Time to make a guitar myself.

[TomGino]

Okay guys. Next year i am doing a A-level in design and technology and we are already being told to consider ideas. First thing that came to mind was making a guitar. I checked with my teacher and he says that the past students who made guitars all came out of it with B's or A's.

So being as complicated and wierd as i am... i wanted to take it to the next step...

Double neck time...

Now i have been searching the web and have now set my mind on making a double necked guitar. one electric and one acoustic. I have seen past guitars like it so it can be done.

I was just wondering if anyone can give me hints on how i would go about it?
After doing some research i found out that the grain of wood can affect the noise of the acoustic. So im gonna have to find a wood that is suitable for the electric but is also okay for the acoustic.

This is gonna be mad as hell but will be great if i can pull it off.

Any help appreciated.

[Rushfan2112]

I've personally never seen an electric/acoustic double neck. Sounds tough. I'm sure you've got plenty of experience with the tools, etc. because you're in a higher lever tech class, but maybe try a smaller project first? I'm planning on making a lap steel soon. And if that's too easy for you, you can make a single neck. I'm not dissing the double neck (I have to love it, being an Alex Lifson/Jimmy Page fan), but it might be a little hard. It'll pretty much be the best guitar ever if you pull it off, though.

[DLR Guitars]

email me if your interested in an E-book written by a guy that works for Ibanez who builds guitars.

By the way, when you say acoustic, do you mean like a true acustic, or more like a thin-line guitar where the middle is hallow, but still funtions like an electric? If you were doing a true acoustic, I'd have some reservations about the sound you would be able to get out of it, being that it is as thin as an electric...

Let me know if you need any other help

[stratman56]

I don't know about the acoustic part but most good solid bodies are made from swamp ash, alder or mahogany. You might want to do some research about what kinds of woods give you the tone you are looking for. Some are brighter and some are warmer sounding.

You could call it the Ginocaster!

[TomGino]

Thanks for the help guys.

Well im determend to make a double head. The acoustic may not happen.

Yes it would be a thin-line acoustic im guessing because i need to keep it as short and sweet as possible.

My time is gonna be about 7 hours of work room time every 2 weeks for a year.
So i dont think time is a problem.

well its lucky that i have access to those 3 stated woods at my workshop so thats okay.

This is gonna take some research :smile:

Keep the help coming please guys :smile:

And about the e-book, yeh that would be great. Anything that would help like that would be greatly appreciated :smile:

Just slam the links on here :smile:

[Stray Dog]

The thinline acoustic could have a piezo bridge and 12 strings. I believe Slash has such a double-neck.

[wisebeyondyears]

^^Yup. I've seen a picture of him playing it.

[aussie_skater]

Godzilla

[SigFig]

I've played a half classical / half electric guitar, and despite all the work, the classical part sounded sterile. Classical guitars are best as light as possible in my opinion, there's frequencies which simply don't resonate when attached to an 8 pound brick. I'd go bass / guitar, or just build a classical on its own. It's not like you won't get an A for that if you do a good job. Good luck with it!

Sig

[martinedwards]

The guy that did the tech pages in "Guitarist" Robbie Gladwell I think .. Dr Robert anyway, did one of these for a tour with Steve Harley in the 80s.

There was a 4 page spread in the mag.

What you need, (as far as I remember) is a solid block of Mahogany. If your tech store is anything like mine then you'll have salvaged some old science desk tops which are perfect for the job.

route out the acoustic half of the guitar from the back and then cover this with ply (mahogany topped of course) to make a sound chamber. You'll need bracing to stop the whole lot collapsing.

in the acvoustic les paul I'm making there's a thread here (http://guitar.zentao.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34086) i left strips on when I milled out the block. you could stick some on......... A piezo under saddle pup will sort the electric side of things on the acoustic nicely.

the other alternative is to used a LR Baggs X-bridge as a piezo pickup on a standard electric set up. that way you could have a six/12 setup with a piezo on the six.........

I perfer the idea of the full acoustic half though.

[JacksonMIA]

What you need, (as far as I remember) is a solid block of Mahogany.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Mahogany is a great wood for both electrics and acoustics.

An ebony fingerboard might help to put some brightness back into the guitar.

I want to see this thing when you finish. I bet it will look awesome.

[TomGino]

Yeh ill keep posting updated photos when i do it.

This seems to just get more difficult all the time.
Was thinking earliar and remembered i gonna have to make a switch board for the guitar to select which one gets played through the amp.

After doing some research it did indeed seem like mahogany seems like the best choice. Best part is that the workshop is full of the stuff.

I the acoustic side of it seems to be the only problem. My teacher has relied me that he knows how to sort the electrics in a normal electric guitar out and should be able to sort the switchboard to make the acoustic work aswell

Its just the making of a effective bodie that will be a problem. Carving a attractive acoustic on the side of a electric could prove a challenge.

Most likely that i will carv the chamber into the back of the guitar and then place a mahogany layer over the top of it. This would most likely work fine. plus the guitar would then still look just as good from the front.

[0.1 watts]

It looks good on paper, but such acoustics like that NEVER sound truly good. I would build a double neck guitar. One neck would be a standard six string with LP style humbuckers and mahogany neck, the other neck would have strat singlecoils and a maple neck, and a piezo equipped bridge!

[TomGino]

yeh from all the research i done it does seem like the general feeling is that they sound poor

http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/pics/slash/slash_guild.jpg

Thats the lovely picture of Slash's

[martinedwards]

to be honest I don't see the point of all that extra weight and hassle (apart from the pose value!!!)

I have a strat with a piezo bridge.

stereo cable goes to a splitter box on the floor with two on/off switches. the piezo then runs through a preamp that should have gone into an acoustic guitar.

The guy I play with still can't wrap his head around the idea of the ovation like noise that oozes out of the strat!!!

The only time I've seen anyone use a multineck to do someting that actually NEEDED an multi is Vai on a G3 vid where he had the triple neck Jem, with a midi 12 on top and a glass fingerboard fretless on the bottom, both tuned to an open chord so he could strum a chord and solo over it on the middle (standard) neck

about 25 minutes in after satch........ (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3593623584137678217)

[TomGino]

Good lord, what a beast.

Yeh i understand what ya saying about its just for show. well i was playing on a thin line acoustic last friday at a mates and it didnt sound to bad. I just need to do some more research and then decide. Not like im straped for time.
If i dont do the double head im gonna do some sort of fancy arrow head.

[martinedwards]

don't believe the time deadlines. Something ALWAYS goes wrong and then you'll be up till 2 am every night for a fortnight!!!

Aim to be finished by Christmas. that gives you 5 months for missed deadlines......

I teach Highschool.....

I KNOW these things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bloody Hands]

for months guitar player magazine ran an add on the back cover with slash playing an almost tele styled half acoutic, half electric (possibly hollow/semi hollow bodied)