First guitar out of my Elite

It was more than the 30mb I’m allowed. But here’s a link

https://youtu.be/fWsiHt_RKvo?si=GkyCcI_-7pRret_q

Doesn’t look like the quality is super high but I just did it quick on my phone.

Thanks,
Josh

www.joshuatreewoodwork.ca
4036071582

1 Like


Here’s the finished neck. The chunk missing is my fault not the machine’s

4 Likes

Hey Josh,

[OT] If I may give you a tip: You have seen how small my videos are (size in megabytes). It’s a problem that smartphones and cameras nowadays create very, very large files without adding any value. What I do when I have filmed something is I use HandBrake, a free and open-source transcoder for digital video files. There I can easily select from a lot of presets whether I want to make a video for Youtube, gmail, vimeo, discord, fire, etc. It reduces it very quickly in size but the quality of the video remains. An ingenious tool, and free and open source and free of charge.

PS: This is a discourse.org forum, where the general FAQ suggests to avoid a very bad attitude:

Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

– Source: Forum General FAQ

2 Likes

Thanks.
I’m responding on my work Gmail so it automatically signs. I don’t mind cuz it’s business stuff.

1 Like

Hey Josh,

this looks really nice and made professionally.

I found how they made the neck in this video very inspiring to show how easy you can do that today if you own a cnc machine for wood. They even make the fret slots and the bone nut slots with the machine, and the good thing is, they always specify the bit type, the feed and the plunge rate and the spindle rpm. And by the way, they show one of the typical milling motors that I consider the best solution for hobbyists and semiprofessionals if you don’t want to deal with VFDs etc. but just plug and play into a domestic power socket.

This looks like oak or another ring-porous wood with large pores, what wood is it?

Or is it mahogany? It’s in fact more red in the new photo.

1 Like



A little hand work but the fit is great

4 Likes

Neck is 1/4 sawn African mahogany

2 Likes

Hey Josh,

your solution is great! You really make your own concepts that are very interesting.

1 Like

Took forever to figure out how to model the heel and neck transitions lol

2 Likes

Hey Josh,

my first solid-body guitar had a mahogany body and a maple neck and it had a perfect balance. At the moment I use a guitar (one that I did not build myself) that is entirely made of mahogany and I have problems with the neck having more weight as I’d like it to have. It has also a few cavities in the body, which adds to the problem. How’s the balance of your guitar?

Balance should be great, I’ll let you know when I get all the hardware installed. Mahogany is lighter than maple, so a maho neck should help a hollow body.

1 Like

Hey Josh,

if you say African Mahogany, you mean Khaya? I have that listed with (at 12-15%) 0,42–0,46–0,57 g/cm³

American Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) is on my list with (at 12-15%) 0,49–0,59 g/cm³ density.

Maple (Acer) at (12-15% u) is listed with 0,53–0,63–0,79 g/cm³ so you are right, is denser.

I worked with Mahogany once and then I decided that was enough for the rest of my life. The woods I use are from suppliers in Germany specifically for musical instruments, also I use wood that I get from neighbors and people that I meet.

I ask myself of which Mahogany species my “recently” bought guitar is made of. The manufacturere site just said “Mahogany”. If it came from the U.S. Gibson factory, would it be American Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), or something else? But it is the Epiphone variant that came from the Korea factory. In any case the neck is much too heavy and the body too light and it is unbalanced. Although the guitar looks absolutely normal. It has what is marketed by Gibson as “sound cavities” and I remember I once saw a brochure in the web where it was shown with the top removed, but the cavities are not visible from the outside. You can knock around on the top to find some of them. Of course these hollow cavities makes the body even lighter, compared to the massive and wide neck. It has the neck joining at the 12th fret but that does not help. The type of guitar is not one that is played with a strap but I wanted one. It only had a strap pin on the lower end of the body.

Both the neck and the body look nice with a dark shining finish mahogany (except the spruce top which is natural clear) and it has a beautiful white/black binding on the top side.

I added an upper pin where you would expect one and added a second upper pin on the back of the headstock and use a special strap with two ends on the neck side. Then I can walk around during playing (all secured with Security Strap Locks in gold to match the rest of the golden hardware).

The other guitar I mentioned, my first one that I got as a child, was extremely dense on the body, and I remember I thought it must be mahogany, but I think maybe the wood was darker. It had such a pore pattern though. Maybe it was not mahogany but something denser. The neck was a maple neck. It was perfectly balanced with the two usual strat-style pins. I wish I still had it!

1 Like

Ya khaya, same thing. Guitars (necks) are usually done with Honduran though. Geometry is huge too…a guitar that has a neck joining the body at the 17th fret is going to head bob a lot more than one joined at the 14th, for example. Look at the difference between an SG and a Tele. The way I designed mine is joining around the 14th fret but then cutaway to access all the way up to

  1. So it combined good access to the most frets while keeping the balance point farther up the neck
2 Likes

Hey Josh,

New Onefinity Elite Neck Carve – JTree Guitars

thank you for showing the video! Looks like the dust collection is rather mediocre (but loud)

The ball screws and rails is kinda unprotected from dust, can it get in and cause damage?

Hey Patrik,

is this question meant generally? If so, yes it can, like mentioned here.

I don’t know how much (or better, how fast) this will happen on Josh’s machine.

1 Like

The dust shroud had to be 2" off the table but it did keep the air clean still. It’s a rigid vacuum so it’s loud, I need to get some more hose for my big dust collector.

I try to keep them clean but the seals on the bearings seam to keep it out

I want to see pictures of the finished guitar when youre done :smile:

It’ll be on my Instagram but will be a while yet, I’ll try to remember :wink:
@jtree_guitars