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Posts made in February, 2010

Five New Builds

Posted by on Feb 21, 2010 in Articles & Tutorials

I am in the process of building five EGS guitars, here are some details: Guitar #1 – Alder Stratberger This will be made out of light-weight alder and be as close to a Strat as possible. Regular 25.5″ scale and tremolo – probably not with the pictured neck, but I might start off with this or a cut-off Jackson neck that I have just to save time. It will be quite a departure from what I normally do in that it will be painted (I’m thinking mint green or light blue) and have a pickguard. Electronics will be 3 Lace Alumitone single coils and a 5-position selector. Here, I have marked up the cavities before routing. Trying out the pickguard. It’s an actual Strat pickguard that I have modified. Guitar #2 – Mahogany/Maple The next one will be identical to the first EGS prototype but with a Honduras mahogany back. This means a maple top and the same cavities cut out inside. The neck will be carbon fiber reinforced maple with ebony fretboard, fanned frets, scale 25.5″ – 24.75″ like the EGS prototype. 2 x Lace Alumitone black humbuckers. The blank marked up for routing. Guitar #3 – Swamp Ash/Wenge The third will again be identical to the EGS...

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Neck-Through Carbon Fiber Construction

Posted by on Feb 20, 2010 in Articles & Tutorials

Considering how well the first carbon fiber reinforcement experiment turned out, I immediately moved on to doing the same for my planned neck-through construction. In terms of appearance, the CF strips look identical to wooden veneer strips. They came out about 0.5 mm in width. Considering how stiff the residual pieces coming out on the ends were, they should really make a difference. Here are the materials for the neck-through construction. Again, strips of flatsawn maple that will be stacked. Here, I am including mahogany veneer strips as well, both for appearance (one of the builds will have mahogany sides) and to build width of the neck. This time, I am including four strips of CF, one on each side of the mahogany. This blank will become two necks: one for a 7-string and one for an 8-string, so they need all the stability they can get. Here, the pieces are being pressed together to harden. Again, they bake in 60 degrees centigrade for 24 hours. The CF, by the way, is called Tenax STS 24K UD, 296 g/m2. The end result. The blank is long enough that I can cut it in a “Z” shape to give two neck blanks. More about the builds...

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Carbon Fiber Reinforced Neck

Posted by on Feb 18, 2010 in Articles & Tutorials

As you know, I am building several EGS guitars in parallel in order to explore material choices and what impact they have on sound and playability. I have opted to make my design bolt-on and using a standard Fender Strat neck pocket. This allowed me to get only a slightly custom neck made by Moses Graphite, knowing that it would fit. This will also allow me to make several necks to swap around on the different builds. As hinted previously, I am doing an experiment with carbon fiber. The idea is to be able to make a neck that is stiff enough to allow it to be hollowed out to some extent, to make it lighter. In the image above, you can see the type of carbon fiber that I guess most people associate it with, which is a bi-directional weave, in the lower left. In the top right, you have a uni-directional weave. I am after stability in only one direction, so this is what I chose. The neck blank consists of a flatsawn piece of maple that I cut in three pieces that will be stacked. I cover the pieces in lots of epoxi (a resin made especially for lamination with carbon fiber, that hardens into a...

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New Builds

Posted by on Feb 13, 2010 in Articles & Tutorials

The new builds are now well under way. Here are all the materials planed, squared and ready. From left to right: (top) mahogany veneer 1,5 mm thick to laminate neck with some wenge veneer that I may or may not use ebony fretboard blanks (made during last build) wenge top maple top (identical to last build) flatsawn maple to be cut, stacked and laminated into neck blanks honduras mahogany swamp ash (from same batch as last build) When I started measuring, I realized that the neck blank for the neck-through 7-string will let me cut a matching second blank from underneath. This gave me the idea that I will build an 8-string while I’m at it… I at least have the neck materials and I do have some old zebrano laying around that I could use for the body. Regarding the neck blank, I am in the middle of an experiment that is baking out in the shop. I will say for now that it involves carbon fiber, epoxi and wood. More...

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Moses Neck String Locks

Posted by on Feb 13, 2010 in Articles & Tutorials, Instructions and FAQs

I rigged the neck and routed a channel for the string locks last weekend already, but didn’t have time to post the pictures. I used an old pickup router template. I created a drilling template since I did not have access to the milling machine that I usually do and hence had to cut the holes manually. The larger holes are for the guiding pins and the smaller to hold the screws. Ideally, you would keep the neck square in section where the string locks sit, to give room for the full length of the screws. In this case, the neck is round and I have to cut the outer screws quite...

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