NGBD - New Guitar Build Day

[MisterE]

Hi All,
About two years back, I had a sevenstring built by master luthier and all-round funny and fabulous person Chris Larkin.
The story about that geetar can be found here:
ASAD Sevenstring

For my 50th birthday, the Light Of My Life got me this
Also made by Chris.

I love strats. So I decided to have Chris me build a set neck strat.
Originally I wanted a quilted maple top strat to replace the Warmoth I gave my son.
But since quilted maple is so hard to find, especially the mastergrade type, i opted for a geetar in Irish flamed maple - the same wood the blue pointy thing was made of.
So here is the story of that build:

Swamp ash block for the body:

Laminate for the neck.
Maple and tasmanian blackwood - a very rare and extremely expensive wood.

The pieces being glued together:

And now the piece de resistance:
A gorgeous piece of Irish flamed maple for the top, same as the blue pointy thing was made of:

 

[EdgE]

Nice :encouragement:

 

[H3O2]

Top looks killer!

 

[Sidivan]

That top is incredible!

 

[Gong8659]

Just wanted to say thanks MisterE, I thoroughly enjoyed being a fly on the wall, with all the comments about the what, why, where and hows.

 

[Gorilla]

Awesome MisterE

 

[MisterE]

Some progress:
Chris:

I prepared the neck blank by adding an ear for the headstock and laid out the neck

The body halves were sandwiched with the overlay (including bending the arm relief bit.) and the halves joined together.

 

[ToneLabRat]

Very cool!!

 

[mrstrat]

Wow, I would love to do that!! :encouragement:

Thanks for sharing your pics!

 

[MisterE]

Today, Chris made the neck joint and fitted the trussrod.

The mortice:

The rough tenon:

A rough fit:

It needs a little bit of adjustment:

A good snug fit:

Cutting the slot for the trussrod:

And the trussrod fits:

 

[stratamania]

Subscribed, looking forward to seeing this progress 8)

 

[MisterE]

Chris worked on the neck.
I asked for a facing on the headstock in the same wood as the body.
Since the strat has a curve in the headstock it isn't easy to fit a flame mample top to it.
But as Chris said "I like a challenge!"
He also needed to know what wood I wanted for the backplate. I chose the same wood as the back since that would blend in the best.
Chris:

I needed to know which wood you wanted for the backplates because it would determine how I cut the maple. As it worked out I was able to cut a thin slice and then make it even thinner to use as a facing for the headstock. I cut the headstock, shaped the neck and made the ramp up to the fingerboard then wet the thin facing and heated/bent it to fit that shape the best I could. I glued it up with cauls and hope it has worked! I won't know how good it is until I remove the clamps this morning. Figured wood doesn't like being bent which is why I made the facing so thin.

Some pics:

Cutting out the shape of the headstock

Scraping the headstock to get a nice curve:

A thin piece of flamed maple for the headstock, cut from the same board as the body:

Everything glued and clamped down:

It worked!! a rough finish:

 

[simeon]

subscribed!

 

[MisterE]

Didn't have to wait long for some more pics
Chris:

Good evening Hairy Twin,

I cleaned up the overlay and it looks fine. The fingerboard was cut, shaped, slotted and glued to the neck. That's it.


Chrisslotter.

Chris always signs his emails with Chrissomething
Oh, and he calls me his twin since we both share the same birthday.
And we both go back a long way.
I met him in Rotterdam while demonstrating for Kramer back in '90:
Here I was trying out one of his lovely geetars:

This is when we met again after more than twenty years:

Anyway, here are the pics from today:

 

[bobby_g]

If I had a hammer ... I'd make guitars, all over this land! Can't wait to see the final product though this part is quite cool!

And how fantastic are good old friend reunions!

 

[MisterE]

Got another email from Chris with some pics:

Your neck is finished except for the shamrock, and stamping the serial number on the back, gluing it into the body, blending the joint and fitting the tuners. So really it's not finished at all. So I lied to you.
However, the profile is a flat C and parallel - 20mm at fret 1 and 20mm at fret 13 so very quick and slick feeling.

Also your pickups have arrived from down under.

This is the rough cut:

Carving the volute:

Rasping:

Scraping:

Sanding:

Oh, how lovely it looks:

The fretboard radius:

Hammering the frets with a dead hammer (that's a hammer that's no longer breathing according to Chris)

Filinf the frets:

All done:

And the pickups for The Sister Of The Blue Pointy Thing have arrived along with some extra pickups I ordered:

 

[hussamd]

Wow. So cool!

 

[Sixstring]

Chris does some phenomenal work! The fact that no CNC machines are being used is a testament to his craftsmanship, very impressive.

 

[MisterE]

Chris does some phenomenal work! The fact that no CNC machines are being used is a testament to his craftsmanship, very impressive.

Well Chris does use CNC actually:

COFFEE 'N' CAKE !!!

 

[MisterE]

Chris finished the Shamrock inlay, his trademark.

Yesterday he routed the cavities for the trem and the pickups.

The trem fits:

The rear cavity for the trem:

Cutting the slot for the lever switch:

Determining the position for the bridge pickup

rest of the holes for the pickups