GoatHerd

Absolutely love your body shape - and I'm quite traditional, body shape-wise. Looks really, really good. The neck joint looks very interesting. Presumably you're going with threaded inserts... If so, check your screw length before final assembly. Too long screws will leave a gap between neck & head. Love your bold inlays. Looks custom and fun, and with a little care should look nice too. One tip, if you want nice straight lines and edges for your inlays, it's to pre-cut the shape first with a sharp blade. Don't need to go deep... And then you use the dremel and mini-router. But what you've done looks very neat, so good job! Looking really good! Can't wait to see the next steps!

So, as promised, here's my routing table and sled. A flat surface, with 2 sides that are exactly flat & the same height. The sled itself is just a couple of aluminium rails, that are rigid enough to do the job. Currently I just tape the little hand router I use into the sled, and that's it! Just as an example, I used it to do the archtop on the Les Paul. It's really simple, but works really well. I use it to adjust the thickness of pieces of wood, like fretboards as well. It's quite tedious work, and requires many passes, but it can be very precise, specially if used with care.

For the binding channel, I use an attachment on my router, similar to these photos. It looks/feels kind of wonky, but works very well. Then I can use a normal router bit. Of course I set it up and practice on some wood scraps first. Then I pray forgiveness for my sins and go for it! For the archtop on the Les Paul it was kind of different, because the arch didn't provide a flat surface for the router to stand on. I ended up making myself a routing table (very, very simple), that I used for that, but also for precisely thicknessing fretboards and such. If you want to send you some pics, let me now!

For the neck, I'll let you into a secret. I use a stripper disc attachment on a grinder. I've made templates out of cardboard out of the profiles of my son's favourite guitars. I slim the neck down at the 1st, 7th and 12th fret, still leaving a bit of meat on and then I use the grinder with the stripper to rough shape it. The disc allows for fast work, but isn't overly aggressive, to the point that you could go too fast. After that I use some very heavy grit metal sandpaper (50 or 60) glued to a nice, large, flat piece of wood, to bring the thickness down. Then I do what you did. I use a pencil to color over the whole and eliminate any dips. And the i fine sand it. I'm never scared of the neck being to thin because I use Marfim for light colored necks and Louro-preto for dark ones. They are very dense woods, and can easily hold the string tension. Marfim is 945 kg/m³ and Louro Preto is 845 kg/m³ as opposed to hard maple, that is 705 kg/m³, or mahogony that is 590 kg/m³...

Again, thanks for the kind words. I love that through composite neck. Did you cut those pieces yourself. That´s a part i am rather scared of - you need incredible straight cutlines there - what saw did you use? >So, I ordered the pieces from a good sawmill, but not any different from the pieces you started with. I ordered two blocks of Marfim that were 100x7x3.2cm, 1 piece that was 100x7x0.9 and 2 pieces of Roxinho that were also 100x7x0.9. In hindsight I should have gone a little bigger, just because I had zero wiggle-room for mistakes. The black stripes are Roxinho as well, but they have a hydro-treatment (TW), which makes them go black. Those were just bass fingerboards. The trick is that I've only got a small jigsaw. So rough cutting the glued part on a band-saw wasn't an option. I ended up using a print of the full head/neck/body profile, which I drew precisely on the computer and routed out on one of the thinner pieces of the neck/body. That became my template. I then glued the parts on and then routed them. It was quite finicky, also because I pre-cut the cavities for the wires. I suppose I could have drilled them after, but I could see myself getting that wrong, specially with how hard the Marfim is. And your bindings... always a breathtaker. I think i myself would have gone with the blue Sig section only on the head and mybe the red square - but you know i really like to have a lot of natural wood to be shown, your inlaywork - insane!!!!! > The binding is actually easier than it looks. I would suggest you give it a try. The best stuff to use is cellulose binding, because you can glue it using acetone. The scary bit is you have to have your wood mostly finished, and then cut the channel (and try not to have a heart attack), and lay in the binding. Tape it down with that stronger, blue masking-tape, and squirt acetone over it with a seringe. After 1h, it'll be really well glued. Insane. The acetone is quite agressive, so you need to do this before any kind of finish. Then you level it all with a scraper (really fun), sand and finish. Once the finish is done, the binding will not look so nice, but you just lightly scrape just the binding and it's done! The head design is my son's idea. The guitar is his (I only play the Bass), and I was really happy that he got involved like that. He did some planing, sanding and banged in some frets, but I'm quite scared of him loosing a finger. Maybe when he's older I'll let him do more...

Here's another closeup of the head inlay, with the turquoise and red Howlite, and the copper inlay:

Now due to how much I went out on a limb on this build I didn't document major parts of it. The whole thing was a bit of a crazy journey, with massive mood swings, and me feeling I'd bitten off more than I could chew in the early stages. But it all worked great in the and, so that I can now share the finish product:

The woods I assembled for the build are as follows: For the neck & through portion of the body: Strips of Roxinho (Purple Heart) and Pau Marfim (Agonandra brasiliensis) between 2 blocks of Pau Marfim. The body is Marupá (Simaruba) for the lightness and ressonance, and a Louro-Faia (Euplassa cantareirae) drop top. Inlays would be Turquoise and red Howlite, with copper inlays. The plan was to have a radical scoop at the neck to body For unparalleled access. Finish would be stained, sealed and oiled. Body is bound on both sides, to make it more ding-proof. Covers would be all acrylic, to showcase the hopefully neat electronics. Scratch plate wound up being made out of Wenge.

Inspired on Rodman's super cool build (check it out if you haven't), I've decide to share with you a mad journey I embarked on this previous may/2021. A good friend left his 1973 Les Paul de luxe with me so I could try and reverse all the horrible things that had been done to it. Looking at it got me thinking. What if I made THE ULTIMATE LES PAUL ? The specs for this ultimate Les Paul would have to be as follows: -Through construction to give it ultimate sustain, -Slimmed body for lightness and playability, -Headstock design that compromised between a classic Gibson look, and straight pull/close to straight pull strings, -PRS style 10º head angle, -4.5º neck angle to not raise the bridge too much, -12º radius on the fretboard, -25" scale length, -Big, tasty volute, -All Brazilian woods, -Light fretboard (to be a contrarian), -Jumbo frets with Gibson style biding, -Treble bleed/coil splitting, -Inverted truss rod, -Fancy inlay work.

I didn't get to play it, but he's sent me photos, which I will share. The Viola Caipira 10 stringer is integral to traditional Northeastern music, and very cool. It has quite a groovy shape, where it slimmer around the middle. I do know that the one he has had the traditional peg tuners switched out for modern tuners. He's also commented that you can see the varnish brush strokes on the wood. But he says it plays very well. He used to be a very serious Chorinho player, which is I suppose a sort of Brazilian Jazz, that sounds kind of like Django Reinhardt's and Stéphane Grapelli's Hot Jazz. You have instruments like mandolins, guitars, flute, sax, clarinet, and the drum/percussion is usually done on a tamborine.

I think headstock shape there is perfect. It's simple, but hints perfectly to original idea. Really well done. And that flamed wood...

Zero woodworking background. And not many tools. But let me show you a video that inspires me so much, if you have time to look at it. It's a Brazilian luthier from the poor Northeastern region. He makes famed 10 string guitars called "Viola Caipira". A friend of mine has one made by him. He does them all with a large saw, a machete, a pen knife and a plane. That's it.

Thank you for your kind words. I'm not a master yet, far from it. For every project I make various mistakes. About the finish, I've learned to stay away from sprayed varnishes, varnishes and paint in general. It's very hard to get a really smooth shiny finish. If you've got nice looking wood, the best is open pore, a nice stain and an oiled finish. Plus you're not destroying the acoustic properties of the lovely wood. A sprayed finish should be left alone 2 months, at least, to completely dry and cure. I've learned that the hard way. I use Tung oil, which is very stable once it cures and crystalizes.

Maybe I should have posted this on a new thread, instead of hijacking yours.

The next one I did was an electro-acoustic. Again, mostly Brazilian woods. For the neck I used Louro-preto (30% more dense than Maple) Fretboard is Pau-Ferro (or Bolivian Rosewood) Body sides and back is Wenge Front is Timburí It has a zero fret, 13º head angle, jumbo frets, abalone inlays, induction pickup and a discreet cutaway, very slim profile and an electric style bridge. AND NO HEEL. So playability is insane. The neck profile is also electric, with a 12º radius on the fretboard. Finish is open pore, sealed & oiled.

Very, very nice! I'm digging all your visual choices.

12 string "sleeper" strat. Looks like a 6 stringer, until you take a closer look All Brazilian woods: Neck - Pau Marfim / Scale - Pau Ferro / Body - Marupá. It has a zero fret, and the neck joint uses threaded inserts and no neck plate for a low profile. As Pau Marfim is VERY dense - 50% more dense than Maple, the neck holds up very well to the 12 strings. It has jumbo frets and HSS pick ups. Finish is stained, sealed and oiled with Tung oil. Neck is just oiled, for superior playability. Video:

Building guitars is simpler than it looks. I've done 6. 3 of them from scratch. From scratch I've done a 12 string strat. A 6 string steel electro-acoustic. A through neck Les Paul. I try to be ambitious, and do crazy new stuff, and also I always build something I wouldn't be able to buy, something unique. There are plenty of reasons for that, one of them being your work can't really be compared to anything else. I'll post some pics.

That's a great suggestion. Thanks. I'll give it a try!

There are 2 aspects, really: 1-getting the game to recognize the correctly played note, 2-representing the fretted position + tapped fret. In the track I produced I achieved #1, with a representation that is correct, even if incomplete (it shows the tapped note, but not where you fret it). #2, though is impossible.

Great suggestion. I'll test it out. Thanks.

I've been trying to track 2 Van Halen songs that use tap harmonics. They bassically require you to fret with the left hand and then produce a 12th fret harmonic by tapping the note 12 frets up from where you fretted it. Ex.: You fret on the 9th fret with you keft hand, and then tap the string on the 21st. It would bassically require Rocksmith to show 2 notes simultaneously on the same string. Kind of impossible, but I'm just putting it out there, in case someone has a creative way of tracking this. I'm thinking of putting a note in the vocals track.

This is a real pain. When it happens I go to import a Guitar Pro file. When the import popup window appears I close it immediately and the problem dissapears for 10 mins or so...

There are some other good ones, that are well tracked: Muse - Can't Take My Eyes Off You Save Ferris - Come On Eileen (Ska version) Big Mountain - Baby I Love Your Way Hindu Love Gods - Raspberry Beret I would love a CDLC of Green Day's version of Rolling Stone, or Everclear's Brown Eyed Girl. Might have to do them myself, but I've got such a long Rocksmith To Do List...