I have not made a dred yet and have only done one cutaway. I need to finish this spruce/maple Martin 0 sized guitar that I am making for my niece’s husband.
This is from about two years ago, been busy with getting my grow room working, fighting problems. I got a neurological problem from some fire retardant at work and I was on some medication but needed to reduce the dosage due to side effects. This had me basically surviving the day of work and I was a wreck at home. Start the next day all over again and wash, rinse repeat. I did this for the last two years until I could not do it anymore and took early retirement. Since then I have been catching up on things needed to be done to the house that have been neglected while I was sick.
That is how I got into growing. I found out weed can alleviate some of my pain but you don’t want any kind of buzz going on when operating saws and the like. I found CBD can do a good job on me so I have been looking for a decent tolerant high ratio CBD to THC plant. I finally managed to grow a good THC crop last grow, hoping to repeat that with the current CBD grow. On another forum I asked a grower where he bought the CBD seeds he mentioned as I googled the name he gave and I think he said he got it off off a grower here. He said he could send some seeds of a plant he has been working on, floored me as I wasn’t expecting it. He sent me here, said I should join. At first I didn’t get this place but then I read a thread of an old dog here that complained about people just getting freebees here and what originally the point of the place was. The thread made me understand the place and the generosity of the guy from the other site.
That said, it will help to explain where my building has gone for the last while. My condition has my skin feel like I have a carpet burn. The light touch and temperature nerves get directed up to the brain as pain. Wearing clothes and even the breeze hitting your skin can hurt. So strumming a guitar turned out to be painful on my arm, then it travels to the rest of my body. But then I pick up a Stratocaster and the arm and body cuts made it possible to play. So I started experimenting to see what I could make to work for me.
There is a feature called the Manzer Wedge that helps people with shoulder problems.
Also I have been trying different arm bevels. I built smaller guitars as they are less work and I want to get the hang of them as I want to build inexpensive guitars to give away to kids not being able to have a guitar.
It was better but still not enough. Hacked a body I had rather than go to the whole process of building and finding it doesn’t do it for me. Still was not enough. Then I took a crap starter nylon guitar that I bought for $25 with case. I wanted the case, I did not have the heart to throw away the guitar but couldn’t give it to someone and have it turn them off learning. So I took a saw to it.
I did a California neck reset (Cut the heel), which got the action better, gave it a half ass fret job and setup. I also shaved the back braces to get some bass. In the end it was comfortable for me to play, did not cause too much pain. It still has a flat fretboard and needs a truss rod to tweak the neck, basically good enough to play cowboy chords.
So I kind of had the idea of what I needed in order for me to be able to play. So for the next leg of my journey I thought a full scale length, a slim body, not sure if I was going to do electric or acoustic (of sorts) so my build process was more like fallowing around and ant, half ass backwards.Was going to be a spruce guitar to keep the weight on me down. Bent some sides and used my tried and true stock of 2x4’s (I used to go to Home depot a lot and pick through the pallets looking for pieces that were perfect enough for me to build with).
Rough carved the neck while I was still deciding which way to go, glued a piece onto the bottom to give me some depth if it was going to be acoustic (aluminum strip as truss rod under the fretboard). In the end I decided electric. Found the truss rod picture. It also shows what I looked for in the wood. Straight even grain along the length, generally grain direction as can be seen on the end, glued together to counteract and movement. There, my secret is out.
Glued up more stock and planed it down to minimum thickness.
Removed as much wood as practical.
Using a guitar top to fill in the unsightly bits.
Some spray paint cans I found and ready to do frets and the rest of the assembly. I am using ukulele open tuners to keep the weight at the headstock down to keep it from diving. A cheap pickup and volume and tone on a plate. Not the ultimate guitar for sure, I am more concerned with my needs rather than my wants.
Have it on my bench right now, need to mount the bridge (saddles of a real bridge and bent a piece of aluminum for the bridge plate. Just a little reduction in weight but why not?) I did build a pine guitar (actually spruce) and (surprise surprise, needs to be finished.) that has the neck mounted, tuners on but just needs the bridge and electronics done. I sliced off an arm bevel and body cut since this picture, function over beauty, it still is appreciably heavier than the other one. The other one comes in around two pounds, figure I can knock a little off that when I make the acoustic version.
So all little steps learning the road other builders may not have taken. I also lost some movement of my thumb on my right hand which means I have to make some tooling to help take most of the work out of carving necks. I figure by next summer I should be set up to really get into building.
