Thanks Matt, it is 40mm thick, I think that the area that maybe too thin is the neck pocket and how much glue contact area there is, but still toying with using it. A bit more done, carved the belly c...

Sawing that fret board is something else, I would definitely arse that up! Well done.

A bit more finessing today. I adjusted the carve on the lower horn, made it deeper than I finished it yesterday. I think also for the real body I'm not sure that I would do the carve on the top horn.....

Yes go for it @Robin, I watched Marks live stream carving again, its fairly straight forward and looks great. I will be back at it today!

Started the carve today. Attachment : 20210120_105414.jpg Attachment : 20210120_104345.jpg Attachment : 20210120_101324.jpg Attachment : 20210120_102946.jpg Attachment :...

That looks great Robin, I like the offset inlays, very nice. Do you know why the neck pocket is tighter, did you do anything different? Yep I just did that on the humbucker too, routed it to full dept...

Some progress today. Only balls up was routing the full depth of the pick up before the neck pocket, but luckily managed to rout the neck pocket to full depth as the body is thinner than a real one, b...

I think the blank will have to remain as a practice piece as it is bowed and there are a couple, admittedly small, splits in it. Still have to cut and carve it yet so plenty of time to mess it up! I ...

Some actual progress today, albeit on the practice body. Routed out the pickups and the control cavity, it is still mighty cold for a prolonged session in the garage and I am still on IT home learning...

@boo, great answer. I like the fact that you are building this one first as a 'practice' and then lending it to the customer to try and then make adjustments / alterations as necessary. Obviously not ...

Dave, if you haven’t already seen it, BigD guitars, on YouTube does this very thing when restoring an old Les Paul. Here’s the link.

Looks great, with a customer specified design I imagine that this in many respects makes the process easier in that the decisions are made but challenges you to do different layouts and configurations...

A couple more templates made, I think that's it now and the practice body marked out. I think I will make a proper start this coming week. Attachment : 20210115_140358.jpg

A bit cold in the garage today, but a couple of prep bits done. Made the humbucker template and the body shape template. Just waiting for a router bit for the truss rod and I can make a start on the b...

Should have added these two photos as well. PB Attachment : 20210107_140218.jpg Attachment : 20210107_140526.jpg

A practice with neck taper template and the excellent @bagpress fret slotting jig. Works a treat, accurate and simple to use. Regards Paul Borrett Attachment : 20210107_141533.jpg

That’s how I did mine, I made three in the end. It was just tricky at the outset getting the measurements spot on and aligning the straight edge to rout.

I have again revisited the course re the neck taper. My confusion comes from the fact that Mark says he measures the width of the last fret, 56mm, and then the length from this to the nut at 480mm. I...

@boo, looking into it further, 480mm works, well close, for a 24fret fretboard, but for 22 frets then the distance between the to width measurements drop to 457mm. If you have a 22 fret fretboard but ...

@robin, you can also line the neck pocket template with tape just to shrink a little and give a snug fit.