Official Luthiers Forum!

I just wanted to introduce myself to the forum here, and give y'all a look at one of the guitars I've finished recently.















I've made about a dozen guitars now. I've got 3 designs that I'm focusing on. This is one of them.
I design them in SolidWorks, and fab them on my trusty ShopSabre 3636.
As you can probably tell, I'm trying to see what electric guitars can be if you decide to stay away from "flat and straight".

I make them out of laminated blocks, consisting of between 12 and 16 individual planks.







I'd like to attach a few more photos, but the text editor seems to be fighting me here. (Is there a limit to how many photos you can attach???)

I'll try to submit some photos of my other two babies in the days ahead.
Anyways, thanks for looking. Any and all comments, critiques, and questions greatly welcome.

If you're interested, you can see more of my guitars on my YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Kozmguitars


Cheers,
Jeff

uh....uh....butt....but...

Beautiful work. Is that a pearl orange? I am planning one that will have Lambogini Pearl Orange for the body. Don't know if I am going to make mine hardly as uh...correct as yours!

Now, I do have to ask a couple of technical questions if you're still talking to me!

Is the neck at an angle. I think I can see an angle in the headstock, but not sure about the heel. Is the top on a continous radii from end to end? If there were no cheeks, would there be enough wood for the bridge and tail piece?

I love everything about the guitar except the cheeks, and mostly because I think they will get in the way, and especially if I were playing, but that is another story!

More pics and info please......

Mike

Wow. Cool stuff.

[quote="turmite"]uh....uh....butt....but... wow7-eyes

Beautiful work. Is that a pearl orange?
Thanks for the comments!
The color is "Sunset Orange" (PPG 907154)

Now, I do have to ask a couple of technical questions if you're still talking to me! [:Y:]

Is the neck at an angle?
Not sure to answer this one; at an angle to what?

I love everything about the guitar except the cheeks, and mostly because I think they will get in the way, and especially if I were playing, but that is another story!

Regarding the cheeks: I originally added them as, um, a "provocative styling element". However, most everybody who plays the guitar comments that they like the way it forces the guitar to warp around your body.

More pics and info please......

Thanks again for the comments. Hope to have more photos in the days ahead.

You Oregonians are so crazy!

Very interesting shape, I applaud you for trying new things.

The headstock has me curious, do you have a closer shot of it?

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Totally dig man. Would you be willing to share some of your SW design trees for a project like this? No need to share the design itself, I'm just curious to see your process for building such a shape in SW.

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Very cool,
Electrics aren't really my thing especially as a player because I love acoustics so much and I love dropped tunings, but when I do look at electrics or play them I look for a few things (which I am not alone on). I don't mean this as criticism, just some things to consider moving forward.

1. Neck through design
I really love a well done neck through design. I'm not sure how you would achieve that with CNC because I know nothing about it, but I would look into that if I were you as most high end guitars do not feature bolt on necks. I'm sure you can make it happen.

2. Weight
What type of wood are you using and what is the final weight of the instrument? I recently sold a solid Les Paul that I thought was just too heavy at 9 lbs. I still have a semi hollow that is comfy at just under 7lbs. but even it is on the block since I very rarely play any of my electrics. Regardless, the lightest is the last to go.

Question:
Did you randomly drill those holes in those places at those sizes or is it calculated to balance the instrument at its center?

And finally PROPS for trying new things, and I love the "butt", brings a whole new meaning into "hand her over to me" hahaha. I think you will definitely garner a lot of attention with that design. It looks ergonomically awesome as well as you said, like it would just wrap around the body, that was my first thought. Great stuff man, can't wait to see the next one.

The neck is a bolt on similar to a Fender. Most, thought not all, bolt on necks are basically set paralled to the top of the guitar on a flat topped guitar. Though your guitar is far from flat, it appears that the hardware is mostly on a plane, and the neck is parallel to that plane. The headstock has some angle to it, or appears to, and I was curious if the neck is set at an angle as described above?

Mike

Oh, another question - you got any pics of your CNC setup? What kind of machine are you using? Homemade? Purchased...

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http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Andy,

Here's a look at my ShopSabre 3636 and dust collection system.
It's kind of cramped in my garage, but overall it's working well.



Thanks for the comments,

Jeff

Thanks for the comments!
I'll try to answer some of them.

1. Neck through design

For the time being, I'm pretty content with the bolt-on necks. Especially as I'm in more of an R & D phase, it lets me take them off and tweak things.

2. Weight
What type of wood are you using and what is the final weight of the instrument?

This one has three planks of mahogany in the middle spine, flanked by two planks of maple. The remaining outermost planks are all ash. I've been experimenting with different types of woods, trying to assess how they affect the sound, and how well they machine and finish.
This one is chambered, and weighs in at just over 7 lbs.
(I'm real happy with the sustain.)

Question:
Did you randomly drill those holes in those places at those sizes or is it calculated to balance the instrument at its center?

If you're referring to the cutouts, I try to position them primarily to reduce the weight. Here's a picture of a cross section.

Attachment:

Chamber theory - 1.jpg

I've been experimenting with "multi chambering". Instead of having one large chamber, I want to see if having several chambers affects how the guitar responds, or how its feedback is affected by haviing several chambers of different sizes. The jury's still out.


Hope this helps.
Thanks again for the comments,
Jeff

Nice work on the chambered "Bootycaster" Interesting idea.

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