ScottR

Thick sounds fine, very resonant. But you don't have to keep the back the full thickness, or hunt up a planer or thickness sander to reduce the overall thickness and weight. Carve the back. There are a ton of pics of the carved back in the thread that pic came from. You can see from the pic above that the edge on the tummy cut side is quite thin and the carved back is very comfortable and unique looking. SR

I like deep carves. This top was one inch thick to begin with. SR

Dude, you are at the top of your game. SR

Mesquite is great for fretboards. Really? Not to hijack the thread, but I thought mesquite required a finish. Am I wrong? EDIT: Just gotta say, Paulie...that's unbelievably lousy. Just use some Danish oil. Also check into Texas ebony. And agreed Paulie, that does suck tremendously. SR

I filled a pup cavity and tremolo cavity on a painted guitar a few years back. I took a 4" wide by 1/2" thick piece of cocobolo and routed a 4"x.5" path down the center of the entire face of the guitar. I contoured the surface to match and routed new pup cavities. Polished and oiled in a pearl white body it looks quite striking. SR

RAD made one with a bloodwood top, but I haven't seen a red heart top yet. Might be similar. SR

That's beautiful RAD. The accent line under the claro top really ties in the contrasting woods perfectly. The proportions of the wide neck sticks out to my eye...my brain is used to 6 string proportions....but that's kind of what you get with an 8 string huh? This is really really an impressive piece. What kind of comments did you get on it at the show? Was anyone allowed to play it? SR

As if we still have a choice in that matter. This is like a good book, you can't wait to see what happens next and there's no way you're going to put it down before the end. SR

The hole in the back of the neck threw me for a minute....then I decided it was a recess for the strap button. A quick check back confirmed it. I like the bevels in the horn. I'm trying to mentally picture them carrying on to the end of the horn to see if I would like that better or not...I can't say that I would. It would look less masculine that way. Oh and I was right, I do love the top. SR

Did you look in here? http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/ SR

I've run into that problem building knives, drilling pin/post holes for the handles. I've had good luck with masonry bits. SR

Very, very nice. The burst looks so good in these shots, I had to go back to see if I had already seen it or not. How do those phat cats sound compared to standard P-90s? SR

Very nice piece of work. That's a pretty subtle place to put your signature too. I like it. SR

Ha. I have an ash club too. Well it looks more like a mallet. I made it from an ash tree in the yard that termites killed. I use it and bigger chisels a lot for rough shaping and rapid material removal. Ol' bear didn't see any but that for the first month or so. It doesn't see too much work on guitars though. Crow is another one that does very nice work with a chisel and a hammer. SR

That is a nice carve Paulie. For the cutaway scoop (and the belly cut) I'm using rasps and cabinet scrapers, I'm not good (and too slow) with chisels and gouges. But your end results are looking great ! Id try the chisels n gouges again if I were you. the ones you used were probobly too big, I use a very small gouge for almost all my carving. Takes away little pieces at a time & is very controlable. I find th smaller gouges & chisels are better. But thats just me, maby Scott could chime in here, dude has some serious skills with carving tools. Yeah, I totally agree with your philosophy, Paulie. I use palm gouges almost exclusively. I next to never use one that you have to hit with a mallet, and then only with tiny little controlled tap taps. For a top carve like yours, I'd mostly use a palm gouge that's a half inch wide for the bulk of it, and never cut deeper than 1/8th" at a time. For tighter areas, I'd use a quarter inch wide gouge, and I even have some that are 1/8" and 1/16" wide, for special occasions. SR

My own experience with Danish oil is it keeps pretty much the same shine as the wood had before you put it on. Many times I will polish the wood right up through all the micromesh grades and the raw wood will have a highly reflective glossy finish. The Danish oil goes on and soaks in, darkening and deepening the colors of the wood and keeps the same shine as it had before. Sanding to 320 or 400 has a satin finished look before and after applying Danish oil. It is not typically meant to be a film finish....although there are some who may have used it that way. I think ResorationAD may have used it as a film finish, but I'm not sure, maybe it was just his pictures. SR edit: That's a very nice looking tele by the way.

Outstanding. I'm jealous. SR

Surely I can be forgiven, my memory banks are getting rusty and are not reliable that far back! SR

I wondered if were ever going to see this again. Looks like its well on its way towards completion. Was it always in the plans to dye the neck through timbers the same as the quilt? SR

Just incorporate your tummy cuts and tear outs into a gentle full back contouring. Looks organic and feels great. SR

I don't I'm afraid, but perhaps a picture (of the guitar, not the cover) would provide some incentive for others to look through their left over parts boxes. SR

Very impressive inlay work. I agree with the others about the truss rod access being striking. I wouldn't cover them up at all. To me they are definitely a feature. SR

I'm loving this one Alessander. I will be following it closely. SR

Indeed it is Scott. this one, a drop top & a chunk of quilt are all I have left. think ill use the quilt for something for myself. the droptop went into a flying V i did for a guy. he ordered it on a monday & was playing it that saterday night at a gig its coming back for some polishing & photos in a few weeks. But the flame on this is coming out realy nice, actually got better when I bookmatched it . Any more builds in the near future from yerself ? That V sounds like a bloody fast build. Unless my powers of observation are faulty....and they often are, I'd say you hand carved (chiseled) the scoops on the cut outs on this. Man after my own heart. As for me, I dunno. I had a request for a build about a month ago. We spent about a week discussing details and then it got quiet. The customer is a friend of a friend and I have been assured that it is still on.....only delayed for a bit while he tries to sell a guitar to get the cash for this project. We'll see how it goes. SR

That flame is looking hot. Is that another of your rescued restaurant table tops? SR