# Cheap-ish Fanned 8 String Build



## Hywel (Sep 29, 2015)

So I decided I needed a multiscale 8 string, even if only to chug 0's. The only problem is that the only time I tried one (an RG8), I lasted about a minute before laughing at the sheer size of the fretboard and putting it back on the shop wall. Hence, I don't want to spend a lot on a guitar I'm probably not going to get on with so this build is partly about trying out new stuff and partly about keeping the costs down without resorting to plywood.

I'm aiming for a BM style body (sorry) but with my own headstock. No mockup this time as I'm still deciding on whether it should be a natural or black finish.

Spec wise I'm going for...

26"-27" scale
24 fret rosewood fretboard
3 piece common ash body (not swamp)
1 piece maple neck with ~12° scarf joint and CF reinforcement
Home made bridge, zero fret, Jin-Ho locking tuners
Neck/bridge pickups, 1 volume knob & switch

Anyway, enough of that. As some of you may have seen in the "What's on your workbench?" thread, I started making the bridge from 3mm aluminium plate and steel Wilkinson style saddles. 

Materials needed...

3mm Aluminium plate - £0.50
8 Steel Wilkinson style saddles - ~£13
8 x M3x16mm machine screws - £0.30
3 x M3x20mm wood screws - £0.12

Cost less than a single Hipshot or ABM single string bridge 

















Templates for everything else were drawn in Illustrator and cut by Razorlab again before being bulked up to 15mm thick with MDF and my router table. Razorlab did a great job as usual but I made the pickup routes way too big so I fixed that with some pine stripwood before I transferred them to the MDF.











Once those were sorted I started on the scarf joint. Cut by hand to ~12° and made straight on the router jig. I didn't fancy making an angled scarf since a straight one normally gives me a serious headache so this will be a straight headstock and string guide after the zero fret. It'll probably work... 

The neck blank is a thick piece of quartersawn maple from eBay (£20) with some faint flame figure in it.





















There is still a little work to do to make the scarf joint completely flat but I'm hoping to get it glued and truss-rodded by the weekend.


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## skeels (Sep 29, 2015)

skeels likes this


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## KnightroExpress (Sep 29, 2015)

Very cool! I'm looking forward to watching this one.


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## dankarghh (Sep 30, 2015)

More please. I wish i had the skills to make a bridge like that. Did you design it yourself?


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## pondman (Sep 30, 2015)

Looking handsome 

I made a bridge plate out of ali a few years back and stripped the threads when tightening the saddle screw after a short while. If you drill the saddle screw holes through into the body wood with a drill size that will allow the saddle screws to thread into the body timber when tightening the saddles down you should be OK. Using a longer screw helps as well.


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## jwade (Sep 30, 2015)

Digging that bridge! That's got my imagination running, I'm planning my first multiscale build and that bridge looks stellar. Clean and beautiful.


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## Hywel (Sep 30, 2015)

Thanks everyone 



dankarghh said:


> More please. I wish i had the skills to make a bridge like that. Did you design it yourself?





jwade said:


> Digging that bridge! That's got my imagination running, I'm planning my first multiscale build and that bridge looks stellar. Clean and beautiful.



It's a design I've seen around a lot before as an alternative to single string bridges, I just adapted it for what I needed. I've seen them before with ebony baseplates and graphtech saddles as well so you can avoid metal entirely if you prefer. Here's a link to a .PDF of the template I used if you want to have a go (although I've not tried it on a guitar yet so...). I usually use Adobe Illustrator to draw the templates (Inkscape is a free alternative) and if you drop the .PDF into one of those you should be able to modify the layout to suit your scale lengths.



pondman said:


> I made a bridge plate out of ali a few years back and stripped the threads when tightening the saddle screw after a short while. If you drill the saddle screw holes through into the body wood with a drill size that will allow the saddle screws to thread into the body timber when tightening the saddles down you should be OK. Using a longer screw helps as well.



Cheers for the tip! I'll try and tap some threads into the body when I mount it and if it all strips out I'll pop some inserts in there.


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## Steinmetzify (Sep 30, 2015)

Dude, I am so IN for this. Subbed and stoked, that bridge looks SICK and I love your stuff.....can't wait to see what you do with an 8!


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## Nag (Sep 30, 2015)

5+3 headstock = nom nom nom


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## jwade (Oct 1, 2015)

Thanks for the pdf share, man! Excited for the rest of the build.


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## Hywel (Oct 4, 2015)

Cleaned up the scarf joint with the router, sandpaper and a big flat rock but I had difficulty using dowels to hold it stable this time for some reason so I used some 2.5mm drill bits as brads which worked perfectly.
















While the router jig was out I cut off the end of the fretboard blank and thinned it down to make a grain matched headstock veneer











Next job, adding the truss rod and CF channels. Truss rod went fine, CF not so great but the mishaps got filled with the same epoxy I used to glue them in so it's not a big deal. Make sure you use the router in the correct direction and take much smaller passes with tiny bits!











After some bandsaw tweaking (it involved a hammer ), I cut the rough shape for the neck and body






The body blank is a 3 piece ash blank that came with the neck blank for my first build. It's super dense and has some interesting grain but I'm not 100% certain I'll keep it natural. The alternative is a black front (same as my travel guitar build) with a natural back.






Got the body trimmed to size on the router table and scraped/sanded it clean.






I'll probably try and get the neck trimmed and all the cavities in the body next time


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## skeels (Oct 4, 2015)

I love to see apartments filled with sawdust!


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## Hywel (Oct 4, 2015)

skeels said:


> I love to see apartments filled with sawdust!



It's everywhere! I think I even got some on my car thats parked under the window today


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## TamanShud (Oct 5, 2015)

Duuude! Do you ever stop building?! (please don't, this is so good)


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## Hywel (Oct 5, 2015)

TamanShud said:


> Duuude! Do you ever stop building?! (please don't, this is so good)



Only while I'm waiting for templates 

I've got plans for 1 more after this but it's going to be expensive and a bit difficult so I'm not sure when that'll start.


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## Hywel (Oct 7, 2015)

I've routed the neck to size and cleaned it up, as well as adding the usual T-nuts for the M4 neck bolts.
















Since the next job on the next is all fretboard stuff I decided to route the body instead. I think I'm just trying to put off having to slot it caveman style .

I don't trust myself to bevel anything by hand as I always seem to round things off so I looked for an appropriate router bit so I could do the BM bevel accurately. It took ages (longer than it should really ) but I eventually found an appropriate template guided bit from Wealden Tool Company (part no. T1614-1/2 in case you fancy your own) and used that. It worked perfectly!











I also got the pickup routes and neck pocket done since they were on the same template. The neck joint is a little too tight at the moment. It passes the test with ease but getting the neck in the pocket is a bit of an effort so I'll scrape it a bit when I get around to it.











I'm not sure when I'll be able to make decent progress on this build again as some other stuff has come up that needs a bit of attention but hopefully I'll get going again next week.


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## Knarbens (Oct 9, 2015)

Super nice work!


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## Hywel (Oct 9, 2015)

I found some time and managed to add a control cavity. It's oversized for 1 pot and 1 switch but I wanted to leave some space for a 9v or tone pot if I need one in the future.
















Got the bridge and string holes marked up











Added the back bevel






And the jack socket cut out. I had a spare Neutrik locking jack which I never got around to using so I thought I'd use it here. I didn't want to leave a flat bit for it to mount on or do a big angled cut out so this little alcove keeps it hidden away nicely. It was supposed the have square sides but tearout killed that idea so I added the angled edges manually with a chisel.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 12, 2015)

Everything is looking great so far, man!


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## Hywel (Oct 12, 2015)

So I made a cover for the control cavity (which went well), thinned down the headstock (which wasn't great) and glued on the fretboard wallbash.

Cavity cover first, 3mm walnut with magnetic closure. I refined my opening method a bit and I'm happy with how it functions now. The magnets are strong enough to stop it falling out (even with some shaking) but allow easy opening when you press in right place.













The headstock got thinned down but it was a bit of a pain in the ass to do since the router jig couldn't easily cut it thin enough without hitting the rest of the neck. I got it there eventually but I really think a drum/spindle sander would be a better way of doing this.






And I got the fretboard glued on. It started well with good squeeze out all around and no slipping around...











But if you saw that last photo and thought "that's not enough clamps!" you'd be right 








So a quick crash course in fretboard removal and 5 minutes of filing an old dodgy set square into a seam separation knife I set about taking the board back off again. 






15 minutes later I'm back where I started but with more glue to clean up.






I'll get some more clamps and try again later


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## Deegatron (Oct 12, 2015)

Yarg!
I feel your pain sir.
I've not ever had this particular issue... but many like it... sucks every time...


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## Knarbens (Oct 13, 2015)

Had the same problem before!

You definitely want to have two rows of clamps when glueing a board that wide. 

I'm sure you'll make it! At elast you learnt something!


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## Hywel (Oct 13, 2015)

Deegatron said:


> Yarg!
> I feel your pain sir.
> I've not ever had this particular issue... but many like it... sucks every time...



It sucked but now the glues cleaned up and the boards flat again after a night clamped to a big flat rock, I can do it again properly with no evidence of the mishap (other than this thread) and I've learnt a useful new skill so overall, it was actually quite useful. (gotta think positive )



Knarbens said:


> Had the same problem before!
> 
> You definitely want to have two rows of clamps when glueing a board that wide.
> 
> I'm sure you'll make it! At elast you learnt something!



Thanks man! I remember when you had this problem and to be honest, that thread is what made me take the board off and do it again properly rather than try and inject some glue in for a quick fix. Hopefully if anyone else has the same problem this'll convince them to do the same.


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## Spicypickles (Oct 13, 2015)

Very much digging that bridge!


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## Steinmetzify (Oct 13, 2015)

Looking good man. I really love that cavity cover idea and the mockup with the bridge had me excited. I'm calm now, it's ok. 

Stoked to see this come to life!


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 14, 2015)

Everything is a learning experience when it comes to building guitars, I made the same mistake once, too and also learned how to remove a fretboard, though that one I just wrote off since I couldn't bend it back to straight. Buy more clamps but make sure you spend the extra cash and buy good ones! I really like using some good, metal F clamps, like the one you have with the red handle in the picture.

I also used the same method for thinning down the headstock and ran into the same problem.  Maybe one fix for it might be a slightly longer router bit so you can have the router seated on taller rails, letting you bring it back further before hitting the neck. Ultimately, though, a drum sander would be extremely convenient.


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## TamanShud (Oct 15, 2015)

That cavity cover looks like it's see some ....


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## Hywel (Oct 15, 2015)

BlackMastodon said:


> Everything is a learning experience when it comes to building guitars, I made the same mistake once, too and also learned how to remove a fretboard, though that one I just wrote off since I couldn't bend it back to straight. Buy more clamps but make sure you spend the extra cash and buy good ones! I really like using some good, metal F clamps, like the one you have with the red handle in the picture.
> 
> I also used the same method for thinning down the headstock and ran into the same problem.  Maybe one fix for it might be a slightly longer router bit so you can have the router seated on taller rails, letting you bring it back further before hitting the neck. Ultimately, though, a drum sander would be extremely convenient.



I'm going clamp shopping tomorrow so I'll see what I can find. At least I'll be ready next time. 



TamanShud said:


> That cavity cover looks like it's see some ....



Probably the same thing these guys saw back in the first post...


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## Hywel (Oct 16, 2015)

The rosewood needed a bit of flattening still but after an hour of big flat rock sanding it was ready for use. I also gave the neck a quick pass just in case.






Postman brought me some new F-clamps so I put them to good use.






Yeah, that should do it. 

If it doesn't, something is getting set on fire.

Leaving that lot to dry overnight before trimming it all and slotting it tomorrow.

I did a bit of practice with the fret saw and it turns out it's too narrow for my fretwire so I passed the ryoba over a whetstone a few times to bring the kerf down to 0.025" which works great (on the test piece at least).


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## Hywel (Oct 18, 2015)

Nothing's getting set on fire. The new clamps did the job and the fretboard is now gap free. 

Once that had all dried I drilled for the truss rod cover magnets and glued on the headstock veneer, followed by a quick trim on the bandsaw and a pass on the router table.
















And then came the bit I was dreading, actually cutting the fret slots. 

I got a template printed out full scale (stuck 2 bits of A4 paper together and set a custom paper size for my printer so I could do it at home) and stuck it on the wood. 






I used a knife to mark the slots and then an x-acto razor saw to widen them a bit to give the final saw something to follow.






The modified ryoba didn't work quite as easily in the rosewood as my maple test piece and proved to be a pain in the ass. I think I ground off too much tooth set as the blade kept sticking but it worked eventually. A couple of slots were a little misaligned so I filled them with dust/CA glue and re cut them. Once all the crap from the spray glue was off (I forgot the masking tape trick), the board came out looking ok. Although I think this'll work, I'll probably try and stick to buying slotted boards when I can.






I originally planned to have only side inlay and while that works fine on my acoustic, I can't cope without it on an electric (mainly past the 12th fret) so this is getting 2.5mm white dots everywhere. No glowing this time since I tend to play with the lights on and white is super cheap.






Got it radiused with my 16" radius block which worked way quicker than I remember.






And then I started fretting. This build is getting 2.6mm frets I got for ~£6 for a 5m roll. The zero fret is a slightly larger stainless steel type. Since I was a bit unsure of my slot width and how well the frets would stay in, I used CA glue wicked in from the side rather than titebond.

This is also the first time I've ever seen a fanned fretboard for real. Looks weird .











I got the frets flush with the edge and bevelled before calling it for the day and sticking the neck on the body to see what it looked like.






Almost there! 

(Bonus points if you can spot where I keep the magnetic truss rod covers once they're made!)


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 18, 2015)

Cover is on the side of the bandsaw.  Looking great so far, man! Really nice this time around, keep it up.


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## Hywel (Oct 18, 2015)

BlackMastodon said:


> Cover is on the side of the bandsaw.  Looking great so far, man! Really nice this time around, keep it up.



Congrats! You win! 

Cheers man. I'm looking forward to getting this finished and chugging all the 0's


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## Pikka Bird (Oct 19, 2015)

Oooh, I like how this is coming out. Wonder why I haven't been following it more closely.

Where did you get your saddles?


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## Hywel (Oct 19, 2015)

Pikka Bird said:


> Oooh, I like how this is coming out. Wonder why I haven't been following it more closely.



Thanks! 

6 x Wilkinson VS50 100 Saddles for the saddles. Graphtech also make them in Tusq for a similar feel to a Schaller Hannes but they're 5x the price so...


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## Deegatron (Oct 19, 2015)

Just my opinion but the feel of the Schaller Hannes comes more from the shape and the lack of height adjustment screws protruding... the material is likely TUSQ due to ease of MFG.

YMMV


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## Bloodshredder (Oct 19, 2015)

it looks incredible already! I can't wait to see it finsihed.

And to HEAR it finished!

I'm a huge fan of fanned frets. Until yet, I'm not in the game for one as they are a bit out of my ballpark price-wise. But as I read "cheap-ish" in the headline, I regained some hope ;-)


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## Hywel (Oct 19, 2015)

Deegatron said:


> Just my opinion but the feel of the Schaller Hannes comes more from the shape and the lack of height adjustment screws protruding... the material is likely TUSQ due to ease of MFG.
> 
> YMMV



You've got a point, feel was probably the wrong word. I wish they made the 7 and 8 string version a bit more available. I love that bridge on my 6 but I don't want to have to sell a kidney to have it on anything with more strings!



Bloodshredder said:


> it looks incredible already! I can't wait to see it finsihed.
> 
> And to HEAR it finished!
> 
> I'm a huge fan of fanned frets. Until yet, I'm not in the game for one as they are a bit out of my ballpark price-wise. But as I read "cheap-ish" in the headline, I regained some hope ;-)



It'll probably sound like ass because I'm playing it. 

I think the materials for this build cost me about 1/2 the retail price of an Ibanez RG8. Once it's finished I'll work out how much it was a bit more accurately.


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## Bloodshredder (Oct 19, 2015)

Nevermind the playing, I hear ya on this 
As long as you like the sound, there's not much that can#t be wrong with it.

Oh and don't forget to add your imaginary labor-cost to the result


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## Deegatron (Oct 19, 2015)

I agree. Cost wise the Schaller Hannes have literally priced themselves out of the market. and it's a shame because, in my opinion, it's an absolutely superior bridge to anything else I've tried but I too can not justify the additional cost... 
Not to mention it would be fairly easy to adapt it to multiscale by simply building a new angled anchor piece for it. apparently Schaller frowns upon that tho... so everybody loses....

Killer build by the way. Im particularly fond of your magnetic trussrod cover.. that's slick.


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## Hywel (Oct 20, 2015)

I decided having the neck the same thickness as the body would probably not be a good idea so I used to the router table to thin down the heel (since that would keep everything flat and level in theory) and the band saw to take off the rest. I also drilled the tuner holes since this seemed like the ideal time.
















I decided to skip the spokeshave this time and just used a half round microplane and shinto saw rasp. I actually think this way was easier. My spokeshave seemed to want to put a thin bit in the middle of the neck .






2 1/2 hours later I got something resembling a neck. I have no idea how it feels in comparison to a proper 8 string neck since I haven't got a reference but its 21-23mm thick and probably c-ish shaped. It'll probably work. 











I guess that's the bulk of the work done (other than sanding ). The finish is going to be a really basic danish oil/wax affair so I should be able to get this playing pretty soon.


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## dankarghh (Oct 21, 2015)

This is amazing man. Very tidy work. Interesting decision to leave out the speed holes though?


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## Hywel (Oct 21, 2015)

dankarghh said:


> This is amazing man. Very tidy work. Interesting decision to leave out the speed holes though?



Thanks!

I can't play fast enough to justify speed holes yet. I heard they need a minimum level of shred to work properly.


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## Deegatron (Oct 21, 2015)

Hywel said:


> Thanks!
> 
> I can't play fast enough to justify speed holes yet. I heard they need a minimum level of shred to work properly.



66 miles per hour?


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## Hywel (Oct 21, 2015)

Deegatron said:


> 66 miles per hour?



666 BPM 

Thanks to everyone's advice during my last build, I actually managed to drill straight string through holes! It's only taken 5 builds. 

Recessed the neck bolts as well.












After some sanding to 320 grit, I got the first coat of danish oil on the body and neck and I'm liking it so far. Much easier to apply than Tru-oil, mainly because it doesn't tack up when you wipe it on. I think the Tru-oil might be easier to get to a gloss but on this build I'm only aiming for a light satin sheen so this'll work great. Nice bit of flame in the neck as well which isn't bad considering it was the cheapest maple on eBay. 











I'll get a few coats on and then hopefully wax them on Sunday (maybe sooner).


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## Hywel (Oct 24, 2015)

I got it waxed and added some shielding (paint on the front, foil in the back).











Did some fret work.






Slotted the string guide with an x-acto saw, welding tip cleaners and a frame saw. It would suck as a nut but the zero fret sorts that out.






Did some soldering to get the mighty IBZ-8 pickups installed (I said it was going to be cheap!).






And strung it up.











And it buzzes like a pissed off hornets nest so I've got some tweaking to do.  (EDIT - Fixed it with another fret levelling. I seem to have missed one last time)

The build is pretty much finished but Pondman was right and one of the bridge screw threads stripped so I'm going to do it again in mild steel.

Once that's all sorted and it plays decently I'll come back with some proper NGD pics.


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## coreypla (Oct 25, 2015)

Awesome build Hywel!!!!! How much to go to your school of guitar-building/luthier-woodworking? Will pay top $$$$$


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## Hollowway (Oct 26, 2015)

Just tuned in to this thread now - and was not disappointed! Strong work, man!


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## Deegatron (Oct 26, 2015)

I'm loving this build. 
The brand placement on the headstock is perfect. love it.


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## Hywel (Oct 26, 2015)

Thanks guys. Once the bridge is tweaked a bit and it's properly set up hopefully it'll play alright


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## Spicypickles (Oct 26, 2015)

I dig thy work, Hywel.


Your seven you built last month is especially tasty.


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## Bloodshredder (Oct 26, 2015)

Great to see it coming together!
Love the shape of the headstock!


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## TKOA-Dex (Oct 27, 2015)

Wow this is an awesome build! I wish I could have done something like that! how much did it end up costing?


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## Hywel (Oct 28, 2015)

TKOA-Dex said:


> Wow this is an awesome build! I wish I could have done something like that! how much did it end up costing?



Cheers!

I think it was about £130-£180 (~$200-275) depending on whether you include wood and other things I had lying around. 

That doesn't include stuff like consumables used in construction or the templates which were another £50-ish but can be used again or sold so I haven't include them.

It could have been a bit cheaper if I'd used locally available woods like oak and meranti which would have brought the price to <£100.


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## dankarghh (Oct 28, 2015)

Stop making me want to build too many guitars at once please Hywel.


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## pondman (Oct 28, 2015)

Excellent work


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## JP Universe (Oct 29, 2015)

Really dig that headdstock! Great stuff!


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## Hywel (Nov 7, 2015)

Thanks everyone!

I finally got it acceptably set up with the new steel bridge plate and the NGD is up over here

The frets needed a lot more work this time since they were hammered into some very questionable fret slots rather than pressed like I normally do but it came out ok. I'm not 100% sold on whether fanned frets are worth the extra work but I gave it to a guy to play and he didn't even notice the fan until I pointed it out so it's obviously not too difficult to cope with!
















More pics in the NGD thread. I've no idea what I'll build next. Probably something semi hollow and a bit more bluesy.


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## Alex Kenivel (Nov 7, 2015)

Killer


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## Spicypickles (Nov 9, 2015)

Hawt.


I wish I had them there skills.


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## jwade (Nov 10, 2015)

Hywel said:


> More pics in the NGD thread. I've no idea what I'll build next. Probably something semi hollow and a bit more bluesy.




Multiscale Blueshawk. Do it.


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## KnightroExpress (Nov 10, 2015)

YES ^


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