First guitar build - something a little different.

[Nick Kitchener]

Hi,
Thank you for allowing me to join. I thought I'd put this in as a build log/Q&A. Handtools (and mostly manual). Oh.. and this is my first guitar.

This will be the guitar, those with a keen eye will note it's not entirely normal.

It's a 727.27mm scale length, 24 frets on 7 strings, it's bridge is pulled back and the body will be shaped for sitting, both quasi-classical and right leg overhang, but it should feel close to a strat in that my left hand will not be going over my shoulder. In essences the bottom will look more like quasi-strandberg with the top section body actually contacting the neck quite far up but the neck, the should ensure neck drive is kept in check.
Having the bridge further back isn't a problem for me.
Probably will opt for a single volume and rotary selector switch.

Ok, woods
* 7 laminate neck - maple, wenge, walnut, purple heart, walnut, wenge, maple
* alder body wood with carved 20mm maple top
* African rosewood (bubinga I think) fretboard
Finish will be danish oil.

Other planned details:
* 14 degree neckstock angle
* 530mm truss rod
* TUSQ nut - this I have two coming to check out the string widths
* Jester stainless fretwire
* Schaller tuners
* Gotoh fixed bridge
* metal ferrules
* SD pickups
* selection of strings coming to check out - d'addio/elixir/EB

The idea is that the neck through will be routed to make space for the top but the bridge will sit on the neck through laminate, same with the direct mounted pickups.

[Nick Kitchener]

Turns out that my thinking already exists - and Abasi has a similar concept:

The key here is that:
a) it's for sitting and playing, standing is a secondary
b) it's a long scale length, hence trying to minimise the 'hand above the shoulder' or awkards sitting stance that would occur with S or T based designs (which mimic the dreadnought ergonomics). This explains why the bridge is a little closer into the back of the guitar on my design as I don't need the space for a complicated bridge.

Electric guitars and tone is always an interesting discussion, with these design characteristics it's going to be interesting;

a) an academic paper on solid body guitars provides insight into dead zones, a solid body design (and one with a bolt on neck) reduces the vibration in the body of an S-style guitar: https://acoustics.org/pressroom/httpdoc ... scher.html (note there is an actual research paper on that but this is easier to access).
b) through neck laminates have extremely complex resonance and transmission characteristics - the tapping the large purple heart centre has a different resonance to tapping the maple on the outside of the neck, multiply that by grain patterns unique to the wood. Add to that the dampening characteristics of the bonding adhesive between the layers and it gets hideously complex.
What I do know is one option to improve that would be make a body that doesn't dampen the resonant vibrations, which means the body of the guitar that's in contact with the player is separated from the neck/bridge/pickup assembly.
c) lastly, the bridge/pickup positioning naturally will affect as a feedback/cancellation, just as it does on an acoustic, but with the impact on the guitar bridge and microscopic movements of the pickup (moving the magnetic flux in relation to the string rather than moving the string through the flux).

So I have to write a program to model the frequencies and create a heat map so that I can see where the best position of the pickups will be (rather than guess). An alternative or way to verify that model is to build the guitar without frets, but with nut and bridge in place along with the unfinished blocks of the body then make a mechanism to allow the pickups on top to be positioned relative to the bridge (using singles to measure as the pickup will be rotated to maintain any string specific flux). It can then be subtracted mathematically following the measurements.

Overthought.. but interesting none-the-less.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Given that I have a lot of issues with my left shoulder (too much stress, too much time at the PC, and genetics (both my parents have issues with their shoulders)). Interesting topic, I have wondered about , that Klein ergonomic guitar, which I think is cool, but is it really ergonomic? The angle of the neck on the body has it pointing up.
Wouldn't think too long about vibration modeling/design, there are a host of factors, wood is a very variable material.
Good point on shifting the bridge back, I've long wondered why that is on guitars (basses have it more on the edge of the body), and the steinberger design shows that it is not needed, but you will need deeper cutaways.

[Edgar Jessop]

Turns out that my thinking already exists - and Abasi has a similar concept:
The key here is that:
a) it's for sitting and playing, standing is a secondary ...
Overthought.. but interesting none-the-less...

https://youtu.be/n02tImce3AE

[Nick Kitchener]

Clamping up the top this morning:

[Nick Kitchener]

Post maple top bond and just shaped and glued up the alder body blocks, here's the blocks pre glue up (note they're not aligned completely and they're deliberately oversized here in the photo):

Also since the previous photo, the fretboard has been shaped and the neck has been shaped to the fret board.

[Nick Kitchener]

Still some cleanup but next is calculating some frequencies and working out how the pickup location will affect sound. I want the sound of this guitar to be a clear bridge tone but a slightly warmer bridge.

[Barry Daniels]

We have addressed this issue many times here. The frequencies will change every time you fret a string so trying to find an optimum position will not prove to be that valuable. Just put a pickup close to the bridge and another close to the fretboard. This will give the greatest variety of sounds possible.

[Nick Kitchener]

We have addressed this issue many times here. The frequencies will change every time you fret a string so trying to find an optimum position will not prove to be that valuable. Just put a pickup close to the bridge and another close to the fretboard. This will give the greatest variety of sounds possible.

Thank you - that and the tonewood on an electric seem to be one of the most discussed points.

I've simply plotted the string lengths and divisions (ie harmonics) for the f0 and f24 positions, and it gives a good enough picture to be honest.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Well, there's this:
https://till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/

But as Barry mentions, I'd not worry about it too much, really hard to assess "tone" or "sound" on objective measurements alone.

You made good progress! That is a lovely top.

[Nick Kitchener]

So this is my current thinking on the pickup locations. It's 727mm scale length so a 5.5-6.5% comes a distance from the bridge.

[Barry Daniels]

Looks good to my eye.

[Nick Kitchener]

Still alot todo but I wanted to test the neck.

I still have neck carve, body carve, fretboard flattening, radius, frets, etc

[Barry Daniels]

That nut looks really high which would put extra bending stress on the neck. Be careful.

[Nick Kitchener]

That was a concern. I did think that there may be quite alot of force, especially with the longer scale length cranking up the tension. I will probably look at the fretboard and nut next, so that should shave off some height. The headstock has a a spar of the purple heart at the back continuing to about mid way up the headstock to provide additional strength. Also the scarf joint turns out cover the last three tuners on the headstock rather than sitting under the nut.

I'll probably make the neck quite chunky for the carve and just under the nut - I find the neck of the strat too thin hence thinking a thicker neck overall.

Once the fretboard is done, I'll reduce the height of the nut which should help.

[Nick Kitchener]

I calculate that there’a about 188lb or 90kg tension so mu thinking is to carve the neck thickness for 28-30mm.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Large component of that tension on the neck will be compression though, so as long as you keep string height low, there really isn't that much bending force, and you will need some bending to make sure the trussrod can do it's thing.
Also, all of the wood you are using in the neck is pretty beefy, so, I wouldn't worry about it. (and would definitely go thinner than 28-30, but then again, my preference is skinny necks).

[Nick Kitchener]

I had a busy afternoon - I slimmed down the fretboard thickness, dropped the nu height, levelled and then releveled after putting in the 16" radius.The I installed the frets, ground and filed but there's still some additional work required on the frets, the fretboard just like the rest of the guitar.

Current action is 2.5mm (0.125") on the 7th string at the 24th fret.

My fingers are numb at the moment.

[Nick Kitchener]

An update, I still have alot todo. The idea is that I spend a little time playing and then deciding precisely of the changes I want to make.

Some Danish.. and the front is starting to pop.

The rear - you'll note the temporary electronics

And the head

So far I have still todo:

* Neck reduction and finish - this is removing about 1-2 mm of the neck thickness. The profile is good in the hand.
* Clean and finish neck.. length ways and fretboard sides etc
* Headstock finish.. pretty obvious, reducing the bulk and smoothing out. I've decided to leave that plain and without a front lamination as I quite like the look as it contrasts the rest of the guitar.
* frets and truss rod needs finishing after the neck changes
* body - high access needs a little more.
* body lower lobe can be reduced a little - after all the neck work etc the centre of gravity has shifted allowing some body reduction.
* body carve upper back to allow body access
* body carve front for wrist
* body carve front for profile archs
* body carve rear for thickness if required (I quite like it heavier to be honest)
* body carve and rear - round off and possibly put in some perfiling.
* action needs adjusting
* neck pickup needs small treble adjustment - it sings and the B string sounds like death knoll off a cathedral bell.
* bridge pickup needs raising a little overall but also needs a little more treble side.
* control switch/volume needs mounting - that's currently what's squirrelled in the cavity I may add a 5 way in there instead with a real volume knob depending on sonic impact (I can measure this to make it objective).
* add some luminol on the side of the fretboatd although I am starting to read the fretboard by the pattern subconsciously
* fit the control cavity back
* and finally.. fit the strap pins!

[Nick Kitchener]

I've recorded my first ever video

It's recording the bridge pickup through an audio interface mixed onto the video of me gibbering on (this is why there's a little treble echo in some spots). The audio chain is SD Sentient (no tone controls) -> minifuse 1 @192KHz/24bit with a little pregain -> garage band with all the plugins switched off, EQ switched off, no echo, no reverb. It's using basic tools to record and then mix the video hence it's amateur

https://youtu.be/ts7JKGGBwhs?feature=shared

The guitar still needs finishing (there's a couple of duff frets) but I thought rather than photos.. better hearing it

Sorry no SD Pegasus bridge pickup in the recording as I managed to break the solder joint on the switch.