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"This is an original design in that its not a direct copy of any existing guitar. It is a single-cut design that incorporates the features that I love about Les Pauls, but eliminates the things I don't care for. My brand is "Addict" although I'm not actually a professional guitar builder. I call this model the "22 Special". When I refer to things I don't care for, I mean a body shape that's too rounded for my taste, bridge, pickups, and strings too high above the body, the well known big heel and difficult upper fret access, heavily angled string pull over the nut producing tuning stability problems when doing a lot of bending, and of course cheap factory parts and plastic inlays. This model has the following notable features: Neck-through-body construction 3-piece laminate neck Carbon fiber neck reinforcement Specs: 24 3/4" scale length (actual) 22 stainless steel frets Genuine South American mahogany ( Swietenia macrophylla ) body and neck Body and fretboard binding Bookmatched, figured maple top Ebony fretboard Unbleached bone nut Blue Paua abalone fretboard and truss rod cover inlays Rosewood cavity covers Tonepros Nashville bridge and tailpiece Schaller locking 3x3 tuning machines Seymour Duncan pickups (JB and Jazz) Switchcraft 3-way toggle switch (standard config) CTS pots, orange drop caps Nitrocellulose Lacquer Weight 9.3 lbs

"Hi all, Started building guitars about two years ago and this my third project so far. I wanted to create a guitar with a clean look that shows the true beauty of natural wood. Build thread: http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/48311-third-times-the-charm/ Model: Vortex Specs: 25,5 scale neckthru Body material: 6 pieces, black limba, purpleheart, wenge and cocobolo Neck: 9 pieces, flamed maple, purpleheart, snakewood Fretboard: Cocobolo Electronics: Seymour duncan invader pickups, one tone, one volume, three way switch Control knobs: 3 pieces made from flamed maple, purpleheart and snakewood Hardware: Schaller 3D6 vintage copper bridge Schaller locking tuners in vintage copper Finish: Shellac

"Hi first of all i apologise as the pics are taken on my phone as I don't have a good digital camera. This is my first ever build and i set out to make my ideal guitar and did it as a one to one course in Manchester England with Phillip Porter guitars and had a great time doing it so i am sure i will have another guitar to enter in the near future !!! It was designed completely for my preference and as a bit of background I love the sound of semi hollow guitars and offset styles, single coil pickups, i also love the feel of Strats but there were always things I don't like about off the shelf guitars some of which are the access to the upper frets, neck profiles etc. (I love a thin neck profile but i have found most vintage style guitars have quite thick necks) and I like very light guitars, i wanted something individual but that has a sort of vintage vibe to it. and I always wanted my signature on the top of a guitar. I have found this to be a love or hate guitar when i have shown it to people but for me it is perfect. I hope you guys love it too! Specs: Body wood : swamp ash Top wood : flame maple Neck wood : flame maple Fretboard : ebony Inlays: abalone Control cavity cover : copper backed flamed maple (from the neck offcuts) The body is 2" thick in total. Hollowed out and carved on the top and back of the body to allow easy access to the frets, a back cut out, arm rest, angles on the top and sunk in volume and tone controls this was definitely the trickiest part of the build.maintaining a 10mm thickness on the back and 6mm on the top but it gives it a wonderful sound. I have included pictures off this on my build blog which I will finish shortly if anyone is interested. The neck is a thin C shaped profile, scale length is 25.5" and it has 24 frets at its longest point and 20 on the low E due to the s shape that is on the end of the fretboard and is continued through the guitar on the body and headstock to give it the very unusual offset look. the tuning keys are Schaller Da Vincis and the bridge is Schaller 3D-6 top loading bridge. The paint is a very strong blood orange colour mixed in with the lacquer whilst spraying the cap also the cap was stained with black dye and sanded black it is also slightly burst with black by airbrush to give the appearance of a binding using the cap wood. It was all done using AC lacquer. The pickups are underwound p90s that i wound myself, you might have noticed there is no pickup selector, i always play with a blend of pickups and preferred the look without the selector switch. Hope you guys like it as much as me!!!

"This is my third build, and has been a long time in the making – roughly six years. It is a double-neck version of my second build and is also a commission. I am a hobby builder with a small basement shop, but I recently acquired a CNC router which I hope shortens my build time :-) Specs: Body/necks: laminated mahogany/purpleheart/walnut, matching truss rod covers 3/4” flame maple top dyed “Midnight Grape” with faux binding Rosewood fretboards, 12” radius, jumbo frets, abalone & MOP “flying dot” inlays Recessed TOM bridge with string through, 12-string stoptail/string-through combo Sperzel tuners (yes, 18 of them) Flame maple/purpleheart pickup rings, tone/volume and pickup selector knobs Matched mahogany backplate and switch covers Gibson Burstbucker 2’s and 3’s Recessed jack Hand-rubbed nitro finish Weighs in at 12.6 lbs ----==---- Toddler68's full build thread can be found over on the forums here: http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/43384-third-build-double-neck-trouble

Nugz Blacky - Black Bird Bolt-on Mahogany body Curly Maple top with Black Opium/oil satin finish 5-piece neck; Maple, Wenge with curly Maple bookmatched headplate Black Wood fretboard (compound radius) with lumi side dots & 12 fret logo inlay 26,5" scale length Graph Tech nut 24 frets, Sintoms 2 APG custom pickups 5 position Schaller P megaswitch Schaller M6 tuning machines Gotoh bridge Neutrik NJ3FP6C-B jack; metal housing and gold contacts Custom wood knobs String gauge 0.010 - 0.046

Sushkov Guitars #0001 The Saracen "This is the very first guitar I built in my new shop in Prague last autumn though not my first build in general.... Specs: Mahogany body & neck American walnut top, pickup covers and headstock veneer Rosewood fingerboard Set-neck guitar construction with archtop Custom low output pickups with AlNiCo IV and AlNiCo V bar magnets HipShot Grip-Lock tuners Dual-action truss-rod SINTOMS extra hard NiSilBer frets 2.5mm Tonepros Tune-O-Matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece Rare Soviet paper-oil capacitors 2 Volume + 2 Tone pots with wooden knobs matching top wood 3-way pickup selector switch.

Raygun Engineering Prototype Labs - M2J Thinline Chris has been a long-time contributor to ProjectGuitar.com, producing both his own stunning builds and sharing then with the community whilst providing generous support to member's own project work. More information on this guitar (and how to purchase it!) is available on the Raygun Engineering site: http://raygunengineering.com/?q=content/model2j-thinline-prototype ----==---- Neck: Wood: Curly maple Fretboard: Ebony Scale: 25.5" Radius: 9.5" Nut Width: 1 11/16" Carve: C Headstock: Straight string pull 3-a-side in Mary Kay white and curly maple wings Inlays: Mother of pearl blocks Tuners: Hipshot open-back locking Body: Wood: Semi-hollow swamp ash Pickguard: White/black/white 3-ply Width: 13.5" Bridge: Fender Mustang bridge and US tremolo Finish: Mary Kay white with gloss nitro top coats by Chris Bavaria Electronics: Two Curtis Novak wide range JM-style humbuckers with traditional master volume(1meg)/tone(1meg)/3-way and a standard rhythm circuit.

----==---- Part 1 - Product Rundown Part 2 - Technical Teardown Part 3 - The Router In Use Part 4 - Modifications/Upgrades Part 5 - Review Discussion ----==---- AK: Alright, now that Carl has gone and shown the guts of this little beast, I'll do a little real-world demo. As I said in part one, my main usage of this router is within jigs and templates that I've designed around the use of a guide bushing. For this demonstration, I'll use the wee Makita with a pair of templates: one for a truss rod rout, another for a pair of channels for carbon fiber reinforcements. What better test than real life? CM: Totally. It all looks good on paper and under the hood, but putting the rubber to the road is a world of difference. AK: Before we get going, let's take a look at some of the exterior features. Here, you can see the power switch, variable speed potentiometer, brush replacement port, and height adjustment for the fixed base. AK: On the underside, a removable plastic (Bakelite) plate. The recess that accepts standard Porter-Cable template guides is clearly visible. CM: I'm going to have to get some of those myself....I think they're only available in Imperial sizes though.... AK: The height adjustment mechanism is a nicely made rack-and-pinion setup. It's reasonably precise and very easy to use, but lacks a truly helpful depth marking system. More on that later. CM: I'd go as far as to calling it a useless adjustment system myself. Then again, anything more complex than this would make it heavier and less compact. At least it's simple to adjust like you say. It just takes a bit of patience to dial it in perfectly. AK: With the base removed so we can install a bit, the manual spindle lock is visible. I wouldn't trust it to ensure proper tightness for operation, but I do use it to get the bit initially secured in place before reaching for the wrenches for final tightening. CM: The larger 8mm Metric collet cones don't seem to want to retain the bit at finger tightness off the spindle lock. I also had to grind my 13mm (~1/2") spanner to fit the narrow shaft recess. The spindle lock cannot and should not be relied upon for final tightening. Even with a spanner on the collet nut. Whether that's because of the larger collet cone, I'm not sure. Still, two spanners is the only way to be sure. AK: Now that the short tour is over, let's get to work! For this demo, I'll use the Makita with a 3/8"OD template bit, paired with a 1/4" downspiral and 1/8" straight bit. AK: First, inserting the 1/8" bit. As I mentioned above, the manual lock is used only to get the bit held in place, then I do the real tightening with the wrenches. CM: As a safety note, this method of "squeezing" two spanners for tightening or loosening is the safest method. If Andrew weren't holding the camera for the photo, his other hand would be on the router body itself. Needless to say, ensuring that it isn't plugged in during bit changes is vital. AK: Now that the router is ready to go, it's time to break out the wood and templates. I'm using Yucatan rosewood for this neck. As a true rosewood, it's fairly hard and will be a good representative of the typical woods you'd expect this router to cut through. AK: For the first set of channels, I need to get to a total depth of 0.325". Since I'm using a very small bit, this needs to be done in 4 passes to minimize the chance of bit breakage. At this stage, we come to a significant downside of the Makita: lack of a useful depth indication system. Honestly, they may as well have not even etched any markings for all the good they do. To combat this, I've had to make a simple setup block. I have marked the depths of each pass I need to make and attached an unused template of the same thickness as the one I'm using at this time. Before each pass, I simply set the bit to match the appropriate line on the block. Maybe a bit crude, but it works well in this case. CM: Same problem here too. I have a Trend Depth Gauge to check bit depths on hand and table routers. Totally worth it! AK: And now for the first set of passes. Each channel gets 4 passes, ending up at a depth of 0.325". As you can see, the router has no trouble with this task, leaving clean and accurate channels. AK: Now for the truss rod channel. Templates are swapped and the 1/4" downspiral is fitted. AK: Again, we end up with a clean, accurate channel with no undue strain on the router's part. AK: If I were asked to name any complaints, I only have two. The depth adjustment markings are pretty well useless due to the lack of a definitive reference point. The scale itself is easy to read, but without another line or arrow or something on the base to measure changes with, it's not very useful. Additionally, the tiny footprint of this tool leads to a definite 'tippy' feel. This issue is just the nature of this type of router and is something Carl and I will address later on. CM: It totally is unbalanced on the edges of cuts. For things like this it's perfect though. A really nice workhorse, so the Porter-Cable bushing set is definitely in my near future, Imperial-sized or not. Even though the depth adjustment is useless (to the point of questioning why it was included in the first place), I think that few (if any) compact units have a usable system. The plunge base accessory is a different game though. We'll look at that in Part 4. AK: Overall, the Makita excels at small tasks like this. It cuts well and never feels out of its depth (no pun intended) as long as you understand that it's not meant for heavy material removal. ----==---- Go to Part 4 - Modifications/Upgrades