The Moderne - Holy Grail of Vintage Guitars

[pshupe]

I am relatively new to CNC and trying to work out better ways of machining something like necks. Ideally I would like to machine all four sides. Especially for necks that have tenons and drop heels like the Moderne. I should probably we working on more fixtures to hold the pieces but thought I would see if I could just use indexing holes in a neck blank. Here is my first shot at that.

I'm thinking I can use 4 indexing holes in my spoil board and then the same four hole locations on each face of my neck blank.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

Got some time with the CNC machine and tweaking tool paths.

Machined truss rod route, anchor, and roughed the head stock angle.

Finish pass on the head stock angle

Cut the truss rod access route with the Stew Mac truss rod access cutter. I had a 3/4" spot facer with a spacer but this tool worked very well. Pretty much idiot proof which is good.

Cheers Peter.

 

[CB91710]

This is a perfect illustration of something my wife and I were chatting with LtDave about while we were at Rockler last Friday.
Reducing the headstock angle results in less "wasted" material... an angle that puts the top of the headstock even with the heel would result in being able to get two necks out of a block not much thicker than that.

Obviously, your goal is a reproduction, so it would not be appropriate here.

 

[pshupe]

This is a perfect illustration of something my wife and I were chatting with LtDave about while we were at Rockler last Friday.
Reducing the headstock angle results in less "wasted" material... an angle that puts the top of the headstock even with the heel would result in being able to get two necks out of a block not much thicker than that.

Obviously, your goal is a reproduction, so it would not be appropriate here.

An angle that would be equal to the heel height would be about 6 degrees. You would still need about 1/2" thicker stock. It would probably make more sense to lengthen the neck blank to nest the necks better. Stock neck blanks are around 3" x 3" x 30". This works for most electric and acoustic guitar necks. Probably some economy of scale here on the price. Quarter sawn Honduran Mahogany one piece blanks for about US$30. The best price per blank would be buying a large plank of 12/4 and nesting the necks as closely as you can. Does anyone need 40 necks at a time though? Besides Tom Bartlett. LOL

I would also then not be able to use CNC for my operations on the fret board side of the neck.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

Fired up the HHG crock pot and glued in some filler strips. These are mahogany filler strips unlike the maple in a LP. The original necks on these were Korina like the Explorers and Vs and those guitars used the same wood for filler strips as the neck. So I thought I would make these from mahogany like the neck wood.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

I cut out the mahogany neck. Lot's of wood left for head stock ears.

I also have the neck all modeled and ready to be cut in Fusion 360.

I bought a nice plank of Korina to make some necks as well. The boards I got from Tom B. ended up being quarter sawn and I will keep those for Explorer necks. I bought a 72" long x 10" wide x 8/4 chunk of Korina. It is flat sawn so should work out well for two piece laminated necks.

rough plank -

cross cut into 32" with a bit left over for some covers or something.

ripped into 3 equal pieces for each part. Should be almost quarter sawn when laminated.

Will get 3 necks from this plank. I still haven't decided on head stock shape. Definitely one Gumby and possibly a split V.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

A quick update on this project and the reason it has been so long since an update. I'll leave out the details about work this and that... blah blah blah. Everyone has work challenges. The fun stuff that has held this project up has been the building of a new shop. Finally I have it all framed up and weather proofed, mostly. Here are a couple of pics. It is a little further along than this -



So the next posts will be on updates on these Moderne builds, as well as another build. Thanks for the patience.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

For anyone that is interested here is a VR tour of my other shop. You can see the reason for the second building.

Virtual Tiny Shop Tour

I only wish my lot was big enough for one large building. Here is an aerial view.


The light grey shingled building in the bottom left corner is my current shop. There is a shed with the usual house stuff, my wife wouldn't give up the christmas lights or outdoor furniture storage space. I had some left over shingles from the old shop so I decided to use them up. I made a nice pattern for the neighbour's enjoyment.

Cheers Peter.

 

[LPTDMSV]

Isn't that VR technology amazing? Your workshop looks bright and tidy! I can see you might want more "elbow room" around the machines though. Bigger CNC bed in the new space?

 

[pshupe]

Thanks. Scanning is one of the things I do for work. I have added some more stuff in the small shop and definitely need more space. I am looking at a 4'x8' CNC machine and dedicated spray booth for the new shop.

Regards Peter.

 

[LPTDMSV]

Thanks. Scanning is one of the things I do for work. I have added some more stuff in the small shop and definitely need more space. I am looking at a 4'x8' CNC machine and dedicated spray booth for the new shop.

Regards Peter.

For anyone that is interested here is a VR tour of my other shop. You can see the reason for the second building.

Virtual Tiny Shop Tour

I love the Futura on the bench too!

 

[pshupe]

I love the Futura on the bench too!

Thanks - there are two there.


Which turned into these -


The first was an unfinished kit made from black limba, mahogany, with braz board. The second korina, mahogany, and madagascar rosewood board.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

Got some time this weekend and I added the toolpaths to the neck model.


indexed the neck back into the CNC machine.

rough carve.

finish carve.

completed with tenon.

and a quick mockup.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

Large ears on this thing. Cut a couple of pieces from the left over mahogany from the neck blank.

Glued them up and placed the paper cutout of the template over top.

This head stock still freaks me out a bit but think I may grow to like it at some point, hopefully soon.

 

[Johan79]

Hello everyone. I've been discussing this build for quite some time and am ready to at the very least start a thread. ;-) As some of you know my build threads can take quite some time. This hopefully will be quicker than most of my others as I have just been laid off from work. I view this as a good thing as I have lots of stuff to catch up on.


I will be working with Ron Wood, who wrote the book on this guitar. Literally - I highly recommend this book as a must have coffee table book if you are even remotely interested in the modernistic guitars Gibson tried to put out in the late 50's. I'll do a little history lesson in some future posts.

Here is the cover of Ron's book -

View attachment 480876

I have started the drawings for two designs of this guitar. One is what would have been considered the "proto-type" and the other the "production" model. Although it is debate whether either type was created. To a lesser extent the proto-types but the production model was never made.

Here is a screen shot of these two designs and their current state of CAD design.

View attachment 480877

I'll be building at least 2 or 3 of these guitars, so it should be really fun. This is just a little teaser I'll throw up for now and I will try and update as I continue. Thanks.

Regards Peter.

I just ordered Ronald’s Explorer book. If I like it maybe I’ll buy the Moderne one.

 

[pshupe]

I just ordered Ronald’s Explorer book. If I like it I maybe I’ll buy the Moderne one.

I have both. They are very good.

Cheers Peter.

 

[LPTDMSV]

I have both. They are very good.

Cheers Peter.

Can confirm. Lots of pictures of Gibson modernistic guitars - what's not to like?

 

[pshupe]

I planed the ears flat with the head stock and CNC'd a head stock template. Quick layout of printed head stock.

and cut template from 1/2" plywood.

1/4" diameter tuner holes and 1/8" diameter string guide holes. I'll do a quick mock up of some tuners just to make sure the location works.

Cheers Peter.

 

[pshupe]

Also started the Korina neck. I planed and cut to size and setup in the CNC machine to run the neck top toolpaths.

I cut the head stock angle, indexing holes for when I flip it over, truss rod cavity, and truss rod anchor. This is for a vintage one way rod so it is 1/8" deeper at the tenon end.

Cheers Peter.

 

[voices]

Some many notice that the headstock on production models was somewhat smaller that what was on the patent.