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:

Two New Guitars In The Works

Originally, I was going to call it the Highline Neolux, but I've changed the pickup configuration and therefore the name. Now she'll be called the Highline Improv. The new name fits as this guitar has been something of an improvisation from the start. The neodymium humbucker I designed worked great, but not in the way I had intended. The plan had been to install the pickup inside the body and under the beautiful flamed Maple top. Unfortunately, the poles were just too far from the strings to generate a strong signal. As a result, I've gone back to a top mounted humbucker, but with a twist; I made a cool looking Rosewood cover for it. See my earlier post for some photos of what it looks like. Right now, I'm waiting for the 16 coats of tung oil to cure. Then, I'll polish and install all of the hardware. Stay tuned!

My other build is another new design, which I've named the Highline Prodigy. This guitar is made entirely of Black Limba and will be fitted with a black pickguard and a pair of my hand wound humbuckers. At the moment, I'm busy sanding the neck and body while I wait for a pair of carbon fiber strips to arrive so I can reinforce the neck. The fretboard will be a beautiful slab of Cocobolo with Maple marker dots. This one is going to be AWESOME! Again, stay tuned!