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What's On Your Workbench?
- Thread starter HaMMerHeD
- Start date
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,007
- 1
- 31,705
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
So when you say “one piece”, do you actually mean one piece, with the frets hammered into the top? If so, what are your plans for a truss rod?
I have a really nice slab of purpleheart that I could do the same with, so I’m interested in how you approach this!
I have a really nice slab of purpleheart that I could do the same with, so I’m interested in how you approach this!
Off my bench and up on the wall, as of a few days ago.
My old FrankenTele.
This one started as a well gigged 70's lawsuit Tele (back-up guitar), it fell off a truck in the early 90's, was run over, stripped, salvaged, and rebuilt from a big box of "other" parts, received a sharpie and paint-pen paint job, it was strung and gigged both as a guitar and as a very short scale 6 string bass (it was a pretty well known instrument the Chico CA band scene of the era), -stolen-, recovered 2 years later (partially stripped), rebuilt again (as a guitar), chopped hard for a strat trem, painted anti-theft green, and stuffed in a closet for 30 years.
I opened the case for the first time in... years, a few months back. It looked like hell, and I finally had some time to "fix it right" last month.
Nice maple neck, rosewood fretboard, small frets.
The body core is the finest Japanese sourced mahogany... plywood.
All the various (huge), through body routes were filled with very old, very dried out, plywood (vintage). Then-
Skimmed, front and back.
Manzanita cap - a full width bookmatch cap. Only one I've ever seen.
Maple back cap.
I left the sides visible, highlighting the wrongness of the plywood core.
After set-up, it plays very, very, nice. And, 10 actually useful sounds.
It made the cut and is on the wall, proudly, now.
Compensated Mosrite/Bigsby hybrid tremolo.
Roller TOM bridge.
Vintage Fender "F" covered tuners.
Bone nut.
Bridge Pickup: '82 G&L F100 MFD Humbucker
Middle Pickup: Early 80's DiMarzio Super Distortion
Neck Pickup: PAF clone
5-Way Blade Switch positions:
+ Toggle: UP
1U: Bridge - South Coil Only
2U: Outer Coils Parallel Neck(N)+Bridge(S)
3U: Inner Coils Parallel Neck(S)+Bridge(N)
4U: Outer Coils Series Neck(N)+Bridge(S)
5U: Neck Humbucker
5-Way Blade Switch positions:
+ Toggle: DOWN
1D: Bridge Humbucker
2D: Outer Coils Parallel Middle(N)+Bridge(S)
3D: Inner Coils Parallel Middle(S)+Bridge(N)
4D: Outer Coils Series Middle(N)+Bridge(S)
5D: Middle Humbucker
Switches:
5-way Blade: 4 Pole
On-on Toggle: 4P2T
Pots: 500k linear - CTS
Cap: .047k Mullard fish cap.
Rick
My old FrankenTele.
This one started as a well gigged 70's lawsuit Tele (back-up guitar), it fell off a truck in the early 90's, was run over, stripped, salvaged, and rebuilt from a big box of "other" parts, received a sharpie and paint-pen paint job, it was strung and gigged both as a guitar and as a very short scale 6 string bass (it was a pretty well known instrument the Chico CA band scene of the era), -stolen-, recovered 2 years later (partially stripped), rebuilt again (as a guitar), chopped hard for a strat trem, painted anti-theft green, and stuffed in a closet for 30 years.
I opened the case for the first time in... years, a few months back. It looked like hell, and I finally had some time to "fix it right" last month.
Nice maple neck, rosewood fretboard, small frets.
The body core is the finest Japanese sourced mahogany... plywood.
All the various (huge), through body routes were filled with very old, very dried out, plywood (vintage). Then-
Skimmed, front and back.
Manzanita cap - a full width bookmatch cap. Only one I've ever seen.
Maple back cap.
I left the sides visible, highlighting the wrongness of the plywood core.
After set-up, it plays very, very, nice. And, 10 actually useful sounds.
It made the cut and is on the wall, proudly, now.
Compensated Mosrite/Bigsby hybrid tremolo.
Roller TOM bridge.
Vintage Fender "F" covered tuners.
Bone nut.
Bridge Pickup: '82 G&L F100 MFD Humbucker
Middle Pickup: Early 80's DiMarzio Super Distortion
Neck Pickup: PAF clone
5-Way Blade Switch positions:
+ Toggle: UP
1U: Bridge - South Coil Only
2U: Outer Coils Parallel Neck(N)+Bridge(S)
3U: Inner Coils Parallel Neck(S)+Bridge(N)
4U: Outer Coils Series Neck(N)+Bridge(S)
5U: Neck Humbucker
5-Way Blade Switch positions:
+ Toggle: DOWN
1D: Bridge Humbucker
2D: Outer Coils Parallel Middle(N)+Bridge(S)
3D: Inner Coils Parallel Middle(S)+Bridge(N)
4D: Outer Coils Series Middle(N)+Bridge(S)
5D: Middle Humbucker
Switches:
5-way Blade: 4 Pole
On-on Toggle: 4P2T
Pots: 500k linear - CTS
Cap: .047k Mullard fish cap.
Rick
I guess if you really wanted to go true "one piece" in the sense of a Fender one piece neck blank, you'd route the truss rod from the back side and put a skunk stripe in it, right?
In this case, it would be "one-piece" plus another piece for the fret board. Although, I was thinking of doing a wenge fretboard as well so the seems would be near invisible and super minimalist!
I guess if you really wanted to go true "one piece" in the sense of a Fender one piece neck blank, you'd route the truss rod from the back side and put a skunk stripe in it, right?
It would be pretty cool to do a contrasting skunk stripe! Sort of a negative 7ender; doek wood with a light skunk stripe!
I have also considered doing it the way Peavey did on some of their '80s instruments; split the neck blank in half down the middle to install the truss rod, but I don't see any functional advantage to that.
Nothing but the finest tone plys! I had a parts Strat with a ply body that gave me great pleasure to tell “gear snobs” that it was plywood when they said it sounded good. Way to show an old road warrior some love!
That is gorgeous.
Someday we have to hear the story of what went wrong between you and green guitars.
I love that you saved that guitar and gave it a new life. Plywood for the win.
you sure it's Manzanita? Manzanita is more of a shrub than a tree- It would be tough to get anything big enough to get an actual top out of.
It's also an endangered species in California, which is why you don't see much of it commercially (not trying to be the endangered species police). It tends to be pretty gnarled and twisted. Don't quote me, but pretty sure it's illegal to harvest(?).
Either way, it's gorgeous. Hope that guitar survives another 100 years
Currently in the final stages - the French polish finish has been spirited off and is about three days away from swirl remover and carnauba wax... it's so hard to just call it "finished", and stop reworking and fiddling with bits that invariably add a ton of work and reactivate the finish.
As a first build, it's turned out pretty well, but by no means perfectly. Now contemplating build number 2... it's an addiction, isn't it?
As a first build, it's turned out pretty well, but by no means perfectly. Now contemplating build number 2... it's an addiction, isn't it?
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Taking a break from instruments to put a desk together so I can finally have a legitimate work from home setup for my day job. Wide plank curly cherry top with sorta live edges, trestle frame, lotsa big simple exposed joinery.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,007
- 1
- 31,705
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
It is definitely Manzanita. Pulled from a huge bulldozered burn pile in the hills East of Livermore, CA.
A unicorn log. It was nearly straight for 3 feet, and almost 10" in diameter.
There are 95+ species/subspecies of manzanita in CA. Of those, a dozen or so are endangered. Manzanita is the generic name, like "pine" or "duck".
This particular log was most likely Big-Berry manzanita, though it shares a range with Common and Whiteleaf manzanita. Most species of manzanita are very common, and are not listed, or, even close to being threatened.
Manzanita species (like most western chaparral species), in general, -require- late summer fires to propagate. The ground needs to be fire sterilized, and the seeds need to be fire scarified before they will germinate. With all the fires in CA over the last 5 years, most manzanita species are booming.
There -are- several species listed as endangered. These species, as expected, are exclusively near urbanized areas. Urbanized areas generally have pretty good fire departments. Add 50 years of excellent fire suppression to creeping urban growth. -> If the entire range of a particular species or subspecies is in that fire-free buffer zone there will be no reproduction.
I source my manzanita from land being cleared, either in the Central Coast range or the Sierra foothills. So not to worry, I am fully aware of the status of the particular species present.
Rick
Home > Manzanita (all) for California
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Are you talking about the desk or @instrumentalist ?
Are you talking about the desk or @instrumentalist ?
I actually meant to type “big, exposed dovetails and the Dutchman.” As I don’t recall seeing selfies of @instrumentalist I'll reserve judgment on any aesthetics.
Must be too much Pepsi after laying off of soda for a while. 
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,007
- 1
- 31,705
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
