MKGBass Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 I've been workin on this for the past week...here's my current progress. The pics will probably only work for a little while as my server is out of room or something so i had to upload on a place with limited bandwidth. The intent of this is to make what the title says a PRS copy, its all measured out and spec'd from a real PRS. PRS Hate mail welcome EDIT: This is my first carved top instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 How are you doing the carve? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLS Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 Yeh i also wanna know how you did that carve, it looks real nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 Looks quite nice. Are you avouding the heel from hell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLS Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 Lets hope so. Im working on a PRS copy right now mainly for that reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 how thick of a top did you start off to carve from? care to give width and lengths too? t Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirit Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 looks very good, very clean carve. two thumbs up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 The carve was done essentially from Bob Benedettos book for archtop guitars... I drilled a series of concentric holes at descending depths from the portion that i wanted to stay flat in the middle, then i shaved off all the extra with a belt sander. After that, I went down with a pad sander to even things out (i still have a little of this to do). I am unfortunately not avoiding the heel from hell. I offered the guy buying to do so (along with offering him the traditional PRS curly maple top) and he declined. His cousin owns a jet black CE22...he wants it exactly the same. asm: I assume you mean like the width at the body curves, lengths to the horns..etc? If so I'll go ahead and draw something up for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 Here you go, I went ahead and put everything that I thought would be useful. These dimensions are from the actual guitar, as instead of measuring from a real PRS (my friends CE22) i just traced it for my template. The top was originally 7/8" If i had it, I would have used a 1" top and back, but alas, I did not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 thx bro! owe you one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renablistic Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 MKG, i have to give you two props... first, wonderful carve, no doubt... 2nd, that is a very wonderful measurement picture, one of the best ever, if i was building a prs, i could use that by it's self and get something very nice out of it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 MKG, that's sweet. Damn sweet! What's the overall thickness of the body at the thickest part? Ie., you have a 7/8" top, but how thick is the bottom piece? Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 Whoa, Mitch, that's SWEET! When are you going to start making the neck? Are you going to use the Dragon II pickups or something different? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 The guitar will eventually have DragonII Treble and Bass p/u, though we're not installing them. The guy preferred that we just put the Korean p/u in it and he'll put the Dragons in. I compared the size to the actual Dragon II's and it shouldnt require any extra routing. The neck is rough cut already, but I can do no more until the fingerboard and truss rod arrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 New Update! Finally got the fingerboard here and gluing! It's from StewMac and it is impeccable. Here's the neck rough cut and gluing. (notice the blaze orange paduak on the bench...pics of that neck next week.) In this second shot you can see the 'tongue' on the end of the neck after the heel. This is to expand the gluing portion of the neck and allow me to better adjust the neck angle. Everything is rough cut, tomorrow night i will size it up and shape it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 GregP...it took me awhile to post: The body on a real PRS is about 1 5/8 - 1 7/8" overall. The body on mine is just below that as I was not able to cut from full sized wood. Looks the same either way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Thanks for that. I ended up going with a 2" thick overall, 'cause I didn't know any better. It'll look a bit thinner because most people focus on the thickness at the edge, and it'll be a carved top. When I get around to making a PRS, this thread'll be mucho handy. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krizalid Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Is it 2" with the tops on or without the top? BTW, thanks for the diagram. it sure'll help me a lot on my next project of PRS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Mine? Mine's not a PRS copy, but to answer the question, it's 2" thick at the thickest point, so that's including the main chunk of limba AND the maple top before carving. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Tonight I got a lot accomplished, and it made me happy First, I unclamped all my clamps to reveal the nice fingerboard. Next I glued in the fret markers (this was my first time, sadly there were mistakes! ) Then I profiled and shaped the neck (shown here in one huge step!) FINALLY, I size the neck joint and did a test fit! Looks satisfactory thus far... The nasty discoloration is a thin stain that I put on to help me see any imperfections in the shaping of the top. Oops, forgot this...base coat layer of tung oil (will probably sand all of it off) Goodnight! Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Good stuff, Mi-atch. I'll be rather interested to see how this one turns out! About the tung oil-- do you mean that it'll likely get sanded off during the process and you'll need to re-apply, or you didn't like the feel of it and you're going to sand it off on purpose? Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boggs Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Takes a lot of cojones to make a neck... more than i have for sure! My hat's off to ya, man! Great work! Boggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Looking good.. only thing I can see that might give you some problems is the truss rod access, Is it gonna be wide enough so you can even adjust it at all? The reason I'm saying this is because it's alot easier to route before you install the truss rod than to chisel it out later. Anyway, the neck looks good, is it gonna be a bolt-in or set neck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Great work!!! I can't believe the progress you've made - awesome! I never really paid that much attention to the way PRS guitars (and possibly Gibson?) are constructed. There is so little room for attaching the neck - it just doesn't look right. I know you did it exactly to the specs but what I'm saying is - the specs seem hard to believe. Does the neck extend into the pickup cavity or does it just stop at the pickup cavity? Anyway - great job - keep the pics comming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Greg: The tung oil on there now is just a base coat really. I usually throw a finish on (i sanded to 400 grit), then I start back again with 60 and do the whole process over again, until i build several layers of the oil finish. Guitarfrenzy: The truss access is ok, it seems small, but it is the same size and depth as the one on the PRS I copied it from. You just have to use the short end of the wrench. Its going to be a set neck. I was very worried about finding and testing the correct neck angle. In Bob Benedetto's archtop book he shows a jig he made to measure the neck angle so that it was 1" off the surface at the bridge. I've modified this so that I can measure the neck angle off the real PRS between the pickups, then copy it onto mine. It's hard to explain, I'll see if I can make a diagram. I also may be able to lighty fit strings on it before I glue to make sure the angle is OK. The neck joint is extremely tight right now (I'll probably sand a little off, I have to lightly tap the neck in with a rubber hammer), and I might be able to fit the strings on and add a slight amount of tension so that i can check the angle. Dave: If you look at the first pics you can see that the neck pocket stops at the pickup cavity. I had originally thought that I was going to have to work with the 1" of space there was. I then realized that it would be smart to create a little "tongue" (you can see it in one of the clamped pictures) that extends into the pickup cavity, but remains underneath. This way I have more gluing space, and I can more easily adjust the neck angle. At first I was wary of this, but after doing some looking, I've seen that other people have done it as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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