Stu.

I did a little bit of work on this one today, trying to fettle down the tenon shoulders to meet the body. It’s taking a while! Also, more meat removed from the top. I think that the carve is going to need to dip below the walnut and then come back up, otherwise the veneer between will never have a clean line.

The neck now looks like a neck! I definitely had a workout with this one. This ovangkol is lovely, but pencil marks vanish in the blink of an eye. Luckily I had my tiny, tiny marker pen.

The bench planer is back together and the tables are mostly parallel. I ended up essentially setting it to a fixed 0.5mm depth of cut, because any adjustment takes it out of alignment. I’m actually tempted to try returning it now, but I’ll try with a homemade fence first. Just a bit of neck blank prep this afternoon. Ovangkol for the LP without needing ears, and then ovangkol/birdseye maple for another build.

Cracking build and well deserved! Your Tele was robbed though

Good luck! I’m pleased so far, although now I’m worried that it’ll be neck-heavy with ovangkol. I popped out to my workshop this afternoon for boring tasks. First was sorting through offcuts, ready to get rid of most of the softwood and awkward little pieces of hardwood. Second was setting up my ‘new’ bench planer. I took a punt on the Rutlands premium bench planer during a 24 hour flash sale. It’s a bit of a nightmare and left me wanting to collect my ~40kg SIP bench model with cast iron tables from Gloucestershire. This thing is light, but blade setting was infuriating to the extreme and getting the tables co-planer is going to test my limits. There are four screws and nuts inside to set the left and right planes of movement, and then three nuts to tension the infeed table against them. Tomorrow will be a rollercoaster.

Oh, it’s super open and roughs up just like mahogany. There are basically no sanding scratches on the back of the body, just open grain. It’s a fraction of the weigh of mahogany though.

After doing sketchy stuff in my youth, now I enjoy executing tasks calmly and safely

It seems pretty nice so far! It’s very light and works easily, but that also means it marks easily - kind of like a lightweight alder. This blank was £40 from Exotic Hardwoods. I was looking for something cheap and lightweight, whilst also having interesting enough aesthetics to keep natural. https://exotichardwoodsukltd.com/product/obeche-body-blank-20-x-7-x-2-2-pieces/

Really happy with how the covers have turned out. Here’s a look at my super safe way of routing them too - the router is always supported on both sides.

That'll be a fun evening and bonding moment! I saw Maiden with my parents all those years ago and it was great. I have a bunch of other tickets somewhere, but no idea where. A few of the Metallica ones are missing.

Cavity cover incoming! If this looks bad and the joint is obvious, I’ll use single pieces of a contrasting wood.

He tries his best to do inlays, starter fret slots, mounting rings, and small routing templates. Honestly, I usually tidy because of decision paralysis. Sometimes I can’t decide which task to tackle next, so I tidy for a bit first. I also really hate climbing over stuff to work - I used to build in my dad’s cluttered workshop, barely having room to move, hence creating the polar opposite

The way this is evolving from blocks of wood is just nuts, especially the negative space between branches. Just like stone carving, I find it scary that you remove all reference surfaces where you could have a line to follow! I bet you can get lost in the process

Only a very small update for this weekend. I've been unwell for a few days and also diagnosing a problem with my little CNC router, so minor tasks completed. New StewMac items arrived! Looking forward to gettting these both to the same stage, so I can do the tenon shoulder fitting twice in a row. The CNC issue was a bit of a headscratcher, until I eventually reproduced it. The Arduino Uno microcontroller basically corrupted the GRBL command interpreter. After flashing a couple of different versions and eventually finding the original on a USB stick from the original kit manufacturer (before I modified it), he came back to life! I was trying to vacuum up some swarf mid run and created the same problem again - it was caused by starting the cordless vac too close to the microcontroller! Anyway, quick prototype of my neck alignment jig. I'll make this properly with a new design and stock, because the bushings are pushing out of the plywood at the sides. It's just a mirrored array of 8mm bushings with 5mm ID - 5mm holes for the neck, fingerboard, and all of my other jigs, with 5mm delrin to cut down to ~6mm. Holes are placed for 25.5" and 24.75" scale, avoiding fret slots. There are holes for necks with full or narrow tenons (a la Les Paul). Also, LP cover prep:

It gives me more time to procrastinate and tidy obsessively! Whilst my little CNC was running today, I consolidated a bunch of tool boxes, cleared a little shelving unit, and made a shallow shelf for holding scale templates and neck related things. It isn't a pretty shelf, but it is a shelf and it's thin interior T&G cladding.

It looks like a really cool alternative to paint for preserving the facets of the ash. Have you ever tried a coloured grain fill on top, a la Mayones?

It gives really nice, sharp separation between the maple and mahogany, which can sometimes blur into each other. I can imagine it'll make faux binding look more intentional too!

Great results with the stain! It looks blacker than the void itself.

The top looks stunning - it's got to be worth the blisters, right? Also, what's the veneer between top and body?

It looks lovely on Google, however I can imagine it's a tourist trap these days Cream binding is on order from StewMac, because Rothko & Frost didn't have the 6mm in stock and SM actually ended up being cheaper. We're going for 14 x 2mm on the body and 6 x 1.5mm on the fingerboard. Plenty to do before it arrives...

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I can never seem to get on with cocktail sticks - or maybe the ones we get in the UK are just useless. A bit of a photo dump from today's activities! I wanted to share the little Trend cutters that I use for cavity cover rebates and also for tight routing (e.g. direct mount pickups, battery boxes, bass pickups). And an impulse buy from StewMac that I'm finding really useful in all of my projects (guitars and others). I've since realised that the cutters are just replaceable heads from turning chisels, so I'll buy those if I need replacements. Clamps came off the body today and the join seems really good. I trimmed the edges of the top to meet the body and then sanded tooling marks out: Followed by sanding by hand: The obeche looks pretty nice with white spirit, so I'm going to just use vintage nitro for a slight amber tint: Followed by routing the binding channel: So we end the weekend with a roughed out body that's ready for cavity covers and cream binding: Side note: giving the ISOTunes Air Defender product a shot. I have normal 3M earmuffs which are decent and ISOTunes in-ear protectors, but they're not comfortable together. These new ones seem good so far!

Not trying to derail, but did you guys ever watch Legalize Murder? It was a UK black metal mockumetary from 2007: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1197329/ PS. The headstock inlay looks super sharp!

I keep forgetting about it too! I get distracted far too easily, so now I'm making lists and becoming a productivity master. Time to join the 5am Club*. *Not a chance. Those little access scoops are more hassle than they're worth. I should have validated them elsewhere, because they don't work too well!

The top is now down to 15mm and the body is 41mm. I'm aiming for 6mm of the top exposed at the sides, so this should make the guitar slimmer than a normal Les Paul at the sides and the same thickness at the middle - with a marginally deeper carve. I really can't decide whether to bind the body. The original plan was to use spare flamed maple binding for the fingerboard and then faux binding for the body, but I do also like cream binding on a LP (body and fingerboard). If the glue-up isn't great, that'll make the decision for me Also, I need to get some nylon/PTFE/HDPE rod to cut down and use as indexing pins.

It's funny how that happens! The birch definitely looks like a stronger choice and has more character