HuntinDoug

I agree. Nice shape...nice carve... I can't help but say though, I see an alien face in the top wood.

I did the CAD drawings for both the guitar, and the bass. Although I'm not really into the shapes, the nice thing is I get a free one of each for my time I guess I'll just hang them on the wall. I dont have any pics of the inlay yet. I wouldnt post them until after Tony posts them on the October website. Here is a teaser link: http://www.octoberguitars.com/index1.htm

I just did an inlay job for Doyle. It was a colaboration between Moses Graphite, October Guitars, and Myself. The inlays are .130" thick, and have a glow material in the inlay. Pretty cool if youre into that kind of thing. Doyle recently contracted October guitars to produce a USA, and an import line of the "Von Frankenstien" guitar & bass. I did the CAD drawings for the imports. Actually, Doyle used to build his own guitars.

Cool design Those look like "Jon" fretboards. I have several boards that came from Jon...they look very similar. Are you interested in swapping any of those pups for inlaid boards?

I've been busy lately learning ArtCAM...And I have to say: this software is amazing. All of my CAD background has been in 2D, so it's been quite a change. I think I finally have a decent handle on it. Here is the first 3D rendering of a carvetop "Prophet" bolt on design with a recessed TOM. The neck pocket is a standard strat profile. I will cutout the first one sometime next week. I will be offering these on my website in a couple months. The next virtual design will be the same shape with a raised 3D flame design similar to the raised flame Les Paul design that came out a couple years ago. Let me know what you think....

Formica "Aqua Boomerang" #6959

More pics!

I feel your pain. One of the first non guitar projects I have slated for the CNC is a combo 12" set consisting of a long sanding block, and fretboard glueing caul. I hate using my Stewmac sanding block for glueing radiused boards on. I have acess to scrap Corian material. It will be heavy, but I think it will work well.

I have a Pinnacle "M Series" 35 watt machine. The material is called Pearlessence. It's an acrylic material with a pearl like flash to it. Actually, you can cut MOP with a laser, it just takes forever, and smells like burnt hair I have tons of scroll designs I've drawn & collected over the years. In the early 90's I did custom painting, airbrushing & pinstriping. So designs like this one are easy for me. I'm currently working on a scroll bass design in the same pinstripe scroll style as this.

There is 2 pieces total to inlay. Here you can see how I connected them. This is going in a Ziricote board.

This one was fun to do. Two of the same shape that intertwine to look wraped up in each other. This one is off to Doug at Soulmate Guitars.

Very cool Cliff! I love the moon & clouds. What material did you use for the cactus?

Padauk bord is off to the UK All the necks are still available.

No offence taken Bryan. It's always good to get other peoples opinion on design ideas. If you look at the beginning of the post, that's what I asked: "Tell me what you think". I have a local friend who's opinion I call on all the time. He doesnt have an artisic background..which is good. I have a habit of overthinking things at times. His input keeps me from going off on a tangent. I do have a bass version of the "Prophet" shape. But, for what you are wanting, you should call Carl. He will build you a killer bass, and he's close.

Pearlessence in a Ziricote board. The scroll design is what I've used for most of my personal projects.

Now that is a cool idea Carl! ...Very nice.

And the inlay is done. Notice the stain in the maple from the dye. You can also see the flash that pearlessence has in the maple inlay.

This thread is designed to give PG members a better understanding of an inlay technique I call “Laser Scrimshaw”. The idea is to get a lot of fine detail into a small single piece of inlay material. Often times the inlay is in a disc that can be set into a round pocket cut by a forstner bit. I have done these for several PG members (feel free to post pics guys) . This design will have 3 pieces total, but will give the illusion of having several dozen very small pieces. Anyway, here we go: I always start with a motif, or design idea. In this case it is a “Harvest” motif. I decided to use wheat instead of grapes. I drew this up in CAD: Next I put my inlay material in the laser, and engrave away about half the depth of the inlay material, exposing the detail that will show on the surface of the fretboard. All of the area that is burned away will be flooded with dyed epoxy. In this case I am using “pearlessence” acrylic. It has vivid colors, and sands very nice. An outline is then cut around the outer edge of the design to keep it in one piece. This pic also shows some nuke dot inlays similar to the ones I did for Carl’s Biohazard 8 string. Next the board, or headstock plate is indexed in the laser, and a pocket is cut to accept the inlay. This wheat design has very thin hairs as part of the design. They will be flooded with epoxy and become part of the design. The idea is to make them subtle so you can only see them up close. The maple piece will show the same design with more contrast. Next I clean up the pocket with a Dremmel. Then the inlay is fit, and adjusted if needed. Here I took the sharp edge off of the bottom. After it is fit, I blow out the pocket with compressed air, mix up epoxy with the desired color, and fill the pocket. then the inlay is pressed in, and flooded over with dyed epoxy. Sometimes I use wax paper, and a weight to hold the inlay piece down. Dyed epoxy doesn’t always work well with maple, or opened grained woods. You can see spots in the maple piece where the dye leached into the grain in the finish pic, creating a stain. After the glue dries, I skim off the excess in the mill. Then it’s carefully sanded.

OK folks, I'm listing these to clear out some space. I will add more stuff in the next few weeks. Paypal works best. Here is what I have so far: Very nice Padauk board inlaid with a light birdseye tribal design. I got this board from Jon in a trade, inlaid it, and was planning on a 5 string build, but it's way down the list, so it's getting scratched. The design has a black epoxy pinstripe outline that was going to match some black neck binding. 34" scale, 3 1/4" wide, 24 frets (no radius), great color & grain. $40 + shipping (lower 48 only) Next up: Mighty Mite strat neck. Brand new, maple with rosewood board. It looks like they sanded down the dot between the 4th & 5th fret after it was fretted (you can see it in the pic). Very minor easy fix..Typical MM neck. $50 + shipping (lower 48 only) Next: Two more Mighty Mite necks. These are Brand new LP style necks, maple with rosewood board, 22 jumbo frets. Short (LP) scale. 13 degree HS angle with black cap on the HS. The back of the necks are unfinished. $50 each + shipping (lower 48 only). Again, I have 2 of these. Lastly: New 5 string bass neck. I forget where this one came from. It looks like it was stored somewhere for a while. Angled HS with a small voloute. 34" scale with 24 frets. It has some minor scuffs, and will need sanded. $40 + shipping (lower 48 only). email me at doug@parableguitars.com

Very cool design!

Thanks for the compliments guys! To answer some questions: I fixed the damaged FB by milling it off flat, and leaving a little less than 1/6" of ebony to create a black pinstripe under the new board. It wasnt what I originally wanted, but it still works. I have a manual mill in my shop that is perfect for tasks like this. Here it is when it was brand new: http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/mill.jpg The body thickness is 1 3/4" inch thick. It started as a nice 1 piece billet. The carve makes it look slightly thinner. The weight is good...not too heavy. This was carved with hand files & sandpaper. I cant say how long it took, because I carved it over a year ago, then came back, and re-carved it deeper. As far as the finish, I had been planning on useing Tru Oil, but now I'm leaning more toward a poly, or some sort of thin clear coat. I like the feel of Tru Oil, but I'd rather get it done quick. The new inlay is a 2 color "inner twined" scroll. I actually had it slated for a walnut 6 string build, but decided to use it on this one. As soon as I get this CNC up and running, I will be offering pre inlaid boards with many different designs. I will also have the ability to have luthiers email me a DXF file of thier own body, or inlay designs. I can then create a 3D model (with full, or partial body carving) for smaller shops that need to turn work around quicker. The next few months will be fun in the shop. I have had several emails & IM's about this the carve top...It's always good to talk directly with PG members. Most of the comments see this build as evil, pointy, metal, ect. That's not what I was shooting for at all. I was trying to marry up a traditional violin shape, with a modern "S" style guitar. I've never been a big fan of the pointy or metal guitar styles. But...If that's how most people see this one, that's cool. I'll do a black mirror bullet hole inlay on the next one, and call it done.

Here are some build pics: http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/a.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/b.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/c.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/d.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/e.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/f.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/g.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/h.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/i.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/j.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/k.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/l.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/m.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/n.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/o.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/p.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/r.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/s.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/t.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/u.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/x.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/y.jpg http://members.aol.com/huntindoug/z.jpg

My wife said the same thing...."It's sharp & evil looking". Actually, what I was shooting for is a cross between a violin, and an RG with a carved top. I did a small import run (Korean) of the same shape without the carve for a large dealer in Kansas, but it didnt pan out. I'll be offering body blanks in this shape (with or without routs) by the end of 2008. here is a pic of one of the imports that I kept:

carve detail pic:

This is actually my first scratch build. It's been hanging in the corner of the shop, gathering dust for many moons now. I moved on to other projects after I blew out a chunck of the ebony board while drilling the side dots . I find that with some projects, it's best to walk away for a while, and come back later with a "fresh perspective". I have been so busy with inlay work, and setting up the new CNC, I just havent had the time to finish it. I picked it back up a week or so ago, milled off the old board, and got a fresh start. I went with a 27 fret Indian rosewood board, bound with a pearloid binding that matches the 2 color pearlessent "scroll" inlay. I left a pinstripe of ebony under the new board for contrast. I pressed in some gold EVO med frets to match the gold hardware, and routed for a SD "cool rail" in the neck. I decided to go with a more defined carve on the top (the body is a 1 piece mahog). This is my first real "carve", and I'm happy with the results so far. All I need to do now is glue in the neck, carve the heel, trim down the neck profile, then throw a finish on it. Here is the most recent pic, let me know what you guys think: