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It's 2019 and it's my 10th year of building guitars "from scratch", so I thought a brand new thread was called for.
And to get the ball rolling, here's the first build of the year - Idigbo Strat-body, Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard, Tonerider "Octane" Alnico 8 pup and a stunning matte Metallic Purple finish
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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ADMIN EDIT: First name removed due to GDPR request.
So it's 2019 and Kemp Guitars has been building for 10 years now. During my time away from the forums throughout the second half of 2018, there were a couple of changes made as a result of my increasingly painful back/shoulders, and I had decided to start using CNC machined bodies and necks.
After speaking to a couple of potential companies who could do the work for me (as I didn't have the funds or CNC knowledge to do it myself) it became apparent that my options would be limited if I wanted to keep costs to an acceptable level. This would see me making nothing but Strat or Tele style builds - such as the Metallic Purple guitar in the opening post of this thread. Yeah, it was fun taking these traditional shapes/styling and turning them into something... well, less traditional, but it really wasn't what I wanted to be doing long-term, and, unfortunately, the costs of incorporating my own body shapes, etc into the CNC work was going to be too high - and definitely not a cost I could justify passing on to my clients.
Over the past week, as I lay indoors recovering from flu, I decided that I just couldn't do it and Kemp Guitars had to remain the way it should be for the boutique custom guitar manufacturer... handcrafted bodies and necks... NO CNC!
So, having decided against using the CNC Stratocaster's, I did have one last Strat planned. This will be a handcrafted build and it will be finished in Kiwi Green - as unofficially voted for on my social media posts. I will continue with this one next week, as soon as I've recovered from this damn flu-virus
[Sorry, image deleted at original source]
Doesn't seem to many who are aware of this...
CITES Standing Committee to exempt “finished musical instruments”, “finished musical instrument parts” and “finished musical instrument accessories” from its licensing requirements...
http://mmrmagazine.com/mmr-global/mmr-global-gear/breakthrough-at-latest-cites-meeting/
Finally back in the shop full-time after a month off to flu and a house move. Quick update on where I am right now. Currently finishing up sanding this handcrafted Strat ready for spraying... Then once this one is done, I'll be moving on to some proper Kemp-like builds, including some new custom work
There is a slight spec change on this one - hardtail instead of tremolo. Unfortunately, ran into issues positioning the Lockmeister correctly after routing out for the bridge humbucker. Does mean I'm now selling the Lockmeister now - see my FS post in classifieds.
A new week in the shop and today was spent finishing up sanding out the handcrafted carve on my latest (and last) Skunk-stripe neck - they look good but those few minutes of anxiety whilst routing into the back of the neck is too much. This one also has a one-off headstock shape as seen on recent mock ups...
Decided to post a bit more regular with this build as it's the last one I intend to do as stock in the traditional Strat style. That said, unlike my other recent builds in this style, this one has not been machined or shaped at all using CNC, it's completely handcrafted and therefore has some significant, yet subtle, differences.
Something about a standard Strat nut I don't like, so giving this neck a 1/4" thick GraphTech TUSQ XL nut
Hi rsvmark,
Idigbo is mentioned as an alternative to Oak in terms of colour, but that's as far as the similarities go. Idigbo is part of the Limba (aka Korina) family - it's even been marketed by some UK tonewood suppliers as Korina in the recent past. I've used it a few times and find it to be a little lighter than Limba, slightly more course with irregular pores and grain. You can find some decent bits for natural/transparent finishes, but I'd suggest it as an easier to obtain alternative to Limba for solid paint finishes.
FYI, it was the Metallic Purple Strat that had the Idigbo body. This latest build is Alder
It's on... The Kiwi Green top coat, that is. Strat body sprayed this morning. Nearly there with this one now
Sizing up the scratchplate for the final time before spraying clear coat. Will be putting the Seymour Duncan TB-15 (Alternative 8) into this one...
[Sorry, image deleted at original source]
It's been a gorgeous day today so I decided to take a drive to Binner Downs here in Cornwall for an outdoor photoshoot with the latest build...
Handcrafted KST0419 full spec: Alder body, Maple neck (Modern C profile), Maple fretboard (12" radius, 25.5" scale length), 3-ply scratchplate loaded with Seymour Duncan Alternative 8 pickup and CTS volume pot, Hipshot Fixed Bridge, Gotoh 381 tuners and Kiwi Light matte Poly (body)/matte Poly (neck) finish
Thanks Milk... And here's that green one finished ^
Getting to work on the neck for the latest (handcrafted) DC build - Alder archtop body, Black Walnut neck w/ Kemp Guitars' pointy inline headstock Ebony fretboard, Gotoh bridge and tuners, pickups TBC and Vintage White finish
More progress updates on the latest (and reintroduced, again) DC stock build. I won't post this much on future builds, as a full time builder they all go through near identical processes on a standard specification build, but this one is being made with new templates and tweaks to the original design
Checking existing logo size fits new headstock with improved "straight-pull" string angle...
FYI, I don't go for generic all-in-one templates when handcrafting my guitars. Instead, once the neck has been bolted on, bridge and pickup positions are measured out on every guitar individually for accuracy. This latest one has a recessed TOM bridge too...
It's fretwork Friday! Just made that one up, but I am genuinely hammering frets in today. This 25% N/S Sintoms Elite Series fretwire is nice enough to work with and nowhere near a pain in the arse as stainless steel fretwire to cut and file
Thin strips of veneer in various species (colours) of wood... Perfect for filling those fret slot ends without messing around with glue and dust