Hi
I said in impmann's Alembic-esque thread that I was kicking off a second 6-string electric build in parallel to his own build. It's a bit of an experiment and so I'm building it for myself.
Remember the piccolo bass I built for our band's bassist Pete?
Those who followed the thread might remember that it is essentially a 4-string electric. Same pitch, same scale length(s), even same neck width. And it weighs less than 6lb!
The curved back (notice a theme developing here?) also makes the neck to body transition super slim. This thing is a delight to play.
So ... a couple more strings .... another pickup - surely this has the potential for a 6 1/2lb electric...
With increasing numbers of born-again and never-went-away players suffering arthritis, and increasing numbers of women players and young players looking for something just a bit lighter - well, you never know.
It will be pretty much the same construction, but the neck will be from the laminated beam I'm also using for
@impmann 's Alembicesque:
...and the top is likely to be using this wonderful (but eye-wateringly expensive) piece of Amboyna from Kirk at Exotichardwoodsukltd.co.uk:
Probably go for ebony fretboard and non-multiscale frets.
And the reason for building in parallel (I usually do my projects one at a time)? Simply that the basic construction of the two guitars is going to be very similar so, when I get out, say, the thicknesser, it's as easy to thickness two pieces of wood as easily as one. Most builders will tell you that you spend a LOT more time getting the equipment out and putting it back than actually using it
I will also be trying to read across some of the design features into
@impmann 's build and, if there is an aspect I'm not sure about, I'll try it on my dodgy sprog before I risk the same assault on
@impmann 's beautiful baby
Comments
The timber for that will be on order tomorrow and I will need to put the wider rip saw blade back on the bandsaw. So while the narrower detailing blade is still on, I cut the top and wings for the half-sister build.
I've had a rethink about which wood to use for the top (see above), for reasons explained shortly. Instead of the Amboyna, I will use the other camphor laurel set from the pair that @Impmann chose his from. Here it is glued:
You can see that it came from a tree!
I cut the outline shape using the paper template I used for the piccolo bass, then did likewise for the mahogany back wings. The neck is taken from the same original blank that @impmann's came from but this one is super, super slim - the whole body is going to be 1" deep - just to illustrate how slim that actually is @impmann's chosen pickups on his, at 27mm, are actually deeper than my whole guitar is going to be .
The reason to go for the Camphor top rather than the Amboyna is all about the fretboard I'll be using. At HUGE expense (UK Customs were particularly happy with this one!) I got hold of another piece of snakewood from the States, similar to that used on the piccolo. Well - if this is going to be a bit of a showcase.....
The orange of the snakewood would have lost something of the contrast with the amboyna. On the other hand, here it is with the camphor:
And when the finish has been applied, it's going to be closer to this:
So now I can put the rip blade back onto the bandsaw ready to recut @impmann's Alembic-esque neck
The notch has been routed in the neck blank, at around 2 degrees angle so that when the mahogany wings are glued flush with it, the top and body will be at the correct angle to the neck for the bridge height.
Here are the components:
And placed in position:
Although it looks very similar to @impmann 's, it is in fact quite different.
Here, the neck is thinner than the body sections to allow for the convex and concave carves of the top and back respectively. The neck, and thus the body at it's thickest, in the centre, is around 1". But because of the neck angle dropaway, at the tail it is closer to 3/4".
Told you it was different.
Could all end in tears....
This, if you remember, is going to be curved in cross section, so I needed to know just how deep I can cut the weight relief chamber at different points from the neck join. From the back, it will look something (very approximately something!) like this:
The actual cutaway will be on the bottom only. The upper dotted line is just a datum.
So this is how deep I can go in mm. The fact that I can only go 6mm deep near the neck illustrates just how skinny this guitar is going to be:
Still got some chiselling to do, but the bulk is out:
And then at the back, to save a bit of effort, I've routed some carving steps:
So the router can be put away and the scroll saw brought onto the bench for both builds...
Instagram
Having said that, I will do the top manually - too much can go wrong too quickly with a router! - but I should have a decent curve at the back as my reference
http://www.rabswoodguitars.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/RabsWoodGuitars/
My Youtube page
Instagram
http://www.gilmerwood.com/
But any other sources would be good to know
Lovely looking fingerboard too!
In terms of weight, the total wood content is going to end up around 5lbs, assuming I don't do any more chambering. That's fairly comparable with the piccolo bass (which ended up at a touch under 6lbs total finished weight) but the hardware on this will, of course, be heavier.
Just got to cut out the control chamber and the back wings can then be glued to the neck
A small bit of progress but one that makes a difference
The f-hole is cut:
Next job is to confirm in my head what p/ups and controls. I'm tempted to take the p-rails out of my '2014 TheFretboard Summer Challenge' (was it THAT long ago??) build:
If I do, I'll probably go Neck Vol; Bridge Vol; Master Tone with and three-way and two micro toggles to give me the 4 P-rail options (there isn't the depth for push/pull or push/push)
First I cut out the control chamber shape from the back wing and then I glued both wings on. It looks much the same but now I only have to move two bits around rather than four
Here it is with the top loosely placed - I need to rout the cable runs and add the demarcation veneer before I glue it on: