Devices & Templates

São Paulo, March, 8th, 2014

Hi guys, today I would like to show some devices and templates I used to use here.

I think we can start with some definitions about these two words:

* Templates: for me, is a piece of wood or acrrilyc that has a specific shape and help me to copy this shape, several times with repetibility, quality and precision.

* Devices: can be an amout of some diferrent or equal materials that helps me to process one or more operations with quality and safety.

To create templates and devices will depend of the capacity of each one, it will depend of for what do You need a template or a device.

In my case, I love to create templates and devices. I almost can say that is so funny than to build guitars.

I love the idea to spend hours making projects for T&D, and later try to reproduce from the computer screen to reality!!

Everything starts with a need! What do You have to do? What do You need ? Does it really need to be created?

These are the questions You have to make to yourself before spend money and materials!

One common aspect of the T&D is that they were made to be used for several times!! "Times" is the key word!!!

After you decided what do You want to do, the next step is, I think, the most difficult phase...CREATIVITY!!!

It´s difficult to talk about creativity, because is something very personal, but if You start one day You can do nice devices in the near future. Nobody borns knowing everything!!!

I would like to spend more time doing T&D, but as you might know I work in a company, I use my weekends to work on my hobby.

I will tell You how I proceed normally, maybe this will guides You in some way.

1 Needs: define what do You really need.

2 Creation: create a design that will be a reference to your template, I use a CAD softtware 3D to create my projects

3 Print the project with all dimmensions

4 Be sure that You checked all aspects involved in the project that may affect your instrument, don´t forget the SAFETY as well.

5 Try to reproduce, using wood, accrilyc ro any useful material. As my projects are mad in a CAD software, I can use the advantage to generate files for laser cutting (process used to cut MDF or accrilyc)

T&D requires times and dedication, oh I forget to tell You ... Money!!!

Let me show You some of the tools I created and You can see that is not so difficult but You really need to have some abilities!

Here I made a larger table for the drill, because I use the dril also for sanding some parts and normally the table that comes with the drill is too small.

I used here two Screws (Allen) to fix the MDF table to the original drill table.



This device I made to support the neck of the guitar when I am sanding the scale. As You might see, this device has three support for the neck and I use a double face tape to fix the neck at the supports.

Here you can see how it is assembled. One word about production process... You can see on Youtube a lot of different ways of how to build a guitar, open your mind to another possibilities.

The neck in the final sanding operation.

This is a device that I made to keep the frets in the scale while the glue is drying.

This is a template for a body guitar, made in accrilyc material. The countours are made to use the Router with a bushing or a bearing.

Here another example of a template. This time I am using a template for the headstock to copy the accrilyc part to the wood using a router.

This is a very simple device I made to save the frets beforre to fix then on the scale. It s a peace of MDF lost in my mess room and I made 25 little holes to identify each fret position.

Guys I apologyse to You guys cause I lost one of my HD´s and unfortunately I lost a great amout of informatiosn and pictures thad I had. Hope to repair this hd and have my pictures back and we can add some extras pictures here.

As a bonus, I will show You the pedalboard I designed. It´s made of sheet metal stell, not so big, but you can also use a Wah-Wah pedal in the right of the part, in a separate plan.

In the next week one friend of mine will test this pedalboard and hope to get some few changes and start to sell it in the internet.

Only for You to understand, I´ll prepared a special post for this pedalboard where I´ll try to show You how I developed this item.

Tks a lot to everyone!!!

I´m back!!!

Hi everyone!!


Hope everybody is fine and I wish You all that been patience with me, a happy new 2014 with full of happiness and health, cause without health we are nothing!!!

I saw there are still some guys looking for new posts in my blog and I would like to apologize to all of You, cause i saw the last post was from March, 2012, so sorry!!!

But, many things happened with me and I did not have time to update the blog.

This not means that I stooped all my works on guitars.

Very soon I will update the blog with the pictures of the three guitars that I started in the last year.

I am also developing a pedalboard and hope very soon I can show you and maybe some guys in Brasil will be able to buy it too!

For while take a look at this few pictures from my last works!!

I appreciate all of You that have been searching for some new pictures, but this year my intention is to finish these guitars and begin some ones and keep the blog updated each week at least!

This year I spent almost three months working in USA for the company I am working today (Ingersoll Rand) and this time I brought some new tools and a great wood planner.

I will make a post only with the tools and will gave you some nice sites in US for manual and electric tools!

Is nice to get back again!!

Thanks a lot!!!

Maurizio

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First of all, I would like to say that all the works that is showed here are made in my own home and one of the difficulties that I face here is the small space for work and do all my things, this is one of the reasons why I took a long time to finish the guitars.

But this time I made some arrangements and now I think that I can work in better conditions.

And regarding the Rodrigo´s guitar, due to this small space I mentioned, some things took a wrong way.

I had to make some extra repairs and the guitar got a look that I myself was not happy.

Rodrigo is my son in law and I can´t disappoint him, then in one of my "Fury Days" I decided to start this project from the beginning using a different process for the construction and using some new parts as well.

I left body and neck, almost finished, in the shelf and maybe one day I can be able to repair for another project.

One think I learned though all these years in my life is that, sometimes You are so far doing something and then You notice that something is going wrong and You have to decide to go ahead, with the mistakes, or go back and starting everything again.

I decide to start again and for my surprise everything seems to be easy this time and very quick. I am very near to finish this guitar.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Here, the body is a two pieces glued of cedar and I made a groove to add this two brows and a maple strip. Beside the strips I added two blades of maple and left sleeping together.

 
The template I am using was designed by me, of course is very similar to the traditional Les Paul, but I assure You that the results will be significant different.

 

This is my bend saw with a jig that i had to build cause the table was too small to support the entire body.

This is the body already cut in the bend saw

The body, pickups hole detail, waiting for the next steps

The next step I will use the Router to trim the excess of the shape of the body.

For the next posts I think it will be a good idea to show steps per week for each project and You will keep curious about the way things are evolving.

Thanks a lot!!

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01.28.2014
Hi guys, hope everyone is fine!

This time I will show You some more new pictures from this guitar...

Starting with the electrical assembly. I still need to test but I suppose that everything is fine... I hope so hehehe.

This guitar will have one pot for Volume control, the regular one, and two pots kind push / pull for the Tom control, one for each pickup.

One select switch for pickups, a shielded jack,a couple of a nice capacitors of 500k and a vintage wired to make the connections.

The diagram assembled here has the intention to split the coils of the two pickups giving to the guitar player 7 options to chose, commuting the the keys together with the specific Tom pickup pot.

When the pot for the neck pickup is pulled, the humbucker coils will be splited and so the sound will be very similar to a single pickup,and so for the Bridge potenciometer.

There are some other configurations that can be done to affect the sound of a humbucker pickup.

These are the possibles choices for the pickups in this assembly:

Position 1 : Neck pickup (full pickup)
Position 2 : Neck pickup + Bridge pickup (full pickup) - Switch selector in the middle position
Position 3 : Bridge pickup (full pickup)
Position 4 : Neck pickup (one coil)
Position 5 : Neck pickup  (one coil)  + Bridge pickup (full pickup) - Switch selector in the middle position
Position 6 : Bridge pickup (one coil)
Position 7 : Neck pickup (full pickup) + Bridge pickup (one coil ) - Switch selector in the middle position

This is one of the setups You can do to your guitar and make it different, but this is a simple configuration, but there are some others configurations that can be done.

The most important is to understand that this kind of modification can bring You a lot of options, but don´t try to put all alternatives in only one guitar, certainly in a presentation it will drives You crazy trying to remember what pot should pull, what pot should push, what key should turn on and etc..

Some of known guitarists have their own configuration and they know very well of how to use then.

Steve Ray Vaughan had a configuration that mixes the sound of two pickups in his Strato, but it was a simple configuration.

Steve Morse has a complex configuration, something very complex that only he knows how to use so many effects in only one guitar.

 Here I used a 6 mm mdf plate with the final position of the components to fix all components.

This is the whole assemble with pickups, cables.

 

Details...

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02.17.2014
Hey how are you today??? Hope everyone is fine!!!

Let´s take a look in the big holes that I made in this body.

Too many hours and patience was spent here beside some tension time.

Working with wood is amazing, it´s very pleasant to produce something with wood, it doesn´t matter if You are doing a musical instrument or just a chair.

Nor everything is easy, You have to pay attention about what You are doing and the most important thing we should keep in mind... SAFETY!!

To give life to a static peace of wood transforming it in a peace of art, we need to use several kinds of tools, some of then are manuals and others electrical.

The ability of how we use these tools only time will give us! I already show here in my blog some of the tools I use, but I would like to say just few words about the electric tools on behalf of safety of everyone.

One of my favorite tools is a router from Makita (see picture bellow).

This router is too heavy, I guess it has almost 8 lb (~ 4 kg) and it works with 220 volts (here in Brazil we usually use 110 volts but we may also have 220 volts).

Due to it´s power, almost 1600 watts, running at 240000 rpm, You can realize what happen when I turn it on.
It´s like a wild horse!!!
Before turn it on, You must check if the key is on OFF mode.

Sometime accidents happen,not because the tools is so difficult to use, but because we don´t pay the right attention, doesn´t matter if You are a senior or a junior operator, so please if You use one of these fabulous tools... take care and enjoy!!!

Ok, now let´s go directly to the pictures...

Unfortunately, I work alone, and all my pictures, specially those show hole made with router, I cannot take picture using the tools... You know why...

Here I used the router to contour the profile of the entire shape, take a look in the first pot, last picture, You´ll see the router with an yellow bit. I used this long yellow bit (almost 2" of length ) with a acrylic template that has the finished profile of the guitar.

With the same template I made the pickups cavity. The holes for potentiometers and key I used another template.

The template assures You several advantages, one of then is that You can have almost 90 degrees angle from the face with the lateral of the body, but we still have to finish and in this opportunity we can check this angle as well.

Again I used an acrylic template to make this relief at the back of the body, right behind the part where the neck will be assembled.

The next post I will show You some of the templates I used on this guitar. Templates are nice, but they represent yours ideas, sometimes I think a different way of how to do something that may not be the most obvious or more easy way.

To choose the right tool, the right bit for the router may save You some extra time on finishing.

Here I made the four holes to fix the neck (used a column drill).

The right drill for the job!!

The neck cavity, in my opinion is one of the most boring parts to do. I used the neck and copy it´s shape.

After some holes made in the column drill (to take the most part of the wood off) I made the contour using a bit in the column drill.

I also used here a template to made the instrument´s cavity and made the grove for the cover with a router bit with bearing to copy the internal shape of the cavity.

I could not control myself and put this picture here hehe, it´s not finished the instrument cover, but I wanted to see how the cover was fitting in the cavity.

Ok Guys! Thats all for today!Hope that You are enjoying. Unfortunately the Blogspot allows comments only for those who have account on Gmail. Anyway, if You want to say something, my e-mail  is toorresmau7@yahoo.com.br
feel free to make any comment, for sure it will be very welcome!

Thanks a bunch!!!


Maurizio