Decided to start a thread to track my progress of my latest guitar project(s). I'm replacing my old Ibanez because it's getting old and I don't want to wear on it anymore.

So I went to a local lumber store and bought some 5/4 African Mahogany and had them run it through their huge belt sander to get one solid smooth side. I measured my guitar and decided how much I needed and carefully glued some pieces together. Then I bought a nice big board of 7/8 figured maple from eBay (my favorite lumber store!) and carefully lined it up and glued it on top, making sure the pieces joined at the centerline.



Yes it looks all funny shaped, but I cut it that way on purpose; so I could save as much wood as possible while having enough for the pointy guitar I'm about to make. So once it was all dry I laid my Ibanez down on top and traced the body outline as carefully as possible:



I was going to brave the cold and head outside and try to roughly cut around the lines, but I'm low on tools right now and my jigsaw pretty much laughed when I tried to cut through 2 inches of maple and mahogany. So in the next few days I'll be using my router to slowly cut the shape out.

My plans are to make a guitar similar to that red Ibanez, but with a bridge pickup only (Seymour Duncan JB), a hardtail bridge, 24 fret neck, and transparent blue. I'll probably just bevel the top of it and round the corners on the back. It will be deep blue with black hardware. Also I believe I have enough wood left for a second project, so I think I may try to make a rickenbacker style bass. I went ahead and ordered some parts from a company online - bass neck and hardware mostly. Not sure what color the bass will be. I may try to do some kind of burst finish. I dunno. The bass will have dual humbuckers though.

More to come later this week.

When I saw guitar building, I pictured a building made of guitars....

Well it's hitting 4 degrees F tonight, so I'm going to have to wait a day or two to continue on my guitar project.