2.5itim

Oh man that is gorgeous!! Is that quarter sawn and then when you carved it did that? I have been trying to figure out how to make a neck out of flat sawn but every piece I get moves around a lot so have been to afraid to try. If that's quarter sawn that would be perfect for what ive had seen in a head.

Scott I completely agree, total pain in the a** to work with but it sure looks amazing. I've really had a hard time finding it so I asked one of my new suppliers to keep an eye out. He texted me last night and said he picked up 200 board foot so I'm gonna go take a look for some more next week.

Thank you very man I appreciate it! When I originally started this build I didn't plan to take the carve near that deep but the farther I got in the better and better it got! This has definitely become one of my favorite body styles I'm making right now.

Walnut/zebrawood/flamed maple update: the oil has been buffed off the body, I'm really liking this stuff so far it has a nice matte sheen to it. I was somewhat expecting it to have a build up of sorts but it still feels like regular ole wood, it feels really natural. As for the fretboard it has now been radiused, all of the tear out has been sanded down. I really need to come up with a better way to radius my fretboards, with my sanding block method I always seem to get the edges rounded over to much on the heel end of the neck and I'm not sure why, I may be making a jig similar to skyjerk next month.

The supplier that I got the zebrawood from recut the 1" thick blank for me to fretboard thicknesses and he had really bad tear out problems on the planer. Luckily I told him I needed it .312" thick instead of the normal .25" thickness I usually use so I have a lot of material left to sand it out when I radius it.

Walnut/zebrawood/flamed maple update: my arête logo has a mountin top as the accent on the ê so I made up a mountain top in he same shape out of walnut and laminated it into the headstock. I need to find a smaller bit because I had to do way to much with an exacto knife but I think it turned out pretty well. I also got the body finish sanded and a coat of odies oil applied, it's going to hang over night and I'll buff it out tomorrow.

in preparation on getting ready to build the sg for Chris I went and bought a dremel, plunge router base and a bunch of bits for it today. I want to do a big arrow down the fretboard since one of his most populous songs is called arrows, this is just a rough test to kind of get used to doing inlays, I didn't take my time cutting them out and it's not glued in so you can see slight gaps but all together I'm super happy with it, I sent these pics to Chris and he loves the idea so I'm going to press on. When I do the actual inlay I will use rose wood for the shaft instead of mahogany and do a mother of pearl arrowhead, I can't wait to see how it turns out on the roasted maple Birdseye fretboard.

Looking awesome John, glad to see ya back on here. I love the finish on that ash body. I still need to give ya a call, I'll try for right after the New Years.

Walnut/zebrawood/maple update: i wasn't planning on working out in the shop till after New Years but it was one of the only nice days we've had in a while, so I opened up the shop and got to enjoy a little sunlight. Anyways, on this one I thicknessed the back of the body to get rid of some tear out on the zebrawood, this stuff is sure a joy to look at but such a pain to work, I thicknessed the body down to 1.312". I made up a control cavity design, made a template, routed the cavity and got the control holes drilled. I got the input jack holes drilled. I also drilled the string thru holes and routed out the string block cavity. Only thing left on the body is to drill the strap button holes and thread them and also install the tapped ferrules for the pickups, I still need to order them so can't do that yet. After I get those couple things done it will be ready for sanding and some odies oil.

Lol sorry I had a brain fart yesterday, tenths of thousands yes! Anyways nice work!!

I wasn't planning on making a post about this until I got farther along but what the hey! I was contacted a few weeks ago but a guy named Chris Mansfield, he's the singer/guitarist for the band called fences, I've been a fan of his for a really long time and this is going to be a real accomplishment for me if every thing goes as planned. Turns out my really good friend grew up with Chris and showed him my work and Chris said he had to get in contact with me. So anyways pretty much the only thing he said he wants and the rest is up to me is a sg style guitar, Pelham blue with a Bigsby. So with going off that what I plan on is. Sg body type, sapele body and neck, roasted Birdseye maple fretboard, arrow inlay, neck through construction, recessed gotoh roller bridge, recessed bigsby b50, paf pickups I'm going to have a friend custom make for me, and the rest I will make up as I go. So far all I've got done is the body/neck planks cut to length, thicknessed to 1.375 and will joint them on Tuesday. This is my first neck thru so trying to plan out as much as I can ahead of time, before gluing the wings on I think I will go ahead and scarf joint the headstock.

No sir, hundred thousandths would be the 0. ten thousandths would be the 6. Thousandths would be the 2. Tenths of thousandths would be the 5. I guess a easier way to say it is your half a thousandth thinner than 1/16" haha

Nice work!!! .062 is actually only a couple hundred thousandths thinner than 1/16 (.0625) I'd say you hit the nail on the head haha.

Not really an update on guitars but it is a new amp day!! I just figured I'd share since I'm sure there's so hear heads in here too. My prs archon 25 came in today, I played one a few weeks ago and just had to have one. None of the store near me had the special edition plum colors that I wanted so I had to order. This is hands down one of the best amps I've ever owned, it's just so versatile. Its really damn nice to be able to play my guitar I built on a nice amp for a change.

I have a knot right in the middle of one of my necks right at the second fret, I had thought about inlaying a penny right there just to cover the knot up lol. And congrats on your sobriety!!

Spalted hackberry/walnut/ambrosia maple update: i have FINALLY gotten around to setting up and wiring this guy. Now just need to get the string block powder coated black and cavity covers lacquered and it will be all done! This dude plays like a dream!!

Walnut/flamed maple update: i got the direct mount pickup cavities cut, I didn't screw them up this time thank god! Got the bridge mounting holes drilled and mounted the bridge, and I also spoke a while ago about how I didn't leave enough wood after the 24th fret slot so the e strings wouldn't have been able to have fretwire there, I went ahead and rounded over the end of the fretboard and will now have a 23 fret guitar. I'm hoping after I get the fretboard radiused and to the right thickness it won't be so drastic and not stick out as much.

It is freaking cold here today and we just got our first snow of the year last night so my little shop heater just can't keep up. I think I've gotten about all done today that I'm going to, now I'm gonna go inside and get my feet by the fire. So, quilted maple/sapele update: i got the headstock thicknessed to .580, drilled my tuner holes, carved my volute.

Quilted maple/sapele guitar update: today I got the top carved as far as I'm gonna go with it, chamfered the bass side of the body and chamfered the insides of the horns. Cut the control cavity and drilled the holes for the controls. Carved the belly carve which i forgot to take a pic of. Mounted the bridge also which i forgot to take a pic of. finished carving the neck and did a little test of the neck joint. after I get the neck glued in I'm gonna do a little carving on the back of the body I think to transition the body to neck area, we will see!

Quilted maple/sapele update: yesterday I got the heel block planed to thickness and glued to the neck, today I cut the heel block, routed out the neck cavity, sanded the neck to fit and routed out the pickup cavities. I had a bit of a slip up, I was planning on direct mounting the pickups but as I was trying to cut the neck for the pickup area I slipped and cut a little bit out of the top so I had to widen my pickup cavities and will now have to use pickup rings, oh well at least the mess up is gone. This weekend I'm hoping I can get the body carved, headstock thicknessed, heel carved, fretboard radiused and tuner holes drilled, fretted and neck glued up. We will see how far I can get.

Yeah I'm hoping it'll come back after a finish. Im still not sure how I'm feeling about the really wide maple laminate, I came up with this really crazy idea last night to inlay something in the back of the neck on the maple to break it up a bit. but I have no idea what I would put there and not sure if I should do it because really it just sounds crazy lol. The finish on the quilted maple will be a natural center with a purple burst and the bridge I will be using I will have powder coated purple so if I do do the inlay it will be something with Purple Heart.

I got the neck carved up to the 16th fret, I don't want to go any farther until I get it into a body to figure out what I want to do at the heel. But after carving it doesn't look near as off center so I think I am going to press on with using this for the quilt top guitar. I remember now why I made the maple laminate so wide, I was thinking at the time there was a lot more flame in it that there is so I wanted to keep it wide, now looking at it carved I can see there's barely any in it now, idk where it all went but it disappeared. Oh well it'll be fine the way it is. Also another weird note, the headstock blank and maple neck laminate came out of the same batch of maple, I don't know why there is so much difference in color but hopefully they will even out a bit after a finish is put on them.

Yeah Scott, I'm very happy with the top! As for the neck I'm really hoping it looks decent after carving, I'm gonna start on it tonight but if anything it can always be painted for another guitar so I guess I won't call it a total loss.

I got the top flat again and jointed/glued it yesterday. Today I got the top glued to the body, half way routed the body shape out and will finish that tomorrow. I also got the neck taper and headstock cut on the neck I somehow got my maple strip off center which is driving me crazy and I really don't like how wide the maple strip is. I'm going to see how it looks after carving and if it's really noticeable I think I will make up a new neck and save this one for a guitar that will get painted

Yep routers are crazy dangerous and we should never become comfortable with them. Some of you may remember I was thicknessing a top a while back with mine and caught the middle of my 2 middle fingers just as you did. Grabbed my oversized router base and my hand slipped and ended up losing 2 good chunks of meat. It could have been so much worse but my fingers are gonna look funny the rest of my life but at least I still have them.