Stu.

Progress is still kinda slow, but I've bound the body and routed the neck pocket. I still need to trim the heel down though, because it's about 10mm too thick.

Are you trying harder, or are your expectations just higher? I usually crumble with anxiety and expectations - I focus too much on the pressure and miss the detail, or monitor progress too closely to see any improvement.

You need to take it easy on yourself.

Yep, that looks f**king sweet with the grain filler!

I still can't believe that you don't sell these with branding of some kind (headstock logo, volute text, cavity covers, whatever)! Are you still strictly selling them without hardware?

You sure you fed that cat? It sure doesn't look happy.

My thoughts exactly!

The guitar is looking excellent though

Ummm.. welcome to being a luthier. \m/ There is a reason normal people don't work with exotic woods.

Amen to that!

Yesterday was wenge splinter day... good times!

I tried to edit my previous post, but it wouldn't let me.. apologies for the double-posting...

Despite being a very calm guy, this ebony has made me want to implode with a combination of rage and despair! It's been eating sawblades, clogging up sandpaper, shattering, and the dust has been getting everything so dirty. The fret slot depths are fine on this one, but keeping the binding clean was a nightmare in this order. Next time, it goes on earlier!

Whats the offset you used for laying the dots out?

The centres are 5mm from the fingerboard edge and the fret slot edge (the doubles at the 12th and 24th are offset by 15mm). The 21st and 24th are centred between fret slots (~4.5mm), purely because of the limited space. 5mm seemed the best compromise to keep those from looking out of place and give some clearance from the fret crown. I've used 6mm MOP dots, but I should have probably gone with 4mm.

Looking great, man. That volute is particularly sharp, and I love a good Rhoads!

It's definitely a good shape, and it combats the usual image of a doublecut being out of proportion. Perhaps it's just me, but they never quite look right!

Nice work Stu. I'm another one who has a love/hate relationship with zebrano. That looks sharp over the wenge.

I have some cream binding to put on there too, so hopefully that won't kill it!

I spent quite a lot of time planning all of the remaining tasks for this build... I now have an ordered last to follow, instead of mulling everything over in realtime. The neck is key at the moment, because it worries me the most.

I cut the nut shelf out today, routed out part of the tenon (the pickup cavity bit), routed the binding channel, then drilled for inlays and dialled in a rough 12" radius. I've had issues in the past with shallow fret slots and sanding through inlays, so I'm being mindful. Also, ebony dust is getting EVERYWHERE.

Edit: The light was too bad for a photo with the radius.

I have a rookie question too... when it comes to sanding the radius, do you guys aim to keep the centre line depth consistent, or the edge depth? The former seems to make sense, otherwise the neck essentially gets pitched.

Inside the Workshop - Vol 2

http://youtu.be/vzGxjhjWkUo

I second this being a useful video! I learnt some of this the hard way, when I sent some flamed maple through my bench planer.

I consider myself a bit of a Zebrawood specialist. My advice is too look at the contrast in the stripes. If the contrast is strong and interesting just use oil. If the contrast is lower a properly applied dye can make the guitar.

AndyT's green explorer was amazing. I managed to do an orange burst on a 7 string that turned out ok as well.

The first one looks great with the stain on, but I think I'd have to bleach mine to get anything like that. There's loads of contrast, so it's going to look like the one at the bottom! I definitely think it has enough character without stain.

Man I don't know what you're talking about, this looks amazing!

I love the wood combination, but I do agree on Zebrano being a pain to work with (and stinks like cat piss).

What are your plans for the guitar after it's done? Being built for you?

The body is getting light cream binding too, so it should work well with the wood combo. I still can't get over the damn smell :\

This one is more of a proof-of-concept for me than anything else - it's either going to be the example I show people, or another stepping stone.

Looking forward to watching this one to see what you do with that top. Also, not a fan of zebrano, but I seem to remember a green dyed explorer type thing in a thread a while back that I thought looked pretty awesome. It may have been from killemall. Anyway, keep up the good work it's looking good.

Hah, I didn't realise the wood would be so polarising! I'll give him a shout and pick his brains.

I was actually just going to hit it with some Tru-Oil, but I do quite like the idea of a blue stain too.

This is very cool. Are you going to do anything snazzy with the carve, to make it tie-in with the pointed rear?

All this talk of wormholes makes me feel sci-fi, because I'm a nerd.

They already look great and super sharp as they are!

Australia is clearly the best place to live for pretty tonewood! Some of that stuff is insane.

Do you ever mitre your binding ends?

That's a very nice start and a really sweet looking wood combination.

Don't worry about trying to meet any standards but your own. Do your best and ask every question that presents itself, and we'll do our best to answer them and give advice whenever requested.......and often even if never requested.

SR

Thank you! I'm sure there will be some daft questions, as well as plenty of advice on smarter methods.

I'm not fan of zebrano - I personally think it's horrible - but I must admit that top looks very nice over the wenge body... thumbs up to that wood combination, looking forward to see more advances... welcome to the forum!

If I'm honest, I just wanted a cheap top to contrast the wenge without any staining... zebrano seemed to fit the bill! It feels quite soft though and smells terrible, so maybe not again!

Here's what I have in terms of a neck so far:

The fingerboard was gluing overnight and I only had time to tidy it up a little today.

I'm a massive fan of the singlecoil in that V! I just think it looks great, tonality be damned.

Welcome!

I've only started 1,5 years ago with no previous woodworking experience this is a great place to share with others the ups and downs of learning to build, while watching other people's brilliant work.

How's the wenge body? Not stupidly heavy or impossible to work with? I like the combination of a bright top with a dark body, I'm toying with an idea of a wenge body myself so your experience will be useful

Thank you!

Yeah, a lot of people have recommended this forum if you're interested in some serious lutherie, so I'll be concentrating hard!

Wenge is pretty cool, but it's been a lot of effort so far. My thicknesser struggled with the full-width body, I had to invest in some decent Trend cutters to prevent tear-out and chattering, it splinters at every opportunity (gloves are a good idea), and the dust from sanding is really dirty... kinda like ebony. I had On the positive side, the fact that it's so tough means that it's harder to wreck with sanding, and it cleans up really nicely with a cabinet scraper. It's 40mm and 2.7kg right now - hopefully a few cavities and contours will fix that!

It looks so good though... you should definitely try it!

I really like the one on the left - I think you could get away with a second dot on the 12th (towards the treble side) and 24th (towards the bass side) though.

Hey guys!

I've always been slightly nervous about posting here, because all of the guitars I've seen are absolutely stellar. My building adventure started a few years ago, with no previous woodworking experience, and my skills have come a long way since then. Anyway, I want to push things to the next level with a guitar that I've just started - it won't be as good as the PG standard, but it'll avoid the pitfalls and frustrations of my previous projects.

It's a one-piece wenge body with a zebrano top...