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Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:43 am
by Hans Bezemer
All right I'm in.

I want to make a 7 string guitar tuned in fifths:
C (one step above a low B)-G-D-A-E-B-F# (two steps above high e of a guitar).
I roughly based the design on a Klein headless guitar ( and after that found out that this was already done http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... p?t=686151 )
Scalelength: 760 - 660 mm (approx. 30" - 26")
Stringspacing: Nut 6mm, bridge 10 mm
Two pickups: one for the bassside (C-G-D) and one for the trebleside (A-E-B-F#)
The pickups are single loop Low Z pick ups made from basic electric wire with a current transformer.

Materials:
Used / found:
The plywood are cutoffs taken out of a trashcan from a factory where they make big counters and desks.
The wire and xlr inputs are taken out of various products (long long ago).
Alumium sheet taken from an old fishtank (also long ago).

New:
Frets: $7.5
plywood used for fretboard $7.5
Tuner gears 7*$1.80 = $12.60
Current transformers = 2*$1.20 = $2.4
Danish oil = $4,-
Trussrod (needs to be modified) = $3,-

Re: 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:29 pm
by Bryan Bear
Sounds cool. I look forward to seek g it develop!

Re: 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:00 pm
by Hans Bezemer
Made a little progress:
I've cut the fretboard and neck piece, once the truss rod is installed I'll glue them up and plane the taper.
Further I've cut the wood for the pickups.

Hans
CIMG6971.JPG
CIMG6971.JPG (97.85 KiB) Viewed 57449 times

Re: 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 1:36 pm
by Hans Bezemer
Made just a little progress: Glued up the neck and planed the taper.
I was planning to use my router for the neck, but we have a couple of birds breeding near our shed, so I used my plane instead to keep the noise down...

Hans

Quick mock up

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 2:26 pm
by Hans Bezemer
I've made a quick mock up from what I have so far:
Body parts, neck, bridge and pickups.
Next up: Finishing the neck and installing the frets.

Hans

Re: 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 6:22 pm
by Warren May
Starting to take shape very nicely, Hans.

Re: 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 7:58 pm
by Bryan Bear
I agree, this one will be cool.

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 3:33 pm
by Greg Robinson
Interesting idea Hans, I hope you'll post a soundclip once you've finished, I'm very curious how these pickups will sound.
Good luck!

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 9:15 am
by Hans Bezemer
Greg,

Thank you for your reply.

A while ago I made a quick recording of a prototype:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A1NkiwltbI

I like the clean sound but the distorded sound needs to be modified.
There's a wealth of info about this pickup design on the music electronics forum (single loop low Z pick up).
I very much like the simplicity of this design, you can make a prototype in less then 15 min..

Hans

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 3:57 pm
by Hans Bezemer
I've worked on the neck today.
I sawed the fretslots.
After that I shaped the neck by rasping the profile in the neck just before where the neck will enter the body. I then used a plane to shape the rest of the neck (an advantage of not having a headstock in the way).

I need some advice on the following:
The fretboard will be flat (zero radius), but I use fretwire from a coil. I've already tried to straigthen the fretwire but it still has a 14" radius.
When I hammer the fret in, the ends of the fret are a little bit lower then the middle part.
I use a wooden block and a hammer and try to hit as few as possible (3x times: 1x for each side, 1x for the middle).
Can I start by driving in the middle part first?

I've tried to press the fret in with a clamp but then it keeps popping up.

Hans

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 6:43 am
by Greg Robinson
Hans, do you have fret benders? Either the plier type or roller type? With the roller type, you can send the wire through backwards to flatten it. Plier type will be less consistent, but should get you there.
You can give it a few more taps in the middle, this would be the normal procedure for a fretboard with a radius anyway.

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:49 pm
by Hans Bezemer
Finally I got to work on the guitar again.
I rounded the body with my router and I shaped my neck to it's final shape.
Next up:
- drilling the tuner holes in the body
- fretting the neck


Hans

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:51 pm
by Hans Bezemer
Greg Robinson wrote:Hans, do you have fret benders? Either the plier type or roller type? With the roller type, you can send the wire through backwards to flatten it. Plier type will be less consistent, but should get you there.
You can give it a few more taps in the middle, this would be the normal procedure for a fretboard with a radius anyway.
Thanks Greg,

I've tested a piece of fretwire, and I'll think it will work.
I'll post a picture of my neck as soon as the frets are in.

Hans

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:41 pm
by Bryan Bear
This looks pretty cool. I'm looking forward to see how the tuners get mounted.

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 5:21 pm
by Warren May
The plywood laminations give it a really interesting look. Nice work on carving to get everything even. The router idea you mentioned earlier would have been interesting, too, but this came out nicely.

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 1:11 pm
by Hans Bezemer
Unfortunately I can't make it in time, work and family got "in the way". :(
I'm hoping to finish the guitar this summer. :)

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:21 pm
by Hans Bezemer
I'm posting this after the deadline. I hope I can keep posting till I've finished my guitar.

I've found some time to fret the neck.
I've hammered the frets in and they all seem to fit nice.

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 8:11 pm
by Warren May
Really nice fretwork, Hans. That's a cool picture

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:10 am
by Hans Bezemer
Making some fine progress.

glued in the neck in the guitar.
Right now the Danish oil is curing and I hope to assemble the guitar this weekend.
12 - Oiled guitar.JPG
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I've "designed" a single string bridge by screwing a insert nut in the wood and using a bolt as a saddle.
Yesterday set everthing up and it worked well. I adjust the intonation by filing the bolt.
11 - bridge.JPG
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I've made a pick up holder by routing a groove in a piece of plywood and made two single loop pick ups using a piece of electric wire led through a 1:500 current transformer.
13 - Pick up.JPG

Re: Hans Bezemer's 7 string headless guitar: Tuned in fifths

Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2013 1:05 am
by Hans Bezemer
I've assembled the guitar.
Everything works fine and although there are a lot of things I want to do better next time, I'm happy with the outcome.

I will post some soundclips soon.
14 - finished guitar.JPG
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15 - finished guitar - tuning pegs.JPG
15 - finished guitar - tuning pegs.JPG (149.87 KiB) Viewed 56584 times
16 - finished guitar - Pick up.JPG