pauliemc

Yea time is a killer. I like to carve my gitirs kinda excessivly, so time kiks my ass something awfull. You would not believe the hours that vanish into my Lotus models, especially when its made of Ash or Wenge. I have a fully chambered Cobra about to start (my front & back carved les paul-a-majigger) Id say there will be 100-150 hours in it easily. thats like €3000.00 in labour right there, so the materials & hardware are going to have to free, or there is no way it will be affordable to the customer. I rekon you boys with the CNC machines are on to something. I should realy look into one more seriously. even just for roughing out, it would more than half my hours in a build. Speaking of which, you seem to be on the ball with roborad lately, worked the bugs out yet ?

none up there. I suppose I should put something up as this is number 19 I think of those. over about 15 years, but still. its a fair few of them. I have one in the background of the piks in this thread I think. way back near the begining far as I know.

Chrome JS model. Or Nickle plated actualy. I could never get chrome to last, always split around the pickups after a whil,e resulting in an arm shredding gitir. electroplating with a few coats of different things & finishing with Nickle seems to work well - so far anyway. Ill take a pik before it goes out. Although this one will be back in a few months for a replacement neck I rekon, as the client wanted to use his original Ibanez neck for this one. but he is taking an Alpha aswell & I rekon he is gona want to have a new neck for the JS made up just like that one. so if I forget (u know, like I never do ) Ill get some then, as my photographer guy wants to try snap one - challenge of photographing what is basically a mirror & all that

you would be amazed at how many people say crap like "dude, whats with the price tag, its not like ur fender or anything" despite the fact that they have a fender, gibson, ibanez or whatever & want something better. hence the visit to the workshop. I dont even make my own pickups anymore because I just found it a money drain pit, eating my profits. I shudder to think what RAD charges for an S9 in relation to what it should actually cost if he sat down, did the math & stuck to his pricing. probobly undercharging by %30-%50, if not more

Beer, drunk idiots & swords. Sounds great ! what could possibly go wrong

schweeeet. Scott I need a new Tsuka (handle) for my Katana. way out of my depth on it I rekon. maby Ill just send it to you Ill do the rayskin wrap myself

I feel your pain man. Initial builds of a new model usualy end up as a big loss finance wise. Some custom builds are a total disaster aswell. But you will make a bit on the next one & more on the one after that. Groovey lookin gitirs all the same - regardless of how much you loose on them.

Like the boys said, You dont really need rock maple. Some of the best looking & playing necks I have ever made were with flat sawn soft maple species. its plenty strong.

Hey Scotty. Its a rather nice piece of quilted maple, not that the camera is able to pick up on the figure properly just yet. Its only sanded to 80 grit just now. The walnut on the back is getting my usual black stain treatment, lotsa black cut right back. Im gonna bleed a little of the black into the top around the sides but have nothing in the centre. Im thinking either 01) natural, 02) toffee amber burst 03) natural - blue burst 04) blue - green burst 05) natural - coffee burst. Cant make up my mind yet. I have an Alpha & a Chromeboy going out this week so there is time to think it over while I finish those up. The tailpiece is from ABM. Chrome plated brass, about all I realy know about it im afraid.

few more. the ass end needs to be finalised, wasnt sure if the bridge arrangement would be OK with strandbergs original shape, so it will be finalised once I am happy with the layout Anyway, time for some player testing, customer pickin up a guitar in an hour or so. Good to be back in the shop I can tell u

the hand is all but sorted, next to no pain anymore so back to the workshop. So this is what I did the weekend, or to use the official album title "Ode To Olaugh" I doubt thats spelled right, but you get the idea.

the air cleaners are cool if you can get them positioned right. A car restoration place I do paintwork for uses 2 of them. one mounted to the ceiling about mid point in the shop, but the other is on a trolly so it can be moved to where its needed most. Prety cool way of doing it, big tool trolly / air scrubber following you around everywhere. The owner doesnt buy the filters for it either, He found out the type & grade of material in the filters & just buys it in sheet form from a wholesaler. Gets big rolls of it twice a year. The shop is comin along realy well man. Im seriously startin to hate your guts at this point

the tormek is a nice addition. I have one like it a while now & havent had a blunt chisel since. great for plane blades. im looking to get an attachment that can do 10 inch planer knives for it, kinda gettin tird of sending them out to get refaced. You can never have too many hand planes, Id be lost without my bailey No6

HA HA HA COOL Im gona have to get a friend of mine to drop the V's I made him a while back in for some piks. One of them is a sponge bob guitar, mad lookin thing

trapazoid neck. I have them on 2 guitars, one at home & one in the workshop. The flat profiles tend to make for a more stable playing platform, less of the continuous adjustment you have on a more rounded neck to stabilise your thumb. I can play for literaly hours on the one at home & still be fine. The relativly large radius on the wizard necks from Ibanez do a sligtly similar thing, bigger radius feels flatter. Do as RAD advised. Read up on Rick toones TNP neck, & look into Strandbergs necks aswell.

Ow! I hurt myself laughing at that, man! Baby Mac is into Sponge Bob already is he? God.....It is Baby Mac that is into Sponge Bob, isn't it? SR SPONGEBOB ROCKS MAN !!!!! I watch it with the little dude during the day sometimes, when Im having lunch & chillin for a bit. the little yellow freak is a genius. Baby mac seems to realy like yellow so it suits him well. I had not realised you carved the upper bout to such a thin profile. I can see what you mean about chanelling my design mojo wait till you play this thing. being cut like that - the guitar just vanishes into your body. I have found that when you cut them realy thin, there seems to be a more natural woody tone to the guitar aswell. I noticed it with my acoustics & archtops aswell, thicker is not always better. Infact it can sometimes mean a muddy overly bass riden sound with underpowered high notes. no real balance in the tone. I winder if it was a consideration of RAD's when he was designing those S model, Razor blade thin guitars, he doesnt strike me as the type to just leav something like that to chance

oh. & the chick is more clumsy than I am, we should really be in state custody or something. you know, for all of YOUR safety.

well, Actually, If someone could walk around & point out all the stupid things i do to cause these issues that would be great. Although in this case, the stupid thing was helping a mate out by dropping in some birdseye veneers I had cut him for an old morgan he is rebuilding for a customer of his. His thicknesser fired a big lump of ash at me. there was a bang, a grinding noise, the wood stopped moving thru the machine for a sec. then it shot out & smashed into my chest. I kinda caught it with my thumb & bent it right back. Lotsa concerned faces at first, then lotsa laughing, then lotsa discomfort, & now lotsa Spongebob & crabby pattys (double whoppers) while I chill for a few days

Maby just hold on to it. Never hurts to have a show off piece for potential clients to drool over. That SRV in my avater, or the "wonderfull little forgery" as a local dealer refers to it. has sold 16 of its siblings in 3 years so far. It sucks having to loose out on the potential revenue from the sale. But if you can use it as a sales tool then it may be worth thinking about keeping.

Actually, that is probably the work of Paulie's I was reminded of. He has posted several JS builds. SR Indeed I have. Love those guitars. I rekon the JS1000 influenced my Black Lotus model big time, the body on that thing is carved like a JS. Except the Lotus goes further & takes the body carve way past where Ibanez do. Scotty this thing is giving me carv envy I have a few builds waiting to get going again, but I fooked my stupid thumb up & have to wait till my grip is back before I can do anything. Sucks,

Man, That is some seriously nice work. It may sound condecending - But I think you have actualy improved , which is saying a lot considering your work.

no it wont. I already smashed it up for annoying me so much. start with a new piece tomorrow ha ha ha

Christ I hate Zebrano sometimes. Started 2 acoustics for customer today, both of them want Zebrano sides, started bending them today & what an absolute bstrd this stuff is. 2.5 hours on just one side & its still not even close to being done God I hate acoustics

Man, Thats cool. kinda makes my approach look caveman-ish. just a pile of 9X4 pine with a load of big coach bolts holding it all together, with a lump of angle iron bolting it to the wall for stability. Every 4-5 years or so I rip it all apart & make teles out of it. Im on my 5th encarnation of it now. Any particular reason you are gonna top it with maple ? Id just leav it as pine & have at it. Its a work top, Its just gonna get drilled, hammered, chiseled, burned & god knows what else.

Holy crap man your kinda scaring me a little with that freaky big control area leveling thing you gots goin on If I didnt know what you can do with a chisel & some abrasives id be nodding my head in dissaproval ust now.