avengers63

HE11 YES!!!!! Bloodwood feels & looks fantastic once it's polished up and oiled/finished. Honestly, I don't think it'd be worse than maple for brightness. We all know maple is about as bright as it gets, and nobody would bat an eye (tonally) were you to want to use it. Just make sure the wings are a really warm wood. White limba would be a great match, both tonally and visually. GREAT contrast in color. As for the weight & balance, I suppose it would be offset a but by being a neck-through. That'd be a heavy core to help counterbalance the neck. I suppose the most important design factor would be making sure the bass horn is far enough forward so that the balance point is really out there.

Bloodwood is an awesome choice. Sonically, it's a LOT like ebony, but at a fraction of the price. And it's just cool as he11.

I'm either brave, stupid, or both. One of the inlays was cut about 1/16" too deep. Considering the router got set once and all the rest were fine, your guess is as good as mine as to how. Then end result was that instead of sitting a hair proud, it was a hair recessed. Well THAT won't do. So I took it to my jointer. I set it for 1/128"-1/64" or so and prayed that I wasn't about to fook the whole thing up. I was about to be either brilliant or an idiot - no middle ground. Thank God it worked. It took 8 passes to get it there, but it all came out perfect. There's no way in he11 I'd try that with shell, but the plastic shaved off so thin it's almost transparent. Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good.

The "gash" on the side is really no biggie. After it's all rounded over and shaped, you can do one of two things: 1) Pack the hole with sanding dust, then hit it with CA. 2) Fill it in with walnut-colored wood filler/putty. Either one will be completely undetectable to anyone but you.

I got the inlays in this weekend. Maybe Monday I'll be able to radius the fretboard.

There's no reason to buy a scraper set for more than $10-$15. I'd look into Grizzly's set. I mean seriously - there's nothing about them that would warrant an inflated price. They're just a piece of stamp-cut steel that's had an edge sharpened.

People voting for their friends instead of the guitar? It seems like I've heard that one before somewhere....

Me too I'm sure it'll sound great. I'm not gonna tell y'all what I do to prep the neck for carving. Y'all prolly think I'm a dip anyway... why give ya any more ammunition.

The neck I made from bubinga felt like glass after I buffed it out to 4000 grit. I didn't find it hard to carve at all. Then again, carving the neck and carving the top are two different beasts.

I really like that the burst is off-balanced, matching the bi-level carve.

It would seem that Hembry Guitars thought blending a Fender and an Ibanez was a pretty good idea too. It doesn't look too bad, actually!

Nothing garish this time. Just your basic B/W/B pickguard. If you want garish, wait for the orange Airline.

Don't forget about the "screaming yellow" paint it'll be getting. Scribing around the blocks with an x-acto makes my hand cramp up with a quickness! I can't do more than one without needing to give my hand a rest.

The body is ready for sealer. Unfortunately, I'm all out. I guess that part waits until Monday. In the meantime, I can get to work on the inlays. Yes, inlaying into maple takes precision for it to NOT look sloppy. Fortunately, these are blocks, so it's all simple math and straight lines.

I like the color combos a lot.

SWIMBO reminded me that if my gut feeling leans a certain way, 1) it doesn't change over time and 2) it's usually right. The bottom end of the p/g just lost the swoopie.

I think the dingus is staying this time. Looking at it, I know I can play comfortably with the sliver on the treble side of the neck pocket, and it'll add an ounce of stability too, so I think it'll just get smoothed out. Good call Muzz! I got a little bit of work done between routed this afternoon. The big things today are routing the neck pocket, putting a 1/4" roundover on the body, and toying around with the pickguard shape. The tan mung is some wood filler to repair some minor chip-out in the maple. After looking at the pickguard on the Fireman (reverse Iceman), this is what I came up with. My main concern is that it may be too much repetition of the theme. The hook on the body horn is repeated on the headstock, so does repeating it here just beat it into the ground visually?

I'm still thinking about cutting off the dingus.

The body is routed to the template. The neck is routed to the taper and the headstock shaped.

That's exactly it. I'll be doing the inlay with the scroll saw.

This is probably going to be a slow burn, so don't expect any major updates like I usually crank out. The #1 priority right now is the Mockingbird. As it's on hold due to tool failure, the #2 is the Iceman rework. #3 is the SG I haven't posted anything of note about yet. Then somewhere down the line is the Gretsch Jupiter and the Rickenbacker brothers.

Some goober at church complained that the reflections off this thing hitting them in the face is a distraction, so I can't play it anymore. So....... I'm making another one. This is the best sounding ax I have, so the next will be almost identical. BODY: 15/16" basswood base 5/16" maple cap 1 1/4" total thickness The old one was REALLY heavy. It was a basswood/maple sandwich, but came in at almost 2". That's WAY too thick for a huge body like this. Anyone remember the 1st Mockingbird I did? Remember the paint job? That's my goal on this one - a "screaming yellow" Iceman. NECK: 1-piece ebonized walnut neck The other one was a back-bolt. Since that can only happen on a 1 3/4"+ body, that's out this time and I have to go with a standard bolt-on. FRETBOARD: I'm a little undecided on this one. The original was bloodwood. Sonically, I could go with bloodwood, ebony, or maple and they'd all sound pretty much the same. HARDWARE: Everything from the original is coming over. That's the whole point. The only potential change is switching over to a strat-like trem, but I don't think I have a thick enough body for it. Besides the thickness, finish, and neck attachment, the only other significant difference is that I'll be making a pickguard for it. Everything will be mounted strat-like. Right now, the body has been all glued together and rough-cut, waiting to be routed to the template, and the neck blank has been milled.

First, you take this body shape..... ....then put this on top of it.... ....then put a single P90 in the bridge with a wraparound tailpiece and you have a Southern Rock special. The base of the body is basswood. The flag will be made from bloodwood, basswood, and ash dyed blue. I'm seriously considering leaving the basswood base plain. Here's the neck blank as it stands right now. The outsides are ash (to be dyed blue), with bloodwood and basswood in the center for a repeated red/white/blue theme.

in'it pur-tee I think I got more than a little bit lucky snagging a piece with some sap wood in it. It should look great once it's carved.

Not much to report here other than some thoughts and a decision. The fretboard became a no-brainer. I landed some ebony factory seconds that have been slotted already. The only reason they're seconds is they're a bit streaky. A little linseed oil takes care of that, so the fretboard is now and forever ebony. And it'll be spectacular with the sun/moon/cloud inlays. I've been thinking about the neck for a little bit. It needs to balance tonally and visually with the body. Sapele is very dark soncially, with the flamed maple pulling it up a bit. I couldn't have a dark sounding neck like mahogany, but I didn't want it as bright as maple for fear of overcompensating. Using Warmoth's neck tone guide as a reference point for the woods I have on hand, this leaves me with bubinga, bocote, chechen, and paduk. They're all in the 75% bright range, with maple being 100%. Visually, the sapele is getting ebonized, so it's a neutral black, as is the fretboard. The flamed maple is getting the tiger-eye burst, so the main color is varying shades of orange. Not only that, it's a very active orange due to the flaming. I don't want the neck to compete visually with the body or fretboard, so I need it to be fairly plain. This rules out bocote. The fretboard is 22 frets, 25.5" scale. I already know that the 'Bird is precariously balanced, so a heavy wood for the neck is just asking for trouble. This rules out bubinga. Looking at the two remaining woods - chechen and paduk - I'm comparing the colors and weight. Overall, taking into consideration everything mentioned above, I have to go with paduk. It's lighter than the chechen, and will eventually turn into a dark burnt orange, which will compliment the top nicely.