Lets have fun with a guitar build

Hey everyone,

I am inviting you along for the ride as I build my first guitar. I just ordered a Solo LP copy from a company in Canada. I will record a series of videos in progressive steps from ordering to build. And as I am hoping we can have some fun with this I welcome any suggestions on color scheme. The only caveat being I do want the grain of the wood to show through so no solid colors.

Link to the 1st video is here:

Video 1 is here

William

Hi William,

This is something I've always wanted to do! Thanks for sharing! Hopefully it turns out well :D

-Billy

Thanks Billy, how hard can it be eh?

Good direction to go methinks William (Bill?). Following your adventure with curiosity piqued.

Colour is so personally subjective, I wouldn't dare suggest other than for me. I do like flame tops though, and would suggest you can still see the matching stain and wood grain everywhere else through either a translucent or clear finish.

On quality guitars for a reasonable price.

Someone I'd call a friend of mine rather than aquaintance (he's 73 next birthday) recently ordered - since received (early 05/19), an ES-335 hollow body style guitar from a Chinese manufacturer through Alibaba. Landed to his door, as I recall it owed him around the AUD$400 mark, presently about USD$275.

I've only seen his pic of it so far, as he headed off with his wife on a six week OS world holiday jaunt a day or two after receiving it, I haven't had his report on how it plays or how its pickups sound yet. Spec is good. He's an experienced guitarist with multiple guitars, both electric and acoustic. We first played together back in '74 when we were both young wanna' be army subalterns on officers' course together, so I've known him a while, and well though our lives ultimately took different career paths. I suspect he is also an INTJ. He did tell me not long ago discussing when something on another tangent.

[u]The interesting aspect relative to your build[/u] is, I think the motivation for him to buy A. off Alibaba from China direct, and B. what is really a bit of a pig in a poke when he could have bought a Harley Benton with surety and safety from reputable Thomann fielding the guaranteed QC was the irresistable allure to him of the Gibson name and logo inlayed on an exact Gibson shaped headstock. The faked serial and "Made in USA" stamped on the reverse weren't really important to him AFAIK as he didn't buy for the purpose of resale with intent to defraud. Of course, this Chinese company is unethical in what they're doing, but their continued success selling into western markets, particularly the US where they seem to be successful getting them past customs regardless they are a forgery, just illustrates how strong the pull of perceived transferred kudos associated with a label is.

Good luck with the project. Sounds like a winner. Quality components assembled and finished with Canadian craftsmanship - hopefully, with care and local support.

PS. Is that you riding the motorcycle in the photo in the background of your YT vid?

Thanks manXcat. Solo seems to have good reviews with what appears to be a good return policy should there be a problem. I am looking forward to it and will be sure to report what I find when the package arrives tomorrow.

Yes that is me in the pic. Here is a better pic from a few years ago

Very nice trackside 'hero' shot. I like it.

What's the bike? Some kinda' Buell or Aprilia? From what I can make out of the cylinders & bottom end/transmission case, it has the chunky Benelli or Laverda transverse inline styling. And is that a massive steering damper lying transverse just above the induction inlet in the image? I can't quite make it out from the image size. Beefy rear swingarm, but where are the front discs?!!!! I can't see one on the port side nearest camera, nor for that matter make one out on the starboard. Photoshopped out, or optical illusion with them spinning?

I won't derail this thread off its topic further, but this is another passion we have in common. My two enduring loves - naturally, after my wife of course, aviation and motorcycles. I've been a motorcycle fanatic, yes you could definitely label me that, since I bought my first at 19. Been riding ever since. I still own two, was still very active on them up until about a decade ago. I've only recently decided it's time to call "time" on them, as I only know one way to ride. Deployed that "lucky" previously mentioned for a long time. I don't want to abuse the relationship with her.

My goodness, we do have a lot in common. And derail away, we are just having a friendly chat over common interest.

I began riding at 14 and have been riding since, both road and off road. I still have a few bikes, but osteoarthritus in my neck of all places has really put a damper on my riding habits. This is the 1st year in a long while that I have not had 12 consecutive months of riding in. The cold weather hits in earnest by December but I have always prided myself in taking a bike out regardless of the temps at least 1 day per month just so I can say I was out. I never had to go far, just get out. But this year I didn't start riding until Feb something, completely missing January. Like you my wife is priority and like you I am a self described bike nut! I love them, can't go long without wanting to ride, read about or watch videos on them.

So the bike. It is a Buell XB12 and there is a good story behind it... I had always wanted to road race. I had done some motocross early on and wanted to do some road racing back then as well but I could not afford 2 masters and then life hit and I couldnt do either. However, in 2011 I decided if I was ever going to road race I had better get at it. We have a road race track 5 hours drive from me in the next province. They teach high performance riding skills with the ability to gets one race license. So I determined I would take the course and get my license to race. But what bike? I decided the bike had to above all provide as great a room for rider error as possible. Which frankly led me to the Buell and the engine which was derived from a Harley Davidson. I had ridden HD's before and knew that engine wasn't going to do anything in a hurry which gave me a great deal of confidence as I knew I would not have to be overly concerned about high siding, which is a common error with new racers who get in over there heads and grab too much throttle on a modern 4 cylinder or high strung twin (like my VTR).

So yes that is a huge Ohlins steering dampner you see. Absolutely criticial on the bike once the tiller bars are removed and something more akin to clips are installed. When Eric Buell designed the bike, so the story goes, he wanted to mirror the geometry of a 250cc motogp bike. So when sitting on the bike, the front wheel dissapears below you and it seems you are just looking straight down over the bars. I forget the steering head angle but its very sharp. (I just did a quick Google search, apparently its 21 degrees). So without the steering damper the bike is extraordinarly twitchy.

The front rotor is massive and only on the throttle side. It is incredibly strong and with proper pads fading is not a problem. I ran EBC race pads.

The engine is a dry sump design, with the swing arm holding the engine oil. Tranny oil is held in the transmission itself.

The frame holds the fuel. I crashed the bike several times and can say that no leaks in either developed.

I finished the 2011 season with a few races under my belt but had to drop out in 2012 because of the osteoarthritus in my neck. But luckily I had gotten the experience of racing on a road track. I have tremendous memories of that experience.

You have some great riders in Aus. Mr 5 time world champ Mick Doohan. Gardner and Stoner. Too bad Stoner dropped out when he did. It would have been great to see him contnue during the Marquez era. And Phillp Island is one of my favorite tracks. Not sure if you follow Motogp, I never miss a race.

Had some idiosyncratic GT forum posting issues, so removed most of the readability enhancing formatting which seemed to resolve them.

Do I follow MotoGP?

See if these hint to you whether I might - or not.

My remaining two rides, both owned and ridden since new. Flogged the beegeezus out of both over the years I do all my own maintenance including rebuilds. I had to hunt around for some images. The only ones I could locate reasonably quickly without sending out a search party, these aren't the best, but will serve to illustrate the point.

I have owned big capacity sports before, e.g.750SS Desmo & 860GTS Ducatis along with a bevy of Japanese others over the years back in the day, and could have bought an Aprilia Mille 1000 or GSX-R 750 at the time instead of those illustrated below. e.g. Owned by mates of mine, I have ridden both of those big bores and with them, extensively, but [u]I prefer rapiers to broadswords[/u] and bought these instead at the time, respectively early '86, mid 2000. Never regretted it. Touch wood, neither have been down the road yet, although I've had many 'interesting moments' over the years, on, and off the track.

The RGV is stable ...until its upset. A lot of people fit steering dampers to them, and they have the lugs prewelded on the frame head OOTC. I didn't as I detest dampers because A. I like very quick steering, and B. can't abide the loss of road feel on the front end a steering damper imparts.The acceleration of the RG's 500 square four in the particular to 200kph is always bemusing in how it catches out those overconfident in their big bores. Of course it can't compete above 220kph (247kph terminal tucked stock) when the opportunity presents to wind it up past that in a straight line of course, but everywhere else it eats them for breakfast, even today mostly, and at just 154KG dry, is still competitive under brakes -when I have use them, even with its tiny 240mm front rotors. Its biggest handicap today lies its bias ply tyre profile as I can't obtain the same lean angles or cornering footprint as I can with the RGV running a modern radial profile tyre rim. Except on the racetrack it doesn't matter though, as out on the street even with the 'boy racers' it becomes largely academic. There are exceptions of course. I ride with them. ;P But IME over the years most riders talk the talk much better than they can walk the walk or twist the wrist. Anyway without further ado;

My 'first born' ...hahaha..rides like it looks.

Suzuki RG500 Gamma

128KG dry.72PS claimed, dynos at 70. Requires high corner speeds - of which it is well and truly capable, although to render those capabilities, its RPM needs to be maintained in a narrow band between 10,000-11,000RPM +/-500RPM through constant gearbox manipulation. Far [u]more challenging[/u] to ride than the RG500. The [u]mental workload[/u] is extremely high and it requires a far higher level of competence, confidence and experience to ride at the top of in its envelope, hence its reputation as a 'kid killer'. No longer produced of course, long ago taken off the learner legal capacity and initial license issue permissible lists. I love it.

Do I follow MotoGP? Kinda'. Zealously up until it went four stroke and was renamed MotoGP. As you can see where my heart lies. Suck and blow, the other two cycles are redundant AFAIC. =] I still follow it, but not sure if its my age or the current composition, especially with the 250 two strokes gone which used to show the up and comers and feature the closest most exciting racing, I don't find the racing half as interesting in the four stroke era even if some of the personalities still are.

Ok. 2cnd time. I just lost 20 minutes of typing. Touch screens and clumsy fingers. I’ll have to try and remember what I had said...

I remember the RG series very well and Randy Mamola.

I give up. Need my lap top...

Barry Sheene (UK) and Stu Avant (AU) were the prominent RG exponents I recall during the square four era. But now that you mention Randy, whom I well remember.

I think Randy was with Yamaha with Eddie Lawson before he switched to Suzuki circa 1980 to escape Eddie's dominance. They were the ultimate team personality mismatch. Randy was always entertaining. Eddie OTOH was a [u]great[/u] rider, very cool under pressure and delivered. Wayne Rainey similarly, but could present it with a personality.

Kevin Schwantz, an you either 'love him or hate him' kind of personality - I love him, was fabulously entertaining, but he rode 500GP for Suzuki during the the V era not the square four era, and the Suzuki team had nowhere near the budget to expend on tech development that Honda or Yamaha did, or do. Hell's bells. Kawasaki wouldn't even play in the 500GP for that reason. Schwantz performed miracles on what he was given to ride. Even won the WC on the Pepsi Suzuki RGV500 one year (1993) as I recall which was nothing short of a miracle and a testament to his riding given Suzuki's relative budget.

Originally Posted by: William MG

Ok. 2cnd time. I just lost 20 minutes of typing. Touch screens and clumsy fingers. I’ll have to try and remember what I had said...

I give up. Need my lap top...

Haha..take your time. REALLY ...I do need to stop typing NOW, get up from this PC and go put that second finish coat of paint on my music studio feature wall to finish it. Ciao for now.

ok, have lap top now. As I was saying I have always had a soft spot for two strokes mostly in concept, not always practice. My last motocross bike was just at the end of the air cooled era, an '81 Kawasaki KX420. The industry was moving towards more complication with water cooled engines. I appreciated the benefits of them on paper but they brought more than I felt a club racer like myself hardly needed. Both in terms of power and complications. Truth be told most of us would have done well if we had concentrated our efforts on mastering 125cc bikes as only a few of us could fully master a 250 let alone an open classer.

Having said this, I appreciate the RG series for what it was, and also the Yamaha RZ. It was during this same era that Honda had developed the NR500 for Freddie Spencer. I remember reading a very good article on the bike - I believe it was written by Kevin Cameron of Cycle Magazine. But it may have also been in Cycle World, which would not have been Kevin at that time and right now I can't remember who their technical editor was. But no matter, the article went into great detail explaining why it was so important for Honda to develop a machine that was really a technical marvel at the time and I believe still is. It spoke of the BMP (brake means effective pressure I think) within a 2 stroke engine and a 4 stroke engine and how the 2 stroke of Kenny Roberts was essentially understressed, whereas the Honda was severly overstressed. It went on to described that acceration forces metals of the time could take etc. It was amazing. I wish I had an engineers appitude to be able to take it all in, but suffice to say, Mr Honda wanted to win on 4 strokes and that is what the engineers were tasked with.

I am with you on the talky talk thing. Its an insecurity issue within an individual. I think we benefit by being with those of superior talent, not so that we can make believe that we are like them, but because we can learn from them and improve our own personal game. As you have track experience I know you can appreciate this. Back in 2011 just after I had gotten my licence to race and started entering races, I chummed up with a racer who was 3rd in overall standings and had been for several years. Steve and I had good chemistry and always found each other at the track. Steve and I walked the track one night and he showed me his braking markers. It was incomprehensible to me at that time. But then I remembered something I heard Jackie Stewart say about racing... perception. While I might enter into panic mode, someone either more experienced or operating on a higher level may feel all is in hand and no big deal. Its very interesting.

We are seeing something like this now in MotoGP. There is something different in Marc Marquez that nobody has. He is operating at a higher level than any other racer on the grid and does so consistently. I think he stands the chance to be written along side names such as Rossi, Agostini and Hailwood.