Project: Super-Thin, pt3

I forgot to tale a picture of the final body shape. Here's the beginnings of the carve, though. It's realy not so much of a carve as it is a bevel. I'm taking the time to do this entirely by hand with only rasps and files.

I also finalized the fretboard: makore, or African cherry. I've never seen it used before, so I did a little research on it. You want a fretboard to be reasonably hard & durable. Makore is actually a bit more dense than maple, so I don't see any issues with it whatsoever. The warm, reddish-brown color of the wood will match up well with the turquoise body and abalone inlays. I still haven't decided on whether I'll be using ovals or stars.

Project: Super-Thin, pt2

Moving small pieces of wood like this has a number of advantages. The big three in my book are reducing waste, the pieces are already the EXACT thickness needed, and with wood like this, it's color/grain matched already. Once it's shaped and sanded, the glue lines will be virtually invisible.

Project: Super-Thin pt1

The idea is to see how thin you can make a guitar and still be functional, good sounding, and good playing. A good friend of mine is working on a surface-mount pickup, taking design inspiration from an old Teisco pup I sent him. The hardware will be mini-pots and a hard tail bridge.

The piece of white limba I have for the body is EXACTLY 1" thick. It's just barely not wide enough to have a 1-piece body, so pieces from the blank will have to be glued onto the widest parts of it. I'm going with a traditional Strat-like shape. With the body being so thin and lightweight, I figure to need the strap anchor pretty far forward. Under normal circumstances, the 12th-15th fret is the target. As it stands right now, it might fall near the 11th. We'll just wait and see on that one.

The neck will need to be pretty lightweight as well. I picked up a 2" thick piece of Spanish cedar. It's used in acoustics, so the strength should be fine. It's also stupid-light. The body blank uncut weighs about the same as the 2" thick piece of cedar. No neck dive on this one.

I really wanted to do a back-bolt on this one, but it's just too thin. The surface mount pups would eliminate the normal routes taking away material for the bolts to go into. However, the body itself will be too thin. Oh well - a set neck it is.

The edges are going to be beveled, though not very deep. The body will be getting dyed turquoise. I'm not positive about the type of finish yet.

It'll be getting a white pickguard into which all of the electronics will be mounted. This will save depth in the already shallow body.

The headstock is going to be very similar to the Parker Fly.

Mockingbird: An abrupt right turn

GOOD LORD!!!! It's been 8 months since I posted any kind of update! Well, THAT wasn't supposed to happen.



So I finished up the mockingbird and didn't like it. It sounded OK, but it was damn heavy and the action was really high. Since I had over 15 guitars at the time, I decided that there was no reason I should ever have one that i wasn't 100% happy with, so I disassembled it and began making another.



Here's where I am right now. It's a Sapele base with a carved Canarywood top. I'm not completely happy with the carve as it stands right now. I'm in mo hurry though. I can let it sit for a while and look at it until I figure out exactly what I need to do to it.

Man, Sapele and Canary are both great to work with. Sapele machines like a hot knife through warm butter. I've never had any tear-out, it sands up easily, and looks fantastic. Canary is like maple in hardness and texture, but it smells fantastic and is gorgeous to look at. Yellow with orange & red streaks flowing in sometimes unexpected directions.... wow.

I'm debating whether to use the old neck or to make a new one. I'm not sure the maple/purpleheart pinstripe will look good with the body, and I KNOW the headstock doesn't fit in. I made a bubinga/canarywood neck a while back, so maybe I'll put it on the 'Bird.

Mockingbird p10

The paint is starting to go on this week.

I gots me a yeller gee-tar body!

bad omens

I had a dream last night that the headstock of the Mockingbird broke off right in the middle of the scarf - twice. That better not me some evil portents of future badness.

Mockingbird p9

I'm not feeling particularly chatty today, so here's the quick version:

The cypress just wasn't working out in the painting stage. The wood between the growth rings was simply too soft and wouldn't sand smooth - always ripply. So I scrapped the old body and made a new one from mahogany & cherry. These are the progress shots, Also included are a couple shots of the finished headstock.

Right now, the body is being grainfilled and sealed up with sanding sealer.