Building one of those small guitars with only six strings

[scherzo1928]

dont even know where to start so ill just say it all in a bunch of text without dots or comas or ciptal letters Im lovin the shape more and more and i love the parkerish carve you are doing on the back but mostly i think im in love because of your use of aluminum to route the trussrod oh and the fact that you are using carbon fiber tio reinforce the neck.

Hey it ended up looking like half the posts in here.

 

[JamesM]

Definitely, carbon fiber neck reinforcement was yes.

 

[Superwoodle]

Progress!

 

[flo]

When I took all these pictures yesterday I had two problems:
the batteries were almost completely flat, so I only could take one picture at a time and then wait for a couple of minutes until they decided they were prepared to do another one, and secondly I forgot the SD card, so I had to upload the pics to my computer every five pictures. Annoying.


Aaaaaanyway. More carving and stuff.

The neck heel is starting to take shape

One of my many employees holding the guitar to demo the smoothly accessible heel

I love this picture.

electric planer in, well, not in action, but shortly before and after I took this picture it was.

Smoothening.

In this state, I can already say that I'm really happy how everything turns out. The guitar is incredibly light, just about 2.8 kilos in this condition, which is 6.2 pounds. It balances perfectly. The contours make it feel super comfortable. If I don't mess up anything seriously, this will become really nice. But I promise I will

 

[flo]

Looking good!

Thanks

dont even know where to start so ill just say it all in a bunch of text without dots or comas or ciptal letters Im lovin the shape more and more and i love the parkerish carve you are doing on the back but mostly i think im in love because of your use of aluminum to route the trussrod oh and the fact that you are using carbon fiber tio reinforce the neck.

Hey it ended up looking like half the posts in here.

I love you too

Definitely, carbon fiber neck reinforcement was yes.

Progress!

Thanks guys for your comments

You see, I didn't really intend to make a serious guitar when I started this one . But then people on here started to get nerdy and demanded fanned frets and stuff. And I suck at saying no... besides, I'm a German, and you're breaking the law here if you don't take things seriously.

Now I'll end up with a fanned frets guitar with carbon fiber in a trapezoid shaped neck, and some complicated switching. All your fault

 

[BlackMastodon]

That is turning out really damn good man! Would be awesome if you could do like a Thumb bass style carve on the back of the body but I think your hands are full with the carving you have to do already

 

[JamesM]

Fuck. I have one custom going, I might need to sell my body to get another. I love these "exaggerated single-cut" shapes so much.

 

[flo]

That is turning out really damn good man! Would be awesome if you could do like a Thumb bass style carve on the back of the body but I think your hands are full with the carving you have to do already

Thank you
You mean the carve of the Warwick Thumb bass? Looks great indeed, I'll see if there is any wood left when I'm done carving
If the wood was thicker, I would have tried to make a curved body like on the Teuffel Niwa.

Fuck. I have one custom going, I might need to sell my body to get another. I love these "exaggerated single-cut" shapes so much.

I've seen your Aura/Strandberg project, it looks awesome.
Selling your body for gear sounds better than my idea (selling body parts like kidneys etc for gear).

 

[Ruins]

i like that smooth carve on the back, it really does looks comfy.

 

[wayward]

man it reminds me so much of a Decibel custom. Mainly bulb's. I love it.

 

[JamesM]

God, I love "exaggerated" single-cut guitars more and more as the days go by. Very common for basses, but uncommon for electric guitars.

 

[BlackMastodon]

*Googles "Teuffel Niwa guitar"*...

 

[darren]

I'd love to do a fanned-fret six-string and tune it in fifths. Just because.

Love the body shape! There are tons of basses with these organic type shapes, but very few guitarists (or guitar builders) seem interested in trying them for regular guitars. Looking forward to seeing how this comes out!

 

[flo]

i like that smooth carve on the back, it really does looks comfy.

God, I love "exaggerated" single-cut guitars more and more as the days go by. Very common for basses, but uncommon for electric guitars.

I'd love to do a fanned-fret six-string and tune it in fifths. Just because.

Love the body shape! There are tons of basses with these organic type shapes, but very few guitarists (or guitar builders) seem interested in trying them for regular guitars. Looking forward to seeing how this comes out!

*Googles "Teuffel Niwa guitar"*...

Thanks to all of you for your feedback and the nice compliments

It's really great to have you all in this thread, I drew a lot of inspiration from many of you, especially from scherzo, superwoodle, helferlain and darren



It's time for a small update



I've cut the slots for the frets, using my manual CNC-machine:

I sanded the radius to 10". I made the sanding block using a cheap 20" bassdrum, taped sanding paper to it and sanded a block of wood with it so it's got the right radius.
(No drums were harmed in this project).


The board is not glued on yet in the following pics.

Again, all the woods have been taken from a waste container, so someone thought they were rubbish

That's it for now, hope you enjoy

 

[flo]

man it reminds me so much of a Decibel custom. Mainly bulb's. I love it.

Somehow your quote got lost.

Thank you! I'm a huge fan of this guitar, so it's a great compliment

 

[SD83]

Looks great so far. I see some lines on the headstock, what shape will it be? And, as I didn't find anything mentioned about it, what are your plans for the finish? Clear coat? Stain?

 

[Erick Kroenen]

your guitar looks like a dream! really man.. fakkeen awesome!!!!!!!!

i would like an 8 with that shape

 

[scherzo1928]

This thread delivers!!

And yeah, much like Darren, I dream of a fan fretted 6er just to tune in fifths... BUT, I might go 1 step further (actually, I think it's 1 step back) and make it a 5 stringer!! I'm pretty sure that will be my next build.

Anywho, back to studying for my finals.

 

[flo]

Looks great so far. I see some lines on the headstock, what shape will it be? And, as I didn't find anything mentioned about it, what are your plans for the finish? Clear coat? Stain?

Danke Stefan

I haven't designed the headstock yet. It's gonna be a 3+3, that's all I know so far.
I haven't decided fully on the finish either, but it's likely going to be white. I've got a friend who is an incredible artist, and if I'm lucky she might do a paintjob on it, something artistic. Maaaaaybe.

your guitar looks like a dream! really man.. fakkeen awesome!!!!!!!!

i would like an 8 with that shape

Hehe thanks

This thread delivers!!

And yeah, much like Darren, I dream of a fan fretted 6er just to tune in fifths... BUT, I might go 1 step further (actually, I think it's 1 step back) and make it a 5 stringer!! I'm pretty sure that will be my next build.

Anywho, back to studying for my finals.

Fivestring? Diminished range guitars FTW (Actually the range would be more than on a normal six... who cares)

Good luck with your exams

 

[flo]

I've made some progress today


I've decided on a headstock shape. I made it quite small to keep the weight as low as possible. Here it is:

Here is the routing template for the electronics cavity.

I've also done a lot of sanding, but I don't think that one can really see the difference to the older pics. Close-ups might have helped. Still:

This picture doesn't fit into the post because one can't see the shoe of the employee who has taken the photos.

The weight of the whole thing is just below 2,5 kg right now (5 lbs), I guess it will be under 3 kilos with all the hardware, so this is going to be super-light!

That's it for today