Evenlode Guitars.

Evilmags

Gassage said:

Nice work James! In a few weeks time you can have a new model

The Didn'tGetOutOfOurGroupAndWentHomeBeforeTheQuarters Special.

  Just leave this here for posterity :P

octatonic

Evilmags said:

Gassage said:

Nice work James! In a few weeks time you can have a new model

The Didn'tGetOutOfOurGroupAndWentHomeBeforeTheQuarters Special.

  Just leave this here for posterity :P

I was going to challenge Gassage that the loser has to sing the other sides national anthem, posted to youtube but I chickened out.

I'm not that confident.

octatonic

Decided on my first batch of builds and purchased some more wood today.

I'm making 4 Martin-style 000 acoustics and one electric Strat style.

Acoustics:

Acoustic Build 1: 

AAA Sitka Spruce top

AAA Indian Rosewood back and sides

AAA Indian Rosewood neck

AAA Indian Rosewood fingerboard, 16" radius

Indian Rosewood bridge, headstock veneer

Ebony Binding

Waverly Tuners

Medium frets

Acoustic Build 2:

AAA Sitka Spruce top

AAA Indian Rosewood back and sides

AAA Flame Maple neck

AAA Indian Rosewood fingerboard, 16" radius

Indian Rosewood bridge, headstock veneer

Ebony Binding

Waverley Tuners

Medium Frets

Acoustic Build 3:

AA Sitka Spruce top

AAA Honduran Mahogany back and sides

AAA Honduran Mahogany neck

AA Indian Rosewood fingerboard, 16" radius

Indian Rosewood bridge, headstock veneer

Indian Rosewood Binding

Waverley Tuners

Medium Frets

Acoustic Build 4:

AA Sitka Spruce top

AAA Tasmanian Blackwood back and sides

AAA Honduran Mahogany neck 

AAA Cocobolo fingerboard, 20" radius

Cocobolo bridge, headstock veneer

Cocobolo Binding

Waverley Tuners

Medium Frets

Electric:

American Alder body in Sonic Blue

AAA Flame/quilt/birdseye maple neck (it looks amazing), satin finish

AAA Indian Rosewood fingerboard, compound radius

Gotoh 510 trem

Gotoh 510 locking tuners

6150 Frets

A couple of pics:

I'm not going to post photos of all the individual pieces of wood but they are all here in this album:

WOOD LIBRARY

All this is subject to change, but that is where I am heading with it at the moment.

BigMonka

Those specs sound great. In general are you intending to make more acoustics than electrics?

octatonic

BigMonka said:

Those specs sound great. In general are you intending to make more acoustics than electrics?

At this stage I'm concentrating on acoustic guitars but I plan on building both equally at some stage.

I won't be knocking out loads of strat/tele/LP copies- people are already doing that, I have some design ideas for my own models.

I'm doing this Strat as a test of process.

I'm interested in headless electrics though, so I plan on doing quite a few of those.

octatonic

New Tool Day: Jet JOVS10 oscillating spindle sander.

This thing is a beast.

vaticancameos

Man this thread is glorious. It's great to see somebody venturing into something they love. That workshop is absolutely stunning. I'm not far from Oxford, I'd love to come have a look sometime!

WezV

vaticancameos said:

Man this thread is glorious. It's great to see somebody venturing into something they love. That workshop is absolutely stunning. I'm not far from Oxford, I'd love to come have a look sometime!

nah, needs more sawdust - even if its just flying through the ducting  

 

The ducting for my workshop is still sitting in the rafters waiting for me to install it.  I must admit I made the mistake of using my workshop before I had it all sorted  which means I will need to empty it all out nd resort it at some point

octatonic

I've been good and tried to finish the workshop before doing any proper building.

I'm now pretty much done- bit of storage to sort out and then jig making.

octatonic

The only thing better than pegboard:

is getting all the clamps off the damn floor:

BluesyDave

Veritas do make a lovely Saw........and other sundry toolage        A good choice Sir!

Roland

I have never seen as many new tools anywhere but a shop. The could start a round of Tool Acquisition Syndrome

octatonic

Roland said:

I have never seen as many new tools anywhere but a shop. The could start a round of Tool Acquisition Syndrome

I got it BAAAAAAD.

Quite a bit of it isn't new- those Vertias saws are, and the mitre fence came with the bandsaw but everything else is 2-3 years old.

I blow the dust off them with an air line every few weeks and keep everything that should be fairly well lubricated with Liberian lubricating wax.

It makes a big difference to the life of the tools.

Would you like to see the hand planes?

BluesyDave

octatonic said:

Would you like to see the hand planes?

Immediately!  Silly question.

octatonic

LOL- I'll do it over weekend- I need to go through them and work out what needs sharpening anyway.

BluesyDave

Ah yes, the ancient art of sharpening.  What do you use mate?  I use a combination of Tormek, diamond stone (1000 grit) and lapping abrasives stuck down on plate glass (up to 8000 grit).  If you can't dry shave.....it isn't sharp  

octatonic

Depends on what I'm doing but I do it by hand.

I use a 325 diamond stone for getting a new edge.

A 1000 diamond stone refreshes the edge, then I go to a water stone- usually a 6000, sometimes higher.

DMT diamond stones - they are fantastic.

octatonic

It has been a while since I posted updates- I've been working away on various things but my surgery stopped me working for a bit.

I've been mostly working on one of the 000 style guitars.

I've building this one singly to refine the build process.

Once that is done I'll be building in batches.

This one is a sitka spruce top, mahogany neck/back/sides with rosewood fingerboard/bridge/feature woods.

Some pics:

Neck blank constructed- this is the best neck I've built in terms of of being dimensionally accurate.

It is exactly square to itself- all angles are at 9 degrees, except the scarf join which is precisely 15 degrees, unlike previous attempts which were ok but had a couple of minimal differences.

Having my own planer thicknesser really helps.

It should make the subsequent stages easier to manage as I will know exactly where I am at. 

Experienced builders will note that the neck blank is overly thick- this was intentional, I want a nice big chunky neck carve on this one.

octatonic

Back joined:

ToneControl

Hats off to building in batches

My theory is that only building to order pushes up prices, and restricts access to working off the shelf examples