This body was built last June (6/21) and sold to a client, then promptly forgotten about until the other day when I happened to find it chillen in my camera roll.
Although the neck wasn’t built in-house (customer purchased from an aftermarket retailer), it came out sounding, playing, and looking excellent.
The body was made from scratch, from a 2-piece yellow pine body and bookmatched 2-piece walnut 1/4" cap.
The Process:
Here is the walnut cap, pre-gluing.
This is way more colorful than what walnut is typically known for, and the reason for the purples and greens is because this was milled before it had a chance to dry out properly.
Fortunately after sitting for several months to dry, it stayed fairly straight, with hardly any warping that couldn’t be fixed with some light sanding.
Clamping it up in the panel deck.
The two pine pieces were glued together and routed to shape.
By now the cap has been removed from the deck, the glue has been scraped, the seams sanded level, and some naphtha was wiped on it to simulate the effect of finish.
Before capping the body, the cap was rough cut to shape so that it fits in the gobar deck.
Now the cap is on, the body is routed to final shape, everything is sanded out to 220-grit, and the first coat of oil is applied.
In contrast to the walnut, the pine stays the same color with the oil applied.
The finishing, level sanding and buffing is now complete.
Wiring the electronics and installing the bridge.
All set!
The pine has a nice lower-midrange bump, while the walnut provides top-end punch.
And aesthetically, the white maple neck matches the pine body quite nicely.
