Build #5 - Quilted Maple Top, Indian Rosewood Neck Super Strat

[StarbardGuitar]

Hey guys!

I will be starting my 5th build soon, which will be some sort of a super strat . I typically don't like to build copies or clones of guitars that already exist, like say making a strat copy, because I just think if I am going to build something from scratch it should stand out somehow - you know? I just think it shouldn't look like something you would see on the wall at guitar center. However, I've been wanting a super strat style guitar lately, and when I came across this pic of a Blackwater guitar, I got really inspired.

So, this build will be very much inspired by that guitar, but with my own personal touches - because like I said, I don't like the idea of building a copy or clone of something else.

I'm still waiting on my order from LMI which has some key things I need to start this build like the top wood, neck wood, fingerboard and some other things. But I do have a drawing I made for the design of the guitar...

Here are some specs, though some may change as the build actually progresses.

-Mahogany body, Quilted Maple top
-Indian Rosewood/Bubinga/Maple neck
-Birdseye Maple fingerboard, 24 frets
-25.4" scale length
-Ibanez ZRII trem
-Dimarzio Norton/Illuminator pickups
-1 volume, 1 tone, super 5-way switch for some split tones

I think that's about it. Hopefully I'll be back soon with some updates once the rest of the materials arrive!

 

[electriceye]

Me likey!!

 

[turenkodenis]

Nice headstock shape design

 

[Killemall1983]

why at 25.4" scale? That is normally an acoustic scale.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Me likey!!

Nice headstock shape design

why at 25.4" scale? That is normally an acoustic scale.

Thanks guys!

Actually, I wanted it to be a 25.5" scale and my drawing is at that scale, but when I was ordering my fingerboard from LMI I used their fret position calculator to make sure I could fit 24 frets at that scale plus enough room behind the nut for a floyd rose style locking nut, and their standard size fretboard wouldn't quite be long enough. I suppose I could have bought a bass fingerboard to get the extra length I needed... but I figured that going slightly shorter would be just fine because - it is slightly cheaper, I've seen that some Mayones guitars use this scale, honestly I figure it probably won't be that noticeably different, and I would like to make this build relatively light weight so I figured this would pull the headstock just a liiiittle bit closer towards the body making it easier to balance. It wouldn't be much but every little bit counts.

In honesty I made this decision last minute while I was ordering, because I didn't check to make sure all my specs would fit their standard size fingerboard until I was ordering it. It may be too late to change my order now that I realize I could have just got a bass fingerboard instead , but I also don't see any downsides to going with a 25.4" scale.

 

[pettymusic]

Looking good! LMI have called me in the past if my order wouldn't actually fit on the board. I don't know if they would charge for a full bass FB though, they might. They are awesome people to work with in my experience.

Like you said; it's not a big issue anyway. ...or at least that I could tell from my small amount of experience.

Looking forward to seeing your build! Good Luck!!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Looking good! LMI have called me in the past if my order wouldn't actually fit on the board. I don't know if they would charge for a full bass FB though, they might. They are awesome people to work with in my experience.

Like you said; it's not a big issue anyway. ...or at least that I could tell from my small amount of experience.

Looking forward to seeing your build! Good Luck!!

Thanks! Yeah, I've had the same experience, one time I ordered a fingerboard that was only 1/4" thick (most are 5/16" before radiusing) and had asked them to radius it and slot it for me, and almost immediately after I placed my order online they called me to let me know I would need to change that. They're pretty quick on catching those things, so I think my 25.4" length will work just fine since I haven't gotten a call yet haha. I checked with both LMI and Stewmac's fret calculators and using a 25.5" scale with enough room behind the nut for a locking nut wasn't quite enough for the standard 20" fingerboards. Yes also, the difference between the two scale lengths is around 3/32", I'm not sure how noticeable the difference will even be.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

LMI delivery came today, most of what I was still waiting for before I can start was the rest of the wood. So here's some wood porn for you guys...

Got the Indian Rosewood for the neck on the left, the Bubinga is under that and the mahogany for the body is underneath that. Birdseye maple fingerboard (it ended up looking like I could've gone with the full 25.5" scale rather than 25.4" after all, because there's plenty of room after the 24th fret ) and the quilted maple top.

Close up of the top:

So here's the deal with the bubinga, I've had it for like 2 years now and have never used it for a build yet. I want to try and finally use it, but since it's so heavy and I want this build to be relatively light, I'm going to see if I can get it cut into strips to use in the neck. If not, the neck will still be a laminate neck and I will just use some maple veneer between the strips of rosewood.

 

[pondman]

That top

 

[StarbardGuitar]

I glued up the body and neck blanks last night, cleaned them up this morning.

The neck is Indian Rosewood with Bubinga strips and Sycamore veneers to set them apart.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

I had a little bit of time to work on the build today so I made the body template and cut the body out.

I planned to do more tonight but had to stop early because I caught my finger in the planer/jointer and took a big chunk of skin and nail off... Thankfully it didn't go really deep but that finger is nice and flat now after bleeding like mad
I let my guard down for just a second, that's all it takes. I got lucky this time since I still have all my fingers and this should hopefully heal mostly normal, but I won't let that happen again. Note to self: pay the f*** attention

 

[Ram150023]

Holy s#it thats gotta hurt! Hope your alright!

The build looks great so far! He4es to a speedy recovery!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Holy s#it thats gotta hurt! Hope your alright!

The build looks great so far! He4es to a speedy recovery!

It was definitely one of the most painful things I've experienced! Lesson learned.

I decided to not let the injury slow me down too much though, so I carried on. I haven't done too much more work on the guitar yet, but I made some jigs to make my life easier. I already had a sanding jig for 10 degree scarf joints, but this one is going to be 13 degrees so I remade part of the jig so it can be swapped out either 10 or 13 degrees.

I also made this super crude scarf joint table saw jig, because on the last guitar I did the initial cut with a band saw and it took a long time to sand down to the correct slope. This way was far quicker, the sanding jig was pretty much just used to clean it up after the initial table saw cut.

And I have my scarf joint glued up.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Progressing slowly but surely...

I routed for the truss rod the other night.

Then cut the neck to size today.

Finished off the day by getting the top glued up.

Also, I hope I don't gross anyone out by showing this, but this is why you don't stick your finger in the planer, kids! This is after almost a week of healing.

 

[jwade]

Jesus dude, that's brutal. You are so lucky to have gotten away without losing more!

Also, digging the build thus far. Really like the sycamore veneers between the laminates.

 

[charlessalvacion]

Really nice to watch build threads. Nice guitar sir!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Jesus dude, that's brutal. You are so lucky to have gotten away without losing more!

Also, digging the build thus far. Really like the sycamore veneers between the laminates.

Really nice to watch build threads. Nice guitar sir!

Thanks for the compliments guys!

Yes I am very lucky and thankful that I still have all of my fingers! It's very hard to get used to playing guitar without using that finger now, but at least I know that after a month or so I will be back to normal. I guess I'm lucky that this happened with my planer because the blades are shallow and they probably couldn't have taken too much more than they did anyway... but if it happened with a router table or a table saw this would likely be a different story!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Carved the arm contour in the mahogany.

Since the top is 1/4" thick, I decided to use this method of routing a bunch of small reliefs to help bend the top around the arm contour I carved. I don't have much experience routing with a dremel so they aren't pretty but no one will see them...

Unfortunately, when I rough cut the top to shape, there was one small tear-out which turned into a crack when I was test bending the top. I thought that super glue might work to fix it, but instead it just made a mess and wouldn't hold the crack together. So instead I used wood glue and clamped it up.

While that was clamped up, I also glued up the headstock veneer and cleaned that up the next day. Don't mind the veneer looking sloppy around the truss rod rout, I plan on widening the rout at the headstock a little to make it easier to adjust so it won't look like that soon.

Here's the crack in the top after being sanded. I wasn't able to get as much clamping pressure as I would have liked to really hide it, but I'm thinking that once the top is cut to final shape and the binding is installed that it should be very small and hopefully not very noticeable at all.

The crack in the top had me a little nervous about trying to get the full bend around the arm contour without using moisture as well. So I did a dry clamp run to get the top pre-bent to the correct shape with the wood soaked around the contour. This really helped it bend around the contour easily along with the small reliefs I routed on the other side.

There are still some gaps around the contour in some spots even with a ton of clamping pressure, so I think the contour isn't perfectly flat and needs a little work before I can glue it up. Also, I have to make a jig to be able to rout the binding channel around the arm contour, but I have some ideas for that.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

I glued up the top last night and cleaned it up this morning.

Looks pretty good, this was the first time I'd ever tried to bend a top around a contour.

Also thinned out the headstock, drilled the tuner holes, and installed the binding.

 

[dankarghh]

This is looking too good man. Very keen to see more. I must be one of the few who like the scarf'd piece to match the neck though i'm sure.