jwcustomguitars

Custom built guitars, parts and repairs

Guitars in the works

Cherry Burl from Plymouth Mass. gets cut to make guitar top!

Book-matched Cherry Burl headstock

Burled Cherry top in progress.

Black Walnut top with

red pine body

Butternut neck

with carbon fiber

stiffeners. This neck is thinner in every direction

than any I've done

it approaches being as

thin as my 1965 Hagstrom III.

Butternut is quite flexible but warm

sounding hence I'm using the

stiffeners to get the best of both

characteristics.

Here are some pictures of some guitars I've built as they were being built. Some may find this interesting! The Cherry Burl guitar shown here now has a permanent home with a recording musician in Ct. The black walnut guitar resides on the same street the the black walnut tree was harvested from.

Black walnut top, red pine body, mahogany neck with 12" radius rosewood finger board and maple overlay headstock. Nearly complete.

Cherry Burl with Varitone circuit nearly complete

Spruce top for a 12 fret "33" acoustic with scalloped bracing

Re-purposed Cherry back and sides in mold with upper kerfing clamped. Black walnut neck and tail blocks

SH 3 GE 6 (Left) This is a Gretsch inspired semi hollow electric. Figured Butternut top, TV Jones pickups, with Zero fret and somewhat wider neck to accommodate Chet Atkins style thumb / finger picking. (below) carved back in progress. (right top) inside butternut body before top goes on. (right bottom)

After sealing hardware gets initial installation and rough set up

Here 3 necks are roughed to shape and fitted to guitars. Notice the carbon fiber stiffeners in the upper 2, one is a twelve string. the other is a cherry neck which is a bit whippy for my taste without the carbon fiber. The carbon fiber does seem to give slightly more sustain.

Here's a 33 style cutaway back on a 15' radius dish w/ bracing being glued on prior to finish shaping. Braces are radiused to 15' diameter prior to being placed on the "Go board" which is what this clamping device is called. once the back is glued to the braces it will maintaining the 15 ' radius which helps prevent "in buckling" once the guitar is assembled, and puts the back in tension which helps with the tone as well as strength.

Here is a 33 style w/o cutaway in mold with kerf lining, neck and tail blocks in place. Thanks to John Hall at Blues Creek Guitars for the great job he's done making these molds for me!

http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=51

Here's an SH1 Hybrid through neck body rough routed Prior to installing the top. This one is Butternut with Black walnut accents. The Maple neck doesn't show on the back only the walnut. (Neck has a 3/16" thick butternut veneer applied to it where it goes through the body prior to machining.

Wiring cavity in an SH-1 Hybrid. Notice the LR Baggs Element pre-amp. (The tubular object at a diagonal on the right.) Also notice the copper shielding on the bottom of the cavity, for feed back and noise control.

Click on an icon above to see that company's products