Finished *Now with case* - 5-string slide guitar project

DartmoorHedgehog

I'm attempting to build a slide guitar, sort of inspired by this year's forum challenge.  It's going to be five strings, for open G tuning minus the bottom string (Keef style).  The intention is to keep it pretty low-tech using mostly tools and materials I have around, but I have bought some tuners and truss rod from forum members.

Most of the wood I have spare is building pine, and the general consensus was that it's probably best not to use softwood.  @Serratus seems to be doing OK with his pine Les Paul, but with my limited experience of building necks (none) I chickened out.  Luckily there was an old hardwood (possibly mahogany) window sill in my garage, so that became my neck wood.

The plan is to make a through-neck design to avoid having to make a neck joint, and use a Fender-style non-angled headstock.  I intend to use threaded rod for the nut and bridge, like on a cigar box guitar, and no frets, at least initially.  If it's successful I may get keen later and make a proper nut and bridge, and may even have a go at fretting it.

First task was to cut the neck roughly to size out of the window sill, which I did a couple of weekends ago when it was dry outside.  The best tool I had for the job is a circular saw, so I rigged up a guide with some other wood and trimmed it down.  All went pretty successfully.

The next challenge was how to make the slot for the truss rod.  I had the day off work today and had some time to spare, so got stuck in.  Skinny chisel seemed the best bet until my dad mentioned he had an old hand router plane that he'd inherited but never used.  It really is old-school but did the job really well, if pretty slowly - took me well over an hour, with lots of stops to adjust and sharpen the blade.  The truss rod (fancy StewMac one I bought from @gjonesy) fits in nicely.  I've put the adjuster at the body end, hopefully making the headstock a bit stronger.

Just had time to glue a couple of spare bits of wood to widen the headstock end of the neck before my daughter came back from school.

Routing the truss rod slot was the thing I think I was most worried about cocking up.  I'm pretty happy with how that worked out in the end - that old routing plane is a nifty little tool.

Haven't quite decided on the body shape yet...  I'd like to avoid the obvious LP or Tele shape, possibly something mandolin influenced...

Andyjr1515

That looks very good indeed. Nice work with the router plane...not an easy tool first time of trying - you've done well =D>

DartmoorHedgehog

Andyjr1515 said:

That looks very good indeed. Nice work with the router plane...not an easy tool first time of trying - you've done well =D>

Thanks.  I made sure I kept it sharp and lowered the blade a tiny bit at a time to try to avoid it digging in, and it seemed to work well.  I think I ended up with a tidier slot than I would have made with a chisel, although it did take ages and wore through the palm of my hand.  Quite a cool tool really - and the blade happened to be exactly the right width for the truss rod I had

Roland

Nice job. Will you use "building pine" for the body?

marktheharp

Good job .will be following this

DartmoorHedgehog

Roland said:

Nice job. Will you use "building pine" for the body?

Probably, as it's not structural anyway and easy to work with (and I've got loads of it),

Thanks for the comments folks.

DartmoorHedgehog

Not much progress today, too much other stuff that needed doing while it's dry, but I managed to get the headstock cut to thickness.  Decided to put a very slight angle on it just so it doesn't annoy me while I'm playing it - Fender straight headstocks just look plain wrong (ducks for cover)

Here's a few pics:

DartmoorHedgehog

It now has a headstock.  Still a fair amount of blending to do, but I'll do that when I shape the back of the neck.

Ended up looking a bit like a flying-V headstock - don't think I want to do a V though... still leaning towards a mandolinesque shape for the body.

Got the posh Grovers from @sweepy

DartmoorHedgehog

Decided on the body shape, slightly inspired by the Jackson Roswell thread.  I didn't want the long top horn though, so it's ended up like an OR gate from an electronics diagram

BigMonka

haha, very cool - there definitely should be more guitars shaped after logic gates!

DartmoorHedgehog

Right, the GuitOR now has a body.  Looks quite good I reckon, and feels a fairly sensible weight (weighed about a million tons with the body wings on before I cut it out - I was starting to think I was going to have to Swiss cheese it to make it bearable).

Here it is with the body cut out and smoothed off.

Not bad looking wood in the natural state, and I nearly left it at that, but I've got loads of purple ink left over from staining the acoustic top I made last year, so it had to be done...  It's come out quite an interesting vivid colour, with the grain still nicely visible.  This is after two coats of dilute ink, rubbing down between coats.  No varnish yet, so it'll end up slightly darker than it looks here.

I'll seal it with a quick wipe over of varnish, then next job is to shape the back of the neck I think.  Lots of filing ahead...

DartmoorHedgehog

Body colour looks really good after the sealing coat of varnish.

I've carved the back of the neck roughly to shape (with angle grinder and flap disc).  I'll do the rest of it with something more subtle, but it worked well for getting rid of the bulk of the unwanted wood

DartmoorHedgehog

Shaped the back of neck more today using a Stanley knife blade as a scraper.  Looking quite like a real neck now, although it still looks a bit bulbous at the headstock joint - I'm being paranoid and trying to keep it strong, but it may be slightly over the top at the mo.  Feels fine as it is though.

Sporky

Nice work - and that's a fantastic colour.

DartmoorHedgehog

Sporky said:

Nice work - and that's a fantastic colour.

Thanks.  Purple can be a bit of an opinion divider but I like it - bit of a sad old goth.  I'm not sure about the headstock end of the neck though.  I was trying to keep it thick to make sure it's definitely strong enough, this being my first attempt at making a neck, but although it feels fine it looks a bit over-meaty to me.  Perhaps I could take a bit more off without making it too weak, or perhaps I should just get used to the look.

Nomad

If the neck and headstock are carved from a single piece, and if the grain runs decently straight, then I think I'd take a lot of the bulbous bit off.

Have a look at some already-made guitars and see how much wood there is at the transition from neck to headstock. Take measurements (including the truss rod rout) and estimate the cross-sectional area. If yours has that at least, then it should be fine - you also have one string less tension than a normal 6-string.

DartmoorHedgehog

@Nomad, I think I could take a fair bit more off.  Due to my lack of experience and random piece of wood I've used (although it doesn't look bad and the grain is in the right direction) I tried to err on the over-engineered side, but it is a bit overkill at the moment.  I'll probably take a bit more off - I agree most guitars, even mahogany necked ones, are much more slender round that area.

DartmoorHedgehog

I've remodelled the headstock end of the neck, making it a bit skinnier without risking being too weak.  Looks much better I reckon.

DartmoorHedgehog

Something that has occurred to me is that I've probably got a bit more of a step from the face of the neck to the headstock than necessary.  My original plan was to be slide only with no proper fretboard, but when I changed my mind and decided to put a fretboard on I didn't remember to change the headstock to compensate.  Think I'm going to end up with quite a steep break angle over the nut, but I'm sure it'll work OK.

DartmoorHedgehog

Behold the Bodge-o-matic bridge

(Scraps of stainless sheet and old mains plug pins)

Sporky

That bridge is awesome.