Official Luthiers Forum!

Here's some shots of #2. I say #2 but it's one of four nearing completion. The customer wanted straplocks so that's all that left on this one...waiting on a drill bit..lol.

Some sound clip here.... http://www.recordingproject.com/bbs/vie ... hp?t=40149

These guitars are fabricated entirely with cnc equipment.

Body woods are spaulted, curly big leaf maple over sapele.
Headstock facing is curly maple.
Truss cover is bloodwood, hard maple, and toasted maple.
Logo is Wenge, toasted maple, and bloodwood.
Neck is laminated sapele, peruvian walnut, and hard rock maple.
Fretboard is polished cocobolo with hard maple/toasted maple position markers.

Tuners are Gotoh 510's.

Pickups are Seymour Duncan SHPR-2....P-Rails. I discarded the pickup base and made those pickup housings. The pickup is potted into the housing. This is nice
for two reasons. 1. I hate the gaps in standard pickup rings...it looks untidy. This is tidy. 2. The entire pickup, except for the plastic facing is now surrounded by a grounded housing....very quiet.

The bridge is my design. Solid brass. There is no sharp bend along the string track which reduces string breakage and allows for pretty significant, no worry bends.

The body is highly chambered with nine discreet, sealed chambers, all of varying size and shape. My theory is that as isolated resonating entities, the peak resonate frequency will be different in each chamber. Thus any propensity to resonate can only result in an amplitude of 1/9 the potential of a single large chamber. In essence this means an even output over the frequency band...and it should cut way down on feedback at stage volumes.

The guitar weighs 5.75 lbs....pretty light.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

and

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Nicely done. I really like your pickup rings!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Really nice, Stuart!

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http://www.casperguitar.com

I like it more than your first one,
particularly in the wood selection.
Really fine guitar, Stuart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is SHARP. Real contemporary and smooth looking. Reminds me of very classy office furniture.

Just an amazing engineering process!

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Wisdom is justified by her children

Thanks guys.

I'd misplaced this shot of the chambers. Both halves have matching chambers and the body is glued together using epoxy along the edges of those rails. If you listen to the clips...you get a nice punchy musical tone. Hard, full chords are clear with a bite when you get the amp set up just right. I'm putting it through a big Vox Valvetronics and it's great but I think it would really sing on a Mesa Boogie....with that open driven tone.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Wow! Intricate stuff.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Very nice! Looks great.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Stuart, I just visited your sound-clap site.
Very cool music!!!!!

Your voice reminds me just a little bit of Ray Davies.
Great recordings!

Super clean. Hard to look away. Very attractive instrument. What, may I ask, do your switches do?

Really dig the pickup rings, you should patent it and manufacture them. They'd sell like hotcakes!

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I like that!

The large switch is a three way that is wired just like a Les Paul.....neck, bridge, and both. I mount it sideways so you throw the switch in the direction of the p/u(s) you want.

The dip switches are also three position switches that allow you to select either the P-90 coil, the rail coil, or both, in which case the pickup is a humbucker. These switches are also mounted sideways to create a graphical representation of which coils are being used.

With all the switches on the center setting you are using both p/u's and both coils on each p/u.
Leaving the large three way in the middle...if you pull both dip switches inwards you are using both p/u's but only the rails.
Throw the dips outward and you are using both P-90's.

There are no tone knobs. Those are volume for each p/u.

This scheme gives a tremendous variety of sounds and output available at your fingertips. The optimal setup is to set up the amp so that there's a tiny bit of drive when using both pups but only one coil each...then when you need crunchy you flip to humbucker mode on one or both pups.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Beautiful guitar! I love the spalted maple. What do you use for finish? That puppy is shiny!!

How do you attach the neck? I have been meaning to ask that each time I look at one of your guitars, but I always forget because I am easily distracted by shiny things.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I just listened to the clip and the guitar sounds great! Your playing is excellent as well. I only hope you are ugly as sin so there is at least something I have going for me that you dont!!
Really though, 10 plus on all fronts sir.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I was wondering about the neck to body joint as well..

The spaulted area is filled and sealed with Zpoxy. The rest of the guitar is pore filled with Mohawk sanding sealer, which involved spraying several coats and sanding them pretty much all the way back. Then 8 coats of Mohawk Classic Musical Instrument lacquer one hour apart..no sanding between coats. Mohwak is the exact same thing as Behlen...made by the same company. I use about 20% reducer and a tad of retarder.

Leveled with 600, then 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, then medium compound on the buffing wheel...then fine compound.

The neck has a simple tongue at the joint and the body a simple cavity that recieves the tongue.

On the end of the tongue a 3/16" diameter hole is drilled to a 1" depth. A 3/16" x 2" stud is epoxied into this hole.

On the body a 3/16" diameter hole is drilled from the tongue cavity through to the neck pickup cavity.

When the neck is set into position the end of the stud is accessible in the pickup cavity where a washer and nut is affixed. This serves as a gluing clamp that draws the tongue to the body when the nut is tightened.

This is a little harder to do than it sounds because the stud and nut may not interfere with the pickup when it's mounted...so pockets need to be prepared to account for this space. But the system really works well to minimizes the joint line.

I'll try to remember to get some pics of this next time I do some bodies.

_________________
I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Sorry man....devilishly handsome.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Bastard!!

You definitely need to post pics of the neck joint process. Is it something you came up with? I thought the neck might be glued on only but I could not figure out exactly how. The bolt explains a bunch. Your explanation explained a bunch too.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Beautiful guitar there Stuart i see it has your home made bridge on it very nicely done..

Stuart,

I've been following your posts here for a while. The guitar is incredible and your CNC work tremendous. But, I aspire to one day be devilishly handsome.

Danny R. Little

Here's a couple shots of the self contained neck gluing clamp I described earlier. The stud is first epoxied into the neck. Then, when gluing the neck to the body, the nut is tigthened which draws the neck and body together. I've done this four times and the glue line is quite refined on all of them. This works very well.

The two drilling fixtures are also shown. One is for drilling the endhole in the neck tongue. The other sets in the neck pocket on the body and positions the hole that goes through into the pickup cavity. Note the recesses that allow room for the stud and the nut in the pickup cavity.

I use epoxy to glue the neck because it has a long open time and that allows all excess to squeeze out prior to set. During that time I look it over a couple of times and use a q-tip to clean off excess epoxy.

_________________
I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

I don't know much about solid bodies or chambered solid bodies, but what's not to like about this beauty?
I think those cream colored pickups are the perfect visual compliment to these wood choices. Man, if they sound anything like they look, this is one sexy guitar!!!

I put a link to a sound clip in the opening post.

_________________
I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

"The dip switches are also three position switches that allow you to select either the P-90 coil, the rail coil, or both, in which case the pickup is a humbucker. These switches are also mounted sideways to create a graphical representation of which coils are being used."

I like that. Almost educational in a way. I like my wirings to be pretty straightforward like that. If you have more than three switches, you will also have a learning curve, and probably some criticism.

I've been wanting to do a diagram kind of like this, the standard wirings just don't give me enough to play with. Still deciding on what to do for my cocobolo guitar, I've got one switch and four knobs. Kind of been wanting to play with a series/parallel blend like you see on some of David Myka's guitars.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com