Fano RB6T Thinline, Now making the first one.

GSPBASSES

grungebob said:

Lebarque said:

grungebob said:

I have a derivative of the design by Dennis fano 
It’s chambered rather than thinline. If you think any measurements may help I’m happy to take some. 

That looks the same size as the RB6 with the German carve. The thinline version is bigger with binding I think.

I hope it’s not too much bigger then as mines about as big as I’d be comfortable playing seated. 

I don't think there's any difference in the width of the bodies between the thin line and the bodies with the German carve. I think it's an optical illusion that makes the thin line look wider. Whether that's true or not, I will only be making one size off body that’s 25mm wider then a Tele.

GSPBASSES

The last of the jigs are now made, these are the round ones as shown on the plan. these were real pain to make I haven't got access to lathe.

This project will now be on hold for about a week, as I have several commercial jobs to finish by Thursday night.

GSPBASSES

Found a bit of time today to do a bit more work on the RB6T Jigs. I’m a great believer in not reinventing the wheel every time I make a new set jig’s. I will use the switch cover from the back of a Les Paul on any guitar that is going use that type of switch, such as the RB6T.

On the main routing jig the cavity is already made for the switch to go in the top corner asper a Les Paul. So I can make the cover identical for all the guitars that have this size of cover plate I'm making a drilling jig on the RB6T main routing jig.

I fix the recess routing jig for the Les Paul switch cover onto the RB6T jig.

I then rout the recess into the RB6T jig, to the thickness of the cover.

The switch cover is placed into recess and held in place with some masking tape.

I can now drill from the underside of the jig into the cover. I now know that all the covers made on this jig are interchangeable.

The first cover made on the RB6T jig fitted to a V 90 I’m making.

I'm hoping to start making the first RB6T’s in about 10 days.

GSPBASSES

I've made a couple extra bits for the jigs. I'm a bit concerned when make the thin line version that there is a lot of unsupported cap behind the bridge. It's most likely alright as the caps are going to be 5mm thick. But better safe than sorry. I'm adding two inserts into the jig. When I rout the chambers it will become 3 instead of one big chamber. This will support the cap behind the bridge, this is how most thin line TC’s all routed.

I'm also going to have a drop in mod to the jig, just in case anybody wants to fit a Jazzmaster tremolo or a Bigsby.

GSPBASSES

 

All the jigs are now made, time to start the first body. The first one is going to a thin line flat top with 2 mini humbuckers (or P90’s), it’s going to have Strat neck but Gibson scale, the neck is already made.

The Swamp Ash is cut about 12mm over size, I do this on all guitars that are having a cap fitted.

The jig is fixed to the Swamp Ash body, this guitar is having a Jazzmaster trem so the drop in jig is being used.

The chambering is done on the front of the body.

Forgot to take a photo of the cap being glued on. Once the glue is set I bandsaw off the surplus wood round the edges. The second jig is now fixed to the back of the body, to rout round the out side of the body, then the F hole is routed.

The same jig is then fixed to the front of the body for the two rear cavities can be routed.

 I'm not making neck pocket or pickup pocket jig’s yet. For this body I am going to use the Strat neck jig.

2 bits of wood fixed either side of the neck pocket is to give me a .5 degree neck angle.

The small piece of wood running down the side of the neck, similar to what you get on a vintage LPJ single cut will be removed later on in the build.

Then the two pickup pockets are routed.

Very pleased with the way the first build is going, all the jig seem to be right.

Winny_Pooh

Looks great

TJT1979

Looks good! Why do you leave the small chamber behind the bridge rather than just have the centreblock extend to the heel? Tonal differences? Weight? It seems like on the ones where you don’t use the insert you’ll be losing a fair bit of strength perhaps?

Thanks for taking the time to post all this. 

Teyeplayer

GSPBASSES said:

This is looking fantastic, great work as always. 

DrBob

You know I’m a huge fan of your work Graham, my main guitar for the past 5 years has been the reverse headstock Strat you built for me and I’m about to bolt together a Tele around that beak headstock tele neck you also made for me, but now I’m looking at this and I’m wanting more ! 

Absolutely superb 

GSPBASSES

 

I've had a few requests to buy a RB6T body only, that I'm quite happy to do. But there is a problem, as far as I know you cannot buy and off the shelf neck that fits this body. The neck picket is 56mm wide at the end, a Fender type neck will join at the 16th fret, so it will physically fit. But if you look at the photo below you will see the shape of the picket is very different to a Fender pocket.

Obviously you could buy an off the shelf unfinished neck and reshape it to suit. I thought it was worth mentioning this now before any one buys one of these bodies.

. I could make a jig and square the neck pocket off, so a standard Fender neck would fit, but I think that would spoil the whole look of the guitar. 

If there's enough enquiries from people who want to fit a standard Fender neck Start or a Tele then I would most likely will make extra jigs.

 

markslade07

Ooh....this is lovely work. Tempting....very tempting....

GSPBASSES

 

It seems sometimes you can't trust info you get off the Internet, I asked on the forum if anyone had a jig for mini humbuckers, didn't really get any response. I turn to the Internet to get as much information as possible, the general census of opinion a mini humbucker fits a P90 rout. Well it turns out, it does and it doesn't. If the mini humbucker is mounted in a P90 shell then yes it does fit, if it's mounted in a more conventional pickups surround then a P90 pocket is too long and too wide. Unfortunately I jumped the gun and routed the first RB6T with the standard P90 rout. When the mini humbuckers turned up in conventional pickup surrounds it become obvious that a lot of the info on the Internet is total rubbish. Not to worry it just means the first RB6T thin line will be a P90 guitar or re routed it to take humbuckers. I will put some photos up the mini humbucker surrounds I've purchased from various sources at some time.

 I decided that the bindings on the RB6T needed to be pre-formed, as there are two quite sharp turns on the top and bottom horns. I made a jig up, the outline of the body, recessed it the same as I would on the body to take the binding, then tape the bindings round it, had to use a hot air gun for the bottom hone.

I was out at DD’s on Friday and come across some London Plane, nothing unusual about that except this was cut as Fender neck blanks with matching fingerboards. I've seen loads of backs and sides for acoustics at DD’s but never for Solid guitars. There's been quite a few posts this year on the forum about London Plane, so I thought I might try some. I have used it before about 15 years ago to make a funny looking small boded bass, unfortunately I haven't got a photo of the bass.

I then looked through the London Plane acoustic backs thinking these would make very pretty caps for the RB6T thin line.

The thin line RB6T body for the London Plane cap.

JGTay

Some very nice figuring on that, will look excellent finished. 

GSPBASSES

The frist RB6T thin line finished. 

  Swamp Ash body fully chambered with white binding, routed for 2 mini humbuckers and a Jazzmaster type bridge and tremolo. The neck is my standard 3 piece laminated 1/4 sawn Maple, black headstock venere, Rosewood fingerboard with MOP dot inlays, 2 way rod, 6105 frets, bone nut, weight of body and neck 5lb 4oz.

Teyeplayer

GSPBASSES said:

The frist RB6T thin line finished. 

  Swamp Ash body fully chambered with white binding, routed for 2 mini humbuckers and a Jazzmaster type bridge and tremolo. The neck is my standard 3 piece laminated 1/4 sawn Maple, blackhead sock venere, Rosewood fingerboard with MOP dot inlays, 2 way rod, 6105 frets, bone nut, weight of body and neck 5lb 4oz.

That’s fantastic, so cool!

PeteC

That really is rather good - fine work.   

TTony

Love it.  Refreshing to see something different.  Excellent work Graham,

markslade07

Loving this!

GSPBASSES

Started another RB6T to day, this will be a bit different from the last one, same materials but this one is going to have a Telecaster bridge and pickup but with a P90 at the neck, plus a standard Telecaster control plate, it will also be Fender scale.

 I've made a couple of small changes to the chambering jig, where you screw in the strap button’s I've increased the thickness of the wall by about 10mm. Also, where I drill the hole for a jack plug socket I've increased thickness by about 25mm.

The weight at this stage is 6lb 3oz.

I'll weigh it again after the cap has been glued on.

Roland

Fascinating to watch, and to see how you deal with the challenges