I built something offset..

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maxbra
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Fri Aug 12, 2016 3:53 pm

ifallalot wrote:These look great.

What are they sounding like?
The Red one isn´t ready , but I expect that one to sound close to a tele with a P100 in the bridge (as that is what it will have)
The neck is in walnut, so maybe that will have some impact on the sound?! i dunno.

The white one sounds wery much like one would expect - pretty much like a strat with a humbucker in the bridge.
Balance between tele neckpup and humbucker is better than I hoped for. But still, future builds will probably
have singlecoils or P100 in the bridge, And no more tremolos.

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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Thu Nov 17, 2016 4:47 am

Here is an update -

The white guitar have now been used for gigs, Someone is currently touring with it. (It´s an awful pic I know, but only one i found)
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This have given me some feedback and I will by the beginning of next year start to build a new prototype.
- There is an issue with the upper horn, I think it´s to dominant so that´s gotta change.
- I´ll also alter the shape of the pickguard as well.
- A new headstock design, somewhere in between the two versions.
- I´ll try to fit a tonecontrol and work a bit with the layout of the switches.
- No more strat-tremolos, maybe a bigsby or something, but next build will be "short-tele-toploader" as on the red one.


The red guitar is close to ready, Need to put on Steinberger tuners, fasten some things and make a nut, so it´s real close, but I lack the energy to do some serious work with it, So Í´ll just finish the build and then get one with the next one as fast as I can.

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Size compared to a more wellknown design

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I really prefer the "fender" vibe to the "gibson" vibe - I think the white one looks a lot better, So future builds will probably be in that direction, but I will
try to get some design elements of the headstock from the red one into it..

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Also, Here is a few buildpics for the red one, in no particular order. The main difference is the neck. Walnut with a angled headstock.
And as seen on previous page, I managed to drop the headstock on the ground and made a real mess of it. It´s kind of repaired, Kind of!

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dylanafghjkl
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by dylanafghjkl » Thu Nov 17, 2016 5:35 am

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:It's like a Jag-Stang-Done-Right mixed with a Toronado!!
Just what I was thinking.

They look great by the way. Really like the headstock on the gibson-y one but I just love the fendery one.

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Re: I built something offset..

Post by hpr_hpr » Sat Nov 19, 2016 7:59 pm

Really like those a lot ... beautiful work.

Regarding the brass ... maybe give this https://www.everbritecoatings.com/tarni ... ntion.html
a try ... they seem to have smaller sizes for not to much money ... haven't tried it so ymmv ... something I came across when looking into a copper pickguard ... haven't give up on the idea but haven't found a suitable piece for a reasonable price ....
When thinking about any advice given always ask yourself "why would (s)he know more than I do".

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Re: I built something offset..

Post by sneezio » Sat Nov 19, 2016 10:39 pm

I love it & I... I... think I want one!

I really wish I had the tools and skills to do something like this.

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maxbra
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Mon Nov 21, 2016 2:56 am

dylanafghjkl wrote:
Shadoweclipse13 wrote:It's like a Jag-Stang-Done-Right mixed with a Toronado!!
Just what I was thinking.

They look great by the way. Really like the headstock on the gibson-y one but I just love the fendery one.
Thanks! I agree and that´s how I´ll try to make next one.

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maxbra
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Mon Nov 21, 2016 3:02 am

hpr_hpr wrote:Really like those a lot ... beautiful work.

Regarding the brass ... maybe give this https://www.everbritecoatings.com/tarni ... ntion.html
a try ... they seem to have smaller sizes for not to much money ... haven't tried it so ymmv ... something I came across when looking into a copper pickguard ... haven't give up on the idea but haven't found a suitable piece for a reasonable price ....
Again, thanks a lot! and for the link...I kind of like the look of the of the brass now, all filthy and turning green..but YEs somehing like that I´ll have to buy..
I followed Deed-poll´s advice and contacted a nickeplating company in the uk, I´ll have a quote from them , once i dialled in the
new shape and find out if my cnc can cut it...

I thought i was gonna hate look of the brass, as I normally can´t stand gold hardware on guitars, but I think it kind of works...

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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Mon Nov 21, 2016 3:21 am

sneezio wrote:I love it & I... I... think I want one!

I really wish I had the tools and skills to do something like this.
Thanks.. Nobody had the skills or tools to build guitars, I mean - Nobodys born with it..

If you really want to, have a go! You really don´t need that many tools, and while it certainly takes serious skills to build
fantastic guitars for a living, it´s not THAT hard if you have the patience and take it easy to do one for yourself.
You won´t do it in a lunchbreak, but you´ll get there!
I predict you´ll build a great first guitar, If not, then you know it´s not for you, but you will still have learned a lot about
guitars in general.. I´d be happy to send you a PDF of the guitar, and you have a go! It´ll probably be a lot prettier than mine..
A warning: As someone mentioned, guitarbuilding is wery addictive!

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maxbra
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Sun Nov 19, 2017 3:23 pm

So, this took me forever.. but the second guitar didn´t turn out red either..

I had so many problems with the paint and headstock that I finally just painted it green and of course dropped the headstock again.

Anyway - The guitar is done , and it really feels way different than the white one. It´s about 480 gr lighter.
Toploader bridge makes a huge difference in feel, as does the walnut neck and angled headstock.
I´m not really a friend yet with the steinberger tuners but I appreciate that they are light.

I´ll make some more changes in the computer and then get one with a few more..

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Last edited by maxbra on Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Embenny
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by Embenny » Sun Nov 19, 2017 3:34 pm

LOVE it! The body, the neck, the Firebird-ish headstock, the plates, the colour, the inlays. Much respect for designing and building something this cool. The only thing I'm not totally down with is tort on that ravishing green. MOP, mint, or parchment would give me the vapors, but all in all, that's one hell of a built.

Hats off to this one!
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Re: I built something offset..

Post by antisymmetric » Sun Nov 19, 2017 3:58 pm

Is it an optical illusion or is the top horn a bit shorter on the green one? I really like what you're doing, and that pickguard always makes me think of an early '50s P bass. Nice stuff! :-*
Watching the corners turn corners

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maxbra
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Sun Nov 19, 2017 4:14 pm

@mbene. Thankyou..really!
I have cut 4 different pickguards, 3 ply black looks best.. but I somehow managed to mirror that one :whistle: , so It's for a leftie now.
@antisymetric - bodys are exactly the same, i think
The smaller switch on the white one makes it appear longer.
But the green guitar really feels smaller somehow..

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Re: I built something offset..

Post by s_mcsleazy » Sun Nov 19, 2017 6:56 pm

i think one of these would look good as a baritone.
offset guitars resident bass player.
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by Logrinn » Sun Nov 19, 2017 10:15 pm

I just found this thread and have to chime in like everybody else and say - WOW! That are absolutely fantastic looking designs. I love the body shape, think the lines are absolutely beautiful. Especially the upper lines of the pickguard and the continuation of the line of the forearm contour. Beautiful. I wouldn't change a thing. It's perfect.

What I'm wondering though is what scale length it has. Compared to the Charvel Strat they look to be the same, but what is that? 25,5'?
Then my follow up question would be; are you thinking of making a 24' version?
Because if you are, you can sign me up for a preorder. I'll happily wait until 2019.

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maxbra
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Re: I built something offset..

Post by maxbra » Mon Nov 20, 2017 2:10 am

Thank´s everybody!

Regarding the scale, both guitars are 25,5

As the body is slightly smaller than a strat, and a lot smaller than a jazzmaster it´s really difficult
to balance the length of the neck. And by that i mean visually.

Yes, I agree it could be a nice tenor, and I think the reason is, it´s already looking a bit like that.

So if I actually were to build a tenor ( and I´ll probably do one day) I think I need to scale the body up quite a bit, otherwise
it´s gonna look like a bass for a kid.

That also gives that I think the guitar might look even better with a 24,75 scale. I already have a mockup drawn in the computer for that.

So @Logrinn I´d be honoured to build you a guitar with a gibson scale. But first I need to sort out some stuff.

Sorting out means:

Get all work in the computer done, So that I can cut body, metal plates and pick guard on my cnc.
There are still a few things that I haven’t really begun to worry about.
Like, bevel on the pickguard.. Looks fantastic , but means that the brass plates also needs bevels, and that means
slightly different location of the screws, and that means smaller cavities in the body, and they are already to small.
So there are a million small things like that I need to solve.
And then it´s the design of the headstock.
I really like the headstock on the green guitar - but I don´t like banjotuners.
Visually, one solution to not get the neck to long would be to use a 3+3 or 4+2 tuner arrangement, but I think that´s is to ugly,
so I need to come up with a solution and design that I like.

I said earlier I was gonna build a new prototype, but what I will do is to build a mockup of mdf with pieces cut on my cnc,
So that I can make any changes in the computer and see that things line up like I want.
I already have cut 4 templates of the body in slightly different sizes.

If I pretend to be Nostradamus, this is what I see in the future:

Details sorted - Inca Silver - shoreline gold - Tobacco burst - P90 - something slightly more Tele - something bigsby.
24,75 - 25 (PRS) 25,5 scale - Tone knob.. Walnut neck, Roasted maple neck.. complete lack of money.

But I´ll post if I make any progress! Thanks!

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