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Sorry to hear about your wife Dookychase. That's rough.
I didn't use the Collins book much although I have a copy somewhere. Don't have the DVDs. As I recall I mostly used the Charle plan (poster) for dimensions and the rest is pretty much standard lutherie I think but I have not been out in the shop for a while. Too busy with other stuff.
Do you have the Charle plans? The main tricky thing you want to work out dimensionally is the neck and pliage angles (if you do a pliage). That is straight up geometry. I don't think the Charle plans were accurate in that regard (as I recall but it's been years) so take what you see on the plans with a big grain of salt and do your own math/thinking to make sure you get the bridge height and action where you want it.
Here's an interesting old thread about the inaccuracies of the Charle plans with regard to neck angle. Again, do your own calculations to be sure, do not take the plans as gospel.
https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/6230/byo-neck-angle-bridge-height-fc-plan/p2
I have Charle's plan also. I plan to try and dome the top sort of like an archtop and the headstock and neck/body joint like an acoustic. I have an Eastman DM1 that's nice but the neck is too thick and wide. I think I could handle the scale length if the neck wasn't so thick.
I'm trying to build one with the body a bit smaller and using a 25.5 in scale neck. I know it won't have that typical gypsy sound but I'm doing this for fun.
Haha yeah those old style traditional necks can be a bit chunky and then when you combine that with the long scale....
Don't be afraid to try the pliage if you want. Doable if you build jigs and a go-bar deck. A little tricky. I've only done one that way but it worked no problem but I took it really slowly. If not, yeah lots of people do a domed top.
Haha yeah those old style traditional necks can be a bit chunky and then when you combine that with the long scale....
@Bones the DM1 actually has a very modern neck (i.e. 1 3/4” nut with a modern C shape profile) that is pretty similar to most archtops and flatops. I think @Dookychase is going for something even slimmer, like a 1 11/16” nut and a very shallow depth.
I'm trying to build one with the body a bit smaller and using a 25.5 in scale neck. I know it won't have that typical gypsy sound but I'm doing this for fun.
@Dookychase when you shorten the scale, you loose a lot of the single note projection which is almost certainly why Selmer lengthened the scale in the first place. A few top notch luthiers like Stefan Hahl and Dupont have managed to make short scale guitars that can still produce pretty strong leads, but it’s rare and in most cases the short scale guitars are relegated to more of a rhythm role.
Anyway when I tried to play the dvds, they'll play for a few minutes then locks up. I tried different players and still the same. I spoke to Michael Horowitz and he told me he never had problems with the sets he's sold, so I might buy them again.
Have you tried cleaning the discs? A toothpaste with a microfiber cloth works well.
Michael, ok my mistake, I was just going off what Dookychase said. But either way, my point was that if one is going for a certain neck geometry or whatever, building your own is a good way to go if you have the woodworking skills.
Thanks fellows, when I said smaller neck, I meant to say slimmer. If my DM1 has a modern C neck, I'd hate to try a D shape. I know these neck sizes could be a bit subjective, but mine feels like a D profile. I'll measure the nut width and also at the 14th fret. The taper seems to be a bit wide.
I brought my DM1 to Benjamin Strange of Strange Guitars Works in New Orleans. He put it on a plek machine and also lowered the action. It played a little easier. He said he could reshape the back of the neck and refinish for about 500 bucks. I thought of going that route. Not sure yet.
My dvds, I'll try to clean them. I noticed once they start to pause and skip, i'll turn the tv off, let it sit for awhile and then put it back on it'll play from where it left off and do good for a while.
Yeah a lot of selmac copies have pretty big necks. Having a slimmer neck and short scale is why I made my own.
I was doing some neck measurements and research (I have an Eastman DM1) and their website says it has a flat D shaped neck, with a .85" thickness at the first fret and .93" at the 12th fret. I don't mind the neck shape, but I prefer a traditional C shape versus a flat D.
I also have an Eastman T184MX, which is a more modern C profile. They certainly feel quite different, though I don't have a micrometer handy to measure the actual thickness. It feels more like the 60s slim taper on my Les Paul, but a bit thicker at the first fret.