The making of a NGD...let's build another one...

[ratter]

nice man, i love that headstock shape.

This is gonna be sweet!!

I AM LOVING THIS!!!

Thanks! I'll get to the details on the body here soon...

 

[Digital Jams]

Great job Mike, I can't remember but how about a tour of the shop?

 

[ratter]

Great job Mike, I can't remember but how about a tour of the shop?

After I clean up a bit!

 

[Digital Jams]

Great job Mike, I can't remember but how about a tour of the shop?

After I clean up a bit!

No way, that is mojo on the floor

Maybe pick up the beer bottles

 

[ratter]

Body time!

As with the headstock shape it's really a matter of taking known dimensions, and important dimensions, like bridge location, pickup location, etc. and then designing a shape that works around that. Obviously the basis is a strat shape. But being a child of the 80s I incorporated a little bit of the wonkiness of a Kramer Pacer. And I've been a fan of the Yamaha Pacifica since it was first introduced as a high-end guitar and not the import crap they sell today. So there's some of that influence in there too.

The basic shape I ended up with is this:

It gets a little more involved once you start drawing the other components...

Like with the neck carve, I had recently tweaked the design a little bit. So a piece of blue foam got sacrificed. It really works well, except I'll be finding bits of blue foam in my ears and nose and hair and between my toes...for the rest of my life...

 

[Digital Jams]

I like where this is going and I do see the Pacer influence

Cool ideas!

 

[Gainfreak]

I like where this is going and I do see the Pacer influence

Cool ideas!

I love where this is going

 

[yngzaklynch]

 

[ratter]

You've got to make some of the hardware choices before cutting any wood. The bridge is one of those choices.

I picked the six-screw version of the Gotoh 510. It has the vintage vibe to it while also having a heftier, more solid feel to the arm itself. Almost floyd-ish.

 

[ratter]

The body process is a lot like it was for the Tele. This time, it's Alder instead of Ash. A 2-pc blank from Warmoth. Almost always really good quality stuff...more on that in a bit...

The body goes down on the machine, face side down. The back cuts consist of the tummy cut, the rear trem routing, and the neck mounting holes. This guitar is going to be front-loaded (pickguard), so no control cavity on the backside...

The tummy cut gets roughed out first in large passes:

Then a finer pass:

Alder has some really cool grain sometimes!

The completed backside:

 

[yngzaklynch]

Very cool

 

[ratter]

Now face up.

Since this is a prototype of sorts, I made the pickup routes slightly oversized to give me some wiggle room. Not much, .05-.1 or so. It will all be covered by the pickguard and after I see how it all fits together, I will tighten it up.

Having the neck done first is key because while the body is on the machine, I cut a slightly undersized neck pocket. Then I try fitting the neck to the body without taking the body off the machine. If it fits, I stop. If it's too snug, I open up the neck pocket by .003" or so and try again. Rinse and repeat until it's a nice slip fit.

Everybody likes to brag about their super tight neck pockets that will hold together with no glue or screws blah blah blah. That's all well and good but there is such a thing as TOO tight. I'm sure some builders pull out their hair because guys will bitch if you can slide a piece of paper in the gap, but they'll also bitch when the finish cracks around their watertight neck pocket...

Now it's starting to look like something...

 

[robertkoa]

Really Cool.

When I asked a major body /neck manufacturer about a neck blank long enough for neck through or very long tenon set neck Strat type- he said the downtime and the CNC Programming itself is very expensive.

Can you make a long blank like that so a Luthier ( or You ) could build essentially a Set Neck or neck through Superstrat ?

 

[yngzaklynch]

Really Cool.

When I asked a major body /neck manufacturer about a neck blank long enough for neck through or very long tenon set neck Strat type- he said the downtime and the CNC Programming itself is very expensive.

Can you make a long blank like that so a Luthier ( or You ) could build essentially a Set Neck or neck through Superstrat ?

 

[ratter]

Really Cool.

When I asked a major body /neck manufacturer about a neck blank long enough for neck through or very long tenon set neck Strat type- he said the downtime and the CNC Programming itself is very expensive.

Can you make a long blank like that so a Luthier ( or You ) could build essentially a Set Neck or neck through Superstrat ?

Carvin sells exactly that, neck-through necks. Then you add the body wings and go from there.

Is that what you mean?

The programming can be pretty time-consuming. And then programs need to be tested by making cuts, etc. I can see how it would be hard to justify that for a one-off.

I personally am not a fan of neck-throughs. Or set neck strats. I love more traditional set necks....gibby style. But I'll save that for the next thread.

 

[Digital Jams]

I think he is talking about a long tenon set neck like what Hamer did with the Cali and Chapparel, the tenon would go as far as the neck pup location. Then shave that neck joint down hard, or as Jol would do sit there for hours with a french curve scrapper while musing over zen stuff and vintage race cars

Yeah I can see an upcharge on that request for all the reprogramming and such.

My last guitar will be a Rattocaster

 

[Hard&Heavy]

Looks sweet

 

[luxxtone]

NICE! It takes a lot of time and patience to do all the programming and prototype work.....great work! What kind of CNC machine is that? Looks nice and compact but can still do the job.

 

[ratter]

musing over zen stuff and vintage race cars

The Dos Equis man has nothing on Jol

He is living the life!

 

[ratter]

NICE! It takes a lot of time and patience to do all the programming and prototype work.....great work! What kind of CNC machine is that? Looks nice and compact but can still do the job.

Thanks man. Trial and error is definitely the order of the day. If I had a dollar for every board foot of maple I've burned...

The machine is made by a company called Camaster. They are in Georgia...or S. Carolina...I forget which. Good people. They cater more to signmakers and cabinetmakers but they make this small machine called the Stinger that is the perfect size (25"x35" or so). It's benchtop, but it is just shy of 400 lbs, so it is very heavy duty and rigid. It's no Fadal obviously but I'm learning to crawl here!

The owner of Camaster said they sold a couple of these to Fender for making necks. Seems kind of odd considering the resources they have at their disposal, but who knows...