Electric Classical

[Peter Crossley]

Hey Guys,
been awhile huh?


Been very busy just trying to make ends meet in this Crazy ol' world, and have not had time for any builds at all really....

just to relieve the pressure building up in my head I thought I would build an electric classical, re-design the whole concept etc.etc...

All built using very traditional methods, bent sides, kerfing, bracing etc.

anyways, still going so I thought I might post an online build thread to keep you guys in the loop..

Pete

Layout piccies








Mould Made.
50mm thick, made of 4 sheets of 12.5mm marine ply,





if you look hard at the top of the cutaway you can see a little slot, used to hold the bent side in position where the cutaway meets the neck.



Here is the raw Sitka spruce, These blocks have been getting used to Australia for the last 6 years..


End view 90mm thick


after being squared and dressed


selecting the back, I have since redressed this and taken it down to around 7mm, may do a slight carve


These are my 2 choices for the sides, the pinky one is Qld Maple, the other is Merkin Maple..

I ended up going with the Merkin and then sliced off the sides


These are the sides sliced off dressed and taken down to just under 2mm


Bendy time... warming up



Bent and clamped into mould




Here's where that little notch does its thing



more to come soon.....

 

[TheLivingDead]

Re: Electric Classical

Ooooo very nice! Can't wait to see this unfold.

Keep us in the loop please!

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: Electric Classical

very nice

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Re: Electric Classical

Nice; I remember you talking about that billet of spruce, waiting for the right project. I'm a bit on the fence about electric classicals, though the old Parker Fly Concert/Spanish Fly was a nice execution. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build.

Careful how you use the term 'merkin' around here .

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Electric Classical

Wow....

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Electric Classical

Peter, you always do such great work and make some of the most beautiful electrics I've ever seen. I'm sure this is going to be equally a work of art. Can't wait to see it as the work progresses and is completed.

Keep it coming.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Electric Classical

Great work aussie bro. And its good to see a build thread around here. It almost makes me want to post up one for mine.

 

[DarkMatter]

Re: Electric Classical

I'll be watching this develop for sure.

 

[Peter Crossley]

Re: Electric Classical

Thanks for the kind words guys,

I must admit I have really been enjoying this journey into the semi-traditional..


needed a whole swag more tools...

but you can never have enough tools right??

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Electric Classical

Right! Kinda like guitars.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Electric Classical

Come to think of it.............

The only time when you could have too many guitars is if you lost both your hands in a boating accident cleaning seaweed off of the propeller. (Maybe too graphic?).

 

[Aceman]

Re: Electric Classical

Awesome! And hey - stay tuned. SDUG ultimate axe is going on again. You should throw something in when a category rolls up. I'll keep you posted/PM.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Electric Classical

So, is this shallow, hollow or what?

PS - think about an internal Mic system. My Yamaha has that (+ underbridge Piezo) and it's fantastic.

 

[Peter Crossley]

Re: Electric Classical

This is the Spruce top
the bracing you can see below, centre line of 0.9mm qld maple, bridge brace is 1.8mm old light mahogany
braces are Sitka.

also glueing in the neck block, this is the 22.5 degree Crossley madness, you may as well be able to get to the upper frets....



sound holes cut and triple bound.
Each colour binding is put on individually,

and my fingers are covered in super glue..

Again...




you get to see how nice and tight the spruce top is here.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Electric Classical

hell yes.

 

[LedSabbath]

Re: Electric Classical

Cool man nice job

 

[Peter Crossley]

Re: Electric Classical

Here's the back I'm using, thicknessed down and dressed, and bookmatched



and a closeup of the figure

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Electric Classical

how do you stop the sides from snapping when you are shaping them into the mold?

 

[Peter Crossley]

Re: Electric Classical

how do you stop the sides from snapping when you are shaping them into the mold?

you use a bending iron, you take the temperature up to between 350-400 degrees F

and spray the timber you are bending with water, if you are bending on a surface that will be seen, you first wet a pices of cloth, cotton preferably, and wrap that around the timber.

This creates steam as well as heat, which softens the celluar structure of the timber, allowing it to be bent...

face it... everything on the planet has a plastic nature, its just that some things bend at ambient temperature, others require differing temp ranges.. get a diamond hot enough and you should be able to bend it...

Clamping into the mould allows it to retain that shape while it cools and gets its rigidity back.

Also, an interseting thing happens during this process, timber that is bent using this process, actually becomes stronger than if it was never bent...

 

[Peter Crossley]

Re: Electric Classical

Here's a U Choobe of a guy doing it that will explain the process,

He is a Geordie, so the accent may throw you, but yo will get the idea..