Routing Three Envirocaster Bodies

Yesterday I cut out three Envirocaster bodies. Today I routed pockets and drilled the bridge and neck mounting holes. I should have taken a photo of all the wood chips and dust I generated!

The body in the center is American Walnut while the other two are Alder with Maple caps.

Now comes the fun part: sanding and finishing.

Finishing 3 Guitar Necks

I used Dark Brown Rit Dye to stain the Maple. Then, I sanded off the excess to reveal the hidden figure. For contest, I sanded the fretboards more aggressively. 

To seal in the dye and protect the wood, I rubbed in a generous amount of tung oil.

Dig that figure.

Next, I'll have to workout what my logo will look like.

The Next Round Of Guitar Builds Is Underway

I call this luthier porn...

For those of you with a keen eye, all the necks in this photo are lefties.

Bocote. Love the grain!

One-piece Honduran Mahogany body. This one aint for sale.

Two Maple fretboards with Walnut marker dots flank a Wenge fretboard with mother-of-peal marker dots.

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!

My Latest Electric Guitar Neck

Along with several other electric guitar builds that I have in progress, I'm starting a new one, which will be called the Highline Neolux. I'm almost finished with making the neck and I thought I share some photos of the work up to this point:

The fretboard is Morado and the marker dots are Maple.

I carved the volute as far forward as possible
to keep it from interfering with the fretting hand.

The neck itself is made from Canarywood and will be
a bolt-on design with a minimal heel.

Dig the truss rod adjustment access hole.

I love the color and grain of Canarywood, not to mention
its amazing tonal properties.