Guitar
...but I've put the project on hold for a while. I've been too busy the last half year or so to really focus on building guitars. Plus, I've found out that there is a number of areas - especially metal working - where I need to improve my skills and learn new ones.
On top of that, there are many things about guitars besides building the neck and body, which I'd also like to do. New types of bridges, new tuner systems, piezo pickups, etc., etc. These are mostly ideas that the design of the T-beam has lead to. For example, I need a locking nut for it, but since it's headless, I can't use the usual ones with three screws, each locking two strings. In order to roughly tune each separate string with the nut (principle described here), I need one screw for each string. Such nuts exist, but they are all narrower than the intended neck width of the T-beam. Meaning that I'll have to try to make one myself.
I did. It didn't work. I'll probably describe this failed attempt in another post and try another approach.
As mentioned, there are other issues besides the locking nut, all adding up to the guitar being a huge task with too many variables for an inexperienced builder as me. Therefore, I am going to fool around for a while, having fun trying out various ideas, hopefully gaining knowledge and skill in the process.
As a testbed, I've bought a cheap Gibson SG copy on which I plan to do some modifications and try out some ideas. This way, I can expriment without ruining anything valuable and have a functioning guitar on which to test the practical usability of the various parts that eventually will go on the T-beam.
- Two-layer Aluminium Neck
Among the drawbacks of my old T-beam designs were the lack of a truss rod or similar system to control the bow of the neck. A way to help this - but still use stock aluminium beam for the guitar - could be having a neck in two layers - an upper flat beam,...
- Setting My Sights A Little Lower
It can't have escaped anyone's attention that I haven't yet built the T-beam guitar. Even though I've talked a lot about it, nothing tangible has emerged. I've bought the components and there's nothing much missing. It's just...
- A Locking Nut That Didn't Work
Since I put the T-beam guitar on hold for a while, I bough a cheap Gibson SG copy for various experiments. One of the first things I wanted to try out was a tuning system, which uses a locking nut in combination with a Schaller 456 fine tuning bridge...
- More Beating Around The Bush
As I describe here, things have slowed down considerably since this summer. It quite typical to me (and probably many others), that planning is easy, but when I get to the point of actually making the things I've been planning, the progress goes down....
- A Different Tuner System For Headless Designs
The guitar I'm planning at the moment might be the first in a series. If it turns out well and the building process is fun (the planning sure is), I expect to build another one. And probably then another. And so on. If the guitar turns out sounding...
Guitar
I haven't abandoned the T-beam guitar
...but I've put the project on hold for a while. I've been too busy the last half year or so to really focus on building guitars. Plus, I've found out that there is a number of areas - especially metal working - where I need to improve my skills and learn new ones.
On top of that, there are many things about guitars besides building the neck and body, which I'd also like to do. New types of bridges, new tuner systems, piezo pickups, etc., etc. These are mostly ideas that the design of the T-beam has lead to. For example, I need a locking nut for it, but since it's headless, I can't use the usual ones with three screws, each locking two strings. In order to roughly tune each separate string with the nut (principle described here), I need one screw for each string. Such nuts exist, but they are all narrower than the intended neck width of the T-beam. Meaning that I'll have to try to make one myself.
I did. It didn't work. I'll probably describe this failed attempt in another post and try another approach.
As mentioned, there are other issues besides the locking nut, all adding up to the guitar being a huge task with too many variables for an inexperienced builder as me. Therefore, I am going to fool around for a while, having fun trying out various ideas, hopefully gaining knowledge and skill in the process.
As a testbed, I've bought a cheap Gibson SG copy on which I plan to do some modifications and try out some ideas. This way, I can expriment without ruining anything valuable and have a functioning guitar on which to test the practical usability of the various parts that eventually will go on the T-beam.
- Two-layer Aluminium Neck
Among the drawbacks of my old T-beam designs were the lack of a truss rod or similar system to control the bow of the neck. A way to help this - but still use stock aluminium beam for the guitar - could be having a neck in two layers - an upper flat beam,...
- Setting My Sights A Little Lower
It can't have escaped anyone's attention that I haven't yet built the T-beam guitar. Even though I've talked a lot about it, nothing tangible has emerged. I've bought the components and there's nothing much missing. It's just...
- A Locking Nut That Didn't Work
Since I put the T-beam guitar on hold for a while, I bough a cheap Gibson SG copy for various experiments. One of the first things I wanted to try out was a tuning system, which uses a locking nut in combination with a Schaller 456 fine tuning bridge...
- More Beating Around The Bush
As I describe here, things have slowed down considerably since this summer. It quite typical to me (and probably many others), that planning is easy, but when I get to the point of actually making the things I've been planning, the progress goes down....
- A Different Tuner System For Headless Designs
The guitar I'm planning at the moment might be the first in a series. If it turns out well and the building process is fun (the planning sure is), I expect to build another one. And probably then another. And so on. If the guitar turns out sounding...