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I never get as much shop time as I'd like so my builds tend to take a very long time to complete. I started three about 5 years ago and just finished two of them up so I finally have something to post in the way of completed guitars. These two are similar and both are gone already. Specs - padauk, spruce and ebony fingerboards, stainless frets..... Both customers are supposed to make an audio or video clip that I'll post when they do.

Pics finished and during construction.

Padauk #1 -











Padauk #2 - Wouldn't take the pics of #2 so coming up in the next post. Must have limited out.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Padauk #2 pics -















Phew, I think I got it this time! Even if kinda backwards.

Thanks for looking, Cheers, Brian

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Those look great! Congrats!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Beautiful work and guitars Brian!

Very nice!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I like having no cover for the truss rod adjustment. Covers are a pain. Making a bare hole look good is a pain. Did you put pearl on the bottom of the hole to integrate it into the design of the Ebony headstock? That is really a sharp headstock.

The tapered black line down the center of the one all the way up the neck is nice too.

Padauk really changes in the light.

Well done Brian.

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Why be normal?

Thanks Ken

I wanted access to the truss rod without going thru the soundhole. Even though these are not low end guitars I decided to make the access in the head as small as possible and maybe leave them open. I then stained the pocket to match the head plate. The shiney spot in one is just a chance reflection from a ceiling light. They are pretty invisible in real life. I offered truss rod covers to the customers and they didn't want them. If they had, I planned on making a decorative insert held in with small rare earth magnets.

This padauk is a great wood and it has so much chatoyance going on it makes it difficult to photograph, light hits the wood and bounces all over heck. But it is really beautiful, taps like glass -- but you have to be ready to chase pores. I was going to do a minimal pore fill on the #1 but it just didn't look right, not like natural grain, more like finish flaws so I ended up taking that one up a level pore wise too.

The inlay idea was from the customer who asked for something like an audio wave form so I combined it with 5 course BWBWBWBWB inlay to represent a musical score on sheet music. I liked it too and may use it again.

Thanks Ken

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Very cool! I like the look of that padauk under finish. Much more subdued browns rather than lipstick red.

I get you about a project sitting on the bench for years. I've got 3 bodies waiting for necks that were built 5-years ago. We moved halfway across the US, which is my excuse. But, I'm not going to carve the necks without having fretboards and tuners. Then LMI closed and I couldn't get custom scale fretboards without spending a fortune. THEN Stew Mac has been out of EVERYTHING for the last year...

I finally pulled the trigger on two fretboards and some tuners that weren't the ones I wanted, but forward progress is forward progress.

Well worth the wait - they look amazing, some clever design details for sure!

Brian, those look really nice! I like the look of the Padauk under finish and very cool end-graft/binding job. Are they finished with nitro?

Thanks Anthony

System Three Silver Tip Epoxy as a pore fill. Padded on a couple thin coats of shellac. Top coated with many applications of TruOil. Light scuff sanding with P1000 between coats. Was not buffed or rubbed out. A careful final coat of TruOil did the trick for me.

The padauk looks even better in person as it's very chatoyant and very hard to photograph. Not all padauk is the same in that regard. It was hard to bend and the pores were like caverns but it rings like glass and worth the extra effort.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED