Evenlode Guitars.

octatonic · April 2015

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Hi all, </span><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Figured it was time for me to start a thread about my builds.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">I am 6 week away from graduating from London Met's musical instruments degree.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">My after graduating plan is to spend the next couple of years prototyping some guitars, particularly an headless ergonomic design I've been thinking about for a bit, as well as some custom builds.<br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">We are in the process of moving out of London- I'll then be tooling up to build.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">If people remember I built a parlour guitar last year.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">This year I have built two instruments- a Martin 000 style acoustic and a Telecaster.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Martin 000 style has AAA sitka spruce top, AAA rosewood back and sides, ebony bound rosewood fingerboard, rosewood bridge, maple binding. This one isn't quite finished- I have a few bits and pieces to do with cleaning up the body and final neck tweaking before finishing, which will be Tru-Oil.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Telecaster is a one piece swamp ash body, maple neck, butterscotch finish, Callaham hardware, Duncan pickups.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Some pics:</span></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Verdana;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Verdana;"><img src="https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t31.0-8/11082458_1427098177590118_555946872037876115_o.jpg"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Verdana;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Verdana;"><img src="https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/22282_1432023313764271_1470367034740822681_n.jpg?oh=3a326d67554956bb9fde08312b9c2c87&oe=55E3EE29"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Verdana;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Verdana;"><img src="https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11150943_1432023320430937_1415318762526904168_n.jpg?oh=727409b61cbb69a4b233e944d0a27c4c&oe=55B5A640"><br></div>

guitarfishbay · April 2015

Best of luck with this.<div><br></div><div>I'm looking forward to more pictures of the acoustic (back and sides would be cool) when it is finished up.</div>

octatonic · April 2015

For sure mate.<div><br></div><div>Here are a couple of build pics of the back and sides.</div><div><br></div><div><img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10730916_1432030250430244_6905397526906051948_n.jpg?oh=cde420368461b223c1372a809de6f18c&oe=559A9B87&__gda__=1436080824_f8eff61f17ef5a7fa71c8f683a5c0b09"><br></div><div><br></div><div><img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11067689_1432030253763577_1714648864948009570_n.jpg?oh=ed56918333e8e5a714a08ff7980ac797&oe=55E36CCD&__gda__=1436475634_0ca4a91dc13d01117ce621deb0e45ac8"><br></div>

TTony · April 2015

BIG Congratulations!<div><br></div><div>Where are you headed geographically, and have you decided what sort of instruments you're going to build?</div>

octatonic · April 2015

<blockquote class="Quote"> <div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/6/TTony">TTony</a> said:</div> <div class="QuoteText">BIG Congratulations!<div><br></div><div>Where are you headed geographically, and have you decided what sort of instruments you're going to build?</div></div> </blockquote> Thanks Tony- not quite done yet but I handed in my dissertation yesterday, which is quite a milestone.<div><br></div><div>We are looking at areas around Burford, in the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm game for anything in terms of custom builds.</div><div>Primarily interested in headless ergonomic guitars, Martin style acoustics and bolt-on electrics.</div><div>I'm not at the stage of developing a product line and might not be for a while yet.</div><div><br></div><div>Tooling up will take a bit of time- I'm looking at adding laser cutting and possibly CNC as well as the usual bandsaw/drill press/thicknesser/drum sander machinery.</div>

WezV · April 2015

<p>congrats. </p><p> </p><p>What was your dissertation on?</p><p> </p>

axisus · April 2015

They both look superb. I'm interested to see what the headless ergonomic guitar looks like.

octatonic · April 2015

<div>Cheers Wez.</div><div><br></div>My dissertation was looking at Lean Production methodology and applying it the craft production of electric and acoustic guitars.<div><br><div>I did some interesting things like costing out time taken to do certain jobs, such as thicknessing a piece of wood with a plane and comparing/contrasting that with the cost of buying a drum sander and processing the wood that way.</div><div>I then extended the case study to cost out the total thicknessing jobs (sides, neck, other components) for an acoustic guitar and compared that with the purchase and operation of a drum sander.</div><div><br></div><div>The results were pretty interesting.</div><div>Machinery is far more cost effective- what was surprising is that if you costed out your time at around £15 an hour (which isn't much) you are better off buying a brand new drum sander every year than you are to do it with a hand plane.</div><div><br></div><div>I did this because there is sometimes a bit of a snobbish attitude within the lutherie world against machinery- as though hand building is somehow *more worthy*.</div><div>I'm not against doing some stuff by hand- you still do a lot of building by hand anyway.</div><div>But machinery has its place too and for repetitive jobs like thicknessing there really is no justification for doing it by hand, at least on a financial level.</div><div><br></div><div>This was just one small part of the dissertation- I also looked at financing, company growth- I used PRS guitars as a case study for some of it.</div></div><div>Took me 2 years of semi-constant work. I am pretty happy it is finished but happy with the work too.</div>

ThePrettyDamned · April 2015

Wow awarded. Big congratulations! The acoustic looks really nice, one classy guitar.

WezV · April 2015

sounds good. I did a lot of Lean stuff in my previous job<div><br></div><div>I agree you often find a certain amount of snobbishness regarding hand tool use. For me its nice to have options, so I like to learn the hand done method and usually a few different ways of doing it with power tools too - even if I never use it again. Its only treally the finished result I care about</div><div><br></div><div>Its nice to know that the hand tools can be used when you have a situation where your normal method won't work. although I will admit that kind of thinking has very little to do with the lean production environment ... but a lot to do with making truly custom one off guitars</div>

octatonic · April 2015

Yes, you are right.<div> I'm not against having hand skills, either- I did spend two years of the degree doing everything by hand, other than a bit of bandsawing and drill-pressing.<div><br></div><div>The parlour guitar's binding was done by hand- but it is noticeably inferior to the 000 binding, which was done with the true-channel stuff.</div></div><div>I much prefer shaping the neck by hand- at least at the moment.</div><div>I know there are some people who CNC route them and if I ever develop a product line I might do the same.</div>

jellyroll · April 2015

Best of luck. That tele is lovely.

ToneControl · April 2015

keep me up to date with the ergonomic ones

octatonic · April 2015

<blockquote class="Quote"> <div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/1350/ToneControl">ToneControl</a> said:</div> <div class="QuoteText">keep me up to date with the ergonomic ones</div> </blockquote> Will do.<div><br></div><div>Thanks for all the positive comments, folks.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm still working out my processes- so far I've not produced anything I'd be happy to sell on.</div><div>There is nothing fundamentally wrong with any of the instruments but when I do something I want it to be as good as I can make it.</div><div>The current guitar builds have been done under university workshop timetable, which is only 6 hours a day, 5 days a week and I have to finish them to a schedule so I've had to take a few shortcuts in order to finish the degree on time.</div><div><br></div><div>Once I'm up and running I'll be able to work longer and more intensively and I'm going to make sure all the instruments are as good as I can make them.</div><div><br></div>

ToneControl · April 2015

other than light chambered Andersons & Suhrs, my most ergnomics at present are steinberger transcales and a PRS hollowbody<div><br></div><div>an ergonomic hollowbody with EMG 89s and active EQ could be the way to go for me</div>

octatonic · April 2015

Ever tried a Klein or Klein-style (Forshage, Canton)?<div><br></div>

ToneControl · April 2015

<blockquote class="Quote"> <div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/20/octatonic">octatonic</a> said:</div> <div class="QuoteText">Ever tried a Klein or Klein-style (Forshage, Canton)?<div><br></div></div> </blockquote> not yet

octatonic · April 2015

<blockquote class="Quote"> <div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/1350/ToneControl">ToneControl</a> said:</div> <div class="QuoteText"><blockquote class="Quote"> <div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/20/octatonic">octatonic</a> said:</div> <div class="QuoteText">Ever tried a Klein or Klein-style (Forshage, Canton)?<div><br></div></div> </blockquote> not yet</div> </blockquote> My ergonomic design will be closer to that style than Steinberger or Strandberg.<div>I've been working on getting some factual information regarding the ergonomic claims that have been associated with the various designs.</div><div><br></div><div>In many ways 'ergonomic' is more of a marketing term than anything else.</div><div>I'll have more to say on this later, once I have a bit more data.</div><div>It is entirely possible that I'll decide to avoid using the term 'ergonomic' if I cannot find sufficient evidence to support the claim.</div><div>'Headless' or 'moulded' might end up being better terms to use.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

gavin_axecaster · April 2015

Lovely looking guitars, congratulations.<br>What are you looking to use a laser for? Bear in mind that ABS/scratchplate material isn't suited for laser cutting (it will melt and almost always leaves a ridge on the underside), and some plastics give off noxious fumes. Acrylic on the other hand is great.<br><br>

WezV · April 2015

I have has fretboards and inlays laser cut before, even super thin pearl for laying under a finish. Thick pearl cant be cut on a laser, too much internal refraction But I guess the main use for a laser cutter would be templates and jigs

Mkjackary · April 2015

Wooden inlays (as opposed to mop) would work well being cut out with a laser cutter, would save a lot of time especially if they are intricate designs. such areas a mahogany tree of life inlay on a rosewood fingerboard. if you cut them correctly then it should be a tight fit. Would that work assuming the laser cutter was high enough resolution? Lovely tele that too. Good luck!

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