New Larkin project

[MisterE]

Hi guys,

I don't know if I should post this here since, after all, this is sevenstring. org, but after the response I got on the last Larkin build, I thought I should at least let you guys know I'm thinking about having another one built.
When I went to Chris to look at the one he was building for me (http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...stomizations/164179-larkin-asad-7-string.html), I tried a guitar he had in stock:

My wife got it for my 50th birthday.
Since then, I hardly touched any of my other guitars.
I had three Warmoths. 2 Strats and a Soloist model.
they're very good but I do prefer a set neck or neck through.
So I was thinking of having them replaced by ones made by Chris Larkin.
The first one will be this one:

It will have a set neck, alder body, AAA birdseye maple neck and a black dye quilted maple scratchplate, cut from the same piece used for the body.

To be continued....
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...stomizations/164179-larkin-asad-7-string.html

 

[HighPotency]

I'm excited to see this! Especially the scratchplate.

 

[Ross Kingston]

Chris has some stunning flamed sycamore in at the moment, big enough for one-piece bodies with spectacular fiddleback figuring- worth considering for your project! I have an older quilt maple Strat of his with a braz rosewood scratch plate which is a beauty, I can send photos if you like. Ross

 

[MisterE]

Hi Ross,

I think I've seen some pictures of it.
is it the one with two humbuckers and a Wilkinson bridge?
Chris told me about the sycamore.
Chris and myself are still looking to find the best quilted maple for the project but we've been unsuccessful so far.
It seems that all the great builders are bying the best pieces.
I've e-mailed a couple of American suppliers but all but one didn't bother to even reply.
I've grown very fond of the blue pointy thing and have asked Chris if he still had some of the same gorgeous irish flamed maple. I've asked Chris to make a sister for the lue pointy thing in the shape of a Strat but without scratchplate.
It should have been finished already but due to unforeseen circumstances (which you might also be aware of) it got delayed.
Meanwhile I bought a brilliant piece of quilted maple:

But I'm still looking for a thick piece for a carved top soloist model and one to cut two layers for the inlayed scratchplate.
So still a lot of projects in the pipeline.
My goal is to buy one guitar from Chris per year. he calls it his pension plan ;-)

 

[MisterE]

Some change of plans.
Since I still haven't found a piece of quiled maple for the project as discribed, I decided to have Chris make me a sister for The Blue Pointy Thing.
It'll be made from the same wood as the blue pointy thing, with a set of Kinman Woodstock Plus pickups, gold hardware and no scratchplate but rear routed.
Here it goes:
Swamp ash block for the body:

Laminate for the neck.
Maple and tasmanian blackwood - a very rare and extremely expensive wood.

The pieces being glued together:

And now the piece de resistance:
A gorgeous piece of Irish flamed maple for the top, same as the blue pointy thing was made of:

Some progress:
Chris:
I prepared the neck blank by adding an ear for the headstock and laid out the neck

The body halves were sandwiched with the overlay (including bending the arm relief bit.) and the halves joined together.

Today, Chris made the neck joint and fitted the trussrod.

The mortice:

The rough tenon:

A rough fit:

It needs a little bit of adjustment:

A good snug fit:

Cutting the slot for the trussrod:

And the trussrod fits:

Chris worked on the neck.
I asked for a facing on the headstock in the same wood as the body.
Since the strat has a curve in the headstock it isn't easy to fit a flame mample top to it.
But as Chris said "I like a challenge!"
He also needed to know what wood I wanted for the backplate. I chose the same wood as the back since that would blend in the best.
Chris:
I needed to know which wood you wanted for the backplates because it would determine how I cut the maple. As it worked out I was able to cut a thin slice and then make it even thinner to use as a facing for the headstock. I cut the headstock, shaped the neck and made the ramp up to the fingerboard then wet the thin facing and heated/bent it to fit that shape the best I could. I glued it up with cauls and hope it has worked! I won't know how good it is until I remove the clamps this morning. Figured wood doesn't like being bent which is why I made the facing so thin.


Some pics:

Cutting out the shape of the headstock

Scraping the headstock to get a nice curve:

A thin piece of flamed maple for the headstock, cut from the same board as the body:

Everything glued and clamped down:

It worked!! a rough finish:

 

[MisterE]

Didn't have to wait long for some more pics
Chris:
Good evening Hairy Twin,

I cleaned up the overlay and it looks fine. The fingerboard was cut, shaped, slotted and glued to the neck. That's it.


Chrisslotter.



Chris always signs his emails with Chrissomething

Oh, and he calls me his twin since we both share the same birthday.
And we both go back a long way.
I met him in Rotterdam while demonstrating for Kramer back in '90:
Here I was trying out one of his lovely geetars:

This is when we met again after more than twenty years:

Anyway, here are the pics from today:

 

[MisterE]

Got another email from Chris with some pics:

Your neck is finished except for the shamrock, and stamping the serial number on the back, gluing it into the body, blending the joint and fitting the tuners. So really it's not finished at all. So I lied to you.
However, the profile is a flat C and parallel - 20mm at fret 1 and 20mm at fret 13 so very quick and slick feeling.

Also your pickups have arrived from down under.



This is the rough cut:

Carving the volute:

Rasping:

Scraping:

Sanding:

Oh, how lovely it looks:

The fretboard radius:

Hammering the frets with a dead hammer (that's a hammer that's no longer breathing according to Chris)

Filinf the frets:

All done:

And the pickups for The Sister Of The Blue Pointy Thing have arrived along with some extra pickups I ordered:

 

[MisterE]

Chris finished the Shamrock inlay, his trademark.

Yesterday he routed the cavities for the trem and the pickups.

The trem fits:

The rear cavity for the trem:

Cutting the slot for the lever switch:

Determining the position for the bridge pickup

rest of the holes for the pickups

 

[jarnozz]

Looking very good! I love to see the end result

 

[Neilzord]

Wow, Great progress pictures. Keen to see some more on this build!

 

[MisterE]

Chris:

Yesterday I cut a few more holes in your body. I don't suppose you felt a thing. In one picture you can see the deliberate mistake. I had to do this because only God can make a perfect thing. It won't be there after today. I also did some fine adjustments to the trem rout as I intended to keep the trem close to the body.

Rough routing

Control cavity:

Chris:

All the holes are now made, cutaway cutaway, 12mm radius made and I have to do the final hand sand on the body (which looks and feels good) so today I should be able to glue the neck in.

Rough tummycut:

Position of the jack plate:

Sanding the radius of the edge:

Finished:

 

[DistinguishedPapyrus]

Is that body shape an exact copy of a Strat or does it have variances? Just curious... I love the strat shape but it looks a bit more curvy in the pic.

 

[MisterE]

Is that body shape an exact copy of a Strat or does it have variances? Just curious

That's my first Warmoth and I bought it in '94.
It's a bit more curvy as you correctly noticed. The upper curve is deeper than on a normal strat.
I've got a newer model from Waromth and that shape is more correct if not completely correct:

Yesterday, Chris did the following.
Chris:

I checked that all the angles were correct and that the trem would fit low in the body, made the wedges that fit under the overhanging fingerboard end, masked off the body, slapped in some glue and clamped the two parts together. Too late to go back now!

Checking the angle of the neck:

Glued & clamped:

Looks rather good from a distance:

 

[MisterE]

Next up is one of my favourite parts of the guitar building: the heel.
The glue has dried and this is how it looks:

Then Chris starts working on it with a chisel:

After scraping and sanding it's finaly done and looks like this:

A fine piece of craftsmanship I would say.
Now all it needs are the back plates and the first layers of lacquer can be applied.

This is the link for Chris' last newsletter:
CLC Newsletter - October 2013

Check out the old newsletters. There's loads of guitar building stuff, reader articles and even recipes in there

 

[Hollowway]

I love all these pictures! Somehow I missed this thread until now, but I'm glad I found it!!

 

[AwDeOh]

There's some bloody stunning woodworking going on here..

 

[Youne]

Really nice! Using the hand tools is a great pleasure !! I don't like the Strat or superstrat style, but your work is really great !
But, how you lock the fret ruler in your system ?

 

[MisterE]

Last update for this week.
Chris is attending an art fair with his wife, The Lovely Syra.
She's a talented and renowned painter.
Syra Larkin Shoreline Studio Figurative,Symbolist.arist
Chris sent me these pictures:

You can see him driling holes in the back plates.
The plates are made from the same wood as the body with matchin grain.

Normally, I always remove the tremolo spring cover plate for when I need to adjust the springs.
But I liked these back plates so much - they'll be even better when cloured and lacquered - I don't want to remove it.
So I asked Chris if he could find a solution so I can leave it in place.
He suggested a Schaller Sure Claw.
That way he'll only have to drill a small hole to fit the allen key.

 

[MisterE]

And here, the continuing story of the Sister of the Blue Pointed Thing.

Chris hit a snag.
When he wanted to install the Sure Claw, the screws would protrude into the neck pickup cavity.
What to do????
Chris:

Rather than have two screws going up from the back of the cavity into the middle pickup space I decided the tap a tread into the claw and use M5 machine crews from the pickup side. This effectively clamps the claw to the wood. I also drilled three small holes into the front of the claw which allow me to screw the claw in place as well but screwing into the full width of the body.

So now I only need to insert an allan key through a small hole to adjust the Sure Claw:

Chris aplied a few coats of lacquer:

 

[BlackMastodon]

I am loving everything about this build.