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First Build: SC5 Headless

#103
Unfortunately it's starting to look like I'm going to have to put a lot of the work left to do on these on semi-permanent hold. I may still picky away slowly at one of them, but the remaining bodies, neck blanks and fingerboards are going to have to be set aside and stored for the the time being. Hopefully I can get back to work on them some time in the new year.

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#106
Truss rods have been ordered (finally!).
I ended up getting them from Martin Keith Guitars. Hopefully I'll have them by next week. I'm still trying to figure out if I can make the rod adjustable at the "headstock" with the HipShot headpiece. I'm not sure how far down you have to sink the headpiece. I don't have one on hand,and won't be able to order one for a while, so I can't just look at it and figure it out myself. I would prefer to go this way, but if it can't be done I'll just put the adjustment at the body end.
 
#112
I agree that the Ziricote just makes it look too busy. I like the Ebony for looks, but with a maple body I'm worried that it might be really bright in tone. I was really hoping the Bloodwood would have looked better.
 
#113
I think the bloodwood looks great, the brick red really makes the walnut brown of the Chechen pop, but who can resist doing a fretless with a sweet unlined ebony fb? I just think the ebony wouldn't look as good with frets on it, but I don't think it could be aesthetically detrimental to the bloodwood (red, silver and brown is a pretty combo).

The ziricote would look gorgeous on something with a colour and grain similar to spruce or light maple.

That's enough designer tips from me, seeing how you've already made such beautiful looking instruments, and they're not even half done! :D
 
#119
Thanks for all of the comments re: the fretboard for the Habanero. I held a piece of Jatoba up to the body to see ow it would look. I liked it better than the Bloodwood, but the red just didn't seem to fit. I'll have to do a little more thinking ...

I was able to get a little more work done today. I glued up the neck transition for the Ash body. Since it's getting a Ziricote fretboard, I decided to use a piece for the neck transition as well (to kind of tie in the front and back of the instrument). It's still in clamps, but here is a mock-up using another transition that I made.

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I also made a Ziricote control cover. I'll use it instead of the Jatoba cover.

I also got a few new templates made up on Friday. These make it much easier to line up the bridge recess, pickups and neck pocket. I wasn't really confident using the previous templates as there was the potential for lot of error. Here are the freshly routed Habanero bodies.

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I was going to put two pickups in each, but I kind of like the way the look with one. I'm on the fence about adding the neck pickup.

These will get a similar neck transition as the Ash body. I'll be using Chechen to match the top and back.

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#120
Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I would have angled the back of the Habanero's like the Ash body. Despite their diminutive size, the actually weigh more than the larger Ash body (5.16 lbs vs. 4.32 lbs, no doubt thanks to the maple core and increased thickness).

I wonder how hard it would be to cut the back off, angle the body and glue the back back on? I think that's a little too risky for me!
 

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