Melon's Guitars

[melon....]

Those that know me know I love my music and play a tiny little bit. I recently took to trying to build a guitar. My first was a telecaster copy with some customisations around pickups, and timbers. Tool me 8 months of tinkering here and there, but it was for my son who at 10 is a pretty good finger picker.

Im hooled on this little hobby now and am building a Les Paul Junior copy for my self.

I thought Id share some finished shots.

[stephenj]

nice work!

[Guest]

Awesome Melon...I like it...

[Hawkeye]

Your not going to do the heavy metal thing of playing it then smashing it are you ?

[Guest]

How does it sound? Very nice

[melon....]

How does it sound? Very nice

John, she sounds great. The neck pickup has some nice highs and mids, very twangy. The hum-bucker has loads of warmth, and when overdriven grunts and squeels delightfully.

The best part is the sustain. It rings for days.

[Guest]

So when you say you built it, what did you actually do? Do you buy the body assembled and then put the pickup in, etc, etc? Or is this made out of a tree you chopped down in your backyard with some handy whittlin work on the front porch?

[melon....]

So when you say you built it, what did you actually do? Do you buy the body assembled and then put the pickup in, etc, etc? Or is this made out of a tree you chopped down in your backyard with some handy whittlin work on the front porch?

I built it from scratch. I stumbled on some old billets of red Gum and an 1920s Tiger Oak chest someone threw out. I salvaged the timber, read a bit about guitar building, joined a couple of builder forums, and off I went.

Here are a few posts with some of the photos of the progress.:

1. Making templates


2. Joint and thickness teh body blanks


3. Old Tiger Oak cabinet used for cap.


4. Glue up the body blanks.

[melon....]

Continued.....

5. Planed down to thickness after gluing.


6. Rough cut body
http://scopeit.net/images/bodysmooth.jpg

7. Routed body smooth and marked up for hollow out.


8. Chambers after routing out.


9. Cut timber for neck.

[melon....]

continued....


10. Cut Fret slots in fretboard


11. Cut out neck and routed truss rod slot. Installed truss rod.


12. Glued fret board to neck.


13.Trimmed fret board to size.

[melon....]

Continued.....

14. Drill tuner holes and thinned headstock.


15. Rasped/carved transition.


16.Carved neck transition


17. Carved heel transition

[melon....]

Continued....

18. Radius sanded fret board


19. Started Neck carve
[IMG]http://scopeit.net/images/carve1.jpg[/IMG[


20.Sanded and done.


21. Cut out control cavity.

[melon....]

Continued....
22. made metal and wood fret markers and installed



23.Glued cap on top.


24. Route neck pocket and pickup cavities.

[melon....]

Continued....


25.Rounded the edges.


26. Install electronics.


27. Apply finishing - poliurethane.

[melon....]

And finally......



28. Assembled and voila!!!