Beautiful Guitar Thread

[Dedman]

do it Mick, you wont be sorry. Mine is a Korean made Electromatic. Love it. Going to try to swing a factory tour in Japan in Sept,pretty sure the Custom shop is in Japan. (trying for ESP tour too )

[Simon Barden]

Gretsch Streamliner range. That one's £388 at Andertons which is currently around A$675. Unfortunately you end up paying a lot more than that.

The pickups benefit from an upgrade as they are more of a generic humbucker style with an average output than a sparkly Gretsch type, though there's nothing to stop you liking the guitar as it is. But otherwise, the Streamliner range are built well. This particular model, being semi-acoustic with the large Gretsch headstock, is rather neck heavy, so you'd need a wide grippy strap to help compensate for that.

[Zandit75]

I promised to share some photos of this new Olive wood build from Mark Hatcher, so here are some progress shots.


Italian Spruce top


Rear internal graft in place, and an Olive Wood logo chip glued in place


What the hell??

[Zandit75]

Still don't understand? You soon will!


Using sand in a frypan over a low heat, Mark is able to roast the pieces used in rosette to give them a 3D effect. Using this technique, the coloration goes all the way through the wood, so it can be sanded without losing the shading effect.

There are 93 individual pieces in this rosette. The job was so hard, that Mark actually destroyed two tops doing this!

[FrankenWashie]

I suspect that is to insure that the moisture content for the chip is low? Either that or an ageing or colouring method?

Edit: should have held off just a wee bit longer.

[Zandit75]

Top and bottom meet each other!


Marking out the sides.


Cut, steamed and placed in the jig ready for mounting the top and bottom


The more eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed with the picture of the top and bottom together, that the back piece has not been cut for the cutaway, so this will be a different style of cutaway.
Internal braces

[Zandit75]

Installing the Kerfling


I love these detailed photos


Cleaning up the edges


Attaching the back

[Zandit75]

Showing off the internal bracing and you can also see the scooped cutaway taking shape




The top has been "Voiced" and is now glued and clamped into place.

And now we have the completed box!

[Zandit75]

Working out the layout of the cross grained purfling




Shaping the veneer for the cutaway

[Zandit75]

That didn't take long!




Rear binding in place


Sculpted End Graft