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my electric/acoustic guitar
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Author:  Mark Swanson [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:23 pm ]
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Here are a few pics of an electric/acoustic guitar that I built. It has a piezo pickup in it, and a preamp that I built as well. A while back, I built a "mezzaluna" bass that was designed by R.M.Mottola (you can easily find his website, he's a GAL contributor and there are lots of nice plans there) and I liked it a lot. it had some interesting design features. After I built that bass, I thought it would be great to have a guitar with these same ideas....so here it is.
The bridge houses the piezo pickup. The bridge sits in a pocket in the top, and it rides on two set screws that you can access from the two holes in the back. That way you can easily adjust the action! The door for the controls is magnetic, the battery is under there. It's very light, being mostly hollow. There is one fairly stout brace directly under the bridge that has two screw inserts for the set screws, and I used a spruce top that was too small for anything else...I am really surprised at how loud it is acoustically! And plugged in, it really works well. Other than the spruce top, the rest of the guitar is cherry.
Author:  Mark Swanson [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:25 pm ]
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By the way, these pics are Steve Kinnards' fault. His cool telecaster inspired me to take these.
Here's a shot of the back, you can see the door and the cover plate with the holes a bit better. I love cherry!
Author:  Mark Swanson [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:27 pm ]
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Here's the front...you can see the slider for volume, and the knob I made from a bass string ball.
Since this guitar was built for me, and a bit of an experiment I used whatever wood I had, and you can see some flaws and small knots in the cherry. I don't care. Mark Swanson38607.8948263889
Author:  Mark Swanson [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:29 pm ]
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And the peghead...
By the way, all I have is the volume control on this guitar and I like the way it's side-mounted and not in the top. There is no need for me to ever use a tone control, I don't need 'em!

Mark Swanson38607.8971064815
Author:  Jason [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:49 pm ]
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Cool guitar, looks great. Kinda reminds me of the Taylor T5
Author:  CarltonM [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:49 pm ]
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[QUOTE=Mark Swanson] Since this guitar was built for me, and a bit of an experiment I used whatever wood I had, and you can see some flaws and small knots in the cherry. [/QUOTE]

Cool results, Mark!   I'd much rather have a good guitar built out of flawed wood than the other way around! BTW, I agree--tone controls just take up space and solder.
Author:  BruceH [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:02 pm ]
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Mark- Interesting design. Very nice.

I really like the cherry. The knots and small "flaws" give it real character.

You wouldn't have any pics of the innards would you? Or how about a couple of sound clips?

Thanks.

Author:  WalterK [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:30 pm ]
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Hi Mark!!!
Very very nice guitar.
Congrat's.
I bet it sounds as good as it looks. Earthy!
Is your logo a water-slide design application?
Looks clean.

Walter
Author:  Don Williams [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:38 pm ]
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Coolness!
Author:  Jim Watts [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:18 pm ]
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Pretty cool Mark!
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:21 pm ]
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Mark--now I'm inspired! Great guitar, which has a John Calkin vibe to it. I love the cherry also, and the Tortoisoid looks great paired with it.

Built your own preamp?! That's cool!

Steve
Author:  Mark Swanson [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:02 pm ]
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Thanks...no pics of the inside, or sound clips, sorry. And yes, that's a waterslide decal. it shows a faint "ghost". If I had hit it at first with a little bit heavier lacquer coat it would have melted that in and it wouldn't show- but it's a fine line! Too much finish and it'll melt the whole thing and blur it.
I really have an interest in guitar electronics and have had for years. I make all my own pickups and preamps, I wind the magnetic ones and use piezo wire to make my own under-saddle acoustic pickups. Some of the preamps have two inputs, and can be used with a piezo, a magnetic, or a mic- choose two - and they have a blend control. I can set them up for electric or acoustic guitar. The one in this guitar is a simpler, one pickup system. Sometimes I wish that I had put a magnetic pickup on it too but then it wouldn't have a clean top and I'd need to use nickel wound strings and it wouldn't have as good of an acoustic sound.
Here's a picture of a couple of the preamps, and this one is set up to fit on the endpin jack in an acoustic guitar. The one soldered onto the jack is loaded with all of the teeny components, and the other two are PC boards ready for the components. I need to use a magnifying visor to solder those things up!
Mark Swanson38608.0122569444
Author:  BlueSpirit [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 4:21 pm ]
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WOW! Great looking work. Very nice.
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:36 pm ]
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Great work as always, Mark! I think the design elements, details, woods and colors all work nicely together. That volume slider looks cool!
Author:  RussellR [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:18 pm ]
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Lovely Work, and building your own electronics is cool.
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Tue Sep 13, 2005 3:41 am ]
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Really impressive, Mark.

Tell us--did you make your own decal? If so, could you describe the process? (There's hope I could learn that...but forget the electronics, I'll leave that to you.)

Steve
Author:  Dave Anderson [ Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:51 am ]
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Very cool looking guitar Mark. I really like your side volumn control.That Cherry is neat too !!
Author:  Mark Swanson [ Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:18 am ]
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Steve, here is a picture of the decal paper that you can get at any good hobby/craft store, or on the web. It's a Testors product. This will let you make designs on your computer, and then print them onto the decal paper. Anything you want! Then, you need to spray the printed surface with some "fixative", this helps the decal stay together as you place it in the water. they are more fragile than a commercially made decal but once you get the hang of them you can get quite good results. Lacquer will melt them, so you need to lay on a few very light coats at first. Some use lacquer as the fixitive, you can do that- but if you look closely in the picture, I used it for a fixative and I got it a bit heavy and it blurred some of the logos. This paper comes in two types, one has a clear background, and one has a white background, since your printer will not print white. Using mettallic colors is also a problem, unless someone knows where to get mettalic ink for your printer! The better your printer and artwork, the better your decals.
It helps if you know someone who is a good graphics artist! My friend Dan Sharp made all of these cool logos for me, and the "Dusty Chaps" logo belongs to a friend. It's his alter-ego, when he's picking his telecaster. <G> Mark Swanson38609.5158796296
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Wed Sep 14, 2005 5:02 am ]
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Perfect, Mark--thanks.
Looks from the label that you got it at Hobby Lobby.
I was just at a H.L. yesterday. Next time I'll look around.

Steve
Author:  LanceK [ Wed Sep 14, 2005 5:44 am ]
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Mark, Sweet guitar!
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