4449-12

I know parents aren't supposed to have a favorite... but we do! How can we not?

4449-12

We've been running a lot of fretboards this week. We wanted to share the evolution of one special one.

        

This is the Fretboard for 4449-12 Wenge, our offset 5mm dots, Maple Binding.

The problem in our view is the maple is just to similar to the Korina.

We started drawing on the neck and decided to rabbet it like so:

Test fitting some Wenge binding on its edge

MUCH BETTER!

A couple new pictures...

Sometimes it's nice to see a finished product again!

Happy Halloween!

Might be a day late but this is how we spent most of our Halloween in the shop.

4449-14

Another P90 Daylighter. 4449-16

Full Hollow Mahogany / Maple Daylighter. 4449-17

Some Limba and Mahogany Daylighters including lefty 4449-19.

We spent most of the day fitting necks to individual guitars and back cutting the neck to their approximate profiles.

4449-19's neck fitted and back cut.

Probably a repeat but here's our trusty back cutting jig in action. This jig is set for .115" taper from the nut to the 12th fret. The "Big" neck is a D profile .89-91 at the nut to .98-1.0 at the 12th. Our "Medium D" neck is .86-.95.

We also started making fretboards and wood binding them. Here's a pair of Bolivian Rosewood boards.

And some more...

...and more...

Rack full of necks fitted and back cut!

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.