Let's start with a drawing.  And a very long piece of wood ...

My, my, my said Mr Wolf.  What a nice big cavity you have.

WE FOUND IT ...

(That's the item in the StewMac catalogue that Mark hadn't bought yet.  Looks like it's on the last page, so guessing he just hadn't read that page yet).

This piece of offcut is still my main sanding beam in my workshop (the flat side, obviously!).  Waste not, etc ...

My, what a long neck you have ...

Have I shown you my trick with the clamps?  

(Impresses all the ladies)

Let's get carving ...

Apparently, I'd missed a bit ...

Getting there now

🙂

Someone went and tipped some paint all over it ...

Now the fun bit

Naturally, I got it home, and started with the mods ...

I replaced the black plastic p'up rings with some metal ones, but that pushed the p'up a bit further down into the cavity, where there were a *lot* of cables.

So, lets make some new cable routs in the bottom of the cavity

Neater!

And together

I used an odd bit of Rosewood (@darrenking) to make the cavity cover.  I don't like ugly black plastic on my guitars - seems daft spending ages crafting a thing of beauty, only to defile it with black plastic!!

Looks great finished

And here are my Bailey-build-babes

( ? )

There's a bit of guitar design and building evolution going on there!!

That is one beautiful piece of Rio!! You can understand why it's nearly all gone when you see that can't you?

You can understand why it's nearly all gone when you see that can't you?

I know where there's a stash of it ...

😉

@tv1010101 completely agree. I am planning on laminating (quelle surprise!!) a matching mahogany cover for the electric macca rather than using plastic.

Naturally, I got it home, and started with the mods

@tv1010101 I’m glad it’s not just me that mods things all the time, I can’t seem to leave things alone. 

Someone went and tipped some paint all over it .

@tv1010101 That is a stunning build and a wonderful collection, impressive work. 

Who doesn't smile when they see that view??

Can’t argue with that....

Fantastic builds their @TV1010101 ?..very very nice indeed.

Who doesn't smile when they see that view??

@tv1010101 Sadly I still haven’t visited @markbailey and Carol at the workshop. I did the online electric guitar build course a few years ago and I’ve not stopped building guitars since. It’s one of the best things I’ve done for a long time and nothing will top it until I move to Scotland and start building them there too. ???????

@johnnierox-boo Move to Scotland to not. You still need to sort a course at the Bailey workshop...it’s like guitar making Mecca