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Showing posts from August, 2024

4 string baritone guitar

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You can see the making of this guitar in the ‘ anatomy of a build post ’  Single piece reclaimed pitch pine body from a Victorian hospital bench. Neck from same material.  27” scale, tuned low cgda  Finger board and pickguard made from mahogany from a 1910s gramaphone case.  Finished in tinted button shellac on body, and button shellac on neck. Single coil mustang style Alnico 5 pickups, hardtail strat bridge, bone nut. Wired with bass and treble cut and series/parallel switching 

Anatomy of a build

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Both because I work largely from different materials each time, and I’ve yet to make the same instrument twice, every build is a little different - but there are common techniques I use across builds. What’s outlined in this post is the making of a single solid body, 27”scale, 4 string guitar, which was made to someone else’s specs.  you can see and hear the finished product here The Neck.  I always start with the neck. In this case the first step was using a router sled and a plane to grade down and level a piece of mahogany for the fingerboard. This is then slotted for the eventual frets. A very careful job.  The neck blank is then cut, planed and squared. In this case the wood is pitch pine from part of and old bench the the fretboard is resting on. The single most difficult cut in the whole guitar making process is the 13degree angle for the scarf joint. Should the saw wander by more that a mm or so over length of cut you have firewood. This time it came out well and I was able to