Scott's Guitar Blog

Yellow Submarine Guitar "The Blu Meanie"

I LOVED making this guitar.  My client is a big Yellow Sub fan, and wanted the inlays to reflect this.

I saw a blue guitar with crazy flame in a trans blue, blue neck, and full color inlays in my head.

The body is a stack of thick slabs of figured maple and African mahogany. I could have made three tops out of the maple, but wanted the top thick and juicy so the grain would waterfall over the sides.

The headstock shape and color is a subtle stylized ocean wave.

As far as the inlays, I drew up a sketch with the meanie, and  the sub in a quantum "2 places at once"

visual, and bubbles.  Renown  inlay artist Larry Robinson brought this to life with amazing hand-inlaid

plexiglass, shell and rear-painted plexi.  Stunning inlay work Larry, you're the greatest!  Lindy Fralin made the high-output humbuckers for a powerful, warm, and clear voice with no muddy mids.

"Come on Nowhere man...I'll take you somewhere"

please visit my website S.B. MacDonald Custom Instruments for more!

 

Exact Repro of Martin Bridge a la Gemini Carving Duplicator

I recently purchased a Gemini carving duplicator for the shop.  This is an amazing machine for making exact copies of bodies, necks, and other parts.  I put it to the test on the other day to see how well it would handle the fine contours and details of a Martin bridge.  I was blown away at how quickly, effortlessly, and cleanly I was able to make an exact copy!  The photos below show the process, and the rough sanded result before slotting and pin-hole boring on the milling machine.  If you're looking for a carving duplicator, this is it!

Please visit my website!

Here's the link to Gemini!

Guitar Brace Contouring Fixture

I made a cool little fixture this week that allows me to quickly, easily, and accurately contour a variety of curves on the bottom edge of my braces, whether I'm arching my backs and tops to a 25, 30, or 15 foot radius.  Because the hollow forms (concave forms) used in arching tops and backs require the braces to have a matching curvature on the bottom, it is critical to really nail the curve on the brace, and make sure it is perfectly perpendicular. This fixture is simple to make; Mine is birch plywood, with two handles.  It only took about half an hour to make, and saves so much time, with perfect results.  It also gives me another opportunity to use my new custom made router table!

When placed on a hollow form dish, a flat unbraced top will be pushed down into the correct arch by the curved brace bottoms when clamped.  When the glue dries and the top is removed from the form, it will be perfectly domed to the desired radius.  Arching the brace bottoms by hand is potentially less accurate than with this fixture, and more time consuming.  I'd rather spend that time carving and voicing the braces.   The front and back of the fixture in these photos are 25' and 30' arcs respectively. Un-arched brace lumber is double-sided taped to the desired edge, just protruding past the front.  A bearing guided router bit in the shaping table rides along the fixture edge, quickly carving

the correct arc in the brace.  It is then placed on the top or back in the hollow form, and clamped, in this case with go-bars.  The braces are fine shaped after the glue is dry, carved, sanded and voiced to

lighten the top and maximize the tone of the instrument.  This top was light as a feather when I was done, and rang like a bell when tapped.  You can see the whole process in the photos.  In the 2 shots where I'm holding the brace on the form, you can see light under it in the center before arching.  Once arched, it fits the curved form perfectly.

Please visit my website for more!  

Newest Electric Guitar!

I finished this one yesterday, and got the photos done quickly as it will soon be with its new owner!I'm very proud of this guitar.  The body is a stack of two woods; black walnut and flamed maple.The tone is full, powerful and clear.  Lindy Fralin made the brushed nickel high output humbuckers custom for me, and they put any Gibson PU to shame.  No muddy mids with these babies. I also used maple mounting rings for the pickups to honor the natural look of this guitar.

The finish on the body and neck is a hand-applied hardening oil that really shows off the natural luster of the wood without making it look plastic-like and too glossy.  Warm and organic looking is the best way to describe it.  In the photos below you can see the original maple block before I resawed and bookmatched it, the walnut halves after resawing being glued up in the plate-joining fixture, and the two joined plates ready to be stacked together and glued....pretty cool before and after shots.

All the best, and please check out my work at customguitars.com!

Electric Guitar Jig for Milling Machine

Hi folks,  I'm finding more and more uses for this cool Clausing 8520 vertical mill.  The newest is a simple fixture made of lexan and HDF board that allows to to firmly and safely clamp and electric guitar body to the mill's table for precision drilling, slotting, cavity cutting and boring.  It is SO much more precise than a hand drill or drill press, and the work is super clean.  Even simply holes for pots look like they were cut with lasers.

The lexan mounts to the table with t-bolts in the table's slots, just like a machine vise would.  This is as rigid as it gets. I then cover the HDF risers with a thin sheet of latex which not only pads the body, but adds a grip factor to the clamping.  Step & block clamps are then slipped into the t-slots, and adjusted to be level with the top of the body. A protective shim is used under the clamp to avoid marring the wood.  One or two twists of the bolt, and you can't budge the body to save your life.  With  the super fine control of a milling machine's cranks (each graduation is 1/1000th of an inch) the work is precise and clean.  I still use a router table for some of the routing, but this rig is a huge asset in the shop.

In the last 2 photos, I'm milling  an electronics cavity in the back, template-free!  You can also see the neck bushing holes perfectly milled into the body.

Please visit my website for more on guitar building and repair! 

Making a Guitar Bridge on a Milling Machine

Some of you may remember back a few articles that I made a 9-string pinless bridge by hand.  Well, it came out pretty good, but after getting this cool old vertical milling machine, my world changed, and I had to toss that old bridge to make a perfect one!  The accuracy of a mill is incredible.

Perfect slotting, perfect spacing and tolerances in the string tunnels and holes.  A different world.

You can see in the photos the bit going into the rosewood to create the angled string tunnels, the 9 string ball-end holes, and the saddle slot, all done on this mill.  The bridge was then shaped on a bandsaw, and profiled by hand.  I'm very excited about being able to make handmade guitars with perfectly accurate details like this.  This is still hand building, the milling is done manually, no CNC programs or computers doing the work.  A lot of fun, with very satisfying results!  Enjoy the photos, and please visit my website at CustomGuitars.com!

   

SBM Skateboard Lapsteel Guitar!

This one is pretty cool folks...At 49, I was dragged into skateboarding by a very persuasive kid I know who talked me into boarding into town for lunch.  In addition to skateboarding, he knows a few licks on the steel guitar.  I thought "how cool would it be to combine the two worlds!" The result: The S.B. MacDonald SkateSteel. Yes, it is a functional skateboard, and when the upper deck is removed, a quality and toneful lapsteel guitar!  It uses the same humbucking pickup as my Resonator Electric, so tone and vibe are plentiful.  I made this on a Sunday, and finished it before breakfast the next day. Hey...it's an oak board, skateboard trucks, wheels, a pickup and some electronics...no biggie!  My new milling machine made quick work of drilling, boring alignment holes, etc... Here's some photos of it in use!

Please visit Customguitars.com for less dangerous species of guitars!

New Old Tool in Shop!

Sorry it's been so long since the last post...I'm soooo busy!  I have several cool things saved up, and will hopefully post some of them soon.  This article is about a cool milling machine I hunted down after my friend and fellow luthier Ken Parker put the bug in my ear after a visit to my shop.  Ken said it would change my life, and when people at such high levels in their art and experience give you ideas and advice, you'd be foolish to ignore it.

Most vertical milling machines are HUGE.  A Bridgeport can weight 3,000 lbs and stand at 7' tall.

I have no room for a monster like that.  Ken told me about these cool smaller mills made by Clausing in the 70s.  They only weigh 600 lbs, and are 71" tall at the highest point.  They are also pretty darned hard to find.  I got very lucky and found one in 3 days, only an hour's drive from my shop.  After taking it apart, moving it, getting it into the shop and putting it back together, I was as wiped out as I can remember.

Then I did a test pass on a scrap of rosewood I had laying around.  It cut through it like butter, leaving a deep smooth groove 1/2" wide, as smooth or smoother than any router I've used.  Very exciting.  I'm beginning to realize all the parts and materials I can make with this.  Wood, aluminum, steel, brass...

I can make: bridges, tailpieces, nuts, perform slotting, make cavities, etc....all with a precision never possible by doing the work on drill presses and sanders.  Off to the shop, thanks for stopping by!

Please visit the site at Custom Guitars.com

Virtual Tour of Repair Room

Hi everyone, Today I took this cool little wide-angle lens mini-cam into the repair room of my shop to show you the layout and what I'm working on in there right now.  Hopefully I'll have the time in the future to make videos in the other areas of the shop as well, building and repair videos would be fun to post.

All the best, and please visit my website at http://www.customguitars.com

 

Making a pinless guitar bridge

I had a challenge with the new custom 9-string acoustic guitar I'm building.  In order to utilize the bracing pattern I designed, I couldn't go with  a bridge using bridge-pins as the string spacing was so wide, the pins would have impeded with the braces in two spots.  So, I decided to go pinless...NOT a small task when you don't have a milling machine or CNC technology.  I make all my bridges by hand on bandsaws and sanding machines, then drill the pin holes by hand, and use a small fixture to route in the saddle slot.  A pinless bridge is much tougher to make by hand.  

I started with a rectangle of very nice Brazilian rosewood, and placed it in a vise on my drill press.

The correct 9-string spacing was carefully marked, and small pilots for where I would drill the string tunnels were placed on the rear edge.  I needed to machine in a wide enough hole to accept the string ball ends, so that they would slip nicely into a perfect hole, not to be seen!  By angling the vise, I was able to control the tunnel length, entry and exit angle.  I then went in to create the "pocket" for the ball-ends.  After this a strip of rosewood was glued to the top for strength, then the piece was shaped and profiled into the completed bridge.  In this final shot, it is still not slotted for the saddle.  This will be done after the bridge is glued to the finished guitar for scale accuracy.

All the best, and feel free to visit my website at CustomGuitars.com for more on guitar making and guitar repair!