hers sans top in that pic), both guitars back (haven't finished with the chambering of mine) then my guitar front/top.

Once we've gotten a little further along, I'll take some better quality

 pics of the grain in the tops and the finer details.

FrankP


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 12, 2009

Bud, I'm no guitar player but I've always thought they couldn't be too hard to build and it would be a cool project. So far, so good. I messed up a couple of my fret slots for my guitar, but I figure no biggee, if it sounds horrible, I'll pull the board and do it again. That's the great part about building these ourselves.

Ken, thanks for the encouragement. Definitely the best part is getting to do this with my daughter.

John,
I got a few parts from stewmac.com and borrowed several library books about building an electric guitar. There is also LMII.com which also sells luthier equipment and the mimf.com forum (which I'm not too impressed with the attitudes there) as a couple of other resources. I actually bought a couple of cheap used guitars to yank parts and components from ($140 total for two guitars and a case) because I don't know enough about guitars to know what brands

 are good but inexpensive and I wanted to do this as cheaply as possible. I bought the fingerboards on ebay for really cheap as well as the green abalone we're using as inlay material. I recommend doing this and I'm happy to forward info on who I bought from if you decide to build with your son. As for the exotics, I used what I had on hand except the maple and the purpleheart... my daughter has always really liked purpleheart and we both decided we liked the look of the quilted maple tops we had seen more consistently than any of the other tops.

I'll have some more status later tonight or tomorrow, I suspect. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll try to answer them if I can.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 14, 2009

Yes it's definitely more detailed and intricate work to build an acoustic. Sound boards are more particular than electronics are to thickness, placement, tolerances etc. There is a thread on here that has been a fantastic "step by step" of an acoustic build, though. It's doable, just takes a little more care and planning.

I already have an acoustic and wasn't really as interested in building another one of those as I was building the "easy" electrics.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 16, 2009

Ken, 

I routed out one pickup pocket, finished (mostly) the inlay and did some sanding on my guitar. As you can see, it's not a perfect job and I need to go back and fill in a little with epoxy around the inlay, and possibly sand a bit more (only sanded with 220 and was planning to go to 600) but so far I'm fairly happy with it as a first effort.

My daughter dyed her fretboard and finished cutting her inlays today and we'll try and get them put in her fretboard tomorrow. Company coming over to see the new baby though, so who knows how much we'll get finished. Here's a pic or two of the latest status on mine... no significant visible change on my daughter's...

I have found a couple of issues-
1) cedaris a very soft wood and any time I do some work on the top, I have to be very careful not to dent the body on the back side. 
2) It's easy to get ahead of yourself with these projects and then make the "next" step difficult for yourself. Note my neck pickup pocket hasn't been routed yet--that's because I have to make a jig to route that pocket because the fret board is in the way and my router won't sit flat now. Careful planning is important in a project like this.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 17, 2009

So not a lot of progress on my guitar since my last update. My daughter's guitar, however, has some significant changes. 

On my guitar, we got a little more sanding and routed out the neck pickup pocket. On her guitar, we routed all the pockets, did a ton of sanding (220 on the body and 600 on the top) , the fingerboard inlay (and more dying) and dyed the top and body. Tomorrow we dye the back and then finish with KTM-9 and fill a couple of other details in before putting in the electronics. A couple of progress pics...

5 points for anyone who can spot the error (a guitar error not a woodworking error) we made.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 18, 2009

Steve, that's partially an optical illusion, and partially a screw up. It's a Strat-style tremolo bridge so the bridge itself actually sits in front of that hole... that's the hole that the spring tremolo "bar" runs through and it's wider than the actual saddle area of the bridge. It is slightly off-center but the screw holes for securing everything were aligned properly.

Either way, here're today's updates--all for my daughter's guitar: 
Sanded and stained the back, finished sanding the neck, filled a couple of mistakes and put in the tuning machines, the nut, the strap buttons, drilled a hole for the jack, and put the first layer of epoxy on for filling the pores. Here are a few shots...


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 19, 2009

Okay, so today's progress is fairly significant since it now looks like a nearly complete guitar. Again, just progress on my daughter's guitar, but we got the frets on, tape-lined the pick up pockets, waxed the neck (no other finish for the neck) and put another layer of epoxy on the top (KTM-9 needs a sealant before application) and a first layer on the rest of the body. 

Since no-one seems to have figured out the correct goof for the 5 points... here it is. The second octave abalone (supposed to be the 24th fret) is inlayed one fret high, in the 23rd fret. My daughter layed it all out and I routed the pockets without ever checking them, because we had checked twice already. Clearly we didn't check enough times and I noticed it after everything was already glued in place.

My daughter wishes me to remind everyone that though these particular pics make the guitar look a reddish color, it's quite purple.

A couple of progress pics...


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 23, 2009

We 'finished' up my daughter's guitar yesterday. I say 'finished' because it's not completely finished (still needs a couple of coats of KTM-9 on the back and then some good buffing) but she had to go back to her mom's so it's finished for now. Sounds great after a little bit of setting up (another new experience for me, but not difficult at all) and she's pretty stoked.

The electronics for her guitar are 2 single coil pickups (neck and middle) and a humbucker (bridge) pulled from a Yamaha EG112 guitar. Master volume and master tone. The bridge is a standard strat style tremolo bridge, and the tuners are inline cheapo tuners also pulled from the Yamaha.

The volume and tone knobs, I forgot to mention, are my first turning effort on my new lathe. They are Macassar Ebony died for color consistency and then varnished with 3 coats of varished thinned with mineral spirits.

Pick guard and back plate are 80 mil lexan that my daughter painted black on the back side using black acrylic paints that we bought to paint murals in the baby nursery. She wanted it to stay "shiny" and it turned out quite well.

So without further ado, I present Zen Guitar's first offering, the currently dubbed "Purple Lightning" S/N 001 as it is right now...


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

August 31, 2009

Not too much to update as my mom has been in town to see the new baby and I haven't gotten much done. MIMF, however, is having a $100 telecaster challenge... build a telecaster guitar for $100 or less. This inspired me to add one more axe to the mix. I am currently designing (mostly finished with that part) a "baby tele" for the baby to play as he gets to about 4 years old or so. In the meantime, I'll use it as a travel guitar so I can try to practice when I'm on the road.

21" scale (standard is ~25-26", half is 19") with a basswood body, walnut top, mahogany and walnut neck, and cocobolo fretboard. It will be a thinline style tele (means it's hollow) to save on weight and the whole thing will be less than 36 inches in length and about 9 inches wide. On paper the design looks great. I'll take some pictures tonight (hopefully) of the start woods before making any cuts.

In the meantime, I rewired the pickups for my guitar to "tap" the coils of the humbuckers so I can select them as individual pickups or as a humbucker. I also drilled for the strap buttons and added one. I need to fill the other with epoxy and re-drill a la drill-fill-drill style used in making boats, because I don't think the cedarwill hold the screw without stripping in short order. I'm going to try and route all the channels for the wiring tonight and maybe do some sanding. Can't do too much though because mom is still in town. Pics as I get some noticeable progress.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

September 1, 2009

Not a huge amount of progress because I was dealing with some other new things tonight (pallet wood... what a find).

Anyway, here's a shot of the plan for the baby tele (if it can be seen at the smaller size) and a shot of the woods I'm going to use for it.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

September 8, 2009

So I got some more work accomplished on my guitar(s). I drilled the wiring channels on my big body and got all the holes for the knobs and switches drilled. Sanded the body to 600 and it's almost ready for stain and then finish. Just need to install the frets and sand the headstock and neck to 400 and she'll be completely ready for final finishing.

For the baby guitar, I got the neck glued up, built a truss rod, routed a truss rod channel, and prepped the body blanks for gluing. Also planed the fingerboard and got the fret slots cut (not shown) in it, so once I finish getting the neck completely ready (have to fix a fairly significant mistake first) I'll glue it down and then radius the fret board.

A few pics... fingerboard1, fingerboard2, neck and truss rod, neck and wings, big body:


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

September 8, 2009

And a close up of the big body as it is right now.


 

And here's an "artist's rendition" of what she might like look finished. The finish plan doesn't really match with the wood selection for the neck, but I'd always planned on the prismatic effect for the top, the woods were just what I had on hand. As such, the color scheme wins out. The idea is that the colors look like prismatic water

 drops on a pond surface or something like that. It's supposed to be in keeping with the "zen" and "balance" theme of the guitar.



 

garryswf,

Yes these are the first I've made. We didn't have a plan from someone else, but I checked some library books out that gave the basic steps and we drafted our own plans. I think there may be a picture in this thread of one, if not I'll add some pics later for others to look at. At least make them dark enough that people can see the details of what's in the plans. Basically they are just drawings of the guitar face with a few key dimensions included. Pretty simple, really. I don't usually work from anything other than sketches and my mind's eye anyway, so this was actually more detail than I'm used to working with... so far they've turned out fine.

My daughter's guitar plays well, smoother than the one we took the components from, anyway. I'll reserve judgement on the other two until I actually get them strung up.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

September 9, 2009

So I finished fretting my guitar last night, and stained it psychedelic dots similar to the "artist rendition" I put up yesterday. I'm not sure I'm going to keep it though, and may go with a two tone kind of thing instead... we'll see. Pictures later.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

September 13, 2009

Latest update: I got the neck finished on my guitar, and waxed it. I won't put any other type of finish on the neck but will be adding some pore filler (epoxy) and KTM-9 then install the electronics and it will be finished. My wife ended up really liking the "drops", which I'm surprised about. You can't really tell from the pictures but the top is quilted maple. I'm thinking perhaps putting something to help bring out the grain a bit, anyone have any suggestions as to what might be the best method of doing that? I was thinking Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) or Tung oil but I'm open to any finishing suggestions as I feel that's perhaps one of my weakest points.

So the details: neck and head stock were sanded to 400 and the body is sanded to 600. Two coats of color. Electronics will be split humbuckers (I don't know what brand) configured for neck humbucker, bridge & neck humbuckers, bridge humbucker and then some verson of the neck split with the bridge humbucker, bridge split with the neck humbucker and then the neck north coil with the bridge south coil. I haven't decided whether I can include some phase changing in the 5way and 3way switches that I have, but I probably won't bother. Too many sound effects and I'll never actually learn how to play this thing.


Now, on the baby/travel tele, I had some minor issues... I was sanding the transition from the neck to the headstock and got a little overzealous. I ended up sanding into the nut and truss rod area so I'll have to repair

 that. I did get the frets slotted though, so when I get back from my travels I'll finish up the repair and then continue with that project. The "challenge" deadline is Oct 31 so I should be good to go. I bought tuners and a pickup on ebay and got some brass door hinge pins to use as a bridge and a nut, so that should work out pretty well.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

October 5, 2009

So this weekend I got back to work after a few weeks away on business. I ended up using Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) to bring out the grain of my psychedelic water spots top a bit, and then put a couple coats of epoxy on it. One coat of epoxy on the back. 

I also took the afternoon yesterday to put the body wings of the "baby tele" on the neck and start the repair of my mess-up on the headstock. Pictures to come later today or tomorrow.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

October 7, 2009

And to prove all this hard work, a few pictures. Latest progress is hollowing out the body cavity for the baby tele and putting the fingerboard on the neck. Pictures are 1) body cavity, 2) Neck repair, 3) full body with fingerboard, and 4) full body without fingerboard.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

October 8, 2009

slabmaster, so far all three I've built have been neck-through and I like it as a build method. I don't think it's particularly hard to do, though I read in some book or another that it's considered one of the more complicated neck designs. I'm not sure why as I think routing a pocket with the right angles and such would be much harder than shaping a neck in place. Maybe it's just me.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

12 October 2009

Just for you I'll put up some more pics tonight, Ken.

For now, it's just words:

Got the inlays finished on the baby tele. Also came up with a couple ideas for how to do the bridge and tailpiece, as well as the electronics panel. Should be able to make some more progress on that this week, and hopefully get the top on as well. Almost out of time so I need to do it soon.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

13 October 2009

I promised pictures and here they are... first is the back of the neck after rough shaping. Second is the front (still no top on it) with the fretboard and inlays, third is a closer shot of the inlays.

Tonight I routed a piece for the electronics panel (front) and also cut the F-hole design

 into the top. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the bridge and tailpiece finished and can then glue on the top. No pics of tonight's work yet, but hopefully after tomorrow I'll have more.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

14 October 2009

So a little more progress today. I cut the tailpiece and routed all the pockets in the top and started the nut. Now I just have to figure out exactly how I'm going to do the bridge and finish up the nut then put the top and frets on it. I think I'm just going to finish this with some Danish oiland see how that goes. I can always refinish it later...

Here are a couple pics with the top taped in place. The tailpiece and the controls panel are both cocobolo, like the fingerboard. First pic is obviously the whole guitar and the second is a closer shot of the top with the pockets routed out.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

27 October 2009

Okay, I didn't (and won't) finish my babyTele by the October 31st deadline (away on travel this week) but here are a couple of updates.

I finished putting the top on and final shaping of the guitar. I also added the nut. The tailpiece and bridge standoffs were shaped and I added the control panel and put in the pickup. The only thing left is to put in the frets, tuners, the jack, and finish the guitar.

The Bridge is actually a door hinge pin just mounted in rabbets in the bridge standoffs. The vertical position of the bridge is adjustable with two screws that go through the body of the guitar and are adjustable from the back. (I got that idea from someone else's Tele challenge build on mimf.com)

Overall, this has been a great fun build. Should be very interesting to play once it's complete. I still haven't worked on my baritone since putting on the second coat of epoxy other than some light sanding. I've gotten a couple of suggestions on how to finish up the wiring for it though, so I'll be finishing both guitars when I return home

.

For now, a full BabyTele pic and a closeup of the top and components.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

10 November 2009

Yet another pictureless update... Radiused the fret board on the baby tele, killing two of my inlays in the process. I've decided to leave them be as trying to add them in now will be more trouble than I want to commit at this point. Now it would be very difficult as I've also fretted the thing and added the tuning machines. Only thing left to do is a finish coat and the wiring of the electronics, which should be complete this weekend. Pictures to come tonight of the progress to date.


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## frankp (May 31, 2016)

There are more posts but mostly just discussion and nothing further on the actual build. Feel free to throw out any comments you feel might be appropriate about any of these.


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## Kevin (Jun 1, 2016)

frankp said:


> So I am in the process of reworking a guitar I made almost 7 years ago and had a request for pictures. Instead of just doing pics, I figured I'd repeat the build thread here for posterity and because it might generate some discussion, which I like.
> 
> So, for those still affiliated with WWT the username is frankp the thread is called "A couple works in progress".
> 
> For those not affiliated, here's the thread, minus the comments by other users.



Frank feel free to link the thread - we allow (and even encourage) links to threads on other forums.


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## frankp (Jun 1, 2016)

@Kevin, yeah I know can add the link (though WWT is blocked here at work for some reason). I just have a beef with the ownership of that site now. I'll go back and add the link for those still affiliated over there.


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