Leaderboard

Well, I may as well kick things off. May I present, "Its-a-what?" It is in fact a Guitar Bouzouki. The playing geometry of an Irish Bouzouki matched with the modified body design of a steelstring OM acoustic. I confess, when P asked me if I could make him one, my reaction was indeed, "It's a what??" It's my fifth acoustic build - and definitely my first Guitar Bouzouki In terms of other builds, what started as an urge to mod and improve my own guitars around 10 years ago led to builds for myself and band-mates and then occasional commissions such as this. Vital stats: - 25.5" scale; OM acoustic body design, shortened on upper bout allowing for neck joint at 16th fret - Spruce top; Red Gum Walnut back and sides; Maple neck with walnut centre splice; Macassar fretboard - Four unison pairs of strings, tuned to GDAD - K&K Pure Mini passive transducer system for amplification/direct recording - Standard polyurethane varnish on body brushed on using an artist's watercolour fan brush. Tru-oil slurry and buff satin finish neck Here are some pics: Build thread is here: Having never heard of one of these before being asked to make one, I clearly had never played one. But this has turned out to be a delight of a player, in spite of the very deep (27mm) neck. As such, it only seemed right to try to compose and play a ditty on it to show what it sounds like. This - an acoustic recording on my little Zoom mic recorder - is called "Ignorance is Bliss". My apologies to all proper bouzouki players :

Okie dokie, that's a wrap! This is really my first proper commissioned build, and I'll be delivering it to its new owner later this evening. Really hope he digs it! I sold some guitars I built a while back, somewhere around 12-14 years ago, but I've never taken someone else's "dream design" all the way from sketches to finished guitar before. Honestly it was a pretty nerve-wracking experience. This is probably the best sounding guitar I've ever built though, and has a looot of natural/acoustic sustain for some reason. I'll post some video/audio in a bit.

I've been telling people that there are two kinds of people in this world: people who will build a guitar during the pandemic, or people who sit on their couches and watch Netflix. I'm proud to be in the former group with you all! The Black Queen Woods: - Macassar ebony neck and body core, and tremolo cover - Swamp ash wings, quilt maple top, - Gaboon ebony fret board with silver wire starfield inlay, and pearl 'planets' Scale length: 25" Special bits: Authentic Trisonic pickups hand-made by a gentleman who builds Red Special replicas and uses the spare parts bought from the Greg Fryer restoration of the Red Special and replica builds for Brian May. Replica Red Special tremolo from RS Conversions. Hardware: Sperzel open back tuners, Electronics: Three mini switches that control phase-off-phase of each pickup. This gives a very usable approximation of May's different voicings without the field of switches. I've lost count of what I've built, I expect it's in the 15-20 range depending on what you count as a build. My first was at 16 in high school and I've never stopped. That one was a full V build of my own design and custom chrome parts that I made. People always ask "are you going to sell it?" and I say NOO!! I build these for myself to play, and they usually have some new technique I want to try or something my other guitars don't have. I build in my shop that is supposed to be a 2-car garage but has never held a car, much to my wife's dismay. This particular build was inspired by the Red Special and May's building of his own instrument. That was a large influence for me and I've always loved the sound of that guitar. I wasn't interested in building an exact replica though, and wanted to use my own design. The end result plays beautifully and sounds way closer than I thought it would. Build thread:

Alright, finally finished this build! Here she is: Slight scallop in the higher frets, not too deep, doesn't go all the way across to the bass side, just where I need it for bends and such. Super happy with the way these logos came out, first time I've ever had a proper set made. Glad I went with metal too. This was extremely fun to design and build, and was a big step forward for me in the technique department. This is also the best fretwork I've managed to pull off to date, and it plays better than anything I've built before. I'll do a little demo of it soon. Thanks for all the encouragement everyone!

Well that went well. Feedback was it sounded clear, deep and punchy. Played well with lovely neck, so can't ask for more. Heres a snap of Marshall I Henry playing it on the pyramid stage! Very humbled to have one of my instruments used here not just in my little studio.

The instruments we make tell a story. The materials we use, the designs we come up with, the music we imagine our new instrument playing, and even the reason we decided to make the instrument are all elements of the story. I think this is one of the big differences between mass-produced instruments and hand-crafted custom instruments. The first are made for a market, the second are made to tell a story. Reading each of the different build threads going on here with so many different ideas coming to life tells us something about the builder. Even if we aren’t aware of it, the decisions we make in our build are driven by who we are and the story we are trying to tell. I think @mattharris75’s beautiful April 2016 GOTM winner illustrates this well – it’s a fantastic instrument on it’s own, but when you know the story behind, you understand the instrument in a whole new way. When I started making this bass, I didn’t know what story I was telling. I just knew I wanted to build a 5 string bass for myself. I wanted a versatile bass that could produce many different sounds for many different styles of music. I wanted to feature some nice natural materials – pretty, but not precious. And I wanted to pull in some elements of the world I’m seeing here in Japan (without, hopefully, being cheezy). The story of this bass is my story – it’s a snapshot of me right now. It’s autobiographical. Some things are completely obvious – made in Japan by an American, the koi inlay, etc. But the core is a subtler view driven by both the kind of player I want to be and where I’m at in my life. This bass is diverse, flexible, adaptable – all things I strive to be. It’s not that I don’t know who I am, but who I am is someone who wants to be many things. I played my first gig with the new bass last weekend. The gig was with a blues band literally on the banks of Mt. Fuji. I think that first gig – rocking out to one of the great American music forms while the sun set behind Japan’s most recognized icon - is a fitting end to this build thread. My wife reminded me during some of the more challenging parts of this build that “it’s not done until I say it’s done”. Finishing a build isn’t just checking off the last item in a checklist. It’s not even playing the first gig with an instrument. An instrument is finished when story the instrument tells is complete. And I’m happy to say that this build is complete. Here's a photo I snapped a few minute before we started playing: Now with that out of the way, there are a few other loose ends to wrap up about this build. First, I’m really happy with how the bass plays and am having a ton of fun making music with it. My G&L feels like a dog compared to it. That said, there are a few rough spots that I continually see. I don’t think anybody else will ever notice them, but they I can’t help but see them. Oh well… Those of you that followed closely may remember that I talked some talk about a mystery solution to resolve tear out. The plan was to create and inlay a traditional landscape scene (silhouette of Fuji and Torii gate) over the area of the tear out. I started it but never put it in place. It both ended up feeling too “precious” and amateur for what I wanted. But it did inspire the koi, which has ended up being the most distinctive and eye catching feature of the bass. So we can give the tear-out credit for leading me to the koi inlay. I saw a PRS Dragon for sale in Tokyo yesterday for $29,000 – it was certainly beautiful and clearly the dragon inlay (and not some playability or tone) is what makes it ‘special’. I was surprised to find leveling and finishing the frets to be one of the most rewarding steps in the process. It was certainly tedious, but there was something magic about seeing it all come together with just some very tiny adjustments. I sprung for a nice leveling beam and there’s definitely something inherently satisfying about using a quality purpose-built tool to complete a task. Finally, thank you all who have followed along, liked a post, made a comment, and answered a question in this thread. And a special thanks to @Prostheta, @curtisa and @ScottR for the continual feedback, insight, and support. This website is awesome. Now, on to build #2! Here's a blurry shot of the bass's debut performance at the Fuji Roadhouse, and once of it resting after the gig.

Hey everyone, I'm finally back at home after this weekend's event Everyone involved had a great time and the auction went very well! I just realized I never showed pics of the entire package up for auction. The guitar was bundled with a Gator vintage brown case and Couch Cadillac brownburst strap. The cool thing about this strap? It's made from original vinyl used on 70's Cadillac roofs. The event was held on a gorgeous property out in Jupiter, FL. The weather was amazing, it couldn't have been a better setup. So here's my little table. And after the auction, one of the bands wanted to try the guitar, so of course I let him have a go. He loved it! I must say, I'm impressed with the versatility of this pickup set. From the cleans and high-gain stuff Anthony did in my previous clip to this guy's country-style setup, the DiMarzios really handled everything well. Oh! By the way.... the guitar ended up raising $3500 for the foundation

Final pictures - looks like its all set up and ready to go! Cheers and thanks for all help guys!

Bit more progress with this. Apologies for the post being a bit pic-heavy. The pickups arrived. The pickups themselves have a bottom multi-wire connector which, with the three way switch supplied, gives the three options of 'P' bass' (diagonal split); 'Jazz bass' ( single coil); Humbucker. They are passive, so the only connections needed to the PCB on each switch is a ground, a hot out and a 9v in to drive the LEDs: A wants a straightforward 'off/on' for each with a master volume and a master tone. We decided on this as a layout: With those large connectors, I needed to make some pretty large cable channels in the rear wing. Note also the cutaways for the battery to slot into. I did a 'spare' just in case of a change of mind of the switch layout: So now I could glue the wing on, deepen the control chamber and round the edges: And then onto the pickup chambers. As you know, I hate routers - but there are times when only a router will do. My way of trying to limit the damage potential is to use - wherever possible - a router bit that it fully captive and can't go off and do unsociable things. With the normal warning that this is just how I personally do it and not that 'this is how it should be done', what I do first is mark out the pickup outline + 0.5mm clearance on the top. I then drill the corners with a decent bradpoint 1mm diameter bigger than that of the pickup corner: I then hog out with a forstner right up to the line: I use a sharp chisel, again up to the line, to create an accurate line joining the drill-hole tangents, down to about 10mm. This is what the router bearing will run along. Note I've broken through to the channels I made in the back wing to get those sizable connector through: Then, I use a flush bearing bit to tidy the sides up and bring it to full depth: And finally I chiselled the cutout for the connector block sitting at the bottom of each pickup. This then allows the pickups to drop down, if required, to the lowest practical position: So, as this is the last flat router surface I need, I can now glue on the fretboard and start the neck carve - which are the next two jobs As always, thanks for looking

SEL Birdseye Maple Here is my last just finished guitar. The build thread is here : Sorry I do not have good pic of the finished headstock (I lost some file), they were blurry and I'm waiting good outside light to make new pic... Here is the spec: -Birdseye laminated arched top -Solid figured yellow birch back and side (bent side) -Black Walnut Binding -Roasted Birdseye maple fretboard over maple neck -Mahogany/maple/mahogany center block -Maple pickup ring and sting retainer. Maple/black walnut/maple truss rod cap. -Vineham Whisky Burner bridge pickup and Vineham Rockabilly neck pickup. -Concentric Volume pot, master tone pot. -Gotoh tuner and bridge -25.5" scale lenght, 1"11/16 nut width -V to C neck shape -13"3/4 lower bout width body. She sounds like a 335 in the end, with a little more acoustic vibe!!!

So late last year I started in on a new model based around a Super Strat that I ultimately named the Helix. I wanted to incorporate some things I like in a guitar such as a super thin neck profile, a deeper cutaway, magnetic truss covers and a thinner body and a few other minor things. When I started building the first Helix I broke out the video equipment and documented the entire process. To anyone who's done it you know shooting a build by yourself is a time consuming task. Stopping at each step of the build process to set up a camera slows down the build process considerably. On some tasks it would take me longer to set up the camera than it would to actually complete the task at hand. Over the eight weeks or so it took to complete the build I shot something in the neighborhood of 40 hrs worth of footage. The build was completed late last year but the footage has been sitting untouched on my hard drive for months. With 40 plus hours of footage it was a time consuming task just to roll through and view all the footage I shot just once to see what I had, let alone organize it all and edit it all down to a point to where its viewable. Anyways, after many hours of shooting, months of procrastination and many tedious nights in front of a computer I finally have the first installment complete. Now that I'm at the editing stage I plan on releasing a new installment each week until the series is complete. So with that being said I give you the first 6 min installment of my Helix build series. Part one. ~JW

SR

True!... a sharp gouge is just fun. I've been carving the heel, that was a quick job. I will try to make kinda volute in the heel... Still needs some refining, but the big part is done. Sorry for the square neck profile, I need to clear out the surroundings before proceed with the neck carving. Have a nice weekend!

Forgive the self indulgence As always, thanks for looking, folks

"The Les Flaus" - Lucky scratch build #7 for me! FINISHED WEIGHT: 8lbs 6.9oz BODY MATERIAL: QUILTED MAPLE(CORE), 3/4" 4A QTR SAWN CURLY MAPLE CARVED TOP BODY CONSTRUCTION: FULL LENGTH HOLLOW CHAMBER ON EACH SIDE, SOLID CTR BLOCK BINDING: SINGLE PLY CREAM NECK MATERIAL: CURLY MAPLE/WENGE/CURLY MAPLE NECK JOINT: 4DEG ANGLE SET NECK NUT: BONE SCALE LENGTH: 27.5" FRETBOARD: 24 FRET FRETBOARD RADIUS: 16" FRETBOARD MATERIAL: GRANADILLO FRETBOARD FRETS: EVO GOLD MED LOW FRETBOARD INLAY: GOLD MOTHER OF PEARL TRUS ROD: AT HEAL THRU 21ST FRET (ALLIED LUTHEIR) HEADSTOCK MATERIAL: INDIAN ROSEWOOD HEADSTOCK ANGLE: 14DEG HEADSTOCK INLAY: GOLD MOTHER OF PEARL + IMITATION GOLD LEAF TUNING MACHINES: GOTOH SD90 3X3 VINTAGE AUTO LOCKING 1:15 RATIO BRIDGE: GOTOH GE101/103 TUNE-O-MATIC PICKUPS: SEYMOUR DUNCAN SENTIENT BRIDGE/NAZGUL NECK 3-WAY TOGGLE (ALLPARTS), 2 MASTER VOLUMES (BOURNES)... 4P4T (ALPHA) ROTARY(1:PARALLEL/PARA, 2:PARA X-PATTERN, 3:SERIES X-PAT, 4:SER/SER) PUSH/PULL (BOURNES) ACTIVE DIRTY-BOOSTER ELECTROSOCKET JACK (NEUTRIC 3 CONDUCTOR) BUILD ORIGINS: Was planning on doing a series of teles... as I thought I'd save effort by using a common set of templates more than once. While I was busy thinking about plans for the first two, I came across a craigslist add for a tele body. It had a cedar top that was meh, but a quilted maple body that caught my eye. That was the random start to this build and so the "Les Flaus" was born! I wanted something that was going to be equally apt to play sphagetti western to more modern rock... and I figured the two humbucker format would be best for that. I settled on a design to turn the guitar into something resembling a les paul, but with a tele shape and a baritone scale length. Why "Les Flaus"? Well, mostly - I just thought it was funny! It needed to be 'less something' to pay homage to it's origin, and "flaus' is a little less obvious then 'flaws' but means "imperfections' in german. I thought a lot about how one might improve on the les paul format, and a common complaint about them is the typical neck break. By moving the truss access to the 22nd fret and away from the headstock/neck transition - I strengthened that transition. I also added a valute, and a spline going down the headstock as well. I like to set milestones for myself - to try and raise my skills beyond myself. This guitar would represent a number of challenges for me: first time doing a carved body, first time doing a headstock with such delicate curves. First time doing a multi laminate neck. First time doing an traditional angled les paul neck joint. As usual, it is only through the examples set by the luthiers here on projectguitar, the encouragement, wisdom and friendship, that I arrived at the end of this journey with the following guitar... so thank you to the many members who made this possible! VIDEO DEMO: MY BUILD THREAD FOR THIS GUITAR CAN BE FOUND HERE:

Anyway, a few more arty f**ty photos

Well I think this one is done as well. I’ve installed brass inserts in the pup cavities for these bolts, oiled and waxed the neck, etc. I put on some Hipshot tuners cause the Sperzels were breaking strings (3 at once!). I’ve filed the post holes a bit, but these have a better gear ratio. They are also 3 ounces heavier and cause a little neck dive when sitting. I’ll see if a strap changes anything. I cut a fourth (!) pickguard, and crap if I didn’t get the neck opening off, plus a tiny nick. But the rest looks so good I guess I’ll do it again. But not today lol. There are no side dots, I wanted to keep it clean. But, I gotta say that the tentacle loops don’t really scream at you when you are looking over the top of this board and navigating the two extra largest strings. So, I’ll probably do that sometime in the future. The thing sounds like a dream, the notes ring forever. The combo of the coco neck and active pups really make it really sound alive. I’ll get some proper pics soon. My shop lighting is bright but horrible for pictures.

My absolute favorite step in the build is dying the maple, here’s some shots of the process: First coat of black. Sanded back. Red added. Sanded back. Orange added and sanded back. Yellow added to middle, red added again to sides, both colors blended while wet. This shot was taken after drying out. This is a shot of the headstock when it was still wet, which is close to what it will look like after I add the clear coat finish.

Seeing as I got a shoeing by Scotts burl beauty last month, I thought I'd enter Adrians singlecut that I was working on along side the bass build. Specs Chambered construction with PRS style f-hole, Bosnian maple top, African mahogany body and neck, Ziricote fretboard with maple binding and mop inlays. My usual Schaller Signum bridge and Sperzel trimlock tuners, bone nut (the first nut I've cut myself) PRS 85/15 pickups 1 vol, 1 tone and 2 mini toggle switches for coil splitting. The finish was done with Angelus purple and rose leather dyes, chestnut cellulose sealer, walnut grainfiller (on the mahog) and Morrells nitrocellulose clearcoat. The build thread is included as part of the billy bongo bass build

Hi I present to you "SwiftGuitar", sometimes shortened to SG It's an 'in the style of' Gibson's iconic classic but with a few tweaks along the way. I've been building guitars and basses as a hobby for around 7 years: sometimes for my own use; sometimes for friends or fellow band members; once for a Nepalese buddhist who played in heavy metal band; occasionally commissions This one is for a friend, Matt, and has used mainly wood that I had accumulated over the years and pickups that Matt himself has wound or modified. Spec is: Timbers: Top -Yew; Back -Sapele; Neck - Mahogany & Purpleheart; Fretboard - Ebony; Inlays - Mother of Pearl Scale: 24.75" Fretwire: Jescar Evo Gold Finish: Body - Ronseal Hardglaze Polyurethane Varnish (brushed on); Neck - Danish oil slurry-and-buffed Weight: 8lb 6oz There is a (long) blow by blow build thread (link below) for anyone in Covid lockdown and who's finally run out of things to do : And here it is: My hands are shot for playing but before the comp closes, I'll see if I can find a way of getting some sound clips without contravening the lockdown rules Thanks for looking!

The last couple of days have been about the final knockings - final shaping and refinishing of the neck, set-up and strap buttons I had built a couple of tweaks to help the balance but the main one - fitting Axesrus' (a decent UK supplier) wonderful lightweight aluminium tuners - was dashed because of (presumably Covid-related) non-availability. Instead, I have fitted some really, really nice open gear Hipshots - but, honestly, they are quite a bit heavier than the Axesrus ones. But when Matt tried it out. I watched how he played and we discussed that yes - he does want to get to that 24th fret..and with his thumb wrapped round and so the back button wanted to be in the 'traditional' place if at all possible. But what I do (with all of my builds) is first fit the back button, then pop a slippy strap on it, over my shoulder and, holding the strap in various positions while supporting the guitar, gauge where the balance was going to be. And it looked like we could get there. So on went the back button (and nowhere near the 'goldilocks' zone of 12th -13th fret I always recommend!): ...and then popped a slippy strap on and hands off... So, whatever position Matt likes to play, it should be absolutely fine Final bit of polishing up tomorrow and it's ready to go to Matt. So one last glance before it goes into the gig bag: Yup - that'll do And as always, many thanks for the kind words and great encouragement along the way - always very much appreciated

Back to hanging like a side of beef. SR

I had to use some lacquer thinner and a razor blade to get the double sided tale adhesive off. As long as the grain is jumping, I might as well take some glamour shots. SR

HI Guys, I would present my 1st build (after my 2nd which was a Thunderbird bass from January). Guitar name is: LP-1. This is my single cut, Les Paul, whatever you want to call it. I didn't spend significant time on the design, the goal was apply a standard sunburst technic. I really wanted to make a vintage look with brown and amber colors and definitely not a relic design. It was much more done by my instincts than done by experience but frankly I could really surprise myself with the finish. I used Crimson stains and closed it with high build guitar oils which applied only one time for matte finish. The body is simple basswood, the neck is maple and the fretboard is rosewood. The hardware is pretty standard chrome stuffs, the plastics are cream and gold. Because I like trash metal so much I chose EMG 81/85 active humbuckers for heavy sounds - and it sounds like a HELL! I hope you like it because I LOVE to play on it. Regards, Ratesz

The Pimp Hi y’all! Wanted to do a thematic build so I imagined a guitar with pimp aesthetics. purple velvet jacket, gold bling, raw p90 sound etc 2 piece Korina body sealed with shellac and painted in ultra thin-skin nitro. Halon gold hardware trem and bridge (you gotta try these! Best quality! World - class alloys and tone!) Nick Silver blue moonlight pickups alnico II 50s style p90s gotoh vintage gold tuners ebony fretboard 16” radius tortoise shell pickguard real mop inlays 4-ply laminated neck flame maple with walnut. home-made decal layered angled headstock (9 degrees) loved the tone! You can rock out with it, play the blues and surf for dayzz! enjoy!! https://youtu.be/7o0ZYNWLxZE

Using the body as a pattern, I marked out the top. And then cut it out. And like its big brother it need to trim down a bit. I may have said I wasn't going to do that again..... but I guess I thought I needed a couple of hours of exercise. I put some water on the side I'm using to better see what was inside and to remind myself that the two hours of exercise was not wasted. SR

Definitely! I’ve tried it before using just tape, and since the dye is so viscous there’s always bleed and it’s really hard to get clean lines after that - even razor scraping leaves a sort of soft edge when I’ve tried it. Thanks! Definitely the most risky I’ve been with edges/sharpness, and it’s been fun to try something new. I’ve decided to name this guitar The Hatchet due to its sharp edges Alright, finally got to my favorite part of the build process today: color! The body came out plenty dark so the neck can stay as is. I was planing on screws for the cavity cover but had some magnets left over from a previous build and decided to use those. Base coat of blue, and a little truss rod cover I cut from some some scrap rosewood and colored with the same black stain as the fingerboard. First coat sanded back. Second coat with a lot more green mixed in. Second coat sanded back. Final coat leaning a bit back towards blue. I absolutely love the dying process, it’s easily my favorite part of the build; something about the magical transition from “guitar shaped hunk of wood” to “hey this is turning into an actual instrument” just does it for me. The color tests didn’t have me convinced I would get a rich enough color, but this looks great to me, and it will only get deeper once I put some lacquer over top. Despite wiping after each coat of stain, some color did build up on the binding, but I’m fairly certain I’ll be able to scrape it off before my first coat of clear as it’s floating on top of that sealing lacquer I put on yesterday. Once I get a couple coats of lacquer on both pieces I’ll glue up the neck, as I figure this will let me take off excess glue by just scraping down to the lacquer, that way I don’t have to risk scraping any of the color out when I clean up the joint. Definitely going to mask off the glue-contact areas to leave them raw though. I also won’t drill the bridge until I have the neck glued, as I don’t trust any measuring/marking I do to locate the studs until that neck is actually in there. Got some bad memories of uh, certain... adjustments... I had to make with previous builds.

I sure hope so! Not certain, just a picture I figured would go with my username. Get it? Lumberjack...? Axes....? But also, guitar axes.......? I’ll show myself out. Major pic dump from a long day in the garage: Body trued up to 80 grit, controls drilled. Control cavity roughly routed, and a shot of my “method” for cavity cover fitting; I’m not a big template guy (although I know I should be) and cut almost everything free hand, including routes. Pressing aluminum foil over the cavity gives me my shape, as every cavity I cut is unique to the controls and layout I decide on, which changes for most every build. Cover cut And fit Neck cut and trued up Side dots drilled Gluing up the MOP dots. Fretboard radiused to 1000 grit Frets cut and tangs ground off. Stainless steel is a bear to work but I’ve become somewhat addicted to the feel for bends/vibrato, and have found cutting the frets and grinding the tangs to be easiest with a dremel metal cutting wheel with the fret locked in a vice. Let me know if anyone’s got an easier way, I used to try nipping them but wore through tools pretty quickly that way. Sealed the binding with a spritz of lacquer as I’m fairly certain I’ll be darkening the fretboard with Stewmac stain and didn’t want it bleeding into the maple. Frets pressed Current status after a full day of work.

@Prostheta Wow you lost me on that one! Well I painstaking scraped the pinstripe purfling to reveal the maple stripe better and it was worth it. Just enough to make it pop more. Peeling my pinstriping tape away revealed that it did a good job, but still had seepage in several places. Unfortunately it was swamp ash and not maple and it sinks in deeper as the wood is so soft and porous. There were also a couple spots on the sides that looked like the dye splattered but it was completely covered so Im baffled as to how it would get there. Weather is raining and cold. but I opened the garage door, turned off the heater and sprayed a few light coats of vinyl sealer to get it locked in. You can see how the ebony tail block really stands out now. Once its oiled (or even dyed and oiled), it’ll blend. I’ve got some voids to fill, a couple annoying gaps in the purfling, etc. Stuff that screams at me right now, will recede later.

Hello! Hope my post is correct... I just finished a Semi-Hollow Baritone guitar! Got a lot of problem while doing this one, but this guitar is so resonant in the end and has a wonderful tone (will try to make a video soon). Here is the spec: SEL Baritone 28 -Figured yellow birch back and side. -Figured cherry laminated top (cherry-poplar-cherry) -Maple center block -Black walnut binding -C shape Figured mahogany set neck, long tenon (go under the neck pickup but in the end make not much difference with well made shorter tenon) -Marble Wood fingerboard (12' radius) -1" 11/16 (42,8mm) bone nut -28" scale length -Crushed Pearl Inlay with Epoxy -Medium fret wire -CTS concentric volume pot... I really like it, so much I'll do it on other guitars! It's very convenient! -CTS master tone pot -Jess Loureiro hand wound pickups (made in Spain). The neck pickup is a Wide Range humbucker in regular humbucker size. The bridge pickup is more like a regular PAF. This mix is awesome to my taste! -Marble Wood pickup ring. -3 positions switchcraft selector. -WaterBased finish over Shellac over blue tint. I really do not like this finish, I'll try another product on the next guitar. Was really good until I buff it up! You can check some more pic on Baritone Guitar and even some of the making. I really love this guitar!

day 6 and 7!!! fretboard sloting table jig,

I had posted this with a bunch of other guitars in an earlier thread, but wanted to split this out on its own. Not a typical 335 as the body and sides are I piece of Black Korina, took a while to hog it all out. The back is carved the same as the top and I put the toggle switch on the top horn. neck is flame maple with a cocobolo fretboard and headstock veneer. Top is a rescued piece of "ambrosia" quilt, had a couple of cracks I had to stabilize, but had awesome natural colour. yesterday was finally nice enough to paint, and I kind of went with the seat of my pants with the colors....

Here's my polishing kit: micro mesh and an automotive buffer. SR

YOU GUYS. IT'S IN MY APARTMENT. And now for the good(?) part: I made a little video!

So I trimmed the edges... And I was in love! The guitar became quite rigid after the glue-up! It kept the contour quite nicely!! Seems to have no voids! I like it a lot! This is my first real hollowbody build and I am super excited!! Thanks! I enjoy the process very much!!

Thanks fellas, and no @Bizman62 thankfully not - this will have a blue/gray stained top, natural faux binding a la PRS, everything else left natural under a gloss finish with a satin neck. Some planing: Here’s one of the most bizarre tricks I’ve tried: my buddy wanted a flat top with a bevel for the arm, and for the drop top to bend over and cover the entire bevel. I don’t think he realized exactly what he was asking for given the quarter-inch drop top, but I decided not to tell him and tried this technique I saw Padalka using once upon a time. Soaked the wood and slowly bent it over a scrap body, keeping the wood wet for about three hours and slowly turning the screws every so often throughout the process. Let it dry by the wood stove overnight and came back the next day, removing the screws to find it held the curve quite nicely! No splitting or cracking and the top is currently gluing up on the body, which I carved to match the scrap body I bent the top over. Full disclosure, I’m not exactly certain this will work as far as getting a nice clean joint; this is probably the weirdest and most hectic top-gluing I’ve ever done, but I’ll know tomorrow once it’s all dried and the body shape is cut.

And so, as a post-script. P and his delightful wife arrived last weekend to pick up the Guitar Bouzouki. And I think he would be happy in me saying he loves it For me, that is a great pleasure and relief in equal measure! P was able to bring his standard Irish Bouzouki for me to have a look at and listen to and that was fascinating. We both agreed that the Guitar Bouzouki has a much richer sound (which would be hoped and expected) and a strummed chord just goes on, beating sub-harmonics all the way, for a long, long time. The neck between the two instruments was quite different, part designed and fully expected and part more of a surprise. P had requested it to be wider and shallower than his original which will always change the curves and feel, but the thing I noticed straightaway was that the 'V' on the original felt distinctly V shaped to the hand further up the fretboard than my build. It doesn't really show on the profile drawings but it does give it a different feel further up the board. Not necessarily a bad feel, but certainly a different feel. Changing that, if P's conclusion was that he wanted that tweaking, is actually a very easy fix and the sort of thing that can be done on a 'while you wait' basis. And there's a crazy coincidence (that I won't go into detail on) that might mean that finding a convenient time to do that would not be too much of problem. But, that said, even at first play, this is P showing how a Guitar Bouzouki should be played. Glorious! And particularly glorious through headphones

Thanks guys. Update on finishing. This is after the 4th coat of Tru Oil. Lots of fine sanding has things starting to feel pretty smooth, and I'm starting to get a little build and shine. I reckon I'm 1/3 of the way there give or take, but in my experience it's just done when it's done, I'll keep oiling and sanding until it looks right.

Here is "Patience". Build thread here: Imagine that Gibson were to take one of their lowliest, basic, cheap guitars and hand it to their custom workshop. To be skilfully master-crafted and inlaid using only the finest materials To be lovingly created using the utmost attention to detail To be as light as gossamer and with a voice to make angels weep Well back to reality, this is what I built instead! This is my second build. This time it was for a good friend of mine, who wanted a Les Paul Junior Double-Cut, but customised to his specification. Body & neck: African Khaya Fretboard: Macassar Ebony Inlays: Mother of Pearl, Paua & Coral Pickups: Iron Gear Platinum P90 Bridge: Wrap-around, compensated (sorry, I can't remember which brand) Controls: Volume, Tone & 3-way Switch. Custom layout to allow "pinkie" operation of volume while playing Cover fixing: Neodymium magnets "Final" weight (before later neck re-profiling): 2982 grams, which is a shade over 6.5 lbs Anyway there's enough detail in the build thread (!). Here's some pictures Finally a "demo" video - although I think Dan has gone a little lockdown-crazy! He does eventually play the guitar if you persevere

Her goodies still need tweaking and dialing in....I think she is looking forward to it; Glamour shots next weekend. SR

You're not kidding about an early stage! But my next build is at an even earlier stage:

And now it is fun time! SR

So far so good! I tried staining it black and it reacted with the wood and turned it purple...so sanded it back and experimented with different colours. Black to highlight the grain, then some yellow and some brown. I’m liking this effect. Turned out that the bridge was too wide for the neck, so to cut a long story short I modified it and it is now a hardtail. The plus side of this is that it saved quite a bit of weight, that brass block was heavy! Some modifying of the scratch plate is now needed, so that it folllows the curves better.

I got a couple of things partially done this weekend....nothing especially picture worthy. I got frets in and the ends beveled, but I have not leveled or dressed the frets yet. I realize that I change the fret end dressing constantly while carving and sanding the neck. I decided to carve and sand the neck first and then level and dress the frets. So the neck is carved and roughly sanded. It still have a fair number of tweaks left before I'm completely happy with the shape and feel. SR

This is fun stuff! SR

Today's job was cutting the saddle slot. I used the Dremel with the precision router base and a 3mm bit: Rigged up a guide jig with thin packers that would ensure that it stayed level and flat when clamped down: Then clamped it, checked it all and slotted it: Drilled a hole from the slot to the cables channel build into the neck and put in the piezo element for a trial fit: Shaped the bone nut blank and strung it up. And blow me! The flipping thing actually intonates properly!!!!

I'd like to make a comment about the line under your nitro on the body. I'm on builds number 2 and 3, not a very experienced luthier, but a VERY experienced furniture maker. What happens is that people use Titebond or Elmer's yellow glue or equivalent for edge gluing 90% of the time, and these glues cure by losing the water. The glue hardens in hours, but the water soaks into both pieces being glued, swelling them slightly at the joint, and wicks away in days or weeks until the moisture content at the glue line matches the rest of the plank. You can plane the wood you have glued up in a matter of hours, but the wood immediately adjacent to the glue line will shrink very slowly afterward and you'll see that slightly sunken line. What to do about it? Plan A is to let it dry for at least a week before you plane the wood. The defeats the whole purpose of using a fast drying glue. Plan B is to use a glue that does not introduce water to the joint. I use System 3 T-88 two part epoxy on anything that needs to come out beautiful, including my first bass, which was done almost entirely with epoxy. Others use West Systems epoxy, which I also might go for except that I could never finish the big containers they sell it in (for a lot of $$$) before it went bad. Don't use the 5 minute stuff--the slow drying epoxies have much higher strength. Another product with a good reputation is Smith's Oak and Teak Epoxy Glue. Epoxy likes a slightly rough surface at the joint and not huge clamping pressure, but these glues are very strong and thus very forgiving. When you figure 8-12 hour drying time, they are FAST compared to a one-hour glue that needs a weeks or more to dry out perfectly at the glue joint. I might use Titebond II for things like headstock veneer gluing where the temporary moisture increase will not cause that visible problem, but never for edge gluing on a visible surface. Why? because I have seen this same issue on table tops and been really disappointed. Another benefit is that you get at least 20-30 minutes of working time, so epoxy is great for a complex glue-up where Titebond would be setting up while you're applying the clamps. One more thing. In West System epoxy or any product where the resin and hardener are sold separately, you can save some money because the shelf life of the resin is many years. (Epoxy resin is BPA, a notorious endocrine disruptor which you can Google of course, so use gloves when you apply it). It is the hardener that ages out in a year or two and that can be replaced without throwing away the whole quart or gallon of resin. So maybe I'll try West Systems next time I run out. Last comment: you can tint epoxy (also Titebond actually) with a few drops of Transtint dye to match darker woods, like ebony, walnut bubinga, etc. Hope this helps! John

this is close to being finished...redwood is becoming my favorite wood for tops...i

Hi all, this one is now done (except for a final setup and a cavity cover. SO pleased with it and a huge thank you to all who commented and offered advice. I really appreciate it. I also managed to get it photographed, which is rare for me. I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts. Now, off to start a superstrat, with a spalted maple top...

Here's the finished product... almost. Still gotta get it fully wired, but all the appearance parts are done and the finish is rubbed out and waxed up. Purpleheart/curly maple pickup rings, knobs and switch tips. Hope you like it! Oh yeah, almost forgot - she weighs in at 12.6 lbs.