Guitars

I started playing guitar in the summer of 2007, i'm self taught using some of the resources available on the net. Links to some of those can be found here.

In the summer of 2009 i found myself without a project and on a bit of a whim decided to make a guitar. I was already quite skilled in woodwork and had a selection of tools. I had some solid wood worktop left over from my kitchen so i thought i'd give it a bash. Now i'm addicted. Don't try this at home unless you really do have the time/money to continue as once you've started...

The build of my first guitar modeled on a strat can be found here.

The next one was a solid cherry carved top made for my dad. The build for that one can be is here.

My most recent build - a through neck travel guitar can be found below.

Third build - travel guitar

The aim is to build a small headless, through-neck, travel guitar. It will be my first neck and i don't expect it to be brilliant. But i would like to try it on a through body before i try and make a heel and a pocket or set neck. It just seems easier to me.

May 2013

Well the guitar is finished now; frets leveled (there were a couple of high ones), tuners installed, finished in nitro, polished, and playable!

I've made a case for it, by laminating some thick sheets of closed cell foam together after cutting the appropriate holes in them. Covered in felt and with a fabric outer it works quite well - and looks a lot like a violin case. Anyway have some pictures

Oh notice the back curve in this image, this is what i was talking about below.

Finished

The neck plays OK, it's a bit narrow - i think either i cut the template too small or i screwed something up when i drew the template. I've had to make the bridge narrower to accomodate this. Not ideal, however it is definately playable and light. Big note to self.

Feb 8th 2013

The travel guitar is now well underway. This jig is the one i used to flatten the stock and will be used where i want to move the router over the guitar where it won't have much support otherwise, e.g. for where the back meets the neck. It's also much better than my previous rig for flattening largish surfaces and will also be good for setting up angled planes. Here's a picture.

Nov 21st 2012

The plan for the travel guitar is now complete? The outline is below anyway. I have bought some maple and there's a StewMac order going in shortly which include some Steinberger tuners (i reject the claim to be 'gearless'). Yes this guitar is going to be headless.

I'm planning to use a Les Paul type bridge with the tuners after the bridge. A zero fret will allow me to anchor the ball-end of the string at the head end without much of a nut. These tuners will allow me to keep the distance after the bridge down. 24" scale length, so full scale (according to Fender) and i'm aiming for less than 30" overall. Single truss rod with a mahogany skunk stripe.

Here's a picture of the body outline

I would like

My first guitar

My acoustic is an Eko Ranger 6 dating from the 1970s. It's a dreadnought style guitar and is too big for my wife to play sat down. It was my wife's guitar given to her by her Mum when she was a student. I'll get a picture up here at some point.