VALKYRIE - Full build - Custom Flying V / RR style guitar - neck-thru-body - 4K

The building process behind a custom electric guitar, which will feature black stained ash body with an Chaos Cross engraving, "Wotan's Knot" or "Valknut" mother of pearl fretboard inlay, Gotoh GE1996T Floyd Rose locking tremolo and SG381 tuners, with Zead Labs "Scorpio" pickup.
Intro and outro music recorded and performed by Niclas Olsson, used here with his permission.
Intro and outro video recorded and edited by Niclas Olsson, used here with his permission.
Kiiras Instruments on other social media:
Kiirasinstruments
kiiras_instruments
Order your own guitar:
kiirasinstruments.com/ → "Design your own guitar"
Signal chain for the intro and outro guitar tracks:
VALKYRIE → Savage Drive (Airis Effects) → Guardian of The Wurm (KMA) → Grindstein (Klirrton) → Engl E570 pre-amp in the loop of the Grindstein.
All music from KZbin audio library.
00:00 Intro
00:21 Build starts - headstock angle
03:47 Headstock and fretboard outline, truss rod
05:28 Body woodworking - center / top wood
08:05 Fretboard machining & gluing
10:59 Body sides & outline milling
14:20 Routing for hardware & electronics
16:12 Shaping the body bevels & neck
19:37 Fretboard inlays, engraving the sigil
20:52 Fretboard radius, fret install, tuner holes
23:44 Fret ends, sidedots, deeper cutaway
25:35 Finishing wood grain & wear, output jack
26:50 Finish sanding, stain, lacquer
30:01 Blood for the Blood God - decals
31:19 Assembly starts - locking nut & fretboard
32:25 Hardware & electronics assembly
34:48 Tuners install & strings
36:22 Beauty shots
36:54 Nicals' playtest, specifications
38:15 DSLR photos, the end.

[@renanspinella8379]

The lesson I've taken from this video is... Don't judge until it's finished!! Impressive!!

[@modpy6020]

This is the first video I watch from your channel. This is truly the best guitar build I've ever seen. Your work is mad, this guitar is crazy!! And the soundtrack is awesome. Very good job dude!! 💪🤘

[@INTOTHEPIT]

Amazing work!!!

[@pauly51]

That came out nice!!

[@image30p]

An absolutely beautiful piece of craftsmanship and art!

[@rafaelcruz7459]

Just a God's Masterpiece!👏🏻🙏🏻🎸🤘🏻

[@SlametSpeedychannel87]

Wow cool and creative

[@TheOpinionatedGuitarist]

You are a true artist!!!

[@peterfalahee]

Absolutely fantastic job beautiful looking guitar sounds great too

[@spikesguitarcamp]

Wow, so great to see someone actually build a guitar that's not a neck slapped on a solid body. Amazing work!

[@juliansuarez3849]

So cool guitar man!!!

[@NightwishArena]

Awesome videos! I should have watched these more carefully before starting my own project. I just modified my seriously boring cherry colored Epiphone LP, which I once bought for 50 euros (and I would lie if I would claim, that I wasn't heavily influenced by your LP model with my modifications). I reshaped it a little, gave it some wire brush and RÄLLÄKKÄ, and did some fake cracks with chisel. But because I'm also really not that good with chisels, I ended up hitting it few times with an KIRVES 🪓 too. Now it looks pretty good 🤣 I also tried to make the hardware look worn and made crown inlays from ash. Inlays are not that great, but they are better than dots. I dyed the whole guitar with Liberon Ebony spirit dye, sanded it a bit and put some Osmocolor gray (Kelo) woodwax on it lightly. Too bad I didn't bother to document this process.

[@AustrianReaper]

Man I'd love one of your guitars, they look spectacular. One of these days.

[@mauros742]

wonderful job, man!

[@dewdiepopatm9449]

Dope jams.

[@brianbarnett100]

great job man love it

[@alejandrostransky2634]

so cool, keep it going

[@variola2135]

Красота!👍🤟

[@shiningdark]

Thanks for the insight of your work. I'm really looking forward to my "Ahti" 🙂

[@AmrilAdib]

Awesome brother

[@bennymartin7724]

You got some serious skills bro👍🏻💪🏻

[@ronchabot3449]

Amazing brother you make some awesome guitars, I've watched a bunch of your videos wish you made them more often but great job keep doing what you're doing and maybe I'll buy one soon 🤘🎸🤘🎸

[@Kiiras]

I'd love to make more videos as well, but filming the build adds a ton of extra work to a guitar (almost doubles the working hours), and then it takes a few weekends for me to do the editing, voiceovering, subtitles, etc... I'd love to film all the guitar I build, but there aren't hours in a day to do so.

[@jedfiekel9809]

@@Kiiras even if you just did short 2 min videos of the finished guitars, that would be great aswell. I'd also love to see all your work. They are next level badass!

[@78gagta78]

Badass! A Dean ML with this bodywork would be killer.

[@dustinmullings2672]

I'm in my shop right now building a warrior style guitar and just had to drop in and say, this is my first time watching one of your videos and I am seriously impressed with your work. Nice job! I hope to find time to make videos of my builds sometime soon. It's so much work on top of the work a guitar takes. So, much respect for the work and video. When you do it all yourself it takes a ton of time and energy! Take care man. And keep up the great work! 🤘

[@gsupersport6383]

Wtf so amazing!

[@pilankenpaule75]

What a Beatuy!!! Love the At the Gates Intro

[@T0tenkampf]

such an underrated band

[@GuitarIv69]

Amazing! I wanted to watch a few minutes, but here I am, almost 40 minutes later. That was some seriously imoressive work dude! :D

[@user-nq1rd8li5t]

Quality build

[@markusheikkinen]

Sick!!! 🤘🤘🤘

[@chris8949]

Great ! Love the blood sprinkles ;-)

[@thegiantzmetal4ever610]

Awesome....yeaaargghhh...🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

[@D.Guitar]

I like how you have included little mistakes that you have to do over.... This is just what happens sometimes.... It's great to see honest building ... I do major Modification builds, ML style shape... Because I don't have nearly the shop tools you do... And it's true. Sometimes you have to cut out mistakes and redo them....

[@user-sf1qr9pd9s]

so fxxking good

[@AsterianGuitars]

Respect

[@rezahoseinkhani2547]

awesome

[@davidnicolas4057]

Good job , very nice ! From France

[@MCRUE78]

Holy Shit!! That guitar came out awesome and sounds amazing. Great freaking job brother …🤘🏼

[@TheWarningRockBand]

the badass guitars I have seen yet is erik rutans BC RICH ironbird, apocalypse schecter c1 frs red and purple, and ofcourse this guitar.

[@ItsMeScareCro]

Badass yo! I want one!

[@CarRamrod-uf2ub]

Now I'm buying an angle grinder! Awesome to see you make a killer guitar with it.

[@Kiiras]

Say after me: RÄLLÄKKÄ. 🤣👌‍ To my view, it's the best tool mankind has ever invented after hammer.

[@CarRamrod-uf2ub]

@@Kiiras I'll learn how to pronounce that now. Thanks! Looking forward to the next build.

[@insightfacts540]

This is so metal that I got to get me one of these in a 7 string.

[@insightfacts540]

Will be able to ship to the united states?

[@Kulmahiomakone]

RÄLLÄKKÄ. Cool guitar build. Smells heresy :D

[@amazingthingsfromaroundthe2057]

I want me one of them guitars just like that!

[@Kiiras]

kiirasinstruments.com -> design your guitar 😁👌‍

[@aidanmaggio5538]

Nice guitar man. I’d love to see your take on the Dean ML

[@juancarlosrojasvaldes4421]

🤘🏻😇🤘🏻Genio

[@void870]

The body looks like it's almost 4 inches in thickness! I mean, it can be as thick as you like, but you could have made another body blank with that lol That's my only real gripe though, other than little things that I personally would have done differently, but there's a thousand ways to skin a cat.

[@Kiiras]

The finished body is 45mm in thickness, and the original neck blank was around 50mm, both less than two inches...

[@jedfiekel9809]

1 7/8" is pretty standard for most guitars.

[@shrippie-4214]

Thinking of getting into making guitars but there's so many tools man maybe I'll get into it when I'm a little older well I guess the only tools I would need is the table saw drills and that router thing and some other hand tools but still no space

[@Kiiras]

Just do it. I built my first guitar in a 6-8m² (80 fq. ft) room with mostly basic hand tools. You can get a cheap router for less than $100€, most expensive stuff will be the specialised luthier tools for fretting etc., but even those aren't that expensive. Get cheap tools, get cheap lumber, and start ruining lumber. That's the best (only) way to learn, and how I started.

[@StrudlePie]

Simo Dude... Fucking Incredible Bro!!

[@jannevaatainen]

Nice! You have some fine machinery. Very honest and should I say Finnish thing to also show the mistakes and reveal your SUPER SECRET processes. xD Listening to the background music, I feel like I'm watching an episode of the Hydraulic Press channel. Just with less obvious rally english.

[@Kiiras]

I'll voiceover the whole next video in rally english then, just to please you 🤣 TÄNK JUU VERI MATS FOO JOOR KOMMENT.

[@T0tenkampf]

Very cool, we have some similar ideas on how guitars are built. I am curious why you use a string tree on an angled headstock when there is also a locking nut present? Trees for the Treegod?

[@welteringinblackwell]

This guitar is heresy but the good kind of heresy. For the Dark Gods!

[@jamesthaxton4411]

Awesome as always.....have you heard about the guitar build off..???..I believe it's in it's 3rd year ....... made in Finland....👍💓🎸

[@Kiiras]

Yes, I know of the Great Guitar Build Off, but I simply don't have the time for anything more than what I already do 😅

[@schimschi7286]

Your humor kills it all xD

[@davidcox4262]

Will the deeper cutaway for 24th fret access be standard on all of your neck-thru body RR models going forward? Or do I need to request and update my order sheet? Thanks and As always amazing work and I cannot wait to get mine.

[@Kiiras]

Usually this is decided on the design way before the guitar will be built, but can easily be modified even during construction. Some people prefer a deeper cutaway, some don't. And sometime the need for it is only clear when the guitar starts to turn into reality.

[@uglurker]

Badass guitars man. Seriously considering contacting you for a custom build.

[@torchlord11]

This guitar design looks like a improved Agile Reaper.

[@AB-ye6cl]

So this is guitar looks like to be worthy of entering Valhalla. Awesome Job 🤘 From Australia. What does the 3 interlocked triangle represent interested as a descendant of a Norman Knight

[@Kiiras]

The inlay symbol is called "Valknut", here's more info on it: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valknut

[@Cougar139tweak]

Damnnnnn Subscribed, must have got in early (only 2.5K subs?) not for long.......

[@maxxordinate5088]

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE

[@D.Guitar]

I've never done stainless steel fret work. Does it eat the tools like crazy. My crowning files are diamond encrusted. They last pretty long time in the 2 builds a year. And random fret leveling and recrown I do. But. Stainless is so much harder (dense stiff Ridgid. ) Do you use special grind surface to work the stainless?

[@Kiiras]

No special tools, just standard 120 grit sandpaper on the radius block and a triangular fret file from stewmac (you can see it in a few of videos). The file lasts easily 15-20 guitars, but they're getting very expensive now. I've just bought a F. Dick Swiss made triangular file and I'll cut and round off the end and grind in the "safe edge" as the stewmac file has - half price to what stewmac asks...

[@MercutioUK2006]

Now that is what I call a V :) Do you guys' radius match the tremolo to the neck? Edit: The Gotoh comes stock as a 14" radius?! That is awesome :)

[@Kiiras]

Hi! Yes, I always match the fretboard radius to a Floyd Rose as close as possible. The Gotoh FR is a bit weird to be honest, the bridge itself has a "natural" non-shimmed radius of 350mm (ca. 14") and the GHL-2 locking nut has 400mm (ca. 16") radius. I just go with a 16" constant radius on my FR:s, rather than try to do a weird 16" to 14" compound radius 😅 The error from from 14" -> 16" radius is so small at say 12. fret, that it's basically impossible to feel while playing, about 0.1mm (4/1000" / 4 thou). Same error at 1. fret might even be noticeable, since strings are much closer to the frets there than they are at 12. fret.

[@MercutioUK2006]

@@Kiiras That is EXACTLY the sort of knowledge and understanding that sets a great luthier apart from a good one. It's incredible to me that so many manufacturers overlook this kind of detail! Brilliant :)

[@flipmoviemaker]

All hail Khorne!

[@T0tenkampf]

sanguinius forever, forever sanguinius

[@6thUser]

30:01 Skulls for the Skull Throne!

[@morbydvisns]

What blade are you using to cut the fret slots with on that compound miter saw?

[@Kiiras]

It's a specialized fret slot cutting blade, bought from Rall Guitar supplies in Germany.

[@user-rc7ch7oc3d]

Корпус сделан из ясеня?верно?

[@EP-dy7rq]

why not level wings with the neck and over this glue cool one piece top to make body? ( i think it would be stronger) PS guitar looks great

[@Kiiras]

That's how I make mirrored birch / specialty tops. It's just simply less work like this without a special top, all I need to "hide" is the neck stripes. Prepping & leveling the glue surface for the whole area of the body is much more work than just the middle bit. Sanding & leveling the actual top surface (that'll have the stain & laquer) needs to be done at considerably less accurately level than a glue surface; again less work. Also, it would feel kinda weird and unnecessary to glue ash on ash, or mahogany on mahogany, or alder on alder.

[@Benbenbenbenbenbenbenbenben]

The way you recessed the strap buttons for the Dunlop straplocks is genius! I'm gently copying that idea from you :)

[@Kiiras]

It's exactly the way Dunlop themselves instruct to install their Flush Mount straplocks, nothing extraordinary the way I do it 😅

[@alexskolnick9671]

hello, don’t you want to try to make the Soviet Urals in a new way on a new kind of guitar

[@D.Guitar]

I'm curious about approximately the finish weight. In s.a.e standard please. I'm too ignorant to know kilos.... Lol

[@Kiiras]

Can't give an exact answer, I rarely weigh in my guitars. But I'd expect 3-3.5kg or ca. 7-8 pounds.

[@Metalaxe5150]

How much to get one of thee guitars made??

[@Kiiras]

kiirasinstruments.com 😁👌

[@TelipatiEvolustions]

Why you not used press fret ??

[@Kiiras]

Fret press can't easily be used on neck-thrus, 7-8 stringed guitars, or 5-6 basses, or multi-scale guitars; I'd have to hammer in frets for those guitars as well, so I've decided to perfect my hammering technique instead of investing in more machinery. I'm sure I get at least same end result with less hassle, and most likely even faster and easier (ie. less setup time etc.)

[@flamethegame1]

Is that some fellow finns I see? :)

[@Kiiras]

Insert "Perhaps cow" -meme here.

[@AnnWahlquist]

terve... how much is one if these??

[@Kiiras]

Hey! You can check a price for a guitar with similar / your preferred specs on my website kiirasinstruments.com -> design your guitar. A rough estimate with the same spec would be ca. 2800€ with shipping within EU included.

[@ThatSexyFinn]

Blyat for the blyat god!

[@Kiiras]

It's blyatiful!

[@kiillabytez]

While I appreciate great craftsmanship, I believe $3000 is a bit much to pay for an electric guitar unless it's a vintage Gibson SG or Les Paul.

[@Kiiras]

For reference: A brand new Gibson Les Paul is $2500 to $4500 usually. A quick look through the first page of search results for "Gibson Les Paul" on Reverb, gives prices from $6500 to $32000 for anything that can be considered "vintage". An Indonesian factory made guitar, brand new, are commonplace from $1000 (Solars) to $2000 (Strandberg). 2000-3000€ for a handbuilt guitar that's customized to your specifications (technical and artistic) doesn't seem too bad in comparison to me.

[@timhallas4275]

Should have been bare wood.... no polyurethane clear finish... and real blood on it.

[@T0tenkampf]

thats kinda a biohazard, maybe he doesnt want to be shut down

[@timhallas4275]

@@T0tenkampf Dried blood is not a bio-hazard.

[@mikkopaloheimo6413]

Aika pirun nätti kitara

[@MrDracolucassos]

Absolutely no offense, but this guitar looks like something that 13 y.o. me would love :D It's sooooo edgy.

[@TarynnElizabeth619]

Five piece neck + Volute + scarf joint = Why.???!?! Scarf joint is not necessary.!

[@Kiiras]

Maybe not necessary, but the scarf joint takes a relatively small amount of work from the total build time, that there's no reason not to do so since it ensures a headstock that can take a fall easily.

[@TarynnElizabeth619]

@@Kiiras Meaning that the headstock can break a lot easier with a scarf joint, then it would without it. You could have actually cut two necks from the amount of wood you used. They would’ve been a mirror image of each other. That would’ve been if you were not doing a neck through. Other than that this guitar is absolutely amazing!

[@Kiiras]

@@TarynnElizabeth619 To my experience an angled neck (15° in my case) without a scarf joint is more prone to breakage due to the headstock angle cutting "through" the grain, making the neck weakest at the end of the fretboard. The tension from the strings also go across this grain applying constant "pulling it apart", a small knock (guitar falls over) is in addition to this force and can easily break the headstock. Scarf joint creates a headstock where the grain follows the direction of the tension of the strings, creating the strongest possible headstock. The knock from a falling guitar goes more with the grain, rather than across the grain. My headstock angle is a bit different from the one below, but the idea is the same. www.jazzguitar.be/forum/attachments/builders-bench/15115d1413490071-what-purpose-scarf-joint-joint-explanation-jpg

[@TarynnElizabeth619]

@@Kiiras you attached an article from jazz guitar? Come on.. i’m a woman. But I’m not stupid. Pretty much every guitar that you’re talking about, has a locking nut. So you’re not dealing with a string tension issue in relation with neck breakage. It’s ironic that you say that because from my experience every guitar that has had a Headstock break is a Gibson. Whether it be a Les Paul, or a SG. Common denominator for all of those guitars, a scarf joint. Every guitar that I own that does not have a scarf joint, whether it is a multi piece or not, I’ve never had a problem with. So from personal experience, 30+ years of guitar Luthiering, Building and 40 years playing, I think I know a little bit. At least how I feel about it. Maybe that’s why the companies that you make multi piece neck, like Ibanez, and many others, put reinforcement rods in the necks, and no scarf joint. Why is that? Years ago Ibanez had a scarf joint on all of their necks, and now they don’t have it on any of them, Except for the Gio (cheap) models. Many other companies don’t as well.

[@Kiiras]

@@TarynnElizabeth619 Well, let's put it like this then: Since I get results as shown in the video below, I'm not going to change anything in my headstock constuction. facebook.com/watch/?v=1515705225115432

[@TelipatiEvolustions]

Dont build guitar its just looking awesome . the sounds and tones is most important .

[@T0tenkampf]

why do you assume otherwise?

[@marcinfryczak3931]

These frets are not stainless ]:)

[@Kiiras]

How can you tell? Maybe Sintoms have lied to me and sold nickel silver instead of SS what I ordered

[@marcinfryczak3931]

@@Kiiras i can see how they are changing shape when u hammering on. Only regular are doing this, stainless not.

[@marcinfryczak3931]

@@Kiiras But anyway, great job man ... this guitars look awesome ]:)

[@Kiiras]

@@marcinfryczak3931 How would you reckon fret manufacturers / other luthiers bend their stainless steel frets to match the fretboard radius if stainless is so hard that it cannot bend at all?

[@marcinfryczak3931]

@@Kiiras on fret bender ]:)

[@dakotadeschamps9346]

just visually there is so much wrong with in the first few minutes or building like the neck and headstock shouldn't take so much to make ik ive made plenty this is using too much wood to waste it all like that

[@Kiiras]

Yeah, it can seem a bit disproportionate amount of work for the headstock on the video, but there's just a bunch of small steps on it which I prefer to show all; the headstock (scarf joints, veneer, outline, thickness, volute) takes about 5% of total construction hours. When one starts producing anything professionally, it's more often better to "waste" 5€ worth of materials than to use an extra hour (50-70€) to make it with less waste. This is one of the reasons my guitars are considered even unexpensive - my building process is designed to be as efficient as possible without sacrificing overall quality.

[@T0tenkampf]

lets see your build videos? I waste less myself because I prioritize that process but I am not about to come in to another person's video and act like I am superior. Do they even teach manners anymore?