Hitone

Here's a bracing shot. I kept it pretty simple. The binding of the f holes was a nightmare. I went with thin b/w/b binding, that I could build up. I did as good of a job as I could. It was very tight. I'll see if I can get a tighter shot. The one thing I do wrong was to try to substitute a think black card stock for binding. It worked, but it's not a consistent thickness. It get's fat in places. Lesson learned. Here's an early mockup. The client went around and around on what pickup to use. I bought a vintage Kay Speed Demon, but in the end he opted for 2 Dream 90's from GFS.

Thanks Guys. Idmicheal you are correct. It's just plain old maple. Hard to carve, but has great tone. Here's some neck shots. MOP Diamond inlays into an ebony fretboard. With an ebony head plate.

Here are some progress shots. It's going to be an archtop guitar with a carved sitka spruce top, a carved maple back, maple sides and 3 piece maple neck . The neck and headstock will be ebony.

Okay I have been building a guitar for a friend of mine that is in a band called the 1969's. He wanted an archtop that is all about the band and the music they play. You can see them playing on youtube. Here's the drawing we came up with.

Very Nice build.

I would love to have anyone fo these guitars this month.

Hot Rod HiTone guitar For the last 5 years I've donated an handmade instrument to a local music festival that is auctioned off an the donations are given to charity. The other items in the auction are instruments that have been turned into art. So each year I have to stand out from the other items in the auction. This is what I came up with, a '50s hot rod inspired hollow body. Something that would look cool having Reverend Horton Heat playing it. Body - Maple Laminated top, back and sides Maple bracing Maple neck Rosewood fingerboard Vintage vibrato Vintage Humbuckers Wilkinson black vintage tuners Red Dice knobs Finish white with candy apple red chevron design with silver flakes Pinstriping by Hot Rod Riley

Wow. I have to say this is the first time I've seen a completely one piece guitar. It's looking great so far. I guess it's just like old Wayne Henderson says "you simply put your penknife to wood and carve away everything that isn't a guitar"

Great Build. I don't know if anyone else has asked, but is your shop in an old indoor pool? I keep seeing a pool edge on the ground in your shots.

THE SHERIFF About: The Sheriff is the first of a series of western themed guitars. It's a thin hollow body guitar that's made up of some interesting woods: Anigre, Spalted Maple, Texas Ebony (Pithecolobium flexicaule) and Walnut from a door company. Besides the pickups and the electronics everything else was handmade. Next guitar will be the Outlaw! Body: Spalted Maple Top Walnut back Recurved top Oil Finish Neck: 5 Piece Laminated Anigre and Walnut Texas Ebony plate and truss rod cover MOP sheriff star Inlay in the 12th fret position Oil Finish Hardware: Mini Humbucker pickups Bridge is handmade from Texas Ebony and bone Black Sperzel locking tuners Volume, Onboard "SRV" Tone knob, and Nickel Texas Star 3 way switch Bone nut

I've used wax when doing multiple layers of paint on furniture. If you built up large sections of wax and paint over it, you can sand it down once it's dry. Or peel it back. Or use a heat gun. Whatever floats your boat. There's a lot more texture to the sample than the guitar. I am interested to see how it would look in the flat areas.

Some good input. I think the original idea would look like a painted quilt once it's put back together. Pure American folk art. verhoevenc I might not have mentioned that the auction is for art guitars. Mostly old guitars that have been painted. I have been donating a handmade guitar each year for the last 5 years. A normal guitar would get lost in the sea of art. My past auction builds | Wildflower! Art Guitar Auction Cam your right. I would have to fill in the space between the tiles. Some kind of wood strips might highlight the pattern nicely. Low end fuss the decal idea is interesting. I'm not 100% sure about using it for this, but it might be interesting to have people develop send in digital artwork that could be printed out. I'll have to think more about that one. WAK Guitars I like your idea a lot. The one thing that might hinder it would be if I had artist that isn't local. Shipping a small tile would be less costly.

Thanks Workingman. I like the material idea. Your thinking like a fabric right? Here's my first diagram of the process. This is still just a poorly drawn image. More ideas please.

So I have this idea that won't get out of my head. Each year I build a guitar and donate it to the Wildflower! Festival to be auctioned off. The money goes back into the community. This year I'm starting early. I am wanting to build a guitar that everyone can contribute to. Something made by the community. Or by a bunch of bands. Or by random people that want to contribute. I'm thinking of having the top of the body (and maybe back) cut into several tiles or squares. Each tile can be sent to an artist (or band member or some random person in the community). And that person can paint or design whatever they want. Once I get them back I will attached them to the guitar, topcoat and finish out. That's the idea so far. If anyone has any ideas please comment on this post. I am looking for other/better ideas of how to do this or any ideas of what materials might work.

The Jazz Skeleton Concept It was an idea I kept drawing out over and over again. A truly transparent guitar with only minimal/beautiful wood showing. So since I donate a guitar to be auctioned at the Wilflower Festival in Richardson TX each year, I thought this is a good place to test the idea. Body Rim - Flamed Maple with Wenge binding Top, bottom and sides - Lexan Center strip - Mahogany and Flamed Maple Neck - Mahogany Fretboard - rosewood Inlay/Fret Markers - Lexan down the side to allow light to pass through Pickup - DeArmond Style neck pickup Tuners - Wilkinson Tuners vintage style Bridge - Rosewood Bridge Tailpiece - Modified vintage tailpiece with Maple string-through

Thanks reantel and guernica. It sounds really good. The lexan is arched over the center strip. This arch and tension gives it good projection acoustically. It's also brighter than my other archtop (built the same way, except all wood). Plugged in it's rockin. I bought a set of Epiphone Les Paul pickups and I am impressed. It does clean and distored very well. The one thing I want to add to the next version would be a piezo pickup. That should give a full range of the guitars abilty.

I'm trying out my spill for the card at the auction this weekend. See what you think: Throughout history luthiers have searched for new ways to make instruments. HiTone guitars has taken a material that has been used by many classic instruments by builders such as Dan Armstrong, Rickenbacker and Ibanez and gone one step further. HiTone now introduces it's "patent-pending" Hollow Guitar. A clearly different instrument! BTW - this instrument will be auctioned off this weekend at the Wildflower Festival in Richardson TX Come See. Come Say Hi. Come Bid.

I have to get this off my chest. I recently opened a package that contained what I thought to be a 500k pot (4 were purchased). Bought from Allparts supply in Houston TX. The package clearly says it's a 500k pot, but when I put it on a multimeter I found a different reading. It was a 25k pot. On closer inspection, I could clearly see the label that states it's a 25k pot. Since these are packaged by Allparts they clearly messed up. I wrote to them on Sunday night. As of yet I haven't heard back from them. I sent the email again tonight. Hopefully they will respond sooner than later.

I have the Lexan cut and working on the body. It has it protective film over it now so it won't get scratched. More pics at my blog

You are correct. Plexi is tough to work with. I think the material I am actually working with is Lexan. Either material can be fun to work with. I use a torch to clean us the cuts. It melts the roughness away.

I've made some progress on the clear hollowbody. I have the lights all figure out and the sides and centerpiece are now joined together forever. Next I will attached the neck. I am using a neck from an old build. With a few adjustments it's as good and new. Actually it's going to be better. Here's the one I tried a few years back that failed big time. Too much Plexi and not enough wood.

I am at it again. Trying to build a transparent hollowbody. You may remember a few years back I failed big-time to make a hollowbody out of plexi-glass (I'll add a few pics later). This time I think I have it figured out. This guitar will be donated to the Richardson WildFlower Festival art guitar auction. It's my third year to do so. Last year I built the Mavs guitar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--L5ZmpXA_g. This year I am building a Shelby Cobra inspired transparent hollowbody with all the trimming. Chrome, Lights, side vents (ad f holes), a cool stripe and more... The idea is to use Koch's hollowbody instructions. He uses a solid block to build an arched center strip. This will be topped with a clear piece of plexi that will be screwed to the mahogany stripes and trimming with chrome. I am not sure how it will turn out, but I'm having fun building. Additional picks Before Kerfing Do you think Gorilla glue will sponsor me? Yes, that center stripe looks like a fish!

Myka! You Rock. That is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a ton.

Wood Craft had a good amount of it for a reasonable price. It was cut into a block for turning. They said some guy in south Texas was supplying them with it. It thought it was cool, going from light to dark. The headstock and tailpiece came out pretty good bookmatched. Good to hear from you Micro! I hope everyone has had a good holiday! I am looking forward to seeing a lot of 2009 builds.

SouthPa that's a killer Killer Empire. I am building two guitars in a themed series. Funny enough, the second guitar in the this series looks a lot like the Empire. It will be a double cutaway hollowbody with a gold bigsby and vintage p-90 style pickups. dpm99 - I did email Myka. I'm guessing that either he didn't get the email or he's pretty busy. That's why I thought I would ask you guys. Also, great idea on planting some future guitars. I like that thinking. Below is a pic of the wood. It may have another name, but I was told it was Texas Ebony. To the left you see a wooden hinged tailpiece I start on. It seems pretty heavy duty, but I am not 100% sure it will hold forever. My thoughts are to make a hinge at the bottom and use a peice of brass to hold it to the guitar. Like SouthPa's example the brass piece would be held by the strap button and a few additional screws. Here's another example of a wooden hinge from Artinger Guitars.