Work in Progress

BACK CUT AND THINNED OUT

Back ready for adding center piece made of figured maple.

The main wood is African Mahogany.

BACK & SIDES

Back and sides are thinned and shaped. The sides are ready for bending and the center strip has been glued to complete the back piece.

TESTING FOR COLOR OF WOOD

I wet the back piece to see how the colors of the wood will look when clear coat is added.

Beautiful colors.

PREPPING FOR SIDE BENDING

This form is used to bend the sides of the guitar into the shape of the guitar body.

Heat and dampened wood steams the sides into the desired shape.

SIDE BENDING

The wood is moistened, placed into aluminum foil, then placed between 2 metal plates and a heating blanket.

When the wood is heated to a certain temperature, the sides are slowly bent into shape, then cooled.

SIDES BENT

Now that the sides are bent, they are kept in this form to retain the shape until the back is glued onto the sides.

SIDES BENT

Kerfed lining is added to the sides on the top & bottom. This is the wood where you see little spaces around the edge of the body. This lining will act as a shelf, when glued, will hold the back & top to the sides. This will end up completing the “box” of the guitar body.

BACK BRACING ADDED

Bracing has been added to add strength and support to the back. Bracing cut, shaped and glued to the back. Ready to join the back to the sides.

JOINING THE BACK TO THE SIDES

The sides and back are glued together and placed into a “go bar” system. The sides and back are held in place by the bracing keeping even downward pressure around the entire body. Left for 24 hours for the glue to set.

JOINING THE BACK TO THE SIDES

BACK & SIDES JOINED & SANDED

The sides and back are now a single unit. Sanding has been done to even out the wood surface. You can see where the back is glued to the “kerfed” lining. Now ready to work on the top aka the “sound board.”

BACK & SIDES JOINED & SANDED

The sides and back are now a single unit. All sanded and ready to join the top to the bottom when the top is ready to go.

ROSETTE INTO TOP

Marking off the top where the rosette will be located on the guitar top.

ROSETTE INTO TOP

Cutting the groove where the rosette will be inlayed into top.

ROSETTE INTO TOP

The rosette groove is cut and the rosette made of figured walnut in inlayed and sanded.

FRETBOARD VALIDATION

Checking out fretboard placement and where to cut the fretboard around the sound hole.

FAVORITE PART OF GUITAR BUILD PROCESS

May sound weird, but I love pulling off the glue from my fingers once I’ve glued up the bracing onto the guitar top.

GUITAR TOP BRACING

Placing cut bracing onto top to verify location. Once glued onto the top, the bracing will be shaped to achieve the best sound quality and volume;

GLUING BRACING TO TOP

Gluing bracing to top that has been radiused at a 16 ft. radius. This will give the guitar top a curve below the sound hole. This helps determine sound projection and tone.

GLUING TOP TO BODY

The top is now glued to the body. This completes the “box” of the guitar.

THE BOX IS DONE!

The body of the guitar is done and sanded.

THE TAILPIECE INLAY

The base of the guitar body has been cut and inlayed with a combination of materials to make a very nice decoration.

CUTTING CHANNEL FOR BINDING

Adding binding adds a distinctive flair to the guitar body. To inlay the binding a channel has to be cut around the top and back of the body.

GLUING THE BINDING AROUND THE TOP OF THE GUITAR

The binding has placed in the binding channel and taped to the body after gluing to keep the binding in place.

GLUING THE BINDING AROUND THE TOP OF THE GUITAR

The binding glue process is done for the entire top. Next stop? Adding binding to the back.

TOP BINDING IS DONE

The top binding is glued and sanded. Looks awesome!

TOP BINDING IS DONE

The top binding is glued and sanded. Looks awesome!

CUT MORTICE FOR NECK

The mortice is cut in the body so we can insert the tenon from the neck. This will secure the neck to the body.

CUT TENON ON THE NECK

The tenon is cut in the neck that will be inserted into the mortice (slot) on the body to secure the neck to the body.

WORKING ON NECK

Finished fretboard and gluing to neck

WORKING ON NECK

Finished fretboard and gluing to neck

SHAPED FRETBOARD TO NECK AND DOING TEST FIT TO BODY

Test fitting the neck to the body. Next steps are to finish carving the back of tbe neck to shape properly for playability.

SHAPED FRETBOARD TO NECK AND DOING TEST FIT TO BODY

Test fitting the neck to the body. Next steps are to finish carving the back of the neck to shape properly for playability.

SHE IS GOING TO BE A BEAUTIFUL GUITAR!!!!!!!

Parlor Guitar

EM-330 Hollow-body

PREPPING FOR THE DESIGN STAGE

Talking to customer about specific requirements on semi-hollow body electric guitar.

GUITAR BODY TEMPLATE

Guitar body template has been cut and will add sound holes to this template in order to cut them into the top

FRETBOARD SLOTS

Fretboard slots cut for the fretboard

NECK PREPARATION

Cut and shaped back of maple neck and checking fretboard against neck

HEADSTOCK SHAPE

Purposely create a paddle head on the neck when I designed the neck shape when I use the CNC machine, allowing any design for a headstock. This will be the headstock shape for this guitar.

DESIGN FOR ROUTING

This is the design for routing out the back of the body to make is a “semi” hollow body. This identifies where material will be removed.

COLOR CHOICE

Customer selected this red as the color for the body. Will look nice with the figured maple top.

RECEIVED WHITE ASH

Prepping wood for the back of the guitar. Outlined the body shape.

ROUGH CUT

Rough cut the body shape and marked where I am going to route out the body to make it a semi-hollow body.

SHAPE IS CUT AND PLANED AND SANDED

The shape of the body is cut to shape and planed flat. To make this a semi-hollow body, I have marked on the top where I will be routing out the wood. The pencil squiggles shows where the wood will be removed. This will provide resonance and a bit different sound for the guitar.

SHAPE IS CUT AND PLANED AND SANDED

The shape of the body is cut to shape, planed flat and the sides sanded.

SHAPE IS CUT AND PLANED AND SANDED

The shape of the body is cut to shape, planed flat and the sides sanded.

DRILLING TONS OF HOLES

The holes help reduce wear and tear of the router bit. Next steps is to route out the remaining wood to hollow out the back. When is a guitar not a guitar? When it’s swiss cheese!

ROUTING IS COMPLETED

The body cavity has been routed out. Next steps sanding some more and waiting to prep for the top of the guitar.

RECEIVED THE WOOD FOR THE TOP

Just received the wood for the top. It’s a beautiful quilted maple. When this wood gets finished with color and clear, this guitar will POP!

ROUTED THE “F” HOLES

The ‘F” holes and holes for the controls were routed and drilled.

ROUGH CUT TOP TO BODY SHAPE

Now if you looked at the prior picture with plain wood and look at this picture, you can see how the quilted maple “POPS” when wet. Imagine this figure with color and shiny clearcoat. This is going to be a beautiful guitar. Getting excited!

ROUGH CUT TOP TO BODY SHAPE

SPEED KNOBS

With black hardware and binding, these speed knobs for volume and tone controls will look great!

TESTING COLOR ON QUILTED MAPLE

Here is a test piece of quilted maple to see how the cherry red stain is going to look. This guitar is sure gonna be beautiful! I love this part of building when you see the wood figure POP!

EM-330 Hollow-body