I'm in the planning stages for a couple of builds at the moment. I'm doing some DIY on the house, so build time is limited for another couple of weeks.
Anyway, I have some old and new Gretsch parts to use and want to do a Jet style Baritone.
It won't be a clone of anything Gretsch, but will be very reminiscent of them.
The basic design will be a tweaked jet body outline, increased in size by 10%. (based on the John Catto Duo Jet plans availble here
https://www.electricherald.com/gretsch-duo-jet-templates/ ) This is how that looks with a 28" scale length.
That's 14.5" across the lower bout. Roughly an inch bigger than a Jet, but a lot smaller than the biggest hollowbodies. I'm going to make it as a "solidbody" similar to a Jet I think.
I've not decided on the top yet but am going to have a play with vacuum pressing my own laminate top, maybe even with a drum wrap layer on top... if that doesn't go to plan I will carve a top for it.
I've cut a body template. Ignore pickup routes and plate though
I'm gonna need a G model name to make these parts work
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Those parts cleaned up really nicely.
Wikipedia’s list will take a while to read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_by_common_name
First is the laminate top idea.. I started a thread recently about drum wrap finishing. It became apparent I would get better results if I could vacuum form it to carved tops so I started looking into that.
A while back I found a company that makes handpumped vacuum bags for skateboard construction. They now do sizes suitable for guitars. If it works its a low cost way into this process with many projects I could use it for. I've ordered direct as the UK distributer was out of stock. They do show some guitar projects on their socials
https://www.roarockit.eu/en/
I also have some old ply plates from the gretsch factory, but they are for a bigger body size... they will however be used as a reference for my experiments here.
This is what Gretsch traditionally refer to as a "soild body"
Note the filler piece of wood that sits between body and pressed ply top - it's not a million miles from those dodgy Les Paul copies
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If I do go this way it will likely be european spruce for the filler piece. It won't matter too much tonally, but will be easy to shape to fit.
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I should have the vacuum bag tomorrow so will do some tests with laminating veneers and shaping it to curves, which is far more exciting to me
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I now have everything needed
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I have 3 bits of non-flat veneer, constructional maple, dyed poplar, and poplar burl. I'm going to laminate these next to a flat piece of cherry.
they go in the bag with some netting on top, this allows good air flow to the valve - then I start pumping
Lets see what comes out the bag tomorrow
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No, I've only ever used it for straight forward gluing jobs, flat tops etc. I have no doubt that it will work just fine for that though.
a coupe of wrinkles in the burl layer, but a lot of it is still usable.
I've ordered some big sheets of veneer for full tops
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