My adventure with my first 7 string build.

[aaron_rose]

I can get west African ebony here in town , but not sure about the wenge, I will call em Monday and check to see whats available! ty sir! Thinking ill go maple with a wenge strip three piece!

[aaron_rose]

A guy I am doing a remodel for told me I can use his Jointer! He makes cabinets, so maybe this might be more than just a jointer adventure! stoked!

Ok so after looking at this block of Sepele it dawned on me, I have to use a top wood or paint the thing since my lumber isn't wide enough.. good thing I guess cause it changes everything. I can now find something beautiful to go on top instead of settling for "granted this sepele is beautiful" the body being the top as well..

So ya, tracking alot of projects at the same time so I apologize if my brain seems pwned. I talked to the guy with the jointer and he also has a bunch of neck wood that I can look at and a full shop!

[aaron_rose]

Exciting update!

Today I was at hard to get woods in Bellingham, WA looking for a top for my build. I wanted pacific northwest woods but everything they had was crappy and looked like a real pain to work with. There was a friend I have recently met there who just happened to be there when I showed up. He mentioned that I should stop by his house when I was done there and check out his shop and builds! So I did, and what a pleasure it was! This guy makes BEAUTIFUL guitars and engineers them to be unique by a long shot, absolutely amazing 6 shooters..

When I was there he showed me his pile of woods he has been collecting and he just happened to have a quatersawn hunk of maple with EXCELLENT figuring! He also offered a hunk to me at a amazing price so I happily bought the wood. I also picked up a strip wide and long enough to do a five piece maple neck. So the only piece I still need is one wide enough and figured enough for the rest of the neck wood.

Hope you guys enjoy and appreciate this as much as I do!

Wood pron is as follows.

[HighPotency]

I want a giant chunk of figured maple! D:

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by HighPotency

I want a giant chunk of figured maple! D:

That things friggin monster, right?!!!! Man ... what a day!

[ElRay]

Great start.

I added the member built tag.

Don't forget to post here: Guitars built by members of SS.org [Pic-heavy] when she's done.

Ray

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by ElRay

Great start.

I added the member built tag.

Don't forget to post here: Guitars built by members of SS.org [Pic-heavy] when she's done.

Ray

Thank you, I will post all the pics I can when she is done, this website and it's members/moderators are a real inspiration!

[aaron_rose]

Her are just a couple of the guitars he makes.

This one has rails that the pickups sit on, a dude can literally slide both pickups back and forth and get a awesome in between tone! Series or parallel, volume, tone, this one also has many options.



This one has great tone sits easy on your knee and the fretwork is outstanding! Series or parallel, volume, tone, it's got it all.

[aaron_rose]

Started trying to decide what way I want the light and dark of the maple to be when its on the top. Took some paper cut out a old peavey tracer I got laying around and this is what I came up with.

I still got no idea what it will look like when we get farther into the hunk but this works as a general idea I guess.











Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[aaron_rose]

Changed my mind about pups. Going to go passive, Seymour Duncan Invaders.

[HighPotency]

Originally Posted by aaron_rose

Changed my mind about pups. Going to go passive, Seymour Duncan Invaders.

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by HighPotency

Still in the air. Bare knuckles is right there as a contender. But I defiantly want passive. Also considering changing to a fanned design gotta figure out how the hell to compute those numbers.

[aaron_rose]

what fretfind spitted out at me for a 25.5 to 27.5 7

this thing is awesome it spits out .dxf files that i can import into 3d studio!

[ronjhoser]

Looks like a pretty ambitious build. Seems like you are building a little support system for yourself in the process. Way to go.

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by ronjhoser

Looks like a pretty ambitious build. Seems like you are building a little support system for yourself in the process. Way to go.

I'm trying man. This is a pretty huge undertaking with a limited budget. But so far I have only spend 40 on maple 10 on purple heart and 20 on sepele, so the woods are going to be under 100 dollars, not sure what kind of shop fee's my friend will want if any but so far hes been a great help and inspiration. MY basic plan is "after it being suggested to me" to build 3 of this same guitar to learn the craft get mistakes figured out and better myself through hands on experience.

[aaron_rose]

I think I might go with brass for the nut

http://waguitar.weebly.com/uploads/5...762506.jpg?703

after reading his info I am on the fence.

[HighPotency]

Originally Posted by aaron_rose

Still in the air. Bare knuckles is right there as a contender. But I defiantly want passive. Also considering changing to a fanned design gotta figure out how the hell to compute those numbers.

If you're doing a fanned fret design, I'd go for Lace Deathbars:
Lace Music Products | Since 1979 - Lace Sensor electric guitar pickups, Alumitone, bass pickups, California Acoustic pickups - A pickup for any style of music.

[aaron_rose]

good point, they sound great to, first time I've really payed any attention to them. Funky covers on em!

[aaron_rose]

Huge update today. MONSTER UPDATE!!!

I met with my friend today who has been helping me with wood and ideas and .. you name it this guy is awesome! For professional reasons I will make a name for him "I don't have his permission and maybe its not relevant" but well call him Mr. Gadget. I never thought in a million years that anybody would help me with hands on guidance. But I think after the specs were explained of my build ideas his gears started turning and basicly to make a long story shorter this build in some way has us both really excited and glued to it.

Used fretfind to get the fret layout and numbers, we needed it to determine measurements for a lot of things mostly for fret wood overhang, how far the neck pocket goes into the body and that sort of thing. We eneded up deciding that the sepele body and maple top wood will be 50/50 on thickness due to me not having a wide enough piece of sepele. We book matched both the sepele and the maple today in his shop.



Anyway I am now going to spend like an hour linking pictures, hope you guys enjoy!





































There ya go, everything I shot today! \m/

[aaron_rose]

Here are a few better pictures of his guitars he builds.

I can't stress enough how playable and awesome his builds are! Tone is great even unplugged they have a voice like it was a solid body. Blows my mind!

[aaron_rose]

and there ya have it!

[aaron_rose]

Any of you a Trey Anastasio fan?

If you are you will appreciate this shape!

[aaron_rose]

Got a question about sawing the multi scale fret slots. How the hell do I do this! It is easy to fret find, but it looks like I need some sort of jig beyond stew mac;s mitor box..

[WildBroskiAppears]

Originally Posted by aaron_rose

Got a question about sawing the multi scale fret slots. How the hell do I do this! It is easy to fret find, but it looks like I need some sort of jig beyond stew mac;s mitor box..

The Japanese Fret Saw that Stewmac sells is actually what ViK has used for years if not laser-cutting. All you need is a steady hand and precise measuring skills and you're good to go! The fact that it can even come with a depth stop is ridiculously handy

[aaron_rose]

Got the body shape figured out. Put it on paper for use as a template and did some math to figure out general neck pocket size as well as pup cavity's. Gunna work on the headstock after I play for a bit.





The 24th and maybe some of the 23rd frets will get nicked off so that I can maintain as much wood under the neck as possible for a solid connection. Also didn't want to encroach to far into the neck pups area.