Eve: A Guitar 3 Years in the Making (kind of...)

[BlackMastodon]

Originally, I started this build in 11th grade about 3 years ago. At the time, I wanted to make something along these line:

Needless to say, I was young and naive .
At least I knew my limits and decided to buy a neck from Warmoth. Nothing too special, just a 22 fret maple flat paddle neck with an ebony fretboard with MOP circle inlays and stainless steal frets and a slot for a locking nut.

Anyway, I later bought a body off ebay for about $100 that was routed for a LoPro licensed Floyd (which cost me about $50, we'll see how long it takes for me to regret that purchase) and had a H/S/H configuration. Pretty decent body, only it was made for a 24 fret neck. Turns out (no shit ) that a 22 fret neck made for a 25.5" scale guitar will indeed fit a body made for a 24 fret neck, but the scale length will be about 24.75" instead.

So instead of filling EVERY hole on the ebay body, I just said screw it and bought a mahogany blank and flame maple top and decided to make my own body. And now with school being done for 4 months, I actually have time to work on this thing.

tl;dr: Fuck it, I'm making a new one.

Body Specs:
Wood - Mahogany with flamed maple top (still deciding whether it will be chambered).
Shape - carved top RG shape with ever so slightly changed horns (probably won't be noticeable. Also not sure if the carve is gonna be along the lines of an RGA or an ESP Horizon, I'm leaning towards Horizon if I can do it).
Scale - 25.5"
Super Special Awesome Things - Not too much really, considering chambering the body a bit, just 3 chambers on the top but I'm kinda worried that this will interfere with the stomach contour on the back. Also the cavity covers will be held on with magnets (they work, go to hell ICP) and will be made of mahogany.
Neck Joint - Standard bolt on, using the shape of the heel from the Warmoth neck, seems pretty comfortable and I'm gonna carve it a bit anyway.
Finish - Some kind of dye, thinking either blue or green dye or a dragon burst (leaning towards dragon burst if I can do it). Natural sides and back. Gloss finish.

Neck Specs:
Type - 22 fret, 6 String Warmoth straight paddle.
Wood - One piece maple (not flamed or anything, pretty standard).
Headstock - PRS type of shape with matching flame maple front. Will attempt to do a custom inlay in the maple.
Fretboard - Ebony with white side dots.
Inlays - Mother of Pearl dots.
Frets - Stainless steal 6105 (narrow and tall).
Nut - 1 5/8" wide locking nut.
Contour - Standard thin (0.8" at 1st fret, 0.85" at 12th fret).
Fretboard Radius - 10" - 16" compound.
Finish - Satin back, gloss on headstock.

Hardware:
Bridge - Chrome licensed LoPro Floyd. May switch out for a Floyd Pro (original, not licensed).
Pickups - EMG 81 (bridge), EMG SA (middle), and EMG 85 (neck). I don't have a guitar with actives so I want to see how it is.
Pickup Rings - Chrome tapered.
Input Jack - Chrome side mounted oval.
Electronics - Volume and tone pot with black speed knobs, 6-way pickup selector (from StewMac).
Tuners - Chrome Gotoh Midsize Rotomatic (3 and 3 configuration).
Other Crap I Feel Like Mentioning - Chrome strap locks, chrome ferrules for mounting bolts.

Alright I think that's everything. Now on to what all of you want: Pictures! (Insert obligatory apology for not so great quality of pictures due to them being taken by an iPhone 4 here)

First the neck:

Better shot of ebony:

Front of headstock:

I used my buddy's wood burner to write the name 'Eve' in crazy, whacky lettering that I made. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out buuuuut since I'm gonna be doing a dyed finish on the body I'm gonna cover it up. Guess I'll have to write her name on the back of the headstock or maybe on the heel.
Last couple shots of the fretboard:

Templates!
Body shape:

Those boxed off areas are the chambers I've been toying around with, still think I'm gonna leave it alone so I can do the back contour without worrying.
Neck pocket, bridge, and pickups:

Back routes for the Floyd:

The left one is for the trem block, the right one is for the spring cavities and what not.
Cavities:

I'll cut the remaining templates in the next few days.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Mahogany side un:

Mahogany side dos:

And the thickness of the Mahogany:

My inspiration of choice (needed it to cut/file/sand that template):

So after finishing the body template, I bbq'd me some dinner when at my door there came a rapping. I ordered a new tv last week and was expecting it between 4 and 5 this afternoon. I thought it was a bit early and was pretty excited. Alas, the package was not a tv, instead it was for my dad (or so I thought). When I brought it inside I noticed it was from F.V. Woods. My excitement immediately jumped back up as I realized it was the flame maple I ordered a couple weeks back. I brought it to my room and grabbed my package opening device:

And what was inside? Why, my 5A flamed maple top of course!

Wasn't too pleased to see that they drew a lefty Tele outline on it, but It can be erased.

Not bad for $100 bucks, not bad at all, especially since it's (according to Fraser Valley Woods) 5A flamed maple!
Shot of the grain:

This one really shows the depth of the flame:

Artsy, no?
The top is about 0.7" thick, perfect for carving. This of course means that I will need to plane the mahogany down to about 1.25" or so, something reasonable so that this thing doesn't end up being 3" thick. That's all for now though.

 

[SirMyghin]

Good luck, Sleemans Honey Brown is a really good dinner beer. Not much of a lager fan myself, but Camerons dark is another fantastic ontario lager.

Really like the fretboard.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Thank you, when I ordered the neck I expected ebony to be, well, ebony, but I really liked the lighter parts when I saw it, very pleased with it.

 

[ryantheyetti]

cant wait to see what you do with that top, the grain looks awesome!

 

[BlackMastodon]

Thanks, I was actually really surprised with how well the grain looks on the top wood, and that's with no mineral spirits or anything, just the wood! As for the carving, if I carve it like an RGA then I will probably use a grinder and some rasps and what not. But I would really wanna carve it like a Horizon, but that might be tricky. Might have to use a router bit for that, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Just a quick update with the hardware. I've had the pickups and stuff for a while so might as well show them.
I bought the EMG 81 a couple years back when I got the neck, so it's an older model. the 85 and SA I bought recently so they are the newer ones that come with the solderless set up. Honestly, I think I'm more intimidated by the solderless set up then the original, probably just gonna do soldering anyway as I find the new solderless thing looks like a bunch of crazy Lego blocks. Though I do love me some Lego....Anyway, back on track.
Here's the 81:

The SA:

And the 85:

I didn't put the 81 in its bracket yet as I am waiting for the screws to arrive, another kick in the balls is that the older EMGs didn't come with mounting hardware, but at least they changed that now.

And here is the cheap licensed Floyd:

Fun fact about that bridge, when it arrived from god knows where on Ebay, the fine tuner on the low E had broken threading. It wold only give maybe 2 full rotations but that was it. Somehow my dad managed to get it out of there (I assume pliers and cursing were involved). Also found out a fun little fact: it is REALLY hard to find Floyd fine tuners in chrome . Eventually I settled for a black one from StewMac, and when it arrived, I found out another little fun fact that I'm sure is quite visible in that last picture: the new fine tuner is considerably shorter than the others. Hopefully this is isn't too big of a problem, if it is I guess I will get that real Floyd.

Anyway, that's all for now, hopefully I can finish up those templates this weekend and maybe glue up the body. Gotta wait for my router bits from StewMac to come in though (also really hard to find good router bits around here).

 

[Prydogga]

Looking good man, IMO you should replace all the fine tuners with black pieces, black on chrome looks much better than all chrome

 

[BlackMastodon]

Hmmm, the thought didn't even occur to me but it might be a good idea. Would look better than one gimp fine tuner that's different from the others. Though the thing I am worried about most with that is that the black fine tuners are shorter than the chrome ones that came with the bridge. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it (see what I did there?).

 

[BlackMastodon]

Just a quick update:

Finished cutting out all the templates. The neck pocket I drew originally was a bit crooked so I redrew it and cut it. When I test fitted the neck into it, it held very snug. Even if the neck is still a bit crooked from the centre line I can just adjust it when I'm doing the routes.

I did notice something rather interesting about my Licensed Floyd nut: It's about, oh I don't know, maybe 1/64" lower then it should be, so the low E string would be a tad bit lower and the high E string risks jumping off the fretboard. This means one of two things: 1) The mounting screw holes for the locking nut were drilled slightly off, or 2) Warmoth drilled the holes for the mounting screws too low. Since Warmoth is a reputable company and the LFR is made god knows where, I'm gonna go with number 1. This is basically the last straw for the LFR, I've decided to get an OFR to save myself the headache. When I checked the Floyd Rose site for measurements on the OFR routes, they were pretty close to mine on the template but I'll double check before I route of course.

Lastly: gotta figure out a way to plane the Mahogany by about 1/4" or so. I don't have an electric planer and I don't wanna do this by hand so I'm gonna use the Scherzo Method and make a router jig. I'm not quite sure how I'll keep the Mahogany steady though, might just clamp it down on one side and do it one half at a time.

That's all for now, sorry there are no pics, I'll glue up the body and stuff after I plane it, hopefully that can happen soon.

 

[caparison_x]

I think you're gonna regret installing that floyd.

I really think you should consider getting a cheap Gotoh floyd. The Cheapo licenced floyds are a false economy.

Trust me I used chinese floyds, OFR and Lo Pros. Even the ESP/Washburn/Jackson floyds are better then the ultra cheap bargain ones.

As a guess, i think the use of cheap pot iron/metal compared to more expensive alloys means the sound coming from the floyd isnt very full and lacks sustain.

Similar to the reason that Bells and other metallic instruments use specific alloys. PLEASE CHECK the routing posts you drill are spaced correctly to swap with another type of floyd so if in future you get a cheap ofr or lo pro you can swap it out.

I've seen a few sub $100 lo pros and OFRs in the gear section so check it out and see if you can get something decent for cheap.

Any ways! hope it sounds as good as it looks !

 

[scherzo1928]

Lastly: gotta figure out a way to plane the Mahogany by about 1/4" or so. I don't have an electric planer and I don't wanna do this by hand so I'm gonna use the Scherzo Method and make a router jig. I'm not quite sure how I'll keep the Mahogany steady though, might just clamp it down on one side and do it one half at a time.

99% of the time, works everytime.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Look for cabinet makers in your area. Call them up and explain what you need. Cabinet makers generally have large planers. I found a guy with a 34" planer and he planed 1/4" off my neck blank for $10. Took about 3 minutes.

 

[SirMyghin]

Thank you, when I ordered the neck I expected ebony to be, well, ebony, but I really liked the lighter parts when I saw it, very pleased with it.

A common misconception, most 'ebony' boards are dyed. Finding pitch black ebony is pretty difficult (it does exist, just not nearly as often as you would seek). Gabbon is probably a lot closer either way, compared to macassar.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I think you're gonna regret installing that floyd.

I really think you should consider getting a cheap Gotoh floyd. The Cheapo licenced floyds are a false economy.

Trust me I used chinese floyds, OFR and Lo Pros. Even the ESP/Washburn/Jackson floyds are better then the ultra cheap bargain ones.

As a guess, i think the use of cheap pot iron/metal compared to more expensive alloys means the sound coming from the floyd isnt very full and lacks sustain.

Similar to the reason that Bells and other metallic instruments use specific alloys. PLEASE CHECK the routing posts you drill are spaced correctly to swap with another type of floyd so if in future you get a cheap ofr or lo pro you can swap it out.

I've seen a few sub $100 lo pros and OFRs in the gear section so check it out and see if you can get something decent for cheap.

Any ways! hope it sounds as good as it looks !

Yeah shortly after buying that LFR I began regretting the purchase. That's why yesterday I ordered an OFR for about $170 so this fix some of my problems. Really hoping that nut problem is due to the cheap Floyd though.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Some progress. Did a practice route with a template:

Jesus, that double tape is deceptively strong.

Bit wasn't long enough so this is what I'm left with:

Gonna have to buy a bit with a bearing at the bottom.
Since it was nice out, decided on some quick outdoor pics, still looks kinda crappy cause of the iPhone but meh.

 

[scherzo1928]

whoa, how thick is that top?? And are you routing it together with the back wood? (would seem so, but who knows) if so, did you end up doing the chambering?

 

[BlackMastodon]

According to the ad when I bought the maple, it is 0.7" or 0.72" thick, perfect for carving. Yes I glued up the woods and routed them together, no I did not go with the chambering. This is my first build and that neck has been sitting in my room for a couple years taunting me so I want to get this done with as few complications as possible. The main reason I didn't go with the chambering is because now I can make as much of a back contour as I want without worrying about going through the wood into one of the chambers. Maybe on the next body I make, I'll make it chambered.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Finished routing the body shape today after I went out and bought a new bit.
Drilled a few holes in the channels I made yesterday so I could see where I have to cut:

At first I tried to just use the router, but the bit is pretty crappy and there was a lot of wood so it started burning it. Used a jigsaw instead to cut out a rough shape and then finalize with the router:

This goes to show how crappy Mastercraft (or should I say Mastercrap, damn I'm witty) bits are. The bearing got lose on the bottom and carved into the body a bit. Guess I'm gonna have to sand it down a bit or carve it or something, we'll see.

Shortly after I tightened the bearing, I began routing again when I felt a bit of a kick. Luckily I stopped because this is what was left of the bearing:

The little bastard exploded. I just took the bearing from my StewMac bit and put it on here to finish up and it worked fine. Here's the back:

The side:

And the top:

Just gonna have to plane the top once I get my router jig made, the one side (the right side in the picture above) is slightly higher than the other one. Also gonna sand the sides to get rid of the burns and make it all nice and even sometime. Then it's on to the neck pocket and so forth.

 

[SenorDingDong]

Looks beautiful so far.