Maurice 12 string

[Peter Young]

Hello all ...

Maurice the machine had a 12 string commission.
Back / sides IRW
Top Sitka
Bindings Tas BW

Maurice made a 12 string.jpg (94.81 KiB) Viewed 21303 times

Back.jpg (101.06 KiB) Viewed 21303 times

DSC05682.jpg (132.82 KiB) Viewed 21303 times

Plays great ... sounds fantastic

Peter

[Allen]

What a bloody clever way of doing a 12 string peg head.

[charangohabsburg]

What a bloody clever way of doing a 12 string peg head.

Exactly my thoughts!

[Peter Young]

Yes ... The customer had seen something like it on a Rickenbacker electric.
He liked the look of it rather that the traditional long headstock.
All credit to Maurice to nut it all out and execute the build.

Pete

[Kim]

Superb work as always Mauri...thanks for posting Pete, very inspirational.

[Kamusur]

Good things happening in the west again, and that headstock is insane Mauri.

Steve

[kiwigeo]

I need time to digest that headstock. Its a bit like walking around a corner and running into Jesus

[maurie]

It was done at the request of the owner, wanting 12 tuners on a standard size headstock similar to Rickenbacker 12 strings.
I was hesitant at first but told him I would give it a go with an all care but no responsibility attitude. I had concerns with strength of the headstock, function difficulty of the tuners and clear string paths. I drew it up full size and this indicated that tuners with a small footprint and long shafts would be required to leave enough meat after drilling for the tuners. The longest and smallest tuners that I could find readily available were Schaller M6 Mini. As it turns out I would have been happier with longer shaft tuners to increase the headstock thickness and the distance from the edge to the slot.
Tuning up was a lot easier than I anticipated. On the bass side, normal tuners are the main strings and slots are the octaves. On the treble side it is the opposite.
The 6 pin bridge works a treat also, even if a bit more challenging at first string up. Thanks to Craig and Martin for putting me onto this.
Cheers Maurice

[Mark McLean]

Hi Mauri
I'm impressed also by that feat of engineering and 3D design. Would you do it again, or recommend it to another customer?
Mark

[maurie]

Hi Mark
Yes I would do it again and recommend it, providing I could obtain long shaft tuners with a small foot print.
Schaller M6 Minis are only 13mm wide which is great, but the threaded retaining screw length is the restriction.
Open tuners with a press fit bushes would be the way to go but the smallest body width I could find was 17mm which means the headstock thickness must be a min of 18mm. This means the shaft length is then too short.
I have heard that some tuner manufacturers do make longer shafts so I will check this out for future builds.
Cheers Maurice

[Kim]

Not your regular wingnut style, but perhaps Steinberger's gearless 40:1 straight through tuners would do the trick for you Mauri...

http://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_Par ... ml#details





And then there's Gotoh's Stealth..these maybe interesting to you because they can be 'imbedded' into the headstock..an overlay held in place by a couple of small re magnets to cover the bodies of the tuners...and you would never know..that'll have'm scratch'in their heads

http://www.g-gotoh.com/international/?page_id=2232









Cheers

Kim

[maurie]

I initially thought about stealth tuners based on their small body size, but felt they may not handle the tension of 12 to 53 strings.
However I have just checked them out and find they will handle 20kg of tension. Amazing.
This would make them ideal, apart from their cost.
Cheers Maurice

[johnparchem]

Wow!, What a gorgeous instrument.