Official Luthiers Forum!

I am showing this near exact replica I made of a 1959 Dot Neck ES 335. The plates are laminated similar to the original as are the sides with radial sliced maple veneer. Same stuff as Gibby used in the old days at Parsons street in Kalamazoo.

The hard part is getting it to look exactly the same.

On the left is my body, on the right is a 1959 blonde.

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Ken

that is certainly perty, keep posting up photos as you go along i'll be anxious to learn how you go about completing it.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Oh, that's lovely! Just about my favourite gitar. Do you have pictures of its "guts"?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Very nice! A friend of mine just came over with his new CS336 and I almost wouldn't give it back to him. I'd love to see a build thread if you've been documenting it. Love those semi-hollows!

Thanks everyone. If you have any questions I can answer them.

Here are some under the hood photos. It is built like an acoustic guitar with kerfing but there is a solid block going from neck to tail. There is a brace that connects the plates to the center brace called the contour brace. It is made easy to fit by kerfing its lenght. This is the way Gibson did it. This would be a weak brace if it were not for the fact that it can't break as it is sandwiched in between the plate and block. The sides are laminated to shape and are very stiff.

It is a great design with a tinge of hollowbody jazz guitar sound yet with the sustain of a 'paul.

I won't be showing the rest of the build because this body is going out the door for another builder to finish.

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Ken

Nice!
I wanted to build one of those with a wider nut.
Those had such narrow ones, and I like wider ones.
That's why I started building guitars in da first place!
Ha!!!!!!

Thanks for that picture! So, the contour brace is kerfed along its length and will flex enough to conform to the shape of the cross section of the plates, correct? That means you only have to worry about fitting it along "one curve", so to speak. I can see how that would make things a lot easier than fitting that whole thing to the contour of the inside... interesting! I'm guessing that after fitting the contour brace, you would have to level that with the edge of the plates, and the central block with the top (and bottom) of the rim, and everything will line up?

Anecdote: I recently made a Gretsch style arctop electric, with "trestle bracing". I fitted its top the same way you (and Gibson, apparently) do it, but that is not how Gretsch do (did?) it. Judging from pictures I've seen, they fit a pair of "contour braces to the top, glue the trestles to those, and use shims to fit their "feet" to the bottom. Looks messy!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Arnt,

Do I detect a 335 maker in the making?

Yes your are right about the contour brace. I have made several of these style guitars and have a router jig to flatten the brace even with the plate bottom. However usually I just grab a hand plane and a flat board to check it. I hate routers.

Yea the Gretsch innerds are pretty messy. I think that is the whole Rock-A-Billy vibe. Actually ES 335's and the other Gibsons of this style are a bit hastily made with glue dripping in the kerfing and other signs of quick factory work.

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Ken

Yup, someone has asked me to build a slightly smaller 335 of sorts for them. It will be solid woods though, I'm not set up for laminating plates.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

That should be a fun project Arnt. Email me if you would like my .pdf tutorial on how to build a thinline guitar, not that you need it... or anyone else for that matter.

A few more random shots. One showing how I cut the binding ledge.

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Ken

kenmckay(at)hotmail.com

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Ken

Lookin' good Ken.
Do you have any more pics of your routing for the binding?
You got me thinking about a good way for me to do that.
I don't have a jig for that,
not enough shop space,
but I could attach a router under my workbench, and remove it when done.
How do you support the rest of the git?
How ya gonna finish that one?
I like blonds!

Alan,

If the rims are flat, i.e. on the same plane then you can use this set up. It has spool clamps that are spring loaded so they can be easily moved around and out of the way to rout the binding ledge. The body must sit on the doughnut firmly and should be pressed DOWN and IN to make it cut evenly. If the spool clamps get too close to the doughnut I have noticed that I might get a slightly narrow slot. So I keep them spaced apart and away from the doughnut and move them frequently. The spool clamps and the doughnut are the exact same height. Make sure you have a very flat surface like this one. Make this type of pressed hard board with the doughnut glued on to be removable. Just screw it or clamp it down to your table top where the router bit protrudes.

This is a photo of a different guitar, a tele-335 hybrid of my design, but same idea.

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Ken

Thank you Ken!
I want to build more Weiss styles,
and that method should work for me.
Gotta do some major thinking about setting it up.
I really like that tele-type you made.

Ken thanks for posting these as well as the pdf's. I am assuming from all the photos there are no rear access panels. Sooo...how do you get the pots and switches in the guitar? Do you by chance have a series of photos showing that?

Mike

Thanks Alan, If your top is flat I would just use a router with a bearing guided bit and ride it on your top. It should work fine I think.

Turmite, I don't have photos but there are some videos on youtube I think. Gibson did it through the f-holes for 50 years and has it down to a simple operation. It is not really that difficult once you get your parts together. I use dentil floss to pull the pots up through the holes. First put the string into the hole and back out through the ff hole. Then tie it to your pot shaft and put the wire harness into f hole. Pull the strings and guide the pots to their destinations using the strings, your fingers and maybe a magill forcept, (hah, funny I remember the name of that tool from my hospital days). When you make your harness of wires use a piece of cardboard with exact placement of holes. Fun stuff and it separates the mamby pamby luthiers from the super dexterous super luthiers.

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Ken

TV Jones (who makes great pickups, too) uses flexible plastic tubes that fit inside the holes for the pots (pot holes? ), and fit these over the pot shafts. It makes pulling the wiring harness in and out of place a very smooth operation. Of course, on guitars that are hollow under the pickups, you have much better access... There is a video clip on his web site.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Arnt, Do you have a sound sample of your Gretsch style guitar? I really like that one. How does it sound to you.

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Ken

Hi Ken, sorry for not checking back sooner. No, I don't have a sound clip of that guitar handy, but I can tell you that it sounds a lot like a Gretsch when amplified... Its pretty resonant acousticly, but with lots of sustain, which means, among other things, that of course its more difficult to handle on a loud stage. Its certainly got its own voice, and its not a Les Paul! I like it a lot, what can I say?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Those Gretsch types have a life of their own don't they.

Feel free to show us a photo here in this thread.

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Ken

Since you ask...

I know some of you folks here at OLF have seen these pictures on MIMF or TLC already, but here are the pictures of the finished thing. (The whole "build thread", with pictures of its guts and things, can be found here: http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX?128@52.Xhrzal1gHWN.46@.2cb6db83)

Front:








Closup








Back







Closeup








Headstock

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Love it, Love it Love it!!!

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Ken

Geez...beautiful stuff Ken and Arnt!!!

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Some of my work



[img][img]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151046911602734&set=a.10150587557122734.383032.653982733&type=1&relevant_count=1[/img][/img]
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 9814_n.jpg
A 64 block neck replica.

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Ken

Arnt
Id love to check out the build doc - but the page link you posted doesnt seem to work for me

http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX?128@52 ... @.2cb6db83

Is it just my machine?
cheers
charliewood