Mahogany Thinline Flame Maple Top Build

[hackworth1]

Here is a block of very hard Mahogany; an unrelated set of six two by two inch pieces of washed-up ocean flotsam mahog that is 25 years aged; my chambered hard-ass, heavy mahog body; my maple top fitted but not yet glued (note positioning studs - screws with heads bit off); and a picture of the back of the guitar body. There are some knots.

This is my first build, so I had saved the best block of hard mahog for another build (the block shown in the photo with the light-colored sapwood streak).

...But, now I have become excited about the six-piece flotsam build. That mahogany (presumably from Cuba) wood is so much softer, lighter and compliant to cutting and sanding. It will be a breeze to work with compared to this nightmare-hard-as-stone solid mahogany or quasi-mahog or whatever it is. It is the hardest, heaviest effing wood I have ever seen.
It is pretty, though.

So, herein you see the progress of my work thus far. Chambered and sanded body; neck pocket routed and drilled; bookmatched flame maple top ready to be glued down; f-hole cut with dremel tool with pattern underneath but no bearing guidance (freehand with dremel), then hand filed and dremel and hand sanded.

I glued and clamped the top tonite. No photo. I used tite bond original. How long should I wait to unclamp it and resume work?

[FSJazzGuy]

The mahogany in your current build may be hard, but the grain looks great. The plank I'm working from is all very even grained, may be easier to work with, but nothing special to look at. One thing I noticed in your chamber layout, better think through how you will run the wires from the bridge pickup (or both perhaps if the neck pup wires run through the bridge pup routing) into the controls chamber. May have to 'thread the needle'. I ran into that with my layout.

I left my bopttom cap/core glue to set up over night, any of the glue that has exposure to air was completely dried, but there were a few places on the bottom that got no air and the glue was still a bit soft.

Looks like your build is coming along, nice work. I'll be gluing the top cap on mine in a day or so.

[barkley]

why didnt you just hollow out the whole left hand side of the body in the third photo?

[hackworth1]

My top is pretty thin - about an eight of an inch thick. I wanted a solid mounting place for the traditional tele control plate. I wasn't sure that I would need to rout the lower half of the body. I first routed the large upper caviity and weighed the body. It was around seven pounds heavy at that point.

I then began routing the lower chambers. I used forstner bits to drill out more cavities. Now that you pointed this out, I can see that I could have routed almost the entire lower chamber. I could have glued in some blocks afterwards for the control plate mounting.

She's 5.5 - 6 pounds right now. Still got the big hole to drill for the output jack and a couple of 1/2 inch deep routs for P-90 pickups.

This guitar is going to be a bit on the heavy side. My next one will be very light. Like I said, I am looking forward to working that Cuban flotsam mahogany. Its like swamp ash. It has soaked in the Atlantic (for who knows how long) then aged in my dad's garage for 25 years. It's light and workable. It will be easy to work. This solid mahog hardwood is almost too tough to work.

[hackworth1]

Ready for String-thru holes. I will do the geometry and make a reusable steel template before drilling the body. I will also use the pin alignment method as shown by Ron Kirn and others. I wish to maintain utmost accuracy according to my skills and tools whenever possible. I do have a nice old heavy duty drill press.

[hackworth1]

If you dampen your wood with water (probably naphtha would work as well or better), you can see where any glue remains that needs to be sanded away.

[bubba105]

You should consider using the remaining block, with the sapwood, for caps, front & rear, maybe double binding & a lesser wood filling. That is some major league good looking wood you've got there. I can tell it's going to pop when finish hits it. Seems a shame to make sawdust out of such a good looker just for being heavy. Resawing is like a box of chocolates... Hell, look at the grain you exposed cutting the neck pocket. If that board is an inch & a half thick you could get four, possibly five 1/4" pieces & give me 2 for saving it's life.

[hackworth1]

Thanks for that advice. You are right. It is beautiful wood. I suppose I'd have to take it to a lumber mill to rip it. It's eighteen inches across. If the sapwood were cut away, then it's about 14 inches wide. The sapwood doesn't show on the other side, though. Incidentally, this slab and the one I hollowed out were/are nearly two inches thick.

[bubba105]

Yeah, 18" is a bit beyond my shop capabilities too. My bandsaw cuts 12" with the riser block installed. It was perfect right up until I started building guitars. I found a local guy with one of those portable sawmills. I buy air dried maple from him & he resaws for me, begrudgingly, but he will do it. Another place you could look is a large cabinet shop. Some have big band saws that can cut your 18" board. Good luck.

Nice build BTW.

[hackworth1]

Did bridge and string thru layout. 12 3/4 inches from 12th fret to forward positioned saddles. Temporarily attached neck with pins (nails) thru neck pocket holes and checked and rechecked. Also used sewing thread in both e string locations and taped to butt of guitar across bridge to make certain of proper string alignment. My centerline seam at bookmatched maple top relative to mahog underbody and neck pocket is 100 percent dead on accurate. I can hardly believe it. I thought I might be off by a 16th or so, but no. Its perfect.

Routed one pickup cavity to 1/2 inch depth. I must adjust my homemade template for P 90 pickup rout. It was a little too wide. Bondo works well to fix templates. I cut out top for control plate with spiral cutting bit and straight guide on dremel tool. No guide bearing or template needed. The main mahogany underbody is so hard that there was no risk of cutting into it with the dremel spiral bit.

Tomorrow is string thru holes in body and bridge mount holes. Must use extra caution and under pin method.

Note: The golden hue seen in this photo was purely the camera's idea. Looks nice though.

[hackworth1]

It gets the adrenaline pumping when you drill (with no pencil marks/no counterpunched holes/no nothing) into the clean backside of your guitar.

Its a relief when you feel your drill bit hit home on top of the pin. You can't relax til you do the third or fourth one.

[hackworth1]

When reaming and expanding holes to fit ferrules, a little correction can be done to make the holes perfect. No one will know there was a slight arc in the string hole alignment. Except everyone who reads this.

[hackworth1]

Anybody ever use these ferrules from Guitarheads dot net? They feel like they will pop right in with a little pressure. I am afraid to pop one in because I may have a hard time getting it back out.

I'm debating whether I should countersink these suckers. They have a rather high profile.

If one is stoned when playing and he breaks a string, it is easier to feel in the dark where the ferrules are. Otherwise, aesthetically, countersunk ferrules might look better.

[hackworth1]

Do you guys see the forlorn alien looking at you on the back of this guitar? I do.

[Casual_Reader]

Originally Posted by hackworth1

Do you guys see the forlorn alien looking at you on the back of this guitar? I do.

some say they see God in the details... and all this time, it was a forlorn alien.

seriously, that's the same guy that was on my bedroom door when I was a kid. He gets around.

[hackworth1]

I got one pickup wiring channel drilled. I made a smaller pilot hole, then a 3/16 inch hole in the lower rear corner of the routed pickup cavity with a 14 inch long drill bit chucked in an electric hand drill. The drill passed thru the wall of a routed chamber then thru the wall of the control cavity. It landed about an eighth of an inch from the bottom of the control cavity. By my eye, I thought it would land a little higher than it did. Watch your eyeballing with great care and be sure you have a very long bit so you don't mar your nice geetar with a crashing drill chuck. Pics forthcoming.

I repaired my buggered P-90 template with bondo, hand filing and sandpaper. Today I will rout another pickup cavity and do the 1/8th inch roundover on the back.

I sweated the string thru drilling operation (made me anxious). I am glad to now have that experience under my belt.

Now I am sweating the binding channel rout.

[jkingma]

Nice looking body.

Now I am sweating the binding channel rout.

Yeah, I would be too.

[FSJazzGuy]

Looking great there! Thanks for posting your progress. Slow going on my build, but I glued up the parts of the neck yesterday and will update my thread when there's something to show.

That grain on the back looks incredible, the forlorn alien is icing on the cake. Since he's forlorn, guess you'll have to play lots of blues tunes. Actually, after looking again, I think he looks kind of Grinchy.

[68thinline]

Originally Posted by hackworth1

Temporarily attached neck with pins (nails) thru neck pocket holes and checked and rechecked. Also used sewing thread in both e string locations and taped to butt of guitar across bridge to make certain of proper string alignment.

Good idea!

[hackworth1]

You can see I got a little deep and distracted on the pickup rout. Had to check my parameters. Always good to start in the middle and work to the edges when routing interior cavities. This pickup rout fits like a glove.

Roundover came out excellent. Just a small ledge had to be sanded. I like the traditional 1/8 inch roundover. Makes an appealling profile and enhances a thick body look.

Thanks for the kind remarks, guys. J Kingma, I especially enjoy your build threads and I admire your work.

[hackworth1]

Had a setback. I used three tubes of superglue as grain filler on the back of the guitar body. Then I sanded the back, taped off and masked the front and stained the back and sides with red hair dye. The super glue created areas that would not accept much dye. It was all very blotchy. Then I sanded the shiny spots and dyed it again. It looked like a relic -ed body. Great look if that's what you are going for. Looked like a 50 year old guitar.

Next, with my Porter Cable Belt Sander and a rough belt, I sanded all the dye off the back. I must now re-rout the 1/8 inch roundover as it is not correct anymore.

I do not recommend the use of super glue (CA) as grain filler prior to staining the body.
After re-prepping the body - sanding and re-rounting the roundover and more sanding - I will stain it with the hair dye. Then I will use a bona fide grain filler. Sand it and apply sanding sealer. Sand it and apply clear lacquer.

[hackworth1]

The only laquer-based sanding sealer Lowe's had was Deft brand. So I got some. No Cabot's lacquer. Lot's of Cabot's poly urethane. According to the employee, they quit stocking Cabot's nitro lacquer. I ordered McFadden's online from Grizzly.

[mgdesigns]

Is that just the sanding sealer? Looks great so far; great flame top, and excellent build - but somehow you mirrored the photos. It's pointing the wrong way?:-)

[hackworth1]

I used punk rock yellow hair dye to stain the top. I took the photo while the sealer was still wet. Did I make this guitar backwards? No wonder I keep getting this feeling that something isn't right!

[hackworth1]

Stewmac sells this bearing-guided Dremel attachment for Dremel Tools that works to rout binding when used with the Dremel tool and router bit. Requires very careful adjustment/calibration to get it exactly right. Practice on scrap. Recheck and re-adjust over and over by taking it off to re-adjust your cutter depth. Penetration can be adjusted more easily once you get your depth dialed in.

[hackworth1]

Use a fret file and a sandpaper block to clean up and perfect binding channel rout all around. Special care is needed at the neck pocket area. You will be tempted to over file that area like I did. Leave some extra meat on the posterior walls of the neck pocket. You will need it when you glue in the binding. Now I will have to shore up that area with temporary wood blocks to achieve proper alignment of the binding.

[hackworth1]

I am satisfied with the results of my binding channel work with the Dremel and the SM Attachment.