TDPRI Challenge

Been building a guitar again over the last few weeks.
It's a Telecaster for the annual TDPRI Build Challenge.
At first I wanted to go for something LP Jr inspired, but the ones I've seen inspired by Juniors always look wrong. So I figured I might as well go for something "Gretschy".

Specs:
Body - African Mahogany + knotty pine top
Neck- African Mahogany + rosewood fretboard
Hardware - Bigsby B16, CTS/CRL controls, Seymour Duncan Nocaster bridgePUP, Gretsch Filtertron neckPUP, Kluson roundback tuners
Finish - Red and orange stain, nitro clearcoat

So here we go:

African mahogany for body and neck

Sawn and ready to rout

Routed + some parts

Neck, fretboard and body

Fretboard glued + bound

Shaping the neck

Neck stained

What it looked like last friday

How it looks today

Ready for wiring

Spring Reverb project.

Bought a silverface Fender Vibro-Champ recently. Love it to bits!
Only thing it lacks is reverb. So I'm building one.
Accutronics springtank, GGG Center Stage Reverb schemo and a bit of patience is all it takes...

Tank's a wee bit large. Solution? Rehouse the amp in a headcab and build a 2x10" speakercab.

With LUV,

M.

Fender 5F1 clone DONE

Built a 5F1 kit this winter... My first try at building amps.

Quite happy with it. Sounds like I wanted it to sound, smooth & cool dirt with my Esquire.

Even the singer and guitarplayer like the sound. Always cool to have it on the road. Great little backstage-amp.

Cheers

Supro Belmont clone FINISHED

Finished the Belmont clone a few months back, forgot to update this page. :)

Doesn't have the pinstripe on the headstock and pickguard.

Finsh looks like crap, but hey... So did the original ones.

Cheers!

Started over on the Supro Belmont...

Made huge big fuckup with this build. Seems half an inch off from the original guitar.

So I started over again. And what is better than 1 Belmont?

Right!

 2 Belmonts!

Pics soon...

'58 Supro Belmont

I started a little contest between a professional luthier and me this weekend. This guy helped me out a lot with the Dual-Tone and drew up a plan of that guitar. He said he'd like to build himself one like it someday. Turns out there's going to be a guitarbuilders meeting in 2 months...
So we set up this build-off plan.

Here's what I did so far:

Made the templates and glued a 2 piece Yellow Pine body.

 Roughly cut out the body, neck and fretboard...

Routed out the neck and shaped the headstocktransition

 Routed out the body and beveled the edges.

Did the back with a router, the front by hand.

Still figuring out how I'm going to do the neckpocket...

Think I'm going for a modern version of the old Supro's.

 Last but not least:

A mock-up!

To be continued...

CSTMS pt.2CSTMS pt.2

Did a few shows with these guys now... Loving every moment. Learning a lot about the Rock n Roll world. A lot about backline and stuff. Cool!
Next week: festivals! The real deal. Looking forward to it.

CSTMS

Guitarbuilding is going to be slow this week... Got a job as a roadie/techie for this band called CUSTOMS.
I do some backline work now and then so I figured this might be fun too! Guess what: did the first show yesterday everything went great.
Thing is I still need to learn a lot, which cables to pull and which to leave alone for example! Glad these guys are cutting me some slack (for now)...
They're a healthy crazy bunch, they like a laugh and are not afraid to be serious too.

Anyways: here's their new single. The CD is coming out september 23rd! Go check 'em out in a bar near you soon. ;)

GretschCaster Pt.2

A nice 2 piece body (glued totally off-center, like it matters...)

 The chunk of wood in clamps, being glued together.

Almost invisible glueline. This is a nice looking piece of wood!

Soon updates on the neck ;)

GretschCaster Pt.1

It's been a while since I last posted an update but here's the news:
I started on another Telecaster project (I dubbed it the GretschCaster)... A friend of mine wanted a guitar to fit her specific needs.  She wanted a guitar that would sound good, look good and play good for a decent price and since she's a cool person I offered her to build one for her she designed.

Meet the GretschCaster:

The specs:
2-piece Yellow Pine body: Gretsch orange up front, dark red back and white bindings
Maple neck with rosewood fretboard: 25" scale and 22 frets, abalone dot inlays and 12" radius

Duesenberg humbucker in the bridgeposition, Duesenberg P-90 in the neckposition
1x volume, 2x Tone and a 3-way switch.

What's not to like about it?

More soon!

Other guitars 'n stuff...

Here are some pictures of other things I'm (was) working on.

For starters: my real first build, a black Esquire with a BG pickups T-90 in the bridge.

A refret for a friend of mine, note the Leatherman again.

A cigarboxguitar with a smokey amp.

A neckthrough SG with mahogany neck and flamemaple sides, 2 P-90's and gold hardware...

Supro Dual-Tone so far...

So here's where I'm at right now... Pretty good, considering what I started from. Don't you think?

 Back, all done with the correct covers for the screws!

 Mockup with everything except for the pickups!

 What I started from, remember?

Mine on the right, an all original '58 on the left.

Really cool dude that trusted me with this little gem (thanks S.)!

I'll keep you posted!

Cheers,

M.

Supro Dual-Tone hardware

The biggest problem with these guitars is finding the right parts, they are either rare or to expensive... So what do you do when you want a bridge or tailpiece? That's right: DIY FTW! Build it yourself.
I found out the bridges of these old Supro's were made out of rosewood, so I went to this luthiershop and got me some pieces of rosewood to get started with.
And by accident I got in contact with a really kind French craftsman... He made me these repro tuningbuttons! These are another detail that add to the character of this guitar.
The tailpiece is made out of a sheet of brass (0,8mm thick) and an aluminum bolt.

Repro tuningbuttons on a piece of rosewood.

 Removing the white buttons of the 3-on-a-plate Kluson tuningpeg.

 The new buttons installed! Looks great, doesn't it?

 Replica tailpiece, made to the exact specs of an original '58 D-T.

Bringing the rosewood to the correct thickness and size...

Checking the shape... Looks good to me!

Here's some bridges I made. The one up front is the one I used on my D-T, the others didn't turn out good enough...

Finished Supro bridge. Could be better, but good enough for now!

Next up: Winding pickups!!!