Shelvock

Those darker, smoother areas are tell tale signs of sanding sealer, you sure they won't sand out? It is some tough stuff to get rid of and they may be low spots?

Hi all, anyone had any experience with an oil finish on spalt? Thinking tru oil or Danish oil might stabilise the wood enough to sand level and route the cavities while allowing for a natural finish. The piece I've got is fairly solid to begin with... or am I just being an idiot!

That extra bit of sanding on the top really worked, look forward to seeing it cleared!

I love this, I always feel like I learn more from the less experienced builders because they seem to point out the things that more experienced builders, through no fault of their own, tend to gloss over. Great stuff so far!

Spray, spray, spray, POW!

Looks stunning!

Yea man, that pick guard would look sweeeet!!

Fan-tastic!

The fact that this is actually a guitar has, for me, been lost in a sea of fantastic craftsmanship!! I keep havin to remind myself of it lol

This is one of those builds that really excites me when I see a new update! Stunning work

I don't half like a bit of sapwood in a fretboard! Awesome stuff

I'm also fairly new to the game, and I have been reading and researching online and in books for around 8 months now... And only just have I had a go at making a body from scratch. I only used really cheap softwood and I'm glad because I made a couple of mistakes that I put down to poor technique, which you can't really read about. There's so much more to guitar building than I ever imagined, every time I thought I knew enough, I realised there was another tool I needed or I read a build thread that highlighted something that I hadn't thought about! And this was just regarding making the body, I'm not even thinking about carving necks for now lol! I'm not saying this is the way it is for everybody, but as everyone says, you've gotta be prepared.

I did learn a lot from stripping and refinishing (with veneers etc) old guitars, which I would recommend before a scratch build. I'm not trying to put you off the idea at all, but it's not gonna happen overnight. Best of luck!

Cheers ears

Very nice Andy, glad to see your back on the Ibby copies and keeping the jemsiters happy lol

Exactly enough of this quilted, flamed fancy top nonsense.. I do appear to have a Donnie problem though

Damn right you do! Might wanna get that checked out lol

Very nice Andy, glad to see your back on the Ibby copies and keeping the jemsiters happy lol

All along I've been wondering why the inlay doesn't run all the way to the bottom on the treble side but now I see! Doh!

I bloody love spalted maple, I've got a couple of tops to use one day, not sure if it's a wise choice of wood for a first build though!? Really nice work so far, and I've not often seen solid spalted bodies.

I hate these kind of topics (although hate is such a strong word!) I personally think the wood in use does make a little difference, but there's still no reason to build a guitar from anything you can get your hands on. It seems to me you will conduct this experiment, come to the conclusion that mdf sounds as good as any 'tonewood' and then go back to building guitars out of said 'tonewood', so I don't really see the point.

Just my humble opinion

Really liking the idea if those markers, really looking nice

Wow... Just wow!

Really entertaining build thread, loved every minute of it, and it made me stop lurking around here and actually post lol

This looks fantastic