sdshirtman

I'm no guitar engineer, but I'd say the tuners go on the headstock. Traditionally anyways. This is a very cool build. Funny. You know what I meant!

I like new concepts in design like that. I would think some adjustment screws on the neck near the heel to allow for some action adjustment would be beneficial. Have any pics of the action with it strung?

I got the second carve done this weekend. I like the figuring on this piece much better. Next set of updates will be the binding I think.

This is turning out to be a very interesting build. I cant wait to see where the tuners are going.

If it were me I'd be thinking about grain filling with some dark tinted filler and maybe doing a subtle transparent or dye burst around the edge. Then maybe some oil or what ever you prefer to seal it up

So does that use a standard bridge or a smaller one? Is smaller where do you find them?

Thanks for the positive comments. It means a lot to me coming from this forum. I defiantly did a lot of homework on this. I still am actually. Whenever I run into a wall or am about to attempt something I haven't done yet I go searching the webs. I dont think this build would be possible without the web, or at least to the level that it sits now being my second. Scott, being my first carve I didnt know if the pickup routes would hinder me during the carving process or not so I opted to do them after. Another reason for saving the routes for later is that I dont want to risk having them mis-aligned. I think I'm going to do them after the bridge is installed and its strung up for the first time to make sure everything is kosher. Which brings me to something I haven't brought up here yet. When I routed the neck pocket (on both of them) the pockets were nice and snug. Not too snug mind you. Tight enough to where there wasnt any slop but not so tight to where I could pick up the body without screws in the neck. In the month or so since I've cut the pockets, both of them have loosened up some. I suspect some of that is from some of the sanding of the neck when I was shaping it and maybe some humidity issues, or lack of. Either way the slop is now there. I was thinking I'd just fit a wood shim made from a piece of veneer in the side of the pocket but I dont think I could get one thin enough to work well. If I slide the neck in with a piece of paper on one side of the pocket it becomes VERY snug. Now I'm thinking that once its finished and clear coated this will resolve itself. The problem is how to deal with this while I'm measuring for the bridge studs. and the pickup routes. So what do you guys think? My best guess would be to shim the neck with a piece of paper and tighten the neck screws and then measure for the bridge placement and pup route alignment. Then after the body is finished the clear coat should eliminate the slop. Once again, any thoughts or advice on this will be considered.

I think its awesome that you're getting to do this with your daughter. I wish I could do the same with mine but she's just not interested.

I think if you used a pattern bit on it you'd end up damaging the guitar. If it were me I'd just sand it down until it was accurate. Did you see this thread? http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=26121 Specifically the part about making a master template out of 1/8" hardboard, then using that to make a thicker template out of MDF. This might be easier for you to refine a more accurate template.

Prostheta I took some other shots without the single source lighting and it just didnt show the contouring very well. Anthony , If you like this piece of wood you'll like the second one even better. This piece is the red headed stepchild of the two. I threw together the time lapse on this one but there are some gaps. When I was routing the steps I thought my camera was running and it wasn't so I lost that part. The same thing happened when I was finish sanding. I originally shot these for my own enjoyment but I think they were interesting enough to share. I think this was roughly 6 hours compressed into 4 min.

And here it is finished and sanded up to 400 grit. This was a little more difficult then I was expecting but it was a lot of fun. I'll throw up the time lapse video soon.

I finally got around to doing one of the top carves. Sadly I didnt take a whole lot of still pictures because I was really into what I was doing. But I did have my wife's camera on a tripod filming a time lapse of the process. I'll post it later when I get it edited together. I'll try and document the second carve a little better. I routed the edges of the body up to the tip of the horns with a 1.25" cove bit. I wanted to carve the insides of the horns by hand. I drew on some typographical lines to stair step the carve but I decided not to use templates. I just free handed the routes using the router sled I made. It went pretty smoothly and I was able to follow the lines drew within an 1/8". Once that was done I started in with a curved ibex finger plane. Being my first time using one of these it took me a few minutes to get comfortable with it and get a good adjustment on the blade. Certain parts of the body were much easier to plane than others. Towards the bottom of the carve the ibex plane cut through the maple like butter. And on other parts I had to fight it to get it to work well and not tear out wood. I was worried about how deep I routed this section in the beginning and started second guessing my decision to free hand route this but as I progressed it turned out not to be an issue. I taped off the first 1/2" around the neck pocket so I wouldn't go too far on the insides of the horns. I think the detail on the horns took the longest time and was the most challenging part.

Nice choice on the black binding. With a piece of wood like that I vote natural or natural with just a hint of green burst around the edges.

My vote went to the Punisher. I'm not a "V" type of guy but I just love the aesthetics of this build. The Laminates are just visually striking to me and I like the simplicity of the controls. I also love the look of the Hipshot tuners. Like someone else mentioned theres the thought of working with the wenge that I hear is a PITA. Air-In Fall: This almost won my vote. I really appreciate the craftsmanship here. Beautiful guitar. BAPHOMET WARLOCK: The headstock seems out of place to me and the finish looks like it is full of ripples. Lemon VI: Nice build. Just not my style. Blue Burst Lester: Beautiful guitar and an awesome burst finish. The only thing I didnt like is the Bigsby and the knob selection. I think black knobs would look at home on this. Build Numero Uno - RG7 Facelift: Being a neck transplant didnt seem like a complete build to me. Nice job though. Gretsch Jupiter/Thunderbird: I dont like the aesthetics of this guitar at all. Different stokes I guess. P&W: Nice swirl job and interesting scarf. Whalehazard Thunderback: I'm not crazy about the shape on this. Looks like a bull meets gumby and I think the burst goes a little too far towards the center. Pentagrams dont bother me but I'd include the truss cover next time you take photos. I like the mirror gloss finish though.

I agree about tying in the horns and headstock. Very nice looking headstock design by the way.

Black dog, Very innovative jig you have there but If i route after the carve I'll probably build an overhead rig. The rig you have may work great but it would scare the hell out of me. dpm99, Thanks for the comment. I have a lot of shaping tools because in a former life I used to carve logs into tiki's. I've since moved on to guitars. Its much more rewarding. Eddiewarlock, The original design would have had faux binding but I decided to go with the walnut binding on the neck for the contrast. I think a maple colored binding at this point would clash aesthetically. I want to use walnut throughout to tie it all in. One problem I'm trying to solve is how the binding will come around the lower horn through the cutaway and meet the neck binding at the pocket. If you have ever noticed on some les pauls where the binding pind of skips over the joint where the maple top and mahogany meet and on others where the binding gets thicker at the end to hide that joint. Thats what I'm after. I dont want that joint showing. What I'm thinking so far is making some walnut binding that tapers from the lower cut away to the final thickness around the body. Maybe I'm making things harder than they should be but thats what I'm envisioning. I think once I figure it out and decide how I'm going to do it there will be a payoff.

Thanks for the reply. I still havent decided what route I'm going to take on the binding channel. I carved both the necks this weekend. It was my first time carving a volute. I didnt take too many pics but I rilled a time-lapse camera.

So is routing for the binding channel first pretty standard? Seems like most the Les Paul builds I see they're doing it last after the carve. On almost all the PRS builds I see there isnt one because they use faux binding. I'm just so worried about slipping with a tool an gouging it during the carve process.

I think you guys are right. Its not as bad as I thought it was. Staring at something through a magnifying glass can make you a little critical. The second neck is now fretted. I have a few more questions as I get ready to carve the top soon. My plan is to bind the top with walnut so eventually I'll need to route a binding channel. It seems it would be easiest to do this while the top is flat and do it on a router table. Although this seems it would be easier in the beginning I'm worried about marring the channel somewhere down the line while working on the carve. The other way would be to make an overhead router jig and route it once the carve is done and insuring a clean binding channel. I'm also thinking about how to start my carve. I'm contemplating making some step templates for a router or possibly just free handing the steps with my router sled. I'm also wondering of I should go around the majority of the body with a cove bit before I do any of this. Maybe I've just been looking at too many tutorials but I'm a little hesitant on which method to use. The boards opinions are welcomed here.

Looks like you've made up your mind on the black hardware already but I'll chime in and give another vote for the black. Awesome build.

Thanks Wez, thats great info. If I had read it 2 hours ago I would have tried it. Heres an update. I finally managed to get the frets on the first one. Doing this the traditional way is SO much easier. I have a newfound appreciation for the semi-hemi fret treatments now. Before I started going all crazy with the files I wraped a shirt around the headstock to protect it from an errant file stokes or what have you. I'm sure I do my beveling like pretty much everyone else here does but heres a tip that might help someone. I put s thin strip of tape along the bottom edge of my beveling file so that the file edge wont dig into the side of my neck. Sure, most of thats getting removed when I shape the back profile but you still have the sides where the neck pocket is. Halfway there Cant remember where I saw this but once the bevel is done I go over the edges with a fine sanding sponge to knock off the edges. Standard procedure for most of you? I still need to dress the corners but heres the results And here is the 21st/22nd frets where I had to pull them. Twice for the 22nd. I'm not really happy about it but it is what it is. And now that the frets are in here's a quick mock up. Slowly but surely coming along. After I get the second one done fretted I think I'm going to set the bridge post holes, route for the pickups then think about the carve. I'm really looking forward to that part.

Ok thanks RestorationAD. I'm going to continue without the CA glue. Prostheta , Just curious. Would titebond even adhere to the metal frets and make a difference?

I'm hoping the backbow thing doesnt become an issue. The frets are a little tight going in. I just love ebony boards though. I'be been measuring each fret slot and meticulously grinding down the edges so it will fit. I've got 9 in and so far so good. What I haven't done is add an ca glue. Should I? I'm just thinking of the potential mess. If absolutely necessary can I retroactively to this before I file the ends and dress them? I have some water thin CA and I'm imagining I can just run a thin bead across the side and it will wick in, then I clean the excess off with acetone. One of the reasons I DONT want to do this is I'm concerned about the acetone removing some of the dye from the board. As a side note I've been slightly bending the very ends of the frets where the tang has been clipped off so that It's positively (hopefully) flush with the binding.

Thanks for the input. I'm scrapping the hemispherical fret ends for now and going with the standard fretting technique. I guess thats 8 hours down the tubes. I pulled the 22nd fret for the second time using tips from RestorationAD and still got a massive amount of chipping. It took me another hour to fix it. The edges of the fret slot looks pretty raw but should be covered by the new frets. Pretty humbling. Hopefully this goes a little smoother this time.

Well I did some work on this last night. I measured each slot and tang on the board and also carefully re-checked the radius of each fret to make sure the ends would seat properly. I was ready to start pressing frets again. I got the first (22nd fret) in and it was looking good. I went to press in the second one (21st fret) and noticed the fret was wider than the previous. What the hell? Well it seemed that somewhere over the weekend of having people in and out of my garage that somehow these last two frets got switched from their respective places in my fret holder. I had no choice then to again pull the fret, and when I did guess what happened? The thing chipped out just as bad as the first even with the kissing. So after throwing a small fit and more choice expletives I set about gluing down the chips and moving on. Now that this part if repaired again I'm having SERIOUS second thoughts on this whole semi hemispherical fret end thing. I thought it would be a pretty cool thing to do but I'm two for two now. I cant afford to damage this board any further and I'm wondering if its even worth it. Its also got me wondering what's going to happen the first time this thing needs a re-fret down the road. Also after this latest fretboard mistake I decided to measure each slot and fret and found I have a + or - .005 of an inch either way on the fret width measurements. I dont know if I'm splitting hairs but its something else to make me second guess this. If I decide to go and fret this the traditional way I have to pull the first fret which means more chips and another repair where i've already done one. If I decide to continue I'm afraid that another error can potentially ruin this board and dozens of hours of work. Thoughts anyone?