Marcovis

woah, that's really bad news...so sorry to hear that. I hope that it all gets sorted out soon.

Hopefully it will, I should have them back by friday. It's funny how fast someone that owes you something will call you back once you have filed charged against them.

I have had two guitars stolen from me. The LP that won guitar of the month and a purple double cutaway. I beleive they are still in Redding California, but I don't know for sure. I sent them to who I thought was a friend to make pickups for them and met up with him at NAMM. The pickups sounded great, he offered to buy the LP guitar and said he would send the other guitar back to me with a check for the LP when he got home. That was over three weeks ago and now he is unreachable. I just want my guitars back safe. If anyone sees theese guitars in person, on ebay, craigslist, or anywhere please contact me @ mike@gandlclothing.com or 515-313-6399 or you can call the West Des Moines Police @ 515-222-3321 reference case #07-0806

here is a link to pics of the guitars

Stolen Marcovis Guitars

*noob with first post*

One of the quick lessons I learned gathering wood for my first project is that just like with anything else, if it's too good a deal to be true, it probably isn't.

There's plenty of wood on ebay, some of it pretty cheap, and I found out pretty quick when the $10 neck blanks and lams are warped, knotty, or have a bunch of tearouts and discoloration on the non-photographed side of the boards.

Good tip, that's why you ask questions before bidding.

Just turned 24.

There's a reason you got that for $40, cause for ANYONE planning to dye the top, that dual color maple is essentially useless. So he got a GREAT deal on two clean highly flamed carve tops. The best non-ebay deal I know around for a carved top is $70 and that's only cause he's uber generous. So you VERY MUCH SO got a deal on those carved tops. Hell I'd take one for $55 any day!

Chris

PS: What's the seller's ebay name? Link?

The flame maple came from Woodbay. I have also had good luck with Durawoods and Nicemaple as well.

I havn't used MOP, but I have bought from Andy Depaule a few times and have no complaints. His customer service is great and the products (blanks and pre-cut) are top notch.

Nice, but kinda expensive though.

I got this for 40 bucks

Have you checked the prices for carved tops at most of the luthier supply or specialty wood stores? We both got great deals. I'll take two 7/8" 5A flame tops for 110 anyday. That is a nice piece of quilted maple you got there. Check out this piece(1" thick) I got for $65

I just recieved these two tops today. I paid $110 for the board and got both these carve tops(7/8")and a slice that is 3/16 to use for control cavity covers, headcaps.......

Top 1

Top 2

This is a good race! Thanks to everyone who has voted!

What's up Cliff, this is Mike Marcovis. It was nice meeting you at the TPG breakfast. I made sure to check that one out up close after you told me where to find it. You did one hell of job on that inlay!!! That gutiar was pretty much the centerpiece of their booth.

I agree about the staining vs spraying color argument, but I haven't been able to come up with any ideas on how to stain the top and still do the scraped binding. When you mention the 3 angle gibson style angle, are you talking about the surface for the neck/pups/and bridge? If so, I didn't do a three angle plane on this one, it's one steady angle from infront of the bridge through the neck joint.

Spray seal the binding! If you look at this picture you will see that the binding is sealed already! I did this one the same way I did the bass. I taped the outline of the binding from the inside and used CA glue to seal the binding! Myka does it be applying laquer, this will soak on the maple and won't let the stain soak to the binding area! very easy to do!

I have heard of sealing with laquer before staining, but how do you get that perfect 1/16" on the top of the guitar?

That is uber-nice! Very clean binding scrape! I imagine you shot a few coats of clear first before your color coats, would that be right?

I like the toggle switch sans switch ring, just like the early 50s goldtops.

Yes I sprayed a few coats of clear before starting the color and I always have hated the switch ring on les pauls.

Very nice! that finish is flawless, I don't like to do translucent coats only, I feel that there is a lot of the 3d of the maple that gets lost that way, it really turned out like a Gibson! I used the same colors you did on my bass, but I stained first, link I just went a little more "orange than amber for the center.

I'm working on a SC too right now, I was looking for a piece like yours for mine, but I went with quilt. I like the carve in yours, very nice and round, I like mine a little more pronounce, so I did a single plane angle instead of the 3 angle Gibson style!

I agree about the staining vs spraying color argument, but I haven't been able to come up with any ideas on how to stain the top and still do the scraped binding. When you mention the 3 angle gibson style angle, are you talking about the surface for the neck/pups/and bridge? If so, I didn't do a three angle plane on this one, it's one steady angle from infront of the bridge through the neck joint.

Amazing, simply amazing.

What are the sizes of the top and mahogany on the body? Was the top 3/4" before you carved it and the mahogany back 1-3/4" ?

Chris

The back is more like 1.5" and the top is 7/8".

Here's my band

The Horseshoe Spatulas

It sounded huge and full when I had a SD custom custom in the bridge, but I havn't played it since the new pickups were wound and installed. Will says it sounds just like a les paul should. I'll get to play it on wednesday when I get to California for NAMM. Speaking of NAMM if anyone is going this year, this guitar and another by me will be at the Mills Acoustic speaker cabinets booth(booth #213C-P).

Heres some more pics

Neck Joint

Body

Specs:

Semi-hollow mahogany back, 7/8" East coast flame maple top, heeless deep-set 3-piece flame maple neck, ebony board, ebony headcap, 25" scale, medium frets, 2 vol, 2 tone, 3way switch, cherry burst w/ scraped binding, gotoh hardware, custom wound WB pickups with NOS wire from 1967!

Cool inlay shot before finishing

Here is a finished pic. I decided to go with double creams instead of brushed nickel covers.

So were your finish colors all sprayed as a toner vs. directly dying the wood?

Correct

Just to clarify your process for the natural binding...you dye the whole top and then scrape the color off the edge?

The color must be sprayed on as a toner and not a stain to do this. The scraper just takes off the color coat.

Here it is. I'm shipping it out this week to get custom pickups wound to it from Will Boggs @ Wb custom pickups (wb custom pickups). Will just started his company and let me tell you, his pickups rock! I have tried his Firewater bridge and his Hell bridge pickup. Both are very articulate and sound awesome. I had a SD custom custom laying around so I threw it in to check out the electronics and the guitar sounds amazing. The combo of a maple neck and an ebony fingerboard is a winner IMHO. The guitar just vibrates like crazy and I can't wait to play it with the custom pickups.

back

Flame neck/ neck joint

That i beautiful, really nice job on the sunburst...what are you using for the finish?

JasonBird

I use McFadden's nitro lacquer and the colors are stewmac colortone.

Here is a quick shot of the binding scraper. All you do is determine how wide you want the binding to be and set the razor blade on the wood so that it sticks out that far, then use a hammer to tap it in place. The angle under the razor blade IMHO makes it easier to scrape cutaways. The other trick I do is after I scrape the binding area, I go back and shoot just the edge of the guitar(like a sunburst) with clear lacquer two or three times to build the finish that was scraped back up. This makes the finish sanding go a lot smoother.

That is a real beauty, Marcovis. Great job!

If you don't mind my asking, what is the technique for the unfinished top edges that (in effect) are binding? Is this area taped off, clear-coated before color-coated, do you use pinstriping tape? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Again, nice work.

I have a special scraper tool I made using a razor blade and a piece of mahogany. I'll take pics of it when I get to the shop later this afternoon.