Ok well, not complete yet, but thought a forum of guitar players might like to see 2 builds that I am working on for myself at the moment. I'm going to finish the maple top body with the maple neck and fretboard guitar first. The picture with the clamps I took this afternoon after gluing on the fretboard. Fret slots are done, just have to do the neck carve, dot inlay, and fret install tomorrow morning. The body is mostly done, just have to rout floyd cavity, electronics cavity, and drill holes for volume knob and switch. Then it's sanding to 600 grit and then it's stain and finish time! The top came from a nice billet of curly maple that was PRS factory reject because they didn't like the grain pattern. I think it looks great. Body is a 2 piece basswood body that I glued up and cut out. The other body and neck in the picture is a mahogany body with a padauk/maple top and a padauk neck/maple fretboard. That one will be next to be finished after the basswood/maple one. Have a great weekend everyone!

Sick! Nice job, something I long to do!

You cut that right out of a slab?

Sure did. I order all of my body, neck, and top wood by the long board and then cut, resaw, plane and joint it before rough cutting the body and neck. Carve the back of the neck by hand, and slot the fretboards myself too!

Sweet! really nice... and all done with a ton of Harbor Freight squeeze clamps... ha ha

Ha! Good eyes! Steel C clamps are super expensive. Those harbor freight ones work just fine for what I need and they're cheap to replace too!

i want one! where do i place an order?

very nice work bro.

Stellar work! I have never done one and tried to keep the wood character. I have always painted mine, but starting to like some of the woods. Great! Now you have me wanting to build again.

Thanks everyone!

Ross, some day when I get an LLC and decide to quit the comfort and stability of my day job and start a guitar company, you can be my first customer!

Wannabe, I usually try to stick to premium grade tone woods. I figure if I'm gonna put 40+ hours of work into a single guitar, might as well go all-out! I did get some dirt cheap sapele mahogany that has a below average looking grain so I'm going to put a basic maple top on for purely tone purposes and paint it neon green, 80's shred style!

Fantastic!!!!

+1 very cool!

... I wanna be your second customer! Looks AWESOME!!!

How many guitars have you built?

Probably 10 i'd guess. Just finished a custom strat for my aunt. I have a 7 string sitting on my workbench I'll snap a picture of that I built for a friend a few years ago that I am doing a refret on. I have 7 spec'd out I plan to build this year.

Yeah Dayton, I have a few of those clamps in the shed, I mean they are dirt cheap compared to Irwin's . I have definitely have some crack from really applying pressure, but what you can do is screw a bolt through the plastic and squeeze handle into a t nut and they will last long and work as good as Irwin's.

Good luck on the build!

Thanks! I've had more than my share crack as well, but I have so many of them and they are so cheap that I just toss them and replace them as needed. So far I've still spent less than if I would have purchased 30 steel 6" C clamps 10 years ago. I got the neck rough carved and the headstock done yesterday, pics to come soon!

Looks like you know what you are doing, looking forward to seeing it complete, nice flame on top!

saxon j
https://soundcloud.com/stream

Sorry that I haven't posted here in a while on the guitar builds I have in progress, work has been crazy, tons of travel and 70 hour weeks! But They're getting closer and while I wasn't planning on starting another until these were finished, I got a piece of quilted maple from PRS' main wood supplier that looked so good I had to get it on a body, so now an LP has been started! The basswood/maple guitar body is basically done, just need to drill holes for the switch and carve the belly contour. The neck is almost done. Still need to inlay fret, and final sand. One thing that I did different from other guitars on the basswood one that you can see in the pics is that I extended the Floyd Rose recess cavity to include a recess for the D-Tuna. I've recently become a huge fan of that little gizmo as all of the guitars have original floyds on them but I got tired of not being able to pull up anymore. Problem solved!


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I just got a piece of quartersawn roasted maple that I'm going to use for the neck on the padauk axe. Been wanting to try that to see if it is in fact more stable as many companies claim it to be. pics to follow! Oh and don't ask about what color is going to go on the flame top, it's a secret! LOL

Really nice looking work! I tip my hat to you.

The grain of that last photo is incredible. Nice work!

Oh I know. I didn't plan on starting a 3rd guitar with 2 already in the middle of construction, but it looked so incredible that I got impatient and glued it onto a piece of Sapele Mahogany and now an LP has been started. Probably won't get to that one until mid-summer tho. Thanks for the compliments! They're much appreciated!

they all look very good quality, that last pic especially looks like it's going to be a very cool guitar

Looking good man !!

Great job so far, cant wait to see the final product !!