# Homebuilt Blackmachine Clone-Baritone 7



## penguin_316 (Apr 20, 2013)

Hey everyone, 

I don't claim to be a luthier by any means. I have minimal power tools and my workshop was literally my driveway. Having said that, this guitar has a few aesthetic mishaps but plays beautifully and sounds amazing. Start date was 2.5 months ago...


Specs:
Body- Semi-chambered American Mahoghany with Black Walnut top and white ABS binding. The neck is compression clamped ala wood nut bolts for max sustain and sound transfer.

Neck- 27.5" neck. Curly Maple with Purpleheart stinger(fat ass stinger, purpleheart is a rock and I love it in all my baritones for stability). Strandberg-esque neck profile similar to an Endurneck (however, it is NOT an Endurneck...I did it by hand and just kinda winged it)

Headstock- is Black Walnut

Fretboard- is African Ebony and very beautiful up close (I still need to buff/polish the fretboard a lot but since I'm plying the instrument now that may take awhile). Luminlay blue side dots. Frets are 6100 jumbo Jim Dunlop nickel. Nut is Graphtech Black Tusq XL.

Hardware- Hipshot Black bridge, Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat 7 (Distressed Camo), Black Sperzel Trimlok tuners, Black Dome Knob, Fishman Switchjack endpin jack, Stewmac Shielding paint for all cavities, Alpha push-pull pot (Volume knob with push-pull for humbucker or single coil from the Cold Sweat)









































Sounds clips soon to come but I just bought a new PC and have no DAW or any VSTs/plug-ins installed yet.


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## skeels (Apr 20, 2013)

Nice-really like that top!


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## penguin_316 (Apr 20, 2013)

Thanks 

Oh and one other thing. I machined that back string retainer from a block of brass, which to my surprise wasnt that hard to work with being metal and all.


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## AwDeOh (Apr 20, 2013)

I see plenty of potential in the finished product despite the errors, mistakes are only bad if you don't learn from them. The binding and top are well done.

Looks like you had some trouble with the routing, did you use templates?


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## penguin_316 (Apr 20, 2013)

I did the routing by hand because my jigs kept coming up shitty because the MDF I had wasn't getting alone with my handheld electric saw. It kept leaving uneven edges...the thing is, if I had a proper setup all the errors could have been avoided.

Honestly though, it sounds really good. Better than my carvin 727 and my JP7. Both Ill be selling shortly.


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## AwDeOh (Apr 20, 2013)

^ Definitely, keen to hear clips.

It's pretty difficult to make a pickup/cavity template with a jigsaw, the only case you'd want to do that in is for a body/headstock template, which you'd finish on a drum sander. The most accurate way is to set up something like this:







So for your pickup cavity, you'd make something like that and follow it with a template follower or a pattern follow bit, cutting into the MDF intended to be the final template, then make a second box to cut the pickup wing cavity.


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## penguin_316 (Apr 20, 2013)

I would have thought of that, if I wasn't so caught up in the momentum of wanting to finish it to play asap.

Patience, it really is the toughest virtue  The finish is also a work in progress, takes time to build those oil layers up. I guess the guitar isnt technically finished...but since I'm playing it I figured I'd share.

I'm gonna throw up a youtube clip here from my iphone in a min, if I can get it working.


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## penguin_316 (Apr 20, 2013)

Ok hella sloppy playing lol, I have been building and not playing. Regardless, here you go. Sorry the quility is horrid, Iphone 4 vid/audio is pretty lackluster.
EDIT: and if you couldn't tell from the video, this thing is very loud acoustically. In a good way


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## ElRay (Apr 20, 2013)

Oh, I forgot:

1) Added the member built tag
2) Since she seems done, post over here: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...1-guitars-built-members-ss-org-pic-heavy.html

Ray


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## penguin_316 (Apr 21, 2013)

Ah ok cool, I didn't even know about that thread. i guess i should post this in the "sevenstring guitars" section as well.


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## Erazoender (Apr 21, 2013)

Does indeed sound quite nice, and very nice job on the guitar! Hope to see some more in the future


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## penguin_316 (Apr 21, 2013)

Someone asked me, so i figured I'd answer here. When I say "Alto 15 inch cab" I mean "Alto 15 inch FRFR powered monitor".


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## Estilo (Apr 22, 2013)

Purpleheart is a ROCK? You put a ROCK in your guitar neck????


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 22, 2013)

What happened to the neck pocket?

EDIT: Sorry... I just re-read the OP. Pretty good work if you have minimal tools and aren't a luthier.


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## nutsock (Apr 22, 2013)

Turned out nice! Awesome job!


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## penguin_316 (Apr 22, 2013)

2 thing happened to the neck. 

#1)Of all the routes the neck pocket was absolutely perfect, straight and even etc etc. Keep in mind I was doing this freehand laying on my driveway lol. I had planned on making the neck a few mm oversized on the top and bottom because I absolutely hate when my low or high string frets out.

However, when I got my set of 6100 Dunlop frets though they weren't long enough to cover that extra distance so I had to make the neck a bit smaller where it bolts on.

#2 The slight tilt to bridge was not an accident. I did this to accommodate bigger intonation corrections for the longer scale and possible thicker strings if I wanted to tune down to F or something. So its offset by like 2 mm. Great idea right?

Well I forgot this meant I'd need a marginal tilt to the neck as well to have the strings lined up correctly. So had to route the neck pocket out more.

The second time though, the router had a mind of its own


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## penguin_316 (Apr 22, 2013)

Estilo said:


> Purpleheart is a ROCK? You put a ROCK in your guitar neck????



Yea I did. My old bands guitarist and I both owned Ibanez MMM1 Mike Mushok model 6 string baritones. They have a huge strip of purpleheart down them and are the most stable necks I've ever played on. Literally, they stay in tune for months sitting on a rack.

Purpleheart, can't say enough good things about it.


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 22, 2013)

Have you considered gluing in some pieces of wood along the sides of the neck pocket and rerouting it to be a tighter fit? Or are you chalking this up as more of a learning experience? All things considered it doesn't look to bad, though you may want to invest in some sort of table to route on and some scrap plywood for templates.  The volute could use some work but as long as the guitar plays to your liking then that's all that really matters. Also, nice work with the brass plate on the back for the string through bridge!


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## SDMFVan (Apr 22, 2013)

penguin_316 said:


> Yea I did. My old bands guitarist and I both owned Ibanez MMM1 Mike Mushok model 6 string baritones. They have a huge strip of purpleheart down them and are the most stable necks I've ever played on. Literally, they stay in tune for months sitting on a rack.
> 
> Purpleheart, can't say enough good things about it.



Just to be clear, Purpleheart is not a rock as in a stone. It's a tree, but a very stiff one.


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## penguin_316 (Apr 22, 2013)

Due to the method of the bolt on neck with T-nut screws the neck is compression clamped way tighter than a typical bolt on. There is no tone loss from the sides of the neck pocket not touching.

As far as looks go, well I've thought about it but I dont think its that big of a deal. I'm a hobbyist after all.

I used the same method as Darren from Decibel guitars, because in theory it just sounded too good not to try. Look up his DB1 build to see the T-nuts in the neck and body.



BlackMastodon said:


> Have you considered gluing in some pieces of wood along the sides of the neck pocket and rerouting it to be a tighter fit? Or are you chalking this up as more of a learning experience? All things considered it doesn't look to bad, though you may want to invest in some sort of table to route on and some scrap plywood for templates.  The volute could use some work but as long as the guitar plays to your liking then that's all that really matters. Also, nice work with the brass plate on the back for the string through bridge!


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## penguin_316 (Apr 22, 2013)

Oh, i didn't notice he was being serious. Possible language barrier? My mistake, purpleheart is wood. I just meant its a very solid piece of wood.


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## Ryan Duke (Apr 22, 2013)

Not too bad.


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## Steinmetzify (Apr 25, 2013)

I think it turned out great, man. Fantastic job for a first build. I'd buy one.


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## Brohoodofsteel75 (Apr 25, 2013)

It sounds absolutely huge.!


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## penguin_316 (Apr 26, 2013)

steinmetzify said:


> I think it turned out great, man. Fantastic job for a first build. I'd buy one.





Brohoodofsteel75 said:


> It sounds absolutely huge.!



Appreciate it fellows, this won't be the last build you see from me. I have some better woodworking equipment on the way.


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## AwDeOh (Apr 26, 2013)

penguin_316 said:


> Appreciate it fellows, this won't be the last build you see from me. I have some better woodworking equipment on the way.



Congratulations, you now have a very aggressive form of wallet cancer.


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## penguin_316 (Apr 26, 2013)

What wallet? Hahaha...


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