RestorationAD

You have a good base tinted lacquer is the way to proceed from here.

\m/

Hey Muzz- This one happens to be 17 degrees, but I've done several the same way at 13 degrees. SR 17 Degrees? Oh the horror!!! I can't believe you would do such a thing!!! AHHHH.... 14 is the only degree to use. 17 will greatly effect your tone. Even 12 is better than 17. Kidding aside this thing is looking tasty!

Sick.

Zombeavers!

Now I always use hard sanding blocks when working on wood combos like we are talking about. Still all this is way better than working on ash. If you remember I like to use a grinder to do this sort of shaping. Rasps and some other toothy type devices are usually less likely to make a mess than a blade. So I commend you for going old skool because it is not easy at all to do what you do.

I tend to struggle when I have 2 adverse consistency woods side by side. Zebrawood being as moody and grainy as it is causes enough problems but then with the hard ebony next too it would make it not fun. So do you carve the Zebra into the Ebony or reverse? Or do you try to work them separately and blend the joint of the two later?

I bet carving that ebony was real fun. Made my hand hurt just looking at it.

And ebony was involved in yours as well. We've had a very wet couple of weeks and the zebrano moved. And T-88 does not seem to be handle that kind of stress. Hopefully titebond can. Wood movement can be a very powerfull force, like ice in a crack in a concrete sidewalk. And yeah, as far as setbacks go, this was a good time to have one. That would not have been fun to fix at a later stage in the build. SR Zebrano always moves until you get it sealed. Even then it can do crazy stuff. Titebond will hold it but you need to get it sealed before long. Watch the temperature and moisture changes (laughing to myself because of where you are located). Don't work on it in the sun!

And this is why I quit using T-88 and spent a fortune on West Systems. Glad you caught it early. Would have sucked to find it later.

Yes. It was a lot of wire considering each bobbin is basically a single J-Bass pickup. Together it makes a beastly humbucker. The Wenge plate serves 2 purposes. One to cover the neck joint. And two to act as a ramp (its a bass player thing). Yes Joel is very happy with the bass. He has been playing it as his only bass live and in studio for over a year now It was a ton of fret wire. I had to make a special cual to press it them in. It has a really wide spacing as well 19mm. That makes it a real beast. But the customer is a tall guy and he likes it. I am not a fan of 17 mm spacing that is the norm on a 6 string. If I have it to do again I am moving to 18mm though.

That looks like a very unfortunate knot hole in that neck blank. Nothing epoxy won't fix just looks like it could open up when you are shaping.

I am not sure I ever posted finished pics of Colossus so here are some recent pictures my customer took for me.

The neck is heavy because you have enough wood to build 2 necks. Send me the cutoffs so I can build a second guitar Other than the blatant waste of precious Zebra wood it is looking pretty sweet!.

You know that the tone trolls will come if we start talking specifics so I will leave those ideas in my composition notebook. Everything affects tone including chaos theory of wood. In my opinion and generally speaking the thickness of the bodies does not seem to affect the tone as much as neck woods. I think that the thickness has a great deal of effect on the feel while playing. The thinner body seems to have a liveliness that the heavier planks lack. You can feel the string vibrations more where the guitar contacts the body. This is very important for the player because it gives them a more connected feel with the instrument. As for Zebrano. It is a very unpredictable wood that can usually have a dark midrange. I have had it come out quacky and bright but looking back at that guitar it had a maple/ebony neck through so it had a reason to. All other guitars had a wonderful dark set of tones with full mids, full low end, and slightly muted trebles. Always musical

I don't want to highjack your thread SR so if we want to talk about this make a thread and we can do it. <-- Lookit! That build was limited to the depth of a pickup + 1/4" Aluminum plate. Just about an 26mm from the strings to the back of the plate. I would say that if you are going to do a thin build change the plate on your pickups to a flat plate. El Mariachi is only about 33mm

It would never work... The internet tone trolls would form a torch mob and come for you... then tone voodoo gods would rise up from the pits and curse your precious new creation with thin tone. Seriously who the hell would ever build a guitar under 1.75" thick out of anything other than "swamp ash" and some exotic wood neck? If you are brave go look at some of my threads. 31mm is the thinnest I have ever built successfully. (with only a 2 degree neck tilt)

Cool. Personally I am not a fan of chambers for tone purposes on solid body guitars. I keep them clear of the strings and the pickups because I feel they add a hollow sound to the instrument. But I mostly build guitars with the intention of shredding and high output amplification (read \m/etal) Now if your intention is a Thinline Tele or something similar then have at it.

If you go with a 1.75" thick body or so I am thinking it is going to be a heavy monster when you are done. If it was me I would weigh the Zebrano blank before I put the top on it and see if it gonna need some chambers or at least a few 1" forstner holes. I am not talking about chambers that would affect the sound but weight reduction holes.

Scott I didn't catch the body wood. I would use a heavy piece of Sapele. One of the best 7 strings I have has a Zebrano neck and the Sapele body was a perfect compliment. As opposed to the Zebrano body and maple neck guitar I did years ago that sounded way to "quacky" As for weight Zebra varies greatly tree to tree so it is easy enough to find a lighter piece. I have had pieces that weighed the same as a same sized maple piece. Looking at the averages... Avg weight for Maple 44 lbs/ft3 Avg weight for Zebrano 50 lbs/ft3 Avg weight for Jatoba 57 lbs/ft3 As you can see SR has used heavier woods for necks before and it is not as far from maple as say Jatoba aka Brazilian Pallet wood

Keep up the good work. Maybe you guys can pull me out of hiding.

ooooh lured out by a Destroyer. I like Destroyers. This one looks to be shaping up nicely.

What was that did you hear something? Was that the sound of a sabbatical ending? SR No. Just lured out by a slick V. I am going back to hiding.