komodo

Hmmm glaring error there. You signed it with your username. Now we don't know what A.D. stands for, unless that's actually the name you go by.

Now it's looking super metal. Are you going to try sanding back the denser areas or is that the way the grain and figure is? That stone wall is SO English! We don't have residential stone work like that here.

ya know the funny thing about all of this...... I've been trying forever to build a plain guitar with non of this kind of wood. Whenever I see an LP with a plain maple top I think it looks very sophisticated.

What he said. Grading and subjectiveness drives me insane. Whether its wood or vinyl LPs. When I sell off the stuff from my own pile, I'm going to make up terms and promise not to use AAAAAAAA grading. weapons grade for master luthiers only not your dads wood "mojo wood"

That level of quilt in a piece that big will start at 150 and go up to 450. If you can find a honey hole locally, then you have more options, but you won't likely find that kind of wood unless you are the Pacific NW where they are growing and cutting tons of it. Quilt is probably 1 in 100 trees. Great quilt is 1 in 500, primo is 1 in 1000+. If you shop in a forum where they are selling as mesic wood, then you will pay more but also get to see more. If you see it in person, then you might identify quality wood that hasn't really been pulled and graded as such - like at my flooring mill. They called it "that pretty wood" but didn't want it cause it was a problem child for their product. People like PRS have a massive buying power and connections setup with mills so they are getting pick of the litter because they buy so much and can be very demanding. But even they will look for the promo stuff and pull it off for their wood library and custom jobs. One of the biggest problems is the way people grade and price. Look on ebay and you will see all kinds of 5A graded wood that is 3A at best if not for the color alone. If it's not white maple, it's not 5A.

@mistermikev this particular chunk from ebay. I've got wood in my wood library I bought 40 years ago! When you see it, grab it. @ADFinlayson I didn't realize G&W was Crimson. their vids have some good info. I'm about to sell off a bunch of wood from my wood library, some drop tops and one carve top quilt that is actually better and more even sausage figure but not as strong and deep if that makes sense. Is shipping to GB too much for online buying? About the only place to get stuff like this one is the pacific northwest. so everything I'm buying is usually online. The amazing hard maple flame I showed earlier in this thread was local from a flooring mill. They didn't want it because it didn't match other wood for flooring!

As is usual with me, I’m making deviations from the original plan. I’ve purchased a RS tremolo, but may still build one for fun. I almost gave up and made it a hardtail... The trick is the trem + the carve top + the radius body. I’m not doing the split flame / quilt, just all quilt top, because this: Also, the glow powder came for the starfield. I’ve also got some pearlescent mica powder and will test mixtures now. Pretty glowy.

AHAHAHA I know! When I see some of the wood sitting in my shop, I feel like it's my responsibility to do it justice by turning it into a shred machine. Interestingly, on my current build I felt like I needed to do it justice and got better wood for it.

@Prostheta That's interesting, G&W looks like a sort of across the pond StewMac. Check out the Red Special neck profile gauge at G&W - WOW! The tremolo G&W sells is identical to the one sold by RS Conversions: http://rsconversions.com/conversion-knife-edge-bolt-block-tremolo-unit.php I'm using the Wilkinson roller bridge. If you aren't too worried about being exact an RS copy, it's a good solution.

Totally agree, it's one of my least favorite parts, Those look fat, like if you have a light touch it would almost play like it's scalloped.

Boy you sure did a beautiful job on that top.

Aha, gotcha. You bought from RS conversions? This is what I've been contemplating this week as well.I like his knife edge / bolt block combo. I've been considering all week about installing from the front or the back, and how this unit will work with a carved top. I'm leaning towards install from the top, with an ebony cover inset, much like a back cavity cover. This would allow for a deep route, fitting the cover, then carve the top and cover at the same time for a seamless top. The cover would have the necessary opening for the trem top, and the knife edge could be mounted level with the inner ledge of the cavity. Hope that makes sense. I've also considered just making it a hardtail with the retainer I have, But that's not very sporting of me.

I just discovered Larry Coryell and my head is literally exploding.

The strings are strung through and pull the top of main block. the knife edge is the fulcrum, and the bottom edge of the main block presses against the compression springs (motorcycle valve springs). It's elegant, genius, and works very well - it's also very compact and adjustable. I believe Kahlers still pulls small springs and is surface mounted. It's also the bridge, whereas the RS tremolo is the tailpiece and uses a roller bridge somewhat like a TOM. The RS trem almost has more in common with the Jaguar tremolos. @Prostheta Love that you did a right angle plate. Ha! I was going to weld one up this weekend if I don't buy something first.

Carl, is it to spec or did you change it up?

Tiny update - familiarity with the Red Special will help here as I don't have visuals (except for this image of Brian Mays second version of the tremolo in testing): Solidifying important decisions that all interrelate, My goal was to build the tremolo unit, basically the same as BMs Red Special. The one thing I don't like about his tremolo is that the knife edge plate is screwed and them buried under the top. If it were to loosen and rattle you are out of luck. Plus, on my build I have a full carved top, vs his veneer. There is a commercial example that combines the knife edge onto the bolt block and would be accessible. I'm considering caving in and just buying one. Also, the Red Special tremolo is installed from the top. With a full carved top, All I need is an opening for the tailpiece string retainer, and am considering installing this from the back. This also eliminates the cover on the carved top. As I'm also still aiming at a radiused body, this would complicate the back cover but it's not impossible. Had also considered having the top open to SHOW the tremolo exposed, it's really beautiful, but maybe out of place here.

The angle grinder equipped with a flap disc is actually my preferred method, which I picked up from long time member Drak. It really hogs wood off fast, and when you get the hang of it you, can get quite subtle with it. It still is pretty easy to take too much off when you don't intend to. I've done backside concave and convex carves with it. For necks, spoke shaves, and then Dragon rasps are excellent, as well as Microplanes when you get close to the finished size. All that said, for my current carve top build I found some sweet old gouges and some thumb planes from China. I'll probably end up doing a hybrid of everything.

That is just begging to be played. Bravo! That finish is absolutely immaculate - I could see myself in it from here.

That's a really sweet piece of Claro.

This looks really really sweet! Even with the traditional F-hole, and natural wood it just looks metal to me. Then again, most things look metal to me and have ever since 1981 when I heard Iron Maiden Killers. Probably well before that.

I've seen InLace as well as Pearl EX. There is also crushed MoP powders of various granularity. After looking at all of these products for days, I'm left with two thoughts: 1) what will I do with all this silver wire, and 2) why am I not using GLOW IN THE DARK PIGMENT to have the star field glow? Huh?! Huh?! Huh?! Huh?! Side Note: I've still got this white limba neck-through core with the truss channel and carbon bars already installed, and a set of custom P90s. Every time I go in the shop. it's looking me in the face BEGGING to be a really rude SG. I've got to whisper to that one to go back to sleep so I can get on with this most important work.

awesome salvage! And behold the ubiquitous Workmate. There would be half as many guitars on the planet without the Workmate.

I’m using black and chrome open-backed Sperzels. They are lightweight and high quality, plus I had them already. Laying them down here tells me to scale up the headstock slightly. They were also used on my Dragon guitar build that I don’t dare show since they are gold - and RAD would get nauseous.

Full-sized printout at work. Super helpful to check everything. Laying down actual hardware to double check nut width, fingerboard width and string spacing with bridge and tremolo tailpiece. I can also see some centerine adjustment, maybe slight body scaling. Things get real at this point. Those blue lined boxes around the body shape, at 12”, 12.5”, and 13”. Those are locked, and when I do a body scale adjustment it’s easy to see the bout width and body length. This one is a little smaller by design. The wood is so dense and heavy and I prefer smaller sized bodys anyhoo.

Let me know how your initial tests go.