AndrewDoesHair
Been Around the Block
I've been building guitars for about 4 years now. I don't remember why I started, I was just consumed with the desire to build guitars, and since it wasn't a desire to do crack or cheat on my wife, I indulged. Each guitar I'd build earned me a little cash to buy a nicer tool to make a nicer guitar. Now I have a pretty neat workshop and a huge inventory of high quality woods and paints (I prefer nitrocellulose lacquers). I'm getting ready to build a nice paint booth, which will be useful in my recent interest in working on motorbikes. but anyways, these were a recent couple of builds, which are actually not quite done as of now, but the process so far has been pretty well documented in pictures, so I'll just chat about it for a minute here.
The wood I used for these bodies is swamp ash, which is typically used on Fender style guitars. The wood grows in both very heavy and very light weights, the species varies greatly. And while the heavier stuff is fine for tables and chairs, the lightweight stuff is very much desirable for guitars. So desirable, that a few of the giant corporations (Fender, included) will go buy up all of the lightweight ash that is harvested, leaving only heavy stuff to be picked up in hardwood stores. I really lucked out last year, and found a guitar maker going out of business, so I brought him all my cash and scooped up whatever I could from his shop, including enough VERY light swamp ash to make about 35 guitars. So while these Gibson style bodies would traditionally use mahogany, I will be using Fender woods- swamp ash. Pieces wide enough to make a guitar are very rare, so it is not uncommon to join multiple pieces, in this way, for guitars. some argue that it makes the guitar stronger, and more rigid. Some argue that it won't sound as good as a single piece. I don't worry about it either way, it's what I can do... the edges are cleaned up on a jointer, and they're glued up with Titebond, which dries harder and stronger than the wood itself.
Guitars are made using templates, and templates can come from a few places. I have had great success with template sets from Paul Rhoney, at Ponoko.com, but for this style of guitar I will be fabricating my own templates. And since I am fabricating my own, I'm taking the liberty to slightly alter a few dimensions. I mean, if it's 100% from scratch and fully custom, I'd rather it NOT be exactly like 'the real deal.' I start with blueprints like these, scaled up and printed full size.
I use adhesive spray to lay the blueprint onto 1/4" thick MDF board, then I band saw and sand it to shape. I use the thin MDF board, double sided taped to a 3/4" MDF board, to make a sturdy working template for the guitar, and I store the master templates away. My goal with this template set was to make multiple scale lengths (the length of the strings, between the bridge, and the nut) while using the same body template. The fret lines are very very precisely placed, so precisely that their exact location is a theoretical spot in space that can't be measured exactly (sort of like when 3.33333333333333 will have an infinite number of 3's at the end) and even the finest guitars have thousandths of an inch of imperfection. The difference is so minor that we can't even hear it. Bu that's all just a side note. The position of these fret lines is dictated by the position of the bridge. The 12th fret is placed exactly half way between the bridge and nut, and the number of frets overall can dictate the length of the scale. A shorter scale sounds more snappy and tight, it has more attack at the front end of the note. A longer scale has a deeper timbre, and can be tuned to lower notes without getting rattly. What I've done with these templates is place the bridge where I wanted it on the body, and made 3 sets of neck templates, which are identical running down the neck, until you get to the end, where one neck places a nut at the 20th fret from the body (24" scale), one places the nut 21 frets from the body (25.5" scale) and one is 23 frets from the body (28.625" scale). A Gibson, like this guitar is modeled aesthetically after, has 22 frets and a 24.75" scale. Fender had two popular scales, a 24" scale and a 25.5" scale. The third scale I've used, 28.625") is for a baritone tuning (down 5 steps, B to B). To make these templates I used a lot of rulers, squares, and a good sharp pencil. After they were drawn up on the thin MDF, I cut and trimmed them, then copied them to thicker, working templates.
As soon as the templates are done, I cut the fret lines onto the boards. One guitar will be 24" with a rosewood board, and one will be 25.5" with a maple board. I use a laser cut template, double sided taped to the fretboard, to align the fretboards on the table saw. The notches are spaced out to (as humanly possible to) perfection, and a pin on the table saw sled sits in each notch. The saw blade I use here cost more than the saw itself. It's very fine and thin, super precise. Guys measure these frets down to the 1000th. I just buy my fret wire from the seller of the saw blade, and I don't worry about it.
Hang on... There's a lot more...
The wood I used for these bodies is swamp ash, which is typically used on Fender style guitars. The wood grows in both very heavy and very light weights, the species varies greatly. And while the heavier stuff is fine for tables and chairs, the lightweight stuff is very much desirable for guitars. So desirable, that a few of the giant corporations (Fender, included) will go buy up all of the lightweight ash that is harvested, leaving only heavy stuff to be picked up in hardwood stores. I really lucked out last year, and found a guitar maker going out of business, so I brought him all my cash and scooped up whatever I could from his shop, including enough VERY light swamp ash to make about 35 guitars. So while these Gibson style bodies would traditionally use mahogany, I will be using Fender woods- swamp ash. Pieces wide enough to make a guitar are very rare, so it is not uncommon to join multiple pieces, in this way, for guitars. some argue that it makes the guitar stronger, and more rigid. Some argue that it won't sound as good as a single piece. I don't worry about it either way, it's what I can do... the edges are cleaned up on a jointer, and they're glued up with Titebond, which dries harder and stronger than the wood itself.
Guitars are made using templates, and templates can come from a few places. I have had great success with template sets from Paul Rhoney, at Ponoko.com, but for this style of guitar I will be fabricating my own templates. And since I am fabricating my own, I'm taking the liberty to slightly alter a few dimensions. I mean, if it's 100% from scratch and fully custom, I'd rather it NOT be exactly like 'the real deal.' I start with blueprints like these, scaled up and printed full size.
I use adhesive spray to lay the blueprint onto 1/4" thick MDF board, then I band saw and sand it to shape. I use the thin MDF board, double sided taped to a 3/4" MDF board, to make a sturdy working template for the guitar, and I store the master templates away. My goal with this template set was to make multiple scale lengths (the length of the strings, between the bridge, and the nut) while using the same body template. The fret lines are very very precisely placed, so precisely that their exact location is a theoretical spot in space that can't be measured exactly (sort of like when 3.33333333333333 will have an infinite number of 3's at the end) and even the finest guitars have thousandths of an inch of imperfection. The difference is so minor that we can't even hear it. Bu that's all just a side note. The position of these fret lines is dictated by the position of the bridge. The 12th fret is placed exactly half way between the bridge and nut, and the number of frets overall can dictate the length of the scale. A shorter scale sounds more snappy and tight, it has more attack at the front end of the note. A longer scale has a deeper timbre, and can be tuned to lower notes without getting rattly. What I've done with these templates is place the bridge where I wanted it on the body, and made 3 sets of neck templates, which are identical running down the neck, until you get to the end, where one neck places a nut at the 20th fret from the body (24" scale), one places the nut 21 frets from the body (25.5" scale) and one is 23 frets from the body (28.625" scale). A Gibson, like this guitar is modeled aesthetically after, has 22 frets and a 24.75" scale. Fender had two popular scales, a 24" scale and a 25.5" scale. The third scale I've used, 28.625") is for a baritone tuning (down 5 steps, B to B). To make these templates I used a lot of rulers, squares, and a good sharp pencil. After they were drawn up on the thin MDF, I cut and trimmed them, then copied them to thicker, working templates.
As soon as the templates are done, I cut the fret lines onto the boards. One guitar will be 24" with a rosewood board, and one will be 25.5" with a maple board. I use a laser cut template, double sided taped to the fretboard, to align the fretboards on the table saw. The notches are spaced out to (as humanly possible to) perfection, and a pin on the table saw sled sits in each notch. The saw blade I use here cost more than the saw itself. It's very fine and thin, super precise. Guys measure these frets down to the 1000th. I just buy my fret wire from the seller of the saw blade, and I don't worry about it.
Hang on... There's a lot more...