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Last time we visited Strobel Guitars Custom Shop we saw how a Custom Rambler® Professional Electric Travel Guitar starts the building process. We selected some fine Tonewoods; book matched Quilted and Flamey maple tops and glued them together with Ash or Mahogany bodies. Today we’ll take a look at how the Rambler® Travel Guitar bodies are shaped, routed and drilled.
It takes a lot of planning and craftsmanship to create a great sounding, great playing, high quality travel guitar. Strobel Guitars works with you to optimize the wood selections, neck shaping and general set up to match your style of playing. You pick the wood, the color, the neck shape, the inlay and choose any number of available options (piezo bridge, gold hardware, coil tap, etc.).
After we glue up and plane the body blank (as seen in Part 1 of our “Making a Rambler®” story), we attach Corian® (the counter top stuff) templates to create the front and back outlines of the Rambler® Travel Guitar.
 Front and Back Rambler® Travel Guitar Templates. |
 Rambler® Front Template
|
 Rambler® Back Template |
After the templates are aligned, we mark the front and back body shape, and the location of the pickups, tuning keys, controls, bridge, etc. Then we cut out the raw body with a band saw.
 Marking the body outline. |
 Tim cutting out a Rambler® body. |
To save some time and effort with the router, we hog out the pickup and neck cavities on the front of the Rambler® Travel Guitar using a Fostner bit. We also hog out the tuner flange on the back before routing.
 Rambler® Front Cavities hogged out. |
 Rambler® Back Tuner Flange hogged out. |
We re-attach the templates providing a guide for the router bearing to get a nice smooth body outline, and to provide the precise dimensions of the pickup and neck cavity routes.
 Putting templates back on. |
 Routing contours and cavities. |
 Gene adding holes for volume and tone controls |
 Lining up neck bolt holes. |
Now that we have the Rambler® bodies routed and drilled, all we have left to do is sand, sand, sand, and sand some more before heading to the paint shop. We’ll get started on the necks while the bodies are getting painted.
 Rambler® Front |
 Rambler® Back |
 A bunch of Custom Rambler® Travel Guitars |
Please check back with us next time to see how we make the Custom Rambler® Necks and inlay. Ever wonder how the Truss Rods get in there??
This week, we thought it might be interesting to take you into our Custom Shop to see how we make your Custom Rambler® Professional Electric Travel Guitar. We will take you through the steps, from selecting the proper tone woods, laying out the guitar, gluing up the body and routing the body to shape. We will show you how we make the necks and fret boards, and a little peek at the paint shop and assembly process.
So, let’s get started. You want a great sounding, great playing, high quality travel guitar and you want the best guitar you can afford. You already know that the Rambler® can be easily disassembled to fit in a briefcase or computer bag for traveling. A Custom Rambler® Guitar or Bass could be the guitar of your dreams. You pick out the wood, the color, the neck shape, the inlay and choose any number of available options.
You decide if you want a brighter or more mid-range sounding guitar. Maybe you like playing a Les Paul, maybe you like playing a Strat. The wood choices are endless, but normally we use either Honduran Mahogany or Swamp Ash for the bodies. Choose Mahogany for the more mid range sound of a Les Paul and the Ash for the brighter sound of a Strat. A flamey or quilted maple top can be used to brighten the sound, and to enhance the visual appeal of the guitar.
 Looking at wood for a Custom Rambler® |
 Merrill’s Wood Shed in Alva, FL |
After we select the raw lumber, we cut it to the right size and plane the boards to the proper thickness.
 Body blanks cut and planed |
 Body, top and neck |
 Some nice Mahogany blanks |
Let’s find some nice Maple tops. Sometimes we have a pretty piece of quilted or flamey maple wide enough for a top. Most of the time, we need to book match two smaller pieces to make the top.
 Which set looks best to you? |
 Gluing book matched pieces |
 Book matched Rambler Tops |
Ash body, quilted maple top, maple neck Mahogany body with quilted maple top
 Ash body, quilted maple top, maple neck |
 Mahogany body with quilted maple top |
 Takes a lot of clamps to glue these babies… Takes a lot of clamps to glue these babies… |
 A couple of Mahogany Ramblers getting glued |
Check back with us next week to see how we cut out, route and shape the Custom Rambler® Travel Guitars…
We select the finest tone woods for your Rambler® Custom travel guitar, usually Honduran mahogany or swamp ash for the bodies. We add a flamey maple top to brighten the sound and to enhance the visual appeal of the portable guitar. Necks are made from mahogany or maple, with an Indian or Honduran rosewood fret board. Dark ebony fret boards are also available.
After gluing the bodies, templates define the top and bottom body contours. Holes are drilled, cavities routed and necks and bodies are matched to ensure a perfect fit. The necks are shaped to your specifications, matching any neck contour you desire. The Rambler® Custom travel electric guitar comes with your initials inlaid in the fret board. Custom inaly is also available.
Other options include a piezo bridge with stereo output, on board pre-amp (for headphones), knurled or ebony tuning keys, gold hardware, or coil tapped pickups for a single coil sound.
After many hours of sanding and preparation, your custom built travel guitar goes to the spray booth where we apply over a dozen coats of nitrocellulose lacquer, with your choice of color. Guitars are then assembled, wired and set up to your specifications.
Don’t wait to start designing your own custom Rambler® portable guitar. Choose from our selection of tone woods and custom colors, and enjoy the freedom of being able to play a professional high end custom guitar without the hassle of transporting a full-size axe.
Since we met at NAMM earlier this year, we’ve really enjoyed getting to know Elliott Randall and getting his thoughts on the Rambler Professional Electric Travel Guitar.
Below is a snippet from his review of the Rambler, in case you haven’t seen it yet.
Below Elliott is trying out one of our first Rambler STROBELCASTER prototypes at the NAMM show…
Oh, and if that isn’t enough, it comes in a case about the size of a viola (so I wouldn’t feel out of place walking into Abbey Road for a string session), it can be easily disassembled so that it fits into your …wait for it ….. computer bag!”
“Here’s a most interesting twist on the concept of the “carry-it-anywhere guitar”… The back-end story: as an electrical engineer with Motorola, Russ Strobel did his share of traveling – and he always missed his guitar. So utilizing his exceptional engineering skills, he came up with a revolutionary new design for this totally delightful mini. Following extensive trials, I can say that it sounds great (sporting a pair of fab-sounding humbucker pickups), plays great (a lovely comfortable and resonant neck) – and I couldn’t help but notice how the wood of the body vibrates beautifully even when unplugged. That is a great sign. And with utmost respect, it’s not a bad thing to call this instrument “cute”. While it mightn’t be out of place featured in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue (at a much higher price), it would be equally at home in the finest music emporia (for a most reasonable price). At the time of this writing, they are available from the Strobel Guitars website only.
And, we even got a great testimonial from Nigel (Elliott’s guitar tech), so we thought we’d share his thoughts with you too…
“I think your travel guitar is great!! I just did a little finishing of the frets for Elliott – a light fret dress to even the tops and I rolled the edges of the fingerboard to give it a vintage feel. This is something I find I do a lot for customers on guitars of all prices!! I’ll certainly have a think about any improvements you could make, but nothing springs to mind immediately. Congratulations on a great little guitar!!”
Nigel Stockbridge
nigelsguitarworkshop.co.uk
Getting pretty hot down here in South Florida, and rainin’ most every afternoon – makes it hard to get the nitro going…
This month we are featuring our latest custom creation, a Strobel Rambler Professional Travel Bass in Deep Purple Burst! We haven’t spent much time talking about our Custom Bass guitars in this forum so thought we would highlight one this month.
We built a Rambler Bass for Tanya from Tennessee. She chose “IAM” for her custom inlay, more about that later.
We model the Rambler Bass after the most iconic bass we could think of – a vintage Fender P Bass from the early 60’s.
The Rambler Bass is outfitted with all Schaller hardware, just like our Custom Rambler guitars. We use a Schaller D4 roller bridge. This bridge is really versatile, it has adjustments for string height and intonation plus the rollers move back and forth to get the strings exactly where you want them.
The pickups are Schaller PBA Precision Bass Humbuckers, and they sound GREAT!
Something about the absence of a headstock really makes for great sustain (all that string energy above the nut is lost in a normal bass, but routed back to the neck in a Rambler Bass).
The scale length is derived from a standard 34″ scale by placing the nut at the 3rd fret. The string spacing feels correct since it matches a standard bass, but the overall scale length is 28-1/2″. The Rambler Custom Bass is also available as a fret-less model.
So back to Tanya’s inlay. So what does “IAM” mean anyway? In Tanya’s words:
“I AM – it is the truth of all truths. And to which I tell the others – put that on your bass and slap it. It’s a testament to my existence, to existence itself; to life and the living for without it things would be less interesting. Without it, the beach sand would not be so white, the water so pure… and without it those chords and notes would not be so soul drippingly potent… I am… I am the notes, the music and I am the bass.”
So eloquently put Tanya, thank you for your beautiful passage, and the inspiration to all of us “pickers”…
Greetings from Strobel Guitars! Last month was the annual music show extravaganza known as the NAMM show. The NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show is the world’s largest trade-only event for the music products industry. Strobel Guitars was there talking with our endorsers, suppliers and manufacturers.
The highlight of the show was meeting Elliott Randall from Steely Dan. Elliot was quite taken with our Rambler Travel Guitar and will be joining our great team of endorsers. Elliott’s illustrious career has encompassed a wide and varied cross-section of World Musical forms. These include: record production, composition, electronic research and development, lectures and teaching, and of course, a legendary contribution to popular guitar performance and recording. His guitar solos on Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ In The Years” and “Fame” (the motion picture) have entered Rock history annals. What a thrill it was to see Elliott playing “Reelin in the Years” on his Strobel Rambler! Please check out the video below.
Josh Smith talks about the Rambler Travel GuitarWe also ran into our endorser, Josh Smith. With the 2009 release of his sixth studio album, “Inception,” Josh established himself as one of the most versatile guitarists in blues music today. A South Florida native, Smith’s love for the guitar began at an early age and his varying influences, including B.B. King and Muddy Waters, are reflected in the music he creates. We caught up with Josh at the EMINENCE booth where he told us a little about his experiences with his Strobel Rambler guitar. See what Josh had to say on our video page.
We took a few pictures at the show to give you a feeling for all the cool guitars you can see at a NAMM show. Check out our tour of the show on our gallery page. You will see some great guitars from Gibson, Fender, Tom Anderson, Trussant,and others.
Special thanks to GoldTone, one of the worlds leading manufactures of quality banjos, mandolins, and resonator guitars for helping to facilitate our NAMM visit.