The world of Wez :)

TTony

Nice. 

 But where does the car fit??

WezV

on the drive, space for 4 and i can get 2 of them behind locked gates.  We only have one car

Got the rest of my stuff back today, i used to be tripping over all this in the old workshop.  now i think i need another bench and some more racking

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsa12572e8.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps2652cf62.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps06962d55.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps1c8c87cb.jpg

WezV

first job in the new workshop, reshaping a headstock for @DrBob

From this:

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/bb9.jpg

To this:

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps1e0ca129.jpg

WezV

and I got some guitars back from storage and started putting some hangers up

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/10291088_10152101009808693_3614992175627115164_n_zps985dcf48.jpg

WezV

so sorting out before the move meant i found a few old projects I had forgotten about.   some got chopped and burned but some had enough promise that i brought them with me

here is one of them.   It was put together from spare bits of wood years ago just about the time i was learning how to carve tops.  

Its a heavily chambered maple/walnut body with mahogany/wenge neck and granadillo fretboard.   I abandoned it because the carve was not great  - and the construction style meant i was struggling to get it right around the neck join. but that's not a problem these days so time to have another go at it

I plan or refining the carve a bit more and reshaping the bottom horn as I am not happy with the shape at the moment

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps50711a1f.jpg

found some old pics of the super long tenon neck join

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/1-14.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/2-11.jpg 

WezV

I decided to buy a proper wood bender.   I actually brought it before the move but this is the first time I have used it.  before this I used a pipe and blowtorch and managed to get reasonable results but it was always a struggle.

Anyway, here is the first side on the new bender

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps43dad042.jpg

The F-clamp came straight off t be replaced by something softer, i need to work on my clamp storage as they are all muddles up at the moment

The guitar is going to be a bit unusual... its a thinline fanned fret, but it will be more like a posh dano than a 335.  It will look quite like an archtop inside (parallelish braces) but will actually be a thin domed flat top and back.  I may use this same shape for a small acoustic too

the rims are 2" wide rippled sycamore which bends beautifully  

TTony

WezV said:

The guitar is going to be a bit unusual... 

... that's because it's for quite an unusual person

WezV

second side and cutaway done too

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps94029233.jpg

last nights side took 40 mins as i got used to the new bender, todays side and cutaway took 20 minutes.  they are holding their shape pretty well without the clamps.   think i will use sycamore more often if it bends this nicely

there is a left over bit which will fill the gap at the heel.  i could have just extended the bass side to fill this, but i have not fully decided what i want to do with the neck heel and if the body centre line ends up being visible i want it bookmatched

Evilmags

That Maple topped one could be carved a bit like the PRS Dweezil Zappa shape, hence resolving the lower horn problem

UnclePsychosis

Not all to my taste but the blue vendetta, the blue cabronita, the red/white Explorer and the steinberger with the awesome paint job are all absolutely fantastic. Love them.

WezV

Evilmags said:

That Maple topped one could be carved a bit like the PRS Dweezil Zappa shape, hence resolving the lower horn problem

i was considering that kind of thing but went a different direction - pushing it towards an offset shape

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps557e1cce.jpg

its still not perfect, needs a bit more time refining the curves and reshaping the carve to accentuate  the offset shape.

tbh I am not too worried about it, its just one of those that's been hanging around for years and allows me to practice a few things.  I will get the carve done at some point which is good practice, probably practice a new finish on it and if it ends up decent I may someday sell it at a knock-down price

WezV

got all the blocks and linings in place on this.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpscf5d326d.jpg

The clamps are gluing on the last section of sycamore between the center line and cutaway

Its quite a large heel block, but that's because I am going for an electric style set neck on this.   the walnut strips helped keep its shape whilst the linings were glued in, they are not really doing much now, but will stay in place until the top is glued on

WezV

I started working on the top... and got as far as attaching it to the rims

Sitka spruce domed to a 15' radius

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps9ae905b1.jpg

A massive A-Brace.  This is going to be a semi acoustic so the braces are much larger than a normal acoustic, but should still allow it to be livelier than your average 335 type semi.   they are just roughly shaped here, will be carved to look a bit more graceful in due course

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsf33bd289.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps0d50e746.jpg

and a quick mockup with its possible tailpiece and oversized fretboard blank

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps3c01a534.jpg

WezV

having a bit of a pickup swap round today.

Just put these early square foot dimarzios in my 90's epiphone

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps66df011b.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zpsa1d8f26e.jpg

Which has freed up a lovely set of Bulldog Vintage PAF's for a Chinese 335 I am pimping.... more pics of that soon but its going to be satin black, white binding, nickel hardware etc...   Its a guitar i have had for a while and never done much with, but all the recent posts about chibsons made me decide to dig it out and get it together

WezV

So here is the Chibson

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps27010f46.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps4b4651eb.jpg

this was for sale on MR with a diamond hole cut in the headstock.   all that has been filled and after a failed wudtone attempt it now has a stain black finish and nickel hardware

WezV

decided to re-work the design for the 9-string fanned fret acoustic I keep talking about.  might actually start it soon.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps9ef374fb.jpg

The shape is based on Kaki Kings 7 string fanned fret classical which i kept finding when thinking about the fanned fret acoustic.  Wasn't sure if I wanted to copy it at first, but I kept coming back to it.   I am borrowing the shape, blowing it up to full size dread proportions and going for completely different aesthetics everywhere else

That is unless I change my mind again before bending the wood

here is Kaki talking about and playing hers

WezV

scraping some bloodwood sides

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps12ec0cf5.jpg

and made a new mold

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/temporary_zps78afed1b.jpg

WezV

Its always nice to see what happens to guitars I have made

I made this one years ago

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/complete guitars/wv15.jpg

It was pretty nice and became my main guitar for a while.    It had a lovely lacewood top but after issues finishing it i ended up doing the blue seen above.  Then i sold it to one of my ex students for a very cheap price because it was not aesthetically great and weighed quite a bit for a small bodied guitar.   he has had it a while now and finally got around to doing some mods

He has stripped the finish and re-oiled.  you can now see the body I laminated out of maple, purpleheart and lacewood for the first time ever - that's why it weighs a bit

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/10473983_10152272179581943_5915298114895476256_n_zpseeac5565.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/10557187_10152272179591943_6617031748167274788_n_zpsdbd45b73.jpg

okay, its all a bit brown for my tastes but i don't think he has done a bad job.  my original plan was to stain it all red or green, i think. 

[Deleted User]

this looks really nice, I wouldn't change it.

What pickups did you put in it as I can see you changed it.

WezV

When i had it it was my test bed for lots of different pickups.   When i sold it to my ex student it I included some kent armstrong ones, he has just changed them for warmans