Rhiannon and Galadriel

[michaelwayneharwood]

A few changes in direction have been made. We are going to eschew the ABM and Hipshot hardware in favor of my custom headless tuning system. I will be building a custom headless bridge using saddles from this type of bridge. Here's a high level concept of what she will look like:

 

[Hamish MacCleod]

Michael,
She looks fantastic!
Rondo

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

The core has been roughed into shape with a band saw.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

It's doesn't look like much, but the top has been thinned to 1/2" thick and is now being glued up.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Here's the top out of clamps and with a wee bit of naptha to show off the grain.

 

[Hamish MacCleod]

Awesome!

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Awesome!

It's REALLY gorgeous wood.

 

[Hamish MacCleod]

I can't believe I am going to have the honor of playing and owning such a beautiful instrument. I'm really stoked.
Rondo

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I can't believe I am going to have the honor of playing and owning such a beautiful instrument. I'm really stoked.
Rondo

I am glad the top meets your expectations...I tried to line up as many grain lines as I could to contribute to flow between the halves.

For the rest of you - @rondodunbar is purposely avoiding a symmetrical bookmatch for the maple top.

 

[ctmullins]

Wow, that is really nice quilt.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Agreed. One of the best I've ever seen.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Wow, that is really nice quilt.

Agreed. One of the best I've ever seen.

@rondodunbar wanted some serious quilt on both the maple top and fingerboard. I have found it's pretty easy to find highly figured maple and walnut, but you have to be willing to pay a premium price for it.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

The top has been rough shaped by my band saw, and rough photographed by my phone.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

My old tapering jig just wasn't cutting it (see what I did there), so I built a better one. Rhiannon's neck is the first official build to use it.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Tonight a radius was put on the fingerboard using my 7 1/4" radius jig. I love this jig - it took about 20 minutes, including setup, to get the radius pictured below. The quilted maple fuzzed up a bit here and there, but that and a slight nick here and there along the edges was the extent of any tear out I experienced. She needs a good sanding with a radius block to get cleaned up, but everything looks really good so far.

 

[PDX Rich]

That tight radius quilted board is striking!

 

[josiah goldfish]

Is that fingerboard glued down right? It looks like there's a gap in the shot of the fingerboard's end

 

[Jools4001]

If you look at the previous photos the fingerboard overhangs the neck a bit, so I think that 'gap' is a shadow.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Is that fingerboard glued down right? It looks like there's a gap in the shot of the fingerboard's end

If you look at the previous photos the fingerboard overhangs the neck a bit, so I think that 'gap' is a shadow.

There's a bit of overhang that has not yet been cleaned up that is causing a shadow.

 

[josiah goldfish]

There's a bit of overhang that has not yet been cleaned up that is causing a shadow.

Ah ok, I didn't think you would glue a fingerboard with a gap in the end That's one heck of a piece of maple