Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

[Hans Bezemer]

All right I'm in.

I want to make a 7 string guitar tuned in fifths:
C (one step above a low B)-G-D-A-E-B-F# (two steps above high e of a guitar).
I roughly based the design on a Klein headless guitar ( and after that found out that this was already done http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... p?t=686151 )
Scalelength: 760 - 660 mm (approx. 30" - 26")
Stringspacing: Nut 6mm, bridge 10 mm
Two pickups: one for the bassside (C-G-D) and one for the trebleside (A-E-B-F#)
The pickups are single loop Low Z pick ups made from basic electric wire with a current transformer.

Materials:
Used / found:
The plywood are cutoffs taken out of a trashcan from a factory where they make big counters and desks.
The wire and xlr inputs are taken out of various products (long long ago).
Alumium sheet taken from an old fishtank (also long ago).

New:
Frets: $7.5
plywood used for fretboard $7.5
Tuner gears 7*$1.80 = $12.60
Current transformers = 2*$1.20 = $2.4
Danish oil = $4,-
Trussrod (needs to be modified) = $3,-

[Bryan Bear]

Sounds cool. I look forward to seek g it develop!

[Hans Bezemer]

Made a little progress:
I've cut the fretboard and neck piece, once the truss rod is installed I'll glue them up and plane the taper.
Further I've cut the wood for the pickups.

Hans

CIMG6971.JPG (97.85 KiB) Viewed 75671 times

[Hans Bezemer]

Made just a little progress: Glued up the neck and planed the taper.
I was planning to use my router for the neck, but we have a couple of birds breeding near our shed, so I used my plane instead to keep the noise down...

Hans

[Hans Bezemer]

I've made a quick mock up from what I have so far:
Body parts, neck, bridge and pickups.
Next up: Finishing the neck and installing the frets.

Hans

[Warren May]

Starting to take shape very nicely, Hans.

[Bryan Bear]

I agree, this one will be cool.

[Greg Robinson]

Interesting idea Hans, I hope you'll post a soundclip once you've finished, I'm very curious how these pickups will sound.
Good luck!

[Hans Bezemer]

Greg,

Thank you for your reply.

A while ago I made a quick recording of a prototype:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A1NkiwltbI

I like the clean sound but the distorded sound needs to be modified.
There's a wealth of info about this pickup design on the music electronics forum (single loop low Z pick up).
I very much like the simplicity of this design, you can make a prototype in less then 15 min..

Hans

[Hans Bezemer]

I've worked on the neck today.
I sawed the fretslots.
After that I shaped the neck by rasping the profile in the neck just before where the neck will enter the body. I then used a plane to shape the rest of the neck (an advantage of not having a headstock in the way).

I need some advice on the following:
The fretboard will be flat (zero radius), but I use fretwire from a coil. I've already tried to straigthen the fretwire but it still has a 14" radius.
When I hammer the fret in, the ends of the fret are a little bit lower then the middle part.
I use a wooden block and a hammer and try to hit as few as possible (3x times: 1x for each side, 1x for the middle).
Can I start by driving in the middle part first?

I've tried to press the fret in with a clamp but then it keeps popping up.

Hans

[Greg Robinson]

Hans, do you have fret benders? Either the plier type or roller type? With the roller type, you can send the wire through backwards to flatten it. Plier type will be less consistent, but should get you there.
You can give it a few more taps in the middle, this would be the normal procedure for a fretboard with a radius anyway.

[Hans Bezemer]

Finally I got to work on the guitar again.
I rounded the body with my router and I shaped my neck to it's final shape.
Next up:
- drilling the tuner holes in the body
- fretting the neck


Hans

[Hans Bezemer]

Hans, do you have fret benders? Either the plier type or roller type? With the roller type, you can send the wire through backwards to flatten it. Plier type will be less consistent, but should get you there.
You can give it a few more taps in the middle, this would be the normal procedure for a fretboard with a radius anyway.

Thanks Greg,

I've tested a piece of fretwire, and I'll think it will work.
I'll post a picture of my neck as soon as the frets are in.

Hans

[Bryan Bear]

This looks pretty cool. I'm looking forward to see how the tuners get mounted.

[Warren May]

The plywood laminations give it a really interesting look. Nice work on carving to get everything even. The router idea you mentioned earlier would have been interesting, too, but this came out nicely.

[Hans Bezemer]

Unfortunately I can't make it in time, work and family got "in the way".
I'm hoping to finish the guitar this summer.

[Hans Bezemer]

I'm posting this after the deadline. I hope I can keep posting till I've finished my guitar.

I've found some time to fret the neck.
I've hammered the frets in and they all seem to fit nice.

[Warren May]

Really nice fretwork, Hans. That's a cool picture

[Hans Bezemer]

Making some fine progress.

glued in the neck in the guitar.
Right now the Danish oil is curing and I hope to assemble the guitar this weekend.

12 - Oiled guitar.JPG (104.82 KiB) Viewed 74832 times

I've "designed" a single string bridge by screwing a insert nut in the wood and using a bolt as a saddle.
Yesterday set everthing up and it worked well. I adjust the intonation by filing the bolt.

11 - bridge.JPG (69.95 KiB) Viewed 74832 times

I've made a pick up holder by routing a groove in a piece of plywood and made two single loop pick ups using a piece of electric wire led through a 1:500 current transformer.

[Hans Bezemer]

I've assembled the guitar.
Everything works fine and although there are a lot of things I want to do better next time, I'm happy with the outcome.

I will post some soundclips soon.

14 - finished guitar.JPG (148.03 KiB) Viewed 74806 times

15 - finished guitar - tuning pegs.JPG (149.87 KiB) Viewed 74806 times