Official Luthiers Forum!

The acoustic section does these threads,
so I thought I'd start one here!
Anyway, I just replaced a stock pickup, and re-soldered some open grounds (3!),
on a 60's Harmony Rocket for a friend.
I thought it would sound like poo-poo,
but, it sounds great!
Weird wiring on those........
So, what git stuff are you doing?

Sanded out some remaining saw marks on the side of my body, and prepped a neck and truss rod for truss rod installation (single action rod). Tomorrow I should be ready to glue my mahogany wings onto the curly maple neck of the neck-thru tele that I working on!

I posted this in my build thread, but I finally was able to finish up my template and get a body routed out (cavities and profile)



This was my first routing experience, but I figured since this guitar is going to have that "lived-in" look, I'd just go for it . It turned out pretty good. I still need to set up a template for the neck pocket, but other than that, the big stuff is done. I'm still contemplating how to finish it. I'm hesitant to even sand the top because I don't want to lose the patina and character, but it is pretty rough feeling. Any thoughts?

Also, my 7 year old wanted a wooden sword to play with, so I figured I'd start learning how to use my rasp and files by hand-carving him a Chinese saber. I'm going to carve my own neck for the tele, so I thought this would be a good learning experience. I started with a chunk of walnut and began working on the hilt.

This is a shot just shortly after I started


And here it is after a little more work


Not bad for a first effort. Still a lot to do on it, but he's pretty excited that I've begun working on it

Planning out some ideas for an all-scraps Pallet-Caster. Telecaster made from (mainly) pallets that I found with some nice planks on it (curly maple and cherry). Today I picked up some thick blocks of what I believe to be pine that I plan to use for the body. It would've taken a long time and a lot of effort to make a body solely from pallets, although I will use the main beam of a pallet for the middle of the body because the pine blocks are a tad shy of the width I will need. I've got a maple main beam and another wood that I cannot identify that looks nice. I figured the maple may impart better tone than the pine. I've also got a nice quartersawn piece of maple (at least I'm 85% sure it's maple) that was literally stapled to a pallet that happens to be an almost perfect neck blank. It is a little bit on the thin side, but I figured I'd just keep it that way and mabe glue a little bit of heel on it for support. Might not need it though.

So the plan goes like this:

Pine body with maple or (unknown) center stripe
Several planks of curly maple for the top
Maple neck with curly cherry board
Parts from a junk Squier Strat (I may leave the tuners and get ones that work properly)

I'll be having a lot of fun with this one. I'm gonna leave the nail holes in the top planks for character.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Sounds like an interesting build chameleon, be sure to post some pictures when you start!

Just finished this one, two weeks from start to finish (including finishing ). Never again!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Replaced all the guts in a Jackson and set it up, then dressed the frets and set upanother Jackson. Tomorrow I shall refret a Taylor with stainless steel, and Sunday I have 1 fret dress/setup, and another refret planned

If I have time, I'll make a sword for myself in between jobs, that looks like fun!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

That's a very pretty instrument, Arnt. How do you finish and polish the sharp corners on a peghead like that? I don't have much to show at the moment. Yesterday I started roughing out a template for a tenor banjo head stock, and then rather impulsively started bending mandolin sides, too.

I have started on another DC, this time with a quilted maple top:

Wow!
Nice work everybody!
Please bore us with photos, Chris.
Nice Tele. Is that fir?
2 weeks!
Gotta love koa.

Thanks, Alan. I'm not sure what it is. I think it's pine. I salvaged it from an old church.

here's a baritone body i'm working on. just some crappy fir or pine from a home improvement store, with some thin(3/8") aspen plank on the back for added thickness(i don't have a planer so getting the right thickness is tricky).
the neck(also scratch built) is 28" scale, the bridge is generic tele

Made the ultimate Poor-man's, Rich-man's workbench. Ruler flat, stows away nicely behind the ironing board, and glue cleanup is a cinch.
Picked it up from the marble/granite store scrap pile. $40.