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They say the 3rd time is the charm. I dont know who “they” is, but in this case they would be spot on 🙂

Having discovered the ins and outs of this original design on the first two builds, I put that knowledge to good use building the 3rd “22 Special”, and its flawless 🙂

For now I’m calling this one “Blue” and I’m not selling it to anyone. I love this guitar 🙂

Why? Because its blue, dumbass.

Blue flamed maple top, and blue paua inlays on both the fretboard and truss rod cover.

This guy is a 24 3/4″ scale length and has a TOM bridge and stop tailpiece.

OK, for my prototype run, I’m actually going to build three of these simultaneously, although many of the shots only contain two of them.

One being a “standard” and the other being more of a “deluxe” model with some more high end refinements, and the third “Blue” is the main subject of this thread.

The standard model will still include the touches one would expect from a higher end build.

  • Neck-through-body construction
  • 3-piece multi-laminate neck
  • Carbon fiber reinforcement
  • Genuine Mahogany body and neck
  • Solid maple slab top plate (no veneers)
  • Body and fretboard binding
  • Nitrocellulose finishes

The differences between the standard and deluxe models wont so much be in what one has and the other doesnt, but more in the striking appearance and rarity of some components.

More highly figured tops, more expensive woods, more intricate fretboard inlays, more difficult finishing choices, etc.

Both models will have all the features of a top quality instrument.

 

Right! Enough chit-chat. Lets make some sawdust!

 

First I have to take my rough cut boards shown on the previous page and get them into a shape I can work with. First, just cutting them to the right length. These boards are a really nice, light Bolivian Mahogany. Specifically its Swietenia macrophylla, which is the same tree as Honduran Mahogany. Most Honduran Mahogany wasnt actually grown in Honduras, they just like to call it that because Gibson made such a big deal out of it back in the day.

hog-jointer16

 

Then one side is flattened on the jointer

hog-jointer17

 

Then one edge is flattened as well. This gives me one flat face, and one flat edge, with a square (90 degree) corner.

hog-jointer18

 

Now that I have a flat, square edge I can register it on the tablesaw fence and cut the board to a consistent width end to end. Now I have a flat face, and two flat square edges.

hog-jointer19

 

Finally, facing the flat face down, I run it through the planer and take the top down until its completely flat on top as well. You can see in the photos below that the thickness was anything but uniform. Once I take it down until all the oxidized wood is gone, I know this board is now flat, square, and consistent thickness and width end to end.

NOW I can start using it to make guitars.

hog-jointer20

 

hog-jointer21 hog-jointer22

 

Next I slice up the wood into the sizes I need to make my necks. My necks need to be at least 40″ long and will consist of 3 pieces each laminated together. Laminated woods are much stronger, stiffer, and more dimensionally stable. By dimensionally stable I mean that they resist bowing and warping and are much stronger than single piece necks.

hog-jointer23

 

Two becomes four.

hog-jointer24

 

Four become eight.

hog-jointer25

 

hog-jointer26 hog-jointer27

 

I only need six here so I’ll set two aside for some future project. Once I have them lined up, I’ll reverse flip a couple over, and reverse a couple end-to-end. This will assure that in each piece the grain runs in a different direction from the other two pieces. This contributes even more to the stability because if one piece wants to bend one way, the piece its glued to will want to bend the other way, and then neither of them will move at all. 2 piece necks are better than one. three piece necks are even better than two. We do reach a point of diminsihing returns around this point. You can go to 5 or more, but the increase in stability above three becomes less with each increase. You can make some vert visually appealing necks with more laminations though. some do that very thing for that very reason.

hog-jointer28

 

the center board gets planed down a touch farther. I want the narrowest (weakest) part of the neck (where the nut is) to be composed of three equal width pieces so I determine what that number is and divide by three and make my center board that width. The other two need to remain wider because the neck gets wider as you move toward the body.

hog-jointer29

 

Finally, I sand down all the pieces removing any planing marks and provide a 100% flat surface for gluing.

hog-jointer30

 

Then they get glued up and put into the vacuum clamping system

hog-jointer31

 

and out come two neck blanks. These then get flattened on the top, and planed on the sides down to the width of the neck at its thickest point which is right where the end of the fretboard is.

single-necks17

 

Then I flop them over on their sides and draw on the profile using my template.

single-necks18

 

These then get cut out on the band saw

single-necks19

 

leaving us with two necks. These will be the core of the guitars

single-necks20

 

single-necks21

 

 

Using the router table I route the channels where the truss rods will go.

single-channels17

 

single-channels18

 

and the channels for the carbon fiber reinforcement rods. These rods make the neck even stiffer. You’ve probably noted a lot of focus on stiffness. The neck is the key to sustain. If its too flexible it will absorb and dampen the vibration of the strings. the stiffer the neck is the better the sustain of the guitar will be.

single-channels20

 

Rods baby. Rods.

single-channels19

 

Its a neck photobomb. An all hard maple neck I’m making for another build jumped into the picture at the last second…really.

single-channels21

 

Now I take the off cuts from the rough cut boards and give them the same jointer and planer treatment as the neck pieces.

single-wings17 single-wings18

 

these four pieces will become the body “wings” that will be glued to the necks.

single-wings19

 

These wings and the sides of the neck where they will joined are planed perfectly flat with my lovely Lie-Nielsen No. 7 jointing plane to insure the tightest, cleanest joint possible. Sometimes old school is still the best 🙂

tool-porn14

 

All planed and ready to glue up.

single-wings20

 

Clamp one!

single-wings21

 

Clamp two!

single-wings22

 

 

Those are the ugliest guitars I ever saw

single-wings23

 

From this point on the pix will just be showing the Blue model this thread was focused on and just shows each completed stage as opposed to breaking down the construction methods that get to that stage. The main “22 Special” thread follows the other two builds in greater detail

wings and ears on

22specblock1

body, headstock, and neck profiles routed

22specblock2

Top bookmatched and glued on

22specbloc17

Top profile routed flush to body22specbloc18

Top carve steps routed

22specbloc18-5

neck and pickup planes routed

22specbloc19

Top steps sanded and carved

22specbloc20

Pickup cavities routed

22spec2475bloc27

Toggle hole and switch cavity drilled

22spec2475bloc30

Fretboard radiused and slotted, ebony headstock veneer glued on, tuner holes drilled

22spec2475blocboard1

Fretboard binding glued on

22spec2475blocboard2

Body binding channel routed and binding glued on

22spec2475-binding1

Stop tailpiece holes drilled and bushings pressed in, control cavity routed and vol and tone knob holes drilled

onhold1

necked18

tonpro24

a better look…

gorchi19 gorchi17

gorchi19

Fretboard inlays…

hlggigcghhdgdheh

paua18 paua17

paua19

necked19

tonpro25 tonpro23 tonpro22 tonpro21 tonpro20 tonpro17

20160815_2

gorshk17

paua-cover4 paua-cover3 paua-cover2 paua-cover

 

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