Redwood Burl Mando

Hi all. Hope this is the appropriate forum for this.

Here's the deal: I went over to visit a buddy I hadn't seen in awhile, and he asks me if I remember the piece of redwood burl he has that I always said had a guitar in it? So he puts it in my hands and I start feeling it up, and indeed I do believe there is an instrument in there. Here's a pic:




So he gives me the piece of wood and I tell him I'll make some kind of a guitar out of it. After taking a belt sander to the back side (it was full of chain saw marks) I ended up with a piece of wood that has sort of a reverse belly cut, being about 1 5/8" at the top where my thumb is and 1 1/8" at the bottom where my finger is.

I have another buddy at work who is a CNC machinist, who has a CNC router at home. He planed the face for me and will route the cutout for the neck pocket with the CNC router.

When I got the piece back from being face-planed, I took some measurements and realized it was a bit small for a guitar, but would probably work nicely as a mandolin (regardless of the fact I've never played one). So I ordered up a neck and all of the guts from moongazer music. I went with a birdseye maple fretboard on a curly maple neck.

So my question to the luthiers on this forum is for advice on finishing. Materials and the order work needs to be done.

There are a couple of spots in knots that will need to be filled (maybe 1/8" max thickness). Seems some kind of epoxy would be in order - or maybe something else? There are also a couple of small cracks that I would like to arrest before they grow on my. CA?

Should I finish before I route the neck pocket and electronics? Or after?

I have no experience building an instrument so I'm relying on you folks for some ideas and guidance.

Here's a pic with a 6" ruler for reference:



There is sort of a natural singlecut where my fingers are in the second photo, which is where I will route the neck pocket. I think the edges of this are going to make this a really unique instrument.

Thanks

 

So I received the neck. Using a clamp in lieu of having a neck pocket routed, here is approximately how this is going to look:




At this point I believe I will try Tru-Oil on the neck. Maybe epoxy the fretboard? Any input would be appreciated...

 

Pickup will be a humbucker: Moongazer MG4. Theoretically coil-tappable.