decadentjon

when i first started out i bought a few templated from gbt.com (tele, mosrite ventures, firebird and 335) and every one of those was useable but considerably different in scale/size to originals i referenced from. i wasn't trying to make perfect replicas so it didn't bother me so much. this isn't meant to be a stab at them but something to keep in mind. the centerlines were just perfect tho. their precision gave me shivers!!

i'll enter one of my recently finished commissioned builds. name: Finkelstein (the jewish frankenstein guitar apparently... dont ask ) Swamp ash body, quartersawn rock maple set neck, 25.5" scale maple board, 12" radius, Wilkinson VSVG trem, Medium SS frets, Rebel-90 pickups, Mammoth ivory nut, single Vol (1meg pot), Aluminum pguard/plates, Kluson waffleback tuners, Danish oil/wax finish. its light and super loud, weighs a touch under 8lb which is pretty alright given whats in it.

my first build, still gets quite a lot of use, the neck isn't as chunky as i now like but it sounds and plays sweet.

Gibson pre-fret all their fretboards before gluing on necks but i dont really like the idea. Would be easy enough to flex the board in the wrong way and unseat frets a little before its glued to anything. Would probably work fine but you certainly wouldn't want to level them until its all glued up. I don't really see much of a point in doing it this way.

Finally I finished the spalt tele i've started, uhh, maybe six months ago, but as it wasn't pre-sold it was always on the back burner. Finally put some time into it and i'm very very pleased with the results. Specs- Flamed QLD maple back, Spalted/Flame maple top, Flame maple neck, deep C shape, wenge fingerboard (25.5" 22 medium jumbo frets, 12" radius), white plastic binding on the top and fretboard, brushed chrome hardware-gotoh bridge- (The neck plate was brushed after i took the photos so disregard it being regular chrome) grover tuners, tonerider rebel-90's, nitro finish. Haven't been able to get a truly complimentary photo of how flamey the neck is but i'll have another shot tomorrow. more photos HERE or even more in pics at www.myspace.com/2012guitars comments welcome! cheers, Jon.

love that body shape! will definitely keep an eye on this thread.

Been getting more and more commission work recently and finished a few new babies this last month... 2012.DC Tassie blackwood/maple/wenge/maple/Tassie Blackwood body Maple/Rosewood neck, 25.5" scale, 22 SS frets - bolt on. Rosewood top mounted control cavity gotoh/grover hardware. 3x Tonerider Rebel 90 pickups with strat style switching. Danish oil finish. note- all the pickup surrounds on the guitar are now cream... PHOTO ------------- 2012.SC Tassie blackwood body - stained and lightly finished in satin nitro maple/Cocobolo neck, 25.5" scale, 22 ss frets, bolt on - Flame maple bear inlay at 12th fret Flame maple pickguard gotoh/grover hardware Tonerider Alnico IV pickups PHOTOS ------------ Mustang style thing Alder body, maple/rw neck, bolt on, 25.5" scale, 22 stainless frets 2x Mick Brierly Handwound PAF's single ply black p/guard, tone push pot for coil taps Ibanez Jetking-esque headstock Mannmade 2 post trem, sperzal tuners vintage white nitro body, vintage amber neck, black headstock PHOTO ------------- Baritone 28.062" custom Tassie blackwood neck and body, deep set neck tenon wenge fingerboard Tonerider H-90's with Wenge p-90 covers stained body with satin nitro finish. polished aluminum truss cover, jack plate and badge plate between the fretboard and the neck pickup. At the moment set up with 11-52's in D standard, it sounds amazing between E and C std with these strings. Definitely keen to do some more baritones. PHOTOS any questions/comments appreciated. cheers.

any shots from the back? hard to make out whats going on with that neck joint.

looks nice but it seems like the neck carve stops a bit early before the heel? especially in the last pic it looks uncarved after the 15th fret?

thanks guys, as far as cutting the aluminum, its 2mm thick, its not really that hard to work with. i cut it very accurately on the bandsaw, then, with plenty of care and plenty of personal protection used a bevel router bit with a bearing at the bottom like you would a normal pickguard, the customer had assured me that if it screwed up my bit he'd buy me another, im sure it dulled it but still seems to work fine. then plenty of hand sanding. i really dig the aluminum pickguard and would love to see it on more of a retro looking thing (which is what i usually do i). its a whole lot cheaper than regular 3 ply plastic too!

well, i just finished the first pointy evil guitar i've been commissioned to do, it wasn't even meant to be that evil originally, the guy wanted a moserite-ish shape with some airline type points. ah well, here are the specs. 2 piece alder body wenge neck, LONG neck tenon ebony fretboard, stirling silver inlays, 34" scale, 22 frets hipshot 4 string bass tremolo SD quarter pounder p-bass schaller tuners slipstone? nut flatwound strings 45-105 brushed aluminum pickguard, jack plate, trem cover, truss cover. i'm really surprised how good the tremolo is to play with, really smooth, sounds great, good sustain and with a well cut nut and decent tuners it really doesn't go out of tune. i'd like to try it on a more conventional bass sometime soon.

use to use a bastard file for it, worked well, take the handle off, make sure you find a flat one (had to go through a bunch with a straightedge to find one suitable). But recently bought one of the 18" (i think) leveling beam from stew mac used with adhesive paper (usually 240grit or something similar). works brilliantly. i wouldn't use a radius block, it would work ok for some stuff but i like to be able to work with a compound radius.

the whole thing is gorgeous but the cutouts in the cone look incredible! top job.

thanks guys, i'm generally a fan of oiled finishes myself but i just got a spray setup and was keen to have a test run with it! also i'm used to having solid rosewood/wenge necks on my own guitars and given i tend to get a bit rough with my guitars on stage after a few beers i was concerned the blackwood neck would be more likely to ding up, never concerned about body wear but like my necks staying smooth! and a pic of the back...

so i finished this one off last night, really happy with it, am totally sold on using Tassie blackwood more, nice to find a local timber i love using. ended up making some ziricote covers for the p90's, i didn't think black or cream would work that well with the parchment pickguard. first of the pics... any thoughts?

8 finished builds from scratch, 5 in progress. first guitar i finished was February this year

i just got the neck glued in, i was doing a mother of pearl 2012 headstock logo and it was all nearly done and ready to glue in until i accidentally let it get sucked up into my dust extractor (it got shattered, i was shattered ) but other than that the guitar just needs sanding and finishing. here is a picture of the pickguard template i made up for it. its going to be a clear nitro finish so i think a parchment/off white 3 ply pickguard would look nice.

thanks heggis, the frets are nice and narrow doesn't detract from the inlay at all. i actually just started working for myself as a builder/repairer fulltime a bit over a month ago and spent any savings i had setting up shop so now im frantically pumping out work to support myself, not that i dont love doing it! This is the first guitar im building that isn't a pre-sold custom so its a nice change to make it purely to my own tastes. more details, it will have a hipshot hardtail bridge, and the neck is carved to a chunky C. somewhat similar to the '56RI goldtop i used to own. here is a shot of a similar one i finished last week.

Picked up some Tassie blackwood yesterday from a local lumber yard, something i've been wanting to work with for a while but first time buying somewhat raw timber as i've only recently picked up a thicknesser and a jointer. got it machined up yesterday and started work today. the same shape/construction as my addition to the october gotm entry but with tasmanian blackwood body/neck (my first time using the same neck/body wood) a slightly longer neck tenon and a ziricote fretboard (thanks Erik!). this will have a custom pickguard, dual p90's (cream), single volume and a 3 way selector. schaller m6 tuners, bone nut. finish- i think i will give it a slightly darker stain and probably just clear coats over that. or an oil finish. im a bit apprehensive of oil on this as its not as hard as the maple/wenge/rosewood necks i've been doing lately and dont like the idea of the neck getting dings (doesn't bother me so much in the body). the inlay idea came to me this morning after having a Twin Peaks related dream last night (i've since routed the neck pocket and fretted/carved the neck (medium stainless steel frets).

2012.3 Swamp ash body Indian rosewood neck/fretboard 25.5" scale, 22 medium stainless steel frets, bolt on, neck ends in the bridge pickup cavity. Deep "C" profile. 44mm nut width. offset mother of pearl fret markers, mother of pearl side dots. Joe Barden bridge, Seymour Duncan Alnico II tele set, Grover heads. vintage bone nut. Rosewood control plate. Rosewood jack surround. Danish oil finish. My third build in the last couple weeks since setting up my own workshop and making up a brandname. The 2012 is a reference to the end of the Mayan calendar. guitars for the apocalypse, something like that! The logo is left routed without inlay, subtle but i really like it. The customer couldn't be happier and has assured me some sound samples in the next few days so i'll put them up when received.

thanks. the headstocks wont be inlayed unless requested on the more basic models, i dig the look, its pretty subtle. and for more pictures... and another build i got started on a couple days ago: single cut shape, swamp ash body, indian rosewood neck/fretboard, deeeeep neck tenon (but bolt on still), joe barden tele bridge, sd alnico 2 tele set, grover tuners, body will be finished in a glossy transparent charcoal/black.