Any guitarists here ? I’m a jam band guy myself

I completely misread your post that I was responding to lol. I thought you were asking for pointers on improvising on guitar. I just read it again and I see what you were saying now. Duh :laughing:

In my defense this is a forum of stoners so did you expect? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I wouldn’t know how to take an amp apart lol

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I could get it apart

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I’ve gone through lots of gear; Orange, ampeg, genz-benz, vox, fender, Peavy, it comes and goes.

This 1989 pre-Peavy Trace Elliot amplifier was picked up from the consignment section at a local jamspace. When my amp stopped working I quit my job to go back to college for electrical engineering technologies so that I might repair my bass head.

After a few years of having this amp strewn across my workbench in pieces, replacing worn components, tracking down some faded schematics on ebay, and recieving a diploma, it was repaired. Evidently a former owner decided to solder a resistor across the effects loop input jack. That’s a tube amp trick for increased gain, but definitely not applicable to this design.

Turns out the guy who designed this amp went on to design Ashdown’s amps. Had I known that at the time I would have just bought a new head and moved on. Probably not my wisest life decisions in retrospect but this amp really sings to me. I plan to keep this one.

On another note, Monoprice sells a cheap 10W tube combo guitar amp identical in design to every other musical instrument corporation if you really need all of your neighbours to hear you play Eruption at 6:00am.

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At sixty one im getting back into music and found al my former sngers are dead…so im learning to sing and play at same time…working on finger style as well.

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Where to start, where to start? I in MoBilly’s Green Rom that he gave a lesson in guitar. Of course that made me happy, I have a thing for guitars, other musical instruments also. When I was a green pup my buddies put together a band, my brother and I knew some electronics and we proceeded wasting our youth doing things that many here have done. The second band attempt saw two of them and my brother playing the bar circuit in a portion of the Canadian prairies for a few years. Then people grew up and got real jobs. I wanted to play bass and then guitar, never did learn at first because my fingers would always be healing from being cut up due to broken glass at work (occupational hazard). Then they closed the place down and I went back to school and went on a direction in life that, um… …had me going in a different direction.

Then another direction, In this place I had a workmate that was retiring He played guitar and I thought I would put together a practice amplifier (he was looking for one) out of a few bits and pieces from work along with a few things in my tickle trunk (Canadian thing). In the end I did not get it made by the time he retired, he bought himself an amp also. So I decided, what the heck, I’ll just mess around with amplifiers until I get board of it. (I am like a squirrel, “Look over there.”

So fast forward a little and already knowing what I should have made for him) I was looking up the sound of an old Gibson amp on Youtube and afterward I saw on the side a link to a cigar box guitar. Since I heard of them but never heard one I clicked on it. There was this ten year old kid with three strings just wailing away on a stick attached to a cigar box. I thought “Hell, I could make that.” and I did. By this time I had bought a G&L tele so I could hear the amps as I mess with them. Had health issues and ended up spending a lot of time in bed, decided I wanted something acoustic to practice with. Made a chambered guitar, sounded better than I expected and then I thought I would make a real acoustic guitar.

I sent away for some tops, did not want to waste them with mistakes so I built a ‘practice build’ guitar. It was a bit of a long road as I made equipment to help me make the guitar. In the end I got it done, it was just a 16" long body, 22" scale, would really fit as a Parlor guitar now days, back then I had not heard of them yet. The reason it was the size it turned out to be was that I found a cedar board that had the grain quartered (up and down at a 90 degree right angle to the top) and the board was 16" long. It was sold so you could cook your salmon steak on the BBQ.

I was on a forum where some people build guitars, told them what I was going to do and some thought I should be a little less ambitious. It seemed a tall order what I had planned. Basically I wanted to cut my own wood and build everything from scratch. In the end I did it, I did have wrong terns but overcame it all. I ended up building a guitar with pine back and sides (sold as craft wood, it was about 1/4" thick and I did not have to saw wood doen to size). It has a redwood top made out of a fence board (it is quartered but a three piece top. Fir neck and oak fret board. Birch binding and head plate. A not purple piece of purpleheart for the bridge. I welded up a truss rod on top of it.

Bent a few extra side sets.

Makeshift cutting the cedar fence board (a practice piece) on a jury rigged metal band saw.

Making the rosette, the piece of birch from above.

Sort of copied traditional design.

With the back on.

Glued together pieces of fir, with my truss rod.

Bridge.

Finished guitar, it actually sounds pretty good also.

All because of some guy retiring. Funny world, no?

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You got skills

Holy sh…t!! @bunny, Very very nice!! Appreciate it!! congrats!! Btw, a while back I bought a $2,000 1972 Ramirez, sold ten years later at literally the same price!! Was always amazed on how some objects (at times works of art) keep their reputation, as well as price tag! :clap: :clap: :clap: :pray:

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Yeah but when is the last time you heard someone say, “I built this guitar and it got me laid.”?

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Thank you. I find building guitars a good match for my skills. I need to get back into it, I have been trying to get other things in life done and out of the way. I will be posting a few more pictures and maybe another build sequence if people do not mind. Like the question, “What are you going to do with that 2"x4”?"

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Am I right to say that is a Martin, maybe 000 or a Clapton model!?

The one pictured? Oh no, it is the size of a Terz guitar. It may be a little deeper I think. I made some Martin Size 5 guitars though. The neck is a 2X4 on the top one, the darker one was the first one I did with regular (good) lumber. That one used a 2x3, although I had to add a piece to get the heel long enough.

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:pray: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :smile: :flushed: :hugs:
Would love to try one your guitars!! Only Steel or you deal with nylon strings Classical guitar too? Nice! Really nice!!!

Great job my friend! There’s no better feeling than playing an instrument you have made with your bare hands!

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The darker one is nylon. I bought some tuners to do a real classical. Don’t look at the little chip in the join between the two sides. On the left side the top is smooth, just a trick of the light makes the joint look funny.

When I built this guitar it was a quick experiment. I did what is called a Spanish heel, the neck goes into the body and is not attached after the body was made. It comes out of the Spanish tradition and I think the bolt on might be German or Italian. But don’t quote me on that. I also did what is called Torified wood for the top and back. I also did the sides but they broke when bending them. I learned that you probably should bend them before you cook the wood. This is the Spanish Heel neck before the sides are incerted into the neck. The neck is glued onto the top first.

Then the side glued into the neck. Then little block called peones by some, are glued in to give the top and side join support. I also use CA glue on this one, Crazy Glue. Not normally used. So I tried a lot of things new on this one

Before the back is trimmed and glued on.

The fretboard glued on, the neck shape finished, the guitar finish put on and the bridge glued on. I used a reed made bridge because it was convenient and they were only about $6 at the time. I would have been happy as long as this guitar lasted a couple of weeks.

All said and done the guitar took about three weeks to make as I left out the rosette (afterward I wished I put it in) and there is no binding on the sides. all because it was experimental. After that it spent years along the chair here beside me. While nylon, it sound more like a old time blues guitar, if they made them nylon back then. More midrange but still fun to play. It also has a radiused fretboard. I have made a couple more nylon guitars after it, actually come to think of it the non-finished one is nylon also although I think it could take silk and steel strings. I am making it for my brother, I’ll make an appropriate bridge for him if he wants that.

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It is something. But to hear it played by someone that can really play, that is really cool.

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Awesome!!! Like @anon98660487 said, man! you got real skills!! They are amazing!! I also have a radiused fretboard guitar!! For some reason, most to all Classical guitars do not get built with a truss rod, yet if it’ s a steel one, there’s no way it could handle without it!! Congrats!! Lovely!! :pray:

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I made the darker one without a truss rod and between summer and winter the neck could use a little tweak. But with being happy if it lasted a couple of weeks I think it more than did its part in holding up. On the other I put an aluminum strip in the neck.

That is the 2x4 neck. I surfaced the one side and cut it in half then fold it on itself and glue it together. Then run it through the router a number of times until I have the depth for the aluminum. Then cut to remove most of the waste and then true everything up and get ready to carve the neck. There is a bid piece of dowel glued into the heel to screw in some anchor bolts.

That is a different one. I made three or four I think. The original one with the steel strings where I made all those sides, I think I made four although I gave one unfinished one to my sister and she put broken tile on it as an art piece. She is a mosaic artist. Might as well finish the run, glue on the fretboard.

Do a rough carve.

Use a bastard file and a flat file to do most of the refining.

And after three or four hours, really depends how generous the wood is feeling,

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I got a little dyi project in my future
My Dean acoustic , the bridge came lose its common in deans it seems same thing happened to my daughters. So I was thinking about installing a resonator cone never done it before so this could be interesting

Any tips would be appreciated
Alway wanted a dobro
Played a 1930’s metal body a few night ( Louisiana Reds I sat in with him in Nyc a long time ago ) and I never forget how much I loved that sound

Paps

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I would love to hear the sound to go along with the pic. You, Sir, have some kinda skills!
:pray::clap::clap::clap::clap:

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