Flaxwood Guitar Kits from BYOGuitar

[Mitch76]

Hi, all! I recently saw that BYOG now carries kits of some of the Flaxwood models. I was looking for something new to try and this sounded interesting. So I ordered a kit and it arrived last week. Making slow but steady progress on putting it together. If there is any interest, I will continue this thread with pics and notes about the assembly of this unusual instrument. Cheers!

 

[Chordophonic]

Im keen to see how it all goes together.

Paul

 

[kissTheApex]

It looks very interesting. I for one would be very curious to follow.

 

[LeftyAl]

I'm sure most of us would like to see pictures of your build

 

[Mitch76]

I don't know much about the material used to construct these necks or bodies but it sounded neat. You can definitely see that the body came out of a mold. There are some irregularities all around. Like this big chunk left in the neck pocket.

 

[Mitch76]

There was also a few bits and pieces like this one along the lower horn.

 

[Mitch76]

There is also a line running around the entire body from front to back. Thankfully the material is pretty ease to shape with chisels, scrapers and sandpaper.

 

[Mitch76]

The neck was in better shape but did have a few rough spots or odd lines here and there that sanded out pretty well. The fret slots are clean and the routing for inlays is pretty well done.

 

[Mitch76]

The inlays are just cheap celluloid but look decent enough.

 

[Mitch76]

Here's the body after a few coats of cherry red lacquer and one or two top coats.

 

[fretman_2]

Interesting. The Ibanez Talman models, at least the early ones, were made of a composite materal. I owned one and it was a super guitar! Good luck with your Flaxwood build...

 

[dschwartz]

Those flaxwood guitars look impressive and quite expensive,too!!

Those kits should be great for 399 bucks. I always wander about composite materials and these look like they got it right..also they look beautiful and the neck should be really stable and silky..

It's feasible to put a floyd rose bridge there?

 

[bender66]

Wow. Thanks for the heads up on these.

Looking forward to this.

 

[jipp]

very interesting. is the neck a composite too? thanks for sharing.

chris.

 

[Mitch76]

Yup, the neck is a composite, too, just colored differently. It has a similar "grain" when looked closely. Some extra routing would be needed to use a Floyd, but I know some of the Flaxwood models use a Schaller Les Paul tremolo.

 

[Ben Furman]

Wow!

I've wanted one of these since they were released but couldn't justify the expense. I will definitely pick up a kit....

How resonant it the raw material?

 

[Mitch76]

A few updates. The neck got a few coats of satin lacquer. Still haven't done the fretwork, yet. Trying to make a simple fretbending jig first as I have been bending them by hand up until now.

Here's a shot of the neck joint. Kinda different but fits pretty snug. The kit supposed to include glue for the set neck but did not. Being a little uncertain of whether to use glue or epoxy for that job, I emailed BYOGuitar. They responded that superglue gel is used?!!!

 

[Mitch76]

Ben, the body isn't particularly resonant to me. Tapping it just gives a dull thud. There is specially designed backplate that bolts on the body that is supposed to increase the resonance. We'll see . . . . The whole thing is fairly lightweight, though.

While test fitting the neck, I noticed a little lip of material on the body that will have to be sanded and refinished. Damn!

 

[jipp]

yeah i thought the back plate was really odd. but its a electric guitar, throw some good pups in their and i bet she will ring like a bell.
i like the colors you have choose.

chris.

 

[Ben Furman]

BYOG mentions fingerboard planing. Is it even radiused?

Jescar sells pre-bent fretwire sets for single instruments.