# New Build: 6-string baritone



## HaMMerHeD (Aug 2, 2015)

Good afternoon, SSO.

This build will be a sort of 'last hoorah' for me. I originally got into building as it gave me a sort of meditative clarity which was a welcome relief from the profound chronic depression and generalized anxiety under which I had been struggling for some ~25 years. But now that I have found a more permanent relief from those problems, I find there is relatively little benefit in the process for me. So, as far as I am now concerned, this will be my last build.

I've just started the woodworking on it today, so let's get to it. Here are the specs:

6-string baritone guitar (BEADf#b)
27" scale
26 frets
Basswood body
Wenge, purpleheart, bloodwood, maple laminated neck
Gabon ebony fretboard
Body and headstock painted lime green and black, with a high-gloss clear coat
Seymour-Duncan Nazgul bridge pickup
Seymour-Duncan Sentient neck pickup
Schaller bridge and tuners
Bourns sealed guitar master volume and tone pots
Les Paul style pickup switch

Here's the overall design:






And the body paint scheme:







Today, I went about ripping, jointing, and planing the neck laminations to the correct thickness.






Now I'm going to go back out there and glue them up, then plane the body slab to thickness (1.625") and glue it up.


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## Manton Customs (Aug 2, 2015)

Sorry to hear you're calling it a day, I always enjoyed your builds, but glad you're happy doing whatever you're doing now . Liking the shape and colour scheme.


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## jeremyb (Aug 2, 2015)

Looks awesome dude! Can I ask what you are doing to resolve your mental illness?


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## akinari (Aug 2, 2015)

Subscribed, good sir!


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 2, 2015)

jeremyb said:


> Looks awesome dude! Can I ask what you are doing to resolve your mental illness?



A dietary change. I do have underlying, probably hereditary, issues, but it seems that my diet (a fairly normal American hi-carb one) was exacerbating the problem to a pretty significant degree. So, I've changed that, and within a week, the problems basically disappeared...or diminished so much in their amplitude that it has been effectively muted.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 2, 2015)

I was really excited to see you getting back into another build and then immediately sad to read that it will be your last one. 

Always loved your builds but glad to hear that you've been working through your struggles. Can't wait to see this one progress.


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## skeels (Aug 3, 2015)

skeels likes this


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## jeremyb (Aug 3, 2015)

HaMMerHeD said:


> A dietary change. I do have underlying, probably hereditary, issues, but it seems that my diet (a fairly normal American hi-carb one) was exacerbating the problem to a pretty significant degree. So, I've changed that, and within a week, the problems basically disappeared...or diminished so much in their amplitude that it has been effectively muted.



Woah thats awesome man, I have issues with depression and anxiety too, I'm fairly low carb but trying harder to cut more out, especially any refined sugars etc, so glad to hear it's working for you!!


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 3, 2015)

jeremyb said:


> Woah thats awesome man, I have issues with depression and anxiety too, I'm fairly low carb but trying harder to cut more out, especially any refined sugars etc, so glad to hear it's working for you!!



Thanks. I keep it under 10g of net carbs (total carb - fiber) per day. I mean it's there all the time. There's no cure for depression or anxiety. But without carbs fueling it, it seems to be pretty weak and I can ignore it easily. I definitely feel it when I go over though.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 3, 2015)

So, the neck blank is out of clamps and planed flat.






unf


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 4, 2015)

It occurs to me that the proper focus of this subforum is learning. I haven't been too diligent about that so far, so I'm going to explain my neck process before I show you the progress photos for the neck.

But first, a detail:





Between the headstock and neck beam, glued in at the same angle as the headstock, will be a small decorative lamination. It will be 7 layers of wenge (x2), bloodwood (x1), and maple veneer (x4). The total thickness is just north of 7/16" (about 12mm). This is inspired by Pondman's awesomeness here: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/4413478-post31.html

Here's the process I use:





*Step 1:* I begin with my freshly glued and milled neck blank, and the detail laminate blank I showed above. The neck blank is 35" long, and the detail laminate blank is 8" long.

*Step 2:* I cut the neck blank into two pieces, with the neck beam at 22.5" and the headstock blank at 12.5". I also use a router sled (I'll show pictures of that when I get to this step) to put a 15 degree bevel on the end of the neck beam, the neck-side end of the headstock blank, and the detail laminate.

*Step 3:* Using a gluing jig (again, I'll have pictures of that when I get to this step), I glue the detail laminate to the neck beam.

*Step 4:* Then I will thin a part of the headstock blank(thanks BlackMastodon) and shorten the detail laminate by about 1-7/8" to mate with the headstock blank.

*Step 5:* Glue the headstock blank to the detail laminate.

*Step 6:* Trim the headstock and neck beam to length.

*Step 7:* Using a Safe-T-Planer (or routing jig), I cut the thickness taper in the neck. I also rough in the volute transitions with the oscillating spindle sander.

*Step 8:* Route the truss rod slot.

*Step 9:* Widen the adjustment end of the truss rod slot to fit the adjustment nut housing.

*Step 10:* Glue ears to the headstock to fill out the required width.

*Step 11:* Rough-cut the neck and headstock shape. Finish the headstock shape with the spindle sander.

*Step 12:* Drill tuner mounting holes (10mm).

*Step 13:* Install the truss rod and glue the prepared fretboard (slotted and tapered, but not radiused) to the neck blank. Use the fretboard as a router template to trim the neck to final shape.

*Steps 14+:* (not pictured) Profile the neck, carve the heel, carve the volute, install side-dots, radius fretboard, install frets, level/crown/polish frets)

I'll have more details on each step as I go. When I'm working on a new neck, I often lay it out like this in CAD so that I can keep my thoughts and processes organized.

*NOTE:* Step 7 can be done at any point between steps 5 and 10, but MUST be done before step 10 for my process to work. My truss-rod routing technique requires that the blank's edges be square to the center.


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## Michael_Ten (Aug 4, 2015)

Such originality, I love it! Sad to hear this is your last build, from the few photos you posted I can tell you're an exceptionally talented luthier. Can't wait to see how this one turns out!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 4, 2015)

Awesome design, I really like the shape. I love the idea of a fairly simple body wood painted opaque but a nice fancy multi lam exotic wood neck. I have thought about doing one like that possibly for my next build. Also, love BEADf#b tuning. Musically it makes alot of sense. Almost all of your standard chords stay the same shape but get a new name... fun stuff.

All around a cool build, I hope you come back in the game sometime in the future, you've got some talent.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 4, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Awesome design, I really like the shape. I love the idea of a fairly simple body wood painted opaque but a nice fancy multi lam exotic wood neck. I have thought about doing one like that possibly for my next build. Also, love BEADf#b tuning. Musically it makes alot of sense. Almost all of your standard chords stay the same shape but get a new name... fun stuff.
> 
> All around a cool build, I hope you come back in the game sometime in the future, you've got some talent.



i was originally going to do a plain black painted maple neck, but I decided, since it was my last build and I had all this fun wood laying around, I may as well make the neck something fun...a treat for the player, as the laminations will be invisible from the front.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 4, 2015)

Also, thanks for the kind words, everyone.

Also (Mk.II), I decided to go a bit simpler on the neck detail lamination. I'm going to go with a 1/4" thick piece of Gabon ebony, with maple veneers on each face (instead of the wege/bloodwood/wenge with 4 maple veneers).


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 16, 2015)

OK. So I managed to carve out some time to work on this thing today.

First step was to glue up the detail laminate. It's a 1/4" thick piece of Gabon ebony with maple veneers on both sides. Here is is under clamps:




(It's between the 2 bits of plywood.)

Next, I slotted the fretboard. I used the technique I always use for this.

First, I had a full size drawing of the fretboard printed. Next, I covered the fretboard in a layer of masking tape. Then I sprayed 3M Super 77 aerosol adhesive over the masking tape and carefully stuck the printed template to it. Then I sprayed a little Super 77 over the top of the template.

To cut the slots, I used a verified square framing square. It has a T-edge, which rides nicely along the jointed edge of the fretboard blank, giving me a nice square guide for the fret saw. Then it's just a matter of positioning the square and sawing the slots.




The masking tape on the fretboard makes cleanup easier. The spray adhesive on top of the template makes the framing square stick so that I can push the saw up against it and it won't slip.

Next I needed to create a little shelf for the nut. First I set up my router with a Whiteside #3000 bit. It's a 1/2" diameter bearing-guided template bit with a 1/4" cutting depth. Amazon sells it. I will use it for a few things during this build.





Then I clamped a squared piece of MDF up against the fretboard, parallel to the nut shelf edge:





And routed it out:





Then I rough-cut the fretboard with the bandsaw, and trimmed it up with the router table. I forgot to get photos of that process.





Looks right! 26 fret slots in a 27" scale.

Oh, I also prepared the body blank: thickness planed the body slab, chopped it in half, and glued the blank together. And I prepared the neck blank for routing the scarf joint, which I will do as soon as the detail laminate is out of clamps. Maybe tomorrow night.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 17, 2015)

That's a great way to do the fret slots. Cheap, simple, and really smart!


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 17, 2015)

BlackMastodon said:


> That's a great way to do the fret slots. Cheap, simple, and really smart!



Thanks. It works pretty well for me. I didn't want to spend gobs of money on a table saw and the associated fixtures, or those cheesy (but expensive) little Stewmac/LMI fret slotting guides. I prefer to buy boards pre-slotted whenever possible, but that wasn't an option on this particular build.


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## feraledge (Aug 17, 2015)

Stoked to see the build and kudos on the healing powers of Ketosis! I've been keto since December and have resolved a lot of long standing gut and energy issues, my carbs are probably more in the 20-30 g per day range, but the differences are profound even without the same mental conditions (save anxienty), but no doubt I got a lot of focus back.
Keep it up!


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 18, 2015)

Using my gluing jig (more on that later), I have glued the headstock blank to the detail laminate.






Also started on the neck scarf this evening.

This is my scarfing jig:




It's a simple 15 degree ramp parallel to a flat bed. The neck gets clamped in the flat bed and the the router rides on the slanted rails.

I mark the side of the neck with a 15 degree line:





And some vaguely perpendicular lines on the face to be cut:




The lines help me ensure that the cut face is straight.

So I lower the bit and take a notch off. Then I check to be sure that the cut is straight and square. Eventually, with some adjustment of the neck blank, and lowering the router bit over and over, I ended up with this:


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 19, 2015)

OK. So I did some more work on the neck tonight.

First, I used the scarf routing jig to route the scarf joint surface into the headstock:






Next, I decided it'd save some frustration by doing some basic shaping on the headstock while it's square-ish and flat-ish, so I traced it.

Basic tools for this:




Headstock piece, headstock CAD drawing, pencil, scissors, and coffee.

Cut the drawing out, place it on the headstock, punch tuner pilot hole divots:





Trace headstock:





And cut it out:





Laminate looks good:




You can see that I also cut the thickness of the headstock down a bit. I'll smooth it later.

And now I start the gluing part. Gluing a scarf joint can be difficult, so I made a jig for it. It makes it practically trivial. The hard part is immobilizing the parts that are made very slippery by the application of glue.

So here it is:




It consists of a flat pine board with two pieces of oak glued and screwed perpendicular to its surface (the edges are glued, and 2 large screws are driven in from the backside of the pine board into each piece). The oak pieces have a gap between them and are set at a 15 degree angle to each other. This configuration allows me to clamp the neck pieces to the jig first, immobilizing them, and then to each other.

Dry fitting:




Everything looks good. Time to apply glue.

And here we are:





Then it's just a matter of adding some clamps to the joint:




And that's it. Very easy. Again, the neck and headstock pieces are effectively immobilized by being clamped to the jig, so that when I apply clamping pressure to the joint, there is no slipping and sliding.

This brings me up to Step 5 of my process outline above.


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## neun Arme (Aug 20, 2015)

Tha neck already looks awesome.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 20, 2015)

So, this evening, I routed for the truss rod slot. My process for this is very simple.

But first, here's what it looked like after it came out of clamps:








Such a lovely hippie sandwich.

So here's how I set my router table up for routing truss rod slots:




Into the router table, a 1/4" diameter round-nose bit is installed. (I use this one.) The truss rod I'm using for this is one I got from Grizzly (here) and they have a rounded bottom, so I use a round-nose bit to cut the slot.
A straight-edge is then clamped to the router table surface. For a straight-edge, I use a piece of 3/4" thick maple veneer laminated MDF that I got from a friend. I run the critical edge across my jointer to ensure that the surface is square and flat.
The straight-edge is positioned half of the neck-blank's width away from the center point of the router bit. This ensures that, when I run the neck blank into the bit along the straight edge, the bit plows through the center of the center laminate.
Once the straight-edge is in the correct position, I clamp it to the table on both ends to ensure that it doesn't slip.
Another clamp is placed at the feeding end of the straight-edge to act as a positive stop for where I need to position the neck blank to begin feeding.

(Yes, I know my shop is amazingly untidy. This only makes my results all the more impressive. )

The first cut is made:




The cutter is raised so that it protrudes about 1/4" from the surface of the router table. I position the neck blank flat against the straight-edge and press it down to begin cutting the slot for the truss rod.
I repeat that process, gradually increasing the cutting height of the bit, until the slot is at the correct depth for the rod, which is about 3/8".

Then it was time to create the adjustment access port. The Grizzly rod uses a captive nut design, which I like, but the adjustment end is larger than the rest of the rod. So I removed the 1/4" bit and put a 3/8" round nose bit (this one) in its place:




Then it's the same process I used for the rest of the slot. Make a cut, check the depth, and increase the cutting height until the rod sits in the slot such that it is flat with the face of the neck blank.

And that leaves me with this:




This whole process took about _*10 minutes*_.

And the rod fits:




All done with that job. The next few steps are:


chop the neck blank to length
trace the fretboard taper into the neck blank
rough cut the taper into the neck blank
glue the fretboard to the blank
route the neck beam flush to the fretboard
glue ears to the headstock
shape the headstock


Please Note:
This is not my own original technique. There are many ways to route a truss rod slot. This is just the one I like the best, because I find it to be the easiest method with the tools I have, and I like the consistent results it gives me. This method is a modified version of the instructional video O'Brien Guitars developed for LMII.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLY3iN1Atn4


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 20, 2015)

I went ahead and glued the headstock ears on.






The neck is placed headstock down on a work surface, and clamped so that the headstock face is flat on the table, and thus the neck is poking up at a 15 degree angle.

The two smaller blue clamps are holding the ear pieces down to the table surface, to keep them flat down.

Then the two larger red clamps are coming in from the side to actually attach the ears to the head.

Most of what you see on the back face of the headstock there will be machined away.


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## TamanShud (Aug 21, 2015)

Oh man, all this wood is so incredibly drool worthy. Absolutely beautiful stuff!


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 21, 2015)

OK. After thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that strapping that neck into a painted basswood body isn't something I want to do. So after some brainstorming, I've come up with what I think is a pretty awesome option.





Padauk core with bookmatched top and back of White ash, and a walnut veneer pinstripe down the center. I would give the headstock a matching ash plate as well.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Edit: So I picked up this stuff:


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## KnightroExpress (Aug 21, 2015)

Yes! I love padauk. One of my next is gonna have a padauk body as well.


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## Señor Voorhees (Aug 21, 2015)

Original color scheme and stuff was nice, but that wood is gorgeous and that neck would look sexy on the newer body idea.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Aug 22, 2015)

Awesome design and excellent progress so far!

I also heartily approve of your new choice of body woods (& not painting)


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## skeels (Aug 22, 2015)

This is great. Thanks for the step by step - it's totally given me a lot of good ideas. I'm still learning and seeing another builder's systems helps me find what will work best for me.

Also, fantastic idea for the body! I think that combo will showcase the neck and compliment the colors well. Way classier than a simple painted bod... man.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 22, 2015)

Thanks folks.

Last night and this morning, I made a jig. I needed a way to reliably thin the headstock after the scarf joint was glued, so I build this:





It's a piece of alder with a 15 degree slope, glued and screwed to a long, flat bit of baltic birch plywood.

It allows me to do this:




The neck is clamped on such that the neck beam is flat against the angled alder, and the headstock is flat against the plywood.

Then this morning I made this router fixture:




It elevates the router a few inches above the work table, with flat and square supports so that the router rides evenly.

Then I clamped some stop blocks:




The plywood rectangles clamped to the work surface stop the router fixture when it gets to the point that I don't want to cut.

Then I set the router up:





And after a few steps of lowering the bit height, I get this:




Lovely. The slightly uneven surface will be flattened with a little sanding. Ready for the next steps.


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## Chemical-Pony (Aug 22, 2015)

Loving this. Seriously impressive. Shame it's your last build.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 22, 2015)

So, I glued the fretboard on.





No secrets or jigs here. Just careful placement, glue, and clamps. Before I glued it on, I did rough-cut the neck taper about 1/8" wider on each side than the fretboard itself. Again, no secret or jigs there. I just marked a line and cut it off with the bandsaw.

Also, I prepared the body pieces for gluing. 





That glue-up will take at least 2 days. First, I'll glue the 3 pieces of each side, then joint them, and glue them together with the walnut veneer center line. The padauk core is 7/8" thick, and each ash side is 5/16" thick, for a total body thickness of 1.5".


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 23, 2015)

Glued an ash headplate on this morning.





Also decided to do a 1/8" purpleheart stringer with maple veneers through the body, instead of the walnut veneer. I glued that up...just looks like a big pile of clamps. See above.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

There are some things I am things I am not very good at. Glue joints, however, are my jam





There are 7 pieces of wood in this picture.


And here's the aftermath of having to salvage the truss rod from the first version of this build:




It was my first attempt at a neck through build, and mistakes were made, so a rebuild was necessary.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 23, 2015)

And the headplate.






This is the final shape of the headstock, but there will be some profiling of the edges on front and back.

Oh, and the ash headplate will get a black pore filler. So will the ash body top and back.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 24, 2015)

I ordered the stuff for the side dot markers today. I snagged some 3/32" aluminum tube with a 0.014" wall, which gives an inner diameter of 0.06575". Then I got some 0.060" carbon fiber rod.

I'll glue the black carbon fiber rod into the silvery aluminum tube with water-thin CA, then use that as side-dot marker stock. It'll give me a nice silver circle with a black center. Should look cool, yo.

I did a little work on the headstock tonight. The back still needs to be flattened a bit, but it's getting close.





I also pre-routed the wiring tunnels for the pickup wires.

Drawing out the plan:





And routed:





The pencil lines were drawn to place the straight-edge for my plunge router to ride against. The forstner cut is to give the bit somewhere to start. Pre-routing it this way eliminates the need to drill tunnels with scary angles and super-long bits. A simple process to save a lot of stress later on. I used a 1/4"D upcut spiral bit I got from Sears.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 25, 2015)

I set the treble side of the body in glue and clamps before I left for work this morning. 






I'll do the bass side tonight, and then glue the body slab all together tomorrow night.

My phone takes amazing photos outside, but indoors...it's total garbage.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 25, 2015)

Glued the other half of the body.






Lots of squeeze-out. That's good. Should be a very tight joint.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 26, 2015)

Looks awesome all over man. Super clean work, I like the way you thinned out the back of the headstock, that's really similar to the way I've learned to do mine.


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## pondman (Aug 26, 2015)

Holy wow ! This thing looks awesome. 
That body design is gorgeous and a killer neck 
Why is this your last build ?


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## pondman (Aug 26, 2015)

Sorry, just read the other page about your illness.
It'll be a shame not to see more builds like this


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 26, 2015)

Thanks Maria...I mean Jana...I mean pondman.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 26, 2015)

My jointer's motor died today, so I'm presently trying to work out a way to get the body slabs' edges flat so I can glue it together.

So, in the meantime, I went ahead and made the control cavity cover. I had templates made for me by a local CNC shop. It's actually a sign-making company with a huge CNC router table. They charge me $40 to cut out basically whatever I want, if I supply the material. So I had these and a bunch of other templates made.

This guitar will get a faux carbon fiber weave cavity and truss rod cover set. It is actually ABS plastic, with a pretty convincing graphite weave texture.It's important to mark which side of your template you need to attach textured plastic to, so you don't get a reverse (in this case, lefty) cavity cover made.





The plastic is rough-cut on the bandsaw, and attached to the template with double-sided tape.

And it's cut on the router table with a template bit.





And for good measure, I check the fit with the cavity cover recess template.




Looks good! When I designed it, I had the cover template made 0.5mm smaller than the cavity template, so it goes in and out easily, but isn't loose.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 26, 2015)

I always love some kind of carbon fibre on a guitar, even if it isn't real carbon fibre.

Also, really interesting that you routed the trussrod slot with a round bit. It makes a lot of sense and I think I'll give it a try the next time I make a neck.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 26, 2015)

BlackMastodon said:


> I always love some kind of carbon fibre on a guitar, even if it isn't real carbon fibre.
> 
> Also, really interesting that you routed the trussrod slot with a round bit. It makes a lot of sense and I think I'll give it a try the next time I make a neck.



Thanks BM! The reason I used a round-nose bit for this truss rod is that it has a fully round profile on the bottom. It's a slightly different design than most rods. LMII, Allparts, and Stewmac truss rods use a RH/LH threaded lower rod that spins to move in and out of the adjustment end and the anchor end at the same time. The Grizzly rods use a captured nut, which pulls the lower rod in and out of the adjustment end. The lower rod never rotates, as it's welded to the anchor end. The adjustment nut just pushes it in and out. Since there's no square anchor stock, like in LMII/Allparts/Stewmac rods, there's no need to route the truss rod channel flat on the bottom. Once nice feature of this design is that, since the lower rod doesn't need to be able to spin freely, it doesn't matter if glue gets in the channel. The truss rod is wrapped in shrink-wrap, so it moves back and forth freely in the plastic sheath. (Here's the best picture I have of the Grizzly style rods: http://i.imgur.com/ZF32qgj.jpg)

And speaking of carbon fiber, the side-dot materials arrived today.




The aluminum tube has a 3/32" outer diameter, and a 0.06575" inner diameter. The black carbon fiber rods are 0.060" diameter. I will flood a tube with CA and jam the graphite rod inside, and use that as side-dot stock.

Also, I drove out to a buddy's shop and used his jointer, and I've set the final glue joint in this build in glue and clamps.






I'm excited to get started shaping the neck and body and make it actually start looking like a guitar.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 27, 2015)

Took the body slab out of clamps, and the center laminate was (by design) sitting proud of the surface.

So I knocked it down with a low-angle block plane.





And now it's ready for routing.





Next steps:
Route neck pocket
Route pickup cavities
Liberate body from slab
Route control cavity


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## skeels (Aug 27, 2015)

"Liberate body from slab" 

Totally my build M.O. - Take a chunk of wood, cut away the parts that don't look like a guitar. 

Looking sweet, yo.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 29, 2015)

So, yesterday afternoon I made the neck pocket template.





And marked the body where the pocket needs to go...






The next step always makes me nervous, so I decided to delay the routing until this morning.

So after a lot of measuring and such, I attached the template.





And routed the pocket.





I've also found that my humbucker router template (from stewmac) is not shaped properly for the Nazgul/Sentient pickups. It's a little narrow, and it's made for cavities that go under pickup rings anyway, so it's just generally crap. So I'm going to have a new template set made. So I won't be able to route the pup cavities out until next weekend.

Next step is cutting the body out.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 29, 2015)

With the bandsaw, disc sander, and oscillating spindle sander, I liberated the body from the slab.





Then I used a nice big chisel (1.5" I think) to square the ends of the neck pocket.





And the neck fits:




The first neck-to-body join is a big milestone in any guitar build. I'm excited to have gotten it to this point.

And the laminates are even centered properly:


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 29, 2015)

Seeing the body liberated gives me an idea: have you thought about filling the grain on the ash body with the padauk dust?


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 29, 2015)

BlackMastodon said:


> Seeing the body liberated gives me an idea: have you thought about filling the grain on the ash body with the padauk dust?



I have thought about it. But instead I am going to fill the ash pores with black epoxy.

Routed the control cavity:





And the cover recess:





And those wiring tunnels I pre-routed?


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 30, 2015)

I began shaping the body today, principally using these three tools:





The forearm relief bevel nears completion:


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 31, 2015)

Gosh man, looking nicer and nicer each post... I love these beginning stages of a build, when its just raw wood, glue joints and straight edges with fairly geometric shapes and lines and such. Thats probably why I have more projects started than finished 

Also, I love those truss rods. I ordered one through bestbassgear.com for a bass build I've just started planning out. Have not yet installed it but just from the initial inspection out of the package it seems like its gonna be great to use.


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## HaMMerHeD (Aug 31, 2015)

Thanks DistinguishedPapyrus. The early stages are indeed some of the most fun.

I did some more body shaping work this evening.

Neck heel:





Control cavity bevels:





Rear bout:





Tummy cut:










I've just about rasped/filed my thumbprints off.


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## ThePhilosopher (Aug 31, 2015)

Those carves are really bringing out quite a tasty wood sandwich.


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## HaMMerHeD (Sep 6, 2015)

Continued the carving.











Needs a bit of fine adjustment with sandpaper, but the bulk of that work is done.


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## skeels (Sep 7, 2015)

Really great lines and colors here, man!


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## Alex Kenivel (Sep 7, 2015)

This is some sexy magic, sir, and its a loss to the world not to see any further work from you. 

And in glad you've found some peace.


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## HaMMerHeD (Sep 26, 2015)

So I got some hardware in from McMaster-Carr:





#2-56 threaded inserts and button-head machine screws for mounting the pickups, and #4-40 threaded inserts and flat-head machine screws for mounting the control cavity cover and the truss rod access cover.

And I routed the pickup cavities.
Found and marked the positions:





Attached the template:





Hogged out some wood with the forstner:





And routed them:





Pre-routed wiring tunnels exposed:




This one had a little bit of tearout. It's easily fixed, and will be invisible when the guitar is assembled anyway.


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## Steinmetzify (Sep 27, 2015)

Following this one for a minute. Echoing above sentiments about you not building anymore, but as someone who's suffered from depression, I'm glad your new thing is working for you. 

This has me intrigued; all I've been playing lately is baritones and this one is just sick. I can't wait to see it done. Think this is going to turn out really special.


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## HaMMerHeD (Sep 27, 2015)

So I installed the threaded inserts for the pickups.






Here's how I did it, in a few simple steps:

First, I measured my pickup screws. They are #2-56x5/8" machine screws. The shank OD is .91", which is just shy of 3/32".

Next, I marked where the pickup screw inserts need to go. I did this by placing the pickups, then marking a dot with a fine-point black sharpie. Then I used a punch tool to make a divot on those marks.

Next, I drilled a 3/32" diameter where the pickup inserts need to go, all the way through the padauk, but stopped shy of going into the ash on the back side. This is so that the 5/8" pickup screws have some place to go when the pickup is lowered.

Then I expanded the top 3/16" (the height of the inserts) of that hole to 1/8" using a self-centering drill bit. This gave me the correct diameter tap hole for the threaded inserts to tap into.

Then I threaded one of the pickup screws into an insert, and drove the insert into the 1/8" hole until the top of the insert was flush with the floor of the pickup cavity.

Repeat that process 3x for the other holes, and that's it. Very easy.


Then I also drilled out the holes for mounting the controls:




From right to left, it will be a pickup selector switch, master volume control, and master tone control.


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## elkinz (Sep 27, 2015)

Sick! I would imagine this will end up being a very balanced guitar, that nice bit of extra wood on the bottom right will be good


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## HaMMerHeD (Sep 27, 2015)

I started shaping the neck today. First task was to install this side dot markers.

I used a "table" (read: sheet of plywood) on my drill press, and a short section of 2x4 as a fence. Than I just scooted the neck along, against the 2x4, so that the holes are all at roughly the same distance from the top edge of the fretboard. There was a little deflection on a couple of them, so they aren't perfect, but there's not much I can do about it now.





Next step was to create the side dot material. To do this, I put a generous amount of ca glue on the carbon fiber rod, then shoved it into the aluminum tube as fast as I could. Then I went down the neck, gluing the rod into the drilled holes and clipping it off, until they were all in. Then I filed them flush.




They will be cleaned up more when the whole neck is sanded prior to finishing.

After that was done, I took the neck over to the oscillating spindle sander and shaped the headstock-volute transition.








Nothing special or magical about this. Just a lot of sanding until the shape was what I wanted.

Only thing for it then was to just attack it with some rasps and files.









And the sexy wetted shot:




unf


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## Steinmetzify (Sep 27, 2015)

Dig the volute man. Looks great, and the dots look good too!


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## neun Arme (Sep 28, 2015)

Gorgeous!!!


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## Carver (Sep 28, 2015)

youre a god damned wizard.


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## metallidude3 (Sep 28, 2015)

What a great looking guitar!


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## HaMMerHeD (Sep 28, 2015)

Thanks everyone. It's all in the wrists.

Today I worked on the headstock. First I had to figure out where I need to stop carving, so the tuners aren't compromised. So I put tuners in and traced around the bushings.





Then I started carving with the stewmac dragon rasps and a small mill file.





Front:





Back:


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## skeels (Sep 28, 2015)

Man, I love a carved head stock! That is the cherry on top!


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## HaMMerHeD (Sep 28, 2015)

I had to do the first real repair of his build tonight.

I went to install the threaded inserts for the control cavity cover, and blew out the side wall of one of them.






The other 3 went in fine, but that one was just too close to the edge.

So..I drilled it out and glued a dowel pin in place. I'll try again tomorrow.


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## Chemical-Pony (Sep 29, 2015)

You have some serious skillz.


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## HaMMerHeD (Sep 29, 2015)

I made the truss rod cover.











Just a thin piece of ash and a thin piece of purpleheart glued together, then shaped, mostly with the oscillating spindle sander.


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## metaldoggie (Sep 30, 2015)

Please hurry! This is awesome.


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## Taylor (Sep 30, 2015)

This build is looking great! Can't believe you're not going to build anymore.


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## A-Branger (Sep 30, 2015)

metaldoggie said:


> Please hurry! This is awesome.



^^ what he said!


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## Solodini (Sep 30, 2015)

That's some great work there, sir. Not my particular taste in aesthetics but impressed by the skill in materialising it.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 1, 2015)

I almost forgot...here are the pickups:


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 1, 2015)

This afternoon, I put the wiring harness together.

I used these parts:




Bourns 95 series sealed 500K audio taper potentiometers
Carvin sealed LP style pickup selector switch
Sprague Orange Drop 0.022uF tone capacitor
Switchcraft 155 stereo panel jack
Radio Shack 2-position wiring terminal blocks

And soldered!




I use the wiring terminal blocks to make final assembly a solderless affair. One block is for the output jack, one block is for the neck pickup, and one block is for the bridge pickup. The blocks are labeled "B", "N", and "O" (with Sharpie) accordingly. The pickup wires will go directly into the selector switch, and then out to the volume control and output jack, with the tone control acting as a low-pass filter circuit, bleeding certain frequency bands to ground.

I also made a bridge ground tail:





It goes in here:




I drilled a small recess with a 1/2" forstner bit, and then drilled a wiring tunnel into the control cavity with a 12" long, 1/8" diameter drill bit (from DeWalt).

Like this:




During final assembly, I'll remove the copper foil's paper backing and stick it to the body under where the bridge will go.

And inside...




The bridge ground tail will share the ground terminal of the output jack's wiring block.


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## THB430 (Oct 2, 2015)

Verry nice! cant wait to see more.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 2, 2015)

Everything you do is so clean it blows my mind.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 2, 2015)

Thanks BM. If you'd like, I can share some photos of my first build...might help shatter that illusion a bit.


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## Michael_Ten (Oct 2, 2015)

Your build shows real finesse and talent. That volute, the contours on the body, the laminate joints... f**king stunning, bro.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 5, 2015)

So here's how it sits today:







Tasks still to do:

Radius fretboard
 Install frets
 Level, crown, polish frets
 Drill tuner retainer holes
 Flatten body bevels
 Fine-tune neck profile
 Fine-tune neck heel
 Drill neck attachment holes
 Finish sand neck
 Apply black pore filler to ash headcap
 Flatten filler
 Finish neck
 Drill bridge mounting holes
 Finish sand body
 Apply black pore filler to body
 Flatten filler
 Shield cavities
 Finish body
 Assemble
 Setup
 Tune

I'm hoping to get the last coats of finish (Watco Danish Oil) applied by Friday afternoon.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 6, 2015)

Instead of sanding, which I hate doing, I decided to get this guitar finish-ready with some cabinet scrapers.





Scrapers use a slicing action instead of an abrasive action, so they leave a cleaner, smoother surface.

It's also faster, and less of a chore.






Another advantage if scraping is that it doesn't generate dust. Instead, less-than-paper-thin curls of wood come off. This means that a very 'bleedy' wood like padauk can be made to not stain a very porous wood like ash. Sanding would drive padauk dust into the ash pores. Scraping does not.





It leaves the wood just so smooth and glossy. F**k sandpaper.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 8, 2015)

Body is ready for finishing.









First, I'll fill the ash pores with black timbermate, sand/scrape it back, and repeat until I get the look I'm after. Then I'll rub a few coats of danish oil on.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 8, 2015)

So, pore filler and danish oil go on really quick and easy. Here's a preview:






I'll show step by step for the back.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 8, 2015)

Well, sorry guys. I got caught up in the work and forgot to take more progress photos of the back. Here are the few I did get.

This is the filler. It is "ebony" Timbermate, seriously thinned with water.





And this is the back, after I spread the filler around, and scraped some of it off.




You can see around the top edges where I haven't scraped any off yet, what it looks like before any scraping. It's a dingy grey coat over the whole thing. I rub it in with my bare finger, careful to go ACROSS the wide open pores of the ash. Going across the grain encourages the filler to get lodged in the pores, which is where we want it. So you rub it in, all over the area you want filled, and then let it dry.

Then you start sanding or scraping until you get the look you're after.




It will be gray and dull looking until you apply a finish.

Then I put the oil on...









Here's a video about how to use timbermate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH75BRs88_w


Also, at this stage, the body weighs 3 lbs, 3 oz...which is 1.44kg.


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## neun Arme (Oct 9, 2015)

It's looking great, I'm looking forward to seeing this completed.


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## Steinmetzify (Oct 9, 2015)

neun Arme said:


> It's looking great, I'm looking forward to seeing this completed.



+1!


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 9, 2015)

Thanks guys.

Moving ever onward...

Pickup cavities shielded:





Control cavity shielded:





Bridge ground installed:





Output jack installed:





Wiring harness installed:





Pickups installed, all wires connected:





Control cavity installed:





Body assembled:





(Except the strap locks. Oops. Always something...)


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 9, 2015)

That looks incredible oiled up.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 9, 2015)

BlackMastodon said:


> That looks incredible oiled up.



Thanks. I'll admit that, every time I put pore filler on, at first I think I've made a huge mistake. It's ugly and messy, and a serious pain in the arse to sand off. But...I kept at it, trusting that the oil would make it pop...and it did.


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## electriceye (Oct 9, 2015)

Amazing build!!


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 9, 2015)

Frets are in.




Now I need to level, crown, and polish them. I really hate this part.


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## KnightroExpress (Oct 9, 2015)

Haha that's my least favorite part as well.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 10, 2015)

Here's a teaser before I say good night...







And on that bombshell, good night everybody.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 10, 2015)

And it's done...































Total assembled weight is 6 pounds, 13.7 ounces (or 3.11kg).


So...the truss rod cover ended up being too thick. I'll have to make a new one. For now...I'm done working on it for the day. Have a good weekend, SSO.


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## neun Arme (Oct 11, 2015)

Awesome job, man, this neck is gorgeous!


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## A-Branger (Oct 11, 2015)

wasnt a fan of the black grain, I though just natural looked way better. But all finished with the black hardware actually looks pretty cool.

Amazing build!


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## skeels (Oct 11, 2015)

Thanks for sharing this with us.. Man, it's a great looking build and there are tons of awesome tips that I'm going to have to try.


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## schwiz (Oct 12, 2015)

That has to be one of the best looking necks I've seen in a long time. Wow.


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## elkinz (Oct 12, 2015)

Insanely awesome, what a cool thing to watch the progression of


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## cult (Oct 14, 2015)

It looks amazing!


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## jarnozz (Oct 14, 2015)

Id hang it, front faced to wall. that neck is just to sexy not to display. you need a rotating display case man.


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## Alex79 (Oct 14, 2015)

That looks awesome, I love the colour combination, the woods and the shape. It looks like the upper horn will ensure it stays well-balanced.

So.... *how does it play and sound???* Really curious to hear about it.


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## TamanShud (Oct 15, 2015)

That volute is hands down the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen


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## Neilzord (Oct 15, 2015)

Holy crap. That is an awesome looking / spec'd guitar! Amazing work throughout too! 

I love the "Wish-bone" Volute, it looks fantastic!


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## Steinmetzify (Oct 18, 2015)

Turned out fantastic man, thanks for throwing it up. 

I'm glad you finished it. Would love to tear that thing up for awhile, it looks really playable!

Here's to new medicinal cures....good luck in the next stage of life, brother.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 19, 2015)

Thanks everyone. I'm not sure after all if I can keep from building more. I had a lot of fun pushing myself with this thing.


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## BlackMastodon (Oct 28, 2015)

Here's hoping you keep it going.  Like most of us said early in this thread, it would be a damned shame for you to not use your talents but it is entirely your call. Build at your own pace and enjoy it.


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## HaMMerHeD (Oct 28, 2015)

BlackMastodon said:


> Here's hoping you keep it going.  Like most of us said early in this thread, it would be a damned shame for you to not use your talents but it is entirely your call. Build at your own pace and enjoy it.



Thanks BM. I have been working on a design for a fretless bass, to replace my aging (and kind-of crap) first build. I'm not 100% sure if I'll get to it, but it's fun to design them anyway.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Oct 29, 2015)

This turned out fantastic! Really nice touch with that volute


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