The world of Wez :)

Andyjr1515

Very nice, @WezV  

WezV

a little post about buying wood....

When i started building guitars about 13 years ago I had convinced myself i needed to hand select wood from a proper luthier supply.

This lead to a trip to craft supplies in miller dale by bus to hand select some wood.  I arrived to be told the guitar woood was stored at a farm a few miles down the road... long walk later I had my wood, and a 6 mile walk back to buxton carrying it to get a bus home.  This was the reality of buying decent guitar wood 13 years ago.

The wood i got was great, but came with the caveat that you need to be good with a plane.... it was not ready to make a guitar.

I used various wood sources for the next few years before giving David Dyke a call.  Finally i realised i could trust someone else to select bloody good wood for me, and I have never had a duff peice from him even though I was not selecting it myself.... but I mainly use David dyke for "normal" guitar wood.  I know if I need red alder, swamp ash, south american mahogany, indian rosewood or ebony I can order from him without needing to see the wood myself.  In fairness to David i still have not paid him a visit to see the more exotic stuff for myself.  i know he stocks it but its not the kind of thing i am willing to buy without a visit (even though larry davis from gallery hardwoods in the US has had a lot of my money over the years for showpeice stock)

anyway, i had noticed a seller on ebay called sherwin timbers.  I notieced they stocked a lot of wood with the word "luthier" attached which made me suspicious.  Are they just selling hardwood of the right size and claiming it will make nice guitars?   I have been following the seller for a few years without ordering.  I noticed they listed wood i don't consider guitar woods such as iroko, but still put the word "luthier" on them, this put me off for quite a while.

I finally decided to place an order...  they charge just under £30 for a Meranti body blank, the pics are uninspiring

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Guitar-Body-Blanks-Ash-Tulipwood-Sapele-Meranti-2-3-PIECE-UNGLUED-/171720435279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27fb55e64f

I know Bob from Legra guitars raved about Dark Red Meranti so i decided to give it a go.  I purposely avoided the american ash and poplar (lime, basswood), common guitar woods that might not meet the David Dyke standard

WezV

so here is the little package

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsqvnwb68g.jpg

notice its all planed up nicely and square - unlike the "guitar" wood i brought from craft supplies 13 years ago.

Here we have:

1x american maple neck blank £13 - perfectly flat sawn and would be better stock than seen on most USA fenders

1x douglas fir neck blank. £11.50 -   I want to try some "softwood" necks.  this is 85% quarter sawn, totally clear from defects and has a tap tone to make me do a sex wee

1x DRM neck blank. £21.75 - perfectly quartersawn and I will probably get two necks from it, darker and heavier than the body blanks, but that is fine for a neck

2x DRM body blanks - £29.50 each.  both much nicer than the stock photo.  the first has nice streaking and flame, weighs about 7lb so expect 3 1/2lb body without trying,  other is plainer but weighs just over 6lb.  both have great tap tone and will make light weight guitars

1x idigbo mantle  - £30.   this is big enough for an explorer or flying V with a center join, it is also know as korina/limba (terminalia ivorensis).  its a little heavy in its current size/thickness but will make a guitar of average weight.   its pretty much flawless, which is unusual for idigbo as I am used to pin hole sized knots throughout.   its not as good as the proper korina  or black limba(terminalia superba)  I have had from David Dyke and Larry Davis, but its better than the  idigbo I have had from other sources which still made great guitars

anyway, A good result and better wood than i expected... but i am still nervous about them listing Oak and Iroko  as luthier wood???

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/sherwintimber

Andyjr1515

You've reminded me of this supplier, @WezV.  Bought a sapele body blank from them some time ago and was well pleased with the quality that arrived...then promptly forgot about them until your post 

WezV

I avoided the sapele because I know it can vary massively I have been burnt ordering it from ebay before (far too heavy, dull tone, possibly not fully dry and ready)

But yeah, I would be more trusting of the seller after this little lot

WezV

got one of the dark red maranti body blanks glued up

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps41n2oku1.jpg

it looks too narrow here, but it isn't.   I have started making templates for my Zemaitis inspired build and that's what I drew around here - but these are not the finished templates yet.   for reference the blank is 13 1/4" wide so will easily fit most normal guitar builds.... very happy with this wood so far.

So yeah, its going to be a Z-style metal top... but I am already departing from the Zemaitis  clone route with a 2-piece body that isn't mahogany.... there will be further deviations along the way

I also got the semi all glued up and binding channels routed.  the cover is just sitting in place here, doesn't quite fit yet and may get rebound as its not perfect

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsjbjpmrlf.jpg

glued an offcut of ample inside to hold the cover

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsgeqnsezy.jpg

decided 1 f-hole was plenty - probably going to have a fancy pickguard on the other side

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsootzfbqp.jpg

DartmoorHedgehog

Very nice!

Obas

Interesting stuff - how are you going to approach cutting the metal top ??

WezV

I did this recently as a bit of preliminary work, and have done plates before

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps3f402698.jpg

I made a template for the guard shape, cut it very close to shape with the bandsaw (I keep a blade spare for cutting aluminium) then finished it off on the spindle sander.   the engraving was done with a dremel rotary and was my first attempt at anything like this.  I have since been practicing with the rotary dremel and a reciprocating dremel engraver too, and some hand tools.

I will be using 1.5mm aluminium sheet.  the Zemaitis will need a bevelled edge too which i may do by hand

Andyjr1515

Wow - if that's your first attempt....blimey.  Looking super-cool  >-

WezV

it was just for proof of concept really... firstly, could i get okay results with tools i had.  secondly, if i could get okay results with the wrong tools was it worth investing a little more in better ones.

I have taken that plate of the dano now its been finished in aged copper.  its now workshop decoration, right next to the unfinished green man i started carving a couple of years ago in a similar experiment

Sarge

Crivens! being relatively new (just a few months) to this forum I hadn't seen this thread, I'm blown away, firstly with the timeline theme then the work you have done to get where you are now, and in such a short time span is staggering, words just do not do justice here, thanks for sharing! have a wow, actually you've had a bunch of wows along the way

WezV

i just double bound the thinline body, still need to do the back. I still don't know what I am doing with the finish.  if I go dark on the top you probably won't see the black line, but i wanted to keep it there to match the fretboard... just to keep my options open

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsxnohw1g3.jpg

and i decided to cut up the new dark red meranti neck blank, hopefully to get two necks as shown below

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps2v66xum9.jpg

still need tidying up, but fairly happy with that

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsuzsnntzu.jpg

and i made a good start of the dark red meranti body blank - zemaitis style

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsrslimb0m.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsmepikufj.jpg

WezV

so I fretted this today and started making a few parts for it.

I am making a one piece bridge out of african blackwood and a flamed maple pickguard - it all seems to have got a bit posh and i don't think the old tailpiece suits it so much anymore  problem is I have not built it to sound posh.   in tonal terms it will be closer to a  gibson 330  semi (i.e. build for electric playing but fully hollow), but looks much more like a proper archtop

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpspvfyr4ub.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsv5u4wbtu.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpslyksslsc.jpg

I am also rethinkingthe pickup and finish

next stage is to finalise the neck before gluing it in and prepping it all for finish.  its my most complex binding scheme so far being multi-ply wood  and unfortunately that means there are a few errors to fix before it goes any further

ThePrettyDamned

Holy cow.

Andyjr1515

That's not up to your normal top drawer standard, @WezV    

That is teetering on the top bar of the step ladders on tip-toes hoping to keep your balance top drawer stuff!

It is simply wonderful...in the true sense of the word  =D>

Andy

WezV

Cheers guys, I was beginning to feel like the tumbleweed was blowing through after my previous two posts. 

My guitar building time is more limited than its been in the past so I have spent the last few years thinking more about what I actually want to build -   rather than just building everything that takes my fancy like I used to.

 

This guitar was really just a stepping stone to something else (as was the white fanned fret before it), but its turning out quite nice

 

 

just got to decide what to do with the tailpiece, I think I will make a flamed maple one  to match the plate and the headstock.    I am not sure on the finish now either, but its going to be a lot less blonde than it looks at the moment

 

TTony

WezV said:

i just double bound the thinline body, still need to do the back. I still don't know what I am doing with the finish.  if I go dark on the top you probably won't see the black line, but i wanted to keep it there to match the fretboard... just to keep my options open

Only my opinion, but that looks very clean and precise to me as is, and the consistency of the black body and neck binding and the outline of the fretboard dots do a lot to create that impression.

So, I'd not want to hide the body binding in anyway under a dark finish.  Clear, Clear, Clear!!

Looks stunning!

WezV

i know what you are saying, and i reckon this look could work for another guitar in the future.

but this guitar  was not made with a natural finish in mind - the main issue being the colour of the materials I have used, but as its also my first time doing flamed maple binding I also have a few small areas to fill

The guitar has 2 types of flamed maple, flamed sycamore, plain maple and spruce.   they are all slightly different colours ranging from very pink to a bit orange.

it doesn't look like an issue in its raw state but as soon as clear touched it  the colour differences would look massive.   it would also show the small flaws I need to fill

Original plan was that the plain fretboard and flamed binding would stay natural and everything else would go darker.  I am now contemplating  matching the fretboard scheme on the pickguard and possibly a handmade tailpiece too

I do think its now too fancy to go ahead with the aged bronze i originally wanted to do, but I may yet change my mind on that.  still need to decide on a pickup - possibly a neck mounted mini humbucker

Andyjr1515

A neck mounted mini would be spot on