Dreams to Drawing Board and Beyond

Many years ago I dreamt of making my own "Tapping" guitar,  after months of attempting to come up with a good model, I found that a currently produced instrument could fit almost all of my requirements. So I purchased an instrument called the Megatar.  However, as time went on I began to picture some changes that would probably make my playing experience better. So I went back to the drawing board.. Literally:

It was at this point I had to make a decision on whether or not I was going to purchase the necessary equipment to build this or find someone who could without breaking the bank.

I looked at many custom builders online and was quickly swayed away due to the prices and timelines I was seeing. Then I looked again at Krappyguitars and on a whim sent an email to Kevin Siebold with my drawing and said ... Could you build this and how much? He said no problem other than having the necks be separate builds. I said deal!

Next, came my body template to send to him with the parts. However, this initial layout had some issues due to the position of the bass pickups and where the "Bridge units" would reside. Also the switches were too close to the edge so Kevin came up with a better solution that I signed off on.

Once the parts arrived to Kevins' shop he gave me a call to talk about neck woods. I sent him a mockup of what I was thinking about and here's what he sent me back a day later! Peruvian Walnut, Maple, Purpleheart sandwich!

Next came the fingerboard wood choices, I wanted a darker wood so he found some beautiful American walnut that he book matched for the twin necks:

Then the necks were glued up with truss rods centered within the center piece  of purpleheart

(note the truss rod access pocket)

I chose Padauk for the body after seeing some of his other Tappers, so once the necks were laminated he rough shaped the Padauk body parts, this is only a mockup of what it would look  like laminated.

Headstocks rough shaped and fingerboards laminated: (note the dowel pin holes toward the lower bout of the neck blanks, Kevin used dowels for final body assembly to assure exact body alignment)

To accommodate the custom Sperzel tuner, he added another laminate to increase the headstock size:
(note the 14 string neck blank and 12 string units waiting for fingerboards)

I also asked for matching Padauk headstocks. This mockup was right before body to neck lamination:

Then came the body part assembly in 2 phases:

(note the granite slabs he uses to do his flat lamination, I believe he used Epoxy to join the body to neck joints)

Once these assemblies were dry, he finished the final lamination:

Once the final Lamination was completed he began the tooling, for this instrument I chose 2 pickups for each neck with 3 way selector switches and 2 coil taps for the guitar side.

Holes for the Coil Tap and 3 way switches were added, then it was off to final sanding.

(note side holes drilled  for grounding the bridge plates)

Then final sanding and Oil finished applied and a few days wait, then I got this picture:

(Carvin - Alan Holdsworth pickups on the guitar side, Bartolini M34CBC pickups for the bass side and red anodized Sperzel tuners, the lowest 4 bass strings tuners are "Bass" tuners with thicker posts and slightly large housing)

The final piece was adding a stabilizer that filled the gap from my original drawing to the finished product. The stabilizer piece keeps the necks from being pulled towards or apart from each other which will provide a more stable instrument. The stabilizer bars are a laminate of Padauk and Walnut for strength. (Note the deep red color after the last coat of oil was applied!)

Kevin asked me if I wanted to hear him play anything particular on the instrument when it was finished so he could send me a demo, I asked for something from Steely Dan and he sent this:

Then Kevin said goodbye to his creation:

And now.....

Here she is home at last (well actually less than a month!)

Look at that gorgeous wood grain!

So far, I've only had about 40 minutes of playing time on this beast but I can tell you it plays and sounds great! Once I get my gear dialed in for the new instrument I'll posts a short demo of the sounds it can make with pickup selectors and coil taps. Until then.....

Happy New Year!