# (INCOMPLETE AND/OR ABANDONED) Cadenhead's Home Depot build



## cadenhead (May 27, 2009)

Well, I suppose it's time to start my thread. This one is going to be interesting. I'm going to try and only use a drill and/or Dremel as the only power tools for the build. Which are basically the only power tools I have to work with any way. I will have to rely on my "skills" with basic hand tools and sandpaper for everything but the tuning system. I figured that I would get a little jumpstart since I don't even have a table or workbench to do my "work" on.  

Specs (so far):
Asymmetrical V shape
30" scale headless 7 string 
Maple neck through (not sure about the fret board yet)
Most likely Poplar body with possible Maple top.
Home Depot custom tuning system and bridge 

That's what I have set in stone so far with the specs. I'm actually going to try to build the bridge and tuning system before I lay out the body shape. I want to make sure I have enough room on the body to work with the tuning system I have in mind.

I have two thoughts on the body shape. One would be to attempt to make the body a little more "ergonomic" than a typical V. The other option I was thinking about is going to be a "special" plexiglass top with a fun surprise. Obvoiusly, both options have problems that I have yet to solve, but that's where the fun is.

I don't want to ruin any surprises, but I'll tease you all with a few pics:

Close up of the maple I found for the neck







I made this over the weekend out of a ground buss bar from the electrical department. Nothing a few hours with a file and a dremel couldn't fashion into a nice little pice of hardware. I'm still not done with it though, so stay tuned...


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## gatesofcarnage (May 27, 2009)

Sounds like a cool build! i like your bridge system so far


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## darren (May 27, 2009)

cadenhead said:


> I made this over the weekend out of a ground buss bar from the electrical department. Nothing a few hours with a file and a dremel couldn't fashion into a nice little pice of hardware. I'm still not done with it though, so stay tuned...



Awesome! Now THAT is the kind of creativity i like to see!


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## liamh (May 27, 2009)

This is gonna be one badass guitar, keep us informed


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## cadenhead (May 27, 2009)

darren said:


> Awesome! Now THAT is the kind of creativity i like to see!



Just the tip of the iceberg.

I just hope the wild ideas I have in mind actually work.


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## Panterica (Jun 5, 2009)

bridge idea ftw


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## cadenhead (Jun 5, 2009)

Panterica said:


> bridge idea ftw



That's not actually the bridge 

I'll likely post some more build pics over the weekend. Though I don't want to spoil any surprises.


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## Panterica (Jun 8, 2009)

...spoils them, or i'll spoils you


lets us see it!!!


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## cadenhead (Jun 8, 2009)

Panterica said:


> ...spoils them, or i'll spoils you
> 
> 
> lets us see it!!!





I got called in to work this weekend, so I didn't get a chance to do any work or take pics.


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## Concerto412 (Jun 10, 2009)

cadenhead said:


> _That's not actually the bridge_
> 
> I'll likely post some more build pics over the weekend. Though I don't want to spoil any surprises.



Noting that you mentioned this was a headless design, I would assume it's a locking retainer to mount rear of the nut?
Love the ingenuity!


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## cadenhead (Jun 13, 2009)

Panterica said:


> ...spoils them, or i'll spoils you
> 
> 
> lets us see it!!!



Alright, alright... you asked for it.


Here's my work area just outside my front door :





So let's start shall we? What do we have here???




In keeping with the theme, this drill guide that I bought from Home Depot will be used to do something it wasn't intended to do. But what could it be? And despite what it looks like, this thing is mostly plastic.

I had to bust out the chisel to put this bolt through the wood. Turns out the bolt wasn't long enough.





You might notice that there is something missing, but what?
I'll leave you all hanging a bit and show you what happened as a result:





That's right, a washer. How could I have forgotten... 
This makes it much easier, along with a little WD40 to cool the bit and bolt.











Nice hole huh? 





It fits!!!  Note: this is the 85 gauge string that I use to tune down to G on my other 7's.





Just to give you an idea of where these are going:





Some more work done to the bolt head.





and nearly done:





Since it's starting to get late, I decide to put the drill and dremel down for the night. I don't want to piss off the neighbors any more than I have already. This means it's time for a drink.  





...and some tunes.





This pice took forever and then some to do with a file with a file. This will be part of the string clamps since the part that is done now is made of aluminum, I didn't want the strings to destroy it when it was done.

















That's all for now.

Catch you all next week for another installment of building shit with Cadenhead.


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## Variant (Jun 13, 2009)

Coming along nicely, indeed! I'll have to check the details of your progress tonight, my friend.


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## Arminius (Jun 13, 2009)

yay! somebody else is finally building.  Power to you for working on the hardware, i'm too intimidated right now


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## cadenhead (Jun 13, 2009)

Aysakh said:


> yay! somebody else is finally building.  Power to you for working on the hardware, i'm too intimidated right now



I am doing the hardware first so I can make sure it all fits on the body design I have in mind. Once I finish the hardware, I'll do the mockup in foam core first.


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## Arminius (Jun 13, 2009)

cadenhead said:


> I am doing the hardware first so I can make sure it all fits on the body design I have in mind. Once I finish the hardware, I'll do the mockup in foam core first.



sounds like a good idea, i probably should have done some measurements before jumping in headlong. oh well.


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## Covenant (Jun 14, 2009)

GENIUS.


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## cadenhead (Jun 14, 2009)

Covenant said:


> GENIUS.


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## Panterica (Jun 15, 2009)

MOAR!!!!
i am an unappreciative fuck, i know, but this is the awesome


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## cadenhead (Jun 15, 2009)

Panterica said:


> MOAR!!!!







I see there's no pleasing you...


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## Thrashmanzac (Jun 15, 2009)

fuck this is good.
easyily the most ingenius of the builds i have seen so far


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## cadenhead (Jun 16, 2009)

Here's a real quick (and sloppy) sketch of the bridge and tuning system design...






Obviously this isn't to scale, I just wanted to see how it might look on paper.

The bolts that I have been working on are what is on the far right of the sketch.

I'm not sure if I can actually pull this off or not, but I'm going to try like hell.


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## Demiurge (Jun 16, 2009)

cadenhead said:


> Here's a real quick (and sloppy) sketch of the bridge and tuning system design...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I'm really excited to see how this bridge system turns out!


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## cadenhead (Jun 20, 2009)

New update tonight.

I ran into some problems today, so I didn't get too much done today. 

So what was that problem you ask?

Rain.  This was the parking lot outside the Home Depot.





and my soggy work area. 






Jack doesn't like the noise I make, so he looks for a better spot to chill.





Looks like these will be the roller saddles for my bridge. I happened to find them before I left the HD. They are a little wide, so I got to fix that. Also, those nylon things just aren't going to work, so I'm just going to toss them.





My new Dremel blades made short work of the brass.





I also got some 3/8" bar stock. Here's a piece that I already cut.





After a while, I get a channel cut.









Need a little more work, but the channel is now wide enough for the roller to fit. 





Quick positioning. 





That's all I got done today because it was getting cold and late.

Check back again next week for another installment of "Building shit with Cadenhead" 

Actually, I have to work next Friday, so I might not have any updates next week.


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## Arminius (Jun 20, 2009)

wow man, looking great


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## cadenhead (Jun 20, 2009)

Aysakh said:


> wow man, looking great



Thanks. I'm not sure if I'm going to go with the design in my sketch or not yet. This is my first experiment with the bridge because I happened to find the window rollers.


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## Thrashmanzac (Jun 23, 2009)

looking fucking awesome marco. anymore updates for us?


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## cadenhead (Jun 23, 2009)

Thrashmanzac said:


> looking fucking awesome marco. anymore updates for us?



Thanks.

Updates are not likely until some time next week. I have to work friday which is the only day I have to do any work due to me getting off at 4am everyday.

I think the cave troll living in the garage  is moving out soon so I should be able to work more on it throughout the week.


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## Thrashmanzac (Jun 23, 2009)

haha sounds good mate.
do you have a background in engineering or anything? becaus eyou seem to be able to just invent rad shit, and make it actually work. well it looks as though it will work


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## cadenhead (Jun 23, 2009)

Thrashmanzac said:


> haha sounds good mate.
> do you have a background in engineering or anything? becaus eyou seem to be able to just invent rad shit, and make it actually work. well it looks as though it will work



Background? Sort of. Fancy piece of paper proving it? No. noplease

I'm just a guy who listened in math and science classes.


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## Variant (Jun 23, 2009)

^
Marco is a ingenious clever motherfucker... and so am I, and that's why The Surfacing (and all related and unrelated) projects will one day rule the world.


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## Giamatti (Jun 23, 2009)

It really doesn't get more diy than that, impressive as hell!


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## cadenhead (Jun 23, 2009)

Variant said:


> ^
> Marco is a ingenious clever motherfucker... and so am I, and that's why The Surfacing (and all related and unrelated) projects will one day rule the world.



Those were supposed to be *secret* world domination plans.


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## Thrashmanzac (Jun 25, 2009)

update?


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## Varjo (Jun 25, 2009)

Dude you've got some ideas all right. Can't wait to see what this'll turn out to.

When it's done, I want sound clips!


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## Thrashmanzac (Jun 27, 2009)

update ?


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## cadenhead (Jun 28, 2009)

Thrashmanzac said:


> update ?



No updates yet. The garage is almost cleared out. I might be able to do some work this week.

I also have a lot of scratch tracks to go through this week from Ryan (variant) and my studio sessions over the last few months. 

I'm going to be a busy guy until I go on vacation on the 10th.


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## Thrashmanzac (Jul 15, 2009)

any updates marco?


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## cadenhead (Jul 15, 2009)

Thrashmanzac said:


> any updates marco?



I'm currently on vacation in New Mexico. I should hopefully be able to get back to work next week when I get back.


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## damigu (Jul 16, 2009)

your bridge design is awesome. 

it would be killer it could be engineered/machined out of blanks to more normal specs. but as it is, the proof-of-concept type of thing that this home-depot build is about is still impressive.


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## TravTrav (Jul 21, 2009)

that bridge design is amazing.

i'm currently in the design phase of my 8-string build and i have to think of something for the bridge design, why did you come up with the awesome one first.

i don't know if my guitar will be able to go onto this part of the forum because i'm from australia and we don't have a home depot, but we have bunnings hardware which is pretty much the same.

it looks really good man, very impressive. i look forward to the finished product and good luck!


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## cadenhead (Aug 1, 2009)

TravTrav said:


> that bridge design is amazing.
> 
> i'm currently in the design phase of my 8-string build and i have to think of something for the bridge design, why did you come up with the awesome one first.
> 
> ...



Read the rules. You are more than welcome to join in the fun.

Update! *Finally*

Here is my new work area in the garage:






Here we start the saddle like I have in the sketch:





The rod that I got was exactly the same diameter as the hole in the brass roller. I cut it and put it in the chuck of the drill and filed it down just a bit.





Got the channel cut and some groves for the axle to fit (sort of any way).









I got a bolt and nut that fit the brass roller and put that in the chuck of the drill to cut the groove for the strings and to round the edges a bit. It worked out a lot better than I thought it would. 





And almost done with one saddle. 





That's it for now. I'll try to get some more done tomorrow and the rest of the week.


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## Variant (Aug 1, 2009)

Holy shit that looks good!


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## cadenhead (Aug 1, 2009)

Variant said:


> Holy shit *you're* good!



Fixed.


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## Empryrean (Aug 1, 2009)

So should I say you're very nice? 
Is there only one finished at the moment? Thanks for posting the progress Marc!


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## Arminius (Aug 1, 2009)




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## Andrew_B (Aug 1, 2009)

cadenhead said:


> I got a bolt and nut that fit the brass roller and put that in the chuck of the drill to cut the groove for the strings and to round the edges a bit. It worked out a lot better than I thought it would.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 

lol crazy s.o.b.. 

but nice one... you have given me an idea


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## Fred (Aug 1, 2009)

Haha, that's serious ingenuity, keep it up!


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## cadenhead (Aug 4, 2009)

Empryrean said:


> So should I say you're very nice?
> Is there only one finished at the moment? Thanks for posting the progress Marc!



Yes, only one at the moment. The process should be a lot faster now that I know what to do and what not to do.


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## Thrashmanzac (Aug 4, 2009)

about time we got an update 
looks fucking rad though


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## Variant (Aug 4, 2009)

cadenhead said:


> Yes, only one at the moment. The process should be a lot faster now that I know what to do and what _*not*_ to do.



And _*that*_ is, to keep the Glenmorangie out of the garage.


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## cadenhead (Aug 4, 2009)

Variant said:


> And _*that*_ is, to keep the Glenmorangie out of the garage.



Yes, but not the Glenfiddich 15.


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## cadenhead (Aug 12, 2009)

Little update this morning. I got a little work done last Friday and some tonight.






4 more to go! 

Obviously I have to do a little more work on these, but that's the easy part. I just want to get them all done so I can start the mock up and getting to the wood working part.


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## damigu (Aug 12, 2009)

looking great!

i wonder if anyone else is putting that much effort into the bridge design?


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## Fred (Aug 12, 2009)

^^ Seriously! Major respect, man, they look to be coming along very nicely indeed.


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## Elysian (Aug 12, 2009)

damigu said:


> looking great!
> 
> i wonder if anyone else is putting that much effort into the bridge design?



I'll be recreating a standard hardtail bridge, definitely not as much work as this guys. I doubt I'll get mine done in time for judging, but it'll get done some day.


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## guitarplayerone (Oct 31, 2009)

wait does this mean you're going for a violin-style bridge with rollers?


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## Thrashmanzac (Nov 17, 2009)

update?


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## Customisbetter (Nov 18, 2009)

my guess is that this build has been forgotten.


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