waldflote8 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Mate bought a strat scratchplate from a well known auction site - fitted with a pair of bareknuckle pickups. He then acquired a body, neck, hardware and I foolishly volunteered to help put it together. What started as a small mod to the headstock and assembling the bits ended up as a custom strat build,... the body required a lot of work and the neck got junked/made one from rosewood 46mm wide at the nut, brass nut, an extra fret and jumbo 4100/4105 fret wire. Bit of tweaking to go but plays very nicely and the organoil + rosewood is glassy smooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancient Mariner Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Looks great, and that's a really cool *more than a Parker* headstock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 nice looking guitar, although I must admit I generally prefer a trad strat headstock with a stratty guitar. What's the story with the neck? I'm desperate for an all rosewood neck. Did you make it from scratch or was it acquired in some form? If you made it I'd love to know more ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldflote8 Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 thanks guys, appreciate the kind comments. Headstock was designed by my mate (owner), I think that he was after a 'Joe Stump' strat look. I tend to build more than one thing at a time so I made 3 necks when doing this one, variations in the fretboards, headstocks as per the pics, ebony nuts that I was waffling on about in previous posts,..same basic construction,.. make a rectangular blank from laminates of whatever - I've used two strips of sycamore to give a contrast in the top one ( I like contrasting wood types ) rout a truss rod channel, add 'ears', fretboard, rout neck flush with the fretboard using a guide bearing,.. shape the headstock,.. including the strat type, non-tilt back style, shape the neck, fret it etc. The fretboards are made from the same rosewood as the necks - I bought a fair bit of it from a reclaimers years back - 150yr old plus floorboards from an old hall in Glasgow. I put a bit through the planer and when I saw what came out I knew that it wasn't going on the floor. The markers are sycamore,..dowel in the bottom neck and little pieces of square section in the top (to also give side markers) They have no finish at all in the pic, the rosewood really is gorgeous after some oil/poly. Lots of info online about making guitars but no substitute for learning the hard way, just don't chop anything off. I am pretty crap with hand tools so I use a lot of home made jigs and power tools He had looked to buy a rosewood neck and I gather that you can get them, but pretty expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 I really like the fret markers at the top, I'd like to do something like that. I feel really inspired to have a go at a rosewood neck now, if I can just find the wood for it. More pix, close up of the guitar! I like to see stuff like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldflote8 Posted June 16, 2013 Author Share Posted June 16, 2013 The other two necks didn't make it to guitars (yet). I made 3 necks at the same time as it does not take much longer to make say 3 blanks than 1 if you have already set up the saw/planer etc. A variation on the fret markers is on the guitar which I originally posted pics: Little dovetails instead of rectangles, done using a router and filled using sycamore again in this case. For wood, you just have to look around; local sawmills for native stuff - sycamore and ash are good for guitar building. Reclaimers for more exotic stuff, I recently scored a load of purpleheart which had been part of a pier in Aberdeenshire, loads of maple around, mahogany mantlepieces and the like (do a Brian May ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 That one you just posted is looking very good! I'm definitely going to try and build a neck now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldflote8 Posted June 16, 2013 Author Share Posted June 16, 2013 excellent,... post your progress and I'm sure that there will be folks will help out if you get stuck, you are welcome to PM me if you want. I've spent many a lunchtime getting info. from the various guitar building sites online and there's a load of interesting vids too. You can get by mostly with standard tools although it's easier with some of the specialised ones. I always laugh at the guys who post saying this is my first attempt at building - presenting some perfect looking axe - I have a big 'good try' box in the store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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