Neil's Custom Darling

[mica]

Chugging right along, here's various stages of your guitar construction over several days.  Top laminate with some stuff mapped out:

  Starting to map out plate on the back laminate:

  Backplates cut and resting after glueup:

 These still need to be final sized and drilled, but that happens in a couple of weeks when we carve it. The LED battery plate is not in this photo.   Early stage of peghead development:

  Peghead as of Friday:

 All drilled and Crown shape cut.

[neilvg]

Cool.  I can't wait to see this progress.  I'm glad the Crown is QCB as well.  I love the matching grain lines as will be seen on the front body.
 
Mica - Let me know when you post the control layout for me to take a look.  That way we can keep on rolling

[David Houck]

Hi Neil; welcome to the board!  And congrats on the custom Darling!

[neilvg]

Mica - Any updates?  Thanks - Neil

[mica]

Body parts coming together:

 

  This is the core and the accent laminates of the back. Next week the body should be getting glued to the neck, then the top bookmatch to center to the body. It will really start to look like a guitar then!

[mica]

Many of the steps between August and now were not interesting in pictures, but here we have an object that is actually looking like a complete guitar!  

 

 

 

  Note that the Coco Bolo will really look amazing when the finish is applied. Here, it's a bit dusty from sanding, and much of the detail is obscured. That will make sealer coat photos even more dramatic!

[David Houck]

The grain pattern on the top will look really nice when the finish hits it!

[neilvg]

I love how the inverted V shape opens out into the omega carving on the front.  Really cool.  I hope the hardware doesn't obscure this detail too much!
 
(Message edited by neilvg on October 01, 2009)

[toma_hawk01]

This got to be the most beautifulest six string guitar I ever seen period.  
 
It will stop a train on a dime in full speed!
 
Hal-

[neilvg]

Uploading this Line Drawing that Mica emailed to me some time back.  This will eventually be on the backside of the Peghead.
 
Dharma Lines

[mica]

Here's the Dharma for the front of the peghead:

I'll post another image later today with the peghead placement, but this is a start to see if I spelled it correctly!

[mica]

This is a quick approximation of where it would wind up on the peghead:

[neilvg]

 
Here's a practice bronze etching of the dharma seal emblem that will go on the back of the peghead.  I kind of like it in bronze, but I'm worried about the weight and also how the bronze will match.  
 
It originally was/is set to be mother of pearl like the rest of the inlays.  I think I am leaning towards mother of pearl.  Any suggestions?
 
Neil

[briant]

I'd stick with mother of pearl to keep weight down.  The last thing you want is to create neck dive.

[mica]

The brass plate is very thin, and can be sanded a bit thinner. Specific gravity is around 8. The mother of pearl is pretty dense to, with specific gravity of about 3. I weighed the engraved piece above and it's one-half of an ounce.  
 
Either piece will be inlaid under the finish, so it will be removing the same volume of wood, but of course the woods are much less dense, probably averaging about .75 specific gravity in the area we're inlaying.