Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

[orpheo]

I've been experimenting with a few new techniques and procedures in my work. Some pore fill techniques, triple dye methods, other clambering pattern, floating laminated back, new bridge pickup location, new (for me anyway) trussrod design, 17 ply neck, 9 degrees headstock angle vs my older choice (11), thicker headstock (19 instead of 16.5 millimetres), burl walnut headstock veneer instead of ebony and lastly a different fretting method.

Some ideas worked great. Others, not so much. They weren't bad ideas and the results are fine but proved to be 'mehh': too much hassle for not enough improvement.

I'll post specs and pics of the backs later.

 

[shupe13]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Wow!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shupe13]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Please send me the "meh" guitars lol!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

They look great. Too bad you can't afford a $5 pair of string clippers to give them a haircut.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Right side. Certainly! Love that neck! Purpleheart/Maple/Wenge? What woods?

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

They look great. Too bad you can't afford a $5 pair of string clippers to give them a haircut.

No I still have to set up these babies. I.e.: strings off and on and off and on again. Need a bit of slack.

Left neck: padouk, wenge, maple, walnut and bubinga.
Right neck: Purple Heart, maple, walnut, wenge and ebony. (Yes the Center strip is ebony).

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

17 ply neck? Wow. Batter up! At least you'll be able to dislodge your tires when the tour van gets stuck in the mud. (j/k)

Really nice looking guitars. I love the violin burst. Love the hollow/semi-hollow singlecut.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

These necks are slim. Just 17 pieces. Think 'wizard' style but with slightly fatter shoulders.

 

[teleblooz]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Stunning instruments orpheo. I'd be honored to play either one of them, but that single cut semi is causing some serious GLS. GLS is similar to GAS, but differs in one important way. It comes into play during my many, many times I suffer a debilitating case of 'EL-Broko". So, acquisition is replaced with lust!

Seriously, beautiful work. Very impressive.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Those are some stunning instruments here. The ply necks are certainly a great way of adding rigidity for thin necks.

Just as a fellow builder, how had you hoped some of your changes were going to effect the final outcome. Which ideas worked out well for you and which ones didn't??

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Those look good enough for me to provide constructive criticism; the double-cut lower bout seems too big. Could almost be fixed if the neck met the body a few degrees counter-clockwise. Amazing neck, and the shape sounds great.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Those look good enough for me to provide constructive criticism; the double-cut lower bout seems too big. Could almost be fixed if the neck met the body a few degrees counter-clockwise. Amazing neck, and the shape sounds great.

Hi, you're absolutely right. This is the shape of another body which works great. But this time I wanted to improve stability so I installed the neck deeper in the body. Lesson learned: stability didn't improve that much but the look is off.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Oddly enough, the necks aren't more rigid than single piece maple or padouk. Thickness makes more of a difference than making a multi lam neck.

What I didn't feel as being an improvement: the porefill (too much work to color match: superglue filling is easier and a lot faster, for natural finishes). My new lacquer mixture is a failure too (like spraying treacle instead of milk). Won't cure as good or as fast as my old recipe. Needs more layers that way but it is faster in the end.

I didn't like the new neck joint. I will find a middle ground between old and new (pics later). I'm still trying to find the best way of fretwork but I did manage to get it down from 8 hours (my first) to 2 hours all in all. But I want it faster and better too. Tiny improvements can still be made.

But overall, it's just honing down on techniques.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut



They're both prototypes. Gotta test where I want to connect the neck, how I want to carve this doublecut as well as thickness. FYI: the left one was the first and as #2 showed me, needed little adjustments.



More woodpr0n



Just because you don't see the back that often doesn't mean it doesn't have to be pretty. I love working with American walnut. The backplates are quilted sapele.



The back is partially floating. Meaning, not entirely connected to the core. That way back functions as a tone of the speaker and the core functions as amounting apparatus for all the hardware. Don't be fooled:the guitar isn't a light weight. with all the hardware installed she's still approximately 10 lbs/4.5kg.





I like my heel design. So much better than most. The 22nd fret can reached with ease. And this way I don't have to cut contours in my precious back and back lam.

showing the triple layered body. Maple on top. Dousié as a core (think of this as a denser and heavier mahogany to compensate for the chambering). Walnut as the back.

All handwork. No cnc.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Thats some nice work.....once again.

The frets are a tricky bit to do. Or I should say to schedule so as not to interfere with the quality of the finished product. I have done the fretting at just about every possible point in time it can be done, and what you gain with one improvement you lose with another.

I've done a few builds of late using some of the methods you are using......the curved heel is used on the carved top strat and Jazzmaster. I have a very close to floating top on the 335 by doublecarving the top maple, and somewhat less of the same effect on the JM too.

The LP doublecut and regular LP that are both 'in the white' have 3-piece padouk necks - which seems to be a wood that rings very strongly on tapping it (have you used it yourself??).

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

Nice work Alex!

I have used padouk. I really enjoy working with that material, I have to admit.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

fretwork: I like to do it this way.

I press in the frets BEFORE I start shaping the neck. Then, I shape the neck, heel, headstock, curves etc. Then, I set up the neck, do the fretwork (fret edges, leveling, crowning: you know the drill). In the mean time I finish the body. Once the clearcoats are done, I glue in the neck. I am starting to get a feel as to how much glue to use without squeeze out (I hate cleaning off residual glue).

My problem so far is that I am still struggling with leveling the frets. I prefer to use dunlop 6000 fret wire, so I can level the frets twice. The first round is just to get it in the ball park of playability, the second time is to get the action superduperlow. For some reason, I can't seem to get the frets in perfectly 'level'. It's just a matter of millionths of an inch, but that's enough for buzzing. I'm using a fret file but now I'm testing out a leveling beam with an abrasive. Curious to see what that will do for the precision and speed of the work.

Yes, I tried a fret press as well as fretting hammers: no difference in that respect (besides that a fret press is faster and MUCH LESS NOISY! )

 

[AlexR]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

The radius sanding/routing is a really tough step, as its sort of harder to level after that bit if this is fractionally off.

Many of the necks I do are the gibson type with nibs. In this case the board gets radiused first then tapered and fretted - and binding done before it is glued to the neck shaft.
In the fender world you taper first and then radius. In that case you can cut the neck outline and then do some jointing to the flat fretboard once it is glued to the shaped neck once that wood has had a chance to move after cutting out.

With some glue-in neck blanks with deep heel blocks and/or headstock angle, it is quite hard to press frets as the back surface is not flat.

When I fret I have a depth guide to the fretsaw so the slots are all deep enough. This depthstop cut is always done once the radius is cut. This means that frets will not sit high due to improper seating depth.
But you will never get frets perfectly level - it has never happened at any stage of fretted instrument history or will happen in future making. There is always leveling and crowning that has to be done - especially for superlow action that even more revolves around having the wood being well used to its new career as being a guitar.

I'm wondering why you finish before glue??? Seems more a PITA and less likely to have nice neck/body interface.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Twin tiger eye carved top guitars: one singlecut and one doublecut

I took the idea of finishing first, the glueing the neck, then buffing, from some other luthiers. It makes my life a bit easier for a couple of reasons.

1: got time to finish the neck without rushing.
2: I can build off the entire guitar after the neck is set, within 24 hours (so, finish -> curing + completing the neck -> glueing neck -> finish off guitar)
3: it's easier to tape off a neck pocket than to tape off the neck joint, especially with a sculpted joint like mine.

the ONLY downside to this method is that the neck and/or body might shrink or expand a bit during the waiting time. That's really the only issue.

I know that fretting will always be a pain, I just want my process to be better. I experimented with 6105 but I feel I need 6000 for my guitars, for the level of playability I want in terms of action (low) and feel of fretwork (tall). 6105 is just a bit too low. Just a preference. 6105 is fine on basses, though.

Oh well... Live 'n learn.