The StoryTeller Project - A Semi-Hollow Body Blues Guitar designed by James Leonard and built with CNC machined jigs and templates.

StoryTeller has both advanced and traditional electronics.  All access to the electronics is through a large circular opening on the rear of the instrument.  The cover plate for this opening is routed from the back plate using an acrylic template.  The opening is bound with the same cream plastic binding used on both the top and bottom plates of the instrument.  The front, back, sides and neck are made from standard acoustic guitar sets.  The wood for the prototype will be Oregon Black Walnut, from Goby Walnut Products.  The fingerboard is figured Ebony, and is inlaid with a vine made from 12 gauge square silver stock with mother-of-pearl flowers and abalone leaves.  The scale length is 25 inches and the fingerboard is a simple 20 inch radius.  The instrument is fretted with Stew-Mac 148 (Jumbo) fretwire.  It is a set neck glued in design.  The Black Walnut neck is mated to the center block inside the body.  The neck angle is established by routing the channel for the neck on a ramp.  The cutaways are acute, and will be impossible to bend as a single unit.  Consequently, the ends of the cutaways are solid pieces of a contrasting wood, probably Brazilian Rosewood from Berea hardwoods.  The heel of the instrument has a similar block where the neck strap pin is located.  These blocks are glued into place with a light-colored wood veneer to form a stripe for an accent on each side of these blocks.  The truss rod is accessible from the back through the large access plate, and is adjusted with an open end wrench.  It is a folded rod design, with the neck reinforced with two pieces of carbon fiber rod on each side of the truss rod channel.  A truss rod adjuster access is routed into the center block.

The Electronics

The electronics for StoryTeller consist of three unique and discrete subsystems.  The instrument will have phantom power coming in and two separate active signals coming out of 4 element Canon-type connector.  In addition, there is a completely passive single humbucking pickup that has a 1/4" jack.

The Jigs and Templates

All the jigs and templates for StoryTeller are machined on our Liberty CNC three-axis mill.  The CNC programs are translated from the TurboCAD .DXF drawing export files, and then verified with TorComp systems excellent CNC simulator, CNCezPro.  TorComp systems and Mr. Moncef Mestiri are sponsoring the StoryTeller project with a donation of the advanced copy of CNCezPro and technical support in it's use.  They have customized my copy for the controller characteristics of the Liberty CNC lathe and mill I am using in this project.  Please visit TorComp systems and their educational software site Studica for simulator and CNC educational materials.  They are all excellent products from a very responsive company.