First Guitar Build - 24 years and still not done :lol:

[Trem]

Well, i been thinking a lot about building again for a while now. In an utter extreme amount of procrastination i been pondering actually finishing this for a looong time.
The design is from late 87 or early 88. It was to be called a Raptor, well, it still is called that, even if some other designs i've seen are being called "Raptor" today, i named it 20+ some years ago.

When i moved to Washington i didn't know anybody, so all did was play guitar and draw. This might have actually been drawn before i moved or on the ride up from Cali. I have a scrap book with a bunch of designs in it. Maybe like a lot of you i drew guitars a lot.

Anyway, after a few years i made my way around here. I found Warmoth and went in their and tried to talk about building guitars, they basically told me if i liked living on beans then go for it. I also went into Mike Lull guitar works, talked to them a bit, got about the same speech from them. In hindsight i let it discourage me, but i shouldn't have, i've eaten plenty of beans since then anyway.
And after 20 plus years of building i might have gotten somewhere with it, never know. Lesson learned, Don't let people discourage you.
But i bought a body blank from Warmoth anyway, and it sat for a while. I had no tools or anything, i just wanted to have the wood so to get me one step closer at least.

I'm pretty sure the build was started in 93 cause i ordered a Carvin Ultra V at the same time i ordered this neck thru blank, and in the catalog the Guitar and Necks had the old pointy "jacksonish" style Carvin headstock, but when i received the neck blank it had this new headstock, and subsequently my Ultra V came a few months later with this new headstock as well.
I was bummed at first cause there was no mention of it when i ordered. What i found out is that they changed the design in the middle of the year after the catalog was out.
But i actually liked it better anyway in the end.

I used a Carvin Neck cause i had nothing for tools, just a Jigsaw and a router with whatever bit on it. No templates were used, it's all hand routed and shaped with wood files and sandpaper.
This was done in about a week, maybe more like 5 days. As my little brother said " you went into the garage and came out with a guitar in you hands". I still need to go get this thing from my moms attic, but i've dug up and scanned a lot of old pics lately. I'll be interested to take measurements and see if i did anything right I can only imagine. But i'm pretty methodical and study everything when i get on a kick, so it could be fine, i don't know.

The one thing i'm pretty sure, and partly why i stopped on this build is, i didn't like the shorter scale of Carvins Necks, I didn't think it a big deal i don't think at the time, but i didn't like my Ultra V eventually because of it, it felt cramped in the higher frets. I think this might have a gibson scale neck on it, as i found a list i wrote out for pricing i had carvin 24.75" scale. In that case i know i wouldn't care for it today, but oh well.

Also the real big reason it got put on the back burner is i spoke to as many people as i could about painting it, and at that time (no internet remember), there was no information about that stuff really.
I really didn't want to spray can it, i tried that in the past and didn't like it. I wanted to do a pro finish, and it didn't seem feasible for me at the time.
Anyway, with the internet and all the really talented builders we see out there, i've felt this is not up to quality i'd rather introduce, but anyway, it was my first build and rather quick and dirty so fuck it. With the right tools i know i can do a much better job and build my own neck ect.

Anyway. Here she is. I should finish it, it's closer to done than not, just final shaping sanding ect.. but i also almost would like to start from scratch with my own neck, and put more time into it, make it a bit better. It came out a little narrow since i drew the body on the body blank by hand and then cut it in half and it lost a little width, looks like the 24 fret access is not as good what it should be. Anyway until i actually dig it out, i'm not sure.

Edit: Sorry i blab too much. I swear i actively try not to.

[Nightbat]

looks awesome

Finish it!

[xenophobe]

That is pretty cool. Definitely finish it!

[Flatpicker]

That shape's cool.
Like a cooler warlock.

[tomanyjacksons]

Scallop an access into the lower horn so your getting to the higher frets. I believe with what you've done so far you can go through with the rest of your project. The internet is a wealth of info, plus you're at the right forum to get a lot of input from guys that do this a lot and do it well. That is a really cool looking body I think it would turn out to be a great guitar. Color me impressed. I've got a good camera again so some of my projects are bound to turn up here in awhile. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Trem]

Thanks guys. Yeah as long as the floyd route and post holes are at the correct distance there shouldn't be a problem. So long as the neck hasn't warped after all these years.
I've already scanned and imported the original drawing into pdf and am going to do a full scale in vector and tidy it up with all the measurements worked out so i can make proper templates ect.

The design has some influence from favorite guitars at the time. Basically a Stealth overall X shape with a Warlock top horn and obvious Akira Takasaki influence.. But if you look at it, it's actually a flying eagle, which it was going to be called a Talon, but the Fender Heartfields were either out or came out around then, so i changed it to Raptor.

[xenophobe]

That shape's cool.
Like a cooler warlock.

Warlock Warrior hybrid!

I agree, it's a cool shape...

[MetalDaze]

Trem, you are wasting your talents!!!! After the setup you gave, I was expecting a train wreck. I would totally rock that guitar!

[coloradoman25]

That is bad ass!

[dvscool]

Dude that looks seriously cool. You need to finish that beeeetch....Hell, I would play the shit out of that thing....shit..

[conker2021]

Dude, that guitar is sick. I've been thinking about building a guitar for myself recently too and this is really encouraging. If someone with no tools can do it, I can do it!

[vampire dark]

just.....

[Cygnus X1]

I'm one step ahead.
Built the prototype "Barn door mini bich" and have been playing it for over 20 years!

Yes, go for it.
Looks killer!

I need to "finish" mine by building the real one.

[RacerX]

I like it!
Too bad about the headstock though!

[ginsambo]

Love the body shape. I just finished making my router table, well almost, gotta pin the top to the base. I thought it would be easier using a table mounted router then suddenly it struck me that all your work is upside down and you can't see what you are doing. But it'll be great for body shapes from templates, mouldings and other stuff from templates which is why I made it and at 1.2 metres high it isn't going to get overlooked either.

There is someone about on the web who made a Star from a through neck paddle neck and it came out well. He clamp glued a bit on the paddle for the point and cut it down to a Jackson style headstock.

If that neck hasn't moved after all this time, I'd continue with it as it's a good one. I've thought about using one of those necks and replacing the board with a blank stewmac board, but the fact that you haven't got enough thickness for a neck angle (Eg TOM or non recessed floyd bridge) and the volute kind of put me off.

I, like you, used to do everything from above with a router, half free hand, half setting up a straight edge guide until got me one of those bearing router bits. Worth their weight in gold, you can fiddle about making the template and when you transfer it over to your body, so much easier and quicker than all that other bodging hassle, although it's turned out incredibly good for a truely 'hand built' guitar.