Mike.Mara

Looking good! It's not the sort of look I'd normally be into but there's just something about it... And with the wastage... It looks like a fair amount so you could always salvage it for headstock plates? Mike.

Thank you, It is indeed not my first day in the shop lol... I think my clothes are more dust than fabric at this point in my life! Taz was an awesome dog, so good natured and loving, she would literally scream and slam into everything with excitement when you got home! That was one of the hardest things to get used to not being there anymore, but I have her paw print tattooed on my hand so she'll always be with me, and 2 years later we're still finding her fur everywhere. (I think she's trying to make sure we never forget, not that we could!) I have multiples of this guitar designed in different scale lengths, I was thinking about calling this "run" (For lack of a better word... And considering it's my first build maybe a tad optimistic) Taz. Mike.

Thank you for the welcome and the complement! There was indeed multiple baritone tracks on 'It's Been A While' as well as standard acoustic. If memory serves, it's Eb for the acoustic and Drop Db on the top five strings with a low Ab on top. (Ab,Db,Ab,Db,Gb,Bb). (As with most songs on Break The Cycle, but it differs on some tracks with some really odd tunings) Mike.

Part three: The neck! This was a real pain in the... You know what! It was all done with a Stanley No.7 and a bandsaw. (Apart from the headstock angle... That was my No.4.) Neck side: Truss rod slot cut... In hindsight I probably should have moved the nut slot back so it wasn't directly in line with the nut... Next time I'll try to remember that... It looks like that planing was done badly... I thought so too, but it's straight as... Well my straight edge... It just has a really funky grain and figuring to it that makes it look wobbly. Neck rough cut... So close to test fitting... (And yes the body is like me... A little overweight, but I'm working on it ) I got so carried away with the rest I forgot to take pictures, But one more... Where the neck and body met on the first day, sorry about the quality but... It really is starting to look like a guitar now!!! Low lighting makes everything look kinda yellow but hey... It was a long neck making day and the sun had disappeared by the time I got this taken. There's a LOT more to do, more shaping, more routing and every woodworkers favourite past time... Sanding. But this is it so far, Thank you for taking the time to look at this project! Mike.

Part two: The body! Ready for the bandsaw... The centreline ended up being off... Not sure how. Starting the cutout! Rough-cut done! Template on! Started routing! Finished routing the body back... Marked out cavities. Router thicknessing the top... Notice the water damage, While storing this about 7 years ago my garage roof leaked... It's been drying out ever since in billet form until I cut the top on the bandsaw and jointed by hand... I don't have a thickness planer or jointer, just a router, hand planes and elbow grease... Beautiful figure... Will end up being turquoise, it was going to be purple but after a project for my partner looked sooo beautiful in turquoise, they convinced me that colour was the way to go... The back and top meet!!! And a mistake... I was in a rush to get the top routed before going out with my partner and in-laws... Forgot to check the lock on my router aaaannndd... It slipped. Fortunately it was on the lower hip so I just sanded the body to a slightly different shape there, so crisis avoided... We carry on! Not a bad joint for a guy with no thicknesser or jointer hey! Forstner bit relief for routing... Routed out neck pickup and pocket... Little bit of shaping and this is as far as the body has gotten so far...

OK... Here we go! This is my first build, although I have been doing woodwork for years so I've got a little bit of experience with the tools and techniques used in luthiery. I've always loved baritone guitars, my love of them probably started with the band Staind although as I later found out, many of the bands I listened to when I was younger used baritones and even some I do now. I always wanted an Ibanez MMM1 because of my love for Staind and it's just a beautiful guitar IMO. But alas, I never did get around to being able to afford one when in production and most of the used ones are pretty beaten up, so I decided to make my own baritone, originally with the intention of an MMM1 clone... But it quickly changed into something that bears no resemblance! The design ended up being something I designed myself, although I'm pretty sure I was heavily influenced by other makers over the years of lusting after sooo many guitars. So I decided to go with an african mahogany back since I had it already for the MMM1, A curly maple top since I had a billet laying around for about 8 years and it needed using, a maple and black walnut 5 piece neck, and a maple fretboard with a dogs paw inlay on the 12th fret. (Because my best friend and beloved member of my family Taz passed away, She was a collie/corgi mix and never failed to make everything better no matter how bad things seemed. Being a collie/corgi mix, she ALWAYS shed her fluff and when I pulled the mahogany blank down from where it was stored, it was literally covered in fur! So I glued the blank up and left some of the fur in the joint so it's just another reminder of her.) Anyways... Enough rambling on... On with the pictures! Part one: The plan... I have a CNC so I decided to design in CAD so I could make templates for this build, I always wanted my first build to be done by hand so I'm not using the CNC for anything but templates and the fretboard. (I did try to make and slot a fretboard by hand, but as it turns out... I'm just not that good with a handsaw.)

Awesome, Thank you for getting back to me! The only inlay material I have is black walnut so it's good to know I've not got to go searching for other material. Thanks for the welcome too! Mike.

I'm about to make a fretboard for my 28" scale baritone... Also my first build. (Build thread to come, I want to almost finish it before I start since it can take me weeks between stages and if any one is interested that much of a wait can be a bit much.) My question is... It's a hard maple fretboard (I was going to have rosewood but the guy on Ebay I bought a blank from sent me a wonky, wedge-shaped, rough-sawn... Extremely rough-sawn and most annoyingly damp piece. So I've decided to go with maple since I have alot and know it's dry. I know black walnut isn't suitable for a fretboard itself, But would it work as an inlay? Is it too soft and would wear too fast? I don't want to go through all the effort and time of making a guitar only for the inlays to be my downfall... Thanks, Mike.