Two New Plans Are Now Available

Finally, after months of work, I have finally added two new Super Easy Series plans to the eGuitar Plans order page. The first is the Speed Freak and the second is the Venturi. Like the Vizagoth and Vampyro Super Easy plans, both of these guitar plan sets are available in a variety of pickup configurations and are based on the use of a bolt-on Stratocaster style replacement neck. For $5 each, these plans are a cheap and easy way to build your own unique electric guitar design. Check 'em out!

How to Slot a Fretboard With a Bandsaw

Check out this video on how I slot my fretboards. Just finished slotting 18 boards in less than thirty minutes.

The Luthier's Prerogative

When ever I build a guitar from scratch, I always have a tendency to change my mind about what I want to accomplish. As I was about to finish the Highline Prodigy, I decided to make some changes.

First of all, I felt the body was a bit too thick. To remedy this concern, I simply planed down the front and back, which thinned the body from 1-7/8" to 1-5/8." However, thinning the body also required me to cut down the thickness of the neck's heel in order to maintain proper string height. A quick trip to the belt sander took care of the heel.

The second change I made involved the black plastic pickguard. While I love the shape of the pickguard, I wasn't crazy about using plastic. Instead, I've decided to make one out of some scrap spalted Black Limba. The process to make this pickguard will be a bit tricky, but I feel it will look much better than plastic. I'll be sure to post some photos of how it works out (if it works), so stay tuned. In the meantime, here is what the body looks like after planning it down:

My Riser Block Kit Finally Arrived!

It took 5 months, but the riser block kit I ordered for my band saw finally arrived. This accessory will allow me to resaw figured Maple boards for bookmatched guitar tops. In the past, I always had to purchase my tops already bookmatched, which can be costly. Plus I was never sure what the boards would look like until they arrived. Now I can carefully select my own billets and resaw them myself. It's an extra step, but worth it in terms of cost and quality control. Right now, I have five flamed Maple billets ready to bookmatch.

The Highline Improv Is Now For Sale

If you'd like to own this one of a kind electric guitar, click here to place your bid or buy it now on ebay. Don't miss this opportunity as all of my other guitars have sold out FAST!

How To Make A Guitar Neck In One Hour

I've always felt the hardest task we luthiers face when building a guitar is making the neck. Not only does the process require skill, but it also demands stamina. Excluding the fretboard, the process of sawing, shaping and sanding a neck usually takes me a full day to complete. And after I have finished the work, I can really feel it in my shoulders and elbows.

To speed up the process and save my joints, I've added a new jig to handle the work of carving the back contour of my guitar necks. It's called the Scheltema Neck Jig and was designed and developed by fellow luthier Bill Scheltema. You can see it in action and download the plans from his youtube video. Here are a few photos of my version:

The jig slides back and forth over my router while the neck is rotated
from side to side.

I use a 1/2" diameter straight bit to do the carving as
I slide the jig back and forth.

The end result is a perfectly formed "C" shaped contour that tapers
from the heel to the headstock. The cool thing about this jig is that I can
achieve different contours by changing the half-round pucks at each end
of the jig. Any contour is possible. All that left to do is blend the contour
at each end and lightly sand out the tool marks.

Coming Soon To eBay…

The prototype Highline Improv electric guitar is finished and will be up for auction on eBay very soon. Probably late Sunday, May 15th. Despite the change in direction with the concept, name and execution, I'm really happy with the result. I ended up using a single humbucker wound to around 8.5 Ohms. The goal was to achieve as wide a tonal range as possible while still having the ability to drive an amp to distort if desired. I would characterize this guitar as ideally suited to jazz, blues, country and old-school rock. You could get metal tones with the right pedal, but in the end, I think you'd want to swap out the pickup for something a little hotter. At any rate, checkout the photos of the finished guitar. Not sure if I'll offer plans, but if there seems to be enough interest, I'll add them to the order page.

Check Out Tony"s Legato Bass Guitar

Tony has the right idea. Don't just settle for an exact copy of an eGuitar plan. Stretch your imagination and push it to the next level. He started out with a Legato plan and tweaked the shape to meet his needs. That's what it's all about.