Omzig's Consolidated Build Thread/Works In Progress!

[Omzig]

Jumping back into building after a break last year due to health issues ,so to try and keep everything in one place lets try my own Consolidated thread!


Been on a bit of a Holdsworth trip of late and thought id have a bash @ a HF-2 'ish type build..because 1. i can't find one used with a tremolo & 2 the neck on these is baseball batch thick.....(and 3. if i could find one the current the £1.5k+ price tag is a bit OTT for me atm)

So my spec for this is going to be as follows

Sapele/West African mahogany semi solid/hollow body (but not the full on hollow I-Beam orginal design (which i read in the end even holdsworth didn't like...)
Some type of quilted top wood...i cant recall the name that it was listed under but i got from a chinese ebay seller about 5 years ago (it was like dirt cheap as i recall it was £1 for the wood with £8 shipping ) (if you can ID it shout)
single piece Sapele bolt on neck with carbon fiber rods 9 degree tilit HS with a D to U profile & Indian Ebony fretboard with a 20" Radius, with side only green block LED markers & 2.4mm Jumbo SS fret wire
Wilko Black/Steel 2 point trem, 2 pin locking tuners (2R 4 L) and Stainless steel roller nut.
Single Bridge HB (not sure what's going in there yet...) Single Vol knob with a 3 way mini split (both/rear/front coils)

Wood images

Pics of the hardware once it arrives....

CAD images to follow......

Laters
Giz

 

[ThunderUnderground]

Cool idea, good luck on the build 👍

 

[Omzig]

Cool idea, good luck on the build 👍

Thx, should be fun it's been a while since i built a coffee table woods type guitar, and this will be my first semi hollow.

CAD ive kicked up sofar...this will end up being a little thicker than a standard soild body @about 48mm thick (not sure if that's as FAT as the org FATboy?) and the edge round over will be a bit sharper.

 

[CanserDYI]

Quick question, I've noticed a lot of the UK luthiers I see/watch use sapele, is this easier to obtain/plentiful in the UK or something? I hardly ever hear about it outside of British guitars. Looks awesome.

EDIT: And just realized your name is Gizmo backwards, I was very confused.

 

[Omzig]

Quick question, I've noticed a lot of the UK luthiers I see/watch use sapele, is this easier to obtain/plentiful in the UK or something? I hardly ever hear about it outside of British guitars. Looks awesome.

EDIT: And just realized your name is Gizmo backwards, I was very confused.

Yep Sapele is pretty widly avalible here in the UK + it's pretty cheap compared to other imported woods (i can get x3 2 piece body blanks worth for about $40/£40) a lot of places try to pass it off as "mahogany" which it really isn't, it does look very similar but it's not as dense so lighter and works a bit easier

& to answer my own question from above my top wood is "Golden Phoeb" or Machilus nanmu, i remember answering a post on another forum about ebay/chinese woods to which id repllied.

and yes my user name as Gizmo was taken here (as well as 123 ect ect) and i got a bit miffed at trying a lot of other taken names so Omzig it became

 

[Omzig]

Stole the carves from my offset tele model saves me some time and i know these mill out/feel nice

 

[Omzig]

Had an appointment mid day so only got the fretboard leveled out (i hate mid day appointments,screws up your whole day..)

this ebony board is a bit stripper that i was expecting under the surface but that's cool with me, i should have the LED/wire pockets and radius'ed/slotted tomorrow.

 

[Omzig]

Got the LED pockets routed, i was going to flip and raidus/slot the board this afternoon but i found all my 0.7mm slotting bits were broken...so delay till i can get some ordered......Onto the body & neck till then i guess

The +- legs are trimmed & conected with 0.11 gague strings,soldered with a sheath placed on one leg to stop shorting,i might try a mini USB power bank as the power source for this one, the great thing about the flat LED's is that even when they are off they make great side markers.

I had to step the Blue one i used on the vader clone because at there default 3.3v they were like airstrip landing lights, Look for Chanzon on Ali if you fancy trying them.

Laters

 

[ThunderUnderground]

Excellent work man, good progress so far 😎

 

[Omzig]

Got the board Radius'ed to 20" and i used the very tip of of a V bit (just 0.25mm) to mark out the slots, i was going to cut these slots after with my slotting saw but i found some 0.7mm bits from a UK stockest on amazon so i'll just wait till tuesdays when they arrive to finish the slotting so i can keep the slots blind.

Tweaked a few of the body carves (added one to the lower front horn) and ive decided to just keep this one as a solid body and save the faff of hogging out the chambers (might still do some beehive weight relief under the top though)

 

[Omzig]

Some one asked me to show how i stop the LED shorting out with each leg being exposed if i use a plain string (stuck a D string in just for the pic i use either a 0.13/0.11)

Once they are solder in place i use CA to set the LED's just past flush with the edge of the board (Once sandded flush they difuse better) then i fill all the slots/groove with Epoxy

SIde on unlit these green/yellow look like this

Hope to start milling the body out tomorrow.......

Laters
Giz

 

[Omzig]

Had a bit of seasonal flu going around the house so limited progress...

Just managed to Joint/face the Golden Phoeb & glue up the top/body ready for the body routing....also got the FB side LED's solder and glued up.

Hopping to get the rear routing done tomorrow....if i feel less shitty than today...

 

[Omzig]

So bit of a delay in getting to start the body routing, One of my stepper drivers just died...took a few days for the replacement to arrive+still feeling a bit shitty and brainfog+CNC does not mix (been there done that)

Decided to drop the ball end cuts down to %5 step over, took a little longer (45 mins to do both heel and belly carves) but now pretty much zero clean up sanding!

Had one of the Cavitiy magnet supports snap off on the final pass clean up...

but i managed to pause the cut and rescue the parts before the bit chopped them up

& looking at my pics now seems i forgot the final pass on the claw cavitiy floor & the magnet hole cover bit pass...Doh

Laters.

 

[JimF]

Love this!
I'm growing more and more fond of single cut/tele types so this is an appealing build! Seriously impressed with your LED inlay install too.
I promise to get an NGD up for our last collaboration too!

 

[Omzig]

Love this!
I'm growing more and more fond of single cut/tele types so this is an appealing build! Seriously impressed with your LED inlay install too.
I promise to get an NGD up for our last collaboration too!

Hey Jim thx bud, i go an RG tele body design in the works, i'll fire you a few pics i know you love the RG shape

Later start today so only managed to get the bridge,pup, and carves routed out.

Go a bit of tear out on bridge recess & the edge of the join between the top and body(time to get a new bottle of titebond....) i think i should be able to fix these with a bit of dust and CA.

Should get this free'ed of it's wooden prison tomorrow.

 

[Omzig]

So all my hardware is here, kinda wish the saddles were also all black but they match the Nut and chrome parts on the locking tuners so.....

Free'ed and wiped down with a bit of BBQ fluid (so much cheaper than naptha/lighter fluid here in the UK ...x10 cheaper!)

X2 small fuck up's while this was getting cut out, had some tearout on the tip of the lower horn so i had to slightly reshape it on the bobbin sander (angle on this pic makes it look a little odd but it's ok face on), and the CNC lost a few steps around the heel and caused a small cut out channel, shouldn't be much of an issue as it can get blended out...I think it's time to swap out the old Uno and the older stepper units i have for a Mega and some better drivers (or maybe just slow the cut down...)

Edit: just thinking about the lower horn a little more and i think i'll make up a template that's offset internaly by 1.5mm or so cut that out of some ply and align & reshape the tip with it and a trace bit...hummm

Laters

 

[JimF]

That looks so good! Can't believe how well that top will look!