It's been a while ..

TTony

.. what with moving, and then sorting the various problems with the new house, and keeping the acres under control, and working, there's not been a lot of time for guitar-workshopping.

Slightly frustratingly, the workshop has been out there, sort-of set-up and almost-ready to be used, but I've not had the time to do anything of any real substance.

But now I'm "resting" between work contracts, the guitaring time has arrived!

These two were both started at the last place, and almost finished, but neither were finished to playable state.



Over the past 12-15 months, this first one has been living in a shed, a storage contained and then a summer house.  I'd stolen the pickup out of it, but left it strung up.  In with a new p'up (it's an Oil City - naturally - tapped Firewatch), re-string it, cut the nut properly, adjust the intonation, and add some strap buttons (which I did after I took the photos) and it's good to go.

The neck needed a very minor tweak (1/8th turn, no more) to straighten it.






That's a one-piece Ash body that I extracted from a "raw" plank.  I didn't initially think that it was going to be usable due to some defects in the wood, but as I thicknessed it, the defect started to disappear.  I was balancing more-thicknessing to get rid of the defect and stop-thicknessing so I'd have a viable thickness for a guitar body.

TTony

It was intended as a brother / sister to this one (which is one of my favourites);



(Obviously, you can only put one pickup on a guitar, so if you want two different sounds, you need two different guitars).

TTony

And this was the second one to get finally finished today.

Not a lot to do, but the output jack was "dodgy", the intonation was more outonation and the wiring wasn't the neatest that I've ever done) which probably explains the "dodgy" output jack too.



I can't claim any credit for the beauty of that wood - that's a @GSPBasses special.  I just stained it, put it together (not very well first time around), and added the electrics (Oil City again).

The mini-tog is a bypass switch.  Both p'ups are split/tapped via push/pulls on the vol and tone controls.   There's a lot of wiring underneath that control plate!

TTony

Next up might be something involving these ...





... if the house, the garden or work doesn't take priority.

mikem8634

Wow, beautiful necks

lysander

All of them awesome looking builds ! Loving the minimal but super inviting look of the first two, I just want to pick them up and start playing.

MtB

I may be in possession of one of the siblings to that thar neck. It is a thing of beauty. As is the latest roasted maple JM neck that Graham has crafted for me.

https://i.imgur.com/rELm01T.jpg?1

TTony

MtB said:

I may be in possession of one of the siblings to that thar neck.

You may well!

I'd been looking after a slab of rosewood that I bought from DD's years ago, until I felt confident enough to make a neck from it.  Eventually I realised that Graham makes far better necks than I'd ever be able to, and that I was far more likely to turn the rosewood into firewood. 

So, I sent it to Graham instead and he did the rest.


That was sometime last year, but it's top of my list for doing something with now.

Roland

TTony said:

... if the house, the garden or work doesn't take priority.

The good news is that, once the autumn pruning and digging has been done, there's not much more can be done in the garden until next year.

TTony

Roland said:

TTony said:

... if the house, the garden or work doesn't take priority.

The good news is that, once the autumn pruning and digging has been done, there's not much more can be done in the garden until next year.

Apart from 120 sq m of patio to be laid ...

Rabs

Lovely... I love the simple design of the first two...  Really makes the wood itself shine more.

axisus

Nice stuff there. 

BigMonka

TTony said:

And this was the second one to get finally finished today.

Not a lot to do, but the output jack was "dodgy", the intonation was more outonation and the wiring wasn't the neatest that I've ever done) which probably explains the "dodgy" output jack too.

I've got one of the siblings of your thinline, it's lovely, as is yours.
What is the widerange humbucker you've got in there? What's it like? I've always had half a plan to change my Mojo '52 tele neck pickup to a WRHB.

BigMonka

Oh and did you ever post pictures of your finished workshop? We all love a bit of workshop inspiration and I remember yours was going to be massive!

TTony

@bigmonka - the widerange HB is an Oil City unit although I don't see it on Ash's current website.



Re the workshop ... I sort of had it all set up and usable, perfect for guitar building and the odd (little) DiY task.  But then I started a cabinet making course (watch out for a "new cupboard day" thread coming shortly!) and acquired some more machinery, which will disrupt my neatly planned workshop when I work out how to fit it in ...

Main guitar area is reasonably well set-up (although I need to put the remaining ceiling insulation on the ceiling rather than on the planer!).




I even found a spot for my old (1980s) combo amp in the corner, which is quite handy when doing guitar set-ups!


The other side of the workshop isn't quite as well arranged;


I'm going to turn one of the central desks through 90deg, which will make space for the router table at the far end.  I guess a router table will be quite handy for guitar-related work too - it'll make some tasks easier than always using a hand-held.

And then I bought this beastie ...



... which has no use in guitar building but also needs to be found a home in the workshop. 

And I want to get it right first time, because it weighs a lot and moving it is a "challenge"!

Shark_Eyes

What is that? It looks like a cross between a photographic enlarger and a stamp/press.

TTony

Shark_Eyes said:

What is that? It looks like a cross between a photographic enlarger and a stamp/press.

Bench morticer.

For making half of the mortice & tenon joint.  Most useful in cabinet making!

(Don't suppose you want an old photographic enlarger @Shark_Eyes ; ??)

Shark_Eyes

@TTony Ha ha, I just got rid of mine a few months ago. Although we're moving house next week, so there may be an opportunity for a dark room. PM me some specs and I'll see if I've got space for it.

BigMonka

@TTony your workshop does look great :-)
Looking forward to hearing about the cabinet making course too, I'd love to go on something like that - I'm probably more likely to find a local one than a guitar-building course too.

Jalapeno

TTony said:

Next up might be something involving these ...





... if the house, the garden or work doesn't take priority.

WOWs applied.

Thas some gert lush timber ! Loverly !!!!!!!!

TTony

Jalapeno said:

Thas some gert lush timber ! Loverly !!!!!!!!

It is quite nice.

Rather than trying to put that top on a Strat type body, I'm thinking that I might use a piece of nicely-figured Ash for a S-body with the RW neck, and then put the purdy top on a one-piece Honduran mahogany body that I've got. 

Fortunately, I've also got a couple of GSP-made LP style neck blanks too, so that top plus the Mahogany and one of the LP style necks could be turned into something double-cutaway ish ...