ShatnersBassoon

I've been thinking about the possibilities offered from working from one piece of wood. I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be a one piece Les Paul design... One piece body yes, but one piece guitar no. Ofcourse making a Tele or Strat would be a lot simpler, given the lack of neck angle. Thoughts? Does such a beastie exist?

I’ve never used a trem other than for subtle downward dives, so I am not too versed in Vai style whammy acrobatics. It looks a lot more like the Steinberger

Maybe I’m getting a bit confused. I assumed this was a Floyd Rose style trem, perhaps I am wrong. I got it as part of a headless hardware kit With regards to resale value. This is a build for myself, unless I change my mind later down the line

I’m fitting the Floyd Rose style trem to my headless build. What I’m a bit confused about is how much clearance I should leave both in front of and behind the trem block? I’m guessing that if there was no clearance in front of the block then that wouldn’t be very good for divebombs. Any advise greatly appreciated as always. Edit * Ah, just realised that as I’m only interested in downwards divebombs that I don’t need clearance at the front.

Thanks so much for all of the replies! I will let you know how I get on. I was thinking that I could spray it a cool colour, although that always seems a bit of a pity.

When I finish my current build I’ve been contemplating on a huge slab of English Sycamore I have lying around which excitingly, may just be thick enough for a one piece guitar (36 mm). That is, if I manage to find somewhere that can mill this piece perfectly, because it’s not entirely even/straight along its length, it’s out in a few spots by a minute margin....I suppose I could just mill it all with the router. Anyway, thoughts on all of that welcome, however my main point with this post is to see if anyone knows what is going on with these dirty grey splotches on the bottom side of the wood, do they normally plain out easily? What are they? I believe it is fully seasoned, however is it showing some sort of moisture damage here? Cheers.

Great stuff! And sheesh you almost can’t tell that you have built it from multiple pieces, nice work.

Gorgeous wood! I love working with inspiring materials. I’m sure it will end up as impressive as always.

Not quite 1 piece! So close though. I used the remaining wood that I had cut around the neck section for the 'wings'. I don't seem to have had many problems with Wenge, although I think that because Ive read so many horror stories about the splinters etc that I have been quite careful with it. This piece in particular cut quite nicely. The Ziricote on the other hand... Yes Im looking forward to stringing this up...an easily achievable low action is one of the aims with this build. Im probably putting some small fret markers on this.

A bit more contouring today, partly in an attempt to further reduce the weight. I was tempted to contour the lower bout in the same way as the upper bout, but I figured that that might make the guitar slip off the lap whilst playing...so I decided on this somewhat unconventional route, titivating needed-

Oh give a man. a break...That is some quality wood to be fair, that degree of Janka hardness can make a man insane!

My hunch is Fernandes maybe? They have some wacky headstocks...just the first thing that came to mind. Probably wrong.

I feel like I’m on a dating site with these builds...most photogenic . That’s some beautiful flame on the walnut for sure.

Jeebus! That’s looking lovely! The stain really brings out the character of the wood, it pops really nicely. I’m actually staining my headless black and the stain is from Crimson.

Industry_mall on EBay.

Cheers. I got it from a seller in China on EBay. It was around £65 including some accessories like the string holders (can’t think of a name for them haha). It seems quality enough, although it’s pretty heavy! I suppose Floyd Rose style bridges normally are.

So I’ve been building a headless over the past few months. It’s neck through design...was so close to a one piece in terms of the thickness of the Wenge blank! Oh well. It’s been quite a journey! I have gradually evolved this build in to a Strandberg inspired build. One unusual aspect to this build is the scale length of 23.4 and the deliberate lack of a fretboard radius. Combined with the jumbo frets and skinny neck (almost Ibanez Wizard profile) this should be quite an interesting guitar. Logistically this was quite tricky to build on account of me having to recess the body around the end of the neck enough for me to attach the poplar burl cap. The Ziricote fretboard was a pig to work with by the way! As you can see, I’ve done quite a bit of contouring and weigh relief. At the moment the guitar is 6.4 lbs, but I still have to route the trem cavity and take of the chunk of wood at the end of the neck, so hopefully it will end up more around 5.5 lbs. Anyway enough waffling, here’s so photos.

This is such a gorgeous guitar Mike and it sounds so beautiful! A lovely take on an old design with some interesting tonal options!

Congratulations on the win! A fantastic guitar, mean as hell

Cool! I like the black one the best though. The proportions work well with it and I like the modern look.

Cheers for the info! Come to think of it Ive never needed to alter the saddles so that they are towards the nut, always needed to back them away.

OK so I know how to place a Tele bridge and a Strat bridge, but is there anything to bare in mind when placing a Floyd Rose style bridge? (or at least I assume that's what one would call it). Its for a headless guitar Im building. I know that on a Tele its preferable to place the saddles at about 60 percent of their travel (at least thats what was recommended to me). Thanks in advance.

I was going to post this myself just now. Amazing work. That fretboard ended up looking a bit like Zebrano, nice! I would be a bit concerned about the hardness though, even though he did glue the frets in.

This is pretty innovative! I’m not always a fan of these making guitar out of crazy materials builds but you are doing something quite different here. I love the way that the pens are arranged horizontally. And it’s cool how you have used it as just the top. Anyway it’s looking sweet!

Looking great! The modern clean lines, combined with the contours are very appealing. Awesome stuff.