Firstly, an apology of sorts. I’ve realised that I tend to go from one project to the next, even when the previous build could have been titivated in to something approaching true completion. Such is my personality though, I just get way too excited about new ideas. I feel a bit sheepish about that, because I feel I peak peoples interest and they don't get to see where it ends up.
Anyway, for this build I have salvaged the fretboard off a carbon fiber neck I built over a year ago, that proved to not be viable because I hadn’t calculated properly how much it flexed. As you can see, the fretboard is corian...I made the mistake of using too much corian and too little CF. Anyway...Luckily the board came off reasonably easily.
Calculations confirmed that with a shorter scale length, and with the addition of a heel, I could incorporate this fretboard in to a CF panel neck that was ridiculously thin (15.2mm). I went ahead and did just that, making sure to test how much it flexed, almost a negligible amount...but to me about the right amount allowing for around 100lbs of string tension. Luckily my father is a structural engineer, so he helped me out with calculations.
This lead me to want to do a similar thing with the body, why not make use of the rest of my carbon fiber, and make that really thin too? Ofcourse, this has posed a bit of a dilemma with regards to electronics and clearance for the output jack. So I went with the option of a Stratocaster jack turned upside down. The humbucker is going to go all the way through the body and will be screwed in from the back.
So anyway, in its current incarnation its short scale (23 inch) guitar, zero radius scalloped corian fretboard, 15.2 mm neck (apart from the heel), with a 12mm thick carbon fiber body that has an aluminium back. Im working on semi hemispherical fret ends to incorporate in to it.
Obviously the neck is going to be recessed, I just placed it on the body so I could get a rough idea of things.
As you can see, its far from there yet on a aesthetic level, but I think I have it worked out. Should hopefully look pretty bangin' when its done. I might even contour it a bit to make some of the areas even thinner...if Im feeling brave enough! Another thing Im going to do is route a quasi scratchlpate section in to the top, which will be filled with coloured epoxy.