It's been a while since I posted a build here but I am really happy with how this one turned out. It's been a long build with struggles along the way but with David' encouragement and assistance (David Searle Guitars) and the guys at the shop pushing me on it's finally over the line.
This one came about because my middle son Ben was keen on a Super PJ from Dingwall. 2 year wait on the build and over CAD $5K. I know I can't build to Sheldons standard but I can give it good shake for a lot less. So Ben drove the specs on this one.
You see I told myself I'd never build a wood burl guitar again but there was this cottonwood burl over in Canada that was screaming "use me" and so I listened. It arrived and it was so porous, full of twig ends and dirt that I almost gave up then and there. It had no solid structure and was so light it was more air than wood. But it had potential so I had been looking at resin tables on Youtube and there was my answer, fill it with resin. And so the learning began and the sanding and filling and sanding and filling and 10 coats of gloss, and more sanding and polishing...
It originally had an all Cherry back but that was monstrously heavy so it went through the thicknesser and a Walnut back got put on. It comes in just shy of 5kg now, but it does have a Wenge neck and Ebony fretboard. It balances really well and I love the Walnut.
Colin, Melbourne pickups did the PJ's for me and shop mate Brian did the fret slotting on his CNC. Daniel suggested the recurved sculpting on the bottom of the body to expose the cherry. The noise is via a John East EQ1, it has 2 Low-Pass Filter stacks where the lower knob sets the frequency, and the upper, the filter over-shoot peak level and a High-Pass Filter Stack, whose lower knob sets the frequency, and upper knob setting the Level for the higher frequencies. The there is a stacked Master Volume/Blend sets the output level and pickups mix.
The only thing I am not happy with is I didn't allow enough width on the head stock to get the G string pulling straight though. I should have moved the D string turner back allowing the G sting tuner to go backwards and line up better. It works but looks clumsy.
Anyway here's the photos
This one came about because my middle son Ben was keen on a Super PJ from Dingwall. 2 year wait on the build and over CAD $5K. I know I can't build to Sheldons standard but I can give it good shake for a lot less. So Ben drove the specs on this one.
You see I told myself I'd never build a wood burl guitar again but there was this cottonwood burl over in Canada that was screaming "use me" and so I listened. It arrived and it was so porous, full of twig ends and dirt that I almost gave up then and there. It had no solid structure and was so light it was more air than wood. But it had potential so I had been looking at resin tables on Youtube and there was my answer, fill it with resin. And so the learning began and the sanding and filling and sanding and filling and 10 coats of gloss, and more sanding and polishing...
It originally had an all Cherry back but that was monstrously heavy so it went through the thicknesser and a Walnut back got put on. It comes in just shy of 5kg now, but it does have a Wenge neck and Ebony fretboard. It balances really well and I love the Walnut.
Colin, Melbourne pickups did the PJ's for me and shop mate Brian did the fret slotting on his CNC. Daniel suggested the recurved sculpting on the bottom of the body to expose the cherry. The noise is via a John East EQ1, it has 2 Low-Pass Filter stacks where the lower knob sets the frequency, and the upper, the filter over-shoot peak level and a High-Pass Filter Stack, whose lower knob sets the frequency, and upper knob setting the Level for the higher frequencies. The there is a stacked Master Volume/Blend sets the output level and pickups mix.
The only thing I am not happy with is I didn't allow enough width on the head stock to get the G string pulling straight though. I should have moved the D string turner back allowing the G sting tuner to go backwards and line up better. It works but looks clumsy.
Anyway here's the photos
