Finished *Now with case* - 5-string slide guitar project

Roland

Sporky said:

That bridge is awesome.

Yes, I really like that.

DartmoorHedgehog

Thanks

Had a bit of time last weekend and knocked this up.  It's a bit bodgetastic, but I think it'll work and is one up from the cigar-box guitar style bolt bridge I was going to use.  Also, I feel like I've cheated a bit by buying a few parts, so this will even things up slightly.

DartmoorHedgehog

Been doing some work on the fretboard today.  I'd already cut the piece of rosewood down to slightly oversize, so today I added a couple of locating pins in the neck to make sure the board doesn't move while I'm working on it, clamped it on and scraped the sides flush with the neck.  Then with it off I sanded the face down smooth.  Next job is to mark the fret positions and fit the dots before radiusing it.  I'm too much of a miser to pay £10 for a radius sanding block and I haven't got a router to make my own using the "router on a stick" method, so I've made one by putting sand paper on an oil drum and rubbing a block of wood against it.  The drum is roughly 2ft diameter, so should give me a radius of around 12".

Here's some pics of the board so far:

DartmoorHedgehog

Put the dots in today and rubbed it down to a smooth radius with my oil drum radius block.  Worked pretty well - I'm very happy with the result

I've got a mate who's got all the tools for fretting, so will be arranging a visit soon to get the frets in.

DartmoorHedgehog

Cut a scratch plate from an old vinyl LP today.  The record happens to have a purple label, so I'm thinking of using some of that for the truss rod cover.

Also made a mitre box ready for cutting the fret slots, but that's not very interesting - won't bother with a picture of that

DartmoorHedgehog

Hogged out the control cavities and test-fitted the electrical gubbins on the scratch plate.  Not looking bad at all

BigMonka

This is going to look very cool and definitely unique!

What's that funky looking pickup?

DartmoorHedgehog

BigMonka said:

This is going to look very cool and definitely unique!

What's that funky looking pickup?

Thanks - it's certainly, er, "different"  Pointless me building a normal guitar though - I've got a couple of those already.  Might as well make something a bit odd.  I like playing around with open G and hardly ever use the bottom string in that tuning, so a five-string seemed like a good idea.

The pickup is a Danelectro-style lipstick single coil, again chosen mostly because it's something different from what I've had before.

DartmoorHedgehog

Slotted the fretboard

Wasn't too scary in the end - quite slow going though.

DartmoorHedgehog

Got the frets in today.  Still need to file the ends, but not looking bad for a first attempt I reckon

DartmoorHedgehog

I filed the end of the frets yesterday.  Now the truss rod is in and the board is glued and clamped.

DartmoorHedgehog

Right, this is starting to feel like it's getting there...

Recess for bridge cut out (I'd made the bridge too tall).  Three coats of wiped-on varnish, rubbed down between coats, then polished with micro mesh.  Wiring done, control cavity shielded with metal tape.

Light's a bit dingy this evening, but took a couple of pictures anyway.

Still need to level the frets a bit, cut the nut (I've decided to use a bit of bone and do it properly instead of just a bolt) and make a cover for the truss rod adjustment hole.  And I think I want the front face of the headstock black - either paint or a "veneer" of the vinyl record... not sure yet.

BigMonka

Great work Mr Hedgehog, have you strung it up and tried it yet?

Andyjr1515

That's looking good

DartmoorHedgehog

Thanks folks.  Haven't tried it yet, no.  Just put the ferrules in this evening, and the bridge isn't screwed on yet.  Won't be long though hopefully.  

A few things I've noticed I've done a bit "wrong" but I think it'll be fine.  Two of them are due to my change of mind in having a fretboard - and forgot to allow for the extra thickness, so the neck is a bit thick and the offset to the headstock is a bit far.  I think It'll be OK - slightly steeper break angle over the nut than is perhaps ideal.  The neck is fat but doesn't feel too bad because it's a bit narrower than a normal guitar neck.  And obviously the bridge was too tall, but I've sorted that by recessing it a bit - doesn't look bad.

If the thickness of the neck annoys me I can always scrape some more off in the future.

DartmoorHedgehog

I screwed the bridge and scratchplate on last night and tested it with a couple of old strings (with temporary uncut nut).  It works

A couple of high frets need sorting out and my bridge saddles might need a bit of fettling (slightly sitarish), but otherwise not bad at all.

DartmoorHedgehog

It's done!  Actually it still needs some strap buttons, but it works and I think I can consider it finished now (although it's a terrible shape to play sitting down so really does need a strap).

(It still had old strings on it when I took these pictures - nice new ones on it now )

DartmoorHedgehog

Although this didn't really turn out strictly a "slide" guitar, it will get played with a slide, so I suppose it might be eligible for the 2016 build challenge.  Had to cost under £100 to count didn't it?  Let's see what I've spent...

Pickup £15

Tuners £20 (s/h - unnecessarily posh but nice )

Ferrules £10

Truss rod £8 (s/h)

Jack socket £3

Rosewood for fret board £11

Pearloid dots £2

Fret wire £6

Pots £10

Bone nut blank £3

So that's £88, plus £4 or so for the strings.  All the other materials was stuff I had lying around - the wood was building scraps and would have been used as firewood, so I reckon I can call that free.  The bolts and screws I suppose have a value, say another couple of quid.  So just within budget if that counts  

@ttony ?

Andyjr1515

Some very nice features built into this @DartmoorHedgehog    Great achievement for £88!  Stunning!

thermionic

Very cool indeed. LP pickguard, mains plug pin saddles, beer bottle cap knobs and the logic gate body - superb.