Bob's Guitar Gets Better!

Hey troops.  I've been plodding along with the guitar and have made quite a bit of progress since the last photos.  While it may not look like it's advancing much, we are at the stage of tedious detail, where two or three hours of work may only show something like a 1/4" piece of plastic around the headstock area, but those are some of the things that come with the territory.

This is the back of the guitar body.  The large dark area on the bottom left is a cover that goes over the tone and volume knobs allowing access to the wiring.  The smaller one in the top right covers the switch that selects the pickup combination the player chooses.  I laminated these from 3 thin layers of wood, the top layer being figured walnut.  I plan on dying them almost completely black and clearing them.  The wife and I kicked things about and thought instead of the top cover being round like this model generally uses, we thought it would be neat if we used the logo from our yearbook.  I will figure out how the eagle/shield design will go, but right now I'm thinking white mother of pearl.  Here the back has been rounded over and ready for final sanding and grain filling, prior to the neck being glued in place.

  

Here is a shot of the neck dry fitted for one of the last times.  It shows the volute underneath the headstock. Instead of a smooth transition, I chose to put this contour because it adds strength to the weakest area of the neck, plus I just think a volute looks much classier than not having one.  Only the best for my "homies."  The white binding around the headstock and the top of the body can also be seen.  It is made of white acetone/plastic.  This ought to really 'pop' once the green is added to the back and the neck.  Also note that mother nature gave us a beauty mark hidden in the neck that was revealed once the shaping of the neck was done.

...and finally, a pretty raunchy [NOT] picture of the front view.  The cavities have been mortised for the pickups.  The next step is to final sand the two main components and put one or two thin layers of epoxy as a grain filler.  This will sand smooth, filling in all the grain and leaving a slick (at least that's the plan, anyway) top coat of color and approximately 10 coats of gloss lacquer.

 

 

That's about it for now.  This coming up week I hope to have the grain filling done and have the neck glued in place.  That is generally regarded in my little world as the day we technically have a guitar, so if you hear a distant shout in the night, it may well be me when I remove the clamps and the neck stays put!