Dranoel Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I took up playing guitar at 10 after a hand injury in order to get my dexterity and strength back. Started on a cheap acoustic and then bought an electric from a pawn shop a year later. Now like most of my hobbies, I can't do something just a little bit, For me it's always all or nothing. So, it didn't take long before I was reading books and experimenting with modifications, electronics at first but it pretty quickly progressed to building replacement bodies and then necks and then the entire guitar from scratch. But the hand injury is coming back to haunt me 40 yrs later and my left hand just doesn't want to do what it's supposed to anymore, so I don't play as much as I used to. But I still build one or two a year. Here's a few of my latest builds: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alma Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Beautiful work. I really like the woodgrain on the Les Paul looking one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nugget Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 You've got great talent. I bet they sound as good as they look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1gcountry Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 (edited) Nice spalted maple on the last one. How does it sound compared to a hard maple top? I have a through-neck Les Paul that my son never lets me play anymore. I have made a couple effects pedals, but they suck.thanks for sharing.those are really awesome. Tom Edited July 18, 2014 by b1gcountry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WidowsSon683 Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 (edited) I play a pretty awesome air guitar. Seriously though those are sweet. Edited July 16, 2014 by WidowsSon683 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CZinZA Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Wow. As a guitar player and woodworker, I'm very impressed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dranoel Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 (edited) Thanks, guys. To give you a little background on these three, they were my first three attempts at carving an archtop. I had been wanting to do one for a long time and since I have sorta leaned more towards Jazz and Blues over the last 15 yrs I wanted to build a ES335 for myself. So to get some practice I chopped up a pine 2x8 and glued them up as body blanks. 1st one was a total disaster. 2nd was rethunked and came out pretty good except for some chisel marks too deep to scrape or sand out. But it was good enough to give me confidence to go for the real thing. So I got some maple and marked it all off and carved the Les Paul. (I called it Lisa Pearl as I never felt comfortable telling people how Les Paul felt in my hands. ) The top turned out fairly nice but again had a few unrecoverable toolmarks, So I got a sheet of 1/16" Spalt maple veneer, smoothed the toolmarks with wood putty and laminated the veneer on top. Finished it all up and it was pure sweetness. Not only was it the first LP I ever built but the first I ever owned. Though that didn't last long. 3 mo later I was offered $1100 for it. SOLD! The other two are considered "Languedoc" style bodies but I was not aware of Languedoc when I started. I was just looking for something different than a 335 and got the idea to do a Fender Starcaster with pointy horns. A friend came over as I was gluing the top on the first one and said, "Oh! You did a Languedoc." I had no clue what he was talking about. He explained and I later looked it up. Not an original idea apparently. Anyway, as most experimental projects go the first one (the black one) ran into all sorts of issues during the build, including the top developing a long crack after the drill bit bound up drilling the hole for the 3-way switch. It was on the firewood pile several times but this voice kept calling to me to fix it and finish it. It turned out to be the best sounding one of the bunch, So I named her "Gretschen, the redheaded stepchild" and it may be one I never part with. The second try at it turned out a lot better except for the water based lacquer that refused to fully harden. But I was happy with all of them. And I have a plan to do a couple more Langs with a twist. I figured out a way to make a table and rail rig to use my router as a mill and I want to make one that is not just a straight through neck but the neck and body, sans maple cap, are all one single piece of wood top to bottom. Edited July 17, 2014 by Dranoel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1gcountry Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 How did you get 1/16 veneer to lay right on an arch top? What did you do to prevent wrinkles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatsauce Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Wow. Very nice. Alls I got is a cheap ass Squier I replaced the electronics on to make it sound halfway decent. I felt a little bit proud of my tinkering until I saw this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dranoel Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 How did you get 1/16 veneer to lay right on an arch top? What did you do to prevent wrinkles? First, get a piece of fairly firm foam rubber about 3" thick and larger than the guitar body, 2 pieces of 3/4"plywood, again larger than the body and 4 cement blocks. Steam the wood until it's very soft. Lightly coat both contact surfaces with glue, and while the veneer is still warm, position it and press it on as much as possible. Put 2 tacks through it into the body where the pick-up routs will be to keep it from shifting and cover it all with a sheet of parchment paper. Lay the foam on top, both sheets of plywood on top of that and and the 4 cement blocks. That's enough weight spread evenly through the foam to press the veneer tight to the contours. And as long as the veneer is still wet and warm it will stretch and conform pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1gcountry Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Cool. I have done vacuum formed veneers and laminates, but never complex curves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1gcountry Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 (edited) Just because we are sharing, and I haven't made any guitars... This is my first chessboard. I made several, and this one was the first. Walnut and ash Burl. Not my best one, but it was the only one I kept. I keep meaning to make another one except: life. The border is plain sawn ash. It taught me a lot about wood selection. Even though all four sides are from the same board, they look unbalanced because the wood grain runs differently through the pieces. The corners are end grain walnut. I left the knot and sapwood in because someone told me it was a bad idea, and I wanted to prove them wrong. The other ones were sycamore and mahogany with an inlaid border; quilted maple, and quilted sapele with a fiddle back maple border; and satinwood and lacewood with a marquetry border. I have pictures somewhere... Edited July 18, 2014 by b1gcountry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dranoel Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 Looks nice! And the frame is good like that. Don't know another way to have done it except to book match the sides but even that might not look right for a frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Just because we are sharing, and I haven't made any guitars... This is my first chessboard. I made several, and this one was the first. Walnut and ash Burl. Not my best one, but it was the only one I kept. I keep meaning to make another one except: life. The border is plain sawn ash. It taught me a lot about wood selection. Even though all four sides are from the same board, they look unbalanced because the wood grain runs differently through the pieces. The corners are end grain walnut. I left the knot and sapwood in because someone told me it was a bad idea, and I wanted to prove them wrong. The other ones were sycamore and mahogany with an inlaid border; quilted maple, and quilted sapele with a fiddle back maple border; and satinwood and lacewood with a marquetry border. I have pictures somewhere... 20140717_210949.jpg That is a cool looking board. Love the woodwork on all this. Dranoel, don't be afraid to hump that Lisa Pearl, I fondle and do all kinds of things with my Les Paul! Nice wood!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dranoel Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Just thought I would throw this out there as proof that, yes, you CAN polish a turd.... If you have enough time, money and know-how. The guitar is a '63 Teisco Del Rey (popular in the Sears catalog at the time) that I picked up at a flea market in VERY bad shape for $20. 3 months and nearly $500 later.... And it ROCKS!!! Has a gritty, growly, resonance that makes me want to play Tom Petty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasyTargetRN Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Next to my 56 Blonde Strat this tele is my "go to". Yours have a "Wolfgang" feel, built a bass in the same ilk with a single humbucker at the bridge...sold long ago...regretted since Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-shot Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Seriously bass, not treble. It's like guitar, but with balls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerlimits Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 1953 Gibson Violin Bass... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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