Far from finished -- there's still a lot of carving and finishing todo but for now I want to get a feel of where the changes I want are.
Geeky details
* 7 string, 28.625" scale length, fixed bridge, locking tuners, TUSQ nut and stainless steel frets.
* Neck laminate - hard maple, wenge, walnut, purple heart, walnut, wenge, hard maple.
* Body - Alder wings and Flame maple top (20mm thick for carving
) which is jigsawed with the neck laminate (the bridge of the guitar sits on the neck laminate and not the top).
* Fretboard - African Rosewood (Bubinga)
* Danish Oil finish
Tools used
* diamond sheet and 4000 + 6000 water stones - this made a massive difference to how sharp the tools were. I could have done with a 1000 stone but I used 1200 paper instead on something flat. I must have spent about 8 hours rebuilding the sharp points on all the tools when I got these. Hardwoods - this is must!
* Record No 7 - flattening, squaring and thicknessing..
* Magnusson No 4 and block planes (they're ok once you spend 4 hours squaring, flattening and sharpening them)
* Japanese hand saw for the majority of cuts
* Frame saw (mitre saw) for the majority of accurate cuts
* Fret saw for the frets (it's 1/2 the width of the frame saw cut)
* Cabinet scrapers - soo good when sharpened.
* Bosch jigsaw - used for hogging out cuts initially for the neck and body carves) but not for long cuts plus the depth of wood means it's limited use
* Makita router - used for the truss rod (there's a metal rod running the length of the guitar neck). I may use this for edge cuts for adding some perfling.
* Orbital Sander - but to be honest a plane or 80/120 grit sanding block is faster!
* Chisels, gouges
* Drill.. beaten up hand drills
* Shop vacuum - I must have filled 15 bags so far.
* Straight edge, square and calipers..
To be honest 95-98% was manual in the end as my hand-me-down band saw died (guide snapped off at the metal) after I changed the tyres and belt) before I had a chance to use it.
Geeky details
* 7 string, 28.625" scale length, fixed bridge, locking tuners, TUSQ nut and stainless steel frets.
* Neck laminate - hard maple, wenge, walnut, purple heart, walnut, wenge, hard maple.
* Body - Alder wings and Flame maple top (20mm thick for carving
) which is jigsawed with the neck laminate (the bridge of the guitar sits on the neck laminate and not the top).* Fretboard - African Rosewood (Bubinga)
* Danish Oil finish
Tools used
* diamond sheet and 4000 + 6000 water stones - this made a massive difference to how sharp the tools were. I could have done with a 1000 stone but I used 1200 paper instead on something flat. I must have spent about 8 hours rebuilding the sharp points on all the tools when I got these. Hardwoods - this is must!
* Record No 7 - flattening, squaring and thicknessing..
* Magnusson No 4 and block planes (they're ok once you spend 4 hours squaring, flattening and sharpening them)
* Japanese hand saw for the majority of cuts
* Frame saw (mitre saw) for the majority of accurate cuts
* Fret saw for the frets (it's 1/2 the width of the frame saw cut)
* Cabinet scrapers - soo good when sharpened.
* Bosch jigsaw - used for hogging out cuts initially for the neck and body carves) but not for long cuts plus the depth of wood means it's limited use
* Makita router - used for the truss rod (there's a metal rod running the length of the guitar neck). I may use this for edge cuts for adding some perfling.
* Orbital Sander - but to be honest a plane or 80/120 grit sanding block is faster!
* Chisels, gouges
* Drill.. beaten up hand drills
* Shop vacuum - I must have filled 15 bags so far.
* Straight edge, square and calipers..
To be honest 95-98% was manual in the end as my hand-me-down band saw died (guide snapped off at the metal) after I changed the tyres and belt) before I had a chance to use it.
