avengers63

The binding went on (almost) without a hitch. I thought of Drak as I took some 150 on the palm sander and took it ALMOST all the way down. I did the final evening out of the binding with a chisel. I slowly pared it level with the top. The neck is matte black, so I'll be buffing the body with steel wool to match the sheen. Since I'm not doing any significant amount of sanding, I figure a can and a half of rattle-can poly will do the trick. Since poly cures so dang fast, do y'all figure 2-3 days to cure would do the trick?

Most likely for the best. And the late 70's/early 80's were a great time for TV. Fantasy Island & The Love Boat, back to back on (IIRC) Friday night.

I plugged the holes in the neck heel and drilled my own to line up with my pocket holes.

A wee bit too wide, wouldn't you say? And a gnat got it.

OK... the top is all dyed up and the spraying template for the blackburst is cut and ready to go. Let's take it outside and hit it with some black. I took these pics without seeing the results. :fingers crossed:

You get used to Drak's heavily figured tops after a while. They're no less impressive, but you expect to see them in his threads.

Is there a structural or sonic reason to leave the "line" of wood down the middle? It may be just a trick of the grain, but the left side of the bridge block looks a little crooked. Of course, so long as it can all be screwed into solid wood, it won't make a difference with a cap. I'm just sayin.... EDIT: written w/o straight-edge pic - it's all good.

Converted the headstock for a (nearly) headless design. It took me a while to decide on the placement of the top ferrules. From last night to this morning, one of them ran away. I'm guessing it's either hiding on my mess of a work area or it rolled under the heaviest thin in the shop and I'll have to buy a new set. I also got the bridge placed, the neck aligned, pup placed & routed. I decided to put an angle into the pocket. I figured it was time to start up with all of those little tings I've been afraid to do until now, like a neck angle. It took a while, but I eventually got it. That "standard 5/8" deep pocket" nonsense just doesn't work very well when it's angled. I still need to work on the end of the body at the neck pocket. On the end you can see the prep for the rear-mounted tuners. Today I hope to route a shelf into the back to accommodate them. With it being a single HB, I figured "what the he11" and went for a gunslinger angle. Last night, Matt was commenting that he didn't feel there was enough real estate to contour the pocket. I made mine about 3 1/2", then went about doing my first AANJ. I had to cut down two of the screws (thank you Dremel cut-off wheel), but there's still PLENTY of screw holding it on. I finessed the recesses for the ferrules by hand. I'm contemplating smoothing out the neck heel. It looks a bit abrupt and out of place.

I finally got the back painted and an initial coat of poly on it. I know from experience working on miniatures that super glue eats paint, so I wanted to seal the paint before putting on the binding. HOPEFULLY I'll get it bound today so I can lay on the rest of the finish. I bought a couple cans of spray poly yesterday so I don't have to mess with the brush-on stuff for this one.

And give away what I'm doing? OK... check in with my thread tomorrow. I made a LOT of headway today, but no pics/updating yet. Cool. Thanks. They still have it on sale for $360, so probably sometime this week... I just got in a 7" wide piece of zebrawood. I see some bookmatched tops in the very near future.

I get a dead link. Submit it to PayPal ASAP.

It didn't confirm my gut, but it DID confirm that 3-degrees is right. So... I'll go with my gut. It LOOKS like the depth mark should be on the body side of the pocket, so that's where it's going.

I did a search and came up blank. So... The standard thickness dot a neck pocket is 5/8". When you're routing the neck angle, do you shoot for the depth on the body side or on the end of the pocket? My gut says on the body side, but I want to make sure.

What would make you think the gold hardware is out of place? I can see the reaction to the blue - it's supposed to be a bright color in a field of brown tones, but I don't get your thoughts on the gold.

One more reason for me NOT to experiment with yet another finish.

I should have a mock-up ready Monday sometime.

The back is one-piece African mahogany. The top is white limba with mahogany stringers. The control cavity cover is limba. The walnut neck is from Larry Karosa. It has a granadillo fretboard and brass dots & side markers. Wilkinson Imperial tuners & wraparound bridge. Artec pups with blye pearloid inserts with matching knobs from Q-Parts add a splash of color. The only real debate at this point is whether to use the LP-style switch plate or leave it off. The switch isn't tall enough to support both. I'm debating putting a limba face on the headstock. Any thoughts on these two items?

I made this body last year. It's been posted for sale twice, but I still have it. Clearly, things didn't go according to plan on this one. Therefore, it gets made and put on consignment locally.

All the hardware came in. The last of it appeared Friday afternoon. As of now, everything is in it's own "bits box" waiting for some serious action next week. And I'm still painting it orange.

So.... what's the word on this thing?

For a gem like a Corvus, it'd be worth it.

That should prove interesting with some beveling for an artistic reveal of the walnut.

Yea... I'm gonna be paying CLOSE attention to this one.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

I'm VERY interested to see how this redwood burl comes out. You say you're dying the top red?