Marcovis

It's comlete now and goes off to auction on Sat!

I'll call this one the Stoddard guiar becasue I built this for The John Stoddard Rally Against Cancer(auction info). It's a chairty fundraiser auction with all proceeds going to thd John Stoddard Cancer Center here in Des Moines. I myself went through chemotherapy there in 2002, so this guitar means a lot to me and hopefully it will bring some money for the center. Here are the specs

body and neck- figured black limba

top- quilted heartwood maple

fingerboard- macassar ebony w/ quilted heartwood maple binding

headcap- macassar ebony

scale- 24 5/8"

bridge- tonepros tunematic srting through body

tuners- sperzels

knobs, pickup rings- macassar ebony

inlay- pearl and brass at 12th fret, pearl Marcovis logo on headcap.

pickups- WCR goodwood/darkburst

weight- 8.5 lbs

12th fret inlay close up

Some more pics on my picturetrail account

I know it's not exactly what you want, but you can order a Custom 24 artist package quilt in grey black. As of now, all atrtist package guitars come with an ebony board instead of brazillain rosewood. I personally don't feel there is much difference if any between a through neck and the PRS style neck joint, so really the only thing that would be different is the string-through body. Just something to think about since you will most likely be spending $3000 + no matter who makes the guitar.

I buy all my fingerboards from LMI already slotted and radiused. I just draw the taper with pencil, cut it close with my bandsaw, and then finalize the taper with my edge sander. It takes all of 5 minutes to do, but you obviously have to have an edge sander.

I have been building guitars since attending the Roberto-Venn School of Lutiery in the fall of 2001. Since then I've bought one guitar. It was a 2004 PRS custom 22 with the artist package and a solid Indian rosewood neck. They offered the rosewood neck option on the custom for a two week period and I bit. While waiting for the PRS, I built myself a guitar with an Indian rosewood neck. I ened up selling the PRS within three months for what I paid for it. Currently I only own one guitar that I havn't built. It's a '97 PRS ce22 with an artist grade quilt top. I bought it new as a freshman in high school and have kept it for that reason. It's somewhat rare because of the quilt top and it was my first really nice guitar. With that being said.....I never play it. I don't see myself buying another guitar, but maybe doing a guitar swap with another builder or something. I'm really impressed with builders like Artinger, Myka, Ron Thorn, Rick Turner, and John Reuter.

Marcovois, I'm curious to know if there is a distinct toneal differance between the west coast to the east coast maple top?I was curious as to the best woods for bright sound and killer sustain, thanks Chris.

If there is any difference I would say that since East coast maple is harder, it would be brighter.

Not a fan of the carve, but it's executed very well and you should keep it if you like it. In my experience carving tops(8 so far), whenever I think I'm done carving I always end up going back and smoothing out the roundness of the carve a lot more. Here's a pic that shows the contours of one of the last carve tops I did.

Got some clear coats on tonight.

Here's a couple pics of the glued neck joint

Here's a few more pics. Gonna glue the neck tonight and start spraying lacquer either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Headstock

12th fret Inlay

That there is a su-wheeeeet guitar Marcovis!

Please post progress pics and obviously the finished product.

What are you doing for a headstock veneer / inlay / shape?

Most excellent looking guitar. :D

Thanks. The fingerboard and headcap are both stripped maccassar ebony. It's got a 12th fret inlay of my own design that I did in pearl and brass(to match gold hardware). The headstock logo is my standard logo in pearl and the sidedots are brass tubeing with pearl centers. I'll post pictures on Monday when I get back to the shop. It will be going into the spray booth no later than Friday.

Can't wait to see the top with a bit of shine on it, that quilt looks fabulous.

I know, it's gonna look crazy after shooting clear. Plus, in that photo it's only sanded to 80 grit. Once I sand it further, it will pop even more.

I love the shape.

is that your design?

looks classy.

Thanks. It's a design my friend and I came up with for his guitar and I liked it so much I decided to keep using it.

I have been working on this guitar for the past couple months. It's being built for a charity auction here in Des Moines, Iowa called The John Stoddard Rally Against Cancer. The John Stoddard Center is a great cancer treatment center here in Des Moines and every year they hold a auction fundraiser to raise money to fund thier programs. I am a cancer survivor myself(5 years since last treatment) and was treated at The Stoddard Center, so this guitar has special meaning to me as well. The auction is Jan. 26th and all proceeds go to The John Stoddard Cancer Center. Here's the specs on the guitar.

Body-figured black limba

Top-heartwood quilted maple

Neck-figured black limba

FB-maccassar ebony w/heartwood quilted maple binding(from top)

Headcap-maccassar ebony

Scale-24 5/8

Hardware- gold, tonepros tuneomatic string-through body, sperzel tuners, maccassar ebony rings, knobs and switch tip.

Pickups- double creme WB customs

Here's a shot of the body after carving the top and the comfort carves on the back. I'll be carving the neck in the next few days and getting this one in the spray booth in the next two weeks.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL19/198486...1/290585139.jpg

Please don't take away from another members guitar just because you "are not a big fan of quilted maple"...

No, that's not it. And I'm not taking anything away from the build, it looks like a fine enough guitar, at least judging from the fuzzy underlit photos... And I recognize that the choice of wood one makes is a part of the build.

I'm not reacting to the guitar, merely the seeming orgasm certain posters tend to have over the figure of the wood (and I don't know about you, but I tend to close my eyes when I've reached the point of no return...) And I definitely feel there are more interesting--creative, challenging, unique--builds this month. Just my opinion.

Thanks to all that have voted this month. I guess I'll defend myself a little bit here. First, the photo's are not fuzzy or under lit and if you actually looked past the quilted maple top on this guitar, you might see that the build isn't just your basic LP copy by any means. The neck joint, hidden 3 way cavity, 7/8" top with a deep carve. These three things alone took planning and a lot of work to accomplish. Have you ever hand carved quilted maple like this with a gouge? It's not very easy and tends to chunk and tear since the grain runs all over the place. I really don't care if you like it or not, but your comments about the guitar are simply not true.

This is a great month, a lot of good entries. I finished this one a few weeks ago.

Here are the specs

Body-black limba

Top-quilted maple

Neck-flame maple

Fingerboard-macassar ebony w/flame maple binding

Headcap-macassar ebony

Scale length-24 5/8"

Electronics- WB custom pickups, 2 vol, 2 tone, CAE CB2 preamp via push/pull bypass switch on bridge tone, flame maple rings, macassar ebony knobs and switch tip

Hardware-tonepros bridge (string-through body),sperzel tuners

Finish-double stained blue (top only), nitro lacquer

Weight-8lbs 6oz

Hey guys

Ive searched all over for a thread about tiger eye staining that i was sure was here a while back

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Regards

dayvo

I have never done a tiger eye stain, but I've always thought you first stain the wood dark brown, then sand back the stain so it's only in the deep spots of the figure, then stain over that with whatever shade of amber you want. This could be way off, but that is how I would try it.

Here's the LP finished. I should have my singers guitar done by September 2nd.

Well, sad to say that you've just completely ruined all motivation I had in building guitars by building my ultimate guitar, flawlessly. I had been hoping you would botch something at some point, but no, absolute perfection and now I have nothing to look forward to. Ahh man, what a terrible day this is, to see my dreams go down the drain. Hahhaa, just kidding, but seriously that is one epic build that is fairly close to an idea that I had with Blimba (my new name for black limba) and maple. I love that blue, my favorite shade so far.

Anyhow, just amazing!! I can't say enough about how nice that guitar is, just perfection as far as I can see. When you get a chance, try and shoot us a few more pics. Also, that new batch of Blimba is beautiful, very nice coloring on it. I saw a bunch of blimba solid body sets up at Gilmer a few weeks ago, they went in a hurry. Did you call and ask for them or see them on the page? Well congrats on a flawless and amazing guitar and thanks for sharing the process and some tips along the way. J

Thanks. I always check Gilmer's website and if I see something I like I'll jump on it. I don't really need 3 black limba body blanks, but at the price they were I couldn't resist. Marc gets some very nice wood, but you have to keep up on it because the nice stuff can sell really fast. Their website is pretty up to date, they usually update it a few times a week.

Niiiiice....who's got the Black Limba for sale, though? Seems to be a shortage of the good stuff in 2" stock right now...

Erikbojerik(sp?) had a body for sale in the classified section here. It's true that black limba is getting harder to find, but if you look around long enough you will find it. All three of these blanks are 13.25+ x 20-22 X 1 7/8 and were only $85 a piece. I got them from Marc @ Gilmer wood.

Here's another update. The LP is pretty much done, just waiting on pickup ring screws and jack plate screws. They should be here either tomorrow or the next day. Here's a shot of the guitar buffed and with hardware installed. The pickups are WB custom 6707's(Wb Pickups). They are a hot PAF type pickup made with NOS wire from 1967.

on a side note, I just got in 3 killer black limba bodies last week. This one will be the back of one of the next guitars.

Looking good buddy! You'll have to let me play this one when it's done.........and also that carved top you showed me.

Please keep the pics and excellent work coming. PS: How are your side dots done? It looks like the shell inlayed in metal tube thingy a few good builders here do. I was just curious, they look really nice and stand out so much better than regular dots. If you have details as to sizes and stuff that would be awesome, if its trade secret stuff no worries. J

The side dots are very simple. It's an 1/8th tube of either brass or aluminum with a 3/32 shell dot inside.

Forgot to post this update. Here is my singers guitar after spraying color and scraping the binding. I will flat sand and spray a few more coats of clear tomorrow before letting it cure.

I got my singers guitar into the booth last night. This one is going to end up being a three tone burst (black/red---medium red--- vintage amber) with the faux scrapped binding like I did on the last LP I built.

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