I love seeing your craftsmanship in action. That guitar is gonna be an absolutely stunning piece of work when finished (which, I'm sure has already happened). Great video and thank you for sharing!
I just love watching your videos, you are so passionate in your work and you make such pieces of art, and that is amazing. I been wanting to make my own guitar for a long time now, but every time something jumps and bites my idea and throws it in the drawer. Please continue doing what you do because your sir are inspiration!
Nice work Ben. Couple jems of tips here in this one. We all make mistakes by getting ahead of ourselves or whatever. But it's not a "mistake", if it doesn't go out the door that way.... all about the recovery. Cheers.
Can you do a demo please sir 🙏 Been scouring the interwebs for a les paul fitted with schaller hannes bridge and couldn't find any (except here) much less a sound demo!
Hi guys. I am about to change trem on my mex strat or maybe just a trem block. I was wondering, does material of trem block afects on sustain and string resonance therefore is it worth to spend a 150$ on a higher quality material?
If you know anyone who sells vintage tools, get a router plane. :-) That's excellent in leveling cavity bottoms. I would not drill both ends through. Only one end, then use that hole to locate the backplate and set it straight, make the cavity and drill the 5 other holes from both sides. When you drill both ends through, there is a risk that they go in different directions and you then need to fix the holes to match the plate. Or you can trust your measuring skills and drill all 6 holes from both sides. That way you will certainly be centered. In our "From engineer to luthier" series :-)
Lovely work Ben I'm planning on a project of my own building a set neck arch top 6 string bass emulating the one designed by Ibanez for Stephen 'Thundercat' Bruner and I was wondering how shallow I could make the bod and if I would have to change the shape and thickness of the soundboard much or just copy the proportions of a traditional arch top on a larger scale?
At the point where the video ends, would it not be a good idea to drill the hole for the ground wire to the string anchor plate from the control cavity? Or do you plan to do that after finishing?
Seems it would have been a good idea to label or place the saddles in order to account for fretboard radius, unless of course they are numbered. I'm assuming you measured them off camera after tossing them randomly in the bin after removal.
i have done a piezzo Hannes 7 string and there is a cavity and a hole for the wiring missing from the top ... btw it looks great but it has a limited height adjustment for strings... strings can go only up .. not down, so you can end up with your strings being too high from the fretboard and you cannot do anything about it
Geez Ben, you were pushing so hard, with your 100 years old drill, on that tiny drill bit that it bent. Still, great work and real enjoyment to watch. Love your tutorials. BTW its radii, not radiuses;)
I know it is s metrical but you flipped the base plate. There are two more holes to drill for fixing screws. Does it matter for mounting the plate if the screws are on the bridge side or facing back of the body?
No need to dowel the holes. Put drill bit in the chuck the same size as the hole. Lower the drill while turned off, into the hole to centre it. Clamp the body to drill table while still centered. Lift drill, put a bigger size drill in chuck. Then drill. It will be centered
Laying the guitar perfectly flat on a soft surface like foam, or several folded towels would've made a lot of the drilling easier, perfectly veritcal and more accurate, rather than doing so at an angle with neck on a rest.
When this started (beginning of Part 1) I was wondering how the bridge would be solidly mounted, but as things progressed, it soon became apparent that all the screw holes went through the solid ebony portion of the through-neck. How critical is the width of the ebony (neck wood) in relation to the width of the mounting portion of the bridge? Or just that there is solid wood to mount the bridge to (esp considering it might not be a through-neck body)?
My question was more about insuring the bridge bolts went through a solid part of the body and not a hollow portion, and how important it was to physically couple the bridge to the solid wood that makes up the neck.
He was basically marking were they go, if you watched the whole video, which assuming you did, you would have seen that he took the guitar over to a drill press.
How does one go about grounding individual string ferrules? My first build is going to be started later on this year once I have a new roof on my workshop and I love the look through body strings. I am only building the body myself as for my first build I want to have a working neck that I may only need to do some fret work on as I'm not confident enough yet that I could have a neck good enough. I was going to purchase a kit from crimson guitars to start with but it seems you don't stock a prs style kit and that's what I really want.
Hi Dave, The issue with grounding individual string ferrules comes with this particular bridge, because the saddles arent made out of metal, so just soldering a wire to the bridge isn't an option. So with that being said, if you're using a tuneomatic or a hipshot hardtail or something along those lines regular bridge grounding soldering a wire to your bridge will do just fine, but also, if you're using this bridge with ferrules instead of the plate for whatever reason, Ben's done a video on that too, I'm sure if you look for crimson guitars schaller you'll find it. Cheers. Let me know if you have more questions.
Rumba Chumba excellent thank you for the information. I will look into both as if rather be armed with the right information and decent quality neck before I set out on this first build. My other question is that of where in the UK is the best place for hardwoods that the general public can purchase from . My closest wood supplier only stocks very small amounts of red wood hard wood the rest is pretty poor quality framing materials . I would like to do a book matched top on.
Warmoth Necks are top notch and quality at a great price in my opinion, about the wood I wouldn't know i live in Mexico so no idea about the UK. Although, some people like Fletcher from fletchers handcrafted guitars get their wood tops and veneers from ebay. and stewmac sells body and neck blanks
Rumba Chumba hadn't thought about eBay at least not for the top. I'm also not very trusting of some of the sellers and the quality of things received to those advertised. But I will do some more scouting around for a supplier. I seem to come across trade only suppliers rather than somewhere I can go and pick the wood myself and not get ripped off with being overcharged for the privilege. Thanks again I really appreciate your help and advice
Why have we never seen you build an acoustic classic guitar? Or cut out/rout out an electric guitar? You working with kits? You hardly need all these tools on your walls to build electric guitars. I am kind of beginning to wonder if it's just for (the) show?
So Schaller have produced a bridge which looks nice, but is ridiculously difficult to install. I don't want one. Plus, that block on the back which sits in for string ferrules needs two screws to hold it in place, and that's not going to look nice because they're just forced into the design by necessity.
Not really, Ben just didn't think ahead, or look at all the parts, or how they're really supposed to go together before hand so he had to do a lot of fixes, on the fly. He also nearly ran out of room on the through-neck portion that holds the string bar. Had he taken the time to get all of the hardware before hand, then build to accommodate it from the start, this would've gone much smoother. As ever, "a stitch in time saves nine". While I do watch most of the vids, a lot of what he does is rather amateurish and due to lack of foresight. Tom and Christopher are the ones you want to watch to see how things should be done the right way.
I love seeing your craftsmanship in action. That guitar is gonna be an absolutely stunning piece of work when finished (which, I'm sure has already happened). Great video and thank you for sharing!
My absolute favorite guitar you've done, love to see a start to finish with metal powder inlay and everything
I just love watching your videos, you are so passionate in your work and you make such pieces of art, and that is amazing. I been wanting to make my own guitar for a long time now, but every time something jumps and bites my idea and throws it in the drawer. Please continue doing what you do because your sir are inspiration!
I'm usually not a big LP-style fan, but my god that guitar is a beauty.
Thank you, I'm really enjoying this build! B
Nice work Ben.
Couple jems of tips here in this one.
We all make mistakes by getting ahead of ourselves or whatever. But it's not a "mistake", if it doesn't go out the door that way.... all about the recovery.
Cheers.
Beautiful work Ben!
That is going to be a sweet looking guitar.
There are those of us that don't have a router. I'd love to see you build a complete guitar from scratch using only hand tools.
It would take him about 2 years
some great videography going on here!
Any tool is a hammer as long as it's the boss's tool.
Er, what about the wires to each of the piezo in the saddles? where do they go?
Can you do a demo please sir 🙏
Been scouring the interwebs for a les paul fitted with schaller hannes bridge and couldn't find any (except here) much less a sound demo!
Hey Ben. Love it. How about a tutorial showing how you would have made the router template?
I’m trying to figure out how to adjust the action on my Schaller Hannes bridge. The neck is good. It is a huge pain
Hi guys. I am about to change trem on my mex strat or maybe just a trem block. I was wondering, does material of trem block afects on sustain and string resonance therefore is it worth to spend a 150$ on a higher quality material?
If you know anyone who sells vintage tools, get a router plane. :-) That's excellent in leveling cavity bottoms. I would not drill both ends through. Only one end, then use that hole to locate the backplate and set it straight, make the cavity and drill the 5 other holes from both sides. When you drill both ends through, there is a risk that they go in different directions and you then need to fix the holes to match the plate. Or you can trust your measuring skills and drill all 6 holes from both sides. That way you will certainly be centered. In our "From engineer to luthier" series :-)
Lovely work Ben I'm planning on a project of my own building a set neck arch top 6 string bass emulating the one designed by Ibanez for Stephen 'Thundercat' Bruner and I was wondering how shallow I could make the bod and if I would have to change the shape and thickness of the soundboard much or just copy the proportions of a traditional arch top on a larger scale?
At the point where the video ends, would it not be a good idea to drill the hole for the ground wire to the string anchor plate from the control cavity? Or do you plan to do that after finishing?
Well done. This isn’t the bridge to install if you’re a first-timer. Hipshot hardtail is a good one to start w.
Seems it would have been a good idea to label or place the saddles in order to account for fretboard radius, unless of course they are numbered.
I'm assuming you measured them off camera after tossing them randomly in the bin after removal.
i have done a piezzo Hannes 7 string and there is a cavity and a hole for the wiring missing from the top ... btw it looks great but it has a limited height adjustment for strings... strings can go only up .. not down, so you can end up with your strings being too high from the fretboard and you cannot do anything about it
Brutal. Done.
Geez Ben, you were pushing so hard, with your 100 years old drill, on that tiny drill bit that it bent. Still, great work and real enjoyment to watch. Love your tutorials. BTW its radii, not radiuses;)
Or maybe diameter even?! :D But who cares as long as it ends up being the correct size... Love the work Ben!
I know it is s metrical but you flipped the base plate. There are two more holes to drill for fixing screws. Does it matter for mounting the plate if the screws are on the bridge side or facing back of the body?
"Berate me in the comments" .... that is my life motto
It happens on the regular to me! B
No need to dowel the holes. Put drill bit in the chuck the same size as the hole. Lower the drill while turned off, into the hole to centre it. Clamp the body to drill table while still centered. Lift drill, put a bigger size drill in chuck. Then drill. It will be centered
Great video, but, you didn't use the router in order to keep it "accessible" but a pillar drill is still needed!
always use protection to stop the spooging Ben ;)
Ebony. Love it. Hate it. Cheers! Chris.
small pin nails in the outer holes of the saddle would hold it perfectly stationary instead of the tape..
Laying the guitar perfectly flat on a soft surface like foam, or several folded towels would've made a lot of the drilling easier, perfectly veritcal and more accurate, rather than doing so at an angle with neck on a rest.
When this started (beginning of Part 1) I was wondering how the bridge would be solidly mounted, but as things progressed, it soon became apparent that all the screw holes went through the solid ebony portion of the through-neck. How critical is the width of the ebony (neck wood) in relation to the width of the mounting portion of the bridge? Or just that there is solid wood to mount the bridge to (esp considering it might not be a through-neck body)?
My question was more about insuring the bridge bolts went through a solid part of the body and not a hollow portion, and how important it was to physically couple the bridge to the solid wood that makes up the neck.
I love Ben but that initial drilling of the string holes looked really sloppy - a lot of movement.
He was basically marking were they go, if you watched the whole video, which assuming you did, you would have seen that he took the guitar over to a drill press.
Get some transfer punches!
Basically the Schaller Hannes is way more trouble than it's worth. Might as well use a hipshot hardtail lol
So we earth the back string plate?
Yes.. B
How does one go about grounding individual string ferrules? My first build is going to be started later on this year once I have a new roof on my workshop and I love the look through body strings. I am only building the body myself as for my first build I want to have a working neck that I may only need to do some fret work on as I'm not confident enough yet that I could have a neck good enough. I was going to purchase a kit from crimson guitars to start with but it seems you don't stock a prs style kit and that's what I really want.
Hi Dave, The issue with grounding individual string ferrules comes with this particular bridge, because the saddles arent made out of metal, so just soldering a wire to the bridge isn't an option. So with that being said, if you're using a tuneomatic or a hipshot hardtail or something along those lines regular bridge grounding soldering a wire to your bridge will do just fine, but also, if you're using this bridge with ferrules instead of the plate for whatever reason, Ben's done a video on that too, I'm sure if you look for crimson guitars schaller you'll find it. Cheers. Let me know if you have more questions.
Also a good source for necks could be warmoth guitars, tons of custom options at a reasonable price.
Rumba Chumba excellent thank you for the information. I will look into both as if rather be armed with the right information and decent quality neck before I set out on this first build. My other question is that of where in the UK is the best place for hardwoods that the general public can purchase from . My closest wood supplier only stocks very small amounts of red wood hard wood the rest is pretty poor quality framing materials . I would like to do a book matched top on.
Warmoth Necks are top notch and quality at a great price in my opinion, about the wood I wouldn't know i live in Mexico so no idea about the UK. Although, some people like Fletcher from fletchers handcrafted guitars get their wood tops and veneers from ebay. and stewmac sells body and neck blanks
Rumba Chumba hadn't thought about eBay at least not for the top. I'm also not very trusting of some of the sellers and the quality of things received to those advertised. But I will do some more scouting around for a supplier. I seem to come across trade only suppliers rather than somewhere I can go and pick the wood myself and not get ripped off with being overcharged for the privilege. Thanks again I really appreciate your help and advice
Why have we never seen you build an acoustic classic guitar? Or cut out/rout out an electric guitar? You working with kits?
You hardly need all these tools on your walls to build electric guitars. I am kind of beginning to wonder if it's just for (the) show?
Preciff Preciss Precisely, thirteen mil. The Irony. Nice Guitar though Ben.
So Schaller have produced a bridge which looks nice, but is ridiculously difficult to install. I don't want one. Plus, that block on the back which sits in for string ferrules needs two screws to hold it in place, and that's not going to look nice because they're just forced into the design by necessity.
Not really, Ben just didn't think ahead, or look at all the parts, or how they're really supposed to go together before hand so he had to do a lot of fixes, on the fly. He also nearly ran out of room on the through-neck portion that holds the string bar. Had he taken the time to get all of the hardware before hand, then build to accommodate it from the start, this would've gone much smoother. As ever, "a stitch in time saves nine".
While I do watch most of the vids, a lot of what he does is rather amateurish and due to lack of foresight. Tom and Christopher are the ones you want to watch to see how things should be done the right way.
These were invented by Lie Valley and christened "countersunk washers"
A lot of work for just a fixed bridge .. - Daniella.
if its being problematic --> i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/561/686/2c0.jpg
Template anyone? schaller.info/en/hannes-bridge
all that ebony dust going to waste :(
That's what I thought!
"We need to be a little bit clever"
Well, I'm out.
Why, the disturbing terrible music?