Quote Originally Posted by G-Axe View Post
That Flying Samurai is wild. Shame present day Yamahas are so bland.

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Hmm, worth checking out the Revstars, they are really nice guitars. I've played one of these ones and was very impressed (I kinda want one eventually)



Anyway, bit of an update. I took the weekend off from messing around in the shed to do some much needed gardening.

I put a mix of glue and sawdust in the swimming pool cavity and rerouted to tidy it up a it from where I went too deep with the drill.



I've also done some more work contouring the back.





I'm liking the way that's heading, but.....

I have two main concerns:

1. Its still pretty heavy. Despite what I thought earlier, while it's lighter than it was, it's still significantly heavier that the shoegazer body. That guitar is my heaviest and currently apart for some weight reduction as it is.

Deluxester:



Shoegazer (JMA-1) :



2. I'm not entirely sure if its just because I'm removing material and exposing them more, but the cracks in the wood are concerning me. It is kind of par for the course for native timber, which I guess is why there isn't a big foot print using this wood for guitar bodies. I might try some timber mate and see how it looks and if it keeps moving. But yeah, not ideal and starting to make me think that this might be best as a bit of workshop decoration.

At least I know the templates work, and I also know that I can carve up hardwood without too many dramas. I'm going to go back and see the wood guy after Easter, so might start again with some camphor laurel.

I'd be interested in the thoughts of more experienced wood workers than me - do you think I can get away with timbermate and then sealing with Poly.. or should I start again?



I'm also starting to thing that I'd like to fix the neck further into the body. Sitting with it at the moment with the test neck in, it feels like an SG, with the headstock a long way away. When I was drawing it I was just thinking about best possible upper fret access. But on a 24 fret neck, I think its a bit ridiculous at the moment. I'd also like a bit more meat on the heel pocket, so might be a bit of a redesign in the works, possibly lopping off 2 frets and moving everything 'down a bit' I'll see what I can do with the existing templates, but might need to start again. The radius at the bottom of the neck is a problem at the moment anyway as it's too small to get my router bit in, which means I have to tidy it up with the dremel.