Official Luthiers Forum!

This looks like it's going to be an amazing guitar!

Lol I honestly can't think of anything else to say about it! Just awesome!

Thanks Robbie - Now for the scary part - all of the months in the making and I get to install the bridge tomorrow to see how everything worked out -
any major mess ups now can be a "little scary"

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Day after day of sanding - should be done tomorrow before sending off to the finish guy. This guitar has been a bear to get right compared to the "easier" Dueling Dragons build.

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Here are some final pics before going to finish (Polyester):

This is the trussrod cover - Green abalone & sterling silver in ebony:






That sterling silver is around .30mm !!!! (YIKES )

I finally got a semi-descent photo of the cocobolo back:



And for comparison purposes, I wanted it to hang around with it's older brother tonight:



So this post should go dormant for the next month, whilst waiting for the finish - thanks everyone for your support!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Very Nice. Makes me want to leave my desk at work, head home and make something!

Thanks man, that's exactly what I started doing a couple years ago - it's been quite the journey thus far! Keep your head in the dream and it just may come true...

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

On this build, I was wanting to try a different bridge and went and bought (actually 3 I bought! for guitars 2, 3 & 4) a Schaller Bridge/Piece from SM ( http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridges/Schaller_Bridge_Tailpiece.html but was very disappointed with the design - the strings are basically forced to dig into the finish of the guitar unless you unscrew the posts and that would be a major problem if someone needed to change 1 string on the fly, or just changing strings in general. I had an option to possibly carve out a little channel where the strings come out of the removable string holder it comes with, but just thought that would be a bad "Design Implementation". I since then have returned the 3 bridges and ordered 1 Pigtail bridge - hopefully that will work out better(On backorder, of course). When installing the bridge studs I saw that I needed a bit more of an angle on my neck pocket as well - for some reason my calculations were a bit off and with the Schaller bridge, the strings were not touching the frets when adjusted all the way down (Very close, but not touching). The pigtail bridge is actually 3mm lower AND you need to file out the slots on the bridge saddle, so I am hoping this will work.

On my neck pocket jig, I had the angle of the pocket at 2.3°, so I'm thinking to have it go up to 3° on the next 2 guitars. I used the Neck Angle Calculator ( http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/NeckAngle/index.php ), which seemed to work fine, except for the fact that I should have compensated a bit more for the posts that bring up everything a little higher (Possibly 3mm? hehe) - I'm sure there will be allot more things I'll be looking forward to learning on this new journey!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

How thick is the top on this guitar (in the cavity) after you routed it? Getting ready to due a rear route on a tele-ish guitar. Are you use LP style/spec pots or a different style?

How thick is the top? Not sure what you mean - the "top", meaning the padauk top, or just the thickness of the body? - Can't really measure anything for you right now anyways, because it isn't in my possession.

I am not using LP style/specs - this setup is sort-of- original - not really understanding your questions - sorry

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Where the pots go through the body, what is the thickness of the remaining wood at the top of the cavity. In essence how deep do you do your cavity routes for the electronics? How much wood do you leave for the pots to go through?

Ah, thanks for the clarification - this all depends on different factors - if you went by someone else's calculations you can mess things up - I have a carved top, so for different knobs, I went different thicknesses - you should really take your existing pots, switches, etc. and set them up on a scrap piece of wood - that will tell you how deep you want to go on the route - of course you should drill the pot holes first.

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Just got it back from Moe this afternoon - I wanted to shoot up a couple shots of the finish before I go to town with this - pickups should be in Saturday or Monday - working on pup rings tonight..... it's uh, dazzling!





Want to get the hardware on it SO bad!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

What? No whammy bar??? How are you going to play ANY 80's hair band cover tunes?


That is a shiny guitar Virgil! Looks great! Can't wait to see it with all the hardware.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Thanks Tony - I was making pup rings out of some leftover cocobolo just now, then discovered I had JUST enough runoff from the neck to make skunk striped ones - tremolo down the road!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!
Looking greta, (nice typo!),
I mean great!

That's actually my mom's name!

Thanks Alan!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Thanks Dennis!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

I can see the end of the tunnel, and it isn't a gorilla with a flashlight!

Got the fret dressing finished this am and got the nut to size, filed the bridge saddles, finished up the pup rings and drilled the holes for the pup rings - tomorrow am I start on the electronics... btw, it's a DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary in the neck and the bridge is an Air Norton - I am doing the coil tap with 2 mini switches and a 3-way toggle..... here's some pics:











These spots were hardly noticeable and a light brushing of 320 grit got them perfect!::











I should be done with this guitar by Tuesday!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Great stuff, Virgil . I really like the wood combo carried over to the pup rings

Thanks Roger!
I almost ended up going with simple black plastic ones that looked pretty cool too, but opted for these... I had some run-offs from when the neck was cut and BARELY had enough to make these two, so It's kinda neat, when you flip the guitar over, you see the lines running the same way... also HAD poly on them, but didn't care for the look. I'll probably leave them unfinished - hopefully I can get the wiring done before the students show up today!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Ditto what Roger said. Using the neck lam cut offs for the pup rings was a brilliant idea! Ties things together nicely. Excellent work Virgil!

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Thanks Tony!


- I plugged the Silver Willow into an amp at 3:33 this afternoon............

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

aaaaannnnnd?????