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Yeah, I used some of the off cuts from the neck. Thought I'd dropped one when doing the cutouts, but they cleaned up nicely with a scraper. I'm wondering whether to stain the neck now as well. I think it would make sense as there is more flame in the neck than in the top.

its the planning that lets me down everytime - and that I'm far too easily distracted. Next time etc etc. Had some fun today, though SWMBO thought I'd dyed my hands more than anything else. Theres still some rubbing down on this to even up the colour in places and a butt load of cleaning up, but blue hands aside, I think I'm OK with how this turned out.

Well I slept on it. Thanks for the nudge psikoT. having whittled away at the heel its a bit more comfy at the dusty end of the fretboard. Don't think I'm going to carry on the cruve through the mahogany, but that again is something to sleep on.

seconded. That turned out really nice.

This guitar looks great. Seafoam along with daphne blue is pretty much my favourite solid colour finish for guitars. How do you find the Hiroshima nut files? I bought a set of these a while back, but have got to using them yet.

thanks both. I'm pondering deeply on the heel. Tying up the angles is where I think Ill end up but I'm going to sleep on it. I said to myself I wasn't going to make things up as I went along on this one.............. The feeling of doom has passed, but still not feeling that creative at the moment. Summer's ended here and the drizzle seems to dampen everything a bit.... On the up, the bridges arrived. Hipshot solos. Really nice and glad I didn't go for ABM bridges now. I'm still looking for a set of open gear non locking Hipshot tuners in the UK but almost resigned to importing from the US. Did the last of the routing this morning and drilled holes from the bridges. Also had a bit of a look at the carve and sorted out some minor facets on edges but decided to postpone most of the thinking work for another day. I'd been putting off refining the top until I had the bridges and knew how much room was left around them. Down tools gave me a chance to play around with hardware. Pickups not screwed in yet - that's a job for this afternoon I guess. Since this picture I've covered it with pencil again . I find it much easier to chase lumps and bumps with knobs and pickups in situ - weird. Seeing where it may end up (assuming no major cock ups) is a bit of a motivation too.

I've done three like this and they've closed up quite nicely as the two bolts let you crank things up nice and tight. You're right though, not much woodworking finesse there. For me its enough of a challenge not to round over the binding under the fingerboard, adding joinery in there as well would definitely be a deal breaker . Kept number 3 but haven't attempted to learn how to play it yet. Cue the potatoey picture.

bolted works nicely. I was taught this way - two bolts through a neck block with the trussrod extending into the body through a routed channel. Glued in, nice and secure. I liked this way because you can build the body nearly to completion in a mould, though as you may have noticed, I am a very gittery builder.

That's a good idea - I'm taking that one forward for future builds. You know for some reason I hadn't thought about air pressure within the joint. Today was that day when you come back to a project after a couple of days and everything about it seems slightly wrong. Very much an uphill battle so downed tools early doors. Started to cut away some meat around the body and put a round over on the back of the body. May buy a bit for this for future builds, but a file and sandpaper seem to be doing OK for now. This is where we're at complete with scribbles on lumps and bumps. I can kind of see where we're going. As it stands this thing is damn comfy.

What I'm taking from this is that its definitely good to walk away an think about things before stressing like an old woman. Took c. 1mm off and all good around the joint barr the usual tidying up and what not. Numpty. Still wish I knew where the gap came from - taking this much off here is fine but elsewhere I guess would be much more of an issue.

Thanks Andy ill keep that in mind. Stained top. The crevasse is on the back of the neck join with the mahogany so not visible from the front, but a bit annoying none the less. The maple joined up ok I think. well consider this well stewed on. I took the feeler guages to it this morning and its c. .1mm tall and only about 1mm deep. Think I may just try taking it back a bit as I've got a lot of meat to play with there.

very much so. The other half is convinced I'm losing it...

have to admit it is bugging me.is dust and wood glue the way to go if filling?

Thanks guys. I hope this thing turns out OK because I'm actually enjoying this build. The learning curve on the first was just too steep for it to be enjoyable, especially after the meal I made of getting the frets in. Doesn't mean that I don't feel like I'm running with a blindfold on though. case in point - theres an annoying small gap on the lower join of the neck join that was mysteriously absent during test fits but has cropped up from somewhere. Its not big enough to want to mess around filling and given the clamping pressure used/time spent ensuring the pocket was debris free I know the joint is sound. Would be nice to know how it cropped up. Build time today was mostly spent looking for the toggle switch's nut that I dropped yesterday. Turned out it was stuck to the underside of one of the pickups..... At this point I'm wobbling on final finish. part of me wants to go back to staining this thing pink after thinking a blue jean type finish would be cool.

That's what I'm going to take the scrapers too. I think a bit of it is the light - strangely the upper bout is actually a lot more bulbous than the bottom. The waist on the bass side also needs smoothing out and defining a bit more. I was working my way round from right to left side, but was starting to lose the plot a bit. Gotta walk away when the mists descend.

loads of pictures, not much progress . Anyone would think I've been sat around drinking tea all day....... Today I deepened the control cavity route and started messing around with the back. much work to be done there together with the heel. Not massively happy with the carve in a couple of places either so scrapers will be coming out. I also glued the stick to the plank.... Which then of course meant that I had to mock up. Its currently on a stand in the front room being stared at and scribbled on. I've found this the best way of sussing out what goes and what stays,

Thanks Andy We don't have a name for sunshine in these here parts.

I've got a hide hammer which does the job, though its starting to look like something the dog would fancy. I'll have to take a peek at flap sanders. This is where I'm leaving this for the day. Definitely some unfinished business on the left and at the bottom. picked up a couple of odd parallel lines on the top horn too. odd. Tomorrow I'm going to deal with the belly cut and carve around the backside neck and horns.

I'd be too worried about taking too much off with an angle grinder. I can barely keep it together working at this pace. Tea breaks are currently rostered on the British Leyland model - every 20 minutes.

ripples galore. I sanded it back to try and get a handle on where all the lumps are but I think we're getting there. As Always, time for a brew..

Thanks gents. Appreciated. A bit of carving today. By the cringe this is harder than I thought it was going to be. Knackered already

cheers. I'm quite surprised it came out. After seeing the neck on, I don't think I'll leave the neck natural. here's a question though on something that's unnerving me a bit. What's the trick to installing hipshot solo bridges? Looking at the trem saddles on my 7 the low b and e are just about as far back as they'll go and the high b and e quite far forward. Is it best to install with the intonation mid point at the scale length, or would it be an idea to set the low e and b a bit further back?

Test fitted the neck this morning. Small bit of sanding on the heel to tweak the angle but all seems OK. Treble side looks much better I think Also got the neck pickup cavity and a shelf for the top carve routed. I'm holding off on the bridge pickup until I've got the bridges in hand. I've finally worked out why the cavity measurements were a bit off from the centre line. Ive taken the D string as a centre line, but have allowed an extra mm on the low b side to the edge of the fretboard. That extra mm was knocking things off a bit so pickups are aligned to the neck not centreline. Thought I was going mad for a few minutes looking at this. The recess for the volume looks a bit horrific, but the carve will take a lot of the depth out of it.

If you're going to be building more than a couple I'd definitely look at something like a fox type bender over hand bending. It adds a level of consistency that's simply beyond me when doing it manually, though admittedly depending on how picky you are, it does take a bit of fiddling to get the forms right for your pattern.

Me too. I'll be very interested in how you deal with making the dishes as this is another thing on my ever growing to do list.