New Project for a Forum member

[orpheo]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

That neck looks unbelievably awesome! My goodness... I need to gather some money together to get me a truly custom built, one-of-a-kind guitar. Well done, orpheo. I can already tell you're a hell of a talented luthier just by checking out your instagram page.

Thank you! I do my best to make nice, unique guitars that will serve the purpose of making music. I'd be happy to help you spec out a guitar and give you a price quote. Odds are that my pricing is much more competitive than what you likely had in mind

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

not exactly. Many pipes are blanketed in heat ribbons. If one fails, the water seeps out and becomes ice. So, yeah. both.

Man. I hate when that happens.

 

[Niloy63]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

That would be pretty awesome! I'll have that conversation with you some time soon. Thanks orpheo!

 

[orpheo]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

Update time!

I leveled the neck and let it rest a while so it could adjust to having being worked on. I believe that wood still needs to learn and understand that it isn't a tree anymore and that it wants to go back being a tree. So the more you 'do' to a billet, the more it needs to rest and adjust to its new position if you want stability. But that's just tree-hugging and cork sniffing avant la lettre

Then I started to prep the top for glueing. The top is 7mm thick walnut and believe me, this piece is a b!tch; it does NOT want to bend! I build up pressure with clamps over the course of a couple of weeks and now it's ready to be glued down. Sometimes this part will go without a hitch, sometimes it's as tricky as pulling teeth from a tiger.


Unfortunately, I ran into a slightly more severe, life-altering snag a couple of weeks ago that hindered my all over: my grandmother died. In between mourning, the funeral, the inheritance and my day job at Aristides, I had no mental capacity left to build, at all.

Well, now that's out of the way. I will be posting photo's of the body once it's glued down later this week. However, next weekend, may 4+5, May 10th till may 14th and the weekend around May 18-22, I will have closed my shop due to national holidays (birthday of the king, memorial day, independence day, ascension day and pentecost).

For those interested, I have these builds lined up for this year:

- black korina LP, floyd rose, 2x SH9's (no type here), purple finish, purpleheart neck
- black korina SG, hardtail, 2x p90 + humbucker, trans red finish, padouk neck
- black korina strat, carved front, hipshot hardware, 3x single coils, rear routed, bubinga neck, trans (tardis) blue
- black korina V, 2x sheptone humbucker PAFs, hardtail, korina neck
- black korina superstrat, 2 humbuckers, hipshot hardware, ovangkol neck, trans yellow
- black korina PRS inspired model, pau ferro neck, 2x minihumbucker, 1 humbucker, trans green, gold harware
- walnut/black korina LP, 2x p90, 1x minihumbucker, cocobolo neck, hardtail
-walnut/ash strat, 3x jimi hendrix single coils, trem
- flamed maple/black korina LP, hipshot trem and tuners, 2x Fluence Classics, ovangkol/wenge neck
- sycamore/ash/sycamore Explorer, 2 humbuckers, hardtail, maple neck, pink/purple burst
- 5A quilt maple on black korina PRS inspired, Floyd Rose with piezo and midi, gold hardware, red/yellow/brown dye, 17 piece neck

Those are slated to be completed before October. Then, I'll make a duet of les pauls, with local woods. One gets maple top and back on a core of elm. neck is maple and sycamore. Fretboard is olivewood. The other is walnut on chestnut or pear, with a walnut back. neck is walnut too (unsure of the core, though, likely sycamore to be honest) with a walnut fretboard. Both get gold hardware, 2 humbuckers and no backplates and F-Holes.

If all goes well, I will have for each shape of guitar I make 1 model done, before July, so I can pull some nice photo's and finally, FINALLY, complete the website. once these 14 guitars are done, I'm gonna lay back and chill

 

[Mincer]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

I love the idea of LPs made from local woods...make sure you post photos of them, too.

 

[orpheo]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

This guitar is ALMOST done. I just need to let the finish cure, do the fret job and assemble this baby. I'm waiting on some minor specs for this guitar but nothing too serious.

Let me say, I loved working on this guitar. It was not easy, as 2018 was a b!tc# of a year for me. Guess the worst one on record. Lost one too many loved ones, saw too many changes for comfort personally as well as professionally but... I have high hopes I'll approach some moment of calm in 2019.

Because this guitar is intended to go to Guam, I was kinda forced to let the neck blank rest as much as possible because I wanted to have all the tensions come out as much as possible, level the neck blank again, glue the board, have that settle and press the frets. I wish I could work faster, but the faster I go, the worse the quality becomes and woods like these need attention. They need to be tendered, catered to.

As for my lineup, my website, my goals for 2019... I'll see what happens. I've gotta make three more models before I can finally claim the lineup complete.

OK, let's see if these photo's wanna go online here.

Isn't this the mandatory 'luthier's show-off demo vid'? No glue, no screws. Just a damn tight neck connection.

 

[orpheo]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

Just the basic woodwork done, bar some tiny things (side dots, jack, screw ferrules). I left the headstock slightly oversized at this point because I had to get confirmation whether or not the customer desired the stripey look of the headstock, or wished a headstock cap made of Sycamore, to acompany the spring plate and pickguard

 

[orpheo]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

I was done spraying the basecoat when I took these photo's (If I recall correctly, hehe). Even though the back is ash, it looked so much like zebrano!

 

[orpheo]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

Then I started to build up the nitro after I sanded off the basecoat. The basecoat serves 4 purposes. Enhance the grain, level the grain, seal the pores and fill the pores where needed. I fill with a clear epoxy when I need the timber to shine (literally and figuratively).

The top and back have an insane amount of figure and color going on but have something rustic to it too. For example, on the treble side of the body, near the lower bout, you see 2 dark lines. That's just the wood. I don't understand why but it's there. Guess it's a mineral streak. I oriented the material in such a way you don't see those lines in the playing position.

 

[Mincer]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

Wow, that's a good lookin' piece of wood, right there!

 

[d1dsj]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

Damn ..... that already looks awesome!

 

[kramersteen]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

Choice!

 

[orpheo]

Re: New Project for a Forum member

thanks guys. I do my best. There is so much going on in our guitar-world right now, especially with regards to small shop luthiers (one man shops), where luthiers bite more off than they can chew, I feel it is of paramount importance the world knows who I am and why stuff takes longer than I initially project. By posting photo's and vids along the way, of all angles and cornes, I want my clients, audience, to be immersed in the process.

The problem with small shop luthiers is twofold, in my opinion.

- the need to pleaze. I made that mistake a while ago too.

*"So, you want a black plastic PG, maple fretboard, complex pattern dot inlay, super-thin nitro finish that will be worn through within 2 weeks because it is so thin, as well as odd pickups that aren't calibrated in terms of tone and output? FINE! let's make it so!".

*"So, you want a super-shallow headstock angle to add as much strength in the neck joint as possible? Not really the brightest idea but let's try it anyway'.

I learned it the hard way, but at one point you, as a small luthier, have to hold your horses and dare to say 'no'. It will save you a LOT of trouble. As far as this guitar is concerned, yeah, I would do something different: add a headstock cap. but that's esthetics, not structural! Makes the world of difference.

The second reason why small shop luthiers experience issues and troubles is very easy:

- they are a small shop with 1, maybe 2 luthiers and in a best case scenario, some aids, max 3 as far as I've seen. The communication lines are SUPER short and that's great! Unless the head of the company falls ill for some reason or another. And 'ill' can be taken to mean a LOT of things. Overworked, overstressed, family issues, etc. I lost my grandmother and father over the last year, had pneumonia 3 times (and now for the first time in 2019) plus a full time job. If I don't do the work, it won't be done. If I don't have the mental strenght to do it, there is noone who can do it for me and keep the production going. And the problem is... if I force myself to do the work, with high powered tools and such, the margin of error becomes increasingly slim!

No, I'm not complaining. Just hoping to give you some insight in how it all works, from the perspective of a small shop.

Man... making guitars alone is a difficult & hard job but rewarding as heck when it goes right.