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What's up guys,

Have been lurking around the forum for awhile and finally decided to post here. I've built guitars in the past (albeit not as well as some of the people who post here, you guys rock) but this will be the first build in a long while, so here we go.

27.5" baritone 7 string made entirely of ebony and bloodwood, I don't know if this is somewhat of a faux pas but oh well it'll be cool and extremely heavy, which is exactly what I'm looking for :)

Here's a mockup I did in Sketchup of what I'm hoping it will look like

IMG_20130926_061004_124_zps727a9c26.jpg

Here's the rough cut laminates for the neck blank. Will get them thicknessed and glued up soon

IMG_20131003_170913_199_zpsf4323c12.jpg

Sorry about bad pics, I don't have a proper camera

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You're right about the weight. Ebony, Bloodwood, Snakewood, Lignum Vitae, etc. are all immensely heavy but do look excellent when finished well. More clamps might well have been a good idea - let us know how it comes out of clamping!

Not a faux pas as such, but you are setting yourself up with quite the task. The pointy bits will be prone to chipping due to the brittle nature of the woods you're using and the sound might be hella bright. The extended scale should help reinforce the low end through tension however.

Are you planning on bending Bloodwood in order to create the outline or will that be paint? Not entirely sure how you would go about that one to be honest.

Subscribed.

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Thanks for the views and feedback guys, progress is slow and I didn't get to do any work this week but I will update when I can.

Are you planning on bending Bloodwood in order to create the outline or will that be paint? Not entirely sure how you would go about that one to be honest.

The bloodwood outline will be achieved by laminating thin pieces of ebony over bloodwood and then beveling the sides. There will be absolutely no paint used.

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ah, ok - so basically the wings will be bloodwood, with ebony veneer? This will be interesting to see! I have a similar color scheme in mind on one of my ongoing projects, but I'm using wenge and padouk, with a bloodwood fingerboard. Good luck with this one!

almost, the tentative wing laminates are as follows:

1/16" ebony

1/4" bloodwood

1 1/8" ebony

1/4" bloodwood

1/16" ebony

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Had a bit of tearout while trying to cut the headstock flush with the plate :facepalm: I managed to find the chunk that tore out and have it gluing back on now.

It's a clean break, not too severe and not anything that will affect playability or structural integrity under string tension but naturally I'm not very happy about it. Definitely not a dealbreaker but certainly annoying. Only thing I can really do now is wait it out.

I guess it's a sign that I've done enough for the day and a reminder that extra care must be taken with the ebony I am using. This is the first time I've used ebony on anything other than a fingerboard; I knew going into this that it may be difficult to work with but I'm now really seeing how true this is.

Will post pics when it's done gluing up, hope all is well with everyone else

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I hope you are prepared for the massive neck dive that thing is about to produce. Off balance body plus baritone ebony neck. eek

I only really play sitting down and own a bunch of neck heavy guitars already; I'm so used to it that it would feel weird to me not having a guitar that wants to neck dive. I do appreciate the concern though :)

those woods are very nice looks like itll be a badass guitar

Thanks! At this point I'm mainly just hoping that I don't end up with a pile of useless ebony and bloodwood due to mishaps like the tearout I had today

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Here are a couple more pics

IMG_20140307_050444_077_zpsf83c6ef4.jpg

I absolutely love the back of the neck.

IMG_20140307_050057_093_zps81826627.jpg

I didn't account for the upper point when I was cutting the wood for the neck blank, so it had to be glued on. I know the joint isn't pretty and I'm not too excited about it but I can live with it. The point on the left side is where the tearout happened. I was thinking about putting a plate on the back but I like the bloodwood stripes so much that I'd really rather not. If anyone has any advice as to what I might be able to do about it (without sawing anything off) I'm all ears.

Looks good so far. What are you planning to fill that dragon with?

All inlay and binding will be made of bloodwood

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Here's a clearer shot of the joint I'd like to try to disguise if possible

IMG_20140307_163636_699_zpsb4f4f0b2.jpg

I like the idea of adding a plate with the same laminate combo so I may end up going that route but we'll see, if I do that I'll end up waiting till after I carve the scarf and back of neck. I also have some ebony colored wood filler from minwax, I'll try to put some of that into there and see how it looks but I have my doubts about how effective that will be.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the binding done. After breaking numerous strips of bloodwood while trying to bend it I decided to just cut it out instead. Here's how that turned out:

IMG_20140316_210320_781_zpsjhx83tx0.jpg

I also got it ready for the fingerboard, here's a quick mockup:

IMG_20140317_150012_881_zpsz4utz7pt.jpg

Loads of cleanup to do, but I'm pretty happy with how it's shaping up

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