Am I expecting too much from guitar plans?

greggreg66

I'm a chunk of the way through my Flying V build, my first guitar build, which I've built following some really rubbish plans. The body is too thin, the first neck attempt had the truss rod routed wrong, but done according to the bad plans.

I just received a set of explorer plans from Crimson guitars and there's no neck or headstock angles listed, and it doesn't even show the jack socket let alone dimensions for it or where it's placed! Sure, I can work out the angles from the plans, and look at pictures of a real explorer to find the jack socket position, but for paid plans surely these should be on there, no? Given it's price (about £18) it's surprising they're also not delivered in a tube.... even as an optional extra. Tempted to send them back. Or maybe I'm expecting too much?

Just having a bit of a moan really   

WezV

I would expect crucial angles to be there, but this is why it's good to be able to draw your own neck angle geometry for your chosen hardware and construction style

greggreg66

Definitely! I fully expected them to be on there. 

There's a decent profile section drawing where one can measure the angle from and/or plot the height of a chosen bridge and amend the neck angle.... but my feeling is that if you want to follow the plans it should be listed. Even the terrible Flying V plans had all hardware listed, angles, loads of detail.... just some it was wrong like the 38mm body thickness or the truss being deeper at the headstock and shallower at the body. 

PeteC

I agree - you should get full constructional detail really.   Yes you can draw your own break angle as Ben suggests, but for £18......

I've been hunting for good Tele plans and feel the same way - most are pretty rudimentary and some a complete rip off and effectively useless.   I know its beneficial to work a lot of this out yourself, but if someone is going to sell a product as a full solution and take your money then it ought to be fit for purpose. 

greggreg66

I emailed Crimson to say that their plans are really lacking in detail and to be fair to them they’ve agreed to give a refund if I post them back. 

Ive since ordered some plans from JAG guitars so hopefully they’ll be better. I convinced my freelancer to make a guitar too and he’s bought the last set of telecaster plans, so I can let you know if they’re any good if that helps?? (They’re out of stock now buy maybe they’ll get more soon?) 

MLten80

Defo a bit rubbish. Crucial info really
 Even the ones Available on the internet have all this info

 Theres a few free on a site called electric herald https://www.electricherald.com/guitar-templates/ 

  Hth 

axisus

I'm lucky in that I'm a designer so I tend to research and draw my own plans up, and I have access to a plotter for full size printing, but yeah, that would be annoying they should have all info.

greggreg66

axisus said:

I'm lucky in that I'm a designer so I tend to research and draw my own plans up, and I have access to a plotter for full size printing, but yeah, that would be annoying they should have all info.

That's cool. Are you drawing them on computer? If I build another after this upcoming second one I might get into drawing/designing my own plans, but to be honest as I'm new to guitar making I'm very happy just following the plans and concentrating on making a playable guitar first haha!!

axisus

greggreg66 said:

axisus said:

I'm lucky in that I'm a designer so I tend to research and draw my own plans up, and I have access to a plotter for full size printing, but yeah, that would be annoying they should have all info.

That's cool. Are you drawing them on computer? 

Yes, I use Adobe illustrator to draw, and Photoshop to do mockups. I have images of both those things in my current 'Building a bass' thread over in the Making & Modding section

greggreg66

axisus said:

Yes, I use Adobe illustrator to draw, and Photoshop to do mockups. I have images of both those things in my current 'Building a bass' thread over in the Making & Modding section

That's exceedingly impressive  

GSPBASSES

https://www.electricherald.com/diagrams/gibson-flying-v/Gibson83FlyingV.pdf

There are some versions of the that are only 38mm thick, I think it was called the medallion, horrible thing. 
.
  I’m not sure if there is absolute neck angle when you’re making one off guitar. 

At the moment I’m making 3 V90s, when I’m cutting the neck pocket I use a jig that was  specifically for flying V’s the angle is 2.7degrees, the same jig could be used for any flat top guitar that’s going to have a neck angle to go with a TOM bridge. Although the jig angle is set at 2.7 degrees the finished neck angle was slightly different 2.5 degrees. It is quite common to have a few fractions of a degree difference between guitar set up on the same jigs. The angle can be very different, if for instance the neck pocket is not so deep so the neck is higher off the body, if this is the case the angle would be less. as I say there is no absolute angle for this type of guitar.

The V jig. This jig is designed to be used with an overhead pin router.

The finished V 90. 
The straight edge is held off the Fingerboard by 1.5mm, the bridge is held off the body by about 3.5mm. By doing this when the guitar is set up there is plenty of movement on the bridge to set the string height to whatever you want..

greggreg66

Thanks, top wisdom there. 

The V plans I had were supposedly for a 58 korina, although stylewise I'm not sticking to it. 

Looking forward to seeing the V90's. Do you sell them as "husks" or are you going to fully finish them?

GSPBASSES

greggreg66 said:

Thanks, top wisdom there. 

The V plans I had were supposedly for a 58 korina, although stylewise I'm not sticking to it. 

Looking forward to seeing the V90's. Do you sell them as "husks" or are you going to fully finish them?

I do sell them, if you have a look at my new post there's a photo of a one that's going out to the trade, if it was going out to a member of the FB the neck would be fretted.

GSPBASSES

This will save you a lot of time.

https://guitarsandwoods.com/templates-884563715/guitar-kit-templates/fv58-style-mdf-templates-1371156046.html

greggreg66

GSPBASSES said:

The will save you a lot of time.

https://guitarsandwoods.com/templates-884563715/guitar-kit-templates/fv58-style-mdf-templates-1371156046.html

I've looked at those template before when I was buying some parts from them, was definitely tempted, but I prefer the idea of making my own templates from paper plans as I think it's good practice to do that... would be a time saver for sure though!