Peter's Tapping Project

[piele]

While surfing the Net for info on building a tapguitar, I found this great forum. The information shared here made my decision to build my own tapguitar quite easy,

This will be my first instrument to build from scratch, and in this thread I will post as much info as possible of the progress. Because of my current job, it will be at least december before I can start the actual woodwork, which leaves about 1 1/2 month working on the design.

The design is inspired by the Warr Artist. It will be a 12 string, 34" scale instrument. For the woods I choose Ash as the body core, a Purpleheart laminate and probably a Zebra wood top.
The Neck will be a 7 laminates Maple / Purpleheart and the fingerboard will also be Purpleheart. The neck will be bolted to the body. I already have some pieces of wood: the ash body core, the purpleheart for the fingerboard, and some maple for the neck. I will post some pictures asap.

I'm going to use Sperzel locking tuners and for the bridge I'm thinking about using GraphTech Ghost saddles (for the piezo elements) mounted on a homebuild bridge plate. I still have to do some reading on pickups, but I'll have time enough for that.

One thing which is still on my mind for the final design is the string spacing. I am thinking about 10mm center to center at the nut. Can anyone tell me what is common on a 12 string Warr, I would appreciate some guidance on this matter.

For now, this is what I've got. I will keep you updated.


Peter

[traktor]

Work backwards.

Start with the pickups. The strings must pass over the pickups, correct?

Once you know where the pickups are, and where the bridge is, and where the nut is, then you can do some calculating.

For a given nut string spacing, and with the strings passing over the pickups in a sensible manner, then when they arrive at the location of the bridge, geometry will tell you how far they are apart.

Conversely, for a given bridge string spacing, and with the strings passing over the pickups in a sensible manner, then when they arrive at the nut, geometry will tell you how far they are apart as they pass over the nut.

Now if you change the location of the nut, pickups, or bridge, the geometry will need to be re-calculated of course, and the spacing of particular available bridge parts or the requisite spacing for particular pickups, can lead you to one or the other of several workable solutions.

Think backwards.

Remember, it's mental.

[rjgoos]

I think that Mr. T. gives some good advice. You have to consider the bridge and pickups you will use before you can design the body to hold them.

My advice (which is probably worth what you paid for it) is...unless you are a highly-experienced wood-worker/luthier, you might want to consider this as a process, perhaps taking two or three prototypes before you reach your final product.

Just a thought.


Jay

[Consul]

Heck, you could even do your dry runs out of particle board, or something else similarly cheap as chips. Anything to help you figure out exactly how to fit the puzzle pieces together, and give you some experience along the way.

Granted, you won't be stringing them up, but...

[traktor]

Or, you could just examine an existing instrument which approximates the scale length, pickups, nut, and bridge which you'd like to use, and do some careful measuring.

There is no copyright or patent on geometry.

Rulers Rule!

[rjgoos]

Originally posted by traktor


There is no copyright or patent on geometry.




Perhaps not, but it is possible to patent numbers


http://tinyurl.com/jc5pc


:)

[piele]

Today I've drawn the neck into a CAD program. At the bridge the stringspacing will be 10.5mm center to center. The neck will have a slight taper to 9mm stringspacing at the nut. This will make the width of the neck 109mm at the nut and 117mm at the end of the fingerboard.
I printed this to paper, and now I'm sketching body and headstock designs. Somewhere next week I will post some designs here.

Peter

[Krappy]

beware the building addiction--it may be habit forming.

[piele]

Today I went to Amsterdam to buy wood for my guitar. I already had a big piece of ash for the body core, some maple for the neck and the purpleheart fingerboard.
I bought the remaining purpleheart and maple for the neck, and I found a fantastic piece of quarter sawn zebrawood for the top, and I mean like REALLY quarter sawn. It's really big as well, it's almost 2 meters long, 18 cm wide and 3.5 cm thick, enough to make several tops out of it.

Here is a picture of all the wood.

Peter

[piele]

And here's a detailed picture of the zebrawood

[rjgoos]

wow. good call.

[RocknDrTom]

That is a gorgeous piece of Zebrawood! This should be a beautiful instrument. I'll be looking often for pictures as you proceed.

[piele]

Well, it took some time, but today I finally found some time to scan my sketches into the computer and morph them together with the neck into a CAD program. The headstock design was scanned scale 1:1, and the body design was enlarged from a smaller sketch.

The bodydesign is actually inspired by Brenda's tapper, (I think it's a great design) but it still needs some adjustments.
Although I'm really busy redrawing the sketches as a CAD drawing, here is an image of the Neck with the morphed sketches.

The basic shape is now sort of finished, now it's time to do the final adjustments.


That's it for now,

Peter

[BrendaEM]

I think that Consul, had a good idea, about doing an experiment. You might want to make sure your strings fall within the sensitive area of the pickups you are using. This requires either trig'ing or drawing the instrument. I would also make sure your bridge saddles pack close enough. With guitar pieces, that's less of an issues than bass saddles.

I got all worked up about having enough spacing for playing uncrossed. I have 10mm at the neck on my on my instrument. If I did another, I would drop it to 9mm. I would use 11 on the bridge.

[piele]

Thanks for your replies so far.

Last week I ordered most of the parts for my project at StewMac. Yesterday they came in. I got 2 Hot Rod truss rods, 3 carbon rods, 40ft of jumbo fretwire, 12 GraphTech Stringsaver saddles. (The idea was to use the Piezo's, but I think it's better to buy them when this project succeeds... And I will use these saddles to replace the ones on my other guitars.)

I also made a deal with my uncle. He owns a Robland combi-woodworking machine. It's a table-saw, jointer, thicknesser, table router in one. The only thing is that the knives for the jointer/thicknesser have to be replaced. So the deal is I will replace the knives, and in exchange I may use the machine for my project.

He also ownes a bandsaw, but it has a blade for cutting steel. I will do some tests to find out if it's possible to use that blade for cutting wood as well, else I have to buy a blade for it....

Monday will be the day I will start on the woods for the neck. I will try to make pictures as I proceed, and will post them here.

For now that's all,

Peter

[rjgoos]

Piele wrote:

>40ft of jumbo fretwire


No doubt....Piele is serious about this project!!!

[piele]

Hi all,

after a very long break on my project (suddenly some work, then some vacation and some more work), today I woke up with the idea to prepare all the neckwoods so I can glue them up tomorrow. So I had a lot to do.

In a previous post I told about my uncle having a Robland woodworking machine, well this is the machine in jointer mode: http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/robland_schaaf.jpg

I started with the purpleheart. In the next picture you can see in the front 2 of the 3 jointed floorpieces I use:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/purperhart_vloerdelen.jpg
In the background the remaining pieces of wood.

With a snap of a finger you can convert this machine into a thicknesser, shown here:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/robland_vandikte.jpg

After not so long time I got all pieces at the right thickness, ready to be sawn.
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/hout_juiste_dikte.jpg

Again, this machine can also saw:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/robland_zaag.jpg
But the blade wasn't really sharp, but I was able to use

another saw in this workshop:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/evil_zaagtafel.jpg
Well, I'm not afraid using machines, but for this one I had some kind of fear, and alot of respect.

The result of the work:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/hout_klaar.jpg
7 Pieces of wood, 16cm wide, 7.5cm thick and 1 meter long... Waiting to be glued together, which I will do tomorrow at my work. We have an enormous ammount of clamps (I'm going for the first price in the clamp-contest :cool: )

I'll keep you updated,

Peter

[BigDaddyPoo]

nice!

[RocknDrTom]

Purpleheart is one of my favorite woods - very nice coloring as it ages too.
Looks like with that amazing machine, you should just be able to think what you want, and the machine makes it for you!

Keep up the good work, and keep up the status reports.

[piele]

Tnx for the replies.

Tom, purpleheart is one of my favorites too. I have a piece here which will become the fingerboard. I think it will be totally cool in contrast with the zebrawood which I will use as top.

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/hout_lijm1.jpg

As you can see I glued the neck blanks together, which I almost screwed up!!!! I forgot to first put some clamps from the top pushing the wood down before putting the clamps from the side, which made the blanks move a little. (Damn, I don't know how to explain it more clearly in English, I'm sorry)

Well I found out in time so I could correct it, but it scared the hell out of me. On one side, 2 of the Purpleheart blanks moved up a millimeter or so, Which I will plane off. If I have to believe my Autocad drawing, I still have some margin left for a 12 degree angled headstock.
Here is a picture where you can see the little "failure", and before I forget, the small pieces of wood on top, I put on some double stick tape, leaving the protective tape on it, it is very slippery, and won't stick to the glue.:

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/hout_foutje.jpg

A picture from the other side:

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/hout_lijm2.jpg

And off course, this one is for the record: 23 clamps in total. :cool:

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/hout_klemmen.jpg

Well yeah, I used a little way too much glue (most is scraped off already, as you can see in the cloth on the right) but what can I say, I'm a beginner. :cool:

That's it for now.

Peter

[rjgoos]

Yikes! 23 clamps!! Brenda's record has been challenged!!!

[RocknDrTom]

Here's an idea - when you plane the neck wood, and if it really is too thin, why not add a veneer underneath the fingerboard as shown in the attached drawing? I'm suggesting zebrawood, because it will tie in visually with the top of your body.
YOu'll gain the thinkness you desire, and have a cool extra wood stripe along the length of the neck.

[RocknDrTom]

here's another idea if you must add more wood -
consider binding the edge of the fingerboard. You can "hide" the additional wood you ned behind the edge binding strips. For this, I'd use a hardwood like maple. Note that the edge binding must be long enough to hide the "hidden" additional wood.

[piele]

Sorry for the lack of updates the past 2 weeks. I've been kind of busy, also with other things (work), and of course my tapper, which actually gained alot of progress the last 3 days!

Tom, thanks for the two suggestions, I haven't thought of that at all. In the end I didn't need it, but it's defenately a good idea.
After I took of the clamps and planed the blank. I still had 7mm margin left. So I could make my 12 degree headstock without problems.

In the weekend I decided to work a bit on my body design. While the only scetch I had was 6 x 4 cm on a piece of paper, scanned into the computer and enlarged, I decided to make a 1:1 scale on a piece of MDF.

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/body_mdf.jpg

I'm very happy with the design, it feels good :)

It was kind of a trouble to find someone with a bandsaw able to saw the 16 cm thick neckblank. I've visited some furniture makers, but most of them didn't even had a bandsaw. In the end I just made a phonecall to the local carpenter and well yeah...he did have one!!

So it was time to rout the slots for the carbon rods and the trussrods.

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/neck_frees.jpg

Notice the neck of my 7 string Ibanez guitar, I'm refinishing the body of that one, which has been my partner in music for almost 7 years now. It's good to have that neck over there while working on the neck.;)

One day later I also routed the slots for the trussrods, here's a closeup:

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/graphite_trussrods.jpg

Yesterday I went to the carpenter to saw the neck. I was so amazed by the way the guy pushed my blank through the machine, that I almost forgot to make this picture:

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/neck_zaag.jpg

10 minutes later I was sitting in my car again, with some leftover pieces maple/purpleheart and next to me, my precious neck.

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/neck_zaag2.jpg

Then I went to my uncle to use the small bandsaw to cut the rest of the neck and started some neck-shaping. At 9:30PM, after a long day working, the neck now looks like this:

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/neck_shape.jpg

Today I will continue, can't wait to finish it!!! :)

Cheers,

Peter

[piele]

Here is a very short update. This week I'm quite busy with some commercials. So I make some money and I can order the remaining parts somewhere at the end of this month.

I did alot of sanding on the neckblank. It quite at the right thickness along it's length. This weekend I will start to shape the round part of the neck.

Today I bought some purpleheart and zebrawood veneer, and glued the bodyblank together. It's Ash bodycore, purpleheart veneer, and zebrawood top.

Instead of clamps I used some weights to press the woods together.

You can see it here:

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/bodyblank_lood.jpg

There is over 300KG of lead on top of my body.

That's it again for now.

Peter

[rjgoos]

This is going to be a difficult act to follow, gang!! A new record for clamps AND the use of 300 kg of lead ingots???

[RocknDrTom]

Hello Peter,
It's looking good so far! I just wanted to point out to all the readers - even though you have access to an immense amount of clamps, NO CLAMPS WERE USED IN THE MAKING OF THE BODY. I give you much credit for your ingenuity and creativity.

I've always found that when wood is squeezed unevenly by clamps, it affects its acoustical properties and doesn't allow the wood to vibrate as it would in it's natural state. The use of clamps seems to put pressure on one area of the wood crushing the internal membranes which causes this phenomina.

I'm just making that last paragraph up. :-) I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I like the progress of your work so far - keep up the good work!!

[piele]

Hi All,

Sorry for the lack of updates, and this will also be a short update... I didn't have time to post messages earlier, sorry.

I'm sorry I didn't make any pictures of the bodyblank before sawing it, but here is a pic of the body in the early stage of sanding:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/body_shaping.jpg
Note the horn bottom left in the picture; you can clearly see the purpleheart veneer between the ash and zebrawood.


Also I did shaping on the neck, detailed pictures are coming soon. For the fun I put the body and neck together, to give you an impression of the whole instrument.

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/body_neck.jpg


And here one with the fingerboard wood on top.
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/body_neck_fingerboard.jpg

I'm on a big quest finding someone who can cut the fretslots in for me with a CNC saw / mill. Once the slots are in. I can glue on the fingerboard, and do final shaping on the neck.

Next week I'm going to have some says off, and hope to finish the bodywork then.

I'll keep you updated,

cheers, Peter

[BrendaEM]

I had my fretboard slotted at Allen Guitar, from a blank they sold me. They did an excellent job.

I had miscalculated, and found that I really needed to add one more fret, for 27. So, I added the last fret, measuring relative to the 26th with vernier caliper. Relative is not the way to go, but I felt confident that I could fret an entire board if I had the tools. You can get a saw at Stewmac, but you will likely need to make your own sawbox because their's is too short.

Measuring is another matter. A plotter would be the easiest way to measure out a fretboard. The plotter would have to be well calibrated, as in: test it first. The frets and a centerline. could be plotted out in CAD, and plotted on the paper. The paper could be either rubber cemented or double stick taped.I would assume that bridge frets could have to be cut first.

I think that companies such as Allen use either a CNC, or a sliding-type radial arm saw with a Digital Read Out (DRO.)

[piele]

Hi there,

Sorry for not making a post the last....8 months....:rolleyes:

I had some very bad luck with my fretboard. I found a company in the south in Holland who were able to do the fret slotting. So I started preparing the blank for transport. I pulled it through the thicknesser and disaster stroke....alot of wood chipped off. Making it useful for the fireplace. :mad:

This happened in may. And as you can see in a previous post, it was a blank with almost no drawing on it, it took me 'till august to find another one which in my opinion was nice enough. End of august I brought the new blank to the slottingcompany and 3 weeks later I received it back at home.

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/slotted_fretboard.jpg

I found some free time at the end of this month where I will do the glueing...

So far for now. You'll be hearing from me soon.

cheers,
Peter

[Tom Drinkwater]

I can't wait to see the finished instrument, that thing is awesome!!!!

[insomniac2295]

all i have to say is.. wow

your craftmanship is awesome and choices of woods and body style are wonderful. i'm a big fan of zebrawood, always have been. cant wait to see the finished product

[piele]

Well after such a long time not updating because I had too much other stuff going on and had to put this project in the fridge for a while, I am happy to say the project is back on the workbench!

I started to route the slot for the nut. As a material for the nut I decided to use a plastic made by DuPont, called Corian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corian.
Tomorrow I will use bathtub-sealer to insert both trussrods, all 3 carbon rods are glued in already.

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/20091207/sleuf.jpg

Now with the fretboard on top it looks like this:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/20091207/fretbord_zijkant.jpg

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/20091207/fretbord_top.jpg

And now some pictures of the whole instrument:
http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/20091207/totaal.jpg

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/20091207/topshot.jpg

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/20091207/body_front.jpg

http://www.petertambach.com/pictures/20091207/body_back.jpg

Well stay tuned for more updates soon.

Peter

[loneguitarist]

That Zebrawood top is beautiful - I'm making a fretless 7-string bass this summer and am using a zebrano top on swamp ash back. I hope it looks as good as your tapper!