Looks superb @darrenking keep going. 👍

@darrenking that looks amazing...love the style

It looks really good, keep at it!

Louis

@darrenking Excelent craftsmanship all the way around. Very clean, smooth and pleasing to the eye. Elegant design. It is a stunner shape. Loving it.

Ok, so the neck is glued on and the joint pretty much cleaned up, I have cut the cover for the back recess, although I am tempted to make this out of either walnut or rosewood so that the joint line doesn’t show up so much, and I have machined the truss rod nut cover and done the initial shaping of the nut. I masked most of the surfaces around the neck glue line so that it would be easier to clean up any squeeze out. I love getting the fiddly jobs out of the way as it brings closer the next big step forward!

The truss rod cover was machined from a lamination made up from three layers of Macassar ebony alternated with two layers of maple. These were bonded under pressure in a small pneumatic press I built for veneering the sides of table lamp bases. It only has a press area of 140mm square but the 100mm diameter pneumatic piston exerts a pressure of almost 800kg which works quite well! It has heater pads for when I am veneering the lamps but on this occasion I just pressed cold and left it under pressure over night. The resulting lamination was then taped down to a piece of MDF and machined on the CNC router.

The bevelled edge was then cleaned up and a small tab glued on the underside to engage under the nut so that it can be held in place with a single polished stainless hex socket screw to match those used on the back cover. The nut height will be adjusted once the string slots have been filed to final depth.

The back cover has also been fitted although, as mentioned, I may end up making another one out of contrasting wood.

Overall I think it is coming on pretty well and is getting very close to the point where I can start to paint it. I am struggling between a deep matt black or a very bright fuscia pink. What do you think?

Cheers

Darren

@darrenking That is something else. Impecabley clean piece work.

Can I butt in on this supremely tasteful post and ask if anyone knows of a set of router templates for a Gretsh Malcolm Young Jet guitar?

Really struggling to locate some 

Darren that is one good looking guitar. The fit looks great and the attention to detail is fantastic - well done. Yeah go for Pink that'll suit it!

@darrenking awesome skills! that is so tasteful..

Hi Eddie,

Have you got, or can you get, a detailed drawing of the guitar?

Darren

Fantastic Darren. @darrenking. 

🎶🙂🎸🙏

@darrenking Absolutely stunning work Darren, I’m really impressed with that. The guitar is really coming together nicely and I’m really envious of that little press. Oh the things we could all do with tools like that. Whilst I’m coating everything in flashy paint, you are showing off all of these beautiful woods. I can really see the advantage of laminating now and the best way to achieve it, vacuum presses. It’s going to be such a great guitar, I can see it coming. 👍

Thanks Boo! So not black or pink then?!

Overall I think it is coming on pretty well and is getting very close to the point where I can start to paint it. I am struggling between a deep matt black or a very bright fuscia pink. What do you think?

@darrenking I know you are not painting it. With woods like that, who needs paints right? 😉

Beautiful.  Love the clever design touches that are going into this guitar.

👍

And that £000s of industrial machinery is being used for something far more worthwhile - building a guitar!!

Can I butt in on this supremely tasteful post and ask if anyone knows of a set of router templates for a Gretsh Malcolm Young Jet guitar?

Really struggling to locate some 

@eddie6string - that's going to be a tough one to find.

Is the body shape of the Malcolm Young signature different in any way from a standard Gretsch model?  

Overall I think it is coming on pretty well and is getting very close to the point where I can start to paint it. I am struggling between a deep matt black or a very bright fuscia pink. What do you think?

That's constraining thinking @darrenking.

Is there any (good) reason to have to choose between black OR pink?  Could you not have both?  Preferably sparkly.

I reckon Boo could sort that out.  This would work (you'll have to imagine the "sparkly" bit).

Hope that's helpful?

Gretsh Malcolm Young Jet

This guy might be worth keeping in touch with if he is producing full size CNC friendly drawings

https://www.musiker-board.de/threads/eigenbau-gretsch-g6131my-cs-malcolm-young.676551/

Is there any (good) reason to have to choose between black OR pink?  Could you not have both?  Preferably sparkly.

I reckon Boo could sort that out.  This would work (you'll have to imagine the "sparkly" bit).

@tv101 and @darrenking It can be done. There are some variables but yes you could have gloss pink sparkle stripes (or whatever shape) and everything else matt black. Special paint products and techniques needed but doable. It’s actually something I’m thinking of doing myself. 👍 

Jet double cutaway. Standard Jet pattern will work - just flip template for top horn.

Some are made semi-hollow, others slab with profiled top.

It's the shape I want for my Walnut build