I used to not care for SG guitars until I had a commission in Nashville that was meant to be a surprise gift. By the time I was finished it was the best guitar I ever made and the most comfortable guitar I've ever played. Drove from San Antonio TX to Nashville TN to hand deliver it and loved the whole experience, even visited the Gibson Garage while I was there.
I can confirm soft woods are an absolute nightmare to carve. You think it's gonna be easier because it's a soft wood but it's the complete opposite, in one direction it feels like carving through teak and on the other it's like butter and it chips out more than you'd like removed... I'm also a huge fan of these japanese rasps, they're just the best
👍👍 I've found that the best tool for scraping squeeze-out is a cheap, flexible 6" steel rule 😉. That's coming together nicely... saw rasp for the carves every time 😉
The carving is incredible to watch. Shows the amazing skill you posses and you can only sit and wonder how many tens of thousands of hours of practice it takes to develop that kind of touch. Amazing stuff, bravo!
Ahhh Ben your Killing Me! Been away for a while, personal stuff etc. But when I return ... Serendipity!! you are making a SG and so am I !!, albeit mine is offset, (as I am wont to do😜). So I eagerly tune in hoping you have a cool ,clean way to do the body carving ,offset templates on the pin router etc as I have been here before, but to no avail you are all HANDS on deck and on softwood to boot!! Good luck sir, been there, don't relish it
8:26 i would've already chopped a finger off.. if I don't bust a finger open and bleeding by 930 at my job I don't have a good day. For a musician I really try and watch what i do but still smash fingers About 8 months ago i was screwing a piece of plywood to a 2x4 for a concrete job and wasn't watching what i was doing and screwed my thumb to the 2x4. It went in the bottom and popped out on the other side. I don't know what hurt more backing it out or my pride ... Hahaha It was instantly numb thankfully it didn't do to much damage. Used some tape and went back to work like an idiot.... So i tey and be carful around any tools... Thanka Crimson for your content and info we all enjoy it....
Ahhhh, this is why we rarely see SG builds... Lots of work! Have mentioned before, would love to see you do a full belly carve (Warwick streamer) stunning basses, never see that kind of carve on a guitar. If you're not sure what I mean, I'll bring mine down for you 😊
Lovely stuff- the massive chisel and the Japanese saw file working it harmony! I can't imagine how it must feel having a whole guitar factory to play in, but I imagine it's rather good.
29:42 That looks awesome Ben. I love how you offset the inlay. The border for the inlay could be some black dust and glue or something…. Bloody love your work mate!!
Soft wood like this will also drink in finish differently ie. unevenly The hard bits lets it buildup where as the soft bit drinks it in, sometimes enough to be matte when the hard grain is gloss.
Ben, quite a while back you turned us all onto Ken Parker's Archtoppery channel. Have you seen the video he did on how he customizes a gouge for roughing in carved tops? His explanation of why he gives the gouge it's unusual shape is very interesting.
Ben, quick question from a total beginner.. I'm in the process of designing a new work bench and was wondering why you don't use a tail vice and dogs for the carving? It looked like working around the clamps could get frustrating. Thanks for all your great content
I was totally expecting you to do the bevels with an angle grinder. Have you tried Micro Plane tools? That is what I use for neck carves, belly carves, knife handles, etc. I absolutely love them, they cut nice and smooth, leaving a much nicer surface than rasps and even the shinto saw rasp (I have used all of the above). They also have round profiles so you can use that in place of the gouge going cross grain- I've done this on the belly cut on a pine body P bass.
Getting the beveling right is crucial for SG's good looks. Another thing is that neck can not be too deep into the body (Gordon Smith has this problem) and the neck pickup needs to be placed precisely or the lines will suffer. So far I think Ben has been focusing on the right things. Thumbs up!
I don't know if you're familiar with the channel Wood by Wright, but he has an amazing channel for hand tool woodworking. He made a router plane with a long offset for cleaning up tenons and I wonder if a similar design would work for creating a plane for beveling bodies and keeping the angle consistent easier.
At first when I heard you were going to use Redwood, I thought, have you gone mad lol. Then I saw the grain for the top. That looks EXCELLENT !! I've worked with Redwood some when I was out in California and never came across grain like that. Very nice choice Ben !!
You just know that sooner or later someone is going to be waiting on the other side of the wall to grab Ben's arm when he reaches through to switch the dust extracting on or off... I just hope he's filming when it happens! 😂😂😂
I'd be happy with the scrap bin wood! Many things run through my mind when you do an offcut like oh that would make great scales for my old straight razor! And oh that would make a awesome file handle!
Could you have avoided the gaps around the redwood by making the cavity a bit shallower, and registering the inlay into the body with a chamfer on the body and inlay then sanding it flat?
Damn, that bandsaw is so easy to adjust. My Draper bandsaw is so annoying to adjust. And that's just the top bearings, the bottom bearings are actually painful to reach.
Hope you'll get the sexy waistline right! The original front and back bevels leave about 1 cm thickness on the side at the waist (on the low E side), and it's very important for the overall look of the SG.
Why are there at least 4 missing videos in the last month? I just scrolled down my notifications and saw that Sophia's Prototype leveling beam neck straightening vid, the two part short scale neck build and the flip flop Les Paul refinish is unavailable. I'm gad I watched them when I did and not get caught up with a new-old TV Show. P.S. Next Luthiers Question time?
for reasons unknown to me (100% user error) i usually end up having my guitar bodies flung through the workshop with a vengenace, whenever i try using the router table. i just use my plunge router the "correct" way. works every time, unlike the router table. can't tell if I'm too dumb to read the wood grain properly, if i feed the bit in a wrong manner or if my router table just sucks monkeyballs, i just dont like it. i wanna use it but I don't, if that makes sense.
The bevels and carves on an SG, always looked daunting. But it's just not right without it. It's gorgeous when it's right. I just don't like that square part of the heel.
Can I just say thank you for limiting the ticket purchases to 25 as I might have blown my life savings if you hadn't 😂 So looking forward to seeing the finished work of art.
Aw, you had a 'friend' helping you, isn't that nice? I tend to have flying visitors when I'm working with something sticky, and you can usually guarantee they'll make a beeline (pun intended) directly for where they don't belong. Quite a few jobs have signs of little legs embedded in them...
Dear Ben. On the Backpack guitar could you thin down Epoxy and pour it inside to add Strength or would it hurt the Sound? On the Redwood SG please go with Three Pickups it would be the First? Use white inlay around the Redwood?
I think the idea of solder is interesting - it's not done as often as veneer. But - they better make sure it's really well sealed 'cos metal allergies to many of the metals used in solder could make it a nightmare to play!
28:45 Woodworking people of the channel… a newbie question: shat who what now? i suspect this word is French, and crafty. i am blind and have no chance of googling it. Remarks?
I absolutely agree, the modern carves are an insult to the original, and probably a deliberate move to make people buy custom shop SGs. Especially irksome on the '61 RI/standard models where the horns just look wrong.
I do not understand why you insist on doing things the hard way. It would have been simple to go ahead and cut the channel for the wiring before you glued the top on to the body with out any risk of drilling out somewhere you don't want a hole either the top, bottom or a side. It really annoys me.
