I have moved most of my work inside where it's climate controlled.
All instrument check-ins will now go through the front door where we may visit in comfort.
Steel Body Guitar Build
These first four photos represent what goes in to the guitar neck construction. On a flat 1” thick board I lay out the profile and then I cut the pieces out with the band saw. Cutting the templet out this way causes the wood grain to oppose each other as shown in photo #4. This causes a greater amount of strength under the “pull” load of the strings. Next, I’ll glue all the pieces together and set them aside to cure. The next day I remove all the clamps and square the heel and both sides. I do this so the truss rod channel that I rout will be square inside the neck when it’s fully carved.
These next group photos are of the fingerboard and of the nearly finished neck. I inlayed “FLEXIBILITY – CONCEPTS” in the center in plastic. I then sawed the slots for the frets that will be hammered in later. The last photo is the fully carved neck with the fingerboard glued in place.
The bridge was cut from a piece of 20 gauge galvanized steel that was a part of 8” Flex-c-Track that was stamped too deeply… However, it was perfect for my needs. I wanted the words “Flexibility-Concepts” on the bridge as well on the fingerboard. This worked out perfectly. The next two photos show this.
This next group of photos show the top and back being cut out from a template that was copied from a Martin D-18. I tried to cut them out of 20 gauge galvannealed but all I could find was 18. After the top and back were cut out I then measured where to put the bridge.
The next two photos are of the truss rod cover that I inlaid my initials in. I hand make as much as I can.
The next bunch of photos are of the construction of the body. The first thing I had to do was lay out the sides on a template to make sure the bends are correct. Then I set a pattern for the pieces I am to screw the top and back to later.
The remaining photos are of the finished guitar. It surprisingly has a semi loud voice. It doesn’t have the sound a wood body delivers, but it’s still a fairly good sounding guitar.