What's On Your Workbench?

[ctmullins]

Norlin wackiness! I never knew those existed. It’s beautiful in that wonky early 80s “yes-the-technology-is-primitive-but-we’re-doing-it-regardless” way!

Does the huge electronics cavity make the weight tolerable?

 

[rojo412]

It's a very reasonable weight. The electronics cavity may even lend itself to LIGHTER weight because of the lack of wood.

 

[Jeff Siddall]

(yeah, I could make them way better with a crowning, but they don't need that yet, so this was just some steel wool and billet polish)

Yikes, that is a crazy amount of PCB to fit in a guitar. I guess that's why the bodies are so huge!

Are you sure the intonation will be OK with those frets? The tops look pretty flat.

 

[dwizum]

I must admit I have huge gaps in my knowledge of historical guitars. I never knew there was a guitar version of the t bird, just the bass. What bridge is that? Is it original?

 

[JIO]

Yikes, that is a crazy amount of PCB to fit in a guitar. I guess that's why the bodies are so huge!

Are you sure the intonation will be OK with those frets? The tops look pretty flat.

A peaked fret is probably the most accurate, but my '68 Coral has relatively flat frets and intones very much within reason. (sounds good with no noticeable inaccuracy)

 

[ctmullins]

A peaked fret is probably the most accurate, but my '68 Coral has relatively flat frets and intones very much within reason. (sounds good with no noticeable inaccuracy)

In my experience, that’s the sort of thing that’s critical in theory, but negligible in practice.

 

[rojo412]

He plays it once a year, if that, by himself. Plus, he wanted it done ASAP. So it was just some quick work.

Pretty sure it will be mine some day and I’ll likely do the full job when that day comes... or when my 68 year old dad goes pro, either one.

 

[Ripthorn]

I've got a little mahogany and curly maple head shell for a tiny amp on my bench. Amp is a box of rock (bypassable) into a cab sim (bypassable) into a ruby amp. This is for me to take to work for noodling on now and again. Chassis is a 1590DD.

 

[JIO]

In my experience, that’s the sort of thing that’s critical in theory, but negligible in practice.

exactly - luckily my ears aren't that sensitive!

 

[JIO]

I must admit I have huge gaps in my knowledge of historical guitars. I never knew there was a guitar version of the t bird, just the bass. What bridge is that? Is it original?

That version is different/special but the Firebird guitar was released the same year as the Thunderbird - 1963. Many, many players rocked them over the years (Johnny Winters, Phil Manzanera (Roxy's guitarist), Brian Jones, and Eric Clapton just to name a few. My favorite is the 1 pu version. ('63-'65)

 

[tbrannon]

I've got a little mahogany and curly maple head shell for a tiny amp on my bench. Amp is a box of rock (bypassable) into a cab sim (bypassable) into a ruby amp. This is for me to take to work for noodling on now and again. Chassis is a 1590DD.


View attachment 3689031

I'd like to see more of that.

 

[herndonbassist]

I never seem to take pictures while working on any one of my projects, but here's what was on my bench recently:

 

[BassinCT]

Sound Guitar Works neck and body:

 

[TerribleTim68]

Sound Guitar Works neck and body:.....

That’s funny, I live like 10 minutes from them, and maybe 15 from Warmoth.

 

[5tring]

Neck blank getting the old glue ‘n’ clamps

 

[dwizum]

I have a woodworking friend who bugs me sometimes about how much "scrap" I hang on to. He pretty much throws out every cut off piece. I pretty much keep every cut off piece. Now I have proof of why. Here's four neck blanks worth of laminate strips, cut entirely from my scrap pile. Granted they're gonna be fairly small necks (two 3/4 scale guitars and two tenor guitars), but still, it's pretty much four free necks.

 

[Jisch]

I have a woodworking friend who bugs me sometimes about how much "scrap" I hang on to. He pretty much throws out every cut off piece. I pretty much keep every cut off piece. Now I have proof of why. Here's four neck blanks worth of laminate strips, cut entirely from my scrap pile. Granted they're gonna be fairly small necks (two 3/4 scale guitars and two tenor guitars), but still, it's pretty much four free necks.

View attachment 3692985

I almost feel guilty when people give me wood, but I'll take it! A buddy just called me, he's a carpenter and said he grabbed a bunch of mahogany cutoffs from a job he was working, he said he'd drop some off for me. So cool.

 

[dwizum]

Awesome! I love free wood. Probably a little too much.

The irony of my friend's situation is that he runs a hobby business making cut block cutting boards. Dude throws all kinds of scrap on his burn pile that would make great cutting boards. He just can't be bothered to save/store/sort/reuse odd shaped pieces versus pulling another 4/4 board off his stack of fresh wood. I used to pick through his scraps every time I visited his house but he moved to the other end of the country a few years ago.

4th blank is in clamps for the headstock but here's the results of that pile of garbage...

 

[Jisch]

Awesome! I love free wood. Probably a little too much.

The irony of my friend's situation is that he runs a hobby business making cut block cutting boards. Dude throws all kinds of scrap on his burn pile that would make great cutting boards. He just can't be bothered to save/store/sort/reuse odd shaped pieces versus pulling another 4/4 board off his stack of fresh wood. I used to pick through his scraps every time I visited his house but he moved to the other end of the country a few years ago.

4th blank is in clamps for the headstock but here's the results of that pile of garbage...

View attachment 3693331[/QUOTE

Funny, we work that angle in reverse at my house. My wife makes cutting boards from my cutoffs:

 

[rojo412]

I've dabbled in the cutting boards a bit.

And like most of us, I'm hoarding a lot of cuts and excess woods to the point where I could probably glue it all up to build a bar. I probably won't, but there's hundreds of pounds of extra "scrap" here that I'd love to find better places for, so I can keep the shop area a little more spacious.