curtisa Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 ...Only a bit more modern and pointy-looking. Target specs: Body - Tasmanian blackwood with tiger myrtle carved top Neck - Tas blackwood with figured gidgee fretboard Scale length - 25.5" Radius - 16" Trussrod - Allparts Tuners - Hipshot Griplock Nut - Graphtech black Tusq Frets - Jumbo stainless steel Pickups - Seymour Duncan JB bridge, STK-4 neck Bridge - Wilkinson VS100 trem Electronics - 1x vol, 1 x 3-way toggle Tiger myrtle has a kind of spalting that gives it its distinctive dark stripey patterns. Gidgee is an Australian desert hardwood, very dense. I still have a bit of left over red myrtle from SY8 that I might use as accenting in the neck. Been hankering for an instrument with a single coil neck pickup for a while, and also wanted to try a singlecut body shape. Had a SD stacked singlecoil pickup kicking around and figured it was a perfect excuse to marry the two together. Blackwood body blank: Tiger myrtle: Jointing the edges of the top: Spent a couple of weekends late last year building a new split top workbench which is in these photos. Finally retired the crappy old fold-up thing. It's so nice being able to do things like planing some boards or spreading out my tools and clamps without having to fight a flimsy, wonky, under-sized workbench. Still need to add the removable section between the two tops, but for now I'm enjoying the massive improvement over what I was using up till now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelvock Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I was admiring your bench whilst checking out the photos, looks great! What would also be great is if you'd put some plans up for it :-p. Is that a no5 or no6 you use for jointing? I'm trying to get hold of a jointer and not sure if a no7 is neccassery as a no6 is a lot cheaper. With regards to the body shape, I really like it, interested to see how the carve turns out on the bass side. Shelvock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I don't have any plans as such. It's just a collection of ideas I pulled together from various other designs on the web. The frame design is based around this one and is all 2x4 hardwood framing. The mortises were a bitch to make, and I certainly won't win any awards for my carpentry skills, but the result is rock solid and weighs a ton. The top is approx 1800mm x 600mm. Plane in that photo is a 5 1/2 Stanley which I picked up cheap at a second hand store and spent some time cleaning up. Still thinking about how best to do the carve on the bass side myself. I think I've got it nutted out but things may change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 Your tiger myrtles. I want all of them! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Your tiger myrtles. I want all of them! Chris +1 SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Haha. I have two offcuts from that pair that could do the same sized top again, but they're full of bark inclusions and honeycombing, and sadly probably not worth using. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Pictures? So we can be the judge of that as well lol Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Top out of the clamps and rough-cut to shape: The offcuts: The area with bark inclusions is quite soft and splintery, and goes all the way through to the back. The inclusions themselves are more like pits in the timber where the grain becomes very coarse and pale, almost like balsa wood. Although I'd hate to waste this much timber, and I'm quite fond of the grain pattern up to the middle of the slab, the stability of the wood does seem a bit iffy. Any thoughts? Maybe CA to stabilise and clear epoxy to fill the voids? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Could that be dry rot? I'd agree though that it needs some form of stabilization. You'd almost have to build that aesthetic (the white spots) into the build somehow hahaha. Chris PS: What are the prices like for this stuff over there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 yeah,CA to stabilize.It looks like a mold of some type.CA will kill it and stop it from spreading.I would flood the entire piece with CA and go from there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Hopefully it'll darken and maybe even almost disappeared when wetted out by the CA? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Could that be dry rot? I'd agree though that it needs some form of stabilization. You'd almost have to build that aesthetic (the white spots) into the build somehow hahaha. Chris PS: What are the prices like for this stuff over there? yeah,CA to stabilize.It looks like a mold of some type.CA will kill it and stop it from spreading.I would flood the entire piece with CA and go from there Could be dry rot, but doesn't look like it's advancing through the piece like I'd expect some form of progressive decay to do. I'll try to take a close-up shot of it later on. Might also try CA-ing a small section of it to see how it behaves. PS: What are the prices like for this stuff over there? Not fantastic. It's quite rare down here. I probably paid too much for them, but I liked the look of them a lot. For the pair (about 900mm x 250mm x35mm each) I paid $500. That was after talking the guy down $100, but I believe he will sell to overseas customers. http://www.distinctivetimbers.com.au Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Hogging out the waste for the control cavity: Closeup of those pesky imperfections: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Oh man! That is beat up! I'd be inclined to seal it with as much thin CA as I could, and sooner rather than later if I ever planned to use it. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Wow. At first I thought that was some kind of fungal attack....and it may be, but there looks to be some bug work involved too. It would be interesting to see if you could clear out all the holes before you filled or stabilized them. Benedetto's worm holed top comes to mind. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Yeah, you can probably see why I was initailly reluctant to use those pieces. I'm not entirely convinced the wormholed look really fits with the rest of the figuring. You can see in one of those earlier pics where I've overlaid the body template that the wormholed section is all through the cutaway and upper bout. Because the holes go all the way through to the back they'd all be visible on the edges like swiss cheese once you cut the body outline. I'll keep the pieces anyway. There's heaps of decent timber in them for using on headplates, scarf accents and the like. It's just a shame I can't really use them for another set of tops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Control cavity cleaned up and pickup wiring channels routed: Glue-up. There's a body in there somewhere: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Jesus h christ. You' appear to be winning the "Clamp" game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 You can never have too many clamps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2013 Top trimmed to size: Neck under pressure. I've purposely made it short as I wanted the red myrtle stripe to only go as far as the scarf. There'll be a matching red myrtle accent in the scarf and the Tas blackwood will continue through on the headstock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2013 Bit of a gap in some of these shots, didn't have the camera with me for a lot of it unfortunately. Scarf clampage: Neck trimmed to shape: Trying out a new neck pocket jig. It's based off one I found in the september issue of Sustain Magazine. Will do any taper and width. Only thing it won't do easily is an angled neck pocket, but since I don't (yet) do builds that need angled pockets I can live without it. The one thing I really like about it is that I don't have to worry about using bits of string to line up the neck with the centreline of the body. Just clamp it up, measure the gap either side of the centreline at the back of the body between the two ends of the jig and twist it around until both gaps are equal. Clamp the jig around the neck: Tighten the thumbweels under the crossplate, fit the end stop and remove the neck: 20mm forstener bit to remove the excess: Route to the template: Done: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2013 Had to use the phone camera for these shots. Please excuse the shoddier than usual quality. While that's clamping it's time to get stuck into the final routing and shaping jobs on the body. Pickup cavities landed exactly where the wiring channels were run earlier: Trem cavity: Almost done: Time to carve: Rough carve nearly there: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted February 11, 2013 Report Share Posted February 11, 2013 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestvic Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Hmm, that's an awesome method for carving! I use the same router bit then carve it all with either a chisel or sander. I'm going to have to try that Spoke shave to cut some time out of the equation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 Headplate roughly cut and attached: Trimmed to size: Test fit for trussrod access. Decided to try a different method for accessing the trussrod nut. Rather than just routing a channel to the full length into the headstock, I've made the window in the headplate only big enough to insert the wrench instead. Much neater methinks: Headstock profile cut: Ready for position markers: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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