Any Guitar Builders?

[kissTheSky]

I think “music” would be the best sub-forum to put this. 
 

My hobby, one of them anyway, is building solid body electric guitars. I still consider myself a novice when it comes to it, but I’ve a number of finished builds, and roughly around 8-9 that would be anywhere from 10% to 95% complete.

Here are some photos. 

[wheelsup_cavu]

I can't play one to save my soul but those are some nice looking builds. 😎

 

Wheels

[kissTheSky]

3 minutes ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

I can't play one to save my soul but those are some nice looking builds. 😎

 

Wheels

Thanks! I can’t play to save my life either 🤣. My wife says I spend so much time building, no time to practice. 🤔 

[wheelsup_cavu]

Lol, those who can't, teach OR in this instance build... 😁

Wheels

[ÆþelrædUnræd]

Not a guitar, but I did build this six-stringed beauty ❤️:

A Germanic lyre, built in a kind-of-Sutton-Hoo-style-but-not-quite. As my nickname pretty much gives away, I'm fascinated with the ancient Germanics (which includes but is not at all limited to the Anglo-Saxons) so I thought it'd be fun to have a lyre 🙂

[kissTheSky]

2 hours ago, ÆþelrædUnræd said:

Not a guitar, but I did build this six-stringed beauty ❤️:

A Germanic lyre, built in a kind-of-Sutton-Hoo-style-but-not-quite. As my nickname pretty much gives away, I'm fascinated with the ancient Germanics (which includes but is not at all limited to the Anglo-Saxons) so I thought it'd be fun to have a lyre 🙂

That’s really cool! How long did it take to build it?

[ÆþelrædUnræd]

34 minutes ago, kissTheSky said:

That’s really cool! How long did it take to build it?

Well, thanks! It's a pretty simple instrument, really, so it didn't take too long. It's been a few years, but I guess three or four days or so, including the time for the glue to set? My father was trained as a carpenter so he helped me with most of it.

So, how does that compare to an electric guitar? Besides the body having a more complicated shape, I guess the wiring takes a couple of hours to do as well?

[kissTheSky]

I take a lot of breaks while building, so my builds take quite long, but if I were to focus on one build, and work on it every day, I think it would be possibly 2-3 weeks. Of course, the type of finish adds time as well. If you’re applying paint, it adds about however long of a curing time it needs. 

[Boomerang]

On 5/30/2023 at 12:29 AM, kissTheSky said:

My hobby, one of them anyway, is building solid body electric guitars.

Hi,

Those guitar builds are really nice. Is that a Wenge fretboard on the S H, (3rd guitar on the right) with the gorgeous Flamed Birds Eye Maple neck?

Really like the designs you went for. I'm by no means a guitar builder, but I am in the process of many projects that are quite slow going.

On my do do list, (lol bucket list), are: 5150, Frankenstrat, ibanez 80's swirl with pyramid inlays , Lynch inspired "Zero" build, and a Lynch "Skull".

I have most of the parts already and have re shaped a couple of necks that were already roughly manufactured. Good Luthier tools are expensive aren't they!

Body and necks, came from Europe, Japan, USA, and Russia and needed the usual sanding etc, I prefer receiving them that way, it's nice to see what it is your actually getting.

Thanks for sharing 🙂

 

[Boomerang]

On 5/31/2023 at 7:16 PM, kissTheSky said:

If you’re applying paint

My go to for primer, filler bases is a 4:1 Epoxy Primer. One step application where a white, black, or grey base can also be achieved using the same product. High fill is also an option, depending on how it's reduced.

The brand I use is based on another brand originally called "Spray Chief" . It's suited for, Metal, timber, aluminium, fibreglass and seems to be okay for most plastics.

[kissTheSky]

1 hour ago, Boomerang said:

Hi,

Those guitar builds are really nice. Is that a Wenge fretboard on the S H, (3rd guitar on the right) with the gorgeous Flamed Birds Eye Maple neck?

Really like the designs you went for. I'm by no means a guitar builder, but I am in the process of many projects that are quite slow going.

On my do do list, (lol bucket list), are: 5150, Frankenstrat, ibanez 80's swirl with pyramid inlays , Lynch inspired "Zero" build, and a Lynch "Skull".

I have most of the parts already and have re shaped a couple of necks that were already roughly manufactured. Good Luthier tools are expensive aren't they!

Body and necks, came from Europe, Japan, USA, and Russia and needed the usual sanding etc, I prefer receiving them that way, it's nice to see what it is your actually getting.

Thanks for sharing 🙂

 

Good eye! Yes the Ibanez JS clone is with a compound radius wenge fretboard and birdseye maple neck. In fact, all of the builds are 250mm-360mm compound radius. 
 

The list you have is a great list. I’m afraid my soldering skills would allow for a static free amp, so I’m leaving amp build(s) too much later. 
good luck with your builds. I’d love see them here in this thread if/when you have stuff to share..

[kissTheSky]

1 hour ago, Boomerang said:

My go to for primer, filler bases is a 4:1 Epoxy Primer. One step application where a white, black, or grey base can also be achieved using the same product. High fill is also an option, depending on how it's reduced.

The brand I use is based on another brand originally called "Spray Chief" . It's suited for, Metal, timber, aluminium, fibreglass and seems to be okay for most plastics.

Thanks! All of my finishes having been wiped on oil/poly, I haven’t looked into primers a lot, but at least two builds will require some studying to to (metallic baby blue finish and a chameleon like the Ibanez JS90, you can tell I’m a Joe Satriani fanboi :))

[Boomerang]

2 hours ago, kissTheSky said:

I’m a Joe Satriani fanboi 🙂

Yes, same here. I have a JS900, (it's actually a JS1000, same coloured body and it's stamped as a 1000 in the neck pocket). The only real difference being the colour of the hardware and the 1000's have the push pull tone. Steve Vai is a cool cat as well. ibanez guitars are one of my all time favourite brands, amongst the many. I've finished the pyramid neck. It's okay being my first inlay job. The radius on that one ended up being a 16' and it's D profile is 17mm at the first fret and 19mm on the 12th. Feels nice and slippery. The finish I chose was Tru Oil and then a wax based product. Baby blue is a nice colour, I remember looking at the pastels in the past. With the 5150, I only need to fine sand the neck and then start the paint process on the body. Like the EVH amps as well, my son recently purchased an "iconic" 5150 head which sounds great!

[kissTheSky]

8 hours ago, Boomerang said:

Yes, same here. I have a JS900, (it's actually a JS1000, same coloured body and it's stamped as a 1000 in the neck pocket). The only real difference being the colour of the hardware and the 1000's have the push pull tone. Steve Vai is a cool cat as well. ibanez guitars are one of my all time favourite brands, amongst the many. I've finished the pyramid neck. It's okay being my first inlay job. The radius on that one ended up being a 16' and it's D profile is 17mm at the first fret and 19mm on the 12th. Feels nice and slippery. The finish I chose was Tru Oil and then a wax based product. Baby blue is a nice colour, I remember looking at the pastels in the past. With the 5150, I only need to fine sand the neck and then start the paint process on the body. Like the EVH amps as well, my son recently purchased an "iconic" 5150 head which sounds great!

Nice! The sign at the back of the headstock is Joe’s signature as well. I took it to a meet and greet for him to sign it.  I call it a JS6400 as it’s mostly a JS6000 with 24 frets :).

[Boomerang]

3 hours ago, kissTheSky said:

I took it to a meet and greet for him to sign it.  I call it a JS6400 as it’s mostly a JS6000 with 24 frets :).

Cool, always wondered why Joe chose 22 frets rather than having the extra 2. That's the beauty of "Custom".

I took these this morning on my phone, it's cold, dark and gloomy here at present.

 

[Boomerang]

Jescar stainless Jumbo frets.

[kissTheSky]

11 hours ago, Boomerang said:

Cool, always wondered why Joe chose 22 frets rather than having the extra 2. That's the beauty of "Custom".

I took these this morning on my phone, it's cold, dark and gloomy here at present.

 

Really nice. 

[wheelsup_cavu]

Like the quality of the builds but I feel like I need to take a foreign language class to understand what is being discussed.

 

Wheels

[kissTheSky]

4 hours ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

Like the quality of the builds but I feel like I need to take a foreign language class to understand what is being discussed.

 

Wheels

Wood names/species and fret material :). Standard guitar language. 

[Bobo]

A buddy out of the blue ask me if I knew how to swap out Humbuckers...I don't but it really got me thinking about guitars.  I don't play guitar but I've played many other instruments. Anyway he said he was building a kit guitar.  I really started to think about it and decided I wanted to make a kit guitar
So I bought a Harley Benton SC kit.  
Really fun and not too bad of an ax, I spend about a month preparing and painting and finishing.  It only turned out ok.  I could use much more practice.  I swapped out the bridge, nut and tuners and it behaves very nice.  Now I wish I knew how to do the pickup wiring so I could put better ones in.  The HB ones aren't terrible, but they're not great either.
It's way more fun than I ever imagined, I built a pedalboard and can make some pretty weird noises!!

[kissTheSky]

That looks quite well done!  Be warned, you’re at the start of a slippery slope. There may not be returning back 😂

[Boomerang]

16 hours ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

feel like I need to take a foreign language class to understand what is being discussed

🙂 Know what you mean, been there my self.

[Boomerang]

37 minutes ago, Bobo said:

Now I wish I knew how to do the pickup wiring so I could put better ones in.

Pick up selection is one thing 🙂 other doors then open relating to polarities, pickup phase etc. There are some good tutorials on YTube from Luthiers that explain this very well.

47 minutes ago, Bobo said:

I built a pedalboard and can make some pretty weird noises!

"Weird noises" ?. Sometimes this can relate to: Power source, un potted pickups, or bad or loose connections.

[Bobo]

The weird noises are my way to say awesome sounds...not problematic.
I love that you guys can build from scratch, that gives you complete control over the components.  It would be awesome to have the tools and skills.
I figure I want to build another one, the kits are great fun and really cheap considering.  Maybe a bass, why not!
The kit I have is an excellent victim for me to learn all the setup arts.  I've done the torsion bar adjustments, fret work, bridge saddle intonation (I'm an asshole about tuning) nut filing and other interesting things and it's been quite the learning experience.
My BigBug isn't fancy but I loved building it and playing it and I'm proud of it.  Very Kool!

[Boomerang]

Hear what your saying about the tuning.

I don't have all the machinery either In order to start from the complete beginning. A CNC would sure come in handy.