Neck and Body Contouring

Well, I have actually done quite a bit since the last post, but I keep forgetting the camera. Today, I did a bunch more and brought my camera, but it decided to stop working, so I could not get the images I took while working off the CD. Luckily, we just got a new camera and I was able to take pictures of the current status of the guitar. Since the last post, I have cut out the neck, routed the neck, rough carved the neck with a router, done some final shaping on the neck, routed the truss rod channel, installed the truss rod, cut out the fretboard, radiused the fret board, slotted the fretboard, inlayed the fretboard, and carved the body contours (I told you I had done quite a bit!). Since I cannot pull the images off the old camera's CD, I do not have any pictures of the progress, but here's the pictures I have taken after the work was done.

The first three pictures here show the neck, with the tuners just placed in to check fit. I am going to have to grind down the bushings slightly to get them to fit propperly. On the second picture, you can see some of the "flame" on the back of the maple neck. This will be finished with a clear tung oil finish, so the flame will still be visable. The third picture is just a close up of the headstock, which I still need to rout for the cross inlay. You can also see the truss rod in place with some silicon caulk which is supposed to minimize vibrations of the rod while playing.

The next two pictures show the fretboard with the bone hand inlays and the bone fish inlay. I think that the fish may have been backwords, but I think that is how I did it on my Les Paul also. Maybe it is because I am left handed and have everything backwords. I have not yet put the frets in yet, but I have a new tool to help with that also, so hopefully that simplifies things for me. The headstock will also be painted black and will have a Rugged Cross Guitars logo (probably just the initials "ORC") in the form of a decal placed on the headstock below the cross.

The following pictures show the contours carved into the body. In a previous post, you could see the outline of where the contours were going to be, but they were not carved out yet. I have discovered the use of another tool in carving these contours: the rasp. I had bought them for my first electric (the Les Paul), but could not figure out how to get them to work correctly. Now that I have used them, they will definately save some time in carving parts.

The top two pictures show the front and the back with the routed cavities and the body contours. The last two, show the profile view and an angled view to see how the two contours fit together. As mentioned in previous posts, the body will be painted satin black. I just picked up the paint today, so once I get all the parts sanded down, I will start with the finish. I will probably use two coats of primer, four coats of satin black, and four to six coats of clear satin finish.

Thanks for checking the blog. I am keeping the old camera at the shop, so hopefully it will start working again and I can keep the blog updated as I do the work instead of after I finish several steps. Let me know if you have any suggestions, questions, or comments on the guitar or the blog. I am always looking to improve. Thanks,

Aaron