Reviving an old project

WezV

About 5 years ago I made an experimental thin line out of sycamore and spruce.

I went a bit daft with the finish and it generally looked a bit crap.

Had a nice aged bronze affect on top, but too much amber hid it and made the maple accents far too orange.  Also, the green stain on the back and sides was just shit 

I really enjoy playing it, but it wasn't up to scratch so have decided to redo it a bit.


Anyway, managed to strip off the offensive amber and tidy up the back a bit.  It's still a greenish zombie burst, but a lot tidier than it was


Thinking about adding a staple neck pickup too

WezV

WezV

PhilKing

The back looks really nice Wez.  Not sure about the front though!

WezV

My original plan was to strip the too too, but once I hàd got rid of the amber I really liked it again.  Although I might change the humbucker cover for a raw nickel one to match the staple

Funkfingers

The greenburst is very Burns.

Apart from the fanned frets, that project ought to be right up the street of Lord Seven of Wolver’amptonshire.

WezV

Funkfingers said:

The greenburst is very Burns.

Apart from the fanned frets, that project ought to be right up the street of Lord Seven of Wolver’amptonshire.

hmm, or Birch too i guess.   Its not actually that green, depends on the angle

note also the flame pops on the opposite side here too, from some angles it actually looks consistently flamed all the way across




the fanned frets on this are great, hardly notice it for most of the neck, but upper fret access is vastly improved.

WezV

just a few notes on the construction of this.

prior to this i was building things with maximum stiffness in mind.  necks were laminated and reinforced with CF.   I had started to relax this a bit and was finding that i preferred the tone when things were built light and necks were more flexible.   some of the best sounding guitars were those on the point of implosion  

I had already moved from CF bars, to hollow CF rods for most necks.   these don't add as much stiffness, but help keep the necks consistent and twist free.

So the idea here was to build it on the point of implosion...its lasted 5 years and sounds better than ever

The neck was a piece of beautifully flamed maple I had kept for years. its relatively soft and very highly flamed.   I have kept it as a 1 piece neck here.  It does have two hollow CF rods either side of a 2 way truss rod.   Its a flexible neck, but fully controllable.   didn't think it was going to work when i first strung it up but the truss rod has done its job admirably over the years...   the result is a neck with a lot of tension in it to stay straight, but that sounds great to me

the body is made from thin acoustic plates.  top has a couple of big braces running from neck to tail block, a bit of reinforcement under the bridge and a couple of small braces to help prevent splits... all looks like a big A shape.  its a 15' radius front and back.   So domed rather than arched,  very thin, very light.

Bridge is carved from a single piece of african blackwood.   very fancy.   tailpiece is a harmony indenta tailpiece from the 30's/40's... its just a thin bit of pressed metal and weighs next to nothing

it does have a big solid neck block and a full width set neck, more electric than acoustic in style.  Normally on acoustics the neck join almost isolates the neck from the body vibrations, its minimal... this definitely doesn't

The result is something very lively, its not refined like an archtop, not nice or balanced like an acoustic, not boxy like a 335.   its certainly interesting

WezV

@PeteC ;

just reminded me i have not updated this one in a while.   This is how it currently looks - still waiting on me to reconnect the wiring  and add the backplate... but pretty much done other than that

ICBM

[Large spanner about to be thrown]

Now *that* tailpiece would look much better on the hollowbody Les Paul...

PeteC

Very interesting.    I just bought the Benedetto book a couple of weeks ago and have been devouring it. 
Some great stuff in there, but I was pleased to see so much of it is done using jigs and simple yet clever approaches. The art being in the extremely high standard of workmanship rather than the process itself. 

I think I need to learn more about building a semi-hollow , I'd love to have a crack at it. 

WezV

PeteC said:

Very interesting.    I just bought the Benedetto book a couple of weeks ago and have been devouring it. 
Some great stuff in there, but I was pleased to see so much of it is done using jigs and simple yet clever approaches. The art being in the extremely high standard of workmanship rather than the process itself. 

I think I need to learn more about building a semi-hollow , I'd love to have a crack at it. 

This was a good way to go for my first as it allowed me to mix what I already do well with a lot of techniques I needed to learn... But not as daunting as s a full archtop build.

I know it's likely too quirky for some, especially with the finish, but it's a lot of fun.

ICBM said:

[Large spanner about to be thrown]

Now *that* tailpiece would look much better on the hollowbody Les Paul...

Nah

TTony

WezV said:

With you skills and inventiveness, I really think you should build something different once in a while, rather than more of the same old, same old ...









What's that one like to play - how does it sound???

WezV

WezV said:

The result is something very lively, its not refined like an archtop, not nice or balanced like an acoustic, not boxy like a 335.   its certainly interesting

i typed this earlier this year.   Its great fun to play, but far too lively for some things

GuyBoden

What are the scale lengths on the fan frets. That's an interesting guitar.

WezV

I think it's 25-27"

ICBM

I forgot to say earlier... I really do think it looks amazing.

(Apart from the tailpiece* - and the knobs, but you have the means to solve that now.)

I've never actually played a fanned-fret guitar, but it looks like it's one of those things which instantly makes sense and you then wonder why all guitars aren't made like that - although I could be wrong!




*It needs some sort of offset one that goes with the angle of the bridge, like a Höfner Compensator.

WezV

I like to have a few lines perpendicular to the center line on a fanned fret... I really don't like ones where every single element is angled to follow the frets.


For me that means standard  pickups and usually an unslanted end to the fretboard.  Only time I have slanted the end of the fretboard, I went purposely against the fan of the frets.  On this one  one it means a straight tailpiece too.  It was an active choice not to follow the fan

This one is very easy to play as it feels normal at the nut end where the fan is subtle, and the extreme fan at the other end aids access on a style where it would normally be very limited.

The tailpiece is a Harmony Identa tailpiece from the early 40's.   It's designed for a name plaque to clip in it.  Pressed from tin and very lightweight. It's also a bit crude.

PeteC

very interesting( again !) 

what are the basic principles of laying out a fanned scale ?  ( I will do some googling )  I am guessing also that you need to score and hand cut all the slots individually ? 

Danielsguitars

Nice guitar but can't look at fan frets, definitely not for me 

WezV

You need to decide on the outer scale lengths first.  

They you decide  how much to offset the fan, which fret are you going to fan out from.  You can have a straight nut, bridge, or anything in between.   Many fan  out from the 12th fret so the angle at but and bridge is even.   I prefer to fan from closer to the nut... Somewhere between 3rd to 9th works well for me.  Let's says 7th for the next bit

So I draw a normal fretboard outline with the correct width at both ends of the fretboard and a clear centerline.  No fan yet

Then I mark on the 7th fret perperdicular to the center line.  I can then work back from this to find the nut position on each side,and individually mark each fret position on both sides* and join the dots.   Lots of measuring before marking or cutting

*Worth marking actual string paths rather than the edge of the fretboard, or your actual scale length ends up shorter on the bass side and longer on the treble