2018 Guitar's Workshop: Ep. 2 - Blood & Satinwood

[courtney2018]

Originally Posted by adriandavidb

What is bloodwood, never heard of it in the UK, does it have a different name? I assume it's not purpleheart?

No Purpleheart has a purple color to it. Very dense as well. So is Bloodwood, but if I had to say I don't think Bloodwood is quite as dense as Purpleheart. Bloodwood is also considerably more expensive - about 35% more. Bloodwood has a deep red to regular red color depending on the sample you pickup and there are color variations within the wood. In the pics above you can see where it' darker in some areas than others.

Here's a cool pic of it as the top of a bass guitar. Here's a site (scroll to the bottom) that shows the color differences between Bloodwood and Purpleheart.

Here's another pic of Bloodwood's sap as it comes out of a tree. Spooky!

Originally Posted by skins345669

That is amazing.

Thanks!

[adriandavidb]

Originally Posted by courtney2018

No Purpleheart has a purple color to it. Very dense as well. So is Bloodwood, but if I had to say I don't think Bloodwood is quite as dense as Purpleheart. Bloodwood is also considerably more expensive - about 35% more. Bloodwood has a deep red to regular red color depending on the sample you pickup and there are color variations within the wood. In the pics above you can see where it' darker in some areas than others.

Here's a cool pic of it as the top of a bass guitar. Here's a site (scroll to the bottom) that shows the color differences between Bloodwood and Purpleheart.

Here's another pic of Bloodwood's sap as it comes out of a tree. Spooky!










Thanks!

Thank's Courtney!

I'm quite interested in woods! I've a couple of books at home (guess I'm a nerd at heart!) : Encyclopedia of Wood, and World Woods in Colour ( by W.A. Lincoln), after I replied I think I may have found it, or a member of the same family at least: 'Brosimum' group!

keep up the good work, can't wait to see the result!

[nato101010]

Originally Posted by courtney2018

Thanks!

Not sure what else Alan does, but obviously he does swirls. Unfortunately he would be my competition in that regard as I do swirls as well. I saw that swirl with the f-holes faded in. That looked pretty cool. Hadn't seen that one before.

Yea, I'm working on getting a CNC. Talked to a bank today that does leases for the CNC manufacturer I'm looking at. Might get some decent news tomorrow on what kind of rate I might get and all. If it works out I'll do it.

The boyfriend and I have come up with some different ideas on making necks. I've got this one idea where you don't really need any bolts to hold it in place, but there would be one. Don't know how well it'll work. Have to do one and see how it works.

He's got an idea that will eliminate the need for a truss rod altogether, which sounds stellar! It's going to be high on the list for what to do first if I get a CNC machine.

I also have some pretty cool inlay ideas. Stuff that I'm pretty sure nobody has ever seen on a guitar. I'm going to showcase some inlay stuff on the figured Eucalyptus body. I'm hoping that it drops some jaws.

Oh my god, I can't wait. Jeez, you need a CNC...But that makes sense, I didn't know you did swirls too. Have you done any that you have pictures of? Post them!

[courtney2018]

I don't have any pics, but here's a thread of a guitar body that I did for someone.

Here's a thread on my cell phone cover that I swirled.

And here's a thread on two guitars that I did. The 6 string I tried a different technique with the swirl which comes out looking totally different than a swirl.

[courtney2018]

Got some updates on this project. Made some good progress with this one and the Eucalyptus body so far this week. I'm actually getting close to being finished with both projects. What is left now is the neck pocket and neck contour on the back, neck screw holes, the angled output jack and the wiring holes.

Below is a couple of pics of the pickup cavities. I prefer to lay them out on the body to see what they're going to look like first. I do that with everything actually. These pics are close enough that you can see the pencil marks better. I then put my templates over them and use the templates to actually make my cuts. I occasionally do some free-hand routing, but mostly it's using templates.





Here's the body with the trem route and the old Jem handle on the front done.

[courtney2018]

Look up for new pics! (July 15, 2009)

Here's some shots of the cavity routes on the back.

Here's the electronics cavity



Adding the output jack cavity. If you've never done an angled output jack I'd suggest laying it out on the body first and drawing in a line to represent the output jack to see the angle it's going to be drilled at, and to see if you've got enough wood to secure the output jack into place. You don't want too much wood. You can use an existing Ibanez body, if you have one laying around, to go by, or just play it by ear...which is what I do for this.



And adding the trem cavity

[courtney2018]

Look up for new pics! (July 15, 2009)

Now adding the recess for the cavity covers.





And now for the tummy route. The edges are still obviously sharp, but the size of the handle feels really good in the hand. I'll add a large radius inside the handle on top so that it feels more contoured for the hand.

I may have explained how I do this before, but I'll do it again. It's quite simple. I draw a line that represents where the contour starts, grab my belt sander and go at it. I'm careful though. I hold the angle of the belt sander steady. I finish it up with a palm sander to get it nice and smooth. There you have it...tummy and arm rest contours. I do the same thing for the neck pocket contour as well.



And here's the contour on the front for the arm rest.




As an aside, I came in from sanding the contours and looked in the mirror and it looked like I was bleeding. It was from the sawdust of the bloodwood. It's just the right color red, that when it combined with sweat it looked like blood. Kinda creepy looking, but in a cool way. lol

[adriandavidb]

Very interesting, keep up the good work!

[Homebake]

diggin' that old school monkey grip. looks awesome! can't wait to see finished product too.

[Agent540]

that 's interesting ! the monkey grip shows more of the "binary" effects !

always a pleasure to see the progression !

[courtney2018]

Thanks guys!

Agent540, what do you mean by "binary" effects?

[BeboRock91]

I think he was talking of the inverted woods...
that's a great project. I really like the old handle, the woods, everything!

[courtney2018]

Oh, I see. What I like the most so far on this project is on the front where the pickups are. The front of the body has one color configuration while the pickup cavity has the opposite configuration. You'll never see that once you put pickups in it though, but right now it looks pretty cool.

Thanks! You don't see much old style Jem handle much anymore. Thought it might be a good addition here.

Probably won't be able to do much with this project this weekend. Got the yard to contend with. I'll be looking to finish this puppy up next week.

[verus]

wow this is awesome, just a quick question... will the monkey grip be shaped? or are you just doing a straight cutout. (by shaped i mean the knuckle grooves)


Keep up the good work

Brett

[verus]

oh i guess that anwser's my question, hah sorry didnt see those pics!