About cutting inlay for guitars...

[brian_h]

Instead of responding to the previous post I wanted to give this a separate topic line for future reference.

I've been thinking about using my bot to build electric guitars as a hobby (when I'm not using it for my main use, $$$). I was collecting info. on the web and came across a very informative website/forum. If you're into working on guitars, first reply to this post so we can think about networking with each other, and second, check out this other forum:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/

My name there is "A different Brian."

I'll be using Rhino for designing. I have a book coming to help me with the process of building a solid-body electric. At some point I'll need to figure out dimentions for neck, bridge, and other components and start experimenting with cheap wood. I'd like to make a nice carved-top design, sorta like a double cutaway LesPaul Standard. Inlaying, binding, designing the headstock, I'll be learning about all of that from scratch.

[sagreen83]

Brian,

I am just starting on my 3rd electric guitar on the bot. This one is going to be a Thinline Tele clone with 2 seymour duncan 59's... If you have questions let me know, I'd be glad to help.

Scott...

[brian_h]

VERY cool! Are you doing both the neck and fingerboard?? Fingerboards are so cheap, I've thought about just buying them.

[sagreen83]

My first 2 guitars were Strat clones. The goal was to 100% produce them on the Shopbot, and I did... I just had to rasp out a little bit on the back side of the headstock. Other than that it was 100% Shopbot Alpha! Neck, Fingerboard (Minus fret slots), Pickup routes, Backroutes (no pickguard), Body Cutout, Neck Pocket, and Tummy Cut all cut with the bot.

I used the Shopbot to do the fingerboard on the 1st and 2nd guitar at a 12" radius. I built a small jig to hold the 1/4" piece of ebony to the table. The thing I found was that there was not enough resolution in the bot to completely finish out the top of the radius (middle of the board) and about 1/2 in the middle remained flat. I had to do a bit of sanding with a radius sanding block to finish it off. Given the piece was ebony this was a slow process! I bought a radiusing machine from Grizzly that will go from like 8" to 20" radius plus do compound radius boards anywhere in between. I can do about 20 fretboards per day (blank wood to final product) with this rig and not break a sweat.

If I were you, I would buy the fretboard. If you are interested, I have started selling fretboards and can sell you one in about any wood you would want with whatever radius you want. Let me know if you are interested...

Scott...

[brian_h]

So tell me, did your your second guitar benefit much from the experience of the first? Did you have "learning" mistakes?

I Googled that Grizzly radiusing sander. Pretty cool. I didn't know that existed. Makes sense. The owner of Grizzly likes building guitars. It's certainly not in my budget ($950) but I sure can appreciate it. I'll keep your services in mind. I belive a good job inlaying the neck adds perceived value pretty quickly. At some point I'll be working on perfecting my techniques there.

[sagreen83]

I have built a total of 6 guitars, 4 by hand, and yes every guitar is better than the previous one. The 2nd shopbot guitar benefited from the experience of the first because of new things I figured out on the shopbot.

The biggest thing I would say helped me out was completely constructing a guitar from pine. I glued up about 3 blanks and completely cut and assembled them with hardware and strung them up to see how they felt. That way I was able to tweek everything on the prototypes before building the final version. The only thing that could go wrong at that point was the finish, and that part went fine. Tweeks included control placement, pickup routes, and neck pocket routes. The thing to remember is that if you route the pickups and neck to exact measurements, you will find that they either dont fit because of differences in size, or after you put the finish on, its just thick enough to keep things from fitting. Cut the neck with a little bit of slop and put finish on the neck and body and it will fit perfect.

I have a website, and will do a blog on the site to cover my progress. I could make a spot on the blog for you to post your progress as well if you would like.

Scott...