aeli

I found six 3-5cm by 20cm by three meters birch planks that were in excellent condition and my uncle told me that they are thirty years old. Occasional end cracking, minor warping so very clean pieces. Considering that Birch is not the ultimate tonewood, how much do you guys think such a piece would be worth for a luthier, I just need to have an idea about how precious they are. Any other good suggestions for their use? High end Finnish Birch for eight kilo solidbodies for anybody who is interested

What is more interesting though is the piece of Curly Birch which I had to rip myself to pieces to find. I stalked the whole Finnish country and counted about thirty billion Birches before I found my wood. I now sleep with it. Its going to be a great top one of these years when I can get back to building. Its happily aging now.

Hi,

I got a piece of visakoivu(curly birch) from Finland as a christmass gift recently, let's see if I can make anything out of it comparable with your's. It's not wide enough, I hate to be having to put some other wood in the middle of the bookmatch to complement the width. Great design and very nice carve, the color is great. What kind of music do you make?

I made a classical type electric bridge, totally non-adjustable, out of ebony and Tusq. I don't think it would help though, but check the in progress/finished work section, there was a tutorial on a homemade floyd.

It seems strong and stable enough, but I will laminate it with something harder to be sure.

Edit: forgot to say that I now make two guitars, the ash neck goes to a new ash body and the mahogany body gets a new mahogany neck. Perhaps it will be better

I might aswell throw my new projects in:

6 string fretless bass

Neckthrough construction

Semihollow Turkish Walnut wings

Figured Walnut top and back

Wenge-Rosewood-Padouk neck

Bartolini pickups

Tuners yet to be chosen

Homemade wooden bridge

Ebonby fingerboard

PRS replica

African Mahogany body, Ash neck,

Ebony fingerboard,

PRS Artist pickups,

Wilkinsson Trem,

Tuners?

Semihollow guitar

Walnut body&neck

Some exotic wood top

EMG 60, SA, 89 pickups

Wilkinsson trem

Schaller locking tuners?

Macassar Ebony fingerboard

This will be built as endorsement, actually a gift for a great guitarist friend of mine. He will be going to study in some music school next year, he was accepted to Berklee last week, perheps he will go there. I just wanted him to take there something that I made for him.

There is a headstock angle, no string trees whatsoever.

Well, I told you guys about the small intonation problem and slightly twisting the bridge and pulling the saddles way back was the only possible solution

I have a pic of the headstock from teh back, the machines are totally absurdly alligned, I know, but I have a tendendy to make the headstocks way too small.

The wood is hand carved like that, then it was stained red, then black over red, finally it was sanded so that the red would show between the blacks. It plays great regardless the high action. It is no problem anyway, because I don't play very complicated things, I usually write songs with this one.

Also, the Wenge is chambered.

Here are the last two guitras that I have made, one is not completely done yet.

The finished one:

Wenge body, Mahogany top( ) and Maple neck,

neckthrough construction

Ebony fingerboard

EMG SA and 85

Hipshot hardtail bridge

Grover tuners

A traditional Turkish finish called "Gomalak", similar to French Polish...

Line inlays that are done by myself

The articulation in this guitar is amazing, although it needs some neck adjustement and proper intonation, it is the guitar that I play with. I have never played with the humbucker yet, it is not even soldered. I had a prejudice against EMG pickups but that changed after I played with this guitar.

the unfinished one

Limba body with Padouk top and back, Brown Ebony fingerboard, Rosewood-Padouk horizontally laminated neck

homemade Brown Ebony bridge with tusq saddles

7 strings

gotoh non-locking tuners

Blaze humbucker

I built this for the guitarist of my band, where I play the bass. I haven't tested t yet, but my first impression was that I have to re-do the fingerboard and the bridge in order for this to be my masterpiece (out of 5 guitars )

back&neck

bridge close-up

Just can't make the connection...

Thanks, however we switched to ebony, we just couldn't be sure, and it was going to be roundwounds probably. Maybe I'll try the epoxy on a future project...

Hi guys,

I'm going to build this fretless bass, I have some padouk which my friend, to whom I am building this bass, fell in love with. I also have some brown ebony. We both are concerned about the enduran"e of the wood though, especially on a fretless bass. What do you think? Could I use it without any problems, or would I have to switch to ebony? Do you know any processes that may strenghted the wood whatsoever?

Stick to the natural headstock colour, it looks much better in my opinion, as you said natural fits well that dark red colour you've painted the body with. I think that grain that you used in the pics goes well with the design, if you only could find some extremely high figured ash...

I don't know what you will think of me, though I am Scandavian, I don't play metal. But I have the potential that every Finnish possesses!

Very nice, looks like it would last a lifetime. A little pricey though, some models, aren't they? Well if we consider them being so unique and all, it is not abnormal actually...

Where did you find the gold fretwire from?

Didin't have any problems with the shorter one with 0 degrees, it should be fine, if not you could glue a thin piece of wood underneat anytime.

The bottom right leaf is an amazing piece, seriously. Infact, you should have put it in the middle of the whole thing. Simple and beautiful is nicer than complicated and beautiful in my opinion.

I'm doing a padouk on limba LP currently, I'll inform you on how it turns out. I am expecting the padouk to add some treble to it. Aslo, I wouldn't go with an all-limba neck, as I had done so first, but it turned out to be too soft and I had to change it.

Finally! I was waiting for somebody to do this. I will be trackling the same project, a gift for a friend of mine who is going to study guitar in university. Well, I will be doing it nylon stringed, semihollow. Hopefully starting it after newyear.

That thing is crazy indeed. What did you use for tuners? They look very interesting.

The choices for woods are absolutely amazing.

That's very original indeed.

What kind of a stone is that? Is is so soft that you can cut it with a jeweler's blade?

"It's not a mistake, it's a feature."

Usually my original ideas share a common ancestor: An error.

It is very beautiful.

Edit: The headstock reminds me of a shark, why don't you call it Sharky?

"It's not a mistake, it's a feature."

Usually my original ideas share a common ancestor: An error.

The figure looks indeed like an evil smilie. The padouk strip is a beauty and the contrast it creates is gorgeous.

I've read that it's impossible to palm mute, hopefully they will improve the design so that it will be possible to do it, on the ones for electric guitars.