Ag please daddy can I have a Guitar

woody1

or 2 or 3.

So when the young one asked me if he can have an Electric guitar, I decided that it is time for a father and son project. He loves the workshop but we do not always get time together to work there. Either he is busy on a weekend or I have other commitments.

As I belong to a woodworkers association and have a mentor there that is into building guitars, I decided to give it a go .. MY WAY.

My way involves the tools that I have. About 6 years ago I built myself a CNC router. This thing gives me endless joy, making anything from simple 2D stuff to 3D carvings.

Two years ago I also imported my own Laser Cutter / Engraver and with these 2 machines, and others already in the workshop, I want to make a guitar with my son.

So off to Maple Street Timbers and with the lengths of wood that I had to buy, I could make 3 guitars and that is why we are embarking on this venture doing 3 guitars.

No 1 is to sort out the drawings and get the hang of it.
No 2 will be his guitar and
No 3 might be up for sale to recuperate some costs.

woody1

As I cannot even pay a transistor radio in tune, I had to rely on my friend the woodworker and Google to get up to speed.

But what I basically understand is that from the NUT to the 12th fret distance must be the same as the 12th to the bridge. And you must work to the formula to get the frets in the correct position.
Therefore for a Strat 25.5 inch (647.7 mm) you divide that by 17.817. That is the first fret from the nut.
Now you deduct that from 647.7mm. This new distance you divide again by 17.817.
This is the position for the 2nd fret..and so you carry on.

If you have this sorted, then you should be able to make a playable guitar.

I made templates on my laser machine. Took it to the music shop and compared it to a R 36 000.00 Fender Strat they have.
My template was spot on..... that gave me the confidence to carry on.

So lets see how this turns out.

studmissile

Made in Brakpan? This is how legends are born! Have you guys got a design in mind?

woody1

Ok now I need to figure out how to add pictures ... :-[

woody1

studmissile wrote: Made in Brakpan? This is how legends are born! Have you guys got a design in mind?

Fender Stratocasters

studmissile

woody1 wrote:
studmissile wrote: Made in Brakpan? This is how legends are born! Have you guys got a design in mind?
Fender Stratocasters

Quite a complex body type, you didn't want to start off with a telecaster, although I am bias towards telecasters!

To add pictures open up a photobucket account, load picture there, then use the direct url of the picture and drop them between

[img] ....picture url goes here....[/img]

here in the forum

woody1

Let me see if this works. Pierre doing some planing

woody1

Right, now we are ready to give you the rest of the pictures. 3 sets of African Mahogany Glue them up son ! Now the Maple necks And the rosewood fingerboards

woody1

Some of the inspiration pictures my friends showed me.... Mnnn maybe in the future, for now it is keep it relatively simple.

woody1

To find all the parts in one go in SA is a bit of a nightmare, so the easiest was to buy this COMPLETE kit from Amazon.com. I know it is not the best, but it gives me all the parts I need to do the first guitar. I heard that you can always upgrade pickups etc at a later stage. But for me to get the sizes correct I opted to buy this complete kit. Also made myself a sanding block by cutting a few 3mm supawood pieces at 9.5 inch radius and glued them together. Checking the tight fit of my neck on some scrap ply.

woody1

Google also suggested real bone for the nut. So off to my local butcher. For R 15.00 bought a BIG bone from a cow. And with the CNC I managed to make 4 nuts from this piece of bone.

NorioDS

The easiest way to add pictures is to attach them.

woody1

I wanted to experiment with some 3D carving, but decided to keep it low key at first and for us old people there are only 2 types of music and that is Rock and Roll. So I decided this first attempt will be my Rock and Roll guitar.

woody1

Norio wrote: The easiest way to add pictures is to attach them.

Thanks Norio.

Will try that as well.

woody1

My friend the other woodworker is also busy with a new guitar... little bit of this and a little bit of that. He asked me to engrave the keys on his new fingerboard. For all the knowledge and help I did it for him. Here it is straight from the laser. He has now cleaned it up and filled it in, and I must say it is looking good.

woody1

The Rock and Roll did not stand out very well, so with a ballnose bit in a handheld Dremel, I went freehand around the letters to make it stand out better.

NorioDS

PS: NONE of the pictures you're loading are working for the rest of us because we're not part of the forum (wilddog.za.net) that you're getting them from.

You can see what I mean by logging out of that forum and then coming back here. You'll see a ton of broken images.

woody1

O sorry. That way you told me did not work. I do not see that option to add a picture.
But that is the least of my worries now.
While I was busy uploading it, my home PC was struck by lightning.

Shees dead now. >☹

woody1

Norio wrote: The easiest way to add pictures is to attach them.

When I click on ADDITIONAL OPTIONS, only the 3 blocks with Notify me etc shows up.
Directly underneath that is the POST and REVIEW buttons.

Nothing about adding a picture on my screens.

Please help that I can fix up the pictures.

NorioDS

That's my bad! I forgot to fix the permissions.

Please try it again now ?

woody1 wrote: When I click on ADDITIONAL OPTIONS, only the 3 blocks with Notify me etc shows up.
Directly underneath that is the POST and REVIEW buttons.

Nothing about adding a picture on my screens.

Please help that I can fix up the pictures.