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Building my 3rd Guitar: Always Learning

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My third guitar on my work bench. (Photo Credit: Hannah Liddell Beyond the Treetops)



This project was all about growth.


In the fall of 2015, my goal was to build a guitar similar to my first, but to apply the lessons I learned from my previous projects to improve on my design.  


Improvements

  1. I used two TV Jones humbucker pickups instead of one.  

    • Reason for the change:  I wanted to improve my tone.  It was worth the extra wiring.


  1. I used real guitar binding from stewmac.com.

    • Reason for the change:  The plastic cabinet edgebanding I had used on my first guitar had started to peel off.


  1. I used a bridge with spring loaded intonation screws!

    • As I mentioned in my previous blog post, it was a HUGE pain to adjust intonation on my first guitar because I had purchased a cheap bridge.



CNC Work

This project was a great opportunity to expand my capabilities with our shop’s CNC Machine (a computer-guided router).  I had experimented on this machine for a few years, but had never used it to complete any major projects.  


After many long nights at the computer, and multiple test runs on pink insulation foam, I was finally ready to cut out my guitar body.  With nervous excitement, I watched as the machine cut into the lacewood veneer on my alder body blank.  Fortunately, my design worked!


Using the CNC to cut out the guitar body:


 

 

Experimentation

As I was working on this guitar body, I had an out-of-the box idea.  I designed the wiring cavities in such a way that I could feed an LED strip light through the body.  I used it to backlight a star constellation I drilled in the front of the guitar.  The idea worked but proved to be impractical, especially as I realized that LED lights can cause guitar electronics to hum with unwanted noise.  It was certainly worth the try.


The Process

I love the process of guitar building. As a carpenter, I've always enjoyed working with my hands to create pieces of functional art. Here are some pictures from different stages of this project:


Using the router table to round over the edges.


Hanging the body to spray clear finish.


Hardware assembly.



Pickup wiring.

Results

After final assembly and wiring was complete, I was pleased with the results from the changes I had made.  The additional pickup gave me more tone versatility and the higher quality bridge was much easier to adjust.  


Eventually, I decided to shield all the wiring cavities with copper foil and metallic paint.  This was another valuable learning experience.  I found that this helped eliminate the interference noise I was getting.


Overall, this guitar project was a very rewarding experience.  I saw visible growth as I applied the lessons I had learned from my past projects. 





I did the final the final assembly to this guitar at a trade show booth in a local business Kalona Chocolates.



 





Comments

  1. TamraMay 7, 2021 at 6:17 PM

    “I love the process...” says my son, the luthier!🎸

    ReplyDelete

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