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Scroll and Burl Body-- Black Limba Top and HS cap--Maple Burl Neck and cavity cover--East Indian Rosewood Fretboard--Cocobolo Tuners-- Gotoh locking Frets-- Jumbo SS Bridge --Babicz Switch-- 5 way blade Pickups--Klein high wind P-90s at the neck and bridge and a Klein high wind single coil middle wound and wired for a strat. Build thread:

Phoenix Dreadnaught Acoustic I've been building guitars and basses for around 6 years - largely electrics and generally for my own use of for fellow band members and occasional commissions. I am attracted by the slightly quirky and 'wonder if this could be done' projects but also by the sheer challenge of an acoustic. My first acoustic build - an OM for myself - was around 5 years ago. I then built a dreadnought for our band's vocalist's 'special' birthday. Then another dreadnought for my own use. The 'Phoenix' is my 4th acoustic build Why Phoenix? Well, the build itself started with a discarded neck blank - a former bass project where I made a miscalculation and cut it the wrong length. A new neck was made and the bass completed...but I was left with this less about 6 inches: Me clearing out some old offcuts, including the short version of above, coincided with an offer by Matt - an excellent pro-player I know and who was planning to do some self-promotion videos - to use some of my own basses and guitars in his videos. He wouldn't take anything towards the cost of videos, so how could I offer a 'thank you'? Hmmm...well, he's an excellent acoustic player and he likes the acoustic among the borrowed instruments. So, could a blank like that above, be turned into a blank like this below??: And thus the Phoenix rose from the ashes.... Spec is: - 25.5" Scale; 19" Fretboard radius - European spruce top; black limba back and sides; ebony fretboard; walnut rosette/tailpiece/headstock plate - Full size square-shouldered dreadnought - Two pickup systems with individual outputs: LR Baggs Anthem (piezo & condenser mic); K&K Pure Mini (saddle-plate transducers) It took around 4 months to build and finish. The full build diary is here And here's the finished guitar: Happily, Matt loves it (always a great relief when I build anything for other people). Here is a quick clip taken on my phone on the day I passed it over to him:

Hi Guys! I Love this forum and I am very excited to present to you my first guitar. I've been playing guitar occasionally for approx. 20 years now and did some minor repairs before. I've been working on it for about 3 months. Just have some final fret levelling to do in the future - did it twice already and it's getting better every time The project is mine from start to finish and it was meant to be experimental. At the start planed to use the standard headless bridge, but had some old broken guitar machine heads begging to be reused. I used my construction CNC in my workshop. My background is mostly 3d construction in architecture/interior/furniture design. Name: Hanar Specs: - maple body&neck - black oak fingerboard - DIMARZIO DP227BC LiquiFire (ZB, neck) - DIMARZIO DP228FBC Crunch Lab F-Spaced (ZB, bridge) - 3 position switch - scale 25 1/2" - 24 steel frets jumbo Sintoms - profile "wide fat" C/D - 42mm/57mm - Finish- Tung oil - Fretboard radius - 12

Ziricote Stoptail Specs Top wood: Carved Ziricote 18mm Body: 1-piece black limba 29mm Control cover: black limba Neck: 1-piece blank limba, 20mm D from nut to 17th fret Headstock: Ziricote with white mop inlay Fretboard: Ziricote, MOP 2-headed snake thing inlay plus 2mm white mop dots and mop side dots and Ziricote binding Scale length: 25" Frets: 24 medium jumbo nickel silver Finish: - Body: natural satin poly clear coat - Neck: Danish oil Bridge: PRS adjustable stoptail Tuners: Sperzel trim lock 3x3 chrome/gold Nut: Graphtec, 43mm Pickups: PRS 57/08 neck, HFS bridge Pickup selection: 3-way toggle + individual coil splits Controls: 1 vol w/treble bleed, 1 tone and switchcraft toggle, ebony lampshades, ivory style pickup rings and switch-tip Weight: 8 lb 4oz Build thread: http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/49493-hi-starting-building-6/ Demo video:

The Sweet Spot - Blonde NECK: nut: Graph Tech nu bone string trees: Graph Tech scale length: 25.5" fretboard radius: 12" frets: 22 med jumbo Jescar fret markers: ceramic cream .25" dots neck profile: vintage 'C' profile - classic strat feel neck format: 2 piece, heal adjust via fretboard, 6 inline reverse headstock CBS style, no headstock angle neck joint: sculpted access bolt-on via steel ferrules truss rod: Allied Lutherie flex strong - access via 19th fret spoke wheel neck wood: birdseye maple, rosewood fretboard, rosewood headstock veneer neck finish: tru oil flat w nitro clear on headstock HARDWARE: Tuners: Kluson Tone Pros vintage style reverse Tremolo: Gotoh 510T FE1 pickup format: 4 single coils - body mounted Pickups: Bootstrap custom set - oatmeal stout (8.6k A5 43AWG), golden ale (7.4k A5 42AWG), golden ale(5.6k A2 42AWG), 54 Vintage Pro (5.6k A5 42AWG) pickup covers: black w rosewood veneer Controls: master volume, 6-way 'mode' rotary, 3-way lever, push-pull (true bypass) active mid booster w volume/boost control modes: 1) outside singles (tele), 2) inside singles (strat), 3) outside vs inside parallel (prs), 4) 2x bridge vs 2x neck parallel, 5) outside vs inside series 6) 2x bridge vs 2x neck series (Les Paul) pots: bournes lever switch: CRL knobs: rosewood BODY: body design: based on a 62 strat template available online... but then reduced by 5% for approx 1/2" less length/width in dimensions body top radius: 30" body edge: 1/2" roundover with inset rosewood binding body format: solid tremolo block encoumpases two bridge pickups, birdseye neck pickup block - neck pickups sit in semi-hollow chamber, deep sculpted belly cut body thickness: 2.125" at center body wood: 1pc african mahogany w bookmatched 4A flamed maple top, rosewood binding body finish: champagne frost (mohawk) nitro with watco nitro clear, back is finished in tru oil flat It all started when I was going to build a strat. I got some design feedback from a few guitar forums and it was pretty brutal. Most of the comments centered around the idea that my 'blue' design was quite a departure from the std strat style. With that in mind I did a second design of something I thought would have more of a 'traditional' feel... but I couldn't see scrapping the blue so I decided to do both. I have been dreaming about a 4 pickup strat for a long time... my goal was to make something that wouldn't compromise the 'stratty' sound, but would have more hum canceling options, tele options (bridge + neck), and would do series humbucker (ie les paul) sounds fairly well. This is my strat. there are many like it but this one is mine. without me my strat is worthless... without my strat I am worthless! Lot of lessons learned, lots of hair pulled out, lots of hours of doubt... it's the struggles and overcoming them that seem the most special to me. As always: couldn't have done it without the advice/input/shoulders of many here who are quick with advice and help. I have a facebook 'business' page... but only because I just wanted a page where I could build a shrine to my scratch builds. www.facebook.com/mvmeguitars Build thread here (note first post has all build updates uninterrupted): and below is my humble video demo from youtube:

The Sweet Spot - Blue MATERIALS: Neck is flamed maple sourced locally from Superior Hardwoods The body back is 1 piece khaya mahog sourced locally from Peterman Lumber The top is 1/4" quilted maple I got from Downhomewoods The fretboard and headstock overlay are gabon ebony from Allenguitar Mother Of Pearl inlays were pendants I bought on Etsy SPECS: 25" scale length | 12" radius | set neck | 17 degree headstock | heel adjust via fretboard | 30" radius top | Tru Oil finish PARTS... PICKUPS: a mix from 3 different handwound sets from Bootstrap Pickups. CONTROLS: 1 volume, 1 rotary 6 way, and a push-pull active-mid-boost. Bourns pots, oak Grigsby switch, Stew Mac 6 way, Switchcraft jack FUNCTIONALITY: 6 way mode switch serves up all sorts of parallel/series and inside/outside combos... approximating Tele, Strat, Les Paul and PRS like sounds. TRUSS ROD: Allied Lutherie spoke wheel double-action TREMOLO: Gotoh/Wilkinson VS100 2 point TUNERS: Sperzel trim lock FRETWIRE: Evo gold medium jumbo NUT: Graph Tech TusqXL AMATEUR/PROFESSIONAL... I build for the love of it. Building is my "shelter from the storm", my therapy (about the SM price and a better value IMHO)! This is scratch build #3 for me, so in short... I'm all amateur! BACKGROUND... I have some woodworking experience as a young man, have built 10 or more partscasters. BUILD LOCALE... This was built mostly in my garage... assembled in my home office, and finished mostly in my kitchen (thank you honey and sorry about the table)! BUILD GOALS... This was built for me... I wanted to pick features that would challenge me (nailed it!). The radius top, the binding that would move in two dimensions, the truss access via the fretboard - these were all things I had never done before and wasn't sure I could do. There were times I wanted to ask questions, but forced myself to think on it and see if I could solve it. There were times I gave up and asked for help (BINDING among others!). Fortunately, when I've stumbled, many of the members here have lifted me up, encouraged me, and even cheered me on! Thank you all! INSPIRATION... I've wanted to do a 4 pickup strat for a long time. The idea festered in my mind for a while and finally worked it's way out! My favorite positions on a Strat are 2 and 4... aka the "sweet spots", but I also like a high output bridge pickup and hum cancelling for when I do heavier noodling. I've tried higher output bridge singles in a Strat but that seems to compromise the mixing of the coils (the higher output coil always dominating). I've put in a Strat sized humbucker, but they don't sound as good split. I've used a full sized humbucker with two singles, but it feels like you compromise that Strat 2 position a bit. All perfectly great solutions by the way. I chose to compromise a little more on the humbucker sound (after all, there is the physical separation and the magnetic poles instead of bar mags). I felt like there might be less compromise in terms of the Strat 2/4 sounds with a four single coil setup. SEE MY BUILD THREAD BY CLICKING HERE VIDEO DEMONSTRATION (click play below - would love your feedback!):