Headless 7-string guitar Bolt on(Serial 09G031)
Call 951-659-8616.

This guitar is an exaple of an instrument that has it all. It it was a car, it would be a Turbocharged Bentley cenvertible. we are building it for a customer of ours in Germany.

The guitar will be a 7-string headless instrument using hardware from ETS in Germany. The bridge is fitted two standard dual coil magnetic pickups, one sustainer and Piezos in the bridge. We'll also fit it with an on-board preamp. All this on a beautiful instrument with a Curly Koa top.

Clamping the bookmatched Koa top together.	(5/20/10) While the work on the fingerboard is going on I took the opportunity to clean up the joint faces on the two Koa top plates and get them glued together. It's always a little tricky to keep an good amount of lateral clamping pressure on the joint without risking movement on the flat surfaces so I stabilize everything by clamping the pieces to a flat surface. This way nothing gets distorted while under pressure.
machining the compound radii onto the fingerboard.	(5/19/10) Today we were able to set up for cutting the compound radii onto the ebony fingerboard. This will give us a very accurate and straight form for the fingerboard. We'll clean up the surface and when that's done we will set up for cutting the fret slots and the slot for the nut. We have a special configuration for the fret markers which we will also machine while the fingerboard is set up on the CNC machine.
getting started on the fingerboard - Gaboon Ebony.	(5/18/10) I have a really nice piece of Gaboon Ebony for this guitar. It is currently being machined on one of our CNCs. First step is to establish the perimeter of the fingerboard which in turn establishes the centerline. After that we'll machine a compound radius onto the board and then cut the fret slots. When that's done we'll have to machine the fret markers into the ebony in preparation for the inlay.
first body half being assembled to the core section.	(5/25/10) Now that the various veneers have been added to the joint faces we can start gluing the two mahogany sides onto the core section of the body. The clamping process requires that the pieces are held down on a flat surface while they are also held firmy together, so it can be a little elaborate but woth the extra work. I'll leave the joint in this condition overnight and finish up the body assembly tomorrow.
Body halves are getting prepped for assembly.	(5/23/10) We want to complete the body now, and in order to do so I have machined the joint faces perfectly flat and square. next step is to glue on some decorative veneers to match those used in the construction of the neck and the body core. As soon as the glue has cured we will trim off the veneers and attach the two African Mahogany body halves onto the center core. This will give us a complete body to work with.
Here we are gluing Carbon Fiber rods into channels in the neck.	(5/21/10) It's time to secure the carbon fiber rods into the neck. There rods are very rigid and also very lightweight, so they are a very effective way to add further stability to a guitar neck. We use aerospace grade epoxy to bond the CF rods with the wood and leave the assembly clamped overnight to make sure everything is properly cured. When this is complete we will remove the clamps and clean up any squeezed-out adhesive.
Body halves have been rough cut and will soon be attached to the core section.	(5/19/10) We have some really nice African mahogany which I wanted to use on this guitar. The top and bottom body halves have been rough cut to shape. We will have to machine the joint faces in order to get them ready for assembling onto the body core. The mahogany will balance out the overall sound of the instrument adding some warmth to the mid-tomes while all the maple in the neck will contribute to a bright high-end.
neck is now up on the small CNC for truss rod slot, carbon fiber slots etc.	(4/5/10) The neck part of this guitar is now set up on the CNC. We started by machining a nice clean joint face on the top of the block, this will be the surface we use to glue the fingerboard onto. Next we machined the perimeter of the neck to its final length and widths. Now we are in the process of cutting the truss rod slot. Following that we will cut two slots for carbon fiber reinforcing rods. At that point we can remove it from the CNC.
Neck and body core pieces have been glued together.	(3/30/10) After a few days of gluing we now have all the tapered laminates for the neck and the core of the body glued together. We will now move to the CNC where we will clean up the surfaces and start machining features such as slots for the truss rod and carbon fiber rods. While the neck section is taking shape, we will be working on the various parts of the body. Things should start to take shape quite quickly. This will be a very pretty guitar.
The tapered body and neck sections are being glued together.	(3/23/10) Now that we have glued pinstriping veneer on both sides of all the component pieces of the neck and body cores, it's time to start gluing them together. In the photo to the left we have three of the body section laminates already glued together. There will be five pieces total for the neck and the body cores. After that we start working on body wings and the material that will be bookmatched for the top of the instrument.
Gluing veneers onto the tapered laminates that will make up the core of the instrument.	(3/16/10) All the various pieces for the neck and body core have been cut, sanded and machined to the correct taper. We are now in the process of gluing the decorative veneers onto each of the components. Although this is tme-consuming work, the end result on the finished instrument is well worth it. Once all ten of these pieces have been veneered both sides we will start gluing them together to create neck and body blanks.
Time to start machining wood for the neck and body.	(3/14/10) We are now able to get the component pieces of the neck onto the ornamental mill so that we can cut the laminates to the prescribed tapers. We do this to all the center laminates in the neck and the body. Once that is done we can apply some decorative veneer for pinstriping and after that we glue these core pieces together to create the blanks for the neck and body. Things will moe forward quickly for now on.
Some minor mods to the drawing to allow access to the upper frets.	(3/12/10) In the process of calculating the correct thickness for each of the neck laminates I realized that I needed to allow a little more space on the lower bout of the guitar for access to the upper end of the neck. Because of the headless hardware - the bridge tends to sit further back on the body than traditional guitars, therefore the neck had to also move inboard a little bit. Not a major change - just making sure everything works together!
All the parts for the body core and the neck have now been rough cut.	(2/22/10) We now have the component parts for both the neck and the core of the body rough sawn. Both sets are sufficiently oversize to allow for complete cleanup and any possible (but unlikely) movement during gluing. The next thing we have to do is sand both sides of each piece so that we have smooth and flat surfaces. We'll then start cutting tapers on the ornamental mill. There is quite a lot of work to the individual parts before they are finally glued together.
Time go get some wood cut up - these six pieces will make up part of the neck and body core of the guitar.	(2/14/10) I just got hold of some nice curly maple which allowed me to start cutting up material for the neck/body. These pieces will make up the Maple components in the neck and center section of the body. I will also cut similar pieces of East Indian Rosewood as center laminates. These two woods always work really well together both for sound and appearance! I have drawn the insstrument to scale both from the side and from the top.
This is the first draft of the outline of the body.	(9/27/09) Due to the requirements for the headless hardware, this guitar will have its own unique body design with accommodation of the rear mounted tuners. The image to the left is the first draft of the body design which we will now discuss and perhaps modify with our customer. Once the outline has been established we can start moving forward with the production of the instrument. There are still a few hardware items to purchase.
We just received the 7-string headless piezo hardware from ETS in Germany.	(9/12/09) We ordered some special hardware from ETS in Germany for this guitar. It's a very custome setup as the instrument is 7-string and headless with piezos built into the bridge. The tailpiece/tuner block is a separate piece from the bridge itself which gives us more flexibility in the design and layout of the instrument body. The brass block is the string retainer for the end of the neck. I plan to integrate this piece somehow with the neck woods.
The top of this guitar will be a nicely figured piece of bookmatched Curly Koa.	(7/16/09) This is an example of several pieces of curly Koa we currently have in stock, one of which we will bookmatch and use for this guitar. We'll be exchanging information with our custome about the specific design elements of the body design and the headstock design (which it may not need being headless). We'll wait until the ETC hardware, (which we have already ordered) comes in to make the final call on the finer design points..