.. 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.
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(Obviously, you can only put one pickup on a guitar, so if you want two different sounds, you need two different guitars).
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!
... if the house, the garden or work doesn't take priority.
https://i.imgur.com/rELm01T.jpg?1
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.
http://www.rabswoodguitars.co.uk/
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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.
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"!
For making half of the mortice & tenon joint. Most useful in cabinet making!
(Don't suppose you want an old photographic enlarger @Shark_Eyes ??)
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.
Thas some gert lush timber ! Loverly !!!!!!!!
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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 ...