shad peters

Unfortunately no, I worked out of our garage which was covered under our homeowners policy, but uknown to us our policy was written in such a way that in the case of any "bussiness activities" taking place in the structure they will not cover the building, or bussiness related contents. The insurance companies definition of "bussiness" is so broad that if I had had a garage sale out there they probably would not have covered it. Its a pretty scummy situation.

Hey everyone, I have had a lot of different people tell me that they would like to help, and while unable to do so financially, would like to send tools and stuff. If anyone would like to help in this way I have compiled a list of tools that I lost in the fire that are smaller and easy to ship. This is by no means a comprehensive list, I just rattled things off as they came to mind and wrote down a couple pages worth. If you plan to send anything please put down what you will be sending in the comments section so that others can know what is being covered, and send me a pm here, or a message on Facebook and I'll get you an address. Thanks again to everyone for all the encouragement and support! we have been blown away by the generosity of people.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/peter...30793400318412

Time to resurrect this thread! Its been not quite a year ago since my last go at this guitar came to an untimely demise. Since then life has been kinda nuts but i managed to squeeze in some time here and there to make a new body and was able to salvage the nek from my first attempt. and now it is just about ready to go under finish, Here is a recent pic, I'll try to take some more soon.

I don't feel bad voting for myself this month cause i knew from the start the howl-o-body was pretty well a shew-in, that is a stunning instrument for sure and a deserving winner.

I wish I had cnc capabilities, but for me thats pretty well out of reach, so those bigsby's are all hand carved, there is really no other way to do it far as I can see.

Peters JR. Style build.

This is the first guitar out of my shop to feature the wooden bigsby idea. I have a few other in the works and a couple that were actually started before this one, but this is just the first to get completed. Its a pretty basic build that just uses top of the line materials and hardware.

Spec list:
Top: 5a quilted maple
Back: mahogany
Neck: 5a curly rock maple
Headstock veneers: quilted maple
Fretboard: east indian rosewood
Binding: east indian rosewood
Pickups rings: east indian rosewood
Knobs: east indian rosewood
Tremolo base: east indian rosewood
Purfling: pearloid
Inlays: Mother of pearl
Nut: bone

Bridge: golden age roller bridge
Tuners: Grover

Neck: std C carve

Pickups: lollar imperials
Selector switch: 3-way toggle
Controls: 2 volume, 2 tone

DSC_classic single cut0142 by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

classic single cut by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

classic single cut b

y Peters Instruments, on Flickr

more photos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/

the worst thing I found about working with the Oak was that the pores are stinking huge! hence I think it is best suited for satin type finishes (at least for me) but the figured stuff does look beautiful. To see it in person it really even cooler, the curl creates a very unique pattern in the quarter sawn rays, and the combination of the rays and curl together is really breathtaking.

this was a tough month for me to decide but ultimately I had to go with the ash/wenge guitar. nylon one was a pretty close second for that guitar is beautiful

7-string Ranger

After some of the guitars entered this month I debated heavily weather or not I even wanted to take the time to enter, but I haven't finished anything new for a bit, so I figured I might as well. This is my first seven string guitar, its made from all domestic wood consisting of a curly quartersawn white oak top and neck, chambered black walnut back, curly black walnut pickup covers bridge base and knobs, and hickory fretboard. Its got dimarzio pickups, hipshot tuners, and switchcraft/cts electronics. This guitar is kinda outside the norm for me as far as style goes, but it was an interesting excursion into the world of extra strings- a good intro for the baritone 8 string hollowbody I'll be starting on soon. Just figured I'd throw it up for kicks.

just to address the inevitable comment ahead of time it is not sitting on the concrete, I just like to concrete as a sort of industrial backdrop for some guitars, rest assured it is resting safely upon cork pads.

ranger #4 seven string by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

ranger #4 seven string by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

ranger #4 seven string by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

As beautiful as that top was, it didn't quite compare to the Limba. Hopefully that part can be recovered and we'll see her completed. :-)

Whoa, that truly sucks. There is no chance to just replace the top and save that back as well?

SR

unfortunately I just don't think that there is a chance at saving the back as much as it pains me to say so. the body landed in the worst possible way, hitting the ground in the least structurally sound spot. It landed on the lower bout at the tail end of the guitar so all of that stress went into end grain, and since the electronics plate was out there was no additional wood to help absorb the blow so there is a good size and a big crack in the back as well. I am fairly certain had the back stayed solid the top would have been fine. Even if I could save the back I'm really just a builder, not a repairman, and I'm not particularly confident in my ability to safely remove the neck without doing irreversible damage to the body. I also feel that the carved heel would make removing the neck with heat even more difficult.

I have some more redwood that I actually like better anyway, and while the limba was beautiful I know I can find more, and there are things that I could do better the second time around.

welp, much to my dismay this guitar met and untimely demise last week. I have a rack on a shelf for my works in progress to sit on and without realizing it I didnt get it seated in well enough after working on it. 5 minutes later while working on another guitar I heard this one come crashing down to the concrete busting the top.... sad day. The neck is still good so I think I can save that and make a new body, but its really going to slow my progress down on this one though. Not sure when I'll get it done now.

I mentioned in the original post that the tailpiece was a surprise. I have been working on a bigsby style tremolo where the base is made from exotic woods instead of aluminum. I like bigsby's but the look just doesn't really go with my guitars, they are kinda bulky and its just a lot of shinny aluminum on top of the guitar. I'm working on two right now, one is from rosewood, the other from maccasar ebony will go on this guitar. I did a test run with some hard maple and it was plenty strong enough to hold up to the tension so the ebony and rosewood should be fine.

not sure if others will find this as cool as I do, but I'm stoked about it, I'm loving the way this is turning out. especially the ebony one.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

I have seen it used so many times I assume it does pretty well. On the whole limba reminds me a lot of mahogany, the way it feels and works, the weight, so I am expecting a neck that behaves similarly, but this is my first experience using it so I am still learning about it, I guess I'll see once its all finished.

That headstock back veneer looks great! Pure class.

Thanks, I really like the way it came out, most of the hardware willl be coming from that same piece of wood.

Great looking build. It blows my mind now much that redwood looks like bubinga.

I think you'll probably change your mind once it has finish on it, or maybe if you could see it in person, it has some similarities in color to bubinga, but its pretty distinctive I think.

Didn't get a whole lot done that I can actually show as progress shots this week, but I did carve the heel and more or less finish that part up.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

alright, so I got the headstock back veneer glued on and was finally able to get vollute shaped and glue the neck into the body.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

I haven't seen anything as beautifully coherent and subtly beautiful as this since a Myka. It is somewhat reminiscent of the slenderness of a Dragonfly.

That is a high compliment! thanks for the kind words.

here is a shot I took of the top today, I have done the refining on the carve and sanded it down to 220. this shot was taken with a little lacquer thinner on the wood to show the color

Can't wait to see this with finish on it. by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

well I got out the neck jig yesterday and got through routing out five neck pockets, among them was this build. It was the first one that I did for that day, so it did not turn out as absolutely snug as I would like for it to, but it's still a plenty good joint though. you can pick up the guitar by the neck with no issued and its not been glued in yet. this neck jig is based off what myka uses with a few changes of my own.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

that one I just bought off of amazon. It was the only one that I could find any type of review for.

Yesterday I started the hand shaping of the neck and man does that round over reduce the work, with the dragon rasp, a good cleanup file and a cabinet scraper I'll bet I had a more or less refined carve inside of 20 min, it was great. I need to wait to carve the volute until I get some maccassar ebony to put a veneer on with. I just ordered a gorgeous piece from gilmer yesterday and it will be the source for the veneer, and all the other wood fittings and appointments dotted about the guitar. I won't do any carving on the heal until the neck is set, and thats when I'll do the final refinments to the rest of the neck as well.

I'm thinking about making a fixture to hold my neck solid at both ends that sit on a pedestal for use while carving. has anyone made something like that before? It'd be nice to see some other ideas before jumping in and making it.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

here is neck with a little alchohal to show the curl, its not super strong, but it's still gorgeous in my mind.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Thanks a lot, Shad! I've looked at many of your build threads here and at MyLesPaul and learned a lot and taken a lot of inspiration from your work.

I believe there has been some sort of mistake, you clearly have me confused with someone who knows what they are doing lol.

I am loving this build! can't wait to see it complete

I rebuilt my over arm router recently, its still not an industrial router by any means, but it does get the job done. one of these days when I move to a new shop and have more room Ill rebuild it one more time from steel.. but thats besides the point. Since rebuilding it and upgrading the router it has become a much more useful tool and I'm able to do much more with it. for example, I can now easily set it up to do a rough carve on my necks, which saves quite a bit of time.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

Here is the rough carve after two passes on the router, it turned out quite well.

Untitled by Peters Instruments, on Flickr

diggin that tele, Hitone gets my vote

Yeah, I'm planning to bind the end, I just haven't got there yet.