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: