Members John Backlund Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 I've just changed my forum 'handle' from 'Bigfun' to my real name. It was a hold-over from a sportbike motorcycle forum I've been hanging around in for the past four years. The name originally was a reference to the license plate on my 00' Suzuki Hayabusa which read 'BIGFUN'...which it certainly was...and then some.I was starting to feel a little silly with that online name, especially when talking about my guitar designs.Here's my old bike (gone for several years now) that I took my general online name from:Here's the entire 'BIGFUN' beast: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 25, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 25, 2006 Glad to hear from ya John. Ok, Update. BIG NEWS The Stainless is finally underway. Found a guy that has a laser cutter and he SWEARS that he can repeat this design and for a reasonable price. Now. I started blanking out necks several weeks back but this morning I had some spare time and actually cut some headstocks out. My camera is dead at the moment but I'll post a photo of the new headstock here shortly. It may not be as good as what John would draw but It does seem to fit the body design well enough. I have settled on the color scheme for this first one too. Metallic red and Pearl white. with the stainless steel work. it should have both the rocket ship two tone look of the 50s autos plus have more than enough eye appeal for the guys around here. I'm getting stoked again. the neck is gonna be a glued in type and the pickups are the next thing to worry about. I just completed a beautiful tele style for gocatgo here at HCEF that used the Pete Biltoft Vintage Vibe pickups and I gotta say they were amazing and I'm wondering if I should let him do these. one criteria. They MUST have chrome covers. So suggest away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 25, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 25, 2006 ok here is a quicky photo of the headstock design. bear in mind that the lower part of the headstock will be routed "down" from the level of the rest of the headstock and there will be a stainless steel trussrod cover that extends to cover the area between the rout. sorta seperateing the two levels from each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Erocku Posted April 25, 2006 Members Share Posted April 25, 2006 Awesome! It's good to see that you're finally starting this project back up. I can't wait to see it finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timmy210 Posted April 25, 2006 Members Share Posted April 25, 2006 You gotta do it in a sparkle orange, not red! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mazi Bee Posted April 25, 2006 Members Share Posted April 25, 2006 Originally posted by Bruce Bennett I just completed a beautiful tele style for gocatgo here at HCEF that used the Pete Biltoft Vintage Vibe pickups and I gotta say they were amazing and I'm wondering if I should let him do these. one criteria. They MUST have chrome covers. So suggest away. Pete does some very nice chrome covered pups. Here's a humbucker sized P90 he did for me with a solid nickel cover: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jerry_picker Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 Originally posted by warriorxtman It kinda looks like a futuristic concept they would have come up with back in the 50's. The cut components in the first post remind me a bit of a Ric 360. The drawing in post two evokes the vibe of a '65 Ford Mustang. This could be big! Bigfun's drawing here is very Buick-like with the three "vents". http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v192/JohnBacklund/Superretrorocketageguitar.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 GREAT NEWS! The new neck with it's never before seen design is coming together, and quick too. This morning I routed the truss rod, built the fingerboard, bedded the truss rod and glued up the fingerboard in only 2 hours!... Tomorrow I'll be carving the neck profile. and starting a new set of blanks for 9 more of these. now that the templates are all done, this should be a very simple and repeatable guitar to make. I now have two suppliers for the stainless steel work. and the painter is stoked about doing the two tone paint jobs. I took pictures of every thing I did this morning and I'll post them here tonight. stay tuned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 NECK PHOTOS! From start to finish this was all done in one day. today in fact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 the last one is a little out of sequence. this one is first; routing the truss rod slot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 and now for the fingerboard first the raw board Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 and slotted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 doing the taper with my hand plane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 all tapered, slotted and ready to glue up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 and now for the glue up to the neck blank.. lots of clamps here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 and finally ( for today anyway) out of the clamps and ready to carve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jerry_picker Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 Originally posted by Bruce Bennett and finally ( for today anyway) out of the clamps and ready to carve. Boy, there sure is a lot of wood to carve away in that neck! I guess that's part of the price in having a one-piece head-neck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 27, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 Originally posted by jerry_picker Boy, there sure is a lot of wood to carve away in that neck! I guess that's part of the price in having a one-piece head-neck? humm.. i don't know... how much is a lot? I always thought that you carve away as much as is needed... the neck has always been inside the wood. you just need to get rid of all the excess.. can't wait to attack this thing tomorrow morning... Ah. I can smell the sawdust now... Photos of the carnage to come tomorrow night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members i51423 Posted April 27, 2006 Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 I can't wait to see this finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members id-man Posted April 27, 2006 Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 Awesome to watch the progress. Here's a little cheer from the peanut gallery if you need any encouragement. Thanks for the great thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GilmourD Posted April 27, 2006 Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 Bruce... Did you used to be a member on tdpri.com? I remember seeing those drawings from the OP elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John Backlund Posted April 27, 2006 Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 Originally posted by GilmourD Bruce... Did you used to be a member on tdpri.com? I remember seeing those drawings from the OP elsewhere. I'm a member of TDPRI. I posted some sketches of my designs there on several occassions, at least the tele-based ones, to see what kind of reactions they got from the telecaster crowd. Those are the drawings you saw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GilmourD Posted April 27, 2006 Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 Originally posted by John Backlund I'm a member of TDPRI. I posted some sketches of my designs there on several occassions, at least the tele-based ones, to see what kind of reactions they got from the telecaster crowd. Those are the drawings you saw. I thought they looked familiar. It's been a couple years since I really was a regular over there... Still playing Teles, but just doing other things for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretmonster Posted April 27, 2006 Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 It's very sleek looking. I'm not sure how practical it might be for playing sitting down however. That lower bout looks like it would dig into your leg and be uncomfortable. However, it would still play better that way than a V or an Explorer or a few others I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted April 27, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 27, 2006 Originally posted by fretmonster It's very sleek looking. I'm not sure how practical it might be for playing sitting down however. That lower bout looks like it would dig into your leg and be uncomfortable. However, it would still play better that way than a V or an Explorer or a few others I suppose. ah, well that was one of the more important aspects of the design work.. I took lots of pains to make sure that the design is ergonomically comfortable and has no serious long term playing issues. and your talking to a man that gets bad places on his right forearm from the edge of a Les Paul. I did not want this guitar to have any of those issues. and so far everyone that has held the bopdy agrees with me that it's a very comfortable body shape with no hard edges that are in the players "path" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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