Mr Natural Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Copy of a Veillette Gryphon, 12 string- 18.5" scale. Honduran Mahogany body Flame maple top Mahogany/ppl heart/flame maple neck template on top of maple- I have intentionally left a bit of margin on the template where the neck joins the body- this will be cleaned up (on the body) using a pilar sander. mahogany being clamped- going to try out a new router sled I made- see how it works for thicknessing/planing bodies. this mahogany is freaking heavy- I bought five 12'+ boards from my wood supplier-the last of this particular batch he had just gotten in a few days prior and this board- for whatever reason- felt way heavier than the others. Same color as the others- the boards ring thru but at just a slighter higher pitched "dong" than the other boards (if you know what I mean). I am saving some of this wood to try out as necks- seeing how it works out in this body as a semi hollow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 I like it. But I'm curious. As I understand, the Veillette Gryphon is an acoustic guitar, and you're building it as a semi-hollow electric? Are you gonna put a magnetic pickup on there somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted November 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Veillette actually has an electric version too- its a solid body instrument- but the shape is more of a les paul type- which I didnt want to do. So- I am using the acoustic version shape- but I wont be bracing the top/back etc like a true acoustic. i wanted to try this and just hollow out that mahogany and see what happens. I am using an undersaddle transducer- I have an older Fishman matrix pickup laying around and a D-tar transducer as well. Not sure which I am going to use-I have used the Fishmans on fretless basses and they sound awesome. I run them at 18V which really seems to reduce the "quackiness" you sometimes get with piezo pickups. Veillette uses an undersaddle as well- at least on the first models of the electric version- they have since added magnetic pickups it looks like from their website. I have a 12 string acoustic bridge on hand- but I may end up carving one- having the strings go thru body and anchoring them at the back with a brass plate or something- not quite sure. I am sort of figuring this one out as I go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Great. I'm curious to see how this one turns out. I've always wondered about what an under saddle transducer would do without a free soundboard. It makes sense to me that it would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted November 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2011 Great. I'm curious to see how this one turns out. I've always wondered about what an under saddle transducer would do without a free soundboard. It makes sense to me that it would work. David- this is the solid body I was referring to earlier- solidbody with undersaddle. Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted November 21, 2011 Report Share Posted November 21, 2011 Well, I learned something today. Thanks. It's amazing how forgiving piezos are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted June 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 underside of the top after flattening body with output/piezo jack routed- cover is made of walnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted July 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 hogging out the body- this wood is so dense I had to use a smaller than usual diameter drill bit. I bought 5 or 6 boards from this batch and this board, while similiar in appearance to the others, definitely seemed to weigh more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted July 19, 2012 Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 I thought the gryphon had a 14.25" scale length . ?? I forget the exact number Joe ( Mr. Veillette ) said, but he explained it like this: "... it's basicly like a guitar capoed at the 10th fret " . Dave Matthews raves about it. I think they're pretty dang cool myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted July 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 OurSouls- you might be thinking of the high E tuned version. It comes in either 18.5" for D tuning or 16.3" for E tuning. From his website- "The Gryphon is available tuned to D (equivalent to the 10th fret of a standard guitar) or in a shorter scale version that is tuned E - a full octave higher than standard. The acoustic Gryphon's unique range comes from its short scale length (18.5" for D-tuning, 16.3" for E-tuning)" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauliemc Posted July 19, 2012 Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 Cool lookin thing. Kinda reminds me of something from David Myka, & lets be honest -when is that ever a bad thing. Should be realy cool to see this finished Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted July 19, 2012 Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 OurSouls- you might be thinking of the high E tuned version. It comes in either 18.5" for D tuning or 16.3" for E tuning. From his website- "The Gryphon is available tuned to D (equivalent to the 10th fret of a standard guitar) or in a shorter scale version that is tuned E - a full octave higher than standard. The acoustic Gryphon's unique range comes from its short scale length (18.5" for D-tuning, 16.3" for E-tuning)" hence my confusion...... on a 25.5" scale, it's only bout 14.25" to the 10th fret. 18.5 would be somwhere between the 5th and 6th. so I'm guessing it's only equal in pitch, not actual scale length. Takes me a bit sometimes, but I catch on. Regardless- have a blast with it. It'll be coo when it's done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted August 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2012 finished routing out the body- left a bit over a 1/4" on the back wall. the router base rocked on that little ledge of an edge on the upper body- and I nicked into the wall on the upper bout (where your forearm rests)- no biggy- no one will see this- but still- rrrrrr marking witness lines on the body- I dont have a planer or thickness sander, so I use the base of my "David Myka" neck pocket jig (its flat)with some 50 grit attached to fine tune and flatten out gluing surfaces Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted August 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2012 twenty strokes back and forth and almost all the witness lines are gone underside of the maple top. I flattened this way back when- but its been sitting around for months- and temp/humidity changes over the months have made this suface uneven after 30 strokes across the sandpaper after another 40 strokes -almost there. another 50 strokes- the forearms are pumped and the sufaces are flat. This pic has some shadowing- but these sufaces are flat and well mated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 6, 2012 Report Share Posted August 6, 2012 I pretty familiar with that system and it's forearm pumping tendancies. My **** nature makes me mark the surfaces a couple of more times to insure I didn't cup the areas that had the lines already sanded off. I also experimented over the last couple of builds. My first couple I used 60 grit and stopped there. I was thinking that the coarseness would improve the bond strength and the slightly fuzzy edges would hide the glue line better. On my last build I went on through several grits stopping at 150. (It's not as much work as it sounds like after you've flattened it with the 60). My thinking this time was the glue bond would be fine with 150 grade scratches and the normal wood pores. And I thought that the 150 would leave cleaner, sharper edges and end up with a cleaner less visible glue line. I have heard arguments championing both the fuzzier edges and the sharper edges as doing the best job of hideing glue lines. The 150 worked best for me, but that could still be due to other factors, like getting better at truing the surfaces or having used a better distribution of clamps. I would be curious to hear other philosophies on the best grade to go with to achieve the cleanest glue lines. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted August 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 I am using 100grit on a neck blank of mahogany that I use to flat and true the scarf joint faces after cutting them with a backsaw. Here is the neck blank for this project after a few strokes with the 100- still a ways to go; clamping up the scarf- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted April 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2017 bumping this ancient thread. I am hoping to finish this before I go on vacation at the beach- I normally don't bring instruments to the beach but this would be cool to play around on. I guess I am back into building. And now that the Ritter copy is done, and I am almost done with the Ken Lawrence copy, I can get back to the Veillette copy I started eons ago. Man- all I do is copies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 29, 2017 Report Share Posted April 29, 2017 2012....wow! It's a good thing Mrs. Natural doesn't clean your stuff up for you...that thing could have been tossed out with the rubbish when you weren't looking. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted May 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2017 On 4/29/2017 at 2:42 PM, ScottR said: 2012....wow! It's a good thing Mrs. Natural doesn't clean your stuff up for you...that thing could have been tossed out with the rubbish when you weren't looking. SR Mrs Natural knows better. She allows me to make a mess in the garage- that is the one room in our whole house I can do that in. However- this was safely stored in my "wood room" aka spare basement bedroom turned into my wood storage/instruments/amps/pedals/cables etc room- I have to keep it neat in there (Mrs Natural doth say)- but -its temp and humidity controlled via humidifier/dehumidifier and the door pretty much stays closed on that room. So- checking the wood on this- still flat after all these years- wow- guess the box full of turning blanks I set on top helped keep things in check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted May 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2017 the neck blank sat on top of my unstickered wood section- and its still flat too. (yeah for small victories) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eubie Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 Glad you revived this build, and this thread. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. The video you posted back in the day is blocked for me, so I'm wondering about the look you are going for. Is this the direction you are headed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eubie Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 Hm - closer reading makes me think something more like this, only as a solid body. (?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted May 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 3 hours ago, eubie said: Hm - closer reading makes me think something more like this, only as a solid body. (?) like this one- but 12 string- and semi hollow- not sure if any kind of f holes will grace it yet- I am still thinking thru how I am going to "do" the top - I may end up scooping out a bunch of it from the inside and carving the top. I started drawing out a couple of ideas to think thru neck angle/bridge ideas -I am still fiddling about whether to do string thru body or do a tailpiece like this one below- and I am definitely doing an undersaddle pickup. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eubie Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 12 hours ago, Mr Natural said: and I am definitely doing an undersaddle pickup. The standard piezo pickups I see all over the place are obviously sized for a typical six-string saddle. Do you use the standard size for a 12 string, or do you have a source for a longer one? Or do you fabricate them yourself (I secretly hope it's this). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted May 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 I like the fishman . The 2.3" is for 12 strings. https://www.fishman.com/products/series/ag/ag-series-undersaddle-pickup/ I have earlier versions of the above- called "acoustic matrix" , I have one on a 4 string fretless bass I built years ago. I use a corian saddle - and as long as you have the slot perfectly flat on the bottom and get the downward pressure on the saddle even- they sound amazing. I did run into an issue (the saddle was not flat and mated well on the bottom of the slot- and it was immediately apparent something wasn't right as the strings sounded uneven and there was a weird buzz created on the g string around the 14th/15th or so position- did some research- flattened that bottom out and all was well in the universe. I will be using one of these (the shorter version) for the ken Lawrence build I am doing as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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