First Electric body is done.

Got to post this up the first body off the jigs got poly'd today. This is going to be my personal one so I built the body out of basswood, the top plate is a piece of rosewood that I had split to 1/4. the neck is a pocket cut with the back already routed but no pictures. The neck will be a piece of cocobolo that I have been saving, and the fingerboard, bridge, headstock cover will be ebony. I have not figured out the open headstock layout that I want yet but I have a few bouncing around in my head. I might do a inverted V with a Slash across it like the old anarchy label.

Cool! The inverted V would continue the theme. I think it would be a nice complement.

hey mike, what would it take to become a somewhat apprentice to learn the ropes of building? i just really wanna have some good guidance when i put together my electric... if that day and time ever comes.

Very cool! Keep us posted.

So you're thinking something more along the lines of an old Dean V guitar for the headstock? Could work, indeed.

NukeDOC said:

hey mike, what would it take to become a somewhat apprentice to learn the ropes of building? i just really wanna have some good guidance when i put together my electric... if that day and time ever comes.

Click to expand...

Just keep trying I guess it took me ~7 bodies to get comfortable building them. Fretting is a super pain because I don't have a lot of the really specific tools and I had to make a few.

I must admit I like the hand building part more then the CNC stuff. Cutting a neck pocket then shaving the neck down to fit is fun and doing all that with a jig is just work, by hand it is fun.

You are more then welcome to use my tools on the weekend if you need them.

I got the neck shaved and finish=ed up with the spokeshave which I really like will post pictures later tonight.

Looks great.
Let us know how it turns out.
Bob

Bob how do you feel about the pocket neck, do you do it or Pete. I have fabbed up a neck for a straight attachment and since my body and neck joint are flat is a super easy joint. I want in the end to be able to use wound strings and don;t know if the attachment will be secure enough. It would make things a lot easier on the build side though IO admit there is a bit of me that likes the idea of a pocket joint for long term stability.,

I'm rebuilding my jigs to suit a machine I am building. What I do is rout a 'tenon' on the end of the neck and this fits into a pocket in the body. The fingerboard more than covers this and because of the triangulation cause by this construction and the 'ckeeeks of the tenon further endorsing this I think it is a very 'safe' and strong joint.

I'll do a video diary of the Firefly I am going to build in a couple of weeks so you can see how it works. Just bought a Mahognay board for $240. I'll get 3/4 Fireflies out of this. One will have a quilted maple cap, one some flamed koa and the other, redwood burl. I think you guys here will love the design. I might even put in some onboard electronics :rock:

Just got to make them jigs tomorrow...