Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:40 pm
Hello all,
O.K., I know this isn't an organ, but perhaps demonstrates what we Hauptwerkians have in common and are capable of when we put our minds to it. I continue to enjoy seeing and am amazed by all the outstanding projects turned out here by the skilled HW users here on the forum, and I thought a few of you DIY'ers might enjoy seeing this. I hope Brett is OK with me posting this. Besides a huge interest in organs for a very long time (and now I have one thanks to HW!), I've also tinkered with guitars for years, and for a long time have wanted to try my hand at building a guitar completely from scratch. Other than the fretboard, some of the hardware and the electronics robbed from an old beater guitar the kids broke years ago, I built the entire thing, including the neck. I did order new (very good) Grover locking machine head tuners, and a tuneable Gibson style bridge and stop tail piece. I've always wanted a Gibson Les Paul, but the top of the line models that I desire are waaaay out of my price range, so I decided to build one similar in design, and yes it's as notoriously heavy as the real thing!
I started with 3/4" pieces of maple, mahogany, and 1/4" oak from the local home improvement store and went to work. This project took me about a month to build, and after staining I decided this time to finish it off with laquer instead of oil varnish. Now if someone can show me how to hook it up to HW, I'm all ears! 
I started with the maple for the neck, here I'm cutting the angle for the head, I then used the wedge that was cut out, flipped it over and glued it to the back side to create the angled head.
The neck after several hours of cutting, shaping and sanding.
Fretboard with nut installed, there is a truss rod inside I can adjust to keep the neck straight.
Various steps / stages of the project, the body required laminating 3 layers of wood, 2 layers in 3/4" top and bottom, and one layer of 1/4" sandwiched in between for a total of 1-3/4". Lots of clamping and glue!
Here it is along side it's new room mate!
Surprisingly it only took a minor amount of adjusting and it plays beautifully and sounds really nice, even the intonation is very good and I have yet to adjust it. I couldn't be happier with the outcome for a first attempt! Thanks for looking.
Marc
O.K., I know this isn't an organ, but perhaps demonstrates what we Hauptwerkians have in common and are capable of when we put our minds to it. I continue to enjoy seeing and am amazed by all the outstanding projects turned out here by the skilled HW users here on the forum, and I thought a few of you DIY'ers might enjoy seeing this. I hope Brett is OK with me posting this. Besides a huge interest in organs for a very long time (and now I have one thanks to HW!), I've also tinkered with guitars for years, and for a long time have wanted to try my hand at building a guitar completely from scratch. Other than the fretboard, some of the hardware and the electronics robbed from an old beater guitar the kids broke years ago, I built the entire thing, including the neck. I did order new (very good) Grover locking machine head tuners, and a tuneable Gibson style bridge and stop tail piece. I've always wanted a Gibson Les Paul, but the top of the line models that I desire are waaaay out of my price range, so I decided to build one similar in design, and yes it's as notoriously heavy as the real thing!
I started with 3/4" pieces of maple, mahogany, and 1/4" oak from the local home improvement store and went to work. This project took me about a month to build, and after staining I decided this time to finish it off with laquer instead of oil varnish. Now if someone can show me how to hook it up to HW, I'm all ears! I started with the maple for the neck, here I'm cutting the angle for the head, I then used the wedge that was cut out, flipped it over and glued it to the back side to create the angled head.
The neck after several hours of cutting, shaping and sanding.
Fretboard with nut installed, there is a truss rod inside I can adjust to keep the neck straight.
Various steps / stages of the project, the body required laminating 3 layers of wood, 2 layers in 3/4" top and bottom, and one layer of 1/4" sandwiched in between for a total of 1-3/4". Lots of clamping and glue!
Here it is along side it's new room mate!
Surprisingly it only took a minor amount of adjusting and it plays beautifully and sounds really nice, even the intonation is very good and I have yet to adjust it. I couldn't be happier with the outcome for a first attempt! Thanks for looking.
Marc
I wonder if I can bend a pontifical trumpet. 
