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Post subject: Now that Ceri has finished.... heres the Morgenstrat (PICS)
Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 12:18 am
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Soooo, ceri has left us with a memory and a half to say the least. But it's feeling kinda empty around here without a build thread thats getting updated regularly. This thread wont be updated regularly either because the builds already finished.... hopefully this will help ease the pain. So just before we jump into the pics some back story.

My friend, Morgan (hence the name of the guitar), was studying to be a doctor (do they ever finished studying) and was doing a ER/GP stint down in his home town of Albany WA (fantastic part of the country). N e way, he had the follow situation

1) Most nights off
2) All his friends + gf 400km away
3) Access to his old mans MONSTER collection of wood working tools and shed

I asked him, kinda off the cuff: "Why don't you build me a guitar". He said "Thats a great idea". SOOOOO he took the guitar I built, which was done from purchased strat templates, this one below:

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And he took it apart and started making the Morgenstrat. The idea was totally his, he loves wood work and pretty much wanted to make his job as hard as possible. He said "How about I make an EVH copy, but instead of painting it red, white and black, use Jarrah as the body, Canadian Cedar for the white stripes and Walnut for the black ones". My jaw hit the floor. N e way a couple of weeks later he was down south putting this together. He started without taking a lot of photos, so we end up starting about 1/4 into the build. We don't have any pics of the two pieces of wood being joined in the middle, but they're big cuts of Jarrah joined in the middle and put through the plane. He's then routed a bunch of thin cuts for the thin "white lines", glued them in place.

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You can also see the slots cut for the thicker white lines. Heres a couple of those going in

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With all the white lines in, he starts mocking up the headstock (this isn't the actual one that went on the body) you can see it in the bottom left of this pic.

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The body was roughly planed down, to get the cedar relatively flush with the body before routing again for the black lines: walnut.

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It was all then taken down to a flat finish

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Work began on the actual neck, again with jarrah

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Testing to see how it looks

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Shaping

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Inlaying

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More shaping. All done by eying it up, feeling it out.

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Some better shots of the sanded body, the edges have been routed

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Fretboard, Ebony from StewMac

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Getting there :)

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Fretboard gluing and fretting

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With no template to go from for the bridge (scale length is that of a gibson, not a fender, to facilitate bending with thicker strings) the bridge placement had to be measured out.

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Pickup placement and routing

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Snugg fit :)

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Pickup in

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Lining up the pot, you can see the bridge and string holes have been drilled already

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Fancy little recess for the strings and all. Yes, this makes string changes mid gig a no no. Guitar gets put down till the set is over if I lose a string

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Electronics going in

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I have redone the wiring to make it correct, so don't worry about looking at this pic and going "UMMMMM"

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Electronics... Check! Bridge... Check! Jackplate... Check!

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Neck dots

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Finishing the body.

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Now I know that some people wouldn't consider this a full build thread without the pics of the Workshop Supervisor:

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And the Carpenter's fuel:

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(for those playing at home, after receiving this guitar I bought him a 25 year old glenfiddich)

So. The finished guitar

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Now, tragically the neck didn't have a thick enough finish on it, was made of not properly aged piece of wood or had a curse put on it. It warped in a splendid fashion. So off to warmoth.com and a Birds Eye maple neck was purchased, dots on the side. And heres what it looks like today. Ohh the body was also sanded back and refinished to give it a much darker look.

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I have now become blissfully aware that there are no REALLY REALLY nice photos of the Morgenstrat. So I will take some right now, and post them up later tonight.

Big thanks must go out to Dr Morgan for his amazing effort on this truly wonderful instrument. Pickup is a Seymour Duncan PAF incase you're wondering. Tuners are gotohs. Ohh and I chose the pickup placement for the following reason: Yes it looks a little far forward, but jarrah is a hard hard hard hard wood, and research shows that guitars aren't made of this wood often because of the higher pitched tones that resonate from jarrah. So the pickup was moved forward to try and combat the overly shrill tones. It worked incase you're wondering.

Dan

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Last edited by Impulse7 on Sat May 08, 2010 12:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 12:37 am
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Hello!

Nice build mate. The cedar and walnut inlays look great! looking forward to more pics!

Thanks

Andy

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 12:50 am
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Right, some better looking pics

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 2:55 am
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Sweeeeet!

The inlays really do look good! A very nice job.

25 year old Glenfiddich is a very nice drop indeed, though I have to say I'm a Woodford Reserve man myself!

Thanks again

Andy

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 3:46 am
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Whoa, Mr Impulse, thank you for this! :D

So much to look at in these pictures, and many thoughts arising.

I see how he's done the pickup route from the front. That's clever - and noted. I doubt I'd have thought of doing it that way. Neat.

There was once a gentleman here who posted pix of a homebuild he'd done with inlaid lines in a similar way. (Can't remember his username, but I believe he was in Scandinavia...) But he wasn't trying to emulate an EVH, and his work was much simpler: few lines. Yours is the ultimate in this particular department - kudos to you both! 8)

I'm worrying about your string changes mid-set. Could you not put some holes or a slot into that rear coverplate, like on a Fender backplate, to allow access to the strings? A simple solution that would mean the plate didn't need to be unscrewed all the time...?

I don't see a trussrod arriving in the pics. No skunk stripe, so it went in under the fingerboard with adjustment at the heel - right?

I'm surprised the jarrah warped. I've never used it but I thought it was meant to be very stable? Still, that's a fab birdseye on the Warmoth neck, so every cloud...

I'm seeing a nice looking Japanese saw in the fourth pic down. Cool! Any other pictures of this "MONSTER collection of wood working tools" you'd care to show? Hungry eyes are waiting! :lol:

SO MUCH more to discuss - but I mustn't be greedy. Others will ask...

Big credit to you and Mr Morgan. Tasty work! Thank you!

Now, enjoy that geet!!!

:D - C


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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 3:50 am
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Nice work, thanks for sharing................... 8) Mike

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 6:00 am
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Excellent indeed. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with us. Maybe one day well be able to walk into our local music shop and see the new line of Ceri-Morgan guitars...HOW cool would that be ??

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 6:28 am
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I can see why your jaw dropped ^^

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 7:10 am
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Thats awesome!:P

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 7:51 am
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Nice work!

I think we might need a builder's forum soon.

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 8:06 am
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Miami Mike wrote:
Nice work!

I think we might need a builder's forum soon.

+1

Great Idea!

Andy

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 8:49 am
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Now that was a great idea!

Nice look.

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 9:25 am
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Thanks for sharing! That is one beautiful guitar :lol:

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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 9:33 am
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Very enjoyable thread!! Thanks so much for posting and sharing your build with us. Such a nice change up!! :wink: 8)


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Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 10:19 am
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Very, very cool, Impulse7. I showed one of the finished pictures to my wife, who is normally unmoved by guitar porn. She said, "Oh, that is gorgeous!" High praise indeed! 8)

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