# Semi-ergo .strandy* inspired 7 string first-build



## asher (Nov 2, 2011)

Hey guys! Finally getting off my ass about making a proper custom guitar, which I've wanted to do for a while now. I have a bunch of design ideas floating around in this other thread but I started a prototype!

The design I'm going to be running with for a while is the black lines, just for a 7 (red lines are my initial idea):






Proposed specs:
7-string
neck-thru; rosewood, maple, wenge, walnut, purpleheart are current laminate component thoughts
body wings of black limba
top of very possibly myrtlewood, and if not likely walnut or redwood.
fingerboard unknown, pistachio, ziricote, or ebony are likely.
considering 27" scale.
I'd like to mock up a trapezoidal neck carve, too, to see if I like it, especially as Rick Toone is looking to even have one-off private builds license the thing.

Enough clamps? Am I doing that right? The facilities fab. manager (henceforth known as "the shop lady") gave me a pretty weird look about this many clamps, but no actual objections.






It's some random semi crappy wood that's reasonably soft and I have a bunch of fir (it was free) to make wings out of. If the proto goes well I might throw some nylon strings on or something and make a solid body nylon acoustic w/pickup like scherzo did. I just ripped them on the tablesaw and threw them together, and will plane them to a consistent thickness and then trim the fir down to match. After that I'll very likely chuck it on the CNC router we have, since that's what started the idea in the first place.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 2, 2011)

My only advice is to not use the clamps directly on the wood. It leaves marks that are difficult to get off. And, if you use pieces of wood, mdf or metal between the clamps and the wood, you can get a more even distribution of the preassure.

Other than that, I'm really digging the black line shape.


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## asher (Nov 2, 2011)

scherzo1928 said:


> My only advice is to not use the clamps directly on the wood. It leaves marks that are difficult to get off. And, if you use pieces of wood, mdf or metal between the clamps and the wood, you can get a more even distribution of the preassure.
> 
> Other than that, I'm really digging the black line shape.



When I run through with the proper build I'll make sure I do that.


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## Spaceman_Spiff (Nov 2, 2011)

Y U NO KEEP SEXX-EE BAER DESIGN????

 

I'm liking the new design actually...Also as Scherzo said, using some kind of buffer between the wood and the clamps will save you the headache of sanding away indentations later on.

Good luck on the build man!


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## asher (Mar 16, 2012)

Ima just leave this here.






I've only got the rest of this semester to actually have shop access, so I need to get my butt moving!

Since I've acquired a JP7 in the meantime, this is turning into a 28.628" 8 string. Headstock has been cleaned up, bridge template dropped in... I think those pickup sizes are right for Lundgren M8s, but they might need to be a hair bigger for the actual cavity routes. Control placement is off. Slightly worried about balance. Will try to run an MDF mockup through the CNC in the next week or tow.


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## Just A Box (Mar 16, 2012)

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the reason that the Strandberg design works is that it's a headless design. The guitar's design looks awesome, but if you were to throw up in the air it would surely come down like a lawn dart every time.


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## asher (Mar 18, 2012)

Just A Box said:


> Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the reason that the Strandberg design works is that it's a headless design. The guitar's design looks awesome, but if you were to throw up in the air it would surely come down like a lawn dart every time.



I think it'd be fine as a sixer, but the 8 width and long scale might well make that happen. I'm very open to suggestions on where to nicely put that extra mass, though.


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## HighPotency (Mar 18, 2012)

This is a somewhat crazy thought, but could you remove some of the headstock wood under the strings? Kind of like what the Floyd Rose speedloader guitars look like.


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## Winspear (Mar 18, 2012)

I don't think you have anything to worry about with a nice long upper horn like that! Especially one that fat


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## asher (Mar 23, 2012)

So I ordered some wood.

On the right most pieces, we have the 3 piece Black Limba body and the 1 piece Palisander neck blank, respectively. Palisander is a variety of rosewood that is apparently extremely workable and stable. Both are from Gilmer Wood.









Top wood is this nicely flamed set of myrtlewood:





Build is moving down to a 27" scale as I was having a really hard time finding long enough pieces of wood for necks, it should still be more than fine for playability, likely. Will just use slightly fatter strings. It's also, both for the same reason and for ease of potential bug fixing, now going to be a bolt-on.

Now: Considering a stripe or of wenge or maple for the neck from LMII, as well as the fact that I still need a fingerboard. Input?


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## BlackMastodon (Mar 23, 2012)

I think a flame maple stripe would go very nicely with that neck . Some very nice wood there too! I'll have to check out Gilmer sometime.


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## asher (Mar 30, 2012)

Ordered some Macassar Ebony from lmii with their 20" radius service. Time to go about grabbing some basic hardware, I think!

Question: Should I be worried about neck stability with a one-piece and just a truss rod, or should I throw in some carbon fibre stiffeners?


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## ElRay (Mar 30, 2012)

Great start. Added the member built tag. Don't for get to post here: Guitars built by members of SS.org stickied thread when complete.

Ray


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## Levi79 (Mar 30, 2012)

Your neck should be totally fine dude. I've never heard of that being necessary.
This is gonna be cool. Very ambitious first build.


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## asher (Mar 30, 2012)

Levi79 said:


> Your neck should be totally fine dude. I've never heard of that being necessary.
> This is gonna be cool. Very ambitious first build.



I'm waiting for that last bit to bite me in the ass  thanks guys!


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## asher (Apr 3, 2012)

Shitty camera phone pics incoming. All pieces hit with a little mineral oil, which is really only noticable on the top wood:





The grain will definitely need some enhancing to bring out the flame, but it's definitely in there.





Neck feels extremely hard and a little bit oily. I can imagine that the cross grain, very finely sanded, will look sweet and wavy and feel great.





One side of the limba pieces. I'm really, really, really psyched about how these look.





Other side.

Need to:
Order a truss rod from StewMac, decide on some tuners (suggestion? Locking would be great), order the hipshot 8 bridge, and decide on some pickups. Also going to get some MDF to test out my intended procedures and make sure the shape balances.

I was thinking of Lundgren M8s, but they are rather expensive. Lace Bass Bars are another idea. I'm a little hesitant to go active, and I'd like extremely versatile pickups; any suggestions?


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## scherzo1928 (Apr 3, 2012)

Wood looks sexy as hell!



asher said:


> Need to:
> Order a truss rod from StewMac, decide on some tuners (suggestion? Locking would be great)


 
I looove my hipshots.


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## endo (Apr 3, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> Wood looks sexy as hell!
> 
> 
> 
> I looove my hipshots.



+1


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## asher (Apr 3, 2012)

Done some tweaking to the body shape while working on building it into 3d, specifically thinning out the upper horn and beefing up the bottom (also shaping a neck heel):





Whatcha think?


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## scherzo1928 (Apr 3, 2012)

Looks sweet. Have you tried making a mockup to see if it's as comfortable as you think? always a great idea, also helps position the controls better.


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## asher (Apr 3, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> Looks sweet. Have you tried making a mockup to see if it's as comfortable as you think? always a great idea, also helps position the controls better.



Gonna pick up some MDF and rout shortly to give it a whirl


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## asher (Apr 5, 2012)

MDF acquired, for free nonetheless. 3/4" thick, so split the big chunks down to two layers (there were five sheets glued together) and got a 3/4" long piece for a neck. I bandsawed out the neck shape and I'm going to leave it at that; I transferred some of the template onto the body block for reference for when I test the flip milling.



















Really need to get them together to see about balance. The leg curves are probably gonna get tweaked a little bit as well.

Next up is to get the Rhino file cleaned up and more detailed so I can run it through MasterCAM and get some machine code. Things like an arm and belly carve and neck bolts...

I also really, really need to order hardware now. What do you 8 stringers do for nuts?


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## Solodini (Apr 5, 2012)

Cow shin.


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## JamesM (Apr 5, 2012)

Solodini said:


> Cow shin.


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## Solodini (Apr 5, 2012)

Bacon strips and sauwce?


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## JamesM (Apr 5, 2012)




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## scherzo1928 (Apr 5, 2012)

Honeybadger claw is where it's at!

fO serail tho, you will have to make your own. I'd recommend getting a graphtech nutblank or 2, and some files.


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## asher (Apr 5, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> Honeybadger claw is where it's at!
> 
> fO serail tho, you will have to make your own. I'd recommend getting a graphtech nutblank or 2, and some files.



What it seems like, yeah. I was planning to find a local guy to do the frets, so maybe I could get him to do a nut too.

EDIT:

Hardware ordered, except pickups. Gonna go with a concentric pot to save cavity space, a 3 way miniswitch for pickup selection, and Hipshot locking tuners and bridge. Also want to try out the cliplock, but that's kinda far away...

Will also head over to Lowe's soon and pick up pronged T nuts to use in the neck bolts. Still have a bunch more rhinoing to do before I can spit out machine code for test rout the MDF... but I'm starting to get excited.


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## asher (Apr 7, 2012)

Macassar Ebony fretboard arrived, radiused to 20". They accidentally cut a 25th fret and called me about it asking if I wanted them to redo it, but I said it was fine. I'll either use it or just lop the board off there.










Very pleased with the grain on this one.

edit: which reminds me that I've been trying to decide about inlays. I'm going to have a local guy (www.varonastrings.com) who I met last year do the frets and the nut, and am considering requesting an inlay as well. Ideas have been:

Premium style dots aligned to the bass edge of the board
Wave of small dots
12, or possibly 18, from this script, at the 12th fret:




This guy:





Or something possibly related to the fact it was originally named Beartar. Or I can leave it blank. Thoughts?


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 7, 2012)

Imperial eagle


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## All_¥our_Bass (Apr 7, 2012)

BlackMastodon said:


> Imperial eagle




Please do this sir it would look amazing on that guitar.


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## asher (Apr 9, 2012)

Cavity laid out. Probably need another screw grabbing post or two, and maybe not so much open over the jack. I like my little cutout to hide the end of the jack 

Some body carving will be modelled soon, then I will test rout the MDF while I try to model the headstock/neck in rhino for the wood go.

Haven't ordered pickups still, torn between double X-Bars and the X-Bar/Deathbar combo...


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## asher (Apr 10, 2012)

Carves!

The fretboard's also warped - more than I'd like, but not unexpectedly. It bowed from end to end, with the fret slots the concave side - also not unexpected. Going to wet it and press it down tomorrow, and also hopefully get the MDF routed to this!

Additionally, 4.0 Deathbar and X-Bar ordered


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## asher (Apr 10, 2012)

MDF test body ready for routing:










Unfortunately, it's much busier than I thought, and I won't get on till Tuesday. Oh well. I should _hopefully_ be able to get the wood glued up in the meantime, which would require picking one of many awesome orientations of that limba. And probably buying my own clamps.

edit: I also forgot to mention that I'd put the fretboard on stringers instead of just on the limba yesterday, and today it seems to have mostly worked itself out.


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 11, 2012)

That looks like it will be very promising! I'm jealous of your CNC skills.


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## ejendres (Apr 12, 2012)

lookin' awesome :love:

what are you using to make the digital mockups?


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## asher (Apr 12, 2012)

ejendres said:


> lookin' awesome :love:
> 
> what are you using to make the digital mockups?





Rhinoceros 3D. It's what we mainly use for digital modelling in architecture @ Uni here.

Also, got an inlay quote back - $250 for the Aquila, a little less if we turn some of those small blocks into bigger ones. I am a little hesitant, though not totally surprised...


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## asher (Apr 12, 2012)

Some stuff came.


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## asher (Apr 17, 2012)

Did not end up getting a test routed today. I am pretty much squared away for Thursday now though. I also think I have the limba arrangement more or less down, though I present to you two options (and then some more wood porn):

A)









B)









Porn)
other side of Limba that I think I will leave under the myrtle:


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## DarkMythras (Apr 17, 2012)

The first one will look stripey and cool, although I'm not sure how much the orientation will matter seeing as your'e using a top


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## asher (Apr 18, 2012)

DarkMythras said:


> The first one will look stripey and cool, although I'm not sure how much the orientation will matter seeing as your'e using a top



It's for the backside. That should look all sweet, too.


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## asher (Apr 18, 2012)

So I think I got the headstock joint figured out  I'm using a volute to add beef and finally figured out how to get the damn thing modelled. I'll clean it up by hand after it gets routed.


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## Rook (Apr 18, 2012)

Dude.

I absolutely love your designs! I can't wait to see this in wood.

EDIT: I love the headstock and angle, but aren't the peg heads on the middle two strings going to be above the nut?


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## asher (Apr 18, 2012)

Fun111 said:


> Dude.
> 
> I absolutely love your designs! I can't wait to see this in wood.
> 
> EDIT: I love the headstock and angle, but aren't the peg heads on the middle two strings going to be above the nut?



I'm worried they might be a hair.. I'm not against a string tree if that turns out to be the case. The peg heads with the tuners shouldn't actually be too far above the headstock though. I'm trying to avoid a scarf joint though, and the neck wood isn't super thick, so I think dropping it down and angling it back is the best option a la the JP headstock. I don't think I get enough downward angle if I slant the headstock back the normal way.

Also, thanks for the kind words


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## scherzo1928 (Apr 19, 2012)

I'd be somewhat worried about stresses where the headstock tilts bak up. Easy to calculate though =P


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 19, 2012)

Just realized that your headstock tilts up. Very different, haven't seen that before and hopefully it all goes well! Very interested to see how this turns out.


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## asher (Apr 19, 2012)

BlackMastodon said:


> Just realized that your headstock tilts up. Very different, haven't seen that before and hopefully it all goes well! Very interested to see how this turns out.



I got the idea from my JP7. It seems like a good way to avoid a string tree but also be able to use a thinner one-piece neck blank, theoretically.


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## JamesM (Apr 19, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> I'd be somewhat worried about stresses where the headstock tilts bak up. Easy to calculate though =P


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## asher (Apr 20, 2012)

The Armada said:


>



What would be suggested? Tipping it down as much as possible and using a string tree?


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## ASoC (Apr 20, 2012)

asher said:


> What would be suggested? Tipping it down as much as possible and using a string tree?



Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't tipping it up the way you have it drawn make you NEED a string tree? 

I would think that the up angle would get even less downforce on the nut than a straight headstock


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## asher (Apr 20, 2012)

ASoC said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't tipping it up the way you have it drawn make you NEED a string tree?
> 
> I would think that the up angle would get even less downforce on the nut than a straight headstock



On everything except the furthest out string or two, I don't think so. Ends up depending on the individual angles in question...

Anyhow, guess what I was doing this morning 

The beast of a machine in question:
































I ended up bandsawing out the shape because the contour cut to pull it out plunged all the way down and then tried to cut, pulling the MDF with it. The pickup rout pockets did this too, but not nearly so severely; I'll update the final code.


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## HighPotency (Apr 20, 2012)

Holy giant pictures, batman!

I thought my laptop screen is huge (17.3" and 1600x900 resolution), but these pictures proved me wrong.


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## asher (Apr 20, 2012)

Shiiit. That's off my phone. Ima go resize those..


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## JamesM (Apr 20, 2012)

asher said:


> What would be suggested? Tipping it down as much as possible and using a string tree?



I'd put it flat and thicken it a bit in the positive z direction so to speak. The shear stresses caused by the mounted tuners is fixed (well, kinda), so the only thing altered is how those stresses approach sensitive areas (thickness, angle of forces and thus the resultant shear force, moments of area [kind of fixed by design here], etc). The more horizontal you place the headstock (or even travel negative degrees to a certain limit) the more those forces approach normal. Dense (in this case laminate) pieces are good at dealing with those normal directed stresses. so are your glue joints. 

This is just coming from a couple materials classes though, so I'm not an expert. It isn't rocket science though and it's pretty universal application to application, so I guess my opinion is at least a teensy bit valid.


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## Rook (Apr 20, 2012)

That looks fantastic dude!


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## simulclass83 (Apr 20, 2012)

Seriously this thread is going places!


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## MF_Kitten (Apr 20, 2012)

24" computer user here. got bigger pics?


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## asher (Apr 21, 2012)

Also, balance is totally fine on the MDF mockup. Pretty sure I will need to adjust the cavity to fit the output jack though.


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## asher (Apr 22, 2012)

Limba end grain looks sweet.





Planed up the body a whole bunch. Glue joints look much neater now.
Topside, under myrtle:





Back:





Glued up one of the top pieces. Since I can't remember which way I put it on, I'm praying I actually put it on the right way after doing all the checking and aligning... it is flush to the centerline though:





Finally got enough clamps and an upper board on there to even out the pressure.





fun fact: while Limba dust smells kind of sickly sweet, myrtle dust smells like fresh popcorn


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## scherzo1928 (Apr 23, 2012)

asher said:


> fun fact: while Limba dust smells kind of sickly sweet, myrtle dust smells like fresh popcorn


 
maple smells like maple syrup (imagine that), tzalam smells like chocolate, rosewood smells beautiful... not sure what it smells like, but I love it.

Oh, and cocobolo smells like aids.


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## UnderTheSign (Apr 23, 2012)

Paduak smells like vanilla, oak smells kinda sour... Ebony I'm not sure and I don't want to find out.


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## Scattered Messiah (Apr 23, 2012)

and what does it taste like?


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 23, 2012)

Mahogany dust smells and tastes like ass.


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## JamesM (Apr 23, 2012)




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## scherzo1928 (Apr 23, 2012)

One must then conclude that you have tasted ass, and I have tasted Aids... or perhaps I'm so omniscient that I know what aids tastes like.

Back on topic though. I really like how the body "blank" is looking. Also, little late for this, but it would have been waaay easier to glue both halves on top the top at the same time... cleaning the "joint" before glueing the other side could be a bit tougher than you might think... unless you did something to stop glue from seeping out on that side.


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## asher (Apr 23, 2012)

scherzo1928 said:


> One must then conclude that you have tasted ass, and I have tasted Aids... or perhaps I'm so omniscient that I know what aids tastes like.
> 
> Back on topic though. I really like how the body "blank" is looking. Also, little late for this, but it would have been waaay easier to glue both halves on top the top at the same time... cleaning the "joint" before glueing the other side could be a bit tougher than you might think... unless you did something to stop glue from seeping out on that side.



Nope. I went at it with a chisel today. I'm having issues getting it totally, 100% flush, but it's almost there.

I did run out of clamps though, so I don't think I would have been able to do a very good job of gluing the second half down.


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## darren (Apr 26, 2012)

Coming along nicely! Great to see more people using Rhino!

DO NOT do a forward tilt on your headstock. You WILL regret it. It will not work. 

The EBMM headstock is flat (parallel to the fretboard), and if memory serves correctly, they use staggered tuner posts (the ones furthest from the nut are shorter) to get the strings breaking over the nut at a more consistent angle, without the need for a string tree. Also be sure to design your headstock thickness within the allowable minimum and maximum thickness your tuners will accommodate.


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## asher (Apr 26, 2012)

darren said:


> Coming along nicely! Great to see more people using Rhino!
> 
> DO NOT do a forward tilt on your headstock. You WILL regret it. It will not work.
> 
> The EBMM headstock is flat (parallel to the fretboard), and if memory serves correctly, they use staggered tuner posts (the ones furthest from the nut are shorter) to get the strings breaking over the nut at a more consistent angle, without the need for a string tree. Also be sure to design your headstock thickness within the allowable minimum and maximum thickness your tuners will accommodate.



Thanks!

Didn't think they were staggered when I looked at my JP7, but I definitely am planning to just tilt the headstock back as much as my neck blank depth will allow, and if I need a tree, I need a tree. Just haven't had time to re model it, with finals and all.


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## asher (Apr 29, 2012)

not happy with how this turned out. Got it mostly flush but on gluing the piece warped up significantly, as well as refused to stay slid against the centerline. I got it to be somewhat decent, but it's nowhere close to flush because it just would not stay. I have to see how it turns out tomorrow... not optimistic. Might have to run a strip of some other wood down the middle.


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## asher (Apr 30, 2012)

Ugh. Not pleased AT ALL.


















Suggestions?


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## Xaios (Apr 30, 2012)

Ooooh, bummer.

I'd say rout out a strip the length of the body roughly 2mm wide and put in an inlay of some sort, similar to the PRS Santana models (the legit ones, not the SE models).


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## scherzo1928 (Apr 30, 2012)

Probably ditch thep top. The limba is too nice to let it go to waste, so I'd remove the top either with a routing jig, or something like that. Then glue a new top. Or just keep the limba which looks awesome anyways.

I was also going to sugest that you glued a strip in between the 2 pieces of the top like Xaios said, but I think there's a gap between the limba and the 2nd piece... So either you decide you can live with that gap, and maybe do some binding to cover it up, or ditch the top altogether.


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## asher (Apr 30, 2012)

I think the parts of the top that are over where the actual body is are fitted better, as there's a lot of offcut on the bottom half.


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## ECGuitars (Apr 30, 2012)

Depending on the glue used you can use an iron and a damp cloth to heat the top and re melt the glue. It'll more than likely render the top useless but you never know.. Next time you laminate a top like that use some cauls, or at least some thin squares of wood underneath the clamps to disperse the clamping pressure more evenly across the top. The way you can those clamps set up ultimately led to what happen as the clamp is only applying direct pressure right underneath where it is. You could even just clamp your template onto the top while you laminating it on there. Another suggestion I have would be to, it the future A) either laminate the top halves together THEN onto the body, or B) Laminate the two halves of the body (Myrtle and Limba) separately, then joint to two halves together, that will prevent the large seam in the middle from happening. We all make mistakes, its how we learn!


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## asher (Apr 30, 2012)

I mean, I did use wood, I guess it wasn't think enough - though it worked on the other half.

I do realize that I should have done both halves at once but I didn't have enough clamps. The Limba is also in three blocks while the top was in two.

Glue was titebond.


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## ECGuitars (Apr 30, 2012)

I understand, gotta do what you gotta do. You can re melt titebond to get the top of but it's probably (more likely than not) going to warp the it. I can't think of any way to get it off without damaging the myrtle unfortunately. If you have any other wood work questions or guitar building questions send me a PM. I've only been building 5-6 years but I'm also a professional joiner/cabinetmaker haha. So feel free anytime!


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## asher (Apr 30, 2012)

ECGuitars said:


> I understand, gotta do what you gotta do. You can re melt titebond to get the top of but it's probably (more likely than not) going to warp the it. I can't think of any way to get it off without damaging the myrtle unfortunately. If you have any other wood work questions or guitar building questions send me a PM. I've only been building 5-6 years but I'm also a professional joiner/cabinetmaker haha. So feel free anytime!



Thanks a ton dude! Have some rep 

I think I'm probably going to... I dunno, probably go all ahead full and see what happens. My friend suggested making a myrtle dust + epoxy slurry to fill the centerline. I'm still decently confident that the actual edges of the body will be flat enough given where I'm cutting, but if not I could add binding.


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## scherzo1928 (Apr 30, 2012)

ECGuitars said:


> I understand, gotta do what you gotta do. You can re melt titebond to get the top of but it's probably (more likely than not) going to warp the it. I can't think of any way to get it off without damaging the myrtle unfortunately. If you have any other wood work questions or guitar building questions send me a PM. I've only been building 5-6 years but I'm also a professional joiner/cabinetmaker haha. So feel free anytime!


 
Listen to this guy. All his advice is really good.

Like he said on his previous post, try and use thicker cauls for gluing tops (or anything really). One function of the cauls is to protect the wood from the clamps, but another VERY important one, is they help to distribute the force you apply much more evenly and over the entire surface. Lately I'm using about 1.75" of material between the clamps and the glue line, and it's working great for me. Also like he said, it's much better to either glue each side of the top to a body wing, and then glue both halves together, or to glue the top together and then glue it to the body. Both ways have worked very well for me. The only way I'm not completely happy with is gluing both halves of the top together at the same time I glue them to the body (worked once beautifully, and the other time I was left 80% happy)

A bit of extra experience (advice) I've learned the hard way, is to always make "dry runs". Have absolutely everything ready and at hand, since once you apply the glue, the clock is ticking against you. Know which clamp you will use where, and what caul will go with that clamp. Have a rag and some water ready to clean up if you shall get glue somewhere by accident... 

Using nails to keep pieces (like tops) from sliding is a GREAT advice. But always remember to predrill the holes for those nails into all pieces... and EVEN THEN, make sure the nail will go through. I say this because it happened to me last week. I underestimated the granadillo top. Even though I predrilled both top and body, the granadillo was WAAAAY to hard for the nail to pass through, fortunately I managed to get the top in place just by sheer dumb luck.

Hope any of that helps.


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## asher (May 1, 2012)

Yep. I had the clamps mapped out in my head, that part was fine - nails would have done the trick, I think, given how I'd chosen to assemble things. Nails and thicker wood on top...


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## ECGuitars (May 1, 2012)

asher said:


> Thanks a ton dude! Have some rep
> 
> I think I'm probably going to... I dunno, probably go all ahead full and see what happens. My friend suggested making a myrtle dust + epoxy slurry to fill the centerline. I'm still decently confident that the actual edges of the body will be flat enough given where I'm cutting, but if not I could add binding.



Thanks man! You could take a toothpick or something and slide it into where the top cupped and see just how far the gap goes in. Chances are its not to far and it'll be thinner. If you're really determined to make it work, you can cut it, then fill the smaller gaps with some dust/epoxy mixture. For the top Id route out the center and put like a 1/4" strip of contrasting wood like Black walnut or ebony or w.e kind of dark wood you can find.


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## asher (May 1, 2012)

ECGuitars said:


> Thanks man! You could take a toothpick or something and slide it into where the top cupped and see just how far the gap goes in. Chances are its not to far and it'll be thinner. If you're really determined to make it work, you can cut it, then fill the smaller gaps with some dust/epoxy mixture. For the top Id route out the center and put like a 1/4" strip of contrasting wood like Black walnut or ebony or w.e kind of dark wood you can find.



Yeah, been really thinking about that option as well, which I'd need to do before running it through the CNC. will think about it - I've got finals right about now and need to update the Rhino models still.


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## sage (May 1, 2012)

Maybe a totally stupid idea, but...

Cut the whole mess down the middle, take 3/16" off either side and glue the whole body back together. If you have 3/8" wiggle room, you'd get your nice bookmatched look back. Or maybe I'm whackadoodle.


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## asher (May 1, 2012)

sage said:


> Maybe a totally stupid idea, but...
> 
> Cut the whole mess down the middle, take 3/16" off either side and glue the whole body back together. If you have 3/8" wiggle room, you'd get your nice bookmatched look back. Or maybe I'm whackadoodle.



Not a bad idea at all, but given how the figuring on the top is, it'd be pretty damn obvious I think.


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## tommychains (May 3, 2012)

if you did a really nice sunburst with VERY dark edges, it may work. Kinda seems like a waste of a top to take it off.


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## asher (May 5, 2012)

Remodelled it. same problem as before of: the straight side view, look at the highlighted yellow section for the actual bottom. If I end up needing a tree, then I need a tree.


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## asher (May 5, 2012)

And caught an error that had my neck be way too thick. Everything looks much better now. I had been measuring neck thickness from bottom of fretboard, not top  would have wound up with a baseball bat indeed.










And the neck heel, to be smoothed out:


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## JamesM (May 5, 2012)

Headstock is looking much safer man.


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## asher (May 7, 2012)

Plan tonight until my friend gets into town: finish up the neck joint, re-run model through CAM software.

Easily-acquired-in-studio options for a centerline wood piece:






L-R: (too thin but laminatable) sheet of some red wood. I really dunno. Nice patterns though; stick of walnut; stick of red wood; block of walnut I think I'd need two lengths from. 

I also should have thin sheets of walnut too, I guess I could make a sammich with the red... I also suppose I should do this BEFORE running it through the CNC machine.


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## asher (May 16, 2012)

Updates:

Headstock was too thin. Fixed. Fixed another neck carve issue as well.

Heel all sorted out.

Am sitting down to get ready to rout the neck piece... and the thing is just a hair too concave to vacuum suction very well to the router table. >< One side is okay (the concave side) but the bulge in the middle of the convex side is just not quite sitting well enough. I've already taken a whole lot of thickness off on planer/jointer to try to get it down, which is why it's as good as it is: blank's down to about 1" thickness total. Can't really take much more off.

Suggestions?


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## asher (May 17, 2012)

Went ahead and routed the body. Mostly successfully! Couple things to clear up: missed the centerline glue by a little but I'll work that apart with a chisel and put in a fatter piece of wood for a center strip, little bit of tearout between neck and neck pup, connecting bolt holes are a little misaligned in their head sockets but they still fit. String thru ferrules are probably slightly misaligned also but workably so.

Gotta sand things down to be a bit less sharp for sure, but pretty happy overall with finish quality straight off the CNC.

Planing it a hair made the grain really pop on the top and it blends very nicely with the limba in the arm carve.


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## wookie606 (May 17, 2012)

So nice! Cant wait to see this finished!


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## BlackMastodon (May 17, 2012)

I think that came out quite well! At least the tear out was close to the centre line.


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## asher (May 23, 2012)

Indeed! I think the neck/pickup will hide it fine.

Otherwise... this is on hold till the fall, when I return to the area and still have access to the wood shop. I couldn't get the neck routed in time - went to bolt it down to a backer but the shop didn't have long enough screws, but I only determined this after fucking with stuff for a while and eating all my time. OH well.


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## aaron_rose (May 24, 2012)

this is rad man, I love it!


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## rcsierra13 (May 24, 2012)

Dayam this is looking awesome!


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## nangillala (May 24, 2012)

Very cool project. Keep up the good work!


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## CircuitalPlacidity (Jul 21, 2013)

Necrobump. What ever happened to this?


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## XxJoshxX (Feb 21, 2014)

mega necrobump... I need to see this finished


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## Fiction (Feb 22, 2014)

I also await patiently, I remember following this thread religiously when it was first posted haha.


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## tommychains (Feb 22, 2014)

you know it's old when you can't even remember commenting on it.  

hopefully it's done by now.


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## asher (Feb 22, 2014)

Holy shit guys lol. Such necro. Much surprise. Wow.

I kinda don't have any shop access any more with the whole graduating thing, and don't own any of the required tools (nor do I really have the time right now at allll) so unless I just pass everything along to a luthier at this point, it's going to be on hold for a quite a while longer. 

I do appreciate the continued interest though!


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## XxJoshxX (Feb 22, 2014)

Nnnnnooooooooooooo!!!!!!


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## asher (Feb 23, 2014)

XxJoshxX said:


> Nnnnnooooooooooooo!!!!!!


 

If y'all can wait like two years I'll probably pick it up again when I hit grad school


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## Zai (Oct 11, 2014)

Did this get finished?


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## XxJoshxX (Oct 11, 2014)

Zai said:


> Did this get finished?



Did you read the post above yours?


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## DredFul (Oct 11, 2014)

XxJoshxX said:


> Did you read the post above yours?


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