Conjuring some woods (Conjurer part 3)

 Part 3 of Conjurer series

Part 1

Part 2

Woodconjuring (woodworking)

Time flies but every now and then I return to do some conjuring. I've been busy doing regular wood working like tables and Les Paul. And after all this is still part time thing and designing new model is kind of a hobby in this whole. 

I've selected woods for first one, which will have domestic woods I've gathered myself. Exotic one is bit harder because I need to find one particular fretboard blank. 

Conjurer model will have thick bottom, second layer with neck and top wood. It might be bit different than what they sell in guitar store. 

Bottom blank

For bottom I selected wood called bird cherry, hackberry, hagberry (Prunus Padus). It's common tree, but there is not wood store that sells it. It's guite dense and light colored wood. It has good shine if planed.

Hackberry blank

Planed and glued

Rough sawn with bandsaw

Edges router with template

Second layer with neck

Model will include neck through construction with twist. Wings in second layer will be same wood specie as neck wood. With some really special wood this might not be wise, but for at least I will start like this. 

So for neck and sides I chose rowan. Side blanks was bit short but they worked fine. Neck blank was selected from bigger and straight grained blank.

Body ready

Top wood

Years ago my brother and I salvaged big ash (relatively big in this area) near by and I've been waiting project where I can use it. First I though the body will be ash, but it turns out really beautiful with flaming so it's going to be top wood. I've also wanted to use ash as a top wood so I can put some nice color to it.

Actual ash blank wasn't really good. It had big knot and crotch, but they actually provided that nice flamed section in center by compressing those wood fibers. By my calculations that knot is right where neck pickup cavity will be routed.

Fretboard

For fretboard I selected apple tree which is quite hard and actually one of the hardest woods in Finland. I gathered this log from friends yard many years ago and it has been lying around in workshop for couple years already. 

I made little video from sawing and planing that log.

Video

Multiscale

As said earlier this will be multiscale guitar. Actually first one from me. I draw lines to fretboard and thew just sawed through line with block of wood for guiding my saw.

And then some pretty basic fretboard markers from white mother of pearl.

So this is the situation now. I already got bridge tuners, but don't have pickups. I think I'm going to order custom pickups, but if it doesn't work I'll go with Emg or Fishman Fluence we'll see.

In next post there will be every component ordered and I will do some carving. I guess there isn't much posts coming, because all tasks are quite boring like sanding and fret installations etc. One or two posts coming. And of course test video. Thanks for visiting!!

My guitar model design (part 2)

Conjurer -model

Model shall be named as Conjurer. 

Part 1

Part 3

Body design

For long time I've had a certain model in mind that I would like to build. But laying that model to paper or template is not an easy task. I first draw center line and then used one template I have to draw outlines of that model for reference. Then I drastically started finding lines where I wanted model to go. I also used my first guitar which was cheap model from Washburn Nuno N1. Whole body design took days or weeks. It was fine at evening, but morning some things had changed in my mind so I needed to tweak it and it went like that for long period of time.

As you can see from picture that I've changed it alot during times. This is not completed yet.

I did couple templates and changed the design along the way. This was second template and I wasn't yet happy with design, but at least it was standing straight.

I can't exactly tell what had changed and actually I don't even remember. There is 1st and 2nd.

And this is where I ended up. It's still prototype and I'm going to change it if there is need for it.

Those are outlines for body and there will be big chamfer for right forearm so it will look lot different later.

Headstock design

Headstock design is kinda frightening to me always at first, but when I let loose it will start coming. There are many details where it can go wrong. Design should be practical but even most it should look fine. In this model there is one particular thing: it has no headstock or very little one because tuners are in bridge.

I've never seen headless model live so I don't know if it's wise choice to design one. As a guitar player I eager to get one. There will be high learning curve.

This is first mockup with some string and fretboard template. As you can see it's going to be multiscale guitar. So length of individual strings are different. Higher strings are shorter than lower strings and they are thicker which will give more tight sound for lower notes.

Selecting woods

There is one exceptional thing in first build with new model: all woods are harvested by me or by my brother. Some of them I have sawed my self with bandsaw and some of them at my friends sawmill. They have dried outside for years and later inside at least for many months.

I really love rowan (mountain ash, Sorbus). It's dense and hard and it has nice contrast with sapwood and heartwood. It might have flaming also. Rowan is holy wood in Finland. It protects from evil magic and that's why they have used rowan in walking sticks. Nowadays things are different, but in future you can use rowan guitar as a protection from evil sorceries. Sweet melodies will definitely drive away all evilness.

So rowan is for neck. There are similarities in rowan and maple. Both are hard, but rowan could be little more flexible. I would like to try one piece neck with fretboard rather than laminated neck. I might use some carbon fibre for reinforcing the neck.

Old telecaster project which has rowan top

I'm thinking for making two guitars at first and another guitar will be built using some exotic woods I have. So two same model: one using domestic woods and one using exotic woods. Or I'll save one guitar for later. I don't wan't to build two bad guitars. One is bad prototype enough and second should be fixed.

Rowan neck blanks

Wenge neck blank

More sexy wood pictures in next post. Body and top at least. Thanks for visiting!!

Designing my first electric guitar

New guitar model

Part 2

Part 3

As said in the title I'm going to design and build new guitar model. Aren't there guitars available to buy? Don't I have enough guitars? Why I'm doing this?  This post is about to answer these questions.

Besides this ikea man there is pictures from some of my past projects. There's link to each building post, but they are written in finnish.

This is a beginning for series of blog posts which I haven't done before. Other posts are mostly about guitars or other wood working projects and there are only things I've already solved. Most of the projects are already done when I'm writing a post. This is different. There are many unsolved things already in my head which I will write in this series. There will be challenges that I have never come across and definitely some failures.

HDAWBird

Aren't there guitars availabe to buy?

Definitely there are lots of them and I wan't them all, but this is not about acquiring just guitars in GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) madness. When I was a boy (actually grown man, because I started guitar playing quite late) I searched some magazines for guitars and I was attracted to many of models I saw. Also there was models which was really awful to me at that time. I guess appearance of guitar is important for me. Or at least if it plays well. 

When internet came there was couple sites I used to go a lot and one of them was ibanez.com. I dreamed of RG and one time I went to order their S model for 2000€, but for that model production was ended so I never get to have guitar I really wanted. They still have those models, but the one I wanted was bit different. It had d-drop tuner some sort and it looked amazing. I did buy used S (built in Japan) for good price and it's still good expect there are some spots where frets have badly worn out. I still love RGs, but I think I've outgrown them.

There are many great and astonishing guitar models out there and if I didn't have this guitar building thing here I would definitely go and buy custom guitar from somewhere. But if I didn't have this guitar building thing how would I know that there are those custom guitars? In that situation maybe I would still drool for RGs. Who knows?

Stratocaster 2

Don't I have enough guitars?

Come on this is silly question. Is there one who has enough of them? I can use guitars as a decoration. 

"Rather than building guitar, go practice with your old Ibanez".

This is not about having enough guitars. I want to design and build one or two, or many. I know instrument builders or luthiers that doesn't play at all. And most guitars I have built at this point are sold away and that is a big inspiration for me. I want to design and build guitar that has some potential for other players. Failing at this is not a big deal. Failing in the actual building process provides me some good firewood and failing in design will teach me to design better. Knowledge and experience are welcome. If I fail multiple times in everything I will rethink this whole thing.

Custom Les Paul

Why I'm doing this?

Love for the guitars is not just about playing or hearing them. I'm enthusiastic music listener, guitar player and wood worker and all them combined as one could answer this question. And I want to do this. I want to design model that has good looks in someones eye. I want to design guitar that has good playability and inspires to pick up it and play with it. 

I've always looked up for challenge. This project has lots of them. Not just new design but the whole thing. I don't do this too seriously thou. If I have actual work to do or personal things I will put this aside for while. I don't count that as a failure. I will continue it when thing are fine.

I have a dream that one day there is guitar model in production and I'm not only one who has it. I will call it succeeded if one customer buys it and is happy with the guitar.

Randy

King V 7 string

Why I'm writing this all

There are many reasons why I'm writing this down in blog. I've read some individual designing and guitar building posts from different sites and I found it inspiring. If someone reads my blog even once then I've made it for reason. I'm also writing just to clear my head. This isn't only major project I've currently planning/working on and this helps me to put things in different perspective. English is kinda challenging for me so there one reason.

Magpie

Next post is about actual guitar design and maybe some thoughts about woods.

Thanks for visit!