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Custom Electric Guitars |
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I seem to need to complicate things. I built the Les Paul, or Les Dragon, and wanted to try to build a Strat-Style guitar. I have never liked the giant plastic pick guard, however, nor the utilitarian sheet metal bridge/saddle assemblies used on most Strats, Teles, and their look-alikes. So I decided to make some radical looking double cut-aways, and incorporate some of the building styles of the Les Paul, with carving in the top, a different style of bridge, a drop top with a wiring channel, and no pick guard....utilizing mounting rings for the pickups. I had some big ideas, but was short on knowledge and experience. The following photos and descriptions may be enlightening, humorous, or a lesson to those trying to do some of the same things. Some things worked, many of them didn't, and as of March 09, all of the guitars are still works in progress. |
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I started building some of these guitars using some scraps of what is called Brazilian Teak and Ipe. I figured both were very hard, though heavy, and the guitars would have some KILLER sustain, with some rich undertones. I just about killed every tool I had. The first time I tried to cut Ipe, my saw sparked, and I knew I was in trouble. I made the back out of the Ipe, and hollowed out as much as I could. I made two tops, one with the diagonal stripes, and another with a diamond checkerboard pattern. Lots of cutting and sanding to get to the right size, and to get a good join. Once the guitars were shaped to the double cutaway design, even hollowed out, they were 45 lbs a piece. As hard is the stuff was, there was no way I was going to hand carve the bodies to the shape I wanted, and to be able to remove enough material to reduce weight. They were scrapped. |
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I then tried to do the same thing in maple and mahogany. the design was sound, and the wood was fantastic. I made the strips and the squares the same way as before, and made the top. the guitars were thick, but I wanted to carve a lot of radii into the top and back. I did all the carving, and then realized I had no way to hold any of the pick up or neck routing templates flat on the guitar. Not to mention the face that I wanted to complicate the outer edge, and create a ledge or gutter before the binding. |
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Looking at the picture to the right, you can see there is a 1/4" space between the edge of the top and the edge of the guitar. I like the idea, but for some reason, have not been very good at executing it. I was also doing this before I had a jointer, and the glue joints between the different woods was not very good. I ended up having to fill in the gaps with sawdust....an old but effective trick.
While I was working on these guitars, I got some advice from a person who admired what I was trying to do, but hinted at the trouble I would end up having. Maple and Mahogany shrink at drastically different rates as they age, and the joints between them would start to show witness lines, and eventually gaps where they separate. I ended up having to pause on these guitars while I built the Lion & the Lamb, and left the bodies in the garage over the winter. The checkerboard popped apart, so it made a very nice bonfire. The striped one began to show gaps between the stripes. I will continue to work on it merely for the exercise of doing so, but do not have very high hopes for it. It's too bad, the wood figure is spectacular,. and difficult to see in this photo. |
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On all of the electrics, I have tried to save some weight on the guitar, and possibly effect the sound of the guitar by creating resonance chambers. I simply take a forstner bit and hog out a lot of material in areas that are inconsequential to the structure of the guitar. I then smooth them out with a router. I'll let you know how it works out when I actually finish one, but I can actually save about 35% weight form these guitars using this method. |
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I have also been building a single cutaway using similar ideas. This one is proceeding much more smoothly, but not without its share of difficulties. Again, the grain pattern is very striking. I am not sure what moved me to use the stripe up the middle of the guitar, but it looks good to me. This picture shows me fitting one of my custom necks. It needs to fit far better, but we'll get to that later. |
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After hearing the bad news about the maple and mahogany, I started over again with figured maple and wenge (or so I thought). They both had similar hardness and shrinkage characteristics, and had the high contrast I was looking for, and machine very very well. I used the same methods as before, but created much thinner stripes, and joined them as well. The glue-up went very well, with no gaps visible at all, and minimal work to level the top of the guitar. |
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To make the checkerboard this time, I didn't glue the blocks individually. I made a sheet of strips of wood glued together, and planed so they were all even and level. Then, I cross-cut the sheet, and glued the strips down staggered to create the checkerboard effect. Again, after the strips were joined to create perfectly square and equal sized pieces, they glued up well. |
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While planing and sanding the wood, however, I noticed these oily spots in the wenge that turned yellow when heated by friction, or when doused with naphtha or other solvents. I went back to my supplier, and learned that I had mistakenly grabbed Panga Panga, rather than wenge. The two woods are similar, but Panga Panga has natural silicone deposits in the wood that do not come out, and make finishing a nightmare. I continued to build them, but another few guitars that will probably never see strings. |
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On either side of the guitars above, you can see some necks I have been building. I have been using typical procedures to make laminated necks, but because of the difference between the mahogany and the maple, I will have the same problems as with the guitars. Again, I will end up using these guitars and necks as practice for creating a well-made scarf joint, neck carving, and other such activities.
I started a pair of double cutaways made from Mahogany, Padauk, Maple, and with either wenge or ebony, and am very excited about how they will turn out. |
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I started by creating the back pieces by edge-gluing some mahogany together to create 13" wide blanks. I traced the shape of the guitar from a template to both sides of the back piece. These are going to be Strat-like double cutaways. both identical (one for me, and one not....). Rather than using a big plastic pick guard, however, I am using a drop-top style of construction, which makes the strat-style pickups a little difficult. I have to build this much like my Les Dragon, and use some special pick-up rings I have found for building this way. I skipped taking pictures of this part, but I routed the wire way into the back, and then started to glue on the drop top in sections. First, the maple center strip. The second step was gluing the dark contrast stripe, Macassar Ebony on one guitar, and Wenge on the other. The last stage was the padouk, which is just a beautiful piece of wood. I have some for acoustics as well, and just can't wait to use it. |
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In the two pictures above, the guitars have been routed for both the pickups and the neck pockets, and then the shape cut out on a band saw. The edges have been sanded to some extent, but still require a little shaping to ensure good smooth curves. After that, then I will need to route out the control pocket, then round over all the edges of the guitar. once that has been done, it will be onto the neck, and then finishing! |
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Custom Electric Guitars
