On one level just another bandsman and on another a build with so many first time tasks. Safe to say I learned a lot. 

The design considerations when chambering, carve top styling, the joy/pain of carving a fancy maple top, double staining, faux binding. My very first attempt an a nitro finish. With all the sanding and buffing I should have forearms like Popeye  (probably showing my age with that reference.). In fact I thought I had sanded the life out of this project and in the final analysis I could have and should have gone further. Everything shows up - even when it could barely seen. So, it’s not perfect but only I can see where the bodies are buried! I also achieved my best ever fret job! Plays like a dream.

So my best build so far and i am giving it away….., I had a lot of fun doing it and want to express my thanks to Mark for his supportin dealing with all my questions, queries and occasional moments of stress throughout the process. I will probably have to do another just because i can.

Did the pickup inserts and headstock pattern with the laser and even managed to engrave the slot and screw holes for the switch. Couldn't cut it but could engrave right through lol. Original german made floydrose made in the schaller factory plus schaller tuners. 

Gotoh 2 point trem, guitar anatomy locking tuners and warman destroyer pickup set. Similar sound to the seymour duncan jb hotrodded set. 

Came up with a new headstock design a bit of a cross between an ibanez and the black machine B7 alternative headstock. I would never have built this for myself but it was fun building something a bit odd. 

The body is mahogany, mahogany neck and purple heart fretboard (which I cut the fret slots by hand with a scalpel then saw, but will buy a fret slot mitre jig from you for my next).

This is technically my second build as I made one entirely from left over kitchen worktop oak for my daughter before it which I can post if anyone would like.

I made many, many mistakes building this guitar, but seem to have overcome most and learnt so much in the process (and nearly lost the end of a finger 🙈).

A massive thank you to Mark and Carol for the invaluable insights into how a anyone can build a guitar. Thank you for giving me the confidence to have a go. Your site is a great resource, with videos always given in a passionate way which I really appreciate. Never condescending and always encouraging and your passion for guitar building shines through! Thank you all!

Anyway I decided earlier this year that a makeover was required, I wanted to renew the wiring loom with new components, change the pickups to P90 type and refinish the neck and top of the body. 

I'm now having trouble posting more photos in this post, so will continue the story on a fresh post, you all will just have to contain your excitement for a while🤣🤣

Brian👍😊🎸

Walnut on alder, gunstock oil finish. Chambered body fitted with a nice PAF style pickup from Bareknuckle. 

Off to shed for next project!

Unfortunately it seems like most times I go in I get caught up dealing with Hackspace things rather than me things. It seems there are always things that need to be sorted, or people with questions, and so on. So I'm lucky if I get one guitar bit done.

Anyway, the build is an almost-Bandsman, with a couple of slight variations that will become clear as I go along, I'm using one of David Dyke's blanks kits , which is great value for money but has caused me some hassles because the neck bank comes precut with a headstock angle that's a bit greater than I wanted.

So a couple of pics to follow

My Father in Law means a lot to me and for his birthday I decided to build him a guitar. He's usually a strat player so I wanted to go about building a Les Paul for someone who prefers strats!

He's also a joiner and I thought it would be good to make the body out of plywood. After gluing up the body blank I sunk a kilo of tabletop epoxy into it to stabilise it and help with any voids.

Despite that the full guitar comes in at just over 7lbs. It has a flame maple cap, maple neck, ebony fretboard and headstock vaneer. I also had some custom MOP cut to put his name in for the inlay. I redesigned the headstock to give a straight string pull and avoid any tuning issues. It has a pair of Tonerider Rocksong pickups in it, along with cts pots in modern wiring. The volume pots are push pull and it's wired for coil split.

The frets are Hosco Phosphor Bronze to keep with the black and gold theme and it has a bone nut. The last little custom touch is the fret markers. His favourite animal is the seahorse so I used mosaic pin stock from knife making for those. Gotoh tuners and a Schaler 3d6 bridge round off the build.

All in all this has taken nearly 2 years to pull together, just due to work commitments. It's a surprise and his birthday is this weekend so I can't wait to see his reaction.

There's an awful lot of little details that I can see that bug me, but for a first build I'm happy enough. Looking forward to getting started on the next one but my wife has told me I'm not allowed to do anymore woodwork until I build myself a workshop in the garden to keep the mess away from her!

Looking forward to your comments and feedback.