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octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
edited September 2015 in Made in the UK
Hi all, 

Figured it was time for me to start a thread about my builds.
I am 6 week away from graduating from London Met's musical instruments degree.
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.

We are in the process of moving out of London- I'll then be tooling up to build.

If people remember I built a parlour guitar last year.
This year I have built two instruments- a Martin 000 style acoustic and a Telecaster.

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.

Telecaster is a one piece swamp ash body, maple neck, butterscotch finish, Callaham hardware, Duncan pickups.

Some pics:

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Comments

  • Best of luck with this.

    I'm looking forward to more pictures of the acoustic (back and sides would be cool) when it is finished up.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    For sure mate.

    Here are a couple of build pics of the back and sides.

    image

    image
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    BIG Congratulations!

    Where are you headed geographically, and have you decided what sort of instruments you're going to build?
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    TTony said:
    BIG Congratulations!

    Where are you headed geographically, and have you decided what sort of instruments you're going to build?
    Thanks Tony- not quite done yet but I handed in my dissertation yesterday, which is quite a milestone.

    We are looking at areas around Burford, in the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire.

    I'm game for anything in terms of custom builds.
    Primarily interested in headless ergonomic guitars, Martin style acoustics and bolt-on electrics.
    I'm not at the stage of developing a product line and might not be for a while yet.

    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.
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16547

    congrats.  

     

    What was your dissertation on?

     

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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    They both look superb. I'm interested to see what the headless ergonomic guitar looks like.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    edited April 2015
    Cheers Wez.

    My dissertation was looking at Lean Production methodology and applying it the craft production of electric and acoustic guitars.

    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.
    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.

    The results were pretty interesting.
    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.

    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*.
    I'm not against doing some stuff by hand- you still do a lot of building by hand anyway.
    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.

    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.
    Took me 2 years of semi-constant work. I am pretty happy it is finished but happy with the work too.
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  • Wow awarded.

    Big congratulations! The acoustic looks really nice, one classy guitar.
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16547
    sounds good.  I did a lot of Lean stuff in my previous job

    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

    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
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    Yes, you are right.
     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.

    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.
    I much prefer shaping the neck by hand- at least at the moment.
    I know there are some people who CNC route them and if I ever develop a product line I might do the same.
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  • jellyrolljellyroll Frets: 3073
    Best of luck. That tele is lovely.
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  • ToneControlToneControl Frets: 11791
    keep me up to date with the ergonomic ones
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    keep me up to date with the ergonomic ones
    Will do.

    Thanks for all the positive comments, folks.

    I'm still working out my processes- so far I've not produced anything I'd be happy to sell on.
    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.
    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.

    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.

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  • ToneControlToneControl Frets: 11791
    other than light chambered Andersons & Suhrs, my most ergnomics at present are steinberger transcales and a PRS hollowbody

    an ergonomic hollowbody with EMG 89s and active EQ could be the way to go for me
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    Ever tried a Klein or Klein-style (Forshage, Canton)?

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  • ToneControlToneControl Frets: 11791
    octatonic said:
    Ever tried a Klein or Klein-style (Forshage, Canton)?

    not yet
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    octatonic said:
    Ever tried a Klein or Klein-style (Forshage, Canton)?

    not yet
    My ergonomic design will be closer to that style than Steinberger or Strandberg.
    I've been working on getting some factual information regarding the ergonomic claims that have been associated with the various designs.

    In many ways 'ergonomic' is more of a marketing term than anything else.
    I'll have more to say on this later, once I have a bit more data.
    It is entirely possible that I'll decide to avoid using the term 'ergonomic' if I cannot find sufficient evidence to support the claim.
    'Headless' or 'moulded' might end up being better terms to use.


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  • gavin_axecastergavin_axecaster Frets: 526
    tFB Trader
    Lovely looking guitars, congratulations.
    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.

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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16547
    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
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  • MkjackaryMkjackary Frets: 776
    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! :)
    I'm not a McDonalds burger. It is MkJackary, not Mc'Jackary... It's Em Kay Jackary. Mkay?
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