broomhead

Just to add to the masses EVERYONE considering building a guitar should own Melvin's book.. I have what i consider a funny story about purchasing your book..... Anyway, your book is tops in my book! worth 5X's the price in time and energy I would have wasted without it. joe B.

WOW.. I got a decent work bench with a large enough vice to hold my neck and body "wings", so I'm working w/my planes. It's extremely rewarding shaving those slivers away hour after hour. This is truly becoming an immensely enjoyable hobby. Really looking forward to build #2.. Got lots of new pix. I'm on my way out to the office, when I get a chance I'll post some new pix. Joe

TRUTH wrote> this is gonna be great! where did you get guitar plan? if you have it in electronic format, can you please send me via e-mail ( grindedgrin@gmail.com )? thanx Unfortunately, I do not believe there are any plans available. As I know I looked EVERYWHERE! I'm building the model he used from 93-95 built by stephen cripes. It's a bit meaner and leaner than the Doug Irwin model most identifiable as Jerry's guitar. http://dozin.com/jers/guitars.html If you decide to build one, please let me know. I'll gladly give any assistance I can. The electronics on this one will be the real stumbling block.

Hi.. Thanks for the kind words.. Yes flamed maple.. You make a good point. Fortunately I was able to find some flamed maple that due to it's odd intermittent pattern probably wouldn't have been of use to a woodworker so, I was able to pick up on ebay quite inexpensively... So, when viewing from sides and back you do see the flame quite well...

btw..these pix were taken w/my treo.. I'll start using camera to take some real pix...

heres a shot of the body glued up and ready to be sanded.

Heres the fretboard.... I'm still picking ebony chips outa my hair. I ordered a double hot rod truss rod, a graphtec nut, and some binding for the fretboard. I purchased a laminate trimmer and am trying to learn to "master" the thing so I can cut a groove for my binding. I suppose I coulda pre-trimmed it before gluing. I glued it on oversized and was able to use my lam trimmer to quickly bring it to size.

Shoulda cut a lil closer to final dimensions.. lots of shaving to dimension...lots..........................

heres the planed neck blank.. for this adventure I purchase a 12.5 delta planer and a 14" band saw, hand planes,rasps,spokeshaves,cab scrapers, 4x36 sander... ((Right woulda been cheaper to buy a replica..lol) So far I'm enjoying this incredibly. I'm looking forward to my next build and next....

here's a shot of some wood..lol This is my 1st build. I'm building a guitar I last saw in person 13 years ago. Through the magic of the internet I was able to fashion what seems to be a relatively close interpretation of the guitar Stephen Cripes built for Jerry Garcia. Rosewood Top and back Flamed maple center Purple heart lams neck is maple/purple heart lam/ebony veneer I'm gonna add some more pics. and try to explain where I'm at and where I'm going