Trent Guitars - From the Workshop

stickyfiddle

That’s wicked

Philly_Q

Your pictures are great.  And show that there's absolutely nothing to hide about your workmanship.

punchesjudy

@TrentGuitars Days are taking forever now! Can't wait to get my hands on this! 

TrentGuitars

Philly_Q said:

Your pictures are great.  And show that there's absolutely nothing to hide about your workmanship.

That's so kind of you to say and a huge compliment to anyone making things,

Thank you!

TrentGuitars

Not my usual picture heavy huge update today, I had to take care of something in the morning but I did manage to get a second guitar nearly completed in the afternoon, just needs it's nut seeing to and its ready.

Here are some close up shots too as I know you guys like them

sev112

That looks great even without the scratch plate - there’s a new line for you too

TrentGuitars

Not as exciting today, I'm just waiting for the last 2 bodies to be ready to polish and then they will be finished up early next week.

But what I did do was prepare the body timber for the next 3 builds this morning,



Yes that is a 400mm wide plank of Beech for another project next to the Poplar.


First we rough saw to length, oversize





I then straight line them, and parallel cut them, before finally putting them through the thicknesser and then cutting them close to final length.



I also prepared up some stock for a special request, and got a delivery for another Model 1 with pickups from a certain other maker.



Last order of the day was to cut the nut properly on the yellow one from yesterday, jobs a gooden!

HAL9000

Looks fantastic. I don’t know how easy or practical it would be but it would be nice if the ‘Build your guitar’ button on you website could show an image or mock-up from the selected options. A bit like the configurator option on some car manufacturer sites.

TrentGuitars

HAL9000 said:

Looks fantastic. I don’t know how easy or practical it would be but it would be nice if the ‘Build your guitar’ button on you website could show an image or mock-up from the selected options. A bit like the configurator option on some car manufacturer sites.

Certainly a feature I would love to have down the line, for now the website I've tried to keep simple and functional  

Benm39

This is such a lovely thread,  love seeing these amazing builds taking shape. 

DiscoStu

Benm39 said:

This is such a lovely thread,  love seeing these amazing builds taking shape. 

Yeah, this thread is pure joy.

TrentGuitars

And here we go again everyone!

Day 1 of the next batch, there's a few non standard bits in here that you will see come to life as they go on,

First step of any guitar is to glue up the blanks, I planed them to size a couple of weeks ago to let them rest and today I straight line ripped them on the panel saw and then put them in the sash clamps. I know people say the phrase 'they dont make em like they used to' a lot but this doubley applies to sash clamps. You genuinely cannot get clamps of this style and quality anymore, any modern examples have much finer pitched threads or flexible bars, these are Woden, but I also have them from Record too and would happily still to this day pay £20-30 a clamp at a boot sale.



This is exactly what we are looking for, a perfect even level of squeeze out on the underside - means ive just just the right amount of glue and the joint is perfect.



Throughout the day I was able to get 4 blanks glued up, 3 in Poplar and one in Red Cedar (one of the special orders).

So between the gluing I began preparing the neck blanks, they are cut from a large piece of maple I bought a couple of weeks ago. I first plane them to thickness and then chop them up until blanks close to my final size.




This is it as it arrives. I managed to yield 6 flat sawn blanks from this.

I first roughtly trace out the outline of the templates onto the blanks, and then rough cut them to shape on my bandsaw.





I then attach the template to the blank, I use screws here, the holes made by the screws get completely removed when the truss rod channel is routed. I have used tape at this stage in the past but you cannot beat the firmness of a screw hold.

I then use the template bit on the router table and gently nibble away to transfer the shape of the pattern to the blank.

I advance the bit height in stages so that I get as little tearout as possible



I'm then able to remove the template from the blank and reference the blank itself to complete the shape



And we have a set of complete blanks



Before I leave the workshop for the day, I use my fret scale ruler to carefully mark out the 24" scale fretboard. I typically use a fret slotting jig but the 25.5" pattern is the only one I have with it. I figured as I dont do 24" so often I would just mark it out by hand, and knife line each of the fret slots in before sawing. After checking it against the scale ruler, I managed to get it perfect



Im using my excellent LSS (Starrett) combination square, made around 1900 which to this day is still perfectly square, its a joy to use and I found it in a vintage clothes shop oddly enough.




What an excellent day, so glad to be bringing more guitars to life!

Here's a teaser of that Cedar body, its wonderfully light

TADodger

And we’re off. I’m not excited at all ……….

reubenmakesmusic

Lets goooo

TTony

TADodger said:

And we’re off. I’m not excited at all ……….

Is that Cedar one headed your way @TADodger ?

TADodger

Hey @TTony…….It may well be. If it was it would be cedar, for weight, with a 24” scale, for my short digits, and a funky pickup arrangement. All thanks to Elliott at @TrentGuitars, who I can’t thank enough for the help with achieving this.

TrentGuitars

A bit of an odd one this weekend, managed to get a little work done on the bodies!



I flatten on the blank, and clean them up with my scraper plane, I then transfer the template onto it and rough cut the shape nice and close on the bandsaw



Then nicely pattern routed on the router table, this blank is coming out very light - which was the whole idea, great!




But my Sunday was certainly a little different!

I'm lucky enough to have a bit of background in 3D Modelling, can you see where this is going?

A CNC router is on order..




The current batch will still be 'router' made but I'm gearing up to have the necks and bodies made on my own CNC. Of course this only really takes care of the basic processes, ensuring excellent consistency, but the really important bits will continue to and always be done by hand. The fretwork, finishing, detail and critical sanding will remain just the same!

TADodger

I love the way the grain has turned out  and very pleased to hear that the body is light - maybe a bit of balance for the bridge and pickups eh?

Adamski

The temptation is starting to overwhelm me!  

TrentGuitars

Wasn't able to get any building done today as I had to go and tie up some loose ends on a shop fit, back on the necks tomorrow though!

What I have done though is make excellent progress on the body model for the CNC, im starting to get to grips with fusion!