Grateful Dead Music Forum

Thanks tcsned! If only you saw the pages of doodles and rejects. It's hard to come up with an original design that hasn't been done in some form, fits the history of the instruments I love and still looks ok!

Labor of love. Nice choice!

ac4468 wrote:The walnut is about 1/16th and the maple is about 3/32. Top and back .23 and core is about 7/8. That gives me a nice thin 1 5/8" body. At that thickness, using maple as the core instead of Purple Heart and shortening the guitar by an inch it seems to be reducing the weight by a huge chunk over the Wolf. Truth be told I didn't chose the veneer thickness. I trying to find ways to reduce the build time by using stock I can find that suits the build rather than the other way around. Buying whole flitches of unbacked veneer saves me a day.

Thanks for the info -

one more question if you don't mind - whats the general width and length of the body? I just built a new template based on an earlier design and I'm wondering if it's a little big...yours looks perfectly proportioned.

really great work....

13x17 1/4 overall. Between the upper and lower horns it's 9 3/4". Imagine a Wolf shortened by 1" so the back of the guitar is a bit more round vs strat like. Very Similar to an Ibanez Musician.

Very pretty!!!! That wood looks awesome!!!

Rough few weeks! A weekend at Jeezum Crow Music Fest in VT and a weekend in NH took me away from my build. Although it was great to see the Garcia Project. Great set and tone! You know your sick when you are at a show and between sets wish you were home working on your guitar. Here are some new pics. I am really happy with the choice to go with nickel covered Super 2's. I'll use a cream colored SDS-1 rather than the white one pictured since it seems to match the tuning pegs and wood more closely. I did the pickup plate out of aluminum (still need to shape it a bit) and I am testing out a few options on the pickup selector plate. I'm leaning towards a flat finished antique metallic nickel in the picture. Once I settle on something I'll finish the pickup plate with the same finish. Will either paint or have someone local anodize them.

That is a beautiful guitar! Great wood choices for sure! What are you finishing the body with?

That was something that plagued me forever! I prefer to use Waterlox but this time I'm using rattlecan Watco lacquer. I used shellac to fill the grain but don;t want a completely mirror finish. I went into it knowing I'd have to strip it and redo it if it wasn't good enough. So far so good. Sprays nicely, dries quickly and sands well so far. I just can't see spending so much on some of the other finishes until I have a spray setup. Either way I'll give it at least a few weeks to cure before rubbing it out.

ac4468 wrote:That was something that plagued me forever! I prefer to use Waterlox but this time I'm using rattlecan Watco lacquer. I used shellac to fill the grain but don;t want a completely mirror finish. I went into it knowing I'd have to strip it and redo it if it wasn't good enough. So far so good. Sprays nicely, dries quickly and sands well so far. I just can't see spending so much on some of the other finishes until I have a spray setup. Either way I'll give it at least a few weeks to cure before rubbing it out.

Thanks! I'm curious because it looks great and I'm in the process of refinishing a one off/Wolf that I originally used Waterlox on and did not like the final results. So, I sanded it down to bare wood again and have been using Formby's low gloss finish with great results that I'm very pleased with. Just takes about 15 to 20 days of coats and drying

I toyed with the idea of a couple of different rattlecan products, but didn't think any would turn out that good Looks great!

If I recall I recommended the Waterlox to you. Sorry it didn't work out. Both Waterlox and Formby's take patience but if you are they look awesome. Post some pics!

The pics finished with Waterlox are here: forum/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=8607&start=270 (scroll all the way down)

For me, the Waterlox wasn't smooth enough and darkened the wood too much. Was a learning experience. I've also finished one with pure 100% tung oil that came out awesome, but talk about patience. At least the Formby's coats each dry in 12 hrs as opposed to 3 days+ for the pure tung oil.

I'll post new pics with it finished with Formby's when I'm done. Should be a couple more weeks.

Nice work! I like!

Not the best pictures but pretty much completed. Just some fretwork and buffing to do.

Well done!