What's on your workbench right now?

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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Keegan
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Keegan » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:54 am

LocustPlague wrote:
After that, I might actually try to build a violin. I've never held one, much less played one, so it might be interesting. The end goal is to build an archtop guitar, though...
I would start with a small bolt-on acoustic(maybe a Uke?) or a semi-hollow. Similar skills involved but not as hard as a violin, unless you're getting a kit. Still, it'd be nice to make something you could actually play as opposed to a violin :D
My Fender goes to twelve.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by LocustPlague » Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:03 am

I could learn to play the violin, right? :unsure: It's always been on my list of things to try, so I figure I might as well give it a go.

The main thing I want to work on, actually, is carving the top and back. Bending the sides, installing kerfing and all don't seem TOO difficult, I've done similar tasks on non-guitar-related projects at some time in my life (even if it WAS 10-15 years back). Dishing out and carving the arch on the top/back, though, are totally new.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Stereordinary » Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:13 pm

I'd love to build an archtop guitar someday too. I have some ideas for how I would want to make mine, but it's still just conceptual stuff. Of course, I should start with something more basic and traditional. Right now I'm reading an article all about James D'Aquisto and it's just mind-blowingly awesome.

My workshop is all over the place right now, and I'm working on a ton at once. My camera is broken or I'd take pictures, but I have about 16 guitars I'm working on as well as plate polishing.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by noisepunk » Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:46 pm

MatthewK wrote:The mighty "Mustang VI" has been in dry dock for about 3 months. But I am getting a router this weekend ... !
Image
Okay, this needs more explanation, because that is badass...

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by noisepunk » Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:56 pm

I have a few projects on my figurative workbench. There's the B.C. Rich comp. Stealth w/ cyclone sensibility that I have sitting at my old school waiting to have hardware installed in it and a pick-guard made for it. I have my first body that I built over a year ago which needs pretty much everything but the body. I have a bass neck and body that needs routing, lipping, painting, hardwaring and possibly a new headstock (it cracked in half- the reason it was given to me- and I glued it back together, but I was a little too hasty and now it looks a little :-X and :(.

I also have two Maxon/ibanez pedals I need to buy a volt meter to fix, and I need to get a chassis and 2 way switch for a looper pedal with a feedback function...

In addition to that, I need to cut a new nut for my bass (and eventually make a new neck), my girlfriend's Washburn and a fakenbacker my stepdad has been working on; and all three also need a proper setup...

...I also need to replace the engine in my Volkswagen Bus :squint:

Too many projects...

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Keegan » Wed Aug 04, 2010 1:21 pm

New engine? That's not exactly an afternoon project. You're going to seattle without a working car? Hmm, well I guess you shouldn't really need it anyways.
My Fender goes to twelve.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by MattK » Wed Aug 04, 2010 1:28 pm

noisepunk wrote:Okay, this needs more explanation, because that is badass...
Thanks! At the moment it's a J bass body, a Jagstang tailpiece, Jag bridge, SX shortscale bass neck with a cut-and-shut headstock so I could mount 6 white-button Kluson style tuners. Cut a nut and strung it up, plays and intonates very nicely. I need to go back and fill the J bass pickup routs and rework neck pocket to fit the SX neck tightly.
Build threads here:
viewtopic.php?t=29663
and here:
http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31305

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by noisepunk » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:30 pm

Keegan wrote:New engine? That's not exactly an afternoon project. You're going to seattle without a working car? Hmm, well I guess you shouldn't really need it anyways.
No, I have a volvo that works most of the time (it doesn't like the heat we've been having though); the bus is my gig car, that as of yet hasn't been used for that because we bought it without an engine.

My stepdad is a volkswagen mechanic among other things, so during the 7 years he's lived with us we've owned over 10 different volkswagens, one of which was an orange beetle that I was gifted because we acquired it, not running, for $350 and the problem wound up being super cheap. He somehow convinced me to sell this in exchange for them buying me a bus though... so now I have a bus with no engine, instead of a beautiful orange bug that I really miss now :(

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by noisepunk » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:35 pm

MatthewK wrote:
noisepunk wrote:Okay, this needs more explanation, because that is badass...
Thanks! At the moment it's a J bass body, a Jagstang tailpiece, Jag bridge, SX shortscale bass neck with a cut-and-shut headstock so I could mount 6 white-button Kluson style tuners. Cut a nut and strung it up, plays and intonates very nicely. I need to go back and fill the J bass pickup routs and rework neck pocket to fit the SX neck tightly.
Build threads here:
viewtopic.php?t=29663
and here:
http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31305
Wow, that's cool, I thought it was just a regular 6 string, but a short-scale bass VI is pretty sweet too.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by MattK » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:39 pm

Just FYI - it's the same scale length as a real bass VI, which is also shortscale.

John Squire of Stone Roses fame did a Jaguar with a Jazz Bass body - you may like!
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by noisepunk » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:45 pm

MatthewK wrote:Just FYI - it's the same scale length as a real bass VI, which is also shortscale.

John Squire of Stone Roses fame did a Jaguar with a Jazz Bass body - you may like!
Image
Yeah... I'm a) not big on humbuckers (especially on a jag, because of all the chrome it already has, b) Your is the first "J-Bass that isn't a j-bass" that I've actually Liked, I've seen the John Squire guitar and the layout just looks wrong to me.

I didn't know Bass VI's were shortscale, I guess that would make sense though since they use lighter strings.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by MattK » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:53 pm

Interesting - why not try a Strat neck on a J body, and give it a J Bass pickguard - even a J pickup might work, otherwise a single coil would fit underneath.

Mine is going in a slightly different direction - going to cut the horns back a bit to look like an enlarged Mustang.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by noisepunk » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:55 pm

MatthewK wrote:Interesting - why not try a Strat neck on a J body, and give it a J Bass pickguard - even a J pickup might work, otherwise a single coil would fit underneath.

Mine is going in a slightly different direction - going to cut the horns back a bit to look like an enlarged Mustang.
Yeah maybe, I have too many plans for guitars and not enough equipment to follow through with them though :squint:

I saw some of your reshaping plans, big mustang sounds awesome.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Harvester » Thu Aug 05, 2010 1:29 am

hey ho, i love these threads ...

on my bench right now is an old Kay bass that badly needs some fret love

Image

i love this thing, last month i put a random old japanese humbucker ( ? ) into it because it arrived from the states with a Gibson Marauder bill lawrence clear guitar pickup in it and a gassed-off tort pickguard in a million little pieces ...

Image

Image

i've been playing a lot lately ( and haven't posted here for 2 months ... ) i've been gigging with the one on the right ( an earlier 50's number ) for a year or so and i love it, i've written so many songs on it this winter.

also on the bench is my laptop with my squarespace site ...

http://www.harvesterguitars.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

which is slowly approaching something that i'd like to show to somebody.

next week i'll throw this ol' thing on there ( the bench that is ) and figure out how to put it back together ...

Image

Image

iirc i had the chance to buy this deluxe about 12 - 15 years ago ( ! ) and even then it had a broken neck ... the current owner has snapped it at least once again in the interim ... and now here it is again looking like a very familiar site to any guitar repairer - if it wasn't for glueing up beheaded gibsons and syringing super glue into ovations we'd all be out of a job.

this week i will also update some of my build threads over on the projects section, they've slipped under in a tidal wave of brilliant insurgent guitar building that's going on around here!

cheers,
AP

PS this post took me about half an hour due to the shit fight going on at flickr re: unlinked url posting of photos ... ouch !

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by twangster » Fri Aug 06, 2010 3:16 am

Supro map style project.
Image

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