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:

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

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

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.

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 bri

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 grainfil

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; Ne

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

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

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

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

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

@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

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 fingerboa

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

Hey guys n’ gals, the wood all came in for my next build so I figured I’d get this thread started! This will be a 7-string multiscale guitar, and will have a very similar design to my most recent build. However, this guitar’s theme will be the blood moon, and as such it will feature colors, inlays, and other design elements to suit. Projected specs: - Quilted maple top and headstock cap, natural quilted maple “binding” - Ribbon mahogany body - Roasted single-piece curly maple set neck with 2x carbon fiber rods - 25.5”-26.25” multiscale with perpendicular

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.

It actually came with the jeweler’s saw I bought for cutting inlays, the whole thing was quite cheap ($15-$20) but the jig and saw both work great! Sanded it flush this morning and thank God it turned out alright, this is still dry with no oil and I’m hoping that will help blend in my “fixes” even better.

Oak Hollow body guitar This was my 4th build, I wanted to try something a bit different recycling the wood from an old oak wardrobe, carving out the hollow body by hand and having a go at making my own bridge, tailpiece and pickup rings. Very lightweight with no balance/neck dive issues. Specs Oak body, with a bolt on Maple neck and a rosewood fretboard and brass nut. 24 frets 646mm scale. Oak bridge, tailpiece and pickup rings. Wilkinson Machine Heads. Wilkinson Zebra Pickups. Colron natural Danish Oil Finish. Build thread -

Thanks buddy. This one has been a serious test of that patience. Oiling neck. Finally it is similar color to the lacquered body core.

One of the reasons for the detailed threads is to remember what I did last time. Like thicknessing the sides from 4mm to 2mm. Clearly not the block plane. But was it my No5 Bailey plane? Or scrapers? Or my scraper plane? Surely I didn't sand it? Well - tried them all. This one (the No 5) should have been the best: No - I remembered when in desperation I picked it up and tried it anyway. Yup - the block plane that 'isn't suited to this kind of task'. Sorted it in about 30 minutes And so cut them out to the template above's shape and soaked them both in the

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 &

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

Name: Prcknow R.S. Hey folks, here's my first build ever. With little prior woodworking experience, it's been a wild ride but I'm extremely happy with the result. I decided to name it Prcknow (derived from the Croatian word "prkno" that is slang word for ass...) because whenever I brought the topic of building a guitar among friends, the joke was "if you build it, it'll sound like ass" hence the name. R.S. stands for "racing stripes", just like on racing cars, the racing stripes along the neck/body make you play faster haha. (lame jokes among friends, but oh well...) The whole j

This is my first time I post on this site. I play for 45 years synthesizers and the last 2 years a little electric guitar . So I am a real DIY builder of many things, I designed an electric guitar with a possibility to link it to synthesizers with more opportunities to play the guitar and synths independently of one another. On the web I discovered the Acpad, which seems to be something unknown. It was a kickstarter project of Robin Sukroso The Acpad was designed for an acoustic guiter. Iwanted the Acpad on an electric guitar, but that was not possible. So I had myself an electr

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.

1957 Futura build I've been building for about 7 years now. It's a hobby I started with my dad where we built a couple of guitars together at his work shop. Since then I have been adding to my own workshop over the years. I have been pulled towards the "golden era" of electric guitars. The late 50's and through the 60's. I started with almost no wood working experience but I have a background in CAD and computers. Here is the link to the build thread here - 1957 Futura build Here is how the guitar looked when finished. It was my first attempt at a vintage nitro cell

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

That’s her finished!!! Well, almost. Needs action set and intonated but she plays good. I’m so happy, came out much better than I could have hoped. love the colour, the flames, the pickups. will get intonated tomorrow and might even get a wee video up. I put the strap lock on the rear of the upper horn this time. I’m almost regretting that as the body is so small the strap has to almost pull around my body,m. Time will tell and a thinner strap might help as well. Updated post so that pictures are rotated the correct way!

Time for a wee break from proceedings. The lack of a headstock means any logo I apply needs to go elsewhere on the instrument. The common spot for these headless instruments appears to be just above the neck near the neck pickup and bass-side cutaway. I've seen seen this done as plain engraving (Strandberg) and a decal (Kiesel, Steinberger). I'm going to match this location for the logo, but but I'm going to go for something a bit more wanky in presentation and do some V-carving. First, some volunteers from the audience. Here's some dark Blackwood and Eucalyptus from the offcuts bin to ex

Fretboard glued on. Obligatory ”lay the crap on and see if it looks like a guitar” pic. Fretboard was left long, it will be trimmed to fit neck pup cavity. Starting to get a wee bit excited.

The back plate has been attached and about 90% filed/sanded/scraped flush with the sides. It's very close in most areas except for the scroll and neck join/heel areas. The join is pretty solid. There are a few imperfections in the 'usual suspect' areas. I don't expect it will be very noticeable when it's all said and done. Once I get the scroll/neck areas cleaned up I'll add a small roundover on the back, since I'm not planning on binding it. I've tapped on the box some, and it has that 'high ping' sort of resonance. I don't honestly know what I'm listening for, but I do like

Hey guys, First of all, thanks for all the help. Great to have a community that are generous as they are with their knowledge and experience. Its been a tremendous help. Here's my 2nd build: Osprey Wood: Genuine mahogany make up the wings. Wenge control cover. The neck is mahogany, wenge, and maple. The fingerboard and head stock plate are macassar ebony. The pick guard is ebony and zebrawood. Inlay: The inlay in the pick guard is gold mother of pearl. The fretboard is gold, black, white mother of pearl, and bloody basin jasper. General: 25.5 scal

The string audition was held and DR Pure Blues was the winner (and has been for some time). SR

Yes sir. It makes it so much easier to get an even color. Here is the Paduak SS almost ready. This thing is a beast!

Introducing the Pinky Dinky Mahogany/Alder 3-and-a-bit-piece SS body, Maple (reverse F-style) neck, Richlite fretboard, Gotoh fixed bridge (Cosmo Black), Gotoh 381 tuners (Cosmo Black), Irongear "Metal Machine" pup and Amaranth Red matte finish

I decided that it might be a long time before I got another opportunity to make a headstock as unique as this one, so I think I'll forego the cap.....unless I decide it just doesn't work after the guitar has been assembled, at which point I shall likely curse and thrash about as I add a cap to a fully shaped headstock, which will be entirely more difficult. towards that end I removed the ledge I had created for the nut and will cut a new one after the fretboard has been located. I added a few coats of Tru-oil to the handle. It darkened the ziricote a bit, but should protect it from

After a bit more leveling, yet still matte, I had to have a few in the sunlight. This is closer to actual color...but still a bit hot from the direct sunlight. SR

This is fun stuff! SR

It seems the stuff we put on him for fleas, ticks, and heartworms is useless against termites...and boring beetles or carpenter ants. Perhaps it shows a bit, but I'm pretty damn happy about the way his eyes came out. I believe my British friends would say I was quite chuffed with the results. SR

Custom KM-I carve-top finished - Wenge on Mahogany body, 5-piece Maple/Purpleheart neck, Ebony fretboard, Floyd Rose Original, Schaller M6 tuners, BKP Miracle Man (bridge)/Cold Sweat (neck) and Tru-Oil gloss finish... That Ziricote top will be next... Then some new stuff coming...

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 m

Welcome to this episode of spot the guitar!

It's a beautiful sunny spring morning here in the English midlands and I couldn't resist a couple of piccies... Another couple of "flow" coats on - unfortunately not quite as clean this time and introduced a small curtain on the backside of the lower horn. It might polish out, but might need knocking back and going over again. I'll ponder it. The front is looking pretty darned spangly though!

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.