I feel like I'm back in pre school

After weeks of trying, this weekend I finally obtained the epoxy resin I want to use to make custom inlays. Since I want to use quite an extensive pattern for my fret inlays (I'll keep the actual shape a secret for now, so I can always back out), I thought it would be easier to model them, than it would be to cut them from Mother of Pearl, which is too fancy to use on a guitar called The War Machine annyway. To test it thouroughly I bought 2 grades of the stuff: normal and superfine. Last night I carved a (very bad and ugly) T into a piece of Pine wood, and filled it up with the standard issue resin. The mixing of this stiff reminded me a bit of playing with modeling clay back in pre school. Got it stuffed in now, and hopefully this evening I'll find some time to sand of the excess resin. Hopefully this will reveil a nice T-shape wich I will need to test on strength. More later...

Intermezzo: Cleaning the Amp

Hey, what's this??? This isn't about building a guitar!!! You're right, of cource, but what good would the War Machine be, if I can't hear it play. It is starting to look that way, because all the pots on my amp are dirtier than... well let's just say they're rather dirty.



So, armed to the teeth with contact cleaner spray I dived into the bowels of my trusty old Marshall. Let's hope I know what I'm doing! After attacking aech pot with liberal amounts of cleaner spray I have to wait for it to dry for at least half an hour. The waiting is killing. At last, after half an hour I plugin a guitar, turn on the Amp, and...
It works! Only a couple little scratching sounds left on the 2 pots I've really ignored for too long, but all in all a great result. Only bad thing is that I have no excuse left to buy that new marshall mini tower ;)

Shopping list

This weekend I will try to find some time to do the first shopping for tools and materials. Since I'm going to a local hardware store, and not a shop specialised in instrument building, I expect to be able to get the following:

• workbench (small DIY version, not a lot of space at home)
• router and some necessary bits
• modeling resin (which I intend tot use for fret inlays)
• soldering iron (and tin and degreaser)
• graphite (to lube the strings of the new guitar as well as the one mentioned earlier)
• contact cleaner spray (nothing to do with the new guitar, but will need it to get the pots on my amp working again)
• a board of 18mm MDF. Although the choice for the ESP type explorer had the welcome extra benefit that my colleague's router WILL actually be able to route it (yay, I'll be less vulnerable to my own sloppiness), we will first try to route another prototype, this time full scale (x and y dimensions, not z).
• maybe some low grade pratice wood

After the weekend I'll get back with what I've been actually able to find/buy!

The power of prototyping

I finally have some results to report. Using the CAD template by M. de Haan, my colleague Kees has programmed his home made CNC router to create this 0.3 scale model of The War Machine (so I'm actually reporting his results, not mine). This will probably be the template I'll use for the real thing as well. Since the router isn't big enough to cut the entire body (with a staggering width of over 60 cm!), we will use it to create MDF templates. These I will use as routing templates to route the actual body by hand.

As you might have noticed, I'm actually going for the slightly more modern ESP type version of the explorer, for it looks even more like a war machine then the slightly rounded Gibson style. Some choices will have to be made like scale length, type and amount of pickups, number and type of frets, and maybe a different shape for the head, before the actual design for the construction will be finished. Then I will create a final version of the CAD file, which can be translated into machine instructions for Kees' CNC router.

Oops!!! This is going to delay things a bit.

It's probably not a very good idea to BUY a guitar when you're planning to build one, since valuable time best spent in designing and building the new one will now be spent playing this one... But you've gotta admit: She's a beauty! Let's just hope she doesn't disctract me too much ;)

Design teaser: The general idea

I Promised a design of the guitar. I really tried ot have it finished by now, but no such luck! In stead I present: this little teaser. Ever since I first saw James Hetfield on stage (I think it was Metallica's 1992 Wherever We May Roam tour), I've had a soft spot for the Explorer. So that's what The War Machine is going to be, for all of the following reasons:

• It's a damn classic!
• It's got a nice heavy metal look to it (compatible with the name War Machine)
• It relatively straight forward: Fixed bridge, no trems, flat top.

So there you have it! Next time perhaps an actual design? ;-)

Planning Stage

Hi everybody!
First of all: Don't worry, I'm not building a weapon of mass destruction, it's only a Guitar!

Since I had this crazy idea of building my own guitar, I thought it might also be nice to blog about it. In the (probably not so near) future I will publish bits and pieces about the guitar I'm going to build. For the moment I'm still in the planning stage. Lots of webpages to read, and, Hey! I've even bought a book.

As I've read a couple of websites and forums about building guitars, I kept reading this was THE book to learn it all! I've browsed it a bit, and although it seems to me that most of the topics are covered all over the web, it feels good to have bought this, if only to show to myself that I'm serious about this project. Add to that that it gives me something to take with me into the workshop (hmmm, got to get myself a workshop), that is more sawdust and spraypaint proof than a laptop.

So, now the the hard process starts of designing my guitar (and maybe actually reading the book). I have some ideas about it, but until I'm sure its feasible at all, I will keep my plan a secret (although the title of this blog should be a hint). Hopefully this means that by the time I post my next message, I will be able to show at least some sort of design. Until then, I'll just keep watching Youtube movies about my new hero: