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Neck woods: flamed maple / 0.6mm black dyed poplar veneer / 0.6mm flamed maple veneer / 0.6mm black dyed poplar veneer / zebrawood / 0.6mm black dyed poplar veneer / 0.6mm flamed maple veneer / 0.6mm black dyed poplar veneer / flamed maple

Overall 9 pieces, and it wasn’t too difficult to clamp up, I was surprised!

Body wood: African mahogany, one piece. I have a nicely bookmatched flamed maple top to go over this to make it a semi-hollow body. I plan on doing a f-hole or two. Right now I only have one cavity routed out, and the others have been reduced using forstner bits.

I plan on doing a carved top with tons and tons of binding and some fancy inlay.

body. I drew the design in SolidWorks and had a template laser cut. I am not finished routing the cavities out yet, but you can see one is done, and the rest have the wood removed with a forstner bit, ready for routing. I might connect all of the cavities by removing the wood where it breaks them up. Still not sure on that one

neck laminate

ebony fingerboard

flamed maple top

I've been slowly working on this. Its my second build.

wood

CAD drawing, but the padauk will be on top, and the ph on bottom

neck laminate

rosewood cocobolo fingerboard

thanks so much guys, thats what i was looking for!

Let me start this by saying I searched for 20 minutes for an existing topic on this and could not find one specifically answering my question.

I have a 1/4" bookmatched flamed maple top that I am putting on my semi-hollow body I am building. Right now I have the main part of the body cut out, edges routed, and cavities routed, basically ready for the maple cap to be glued on. Before I do so, I am assuming that I need to glue the edges of the maple together first, cut and route it to fit the shape of the body, and glue it to the main body wood.

That brings me to my question: how do I glue the edges of the maple together properly? My thoughts are to wedge the outside edges with something so that the total width of the wedges are <1/2mm of the width of the actual two boards together, apply the glue to the edges to be joined, and push down so that the wedges/fences apply pressure. Am I wrong? How should I be doing this?

thanks for all the suggestions guys, but i think that i will go with the depaul inlays!

I havent really found a wide selection of precuts, they are all your basic selection. So I am now moving on to cutting my own.

the more ive looked into it, the more expessive its getting, so i will most likely head in that direction as well

I am not having any luck finding pre cut inlay from places other than Stew Mac and LMI. Any suggestions? I don't have a specific design I am looking for, I just want more options to choose from.

not to be a jerk or anything but dont you think you should plan out what you are doing before cutting anythign?

I made a cavity cover by gluing 8 layers of flame maple veneer together. I alternated grain direction 45 degrees between each layer. It wasn't that hard to glue up. It also is extremely strong and stiff, much more so than a 1/4" piece of maple. Essentially it's just really fancy plywood .

If I were you, I would glue the three veneers together by themselves, then glue that along with the neck lams.

i dont see how you could glue that amount of veneer to each other without a sandwich of some sort between at least 1/4''

and even clamping cauls would get stuck to the glue coming through the grain

It's easy. Take a piece of 3/4" MDF. Put a piece of wax paper on it. Lay down a piece of veneer. Slap some glue on it. Lay down another piece of veneer. Repeat until you have the thickness you want. Put down another piece of wax paper. Put down another 3/4" piece of MDF. Clamp the two pieces of MDF together. All done.

that seems like the most logical way to me. thanks

i knew it would be tough, but gluing flexible veneers to each other seperately doesnt seem like it would make it any easier. if i were sandwiching them in between the hardwoods it would make more sense, as in glue the maple, 3 veneers (they are only 0.6mm thick each) then the zebrawood, let that dry then glue the other three veneers and the other side of maple for the neck to be completed.

gluing the veneers seperately seems almost impossible to do right since they are so flexible, id need to sandwich them in between something, like the neck woods, so i might as well glue most of the neck at once, correct?

For my next project my neck is going to be flamed maple / zebrano (zebrawood) / flamed maple, and in between I want to put some veneers. I was wondering if I could do three veneers in between each layer of the hardwood, or would that not be a good idea? The laminates are dyed maple / maple / dyed maple.

So the neck would potentially be flamed maple / dyed maple veneer / maple veneer / dyed maple veneer / zebrano / dyed maple veneer / maple veneer / dyed maple veneer / flamed maple.

Any reason not to? I realize this might possibly be weaker than using one veneer in between, but maybe not?

some more pictures:

Top

Fingerboard

Hmm, that's an interesting way to go abotu the neck angle, but is there any guarantee that the wood will glue and dry at that angle? I had to actually BONDO my guitar body because the wings didn't dry straight. I sanded them with a huge block and bondo'd the low spots, because I didn't have access to a planer. I was thinking of drawing out my blank on the side of the maple and taking into account a 2 degree neck angle, then cutting it out. I just like the feel of the neck angle, even though it isn't all that much, just keeps the neck a bit closer to your body. I agree with ya, it feels much better sitting down and playing a guitar with no neck angle.

that is a great way of doing it too actually, i think thats how ill do my next one

Wow, what an awesome color! The guitar really came out awesome! My only comment is that I'd feel kinda restricted by the 19 frets. Not that I use them all the time anyways, I just like knowing I have 2 full octaves to slide up and down But man, the blend of all those reds.... Congrats.

So I take it that, because of the neck through and the fact that you recessed the bridge, you don't have a neck angle (I admit I haven't read all 8 pages), is that correct? I'm planning my second build, and I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to build a neck angle into my neckthrough blank... Something to ponder.

But anyways, it came out really sharp. Hope it treats ya nicely!

thank you!

you're right, i did not have a neck angle. i would recommend doing one though by gluing your body wings slightly angled to the neck, which i am doing with my next guitar. not having a neck angle does not effect the playability of the guitar though, my action is great, its just maybe not as ideal while standing and playing, but i can barely notice.

you have joined the very large membership of people who own homemade looking guitars. Welcome to the club My Friend .

thats the point, it is a homemade guitar. i have no regrets, and the fact that it is homemade and plays well is all i need to be happy. i am a go with the flow person, and believe me, i am not bothered with anything that happened along the way. the fact is, the guitar looks great to me, and plays great. i am not trying to impress you. the only reason i posted here was for feedback, of which i got negative and positive.

id like to thank everyone who has helped me on this forum along the way, your input is truely valued

Cool! I've been watching this build and its helped me learn about making neck-throughs, so thank you. It is also good how you were able to overcome different problems. This was a great build and I can't wait to see your next projects. Also, I thought it looked cool when you started finishing it, but now with that black burst around the edges it looks even better. Great job!

thats awesome to hear, im glad my experiences making this guitar could help! im really excited about the burst on it too, my friend was pushing me to do it and i finally gave in. im glad i did

thank you, i am very happy with the way it came out. the only problem with the finish is the headstock area, it is a little blotchy on the back side, but just barely even noticable by me, so i wont cry about it. what is important is it plays like a dream and sounds like a nightmare (thats a good thing!!!)

all done...

now i can focus on the next two guitars

looking good!

I got another 3-4 coats on the guitar last Friday. I added black stain to the cherry red with the laquer and also ended up doing a burst with it, which my friend convinced me to do on a whim, but I am really happy with the results especially since I have never liked bursts haha. I stained the headstock black to match the burst edge color as well. Once I wetsand and buff the finish I will post pictures, and then again once the guitar has all the parts on it later this week or this weekend

I'M SO EXCITED!!! ITS FINALLY DONE!

ok ok, i know i said i was going to keep everyone waiting until i was finished spraying, but i lied!

This is the guitar after spraying four coats of a laquer/stain mixture and then wetsanding it with 400 grit sandpaper and water a few days later. The finish looks somewhat dull because of the wetsanding, but the final finish will be highly polished and buffed to a mirror finish. I still need to do at least 2-3 more coats this week, and then wait for about a week for the finish to cure before I can solder in all of the electronics and play it! The pictures aren't that great unfortunately.

I made a truss rod cover and punched my initials in (JJ) also:

Truss rod cover

I think that I am just going to keep everyone in suspense until I finsh spraying it later on this week

in my experience cherry is by no means a simple colour to get, though much like BRG there is no definative cherry red stain. I used a dark red alcohol based stain on my SG. which went from a nasty greyish mahogany colour (it was 30 years old a beaten to death, looks killer now after I gave it some work) to a fabulous colour. I'll post the pics later as photobucket is playing up...

really like the look of this SG, like to see it when the finish is on!

id love to see it.

i got 4 coats of laquer/stain sprayed on yesterday. later this weekend i will take some pictures and post them. the finish darkened quite a bit, but it still isnt quite what i was intending, however it looks unique. the mahogany is heading in the right direction for color, but the maple looks almost neon orange.

Looking good.

I think for the color your going for you may be better off trying stew macs "Mahogany Red" stain instead of the "Cherry Red" you're using. Or maybe a mixture of both. I'm thinking that maybe the cherry alone may be too bright a red for what you're going for. I recently did a finish that started with mahogany red and then I applied the cherry red on top of that and I ended up with something close to the wine red color I beleive you're going for. Though mine was done on Swamp Ash which is lighter in color than the Mahogany you're using.

I may be wrong though, i'm no finishing expert. Maybe somebody with more experience staining mahogany for that particular color will chime in here as well.

Anyway, hope all turns out well, good luck.

In retrospect the mahogany red would have been a better choice, I agree. I'm not too worried though, because as long as the finish looks good, not matter the color I will be happy with the guitar.