NIGHTTrOLL

Well, over a year later and this thing still isn't done. Got strings on it and have been slowly making adjustments and fine tuning things to get her to play as well as I possibly can. Been busy with work and school but more than that I've just been unable to bring myself to disassemble and get oil on it. I enjoy playing it quite a bit, plays well and sounds killer. Here's where we're at these days:

Front

Back (and cat!)

Here's one of the back (work in progress)

How are you finding the work? Slow? Ebony is so tough to work with sometimes.

It has been challenging. I'm almost dreading the neck carve and cutaway (which is usually my favorite part of building)

It's been awhile. Forgot to post progress pics, but here's where this thing is right now:

Still loads more to do, but at least it's starting to look like a guitar (sorta)

Sincerely appreciate all the kind words everyone, it means more to me than you'd know.

Is the area where the join is being oiled, clearcoated or what?

When I'm finally ready for finish I will be using Tru-Oil. I've decided that for the back of the headstock I will do a veneer of ebony over bloodwood and then put a slight bevel on it. I think this will help tie the overall look of the back to the front of the guitar but time will tell. I'll be doing this sometime after carving the volute.

My woods class (much to my frustration) was cancelled today. I get a lot of my major work done there and it only meets once a week; this is why progress is so slow. If there is anybody on this forum around the Chicagoland area who would be willing to allow me access to their shop I'd be MOST grateful and would gladly provide lunch and/or brews!

Got the binding done. After breaking numerous strips of bloodwood while trying to bend it I decided to just cut it out instead. Here's how that turned out:

I also got it ready for the fingerboard, here's a quick mockup:

Loads of cleanup to do, but I'm pretty happy with how it's shaping up

Here's a clearer shot of the joint I'd like to try to disguise if possible

I like the idea of adding a plate with the same laminate combo so I may end up going that route but we'll see, if I do that I'll end up waiting till after I carve the scarf and back of neck. I also have some ebony colored wood filler from minwax, I'll try to put some of that into there and see how it looks but I have my doubts about how effective that will be.

Here are a couple more pics

I absolutely love the back of the neck.

I didn't account for the upper point when I was cutting the wood for the neck blank, so it had to be glued on. I know the joint isn't pretty and I'm not too excited about it but I can live with it. The point on the left side is where the tearout happened. I was thinking about putting a plate on the back but I like the bloodwood stripes so much that I'd really rather not. If anyone has any advice as to what I might be able to do about it (without sawing anything off) I'm all ears.

Looks good so far. What are you planning to fill that dragon with?

All inlay and binding will be made of bloodwood

Tearout glued up ok. Not perfect but I can live with it. Got the plate on the headstock and cut it flush.

Will get binding and inlay on next week, for now I'm happy with what I got done today

Although I'm generally more partial to the pointy guitars, I must say I like the choices of wood and laminate styles you've got going into these SS builds.

Looking good, I'm a big fan of your work

I hope you are prepared for the massive neck dive that thing is about to produce. Off balance body plus baritone ebony neck. eek

I only really play sitting down and own a bunch of neck heavy guitars already; I'm so used to it that it would feel weird to me not having a guitar that wants to neck dive. I do appreciate the concern though

those woods are very nice looks like itll be a badass guitar

Thanks! At this point I'm mainly just hoping that I don't end up with a pile of useless ebony and bloodwood due to mishaps like the tearout I had today

Had a bit of tearout while trying to cut the headstock flush with the plate I managed to find the chunk that tore out and have it gluing back on now.

It's a clean break, not too severe and not anything that will affect playability or structural integrity under string tension but naturally I'm not very happy about it. Definitely not a dealbreaker but certainly annoying. Only thing I can really do now is wait it out.

I guess it's a sign that I've done enough for the day and a reminder that extra care must be taken with the ebony I am using. This is the first time I've used ebony on anything other than a fingerboard; I knew going into this that it may be difficult to work with but I'm now really seeing how true this is.

Will post pics when it's done gluing up, hope all is well with everyone else

Been busy, slight update though. Got the headstock plate cut out today:

It's gluing up right now, more pics when more gets done

Progress has been slow due to my lack of access to a shop for various reasons, but I got a little bit done today.

Got the neck blank cleaned up a little bit. Came out of clamps looking fine

Headstock angle rough cut, about to clean it up a bit

After a little tidying up. bad pic as per usual

ah, ok - so basically the wings will be bloodwood, with ebony veneer? This will be interesting to see! I have a similar color scheme in mind on one of my ongoing projects, but I'm using wenge and padouk, with a bloodwood fingerboard. Good luck with this one!

almost, the tentative wing laminates are as follows:

1/16" ebony

1/4" bloodwood

1 1/8" ebony

1/4" bloodwood

1/16" ebony

Thanks for the views and feedback guys, progress is slow and I didn't get to do any work this week but I will update when I can.

Are you planning on bending Bloodwood in order to create the outline or will that be paint? Not entirely sure how you would go about that one to be honest.

The bloodwood outline will be achieved by laminating thin pieces of ebony over bloodwood and then beveling the sides. There will be absolutely no paint used.

Neck Blank after thicknessing and a few hours glued up

What's up guys,

Have been lurking around the forum for awhile and finally decided to post here. I've built guitars in the past (albeit not as well as some of the people who post here, you guys rock) but this will be the first build in a long while, so here we go.

27.5" baritone 7 string made entirely of ebony and bloodwood, I don't know if this is somewhat of a faux pas but oh well it'll be cool and extremely heavy, which is exactly what I'm looking for

Here's a mockup I did in Sketchup of what I'm hoping it will look like

Here's the rough cut laminates for the neck blank. Will get them thicknessed and glued up soon

Sorry about bad pics, I don't have a proper camera