Sunday, March 14, 2010

V Neck

Putting the headstock together. This is going to be a headstock scarf with a front and back plate.



Not rocket science to getting clean joints but I tell you wenge glues up nice and clean. I use the tape to stop the creap when I glue the pieces together. I always leave the headstock too thick so this time I am making it thin (really the exact thickness it needs to be) After I glue the wings on it will get a headstock plate.




So it looks overly long but I will trim the headstock and use the excess for the wings of the headstock.


Trimmed up the body. Still have a few ideas on the top.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Secret plans...

Wenge Classic V

Wenge and Flamed Maple Gibson
Neck through 9 piece Wenge/Maple neck. Current plan for the body is 1/4" Wenge top and 1/4" Wenge Back, Wenge center w/Maple Accent lines.

Neck : Wenge/Flame Maple
Fretboard : Wenge/Flame Maple Binding.
Scale : 25
Frets : 24
Trussrod : Warmoth

Body : Wenge/Maple/Wenge
Tuners : Hipshot
Pickups : Undecided..
Bridge : Tone Pros TOM/Stop Tailpiece.
Electronics : 2 Volume Push/Pull switch and a Kill switch (for now)



Not sure where this is going as it may be my last hand built guitar for a while. I bought some 2nd grade flamed acoustic back and sides and decided to use them as accent strips. The decision to use Wenge is an interesting one as I am not sure how much I like it. I like the looks, weight, and resonance. I don't like the dust as it is toxic and the splinters go septic in a matter of hours. I ended up with a 9 piece neck blank. More pictures than are needed for the prepped neck blank.





The body blank is a little more complicated. Originally this was supposed to be a neck through but I am not fond of working on neck through guitars. Also I have yet to build a neck through that I like. So the body blank remains undecided. But at least I will get started on the wings. The idea here was to bookmatch both sides of the guitar so instead of the usual random grain pattern I get something visually appealing. While it is more work it gives me a chance to throw in maple accent lines and pay homage to the Gibson V2 while retaining the classic shape. Sides bookmatched and veneer in place.




I have since purchased more clamps so every clamp in the shop is not needed to do the job... however it was bad weather so all this got a trip inside when it was done.




And what remains... The top of the blank pose an issue as I originally intended to have the neck run right through to the tail. However looking at what I have to cut off I may engineer another solution that allows me to keep a significantly large portion of the top. I probably should have planned this better but I felt like I needed to see the wood to get an idea of were I am going.


Wenge Multiscales

Well they start out pretty ugly... then they get a little better. Using Wenge is no fun as it splinters and cracks really easily when the pieces are so small. I much prefer a nice rosewood variant instead. Results are little taller bobbin than a stock one because the core has to be larger on a wood bobbin than a plastic one. I changed over to Titebond to assemble the bobbins as I worry about the longevity of CA.