2018 Guitar's Workshop: Ep. 3 - Figured Eucalyptus & Mahogany

[courtney2018]

Here's a project that will probably perk the ears of Jaden Rose up a bit. Seems as though nobody has used this wood before in a guitar body. Maybe I'm the first? I don't know. I know this though. I'll definitely be using it again. It's got some crazy figure in it.

Today I planed down one side of the eucalyptus to glue it to some mahogany santos (exotic to the US) which will be the back. The santos really isn't all that much for eye candy which is why I choose to use this wood for the back and not the front. It has a pinkish color that really is quite pretty as far as color goes, but doesn't really have any other physical traits that makes you go "OMG". So, it's on the back.

On the front is an awesome sample of figured eucalyptus. It's extremely figured. I don't have enough clamps so only half of the body is getting glued up at the moment. Tomorrow I'll glue up the other half and then Monday I'll join the two halves together. Below is a couple of pics so you can see what the eucalyptus looks like.

As for what this body is destined for, I'm not sure exactly. It's going to be an RG of some sort. Perhaps a JEM. I don't know. JEMs are so over done it seems. I'd like to do something different. One thing I have considering is taking this project to the point of putting a transparent finish on it and clear coating it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to put some abalone binding on the outside front edge. With the right color transparent finish I think it'll really set this thing off.

I'm really open to ideas on this one. What pickup configuration? Trem? Fixed bridge? 6 string or 7? JEM look-a-like or just another RG that Ibanez never made?

Help me out here.

[Jaden]

pics appear tiny to me, cant see the wood.
are you making it to sell or keep ?
with woods like that I wouldnt normally arbitrarily make a JEM shape, how about a drop or carve top to bring out the figuring a little more ?
to keep a large chunk of wood on show how about individual bridge saddles ? a H-S pickup config with the single right up against the neck pocket at an angle ?

killer simplicity on a nice piece of wood is unbeatable !

[Homebake]

if i had this opportunity, i'd make a freakin' rg550 but with a fixed bridge. wizard prestige neck with a H-S-H setup with a fixed bridge, kinda like a PGM, but not.

[Myst and rain]

I like natural finished guitars as well. Here's a cool example:

http://www.guitarflow.com/WebsiteIma...uralModern.jpg

But seeing that this thing will probably have the abalone edge... Maybe a transparant turqouise would be cool idea?

[Myst and rain]

Wow, I did a Google search and I found these pics of a J-custom which has what looks like a transparent turqouise finish. What a coincidence!





An abalone edge would look cool with that, imo.

[courtney2018]

Originally Posted by Jaden

pics appear tiny to me, cant see the wood.
are you making it to sell or keep ?
with woods like that I wouldnt normally arbitrarily make a JEM shape, how about a drop or carve top to bring out the figuring a little more ?
to keep a large chunk of wood on show how about individual bridge saddles ? a H-S pickup config with the single right up against the neck pocket at an angle ?

killer simplicity on a nice piece of wood is unbeatable !

Jaden, just click on the thumbnail pic and a bigger one will pop up so you can see it better.

You know, I've been thinking about a carved top. You're right though, this would bring out the figure more. I bellieve I'll do that.

I had not thought of doing individual saddles. I've always thought those were really cool looking and different. I think I'll do that too.

Pickup configuration. I do like that H-S look with the single at an angle. I did that for the Power Jem body that I did a while ago. That looked great. I'll think on this a bit more, I might just do that. There doesn't seem to be enough configured like that in the world anymore. At least not from Ibanez.

I won't be keeping this one, unfortunately. Because of that this body will probably turn out to be one bad mamma-jamma. I'll take alot of pics of it when it's done though.

No, I decided to get alot of wood that you don't see often in guitar bodies and make several to sell to more or less bring attention to my new guitar business. The idea was to "build the guitars that Ibanez never did". I started these threads so that people could follow the build and see how I do things. Kinda like a New Yankee Workshop show (an instructive woodworking TV show in the US that's on public television). I probably don't have some of the tools that luthiers typically have, so how I do things might be different than your typical luthier...such as yourself.

Originally Posted by Myst and rain

Maybe a transparant turqouise would be cool idea?

Originally Posted by Myst and rain

An abalone edge would look cool with that, imo.

As for the color, I really do love that turqouise finish. I actually bought an Ibanez Gio 4 string bass because of that color. It sounds awesome too. As much as I like that color it would blend right in with the abalone. The abalone comes in blue and green. Sometimes it's hard for me to even tell between the two colors. I'm not color blind though. Blue and green abalone look so much alike it's hard to tell which is which because they also have other colors in there. I'll have to do some searching around for different binding materials. Maybe you can get all kinds of abalone colors. I don't know.

The thing to really make the binding stand out is to use a complimentary color of the color that the body is finished in (going into color theory here). If I go with a turqouise color then it's compliment would be a reddish-orange binding. Now that would look pretty stunning, but I don't think abalone comes in a color like that.

If I went with the traditional blue or green abalone, then you're talking about going with a red finish for the body. For example, check out the Shecter Hellraiser. Check out the abalone binding. Can you tell whether it's of the blue or green variety? I haven't a clue. But overall, if you step back, you get the impression that the binding has a blue-green color. Red, Orange, or somewhere inbetween is the compliment to that. That's probably why Shecter paired the red finish with this abalone.

I'll have to do some searching around to see what's out there. Jaden, can you offer some suggestions on this? I really don't want to use a solid color for the binding. I really like the natural look of the abalone. I guess I could always use mother of pearl which has a natural variety to it. That would really make a turqouise finish pop out big time. Now that's something to think about. But what hasn't been done before, or been done many times? That's what I'd like to go for.

[Myst and rain]

Yeah turquoise looks very special and cool. I've looked around a bit and apparently there's also a pink variety, among others. Check it out:



Or maybe this is the red one, I dunno. But it looks super cool, I think.

I thought blue/green abalone would work as there's a white line that seperates the binding from the rest of the finish. But yeah, I think it would still blend in one another in a maybe not so cool way, regardless. Interesting what you mentioned regarding the red and orange being complimentary colors, btw. Ibanez did that on this one, as well:

http://www.ibanezrules.com/namm/images/2008/198.JPG

[courtney2018]

Now, if I can find alot of the pinkish abalone that would look awesome with a turqouise finish.

[Myst and rain]

Yeah that would be quite something.

Here's an interesting link:

http://www.mopsupplies.com/pink_abalone.html

I don't know if it's a good site but you can apparently buy pink abalone sheets there.

[courtney2018]

I think I need to stay away from the sheets. It needs to be much thicker than what those sheets are. But if they make sheets of them then you're bound to be able to buy thicker pieces from somewhere. I'll just have to do some searching to find some.

Finished gluing up the second half. It's just way too hot to continue. I'll have to jump on the bloodwood and satinwood project tomorrow. I'll also join the two halves of this project together tomorrow as well.

[courtney2018]

Here's an update for you. I got this planed today as well and cut the body shape cut out and sanded the sides. It looks really good. I can't believe the figure in this Eucalyptus. If there are any builders out there reading this you have to try Eucalyptus. This thing is going to be gorgeous when it's done. The darker lines that go perpendicular to the figure is very interesting. I kinda wish I had a piece that had more in it.

Here's a few pics for you.

[courtney2018]

I laid out what's to be done on the front. It's kinda hard to see the lines in some areas. The strange shape going around the pickups is the line where it goes from being flat to being carved.

The curved line that you see down where the volume and tone knobs would be is a line where I'm repositioning the knobs to. As it stands the carved line would be right on top of the volume knob. So, what I did was pretended to strum the guitar and looked at where my pinky finger was at, the last joint in my finger. That's where I like to grab the knobs at. So I just strummed and placed a dot where my pinky was at during that whole motion. That curve is what I came up with. I then put the volume and tone knob positions in places that looked appealing to the eye, which you can't really see from the pics below.

Tomorrow I'll probably get the neck pocket cut and then figure out how I want to carve the top of this thing. I have to keep in mind that I'm going to be using purfling and binding so ideally you'd want the edge and a small distance inward to be flat. At least in my mind that's what you'd want. Gotta think of that some more. This is the first time I've done a carved top. Should be an interesting challenge.

[Myst and rain]

Ooooo, exciting! I really love the figure in the wood, Courtney. I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

[courtney2018]

Ok, now for this update. As I mentioned on the Blood and Satinwood body project, things have been going pretty well this week. Getting closer to being finished.

Below is a pic of the electronics routes and the recess for the cavity covers.







Remember, this is going to be a fixed bridge, so no trem routes for this beauty. That reminds me. I need to order the bridge for this thing. It's going to be individual bridge saddles. I've not used that style before. I think they look pretty cool. It'll be interesting how it all turns out.

Going to have to make a jig to help me do the binding inlays on this body. I know what I want. Just a matter of building it. I'll throw up some pics of it when I'm done. It's very similar to the ones that you can buy that keeps the router a set distance from the side of the body using 3 points that touch the guitar side. They sell that at Stew-Mac, but I'm don't want to spend the money to buy it. I'd rather make it.

Speaking of inlays, I've got something really special for this body. If it turns out the way my mind's eye has it, it's going to drop some jaws. Not giving away just yet what I'll be using for the inlays though.

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. Then the binding route, inlay work, staining the body and clear coating. The stain will be a transparent turquoise blue in the center going out to a darker blue. So it'll fade from light to dark, but no black towards the edges. The edges will have the inlay.

[Myst and rain]

Hey Courtney, do you have any photographs of how this one turned out? It'd be cool to see.