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Just finishing this one up. Got to resolve an electronics issue (see pickups forum).

It uses the tried and true JB/Jazz combination. with push pull pots to split the coils.
wow. i really like that color. what did you use for the finish?

well you made that by hand.... very nice! wish my own guitar work was as nice as that

One of the best looking guitars I've ever seen made by a home guitarist. Great job, I would pay a lot for a guitar like that. What wood is the neck?

Thanks.
The color was done by using black water based dye then sanding it off so it only stayed in the softer wood then red water based dye. Clear laquer over that.

The neck is African mahogany. The body is Honduran Mahobany and the neck is Western Big Leaf maple.

As for home making guitars, It is not that difficult if you have been making things from wood for 30 years. I also have a pretty complete woodshop in my garage.

A couple of guys in local bands want me to make them guitars but I am a little nervous about making the transition from making a few guitars to custom building for customers. Scary.

Wow, i think you could do it for others, it looks awesome, really has it's own vibe going on rather than being a copy. Nice work.

Man . . . thats sharp! I like how the chrome rings contrast against the red flame-ish body. Great job.

Artie

If a guitar played and sounded as good as a big brand name guitar and cost an extra $200-400 I'd buy the one that was made by you. Reason is cause having a unique guitar is nice, and I'd rather give my money to someone like you then Gibson.

VERY nice work!

Holy crap! I can barely color within the lines and you're creating something like that. Well done indeed.

Beautiful dude! I'll try and build my own axe this summer, but I'll start simple.

Well, finished it up and resolved the electronics issue. Fortunately, my wife's brother was back from Spain for a visit and he is an excellent and subtle guitar player (not like me). He played this one and my first one off an on all day and they both sounded great. I couldn't get enough of it!

I am going to show it this weekend to the two guys I mentioned before. I Want them to play it and spend some time with it so I can get their input. One of them is a punk-metal-pop guy and the other is a straight ahead punker. Both have bands with dedicated local followings.

My own first impression is that the only negative I can find is access to the top two or three frets is uncomfortable. It is not so much the reach as the cutout is small enough that the back of my hand hits it. I anticipated this during the building process and opened it up a bit and have already drawn up plans that open it up more. Nate, the punker is a rhythm guy and he says he never gets much past the 12th fret anyway.

Wow, that looks like an amazing guitar, I would love a semi-hollowbody like that. What is that bridge by the way... looks very unique?

can i come over and play that?

Very nice work! It's a real piece of art work. If it sounds good, you can really start your own business. I would encourage you to go for it.

THe bridge is a schaller 3-D6. I chose for two reasons. One, I like the technical look and two, the string spacing is adjustable. Makes it easier to line up the neck, pickups and bridge. But mostly I like the look. It is a very nice looking thing. Well made, Highly polished. The range of motion fore and aft of the saddles is large too.

As for sound, It has a JB and a Jazz. Hard to beat that. Also, the Mahagony body and maple top plate are a very good combination for sound. The mahogany is a medium density wood for a general darkish sound and the top plate is maple. The top plate is a full 5/16quot; thick so I think it contributes more to the sound than a thinner one would.

That's pretty sweet looking. How did you get the natural binding line so clean? Every time I try it, the dye bleads through the top and the line gets yellowed by the lacquer.

My god... that's gorgeous! Did you make the neck, as well?

THe binding works like this:

1. Finish sanding (I go down to 320 grit for laquer finish).

2. Mask the sides of right up to the top but not sticking up above the top. I use the 3m green removable masking tape (stronger than the blue).

3. Dye the top. I use water soluble dye and put it on with a small rag. (This one had black first, then sand most of it off, then red). It may take several coats to get the color you want.

4. Remove the tape.

5. Take a razor blade and hold it betwee your thumb and index finger so only a 16th of an inch of the end of the blade sticks out. Butt your fingers up against the side of the guitar so the blade reaches about 1/16quot; over the guitar and gently, very gently scrape away the dye. Don't rush. Make multiple passes until you are happy with the results. I found that the fancy maple was hard to scrape because if I scraped it enough to have a completely clean maple stripe it would have left a shoulder at the edge of the color. THe dye sinks into the sofer areas much deaper. I compromized. At the edge, you can see that the darker areas nudge out into the scraped part a bit. It bothered me at first but now I kind of like it.

6. Sand the sides wherever the dye wicked down behind the paint.

JB_From_Hell: Yep. Made the neck too. I bought a pre-slotted fingerboard though. I have cut slots before and it is not difficult (I have a jig just for it) but it is really drudge work. A slotted fingerboard runs around $30. I could save $15 on an unslotted one but it is worth 15 bucks not to spend three hours hand slotting the board!

BTW JB, what part of hell are you from?

Jeff

Here are a few more images