Years ago, late 1970s to mid 1980s, I built several solid body electric guitars for various people. I first built one for myself, and gigged with it for quite some time. It was based on the Ovation Breadwinner, a guitar I wanted to own, but could never afford. It is an unusual shape, almost like a battle axe (the designer had this in mind), and very comfortable to play. Pictures of the Breadwinner:
I designed and built a battery operated pre-amp to go in the guitar, and it sounded really great. Whilst playing in bands with this beast, people started asking me to make them guitars, and I made several different styles for them. Many of them are still being used regularly now after all these years.
Last year I got the urge to build guitars again, so I've almost completed one. Again, this is based on the Breadwinner, because I love the shape.
This is made from tulip wood - otherwise known as American poplar. I started with a piece measuring 38" long x 8" wide x 1.75" thick. I cut it in half, planed and jointed them together, and cut the body out of that. I used a piece 2" x 3" x 30" for the neck. I had intended taking photos as I went, but never got round to it.
It has 24" scale and 24 frets, and an incredibly low action. The tremolo bridge I used is an old Washburn Wonderbar Shift 2001 from the 1980s, one of the best tremolos ever made, apart from being pretty huge. But then, the large size does help the notes to sustain for ages
Anyway, the result is that I pretty much finished the guitar in June 2010 as far as the wood working side of things go, and I assembled the guitar, fitting most of the hardware, just to make sure everything works, and to see if any adjustments were needed on the timber. I built an active tone control circuit that runs off a 9 volt battery to give it a super range of different sounds.
I'm pleased to say that it went together like a dream, it plays great, sounds great, and looks pretty good as well. See the pics below. I bought some mother of pearl (gold and white) and cut out two dolphins, one large and one small. The large one I've inlaid into the headstock, and the smaller one is inlaid into the fret board at the twelfth fret position. I've also inlaid some pau abalone dot markers into the fretboard.
I didn't actually get round to finishing it at the time because I had to build a guitar for one of my granddaughters. When I had finished that one, I had to have an operation on my left wrist, and unfortunately, it didn't go well, and at the moment I'm stuck with a left hand that I can't use properly, and it looks as if further surgery will be required to put it right.
When (if!!) my wrist gets sorted, the next step is to strip it all down again, do some final fine sanding, and apply a nice finish, probably Rustins Plastic Coating put on with my spray gun. I hope I don't make a mess of that
The guitar I built for my granddaughter is 20" scale heart shaped machine, made of tulip wood and mahogany. I used offcuts of wood I had laying around, and an old Strat copy pickup I had given to me. It sounds surprisingly good, plenty of body in the tone, great sustain, and great action. I use red dye on the top, and rattle can paint on the back, finished with about 16 coats of rattle can lacquer. My granddaughter's name is Sian, so I inlaid her name on the guitar body, and put my initials on the fretboard. I gave her the guitar for Xmas
and she was over the moon with it
I have some ideas about new guitar body shapes which I will hopefully turn into reality if my wrist ever gets fixed!
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