Builder Just Joined The Forum

[Andy54]

Hello,
I've recently been accepted as a forum member and would like to introduce myself. I live on the Far Nth Coast of NSW in the Tweed River area. I do repairs and adjustments for friends and acquaintances. The last job was a neck reset on a 2007 Maton CW/80 12 string.

I've had an interest in repairing and building guitars since I was a teenager back in the late 60's. Over the last 15yrs I've been able to spend more and more time on the process of building clones of the usual suspects of USA electric guitars. Along the way I've also done builds of Martin style acoustics. A few guitars I've sold and some have been passed on to family. These days I've fallen into using Hoop pine and Silky Oak for my electrics and have recently started an archtop using Bunya Pine and Siky Oak.

I play/jam once a week with a few other blokes that have washed up, like me, on the high tide line. My most recent build that I've been playing is a Silky Oak solid body capped with a quarter sawn Silky Oak top. This guitar is equipped with Kent Armstrong noiseless P90's which I've found to be very nice at a reasonable price.

Anyway I'm looking forward see what tonewoods that members are finding useful in their builds.

Cheers
Andy

[kiwigeo]

Welcome to the forum Andy and thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself. Make yourself at home and I'm sure a few other members will chime in with a welcome message.

[Mark McLean]

Hi Andy, and welcome. There are more acoustic than electric players/ builders in the forum these days? But we all appreciate the skill put into each instrument, of whatever type, Please keep showing us your stuff.

[Andy54]

Thanks you both for the welcome.
Here’s a few pics of my latest based on a typical archtop.

The photo of the whole bench shows my bending pipe setup on the right along with and the old coffee machine which supplies steam to the bend. Silky Oak can be a bit cranky as the figured grain on the outside of the bend is very short. I find the steam very helpful on that side of the bend.

[lamanoditrento]

Welcome to the forum Andy! Looking forward to seeing more of your builds.

[Lillian]

Welcome Andy. I am looking forward to your posts. I'm trying my hand on the electric side of the house. I hope to get started on the neck here in a bit.

[Andy54]

Lillian, I've always been interested in the "feel" of the profile of both acoustic and electric necks. And what it brings to how a guitar plays.

Here's a pic of the tools I use to shape a neck and the natural light I use to check how true I've profiled the neck.

As you can see I have a mass produced neck on the right and the neck I've made on the left. The Fender neck has a profile that was used on the original necks from the early 60's. I use a combination of faceting to rough the shape out with a rasp and then, using the contour gauge, I work with a second cut file. I finally finish with hand sanding through 120 grit and 240 grit sheets.

If it's a shape that I've never done before I use some clear grained pine to work up a feel for the profile.

[Lillian]

Thanks for the photo Andy. Your neck looks perfect, as smooth as a baby's bum. I can see what you mean about using the light to help you work.
I am planning on using poplar for my first run at doing the neck. The pine I can get up here isn't worth using. I'm making the neck because my son asked me to make him a replacement neck for his cheap knock off strat. I offered to clean the neck up a bit, trim back the fret sprout, etc., but nope, he wants me back in the shop. If he wasn't asking for it for his 30th bday, I would have just bought a licensed Fender neck for him. But as he said, there's no fun in that.
I think I'm good on tools. Got a fine and a coarse double radius Dragon rasp. I expect to do most of the roughing in with the coarse rasp. I have two Iwasaki files for the finer work. I'm waiting on a new spring for the bandsaw. Got the belt changed out last week. Need to figure out how I'm going to do the truss rod.
I've been watching all the Youtube videos I can find of electric neck builds, looking at build processes and the order of tasks. David Fletcher has some really good ones that will probably end up being my guide.

[ozziebluesman]

Welcome Andy to the forum. I am also looking forward to see some of your woodwork. From the pics you have posted so far you have your shop nicely setup.
Cheers
Alan

[demonx]

Welcome to the forum!

[WJ Guitars]

Welcome to guitar building forum. Like the workshop.

Wayne
https://wjguitars.wixsite.com/mysite-1

[Crafty Fox]

Hi Andy, and welcome.
I also lean more to the electric side and have done 16 scratch builds so far; just one 'proper' acoustic, 3 resonators, and the rest are electrics, including 2 archtops.
I haven't used silky oak yet but I have a couple of pieces for a future build. I used WA sheoak for the back and sides of my acoustic OM and one of the archtops. I've put sheoak or figured jarrah fretboards on a few. Trying to use Australian timbers wherever I can.

[Andy54]

It's been almost 18mths or so but life and repairs/setups for numerous players got in the way. Here's the usual routing of the top plate.

[Andy54]

After a month or so I had both the top and back roughly shaped. After this stage I spent some time fairing the contours

[rocket]

Welcome to the forum Andy , i'll look forward to seeing more pics of your arch top builds, nicely set shop you have there too.

Rod.

[Andy54]

Thanks Rod, I appreciate the encouragement.

Here's the crude depth gauge I made with the dowel marked at 2mm increments. It worked well for me but others might say it's not accurate enough for their liking.

[Andy54]

And then closing the box.

[blackalex1952]

Lovely work and welcome. Dan Koentoep, an American archtop luthier, made a comment in one of his videos :"The light is my friend". Northerly light is the best for seeing imperfections in the carving. You have a nice Northely light coming in but it is at is a right angles to your main bench. Cheers! Ross

[Andy54]

Thanks Ross, The natural light in my workshop is diffused through an awning with white poly-carbonate sheeting. That's fixed over the north facing windows.

Another couple of pics here one shows the construction of a typical sliding router setup to make the binding channel. The is neck also shown which out of quartersawn silky oak. The other pic is the routing setup ready to make the binding channel.