Future Guitars

Better things in the works!

Hopefully soon!

Book Quartet Final

Finished!  It's got a few coats of tru-oil on it.

It sounds great!

The only real snafu was that I cut the 8th fret slot too shallow and had to pop the fret and reseat it.  No big deal.

Also, the CB Gitty bridge is of poor quality and can cause minor buzzing.  All in all, a success.

Book Quartet Assembly

Alright, let get her put together!

Book Quartet Pickup Rings Part 3

Finished sanding, staining, and oiling the pickup ring.  It isn't as smooth on the edges as I'd have liked, but grape is apparently not a super hard wood.  Or the part I used wasn't at least.

Since the CB Gitty pickups are so ugly, I decided to cover them.  I could perhaps have used the grape vine, but I opted instead for fabric.  I don't know how strong the magnets in the pickips are, so I figured I'd use the least intrusive material I could think of.

I'm very happy with how it looks.  I may end up modpodging it to the pickup.  Right now I have the excess fabric kind of held down by the pickup ring.

Book Quartet Antler Nut Part 2

After splitting the antler section into four blanks, I ground down the major imperfections on my disc grinder.  I then took it from 120 grit through to 800 grit.

I have horrible nut slotting files but just can't bring myself to spend $100 on a set of hosco files.  I probably should though.

I should have filed down the whole thing a bit more before I installed it ....

next time =p

Book Quartet Antler Nut Part 1

Another post I forgot to post weeks ago =p

I find a fair amount of antlers walking through the woods and use them to make the nuts for my guitars. 

A thick section can make four of them.

Quick trip to the bandsaw.  On side note, sanding and sawing bone smells terrible. 

Next post will show a finished nut, and hopefully the post after that will show the finished guitar!

After that .... who knows

Book Quartet Side Dots

Time got away from me!

I should have done this before I oiled the neck, but alas.  I used 5/64 dia. solid brass wire for the side dots.  Drilled out the holes with my bench drill (soon to be upgraded).

Add a dollop of super glue, insert the brass wire, and snip off with fret wire snips.

All filed down.  Now to resand and oil the sides =p

Book Quartet Fretboards

I'm regretting oiling the fretboard, or at least using tru-oil on it.  It's a bit tacky and for some reason didn't adhere in a few places.  It looks great though so there's that.

You can see dry areas near the lower frets where it just didn't stick for some reason. 

I guess it's possible that I didn't apply it correctly there, but I was pretty thorough. 

Book Quartet Fretboards

Time to get the fretboard .... fretted?  I guess?  Sounds right.

I ordered a large coil so each piece of fret wire had to be individually straightened.  I used a jewelers hammer on the flat of my bench vise.  It was super boring and now it'll take forever to get them all even.

Straightened and tapped in with a hard rubber jewelers hammer.  One day I'll get my press working.

Artsy fartsy picture.  Can you tell which fret slot I cut too shallow?  I can!  Answer at the end of the post.

Next is to file down the jagged cut edges.  I got bored about 4 frets in and used my dremel.  It worked well.  I think next time I'll try finishing one end before I install them.  Secretly though, I know I'll forget.

I don't remember where I got this file, but it is damned helpful.  It files flat (but not that well) at 90 degrees, but what it really does well is the 60 degree bevel on the fret ends.  It saves me a ton of time.

The shallow fret is the 8th.  Ugh.

Book Quartet Headstock

I finally got around to fixing the defect in the headstock.  I put a mild curve in it and to be honest I kind of like it and will probably do it on future guitars.

All sanded and ready for tru-oil.

Book Quartet Bits and Pieces

More Bits and Pieces!

These tuners were supposed to be 3r3l but arrived 6inline (cb gitty strikes again)

I don't mind too awful much, I'll just have to turn one reverse ways.

Solid brass fret markers for the side of the fretboard.

Prewired 3 string pickups from cb gitty.  The wood plate is not stainable and will need to be covered (future post).  Time will tell how the wiring goes.

Gold knobs.  Sadly these don't fit and will need to be modified. 

Jack plates.  I debated flattening them but figured it would mess up the plating.

Knob marker thingys.  Not much to say about them, but I have nothing but good things to say about Philadelphia Luthier Supply.  Everything I've purchased from them has been top notch.

Book Quartet Pickup Rings Part 2

Now that I've got the outline I want, I take off the bigger hunks of wood with the spindle sander.  I think next time I'll glue the stencil on since the tape just got in the way.

Turned out about as well as any first attempt at anything I think.

Next I clamped a piece of 1x over the pickup ring blank to reduce the chance of tear out.

At first I thought I'd need to saw the excess out, but my utility knife did the trick.

Ready for sanding and staining.  I did have to do some dremel work on the inside since the pickup is just a bit larger than the drill bit I had.

Book Quartet Bodies

I'd forgotten to post this before vacation, but here's how I made the channel for the pickup.

CB Gitty pickups (at least the ones that I purchased) are not suspended from a pickup ring and must rest directly on the body or neck.

I chiseled out the bulk of the excess wood.

I used a small square rasp to make a small channel in the larger channel so that the solder points wouldn't scrape against the wood.

All finished.  I didn't bother sanding a ton since it isn't an exposed part of the guitar.