ElysianGuitars

just got done spraying the clear coat on this... took 45 minutes total, mixed up 2 small pots of it(each pot got me 3 coats)... the tech sheet said it only needed 2 coats, but i went ahead and shot 6. only 5 minutes between each coat(as per the tech sheet), and it flowed out beautifully, 0 runs, and overall i'm pretty happy with it so far. its supposed to be fully cured in 4 hours, but i'm going to let it cure till tuesday, then wet sand and buff it.

really? looks like about half a pickups width to me, only about 1/2" wider than my hand...

here it is in the color coat

can't say i'm feeling it... and can you even fit your hand in the cutaway to reach the upper frets? seems like itd be pretty awkward...

here it is in primer http://www.elysian-online.com/CrooksV/DSCF5216.JPG it'll get its sealer coat later tonight, and tomorrow morning its color coats and clear coats. i'm testing out a PPG quick cure system, supposed to be fully cured 4 hours after spraying the last coat, and only 10-20 between each coat. its also "dust free" in 10 minutes, which i think is pretty good.

+1 Matt, about time you start to complete your builds! I'm very impress with this one, but I too agree that the point were the jack is don't make much sense to me and detracts from a perfect looking finish. One more thought, I would had use Steinberger tuners and have the tuners aligned in a triangle shape, it looks good anyway though. i personally don't like the way they look on the headstock, look way too bulky, and unless i had a drill attachment i wouldn't want to have to tune those with the 40:1 ratio

here is an onslaught of pictures, this is the finished product, waiting to recieve final payment before i can ship it. http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5203.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5204.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5205.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5206.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5207.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5208.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5209.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5210.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5211.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5212.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/ConcurrentRG...ed/DSCF5213.JPG i spent a lot of time sanding in the end grain, i put a ton of attention to detail into this guitar, and i really hope that dan is as happy with it when he gets it as i am.

worked on the control cavities today. this is an idea i had for taking out as little wood as possible, instead of having all the routes of say an Ibanez, it also saves me from having to make 1 more template, and is pretty easy to be honest. anything to make this easier is good with me! if i use mini pots i can make the holes even smaller, if i use a gibson 3 way instead of a blade switch, can make it even less wood taken out, i think the idea is pretty sound overall. i also did a UV style jack today. http://www.elysian-online.com/8StringProto/DSCF5197.JPG

alright matt, 1 criticism. the input jack. i personally would rather see it in a fender style cover(ie like whats on the top of a strat), on the backside of the guitar, the spot you pot it doesn't make a lot of sense to me... i am however really glad that this one doesn't have one of the fretboards that comes almost all the way to the bridge pickup, looks much better like this.

it was tough at first, but i got used to how the wheel worked, and it became like second nature by the time i got to the carve on the back.

Sounds interesting, hope this works out, as it sounds like a cool idea. Also, nice job on the carving (front and back) thanks, was my first time trying the flap wheel attached to my drill press, it worked quite well, though this guitar is heavy as hell(think les paul heavy), so it was pretty tough to hold up for the hour or so that it took

thanks. i also slotted the fretboard today, and decided that the fretboard is gonna get some nice ebony binding as well. the dual action truss rod is on its way, got a 20" from this place, stewmac only offers 18 and 24, so i thought i'd give these guys a shot http://www.doeringerguitars.com/servlet/th...2-Guitar/Detail they haven't gotten back to me on how deep the channel needs to be, so i'll likely have to wait until i get it to be able to route the truss rod channel. and people, please don't fret because my truss rod won't be centered it's by design, this is a prototype build, testing quite a few ideas of mine, so thats one thing i'm prototyping. i basically want to get the benefit of a dual truss rod(where you can get different amounts of relief on the bass and treble side of the fretboard) so i'm trying an idea i had of putting the truss rod in between a different set of strings than the middle, it'll be 1 set of strings closer to the bass side, and the goal of it will be to get slightly more relief on the bass side than on the treble side. anyways.

routed the neck pocket, finished shaping the body. i also carved the back like a collen arch top http://www.elysian-online.com/8StringProto/DSCF5194.JPG

i usually just take the guitar out into direct sunlight, and let the sun tell me where to sand, no need to spray a coat of finish to figure that out... if direct sunlight isn't an option, buy a really bright light

first i lined up the stripe so that it didn't look funny after carving, clamped it together without glue, and drilled 2 holes with a 1/16" bit, one on each side of the outside line of the neck, and drove a nail through them, so they stayed lined up when i did glue, then i took it all apart, trimmed the nails down so they were just nubs, applied glue, and lined up the headstock piece with the nails, clamped it up with 6 clamps and some clamping cauls, and that was that... hope that made sense and yes, the headstock leans a little to the left, partly because the angle the pic of that drawing was taken, it makes the whole guitar look angled, and partly because it does actually lean a bit to the left in the drawing with the rounded bit...

thanks for the input, but i'm set on this design

http://www.elysian-online.com/8StringProto/DSCF5188.JPG got the scarf joint done(also my first scarf joint), i've also cut the end off the neck, the fretboard is going to be 21.25" long, basically come just past the 24th fret, and i might have to add wings to the headstock, but i've not tested the design on it yet. need to get the truss rod, and route the truss rod channel next, as well as make my 28" scale fret slot template, and then get the fretboard to shape. its going to be 3" wide at the 24th fret, and its just over 2 1/4" wide at the nut(uses Ibanez string spacing)

heres what texas ebony looks like.

body is African Mahogany, the neck blank is gluing up right now, its gonna be a 3 piece neck, birdseye maple and purpleheart. its going to have a 7 degree tilt back headstock, scarf jointed, and a flamed maple cap, half carved. its going to have a 3+5 headstock as well, and a Texas Ebony fretboard. 28" scale, its going to get a nordstrand humbucker for the bridge pup, and nordstrand single for the neck pup. bridge is going to be a hipshot 8 string fixed bridge, 0.175" thick base plate. heres the design its based on http://b6.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/01542/6...542522466_l.jpg

damn matt, i gotta say, i'm impressed man! that looks stunningly awesome!

he supplied the neck, he had it laying around and decided to get a body built for it. no, i haven't seen how Ran does theres, i honestly don't ever look at Ran's site. the guy has 1 custom shop 7 string Rhoads V already, its a neck through, so this one should be pretty awesome for him.

i dig the design, i think for very obvious reasons zebrano looks awesome as a body wood, i'd use that, though it looks good as a fretboard too... man, decisions...

one of my first customers, but he delayed me with sending the trace of his Rhoads, and sending parts he needed etc, so i'm just getting started on this http://www.elysian-online.com/CrooksV/DSCF5181.JPG http://www.elysian-online.com/CrooksV/DSCF5184.JPG heres as it sits right now, i need to route the pickup and drill all the holes for wiring, he's sending me a Bareknuckle pickup for it, 1 pickup guitar. it uses my circular volume pot "cavity" instead of a larger cavity(i don't like taking out more wood than necissary. he wanted a tummy carve, and i decided to make the neck heel a bit less blocky for him. i need to reroute the shelf for the input jack cover, as during final shaping with 80 grit, it got too thin in the middle. the neck on this is a Custom shop Jackson neck, someone refretted it in the past, and did a terrible job, they didn't radius the fretwire at all, so every fret stuck up on the ends about 1/32nd inch, so i had to refret it. its getting a non-recessed OFR7 as well, and it will be finished in gloss black.

my guess is walnut, padauk, and alder