I had purchased a few blanks of swamp ash on a whim, as I was getting tired of the northern ash we had around town. I found a supplier of swamp ash and they shipped me 3 boards, one of which was wide enough for a 1 piece body. I had decided to get rid of my previous "Blackguard" tele (build #19) and decided I'd make a replacement out of the one piece board
I built this in one afternoon. Total time on the build was approximately 2.25 hrs. The only problem is now I don't have a neck for it. :\ Figured maple neck build in the works for this body.
Update: So it's now August 2012 and I still haven't built my own necks. I have the wood, I have the fretting tools, but no jigs built for shaping. So in lieu of not having this body turn into a guitar, I bought an aged Mighty Might Tele neck. My butterscotch on the body didn't turn out butterscotch, but a tad orange-ish. I used Stew mac Amber (meant for neck tints) on the body. I haven't decided if 1) I like it enough to leave it alone, 2) should strip off the finish and refinish it or 3) build a UV-light chamber and flood it with UV light for a few days. It actually looks good in these photos, but honestly it's more orange.
49. Walnut/Alder P-Bass (Feb 2012)
One of my early attempts at a bass. I thought I'd try something different by routing for the '51 P-bass rather than the modern P-bass. The body shape is based on an ash P-bass that I own that I think is made by Mighty Might.
Project still in the works in 2012.
48. Steven White Flamed Maple/Mahogany Thinline (Feb 2012)
What can I say about this build...well along the lines of Jon Cook, Steven contacts me thru eBay and tells me he'd really like to do a thinline, but wants it to be within a specific weigh range, not fully chambered, figured maple top, P90 routes, and backrouted (with custom maple cover). Oh...and there's a short timeframe as he will be presenting it to a blues guitarist, Damon Fowler, as a gift for his birthday.
I did the build, Steven did the paint. Looks f'ing awesome!
Here's Damon playing the completed Tele:
47. Black Korina/Purpleheart Jazz Bass (Feb 2012)
One of my early attempts at a Jazz bass. Undecided if I want the control cavity back routed or on a J-Bass control plate.
Project still in the works in 2012.
46. Ash Tele Thinline #2 (Feb 2012)
Bookmatched northern ash top (some birdseye figure) over northern ash. This was a repeat of #41 although I included the f-hole this time.
Sold to Courtney Beres in Baldwin Wisconsin in May 2012
45. Black Korina Strat#5 (Feb 2012)
Sometimes there is strategy in building guitars. Sometimes you just have to avoid some of the hurdles...or in this case knots. Two knots in particular. But thankfully strategizing my build helped me avoid the knot in the horn and place the other where the pickup route will be.
The body has a slight curl to it, which is pretty neat as that usually isn't a grain pattern you find in these times of woods.
As I was approaching the end of the build (just prior to the below photos) I had decided to sell the #21 Korina Hardtail strat body as I had the #30 Double Humbucker Korina. I thought perhaps this would replace #21, but immediately after #21 sold on ebay, I got a frantic email from a customer, Tony Fronce, saying they loved that guitar and missed the auction due to computer issues. I explained I couldn't flake on my winner, but instead offered them this one. They requested it be a HSH so I made the adjustments and sent it of to them.
The body finished as HSH prior to sending to Tony Fronce.
44. Mahogany Double-top/back Redwood (Feb 2012)
Still in the works... I had a purchased a 1/8" thick three piece redwood set a while back and while the third piece was not big enough for a back, the combination of it plus the off cuts of the bookmatch was wide enough for a body. I had a bookmatched top and thought this would be a good combo to use with this thin redwood. The back was attached to the mahogany body but suffered a cluster f! in the process with a screw snapping off while aligning the top to the body. Needless to say the back piece suffered major damage around the one ferrule and I opted to route it for a tremolo. The full tremolo is not cut just yet -- its only as deep as the thickness of the redwood, in case I want to sand off the back, use the top for another project and add different bookmatches to that mahogany.
Project still in the works in 2012.
43. Multi Mahogany-Maple Thinline Tele (Jan 2012)
Staying with my conservative nature as I did with #23 Zebrawood/Sapele body, I had some offcuts that could be used along with another wood to build another "racing stripe" body. I had some left over maple from other builds and put a nice curly piece in the center, and matched some really thin pieces to separate out the wings. It was still rather plain to me, so I chambered it, and topped it with a piece of curly maple.
Sold to Ferdinand Ferreria in Puyallup, Washinton in Apr 2012
42. Derek Dreyer 1 pc ash "leadweight" Tele (Jan 2012)
My buddy Derek wanted a heavy ass Ash Esquire to be up to par with his Les Paul Junior. So be it, hefe'. Northern ash is a heavy wood. The esquire has the least amount of routes and weight relief of all my builds, and is a 1-piece body as well. Body will have a top loading bridge and a Bigsby when complete to add to the weight.
Project still in the works in 2012.
41. Ash Tele Thinline #1 (Feb 2012)
This was my first attempt to build an actual ash thinline. I had build other thinlines but I had never built one out of the wood that they usually make it out of (although this was northern ash). I decided to build a hybrid and chamber it like a thinline, but leave the F-hole out. Build came out well although when I put the roundover, the roundover bit was incorrectly set and I took a small notch out of the heel. :|
I wood-filled the the notch and it was difficult to see the error unless you followed grain lines. Sold to Bill Homer in Evanston, Illinois in Jan 2012.
