Do re mi, so far so good

[Stefaan88]

Hello everybody,

In this topic i will try to tell you a bit more about the building of my Mosrite styled guitar build.
I didn't have the intention to build an exact replica, simply because i don't have the skills nor the tools to build one. In fact, i didn't care much about woodworking until a year ago.
I did play some guitar in the past but never on a high level. For a long time my only guitar ( Fillmore Johnny Ramone signature Mosrite) remained unused...
A big contrast to the early days when i played a lot of Ramones tunes.
But things changed drasticly after seeing a Chris Rea concert. His blues style with a lot of slide triggered the guitar playing. Suddenly i bought another guitar, and another one. Both low budget but good quality. And then, I came up with the idea to build one myself. Soon a didley bow and a cigar box guitar were build. And a very low budget guitar, built with cheap materials, just to get familiar with the tools and the building process. I never worked with a router before, so the cutting, drilling, filing, making a fretboard,... it all was new.
Last summer i started to build a Ventures I style guitar. I had a piece of butchers' block wood that was about the right size for this experiment. It's strong, i know because my other guitar body is madeof the same wood. I'll try to post a picture of the 'rubberwood guitar body'. This was the start of a very exciting project. Thanks to this forum i was able to find a solution for every obstacle during the building. So it's only fair to tell you this story, to,give something in return. Regards, St
Regards
Stefaan

[Stefaan88]

this is the guitar body, roughly cut out. It's made of a butchers' block because it's stong, i was just lying around and the thickness was just right. my first guitar i made is also made of this wood and it did the job fine. to keep the costs down i use wood that is easily available around here.
In the background you see a drawing of what could be a Ventures model if Semie didn't flip over the Strat for his design Just kididing.
instead of the 'mirror mosrite' I tried to stay closer to the original design.
more pics soon. Regards, St

[Stefaan88]

Here you can see the 'simplified german carve'. it's a straight line instead of a smooth curve. that smooth curve seemd impossible to carve myself, so this is a less refined but also elegant alternative.

In the meantime I fo und a local store that could provide the right wood for the neck. I'll use two pieces of maple, quarter sawn and glued together. Hopefully this will make a strong and stable neck.
From the beginning I decided to use padouk for the fretboard. I like the looks of it and I got a few peices very cheap. the colour changed from kinda orange to dark brown over time. So as times goes by the looks of the fretboard will change. Can't wait

[Stefaan88]

it wtarts to look like a puzzle. The pickups are made by Ed Elliott, and bought the from a guy in Europe who had them for sale for a couple of months. The trem is found on Ebay. the bridge also but the string spacing is not correct for the pickups. I'll install another bridge probably.
The neck will be kinda narrow, about 40,5mm at the zero fret.
Do Re Mi, so far so good....
regards
St

[Stefaan88]

some close up pics of the padouk fretboard after the tiny frets were installed.The string guide is self made. I'm glad about the resul so far.

I still have to make a neck plate and design my decal for the headstock.
more updates soon when i finished the next step.
regards
St

[StevieSTL]

-- Looking good! I like the padauk fretboard. Impressive.

[panther]

Keep it coming, I love these builds.
Dan

[Stefaan88]

thank you for the nice words. Here are some more pictures of the project.





Since the last update I routed the neck pocket and the cavity. The neck fits very well. The most difficult part was shaping the neck profile. Luckily I could use myi Fillmore Mosrite neck as a guidance. I never managed to create a nice neck shape but this is close, so I'm happy with the result. The scratch plate is also near completion. It's a 3ply plate. The edges are cut straight. Is that how the vintage Mosrite plates are cut, or should it be cut at an angle? Just wondering...

I'm glad with the progress so far.
Regards,
Stefaan

[dubtrub]

Looking great! Lot's of people watching your build.

[Stefaan88]

The guitar is ready for the paint shop. After several months of measuring, making drawings, cutting and drilling wood,... i left the guitar at the paint shop. I can't paint properly, so it's better to let someone do it who master it. The guitar's gonna be 'fire red metallic', a colour that's becoming popular on certain cars here in Europe.
Intil the guitar is back, I'll focus on the wiring and the soldering.
Because i started the building before discovering this forum, there are some mistakes in the guitar that could have been avoided
For example, the guitar body will be too small. This is because I've never seen a Ventures model before so I based my design on an enlarged photocopy I made nearly 20 years ago
I thought that was acurate enough, but it's not. I found out as soon as I discoved this forum. The neck and the 24.75 scale will be good, but all components will be mounted on a smaller body. Luckilly it's not a mistake that will affect the playability. When I got the guitar back, and the paint is hardened, I'll fit all the parts and do a first test.
Should I leave the guitar for a while with the stings under tension for the neck to 'set' and adjust to the climate? And then do the fret levelling etc after several weeks? Because the frets are small, there isn't much metal to level and relevel the frets over and over again if the neck is not stabilized yet. Not sure if the neck will warp. There is a double adjustable bar in the neck but I'm not a pro in setting the guitar up.
Any advise will be welcome regarding setting up new unplayed guitar necks.

At the moment I'm thinking of my next project. This time it might be a bluesbender/brassrail styled guitar. Adding a brass bar in the padouk fretboard would look nice I think. I noticed that all brassrails have a plastic cover between the two pickups, while the similar looking bluesbender have not. Is this to cover the long neck that is running all the way under the bridge?
Regards
Stefaan