Aluminum Guitar

[big_mak]

here's a shot of my first crack.

Making them for a customer, First order was for one, then 3 next one for Five

[Kipper]

How cool is that

[big_mak]

A couple more pics.

Thanks Kipper.

Finished off with a Carvin neck, EMG pickups(A la Zakk Wylde) and a Hipshot Bridge, and Special Gotoh Tuners for some reason imported from Japan.

[Stepper Monkey]

Now can you do that with an SG-style body? I need a unique body for an EB0 (SG bodied 4-string Bass). That is really unspeakably hip.

Would there be any technical reason you could not have a decent performing neck and headstock made that way too? Probably need a heavier truss rod, but is there a technical reason you couldn't have it play well?

If you could make an all-Aluminum Bass with a carbon composite fingerboard it would be just, pardon the pun, "totally metal"....

PM me if you can do more of this kind of work - I can't hog out that much metal on my equipment!

[Kipper]

I was wondering how nice one would look anodised! (Just had to take another look)

[big_mak]

I believe that anodizing will bring out the grain structure in the material so it would get duller. Clear powder coat may keeps its lustere.

I've done lots of cosmetic ally stuff, and seen them after the customer specified clear anodize, and it still looks nice, but not as nice as straight off the machine when they were turned with a diamond tool.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by big_mak I believe that anodizing will bring out the grain structure in the material so it would get duller. Clear powder coat may keeps its lustere. I've done lots of cosmetic ally stuff, and seen them after the customer specified clear anodize, and it still looks nice, but not as nice as straight off the machine when they were turned with a diamond tool.

Correctly. done anodizing will maintain the luster. Actually with some alloys you can polish to a mirror finish and maintain the gloss through anodizing.

The picture is not very good quality but you can see the reflective highlights on the as-machined part and similar highlights on the black anodized part. This was simply washed after machining then anodized.

[big_mak]

I hear you Geoff, its a matter of the guys locally being able to do it right.

There's a customer of mine, who's gone to a local guy here. The whole run of parts was from the same bar, and there were so many diferences from part to part, that the anodiser was trying to tell this guy, that the parts were cut from different bars.

Some times they are good, and some times they aren't. What can you do with guys like this. Poor Guy was send lots of four parts to his customers, and had to sort through the lot, and match them up the best he could.

Maybe what I saw spent too much time in the etching process??????

[Suzuki]

I like it! What a great idea!

Suzuki

[js11110]

My question is- How heavy is that guitar? I know when I play for awhile my guitar gets HEAVY. I couldn't imagine playing a gig with that.

Jason

[dertsap]

puts a whole new meaning to playing metal
nice work !

hope to start my warlock soon

[Stepper Monkey]

Originally Posted by js11110 My question is- How heavy is that guitar? I know when I play for awhile my guitar gets HEAVY. I couldn't imagine playing a gig with that. Jason

From what I understand the bodies on even large aluminum Basses only start at about 30 oz. if you machine them to around .125". Especially leaving any extra metal in there for internal ribbing that is way sturdy enough to knock down a brick wall and still lighter than most wood bodies.
I can't imagine playing one someone didin't hollow out though!

I found a source for aluminum necks, too. Apparently there are a number of manufacturers of them, they have quite a following. They too are pretty light as they are hollowed out under the fingerboards to varying degrees. They don't need a truss rod, either.