# First Ever Build: Strandberg CNC Clone.



## Khoi (Feb 13, 2013)

This is my first ever guitar build, with 0 wood working knowledge, and 0 guitar building knowledge, other than what I've gathered through the years on various forums.

Here we go.

I found out I have access as a student to a 3-Axis CNC machine, so I decided, this is my chance to take advantage of that, and build a guitar.

I set my sights on making a Strandberg clone.

Now you may be thinking, "Gee, that's a hard build to start with for your first ever!", and yeah, you are right.


*But the reasons for going with a Strandberg is:
*
1.) It's headless. I don't have to worry about having to deal with an angled headstock going through a CNC machine.

2.) Ola has his designs for license use, especially his endurneck (which I purchased over the weekend), and it includes drawings and 3D files for me to use.

3.) I can't afford a Strandberg.


Fortunately, my roommate is a Rhino master, and he's helped me A TON on this build so far, especially generating the 3D Rhino files I'll be using.

I'm going to keep this first build very very simple, using cheap woods. But even before that, I'll be prototyping it with even cheaper woods, like bamboo laminates from my local wood supplier, so I can test out how the CNC machine cuts, and the general workflow involved.

Then I'm going to be using simple woods such as a basswood body, and simple maple neck (probably 2 piece).

It has yet to be decided whether I want to do a bolt on or neck through, but I will be prototyping both I hope.

The basic specs:

25" - 25.5" Multiscale 6-string
strandberg hardware
2 humbuckers
Bolt On/Neck-Through


I'm still in the process of building everything in 3D, and just finished the general neck profile of it yesterday, including the fretboard radius, and frets.


TL;DR: First build ever is a strandberg clone. You won't want to miss my epic fails.


oh, I'm also an aspiring filmmaker, so I'll be documenting this 100% in full, and making a cool video out of it.


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## larry (Feb 13, 2013)

nice!! definitely will be watching this.


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## Gregori (Feb 13, 2013)

Holy shit, yes!


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## Watty (Feb 13, 2013)

Congrats on taking the plunge on this one man!


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## Khoi (Feb 13, 2013)

thanks, there's no backing out now! I already sank $450 in strandberg hardware and the neck license.


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## Watty (Feb 13, 2013)

at least $400 of that _could_ be recouped...


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## JEngelking (Feb 13, 2013)

Khoi said:


> TL;DR: First build ever is a strandberg clone. You won't want to miss my epic fails.
> 
> 
> oh, I'm also an aspiring filmmaker, so I'll be documenting this 100% in full, and making a cool video out of it.









Seriously though, this is gonna be cool. I'm sure it'll go well, looking forward to seeing the progress.


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## HurrDurr (Feb 14, 2013)

Oh man, I'm dying to get my hands on a CNC machine! If this works, I am *more than willing* to drive up there from here in Miami to help you out on another build so I too can get some experience with CNC stuffs, _if you'd like a hand, that is._

*not trying to intrude or take over your life or anything... maybe*


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## GXPO (Feb 14, 2013)

^

Sounds awesome, subscribed fo' sho'


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## wookie606 (Feb 14, 2013)

Subbed!


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## Quitty (Feb 14, 2013)

Green with envy.
Go for it, man. Good luck!


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## quoenusz (Feb 14, 2013)

Nice! I'll be watching this.


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## Kharem (Feb 14, 2013)

Definitely keeping an eye on this, actually something I've started thinking about trying for myself lately, even though strandbergs don't seem that expensive for the quality, the import tax and gst to get one to Aus pumps it up enough to be pretty frustrating.


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## BIG ND SWEATY (Feb 14, 2013)

should be pretty cool but i dont really see the point of a .5" fan


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## wookie606 (Feb 14, 2013)

BIG ND SWEATY said:


> should be pretty cool but i dont really see the point of a .5" fan



Its more of an ergonomic thing as far as I understand.


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## Khoi (Feb 14, 2013)

BIG ND SWEATY said:


> should be pretty cool but i dont really see the point of a .5" fan



it gives your wrist a more natural angle so there's not so much strain, and you get the benefit of the sweet highs on the 25" side


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## baptizedinblood (Feb 14, 2013)

Looking forward to the end result of this.


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## BIG ND SWEATY (Feb 14, 2013)

Khoi said:


> it gives your wrist a more natural angle so there's not so much strain, and you get the benefit of the sweet highs on the 25" side



IMO that .5" less on the treble side isnt going to make a noticeable difference in tone, i get the point of fanned frets and would love to have guitar with them but i dont see the point of one that small


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## skisgaar (Feb 14, 2013)

Khoi said:


> oh, I'm also an aspiring filmmaker, so I'll be documenting this 100% in full, and making a cool video out of it.



Aspiring film maker, making a guitar because he's too poor to get a proper Strandberg?

Are you me?


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## Konfyouzd (Feb 14, 2013)

^I thought you were gonna say something mean when I first started reading that.


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## teleofseven (Feb 14, 2013)




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## Khoi (Feb 14, 2013)

skisgaar said:


> Aspiring film maker, making a guitar because he's too poor to get a proper Strandberg?
> 
> Are you me?



I'll be applying to film school this fall


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## Khoi (Feb 14, 2013)

BIG ND SWEATY said:


> IMO that .5" less on the treble side isnt going to make a noticeable difference in tone, i get the point of fanned frets and would love to have guitar with them but i dont see the point of one that small



to be honest, I think it's cooler to do than not to do, so why not?


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## mwcarl (Feb 14, 2013)

Will be interesting to see. You might want to keep it simple though, you're shooting a bit high.


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## HighPotency (Feb 14, 2013)

BIG ND SWEATY said:


> should be pretty cool but i dont really see the point of a .5" fan


The difference in scale length between 24.75 and 25.5 is only 3/4 of an inch and it's noticeable so I think a .5" fan will be as well.


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## skisgaar (Feb 14, 2013)

Khoi said:


> I'll be applying to film school this fall



Good luck man! Also, very exciting build


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## Danukenator (Feb 14, 2013)

Good luck! I'm excited to see what comes of this build!


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## JamesM (Feb 17, 2013)

BIG ND SWEATY said:


> IMO that .5" less on the treble side isnt going to make a noticeable difference in tone, i get the point of fanned frets and would love to have guitar with them but i dont see the point of one that small



I can tell you from owning a guitar with a small fan that it does in fact make a difference in both ergonomics and felt tension.


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## Khoi (Feb 25, 2013)

sorry for the lack of updates, I've been incredibly busy with school and haven't made much progress....

but I randomly got these little doohickies in the mail from Sweden, I wonder what they are used for?


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## Seanthesheep (Feb 25, 2013)

wow, so how are you doing the body? did you mange to get 3d drawings from ola for the boden bodies?

Id be all over building myself a strandberg if I had a way to get the body down


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## TemjinStrife (Feb 25, 2013)

One thing to worry about with fanned frets: If you have a radiused fingerboard, the wire will need to be twisted very slightly to fit in the slots and bend over the radius, or else it will make getting it seated properly a pain in the ass and potentially lead to problems with proud frets down the line.

If you've never done fretwork before, parallel frets make it much easier.


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## noUser01 (Feb 25, 2013)

Khoi said:


> sorry for the lack of updates, I've been incredibly busy with school and haven't made much progress....
> 
> but I randomly got these little doohickies in the mail from Sweden, I wonder what they are used for?



Looks like part of the bridge?


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## Khoi (Feb 25, 2013)

Seanthesheep said:


> wow, so how are you doing the body? did you mange to get 3d drawings from ola for the boden bodies?
> 
> Id be all over building myself a strandberg if I had a way to get the body down




He has a strandberg body template on his website that's an .ai file. I just import that into Rhino as an outline, and extrude it to the proper thickness, make the carves, and fix up the neck pocket, and that's it! you will also have to scale it up to the proper dimensions



TemjinStrife said:


> One thing to worry about with fanned frets: If you have a radiused fingerboard, the wire will need to be twisted very slightly to fit in the slots and bend over the radius, or else it will make getting it seated properly a pain in the ass and potentially lead to problems with proud frets down the line.
> 
> If you've never done fretwork before, parallel frets make it much easier.



oh man I never even thought of that! I'll definitely be doing more research about fretting the fans, thanks for the heads up!


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## HighPotency (Feb 25, 2013)

ConnorGilks said:


> Looks like part of the bridge?








You should double-check your results.


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## 72xmulch (Feb 26, 2013)

TemjinStrife said:


> One thing to worry about with fanned frets: If you have a radiused fingerboard, the wire will need to be twisted very slightly to fit in the slots and bend over the radius, or else it will make getting it seated properly a pain in the ass and potentially lead to problems with proud frets down the line.
> 
> If you've never done fretwork before, parallel frets make it much easier.


This is the first I've heard about twisting frets, is there anywhere we can read more about this?


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## foreright (Feb 26, 2013)

72xmulch said:


> This is the first I've heard about twisting frets, is there anywhere we can read more about this?



Draw a straight line on a piece of paper and wrap it at an angle around a can - that should give you a visual of what's going on... The amount of twist depend on the tightness of the radius and the angle of the fan. For a fairly flat radius and small fan it should be negligible though.


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## Navid (Feb 26, 2013)

Do you own the CNC or do you just have access to it?
This is gonna be great







72xmulch said:


> This is the first I've heard about twisting frets, is there anywhere we can read more about this?



I like my girls like i like my fretboards, flat.

...oh wait~


Infinite radius will not require anything like that. I suggest you to do the fretboard flat, and not just because it's easier, but also because you might enjoy it flat.


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## 72xmulch (Feb 26, 2013)

man im glad theres places like this on the internet, what would we do without it?? so is this the kind of thing you need to pre-twist, or will they just hammer into place? or does it really depend on the radius? guess ill have to practice and figure it out... sorry if im hijacking your thread Khoi!


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## Seanthesheep (Feb 27, 2013)

Khoi said:


> He has a strandberg body template on his website that's an .ai file. I just import that into Rhino as an outline, and extrude it to the proper thickness, make the carves, and fix up the neck pocket, and that's it! you will also have to scale it up to the proper dimensions
> 
> 
> 
> oh man I never even thought of that! I'll definitely be doing more research about fretting the fans, thanks for the heads up!



Damn. Might have to start myself a build now too


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## WeLookLikeGiants (Feb 27, 2013)

Subscribed. I'm interested in seeing how this pans out as I have also been wanting to try my hand in building a guitar. Good luck!


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## Khoi (Apr 16, 2013)

don't think I haven't forgotten about this!

I've FINALLY made some progress, I've just been insanely busy with school and had no time to set aside, but I made a loot of progress this weekend.

I fully modeled the guitar from the ground up pretty much, minus the neck profile (only the back profile though)

There's still a lot of work to be done, mainly shaping the headstock contours better, and also the cavities, drill holes, and other small stuff, but it's coming together quite nicely I think!


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## GizmoJunior (Apr 16, 2013)

I'm excited to see this! I've really been contemplating doing my own build but I haven't had the time or money. Looks nice so far and good luck!


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## engage757 (Apr 16, 2013)

Can't wait to see how it turns out bro!


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## Quitty (Apr 16, 2013)

Looks awesome!

How are you going to do the back of the neck? Sounds like a CNC nightmare with all the height adjustments.


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## Khoi (Apr 16, 2013)

Quitty said:


> Looks awesome!
> 
> How are you going to do the back of the neck? Sounds like a CNC nightmare with all the height adjustments.



I'm hoping the CNC techs will know how to do that... 


question for anyone that might know: if my body is 1.75" thick, how deep do I need the control cavity to be? For some reason this is confusing me

The CTS pots I plan on using have a thread height of 3/8", so will my cavity need to be 1.375" deep?

That sounds right to be, but when I look at my model, it seems awfully deep


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## Gregori (Apr 16, 2013)

Is the total length of the thread 3/8"? If so, then you might want to add another 1/8" to the cavity depth so you have enough thread sticking out of the top of the guitar to get the nut on.

Please keep us updated with the good and the bad. I'm seriously considering doing a full CNC build and I'd like to know what I'm up against.


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## Valennic (Apr 17, 2013)

So Ola will still sell his hardware on an individual basis? This is really good news to me, because I really want to build my self an 8 stringer. Just couldn't afford to buy one. . I wont have a CNC....it'll be old fashioned. Gonna watch yours though, I can't wait to see this finished up.


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## Khoi (Apr 17, 2013)

Valennic said:


> So Ola will still sell his hardware on an individual basis? This is really good news to me, because I really want to build my self an 8 stringer. Just couldn't afford to buy one. . I wont have a CNC....it'll be old fashioned. Gonna watch yours though, I can't wait to see this finished up.



for sure! you can order them here: Strandberg Guitarworks » Purchase Page

it's still pretty expensive though, but certainly cheaper than a real strandberg and a great learning experience


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## crg123 (Apr 17, 2013)

Khoi said:


> He has a strandberg body template on his website that's an .ai file. I just import that into *Rhino* as an outline, and extrude it to the proper thickness, make the carves, and fix up the neck pocket, and that's it! you will also have to scale it up to the proper dimensions



Where did you learn to use Rhino? I use it since I'm Architecture Grad student, but I've never heard of many people using it outside of the design field (industrial design etc). Just curious about your background with this awesome modeling tool. Can't wait to see the end results


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## Khoi (Apr 17, 2013)

crg123 said:


> Where did you learn to use Rhino? I use it since I'm Architecture Grad student, but I've never heard of many people using it outside of the design field (industrial design etc). Just curious about your background with this awesome modeling tool. Can't wait to see the end results



my roommate is an architecture student and is a pro at Rhino and helped me a great deal!

but it wasn't too hard to pickup, I've used other 3d programs before like Cinema 4D for motion graphics and visual effects, so it wasn't completely foreign


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## Khoi (Apr 17, 2013)

Another little update:

I'd say my model is about 90% done!!! Hopefully I'll be able to do a test cut next week, but for now, I just need to clean up a few little details and get a few drill holes in. I'm pretty happy how it's turning out!

Another little weird thing that happened was that in my previous update, the body was actually at 1.94", when it was supposed to be 1.75".. I thought it looked a little beefy! It's looking a lot smoother now.


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## Watty (Apr 18, 2013)

Looks sharp man!


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## JEngelking (Apr 18, 2013)

Gooood, goooood. Let it come to fruition...


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## Suitable (Apr 18, 2013)

1 Question... why a multiscale 6? A 7 or an 8 would make more sence and you could easily adjust the rhino program for the extra string/s. Its all cnc so it should be easy as! And you won't be wishing you made a 7 or an 8 in the first place. Just a thought before you start chopping the good stuff! Still watching this space either way!!! Plans are looking sick!

or you could go all 3 (6,7,8) since its all cnc


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## Rook (Apr 18, 2013)

I assume you're going to move the volute-type part (I know it isn't a volume but you know what I mean) up, right? You've lost half your first fret access there 

Looking forward to seeing some wood!


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## Khoi (Apr 18, 2013)

Suitable said:


> 1 Question... why a multiscale 6? A 7 or an 8 would make more sence and you could easily adjust the rhino program for the extra string/s. Its all cnc so it should be easy as! And you won't be wishing you made a 7 or an 8 in the first place. Just a thought before you start chopping the good stuff! Still watching this space either way!!! Plans are looking sick!
> 
> or you could go all 3 (6,7,8) since its all cnc




Since this is my first build, I didn't want to overly complicate things with 7/8 strings, as there's much more information readily available for 6-strings. 



Rook said:


> I assume you're going to move the volute-type part (I know it isn't a volume but you know what I mean) up, right? You've lost half your first fret access there
> 
> Looking forward to seeing some wood!



Yeah, the headstock volute still needs a lot of work, I kept it as that block-y thing because I couldn't quite get the carves right in Rhino, so I might just do that by hand


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## patata (Sep 19, 2013)

So what happened?


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## Khoi (Sep 19, 2013)

patata said:


> So what happened?



It's on hold for now due to a lack of time. I couldn't work on it in the summer when I had time because I wasn't aware that I would be limited to CNC access unfortunately. And now I'm in my last semester and my course load is pretty stacked.

Looking at a slightly simpler body for now and then hoping to continue this shortly after!


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## jemfloral (Oct 31, 2013)

looking forward to seeing the results when you get the time to finish it


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## ElRay (Oct 31, 2013)

Navid said:


> ... Infinite radius ...





Ray


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## MikeDojcsak (Oct 31, 2013)

I'm curious myself. Will follow.


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## dronik (Sep 24, 2015)

Hi,

would like to try same thing.

Would you mind to share the 3D/CNC files?

Thx


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## tssb (Sep 26, 2015)

Khoi said:


>



Is the neck profile modelled as a mesh ?
Why not do a simple loft or blend sweep ?


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## Soubi7string (Sep 26, 2015)

3 axis? no 4 or 5 axis? and rhino? is that like mastercam and autodesk?

very excited for this man!


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## Khoi (Sep 27, 2015)

Sorry guys, this was never completed as I had too much school work in my last semester. This was 2 years ago too.

Second, I've had a ton of people asking for the files. 

*PLEASE DO NOT MESSAGE ME ASKING FOR THE FILES. I AM NOT SENDING THEM, NOR HAVE I EVER SENT IT TO ANYONE.*

I do not own the design nor am I at the liberty of sharing it online. It would not be right for me to distribute it without Ola's consent.


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