# My 8 String's construction - start to finish (56k will be a while)



## canuck brian (Oct 28, 2007)

Hey guys, I managed to get all the pics of my 8 string's build in one place. So here ya go. I barely had any tools and everything I did I learned in a 4 month class at the local college and from reading Project Guitar. Hope you guys dig it.

I drew the dimensions out as accurately as possible. If you know the scale length, you should know exactly where everything should go.







Once that was done, I made sure I had all of my wood ahead of time. That's a one piece block of mahogany ($80 CDN) and two 1 inch x 3.25 inch x 48 long purpleheart boards ($10 CDN) The black templates were out of heavy bristol board.






Tried to figure out what part of the wood would look best.






I ended up changing the template so the body was wider, here's the original cutout with a hipshot 8 bridge.






I really liked the body shape until i put the body where i normally play and the upper horn was going to stab in the face. I thought that would suck so i heavily changed the upper horn.






I have no pics of the glueup of the scarf joint which truly sucks. So here's the purpleheart neck with the truss cavity cut. 






Put on the birdseye maple fretboard and headstock bookmatch birdseye. 






A mock up with the body - before cutting the neck pocket. That in itself was a horrific experience. The bearing on the router bit had the collar slip and there was a brutal gouge. I learned a lot about epoxy at this point.  I actually don't have a picture of it because i was too bitter about it at the time.






Neck side






Pickup routing






Control cavity - router template shifted...grrr.






Inlays pre-radiusing






Back shot after a lot of sanding






Done

It's got it's flaws, but when i started this, I hadn't touched a wood tool since grade 9 and knew squat. Hope you guys dig this.


----------



## BRUTALIZER GUITARS (Oct 28, 2007)

I rember this build man!!! very cool


----------



## Mr. S (Oct 28, 2007)

holly crap thats a looker!  awesome job there dude


----------



## FortePenance (Oct 28, 2007)

Hadn't touched a tool since year 9 eh? That's really impressive.  I like it, especially the body at the end, real nice colour.


----------



## Codyyy (Oct 28, 2007)

wa wa wee wow! Great success!


----------



## Stitch (Oct 28, 2007)

Looks fucking sweet.

I must say, I actually prefer the newer body shape. It kinda reminds me of the horns on the 006/007, and thats cool.


----------



## Metal Ken (Oct 28, 2007)

Sexual


----------



## Splinterhead (Oct 28, 2007)

Nice job!


----------



## Desecrated (Oct 28, 2007)

The neck and the head looks really nice. Can't say the same about the body, but the neck joint looks nice. 

I really think you should try to build some more guitars. it looks promising.


----------



## Apophis (Oct 28, 2007)

Great job 
Awesome
Congrats


----------



## cow 7 sig (Oct 28, 2007)

excellent job.


----------



## Leon (Oct 28, 2007)

nice work!!


----------



## Psychoface (Oct 28, 2007)

good job man!


----------



## technomancer (Oct 28, 2007)

Still love that guitar


----------



## velocity (Oct 28, 2007)

i remember this build from project guitar as well. awesome build!!


----------



## HighGain510 (Oct 28, 2007)

Looks good man!


----------



## amonb (Oct 28, 2007)

That guitar is hawt... how does she sound?


----------



## Randy (Oct 28, 2007)

YOU WIN!


----------



## yevetz (Oct 28, 2007)




----------



## Napalm (Oct 28, 2007)

Wow that is very cool !!!!!


----------



## skinhead (Oct 28, 2007)

I just loved that guitar when i saw it. Congrats again, Brian!


----------



## Ishan (Oct 28, 2007)

Well I'm maybe the only one finding it horrible shapewise, sorry... But good work, for a first try it's nicely made.


----------



## Shawn (Oct 28, 2007)

Damn, that came out really nice!  Cool design and nice maple fretboard. I love the inlays too, nicely done!


----------



## Thomas (Oct 28, 2007)

You learned all this within 4 months? 
This is so impressive. And that's one gorgeous block of mahogany you had there.


----------



## canuck brian (Oct 29, 2007)

There are lots of guys that have made guitars a lot better than this with the same amount of experience. 

Just wanted to say thanks for the support!

I know the body style isn't really everyone's cup of tea, but it fits me perfectly in almost every position I play it in. I'd like to make another one pretty much identical to this with two humbuckers to see how much i've improved over the past 2 and a half years, but i've got 2 guitars and 2 basses to finish first.


----------



## muffgoat (Oct 29, 2007)

Well done man it looks good for just starting out. I alsop really enjoy the look of that shape headstock and all. Keep on buildin mang


----------



## darren (Oct 29, 2007)

The original body shape didn't appeal to me much, but it was definitely unique, despite its face-stabbing tendencies. I love the headstock... i probably would have made it a little bit narrower to get the string pull a touch straighter, and i'm not sure i would have bothered bookmatching the maple veneer when there's no bookmatched top on the body. Gorgeous woods... i love a nicely-grained one-piece body. Not sure about that fretboard extension with no frets on it.

So overall, great job and awesome work. As most people here will know, i'm a bit of a nit-picker when it comes to design.


----------



## audibleE (Oct 29, 2007)

I like the headstock design very much. I'm a stickler for a complimentary headstocks and you win! Excellent job. Not to hip on the body shape but it looks great with the wood stain finish.


----------



## asmegin_slayer (Oct 29, 2007)

Looks very awesome, makes me want to build a guitar now


----------



## Psychoface (Oct 30, 2007)

i may have missed it, but i think you forgot to explain the dimentions of the mahogany body?


----------



## TomAwesome (Oct 30, 2007)




----------



## Naren (Oct 30, 2007)

Very entertaining picstory and a pretty sweet looking guitar.


----------



## canuck brian (Oct 31, 2007)

Psychoface said:


> i may have missed it, but i think you forgot to explain the dimentions of the mahogany body?



It's 1 1/2 inches thick and is about 3/4 of an inch wider than my RG7620. It falls pretty much into the same dimensions as a standard RG.


----------



## FYP666 (Apr 29, 2008)

You are so great!  Everything you touch seems to transform into... Guitar..? 

Great work!


----------



## Crucified (Apr 29, 2008)

i'm pretty sure you need to put up some clips.


----------



## Zoltta (Apr 29, 2008)

Im glad you bumped this old ass thread, i never seen this one before. Looks fucking SICK


----------



## Desecrated (Apr 29, 2008)

Crucified said:


> i'm pretty sure you need to put up some clips.



+1


----------



## CentaurPorn (Apr 29, 2008)

WOW....Nicely done. Very impressive work for your first time going at it...hell ...impressive period!


----------



## OrsusMetal (Apr 29, 2008)

The guitar looks amazing! You made it seem like you had little experience throughout the picstory, yet the guitar came out EPIC! A true classy, metal 8 string. 

By the way, I love the bolt on. It's so fucking thin!


----------



## velocity (Apr 29, 2008)

it plays pretty awesome too...


----------



## Esp Griffyn (May 1, 2008)

Did a professional carve the neck and do the inlays to your design? They look like realy quality work!

Not a fan of the body shape but well done for having a shot at making your own guitar, must be really satisfying to play something you made!


----------



## Trespass (May 1, 2008)

Can't wait to try it


----------



## JimboTheHobo (May 4, 2008)

looks great dude!
congrats


----------



## Alex-D33 (May 4, 2008)

Hat's off my good man its wicked lookin


----------



## drmosh (May 6, 2008)

Amazing work. Don't know if I would have the patience for that


----------



## Thrashmanzac (May 6, 2008)

that looks truely awesome


----------



## HANIAK (May 17, 2008)

It's awesome! I just don't like the inlays you put in the fretboard.


----------



## Napalm (May 17, 2008)

That is some real nice work man, How does she play ?


----------



## MerlinTKD (May 17, 2008)

Yeah, that's incredible... I _love_ the dark stained body with the maple fretboard... absolutely beautiful!


----------



## The Dark Wolf (May 17, 2008)

Wowsers!

And grrr. Why'd you have to use that wood combo? I thought I had got the natural body/maple fretboard fetish out of my system, but looks like I haven't, damn you! 

Nice work, dude. Feeling like making me one for free?


----------



## canuck brian (May 18, 2008)

Esp Griffyn said:


> Did a professional carve the neck and do the inlays to your design? They look like realy quality work!



Not a professional yet, but the whole guitar was 100% done by me. 

Napalm - it's actually pretty comfy, but the low f# is kinda farty with the shorter scale. 

TDW - I'm finding that all the guitars i'm making for myself are using maple fretboards. I'm glad that you dig on the scheme though!

Don't know about building for free, but when I get my own space instead of it being 45 minutes away, we'll chat!


----------



## SnowfaLL (Oct 6, 2008)

Figured this needed a bump. Love that maple fretboard.


----------

