Official Luthiers Forum!

Well as Colin is "coming out" (banjo wise) I suppose I had better 'fess up too and give all you OLF'ers a good laugh.

I get asked by my 4 daughters to make them guitars - unfortunately it's all electrics that they want . Well I finally gave in and made one for my youngest - Suzanna (15). She was a very demanding client and it was her design throughout - I just provided the wood and labour

It's based on a strat and used the elctric bits from a 3/4 sized Asian Squier copy that my friend had left over from putting together a "leftie" for his son. Interesting new tricks for me to learn and when in doubt I just treated it as an acoustic

She's called it Orion, and it has some pearl dot inlay on the back and headstock loosely symbolising the constellation Orion's belt. It is a zebrano and lime body (sounds like a drink!) with a Cedar of Lebanon neck (donated by my good friend Russell Rose) and EIR bound fingerboard. Zebrano front and back headstock veneer and black Gotoh tuners. Finish is Tru-oil on body and neck:




I managed to finish it on her birthday and it sounds and plays pretty good.

Speaking of Dark Side of the Moon, I'm off to watch the recording I made of last night's Later With Jools Holland with David Gilmour (plus Crosby and Nash), Paul Simon and Elvis Costello

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

That's really cool Dave! Welcome to the electric world. I think the guitar is really nice, now you need to learn about making a set neck electric! (It's just that I like those better, others may not...my opinion, you know) And also, I think that the sound would be a lot better if you didn't use the cheapo pickups...unlike acoustic guitars, electric pickups have a whole lot to do with the final sound, as much or more as anything else on the guitar.
And that sounds like a really cool TV show! I wish I could have seen it! We don't get it over here. But American Idol, oh yeah, we get that crap instead! <G>

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Mark,

Thanks. Point me in the direction of how to do set necks.

The great thing with these is that you can upgrade the electrics very easily - th body stays the same The cheapo's don't sound at all bad and are fine for Suzy to get started with her group (yes she has one formed already) and she is already becoming a mean guitar player. Sometime - I'm guessing sooner rather than later - a better set will be in there!

Sorry for American Idol - I assume us Brits are to blame as it's a spin off of Pop Idol.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Schweet!

Ain't nothing wrong with 'lectrics.

Dave, that guitar will definitely get her noticed! Um...you sure you want to do that?

Very Cool Dave

Really nice Dave! I can't wait to see the rest of them.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

That's a very pretty electric guitar Dave, your daughter must be proud!

Serge

[QUOTE]Sorry for American Idol - I assume us Brits are to blame as it's a spin off of Pop Idol.[/QUOTE]

    I'm dismayed! Usually the British have such good taste!

    I thought A.I. was American! Next your probably going to tell me Simon is British? I need to meditate for a while!!       

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Dave, that is a great guitar, right up to the standard of your acoustics. Every now and then I get the urge to build an electric, usually every time I hear Peter Green!

You've got FOUR daughters, and still relatively sane! Boy you've gone up in my estimation, still I guess they're not like my two sons, always coming to "borrow" tools.

By the way Dave, Dark side was only their second best, Wish You Were Here, was their best.

ColinColin S38865.2398726852

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Dave, I've been looking for more pics, but I don;t have very many of electric guitar neck joints. Here's one, this is showing the back of a guitar that has a "PRS" style neck joint. That's become my favorite one to use, I've also used Les Paul type joints. This one basically is simply a tight pocket that is sized to fit the whole width of the neck. A "foot" on the neck that extends under the front pickup allows more gluing room. There's a lot of gluing surface here! I am finishing up another and the neck isn't glued in yet, so I can take a picture for you.
It becomes a little more complicated when you need to put an angle on the neck. That involves a jig that has a angled topside for the router to sit on as you route the neck cavity.
Melvyn Hiscock's Book "build your own electric guitar" is a great book, it'll show you everything you need to know!
By the way, I like ALL of the early Pick Floyd stuff! Meddle and Obscured by Clouds are great.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Mark,

Thanks. I'll investigate further. The thing I liked about the strat type bolt on was the very simple set-screw neck angle adjuster that goes in there. Made me feel very at home!!

David Gilmour was just fantastic. Him and Richard Thompson just don't seem to age musically and I could watch them play electric forever. On one song last night David Gilmour had David Crosby and Graham Nash singing harmony - heaven Wish I could say the same about Paul Simon but . . .

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

I say this a lot, but David Myka's website (Mykaguitars.com) has some very pretty gutiars, and if you go to the gallery, pick a guitar, scroll down to the desciption, there's generally a link to construction pics which might be helpful.