Diffidentia

Yes, you shouldn't use it. Send it to me Joking aside, I haven't got a clue...

As always fantastic work, Crow. Makes me wanna go do some bodywork myself!

apart from the pickup (the colour just does not belong here) This thing is absolut filth. Im just gona take a pik of it to the bathroom for a while

Couldn't have said it better. Great looking guitar. Love the snakeskin. I'd love to get my hand on something like that... Keep up the good work

And the real reason why this forum is as good as it actually is, is because you active members contribute as much of your own work and experience. Hell, I'd still be stuck thinking about building my first guitar now, rather than being on my third, if not for the tips and inspiration I've found here. A big thank you for that, and a slap on my own wrist to remind me to actually try to comment and not just read the posts

Haha! And not that it would matter as I simply weighed me+guitar and then weighed and subtracted me. I even double checked! It is a light guitar indeed...

LOL! You're absurd haha. Spring for an accurate scale! Its useful for all kinds of things besides weighing guitars. (Spare me drug references please lol)

Hehe, I make do with what I have at hand. It's an exact number though. I rechecked with a proper scale today

Thank you! It ended up weighing 2.1 kg, which should amount to about 4.6 lb.

2.1kg !!!!!!

he forgot to zero his scale

Haha! And not that it would matter as I simply weighed me+guitar and then weighed and subtracted me. I even double checked! It is a light guitar indeed...

That they do. Very nice. How does the neck feel?

Thanks! The neck has that classic lacquered feel, just the way I like it. The shape is a thin U with good access to the upper frets. If I had been a fast player I might have said it feels fast...

Holy crap that thing just looks incredible man. FANTASTIC work all around. How heavy is that beast lol. Last carbon fiber guitar I did ended up wieghing as much as a les paul lol.

Thank you! It ended up weighing 2.1 kg, which should amount to about 4.6 lb.

AD UNDAS

Build thread and more photos.

The specs

Construction: Neck-through with carbon/kevlar skin on the back

Neck woods: Mahogany/Walnut 5 piece laminate (courtesy of Doug@Soulmateguitars)

Fretboard: Pau Ferro, Gold MOP at 12th fret and Extra Jumbo frets

Body wood: Mahogany

Scale length: 25"

Radius: 16"

Nut: Earvana compensated nut

Tuners: Hipshot Extender and Schaller M16s

Bridge: Wilkinson VS-100N with GraphTech ghost saddles and Tremol-No

Neck pickup: Sustainiac Stealth Pro

Bridge pickup: Manson MB2

Additional electronics: GraphTech Accousti-Phonic and Hexpander

I kinda felt the sepia toned pictures from last night were lacking, so me and the Mrs did a new session in daylight. Personally I think these show off the guitar much better.

Like I promised, photos of the finished guitar. Yay!

I had EMGs in my Steinberger until 3 years ago. I never thought they sounded bad, but they didn't sound good either. I thought they were pretty sterile. If you use a lot of effects or use high-gain distortion, I'm sure they'd be as good as anything else for you. If you're more stripped down, then I wouldn't give you two bits for them.

I've been using EMG HZs for years, and they have their use. For metal and prog, which is my main gig, they fit perfectly. For all the other stuff I do (blues, classic rock, alt rock and pop) I have to work hard to make them fit the sound. I also acquired a set of EMG Xs which I use on a guitar tuned to drop A - which should give you a clue to where I've found use for it.

I'd agree that they are sterile, which is perfectly fine for some genres, but when I decided to build something myself I wanted something less clinical.

I've always been scared of 8-stringed monsters, though I tend to lean towards D'jent rather than "pop", but your selection of woods appeals to me. Especially the colors and contrast in the neck. I'll be watching this one

Again, thanks for the kind words. I'm very humbled by the response both from established builders (from whom I've learnt a whole lot by watching bulid threads here on PG) and more inexperienced builders/newcomers (which is the category where I belong).

I'm hoping to have some shots of the finished guitar up tomorrow. I've yet to test the MIDI due to the lack of a MIDI converter, but the rest is all done.

That. Is. Freaking. Sick. No Lie. I want one yesterday. It's simple yet complex.

Thank. You. I must admit though, that I'll probably never make another one. I'll leave that for Parker and rather focus on own designs from now on. I just had to have 1.

amazing guitar

Thanks! I'm eager to get some soundbytes up soon, and hopefully you'll think it sounds amazing as well.

That white sustaniac looks great in there

I won't disagree It is also the reason that the guitar is white. I might (probably) have changed my mind on the color if not for the Sustainiac. You can say it helped me stay focused. I hope it sounds as good as it looks. "They" say it sounds better than the Fernandes sustainer, let's hope it is so...

At the timberyard today,

/sigh

I wish I had something like that nearby

Very cool. I've been toying with the idea of a parker-inspired, super lightweight carbon cloth skinned guitar ever since I got a sample pack of carbon and carbon-kevlar cloth 8 years ago. Nice to see it's feasible. May have to move it up the list of 'things I want to build'

It's time consuming work to get i really good, but it's well worth it, I feel. I've still got enough left for 4-5 similar guitar if I wanted to

Here's a shot of the guitar coming together. I've sanded it down to 800 and then up again to 12000. No strings on yet, but you kinda get the idea I think.

It looks a hellofalot better than I thought it was going to. Nice job.

Thanks Now I wonder how you thought it was going to look

Carbon/Kevlar weaving really has an edge over plain carbon on the looks department.

I wonder how the result would have been if the paint to Kevlar transition has been white sunburst

The c/k sure looks good, but I'm pretty certain that "plain" carbon would have been a treat as well. Sunburst was my first though when it became apparent that I wasn't capable of pulling of a completely clean edge on the c/k. After letting my mind wander even more, which is my main hobby, I was convinced that I could get an even better result with the lines that you see.

Looks amazing, I was not to sure on the carbon originally but you blended it in with the paint just right I think.Almost looks like the whole guitar is covered it and it's trying to get out from under the paint lol

Oh yeah, if anyone asks I'll say the whole thing is covered with c/k

This is super cool.

Mind if I ask why you covered up so much of the volute and the back of the headstock with white?

Thanks! I basically had no other choice around the volute. Even though I tried to get the c/k to conform to all of the curves it just wouldn't stay completely "flat" over the volute. Therefore there's a bit of putty there. I also had to to a late night emergency surgery to the c/k to make room for the Hipshot extender, so that's why most of the back of the headstock is white as well.

Holy crap that looks AWESOME dude. Glad it came out as good as it did

Thanks! I'm quite satisfied with the results. I think the white and the carbon kevlar makes for great contrast. All white would have been eye scorching

Now I'm off to finish sand the whole thing. 800 grit first and then up to 12000.

Lots of great info about SS frets here. I was convinced the moment my former band mate and guitarist extraordinaire, who also happens to be a tele "fanatic", told me how h absolutely loved his new SS frets and wanted to refret his old teles too. So much for vintage correct

I've also got a few shots of the finishing:

As you can see from the previous photos I still have some way to go to get the woodworking part perfect. Luckily I was set on an opaque finish from the beginning, so it wasn't a huge problem. I would like to get things "perfect" next time around, though. I'll also search out a better type of putty, because the one I used was pure crap.

A couple more shots. This time showing the cavity cover taking form. Again, carbon kevlar. I'm starting to get a love/hate relationship with it. It's demanding to work with and to sand, but it's just so damn cool

I'll be going for SS frets on my coming build, but since this time I had to choose between binding and SS frets.

Now, more progress...

A look at the curves.

I just had to do a mock up at this point.

Then for a last minute fix to make room for the piezo saddle cables, since my initial plan to drill through the tremolo baseplate didn't work out.

Off to the finisher it goes.

You'd think having cf/k lining the lungs would be good if you ever got shot at lol. Looking nice.

Hehe, remind me never to test your theory

Wear a respirator please. Glass fibers in the lungs are bad.

I did. I'm very cautious in these circumstances since I also have Asthma, so I'm taking no chances

You call it ambitious. Pssh. I think you're doing amazing thusfar. That thing looks incredile. Cant wait to see it all polished up.

Thanks I'm a bit surprised that I've managed to pull something like this of, seeing as I have minimal experience in woodworking. But as they say, if you don't jump in, you'll never learn.

However, on to a few mistakes/shortcomings in my build plan

One thing I've always been curious about is how to deal with the seams... I'm really looking forward to more progress pics!

There should be no seams except where the neck curve and fretboard edges meets when you make fiber fretboard

Ideally there should be no seams. However, you have to plan for that a bit better than I did. That's why I had to do this:

Here's how it looked after removing strips of the fibre to allow for a smoother transition to the fretboard.

The back. Getting to this point was what took the longest time. Sanding carbon kevlar is a PITA! Also, I went into politics and had to run a campaign to become a member of the local municipality counsil. That took quite a lot of time, but luckily we succeded!

Another mistake. I mentioned earlier I had to come back to this. Mahogany off-cuts and Titebond

No building without proper fuel

I assure you, the shape won't change because of the carbon kevlar skin, just have a look:

Tape off...

Epoxy clear coat

Shiny....