Finished Pics! impmann's Alembic-esque Electric

WezV

I think you would get away with a 4+2 arrangement.  

Not sure how they ever managed to protect it.  The bass I am currently refinishing has a 3+1 layout true to its 60's teisco inspiration.  The guitar versions are 4+2 and pre-date musicman by a couple of decades.   

impmann

I'm not very keen on the 4 + 2 arrangement - it looks lobsided/wonky. Sorry!

I think I'm coming down in favour of a three by three but I'm open to suggestions!! :-)

Andyjr1515

impmann said:

I'm not very keen on the 4 + 2 arrangement - it looks lobsided/wonky. Sorry!

I think I'm coming down in favour of a three by three but I'm open to suggestions!! :-)

To be honest, that's where I was heading @impmann , but it's interesting what is allowed to be trade-marked - and with trade-marks the pre-existence test that applies to Patents doesn't seem, from what I personally can see, to follow the same legal rules or rigour.  I'm pretty sure, @WezV, that you are right and 4+2's existed before they were trade-marked, but equally certainly, makers appear to be ordered to desist on a fairly regular basis up to and including 2017 (Reg'd TM 74044289).  It's why I always check!

Andyjr1515

Oh - and the terms "4+2" and "3+1" certainly ARE trademarks of Ernie Ball Inc which I duly acknowledge and promise not to use again...

WezV

Well if you ever do want to do one the most that will happen is a cease and desist letter.  Obviously if you kept making them for sale after that there might be more severe consequences


The musicman headstock is essentially just a shorter version of the teisco spectrum one.  They are both an attempt to not copy fender too closely, but that is clearly the inspiration.  They both have a distinctive beak

Andyjr1515

This is a great hobby if you like playing air guitar

Well, certainly if you shape necks like I do.  Once I've got the neck profile in the right broad territory, I then go more by feel. 
That means lots of 'scrape a bit of wood off, sit down and play the stringless guitar like the eponymous Hero' stuff

This is especially the case for the neck-heel.  I don't like the sudden arrival of your fretting hand with the body and with slim bodies there are often more opportunities for avoiding them.

It is, of course a compromise because if you just taper the neck thickness, it starts feeling very club-like very quickly on the upper frets.  Hence the 'scrape and try' approach.

In terms of the basic transition, it's starting to get there:


Once I'm happy with the position and angle of the taper, I will extend the lower horn carve actually into the neck and also soften the body/neck transition to a curve rather than an edge

Andyjr1515

@impmann and I have agreed the shape of the headstock and I've managed to slice another sliver of the camphor laurel as the headstock plate:



(sorry it's a bit skewiff on the second photo - it won't be on the real thing   )

It will have a carved cutaway exposing the neck wood laminations a bit like the piccolo bass I built for band member Pete:

Andyjr1515

While I make progress on the headstock, I'm continuing to creep up on the heel carve.  I need to flatten the neck depth taper at the upper frets a touch and remove the lumps, bumps and sharp edges, but this is the direction I'm heading in:


Although there is a fairly standard cutaway on the lower horn, as seen from the front, this extra carving at the back makes a big, big difference to the feel at the top frets by removing the wood that normally presses against the side of your hand.

Next job is adding a couple of wings to the headstock and glue on the headstock plate

Andyjr1515

Headstock wings and plate now glued on, ready for sanding and drilling:


Definitely starting to look like a guitar...

Legionreturns

Is it just my eyes or does that fretboard look really wide?

Beautiful...but wide! 

Andyjr1515

Legionreturns said:

Is it just my eyes or does that fretboard look really wide?

Beautiful...but wide! 

It has around 3mm to come off (1.5mm each side) at the nut.  I'm a bit weird the way I do necks.  I'll sort the volute and then scrape down from the body to the finished width as part of the final shaping.  I work on the basis that you can always take more material off but you can't put it back on

What is surprising is that tiny bit of extra squareness shows quite markedly when there are no other distractions.

Andyjr1515

Andyjr1515 said:

Legionreturns said:

Is it just my eyes or does that fretboard look really wide?

Beautiful...but wide! 

It has around 3mm to come off (1.5mm each side) at the nut.  I'm a bit weird the way I do necks.  I'll sort the volute and then scrape down from the body to the finished width as part of the final shaping.  I work on the basis that you can always take more material off but you can't put it back on

What is surprising is that tiny bit of extra squareness shows quite markedly when there are no other distractions.

It's also a bit the angle of the shot - this doesn't show it as much:

Legionreturns

Weird! It definitely doesn't look the same at that angle! Amazing looking guitar though. How far off finishing are you? I wanna see shiny pics and sound clips!

Andyjr1515

The plan (don't tell @impmann though just in case he gets too excited) is that this week sees the finish of the neck carve (including volute and heel) and fretting - so basically the build.  Then on to the final finishing (probably about 3 weeks to fully harden enough to polish, but towards the end of that should be handle-able enough to install electrics / bridge etc.)

So we're looking early to mid November, all being well.

impmann

You want to? Imagine how I’m feeling!!! ;-)

Legionreturns

impmann said:

You want to? Imagine how I’m feeling!!! ;-)

Indeed! You're a fortunate man! You'd better pass me that gold top as you're clearly never going to need it again  

Andyjr1515

Neck carve pretty much complete.  Bit of tweaking of the volute shape at this stage, but I actually do the final final final carve tweaks once it's all fretted and strung up - then I find you can REALLY feel what's going on when you play it (just cabinet scraper tweaks at that stage), but this is close enough to finish the volute, do the sanding of the whole neck and get on to fretting it   :



By the way, thanks for the continued feedback and encouragement, folks.  Always hugely appreciated
 

impmann

Wow that looks amazing!

Andyjr1515

impmann said:

Wow that looks amazing!

Phew (again)

Legionreturns

Andyjr1515 said:

impmann said:

Wow that looks amazing!

Phew (again)

One of these days he'll come on here and say "Oh...actually that bit's a bit rubbish" just to see what happens