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My new project.. Turn a door into a guitar


Rabs

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Looking better

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And here you can see I dropped the areas below the bridge and tailstop (I know the top is looking messy but I will sand that down easy enough(

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So now the bridge is flush with the top

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I decided to leave the nut to dry and continue tomorrow. So hopefully all of this will help.. BUT I don't think I will be able to totally get rid of that bow.. So.. it wont be perfect but I will do my best to make sure it still rocks :)

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I think if you keep carving you'll get it just right. While you're at it... You could go for a carved top you know.

 

It's working. Keep at it! [thumbup] [thumbup] [thumbup]

Cheers man the support is appreciated :)

 

I cant go much further now with that cap.. its only 3mm thick now and I need some wood to support the volume tone knobs and stuff or it will all get too weak.

 

I will make it playable though... You will see this guitar playing a tune :)

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Hello...

 

 

Just a quick one today as I was finishing another project (which I cant wait to tell you all about, which I will do in about a week and a half)....

 

So the neck hasn't really moved.. I have had another idea to try and melt the glue with meths or something like that which I wll try soon..

 

As for today, I just sanded down the top and also filled a little gap that was made in the P90 cavity when I trimmed the top down..

 

 

So heres the neck.. still the same :(

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So lets hope that the meths make a difference.. And heres the top now sanded.. still a bit more to do but its looking better than yesterday

20130813_165505_zpsecfec686.jpg

 

And heres where ive added some filler (sawdust from the top and glue).. So I will leave that to dry and will go back at this probably Thursday as I have more finishing to do tomorrow on that other proect

20130813_165509_zpseffe63ec.jpg

 

 

more soon.. and thanks for watching :) [thumbup]

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  • 2 months later...

HELLO !! Im BACK :D

 

So for those of you who may have followed this thread but are not forum regulars I have been off now for various reasons.

 

Firstly I did this GREAT project which was to mod a LP Junior into a John Lennon LPJ.. You can see that here

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/104804-the-john-lennon-les-paul-junior-project/

 

That was a really great project to do and took over for a short while so I haven't been working on my own projects.. Then I moved house which has taken way longer than it should and then just at the end of all that my back totally gave out after lifting up a bed lol.. well its taken me almost a month to get back in working order.. But im back again so my updates should become regular again..

 

Now for the BAD news.. I really have tried everything I can to save this project, but theres no way to get that neck out without killing the whole thing.. Soooo ive decided to let this one go and move on to the next project which I have started a thread on here

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/100387-turn-a-door-to-a-guitar-project-2/

 

Meanwhile, today I started back so I eased myself back in with some easy stuff..

 

So now the GOOD news.. I already have a replacement body for this project which I did today..

20131021_173635_zpsd87eca98.jpg

 

Just so you can see its very similar to the last one, but I get to do the horns again which I made a mistake on first time around and made them thinner than I planned

20131021_173729_zpsbaae0c63.jpg

 

Also today I did a second body which is a similar shape to build 2 (the middle one) which is like a double cut tele (sort of :))

 

The new one is on the right...

20131021_181654_zps0be4bbdb.jpg

 

Soooooo... now I have three bodies ready to go.. I have some mahogany that I need to get cut in half as I don't have any tools that cut thick enough to do that so I have to either hire a bench saw or find someone local who has one and is willing to do it for me. Now I just have to make three necks [blink] :)

 

Anyway that's all for today, just a quickie to get myself back in the swing..

 

More soon [thumbup] :)

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Glad to see you're back in the saddle. Watching with interest!

 

Don't forget... 29 Oct.

Cheers guys... glad to see people are still watching :)

 

If you can believe it I just checked and the first post on this thread was the 25 November 2012 [omg] where the bloody hell did a year go?? :) (well almost a year anyway)

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Hello again...

 

So today I got on to that mahogany I bought a short while back from a car boot sale (for £10 :))

 

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Now I don't have any tools that will cut thick enough to cut through those apart from a hand saw but that would have just taken forever and killed my back and arms and probably not been straight :) So I found a joinery shop today who cut them up for me :D

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I am going to use those for neck through builds which im pretty excited about... No neck gluing issues on this :)

 

So today I glued the first one together.. So im using one of the long pieces for the body and neck and the waste when I got them cut in half is being used for the body wings.. So now it looks like this

20131022_172136_zps0cc3dc1c.jpg

 

I think its going to finish up REAL nice.. the wood is lovely

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So tomorrow I can glue the second neck through piece and the body wings and I will then have 5 builds on the go lol :)

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So that cost me £10 to get those cut.. While I was there the guy was like if you want any offcuts go ahead so I also got these bits of Oak included in that tenner :D

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AND the guy said that he can order in any exotic wood I want for good prices.. So that was a right result, now I have some neck wood for the other bodies I have ready [thumbup]

 

More soon [thumbup]

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Sorry to read that it went belly-up, Rabs.

 

Are you sure there's no way to rescue the #1, though?

I'm going to re-read the important bits and see if I can think of something...but don't hold your breath!

 

Looking forward to the new project!

 

[thumbup]

 

P.

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Wow man, I've read this from start to finish, and despite the chaos and mayhem that ensued, I've got to hand it to you, kudos! Looking forward to the neck through projects!

Cheers man ... and yes its been one hell of ride [thumbup]

 

Mind you as much as ive done ok I still have to finish one that actually works :P :)

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Sorry to read that it went belly-up, Rabs.

 

Are you sure there's no way to rescue the #1, though?

I'm going to re-read the important bits and see if I can think of something...but don't hold your breath!

 

Looking forward to the new project!

 

[thumbup]

 

P.

Yeah man... I know its sad to have to leave it, but really the neck wont come out without completely cutting the body up and if im honest it could be better, the neck that is.. I did well on my first one to get where I got to.. but it could have been better so this now gives me the chance to make it all perfect.

 

All part of the process man. As Searcy once said, this is called paying my dues [thumbup]

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Nice mahogany! Are you making the neck with some relief in it?

You know what, im really glad you said that... I think im going to do some more research before I continue.. The neck join/angle is what got me on the last build so I want to be 100% sure I know what im doing on the next attempt.

 

Cheers man [thumbup]

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Nice mahogany! Are you making the neck with some relief in it?

So ive had a look... not too much information out there about neck throughs...

 

But I did find these... shows that you can either build it into the neck or into the body... The wood I have is quite thick so hopefully I got enough material to do that.. Now ive glued the wings on I will have to try and make the body match. So maybe next time I will shape the neck and have the body flat :)

 

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Okey dokey..

 

So yesterday I did some research... It turns out that basically the angle of the neck depends solely on what bridge you intend to use.. If you use a fender type bridge then you can have a zero degree neck as the profile of the bridge is flat to the body BUT if you want to use a Tune O Matic then you need an angle of between 1-3 degrees (cant find out much specific information on that)..

 

Sooo... I have wood for two neck throughs so I have decided to do one zero degree neck and one angled. So I will start with the Zero degree one..

 

Tuesday I glued the wings on and made a bit of a boo boo on the positioning of that lol.. nothing drastic but it made my bottom horn a bit stunted :) You can see theres a fair bit of waste on the back (mental note for next time :))

 

This is the shape im going for which was determined by the size of the body I have to use which wasn't quite wide enough for me to do a Gibson shape.... but its all good, my builds will all be unique.. no mould or template I just allow it to take shape.

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Watch as the horns slowly take shape :)

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To this

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Im pretty happy with that shape. But I left it there today as I was still thinking about how to best proceed and what type of neck angle and bridge to use.

 

Next I got the second neck through piece and decided that before I glue the wings on I will try and work out this neck angle.. Now I think I have JUST enough wood to do this. I will have to shave the top and bottom bits off and it should give me the desired effect

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Here you can see how much wood I need to take off (and that's before the wings)

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So that's all for this build today.. Next I need to take a whole lot of wood of the first neck through now Ive decided it will be flat.. I may take it to that joinery shop again :)

 

More soon folks.. (I am also updating build 2 today :)) [thumbup]

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Okey dokey..

 

So yesterday I did some research... It turns out that basically the angle of the neck depends solely on what bridge you intend to use.. If you use a fender type bridge then you can have a zero degree neck as the profile of the bridge is flat to the body BUT if you want to use a Tune O Matic then you need an angle of between 1-3 degrees (cant find out much specific information on that)..

 

Hi Rabs - really enjoyed following this thread. I'm well impressed!

 

Your comment above about the neck was exactly what I thought I was reading this thread through. Is their anyway you can just go for a different style bridge? You've put so much effort in, it would be good to get something out of it.

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Hi Rabs - really enjoyed following this thread. I'm well impressed!

 

Your comment above about the neck was exactly what I thought I was reading this thread through. Is their anyway you can just go for a different style bridge? You've put so much effort in, it would be good to get something out of it.

Thanks man :)

 

Actually now you mention it I didn't actually try that as a solution..

 

I do have a tele style bridge somewhere, maybe it will be worth a go... BUT the neck is at such an upward angle (like +4 or 5 degrees) that im not sure even that will work. But I will give it a go [thumbup]

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I like where the new project is going. [thumbup] [thumbup]

 

If you use a Fender style bridge and lower that nut as far as you ca you might end up with a good slide guitar.

Yeah I will give it a try maybe tomorrow... [thumbup]

 

And yeah I was lucky to find that mahogany such a great deal £10 for two guitars worth :) And through necks are cool [thumbup]

 

One of my first ever guitars was a Kay through neck.. It had a nice body and neck but sounded like crap lol... if only I knew then what I know now :) I actually gave it away to and old flat mate who was starting to learn guitar so I gave it to her as a Bday present.. Now id stick some nice pups in that and itd make a great player.. oh well

 

It looked like this

KAY-TH1_zps4de15f99.jpg

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Howdy all..

 

So today as discussed above I did try the tele bridge on this build.. still not good enough :(

 

here you can see the neck angle is pointing too far upwards (it actually looks worse in real life [unsure] ). You can also see the truss rod in action where its bowing back down again towards the head end.. but even that's not enough and ive tightened it as far as it will go

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so heres the guitar with the tele bridge

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And here you can see even that low down its too high :(

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shame, as at the head end its ok

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BUT just so I could actually show you some video of the guitar playing, even with those high strings I made this quick vid :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQF9q4EukFI

 

So id say that its for that specific build.. I will keep this thread going though until I have a final finished guitar that's fully functional.. You can bet your bottom dollar on that ;) What I will finally say though is the original thread was "Can I build a guitar out of a door" and I can firmly say the answer to that is YES (if you got some decent neck wood :)) [thumbup]

 

More on the through necks soon (need some more truss rods that I have to order :))

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello folk...

 

So back to my builds again today...

 

And I decided to work on Neck through no 2 which will have an angled set neck.

 

So I trimmed the neck down a bit

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Then I properly measured the angle of the body.. I could only fit 3 degrees so I hope that's enough

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Then I cut the extra bits off (not very well, but can be fixed easy :))

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Then I decided to stick a wing on and do it at the correct angle and I will trim any over sized bits down from the back and sand the front down so its all smooth and level.

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Here you can see how much I need to take off

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So we are getting there :)

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After I get the second wing on I will go at the neck and truss rod cavity [thumbup]

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More soon.. and thanks for watching (anyone who still actually is ;))

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