4449-12 Hollowbody Daylighter

This is a guitar we are VERY, *VERY* excited about! First, this is the first guitar we've ever built from Black Limba (not for lack of trying mind you). Second, its the first almost completely hollow, carved inside of the maple cap Daylighter as well. This should be just a featherweight guitar and if the way the semi-hollow's sound is any indication these might just become our very favorite version of the Daylighter.

Here's the body hollowed out and ready for a cap to be glued on.

What an AMAZING looking piece of Black Limba!

Inside the cap after it was carved, this is before sanding out the machine marks.

The two halves ready to go together. We started using a 5mm wood dowel to line the tops up perfectly every time.

After machining and rough sanding. A little Naptha to help show the color of this top... have we mentioned this one is going to be our favorite yet?

Even with the guitar being hollow, we still wanted rear cavity access to make life a little easier for everyone. Anyone who has change pickups on a traditional hollowbody will appreciate this!

There we go! Next up, neck fitment!

4449-18 First Left Handed Daylighter

We're currently in the process of a large batch of Daylighters here in the shop. I thought it was time to build a left handed Daylighter, so here goes!

Chambered 1 piece African Mahogany body

With the top picked out and glued on.

After maching...

....and after sanding. It'll get a neck fitted tomorrow.

Favorite top of the day

Spent the afternoon prepping material including getting a bunch of tops ready for glue up.

This one is my favorite by far.... big plans....

Mahogany!!

Had to share....

This is the biggest piece of mahogany ANY of us have ever, ever seen. Honestly the biggest chunk of solid wood that has ever been in the shop.

Daylighter R&D

This is been a back burner project for a while. I wanted to make a completely carved, INSIDE and out daylighter. Right now the current semi-hollows are carved in the mahogany but not the inside of the maple. It took a little bit of creative thinking with our CNC but this is the result (PLEASE NOTE THIS IS JUST A PLYWOOD MOCKUP... not the actual thing!)

and bam! Carved inside. A few program tweaks to make but over all, it worked great. Nice nominal thickness of .25" thick every where in the carve.

Firebird build spots open

We just glued up another 4 Firebird blanks. These are open for sale... more coming up soon!

4449-8 and 9

4449-8 and -9 in the rack now. Both Korina, one with P90's and one with a pair of full sized humbucker routings.

Start of 4449-7

No rest for us. Its time to take some Korina and Black Limba that we have and turn them into Daylighters.

This piece has great flamey korina running through the top...

... and neat Black Limba spalting on the back.

I just grabbed one of the last mahogany necks from the first batch to test fit. Nice tight fit in the pocket, just the way it should be.

Wrapped up Daylighters first batch

To much to talk about... just look!

4449-1

4449-2

4449-5

4449-6
Couldn't be happier. The Wenge sounds and plays great, LP'esque tone. Weight is good (9lbs for full solid, 7 for semi hollows) and the balance is fantastic. I'd write more but Im going back to playing them!

Big Boy!!!

First off, I have to apologize for such terrible pictures. Finished up the Big Boy today. This thing is COOL!

Shielded Cavity. You can see the home brewed Varitone here. Caps are .001, .047, .01, .022, .047. The Tone Pot has a push/push the actually turns the Varitone on. This lets set the Varitone where you like it and leave it!

I promise we'll get better pictures when the sun comes back out!

WB Pickups

Will Boggs from WB Pickups came by the shop today. We we're trying a set of WB Vintage Tuned's in one of our Daylighters. WB is almost local so they wanted to come by and check out things.

Big Boy!!!

Almost there, just waiting on a box from TV Jones and my bridge :D